Chapter 45

Seeing that the man was stammering and unable to speak, Lin Jiafan did not urge him, but just waited quietly with his arms folded across his chest.

A few minutes later, a chaotic sound of footsteps came from the path, and soon a team of uniformed police officers appeared in front of them.

Then, at Lin Jiafan's signal, the police team began a carpet search of the area.

"Captain Lin, there's a blood reaction here!"

Following a cry of surprise, Fatty Wang, who had been stared at by Luo Jingyao and dared not move a step, looked even more gloomy.

Lin Jiafan heard the sound and walked over. Sure enough, he saw some dark red bloodstains at the roots of a piece of dead grass. But within a few breaths, he had a guess in his mind.

"So this is the scene where Cui Da was murdered."

He paced back to Fatty Wang and began to slowly circle around him. "Actually, the police have always suspected one thing: the exact location of Cui Da's death."

"You know, although bloodstains were found in the Zhou family's greenhouse, the shape of the blood doesn't match Zhou Hong's later confession at all."

This was also one of the reasons why Lin Jiafan felt that there was something wrong with Zhou Hong's confession. The woman claimed that she had hacked Cui Da to death with a knife, but there were no obvious signs of blood splatter inside or outside the greenhouse.

The pool of blood on the dry grass perfectly matched the pattern of blood flowing out after the victim fell to the ground after suffering a heavy blow to the back of the head.

"Come to think of it, I was able to find this place thanks to Boss Wang." He paused, then stopped walking. He stood directly across from the man and spoke condescendingly, "I'm just wondering if Boss Wang would be so kind as to tell me how you determined this was the primary crime scene?"

"Officer Lin, I don't understand what you're saying." Fatty Wang was still stubborn. "This is the oldest Huo Zao Ye Temple in our village. I'm here to burn incense!"

"Where's the incense?" Lin Jiafan asked, glancing at the three empty incense burners in front of the small temple.

The casual lie was ruthlessly exposed. Fatty Wang looked a little flustered, but he still refused to give in. "Officer Lin, why are you being so picky? I'm just here to pray. Sincerity is the key."

Suddenly, a policeman came forward and handed over a transparent evidence bag.

Lin Jiafan took the evidence bag, which contained two red-tipped cigarette butts. He gently flicked the surface of the bag with his finger and asked casually, "I wonder what brand of cigarettes Boss Wang usually smokes? Is this what you were looking for?"

"It's just a cigarette butt, what does that mean? Even if I really smoked it, what law prohibits smoking here?"

"Actually, ever since we confirmed that this was the scene of Cui Da's death, I've started to wonder how a woman who was only 1.6 meters tall and weighed just over 100 kilograms could have transported the body back to the greenhouse without anyone noticing." Lin Jiafan didn't respond directly to Fatty Wang's provocative words, but instead began a well-reasoned analysis.

"Unless she has accomplices! Boss Wang, first you led the villagers to give false testimony, and now you're suspected of helping the suspect cover up his crimes. This time, the police can't help but deal with you."

Fatty Wang opened his mouth and subconsciously wanted to deny it.

Unfortunately, before he could finish his words, Lin Jiafan interrupted him: "Or... was it you who killed Cui Da?"

"What exactly happened on the day of the incident? You followed the victim all the way here and discovered that he was trying to assault Zhou Hong. So eager to save him, you just found a random tool and hit him on the back of the head?"

"Officer Lin!" Fatty Wang was startled and denied it with a terrified look on his face: "As police officers, you have to be responsible for your words! I haven't killed anyone!"

Giving him a deep look, Lin Jiafan handed the evidence bag back to his colleague and turned away nonchalantly. "Anyway, as long as we can find sufficient evidence to prove this is the primary crime scene, Zhou Hong will always tell the truth. If the DNA extracted from the cigarette butt matches yours, that'll be enough to explain some things."

"I'm not in a hurry."

Luo Jingyao, who had been standing aside for a long time without saying a word, took the opportunity to persuade him, "Boss Wang, you have to understand that actively confessing the case and cooperating with the police is different from passively being tried. You have elderly parents and young children to take care of, so don't be foolish..."

The flesh on Fatty Wang's round face was almost squeezed together due to the entanglement. Seeing Lin Jiafan's figure gradually walking away, he finally gritted his teeth and called out to him, "Officer Lin!"

"I said, isn't it okay?"

"On the afternoon of the 30th, I happened to be delivering goods to the ancestral hall's small kitchen when I saw Cui Da go into the back mountain. After I finished unloading the goods, he didn't come out. I walked over to take a look out of curiosity, and to my surprise..."

"When I arrived, Cui Da was already lying on the ground motionless. Only Zhou Hong was left squatting on the ground, trembling."

"My first thought was to call the police, but Zhou Hong kowtowed and bowed, begging me to spare her life. We all lived in the same village, and I knew how Cui Da had ravaged the Zhou family. Then I thought about how Zhou Wenwu and his wife had already lost a son, and how Wu Guiqiu was now bedridden. So, I couldn't help but agree."

"After that, I lent her the delivery truck and asked her to take Cui Da away. If I had known that Zhou Hong could be so cruel as to dismember people, I would never have helped her no matter what!" After explaining the whole cause and effect, Fatty Wang now looked very regretful.

His dark eyes narrowed slightly, and Lin Jiafan asked again as if to confirm, "You said that when you came here, you only saw Zhou Hong and the dead Cui Da?"

"Yes, just the two of them." Fatty Wang nodded affirmatively.

Lin Jiafan didn't say anything more. He turned around, took out his cell phone and called Pang Guang who stayed at the police station, instructing him to interrogate Zhou Hong again.

Then when he opened his eyelids, he saw the woman who had come up to him at some point in time.

Because the distance was so close, Lin Jiafan could even smell the jasmine scent in her hair.

Luo Jingyao was obviously unaware of the distance between them. She simply lowered her voice as much as possible and asked, "Officer Lin, do you think what Fatty Wang just said is true?"

"Half and half." Lin Jiafan followed suit and lowered his tone, bending down slightly. From a distance, it looked like the two of them were plotting something big.

"It might be true that he only saw Zhou Hong and Cui Da, but would he help cover up the crime out of sympathy? He doesn't seem like the selfless and philanthropic type."

Luo Jingyao expressed her strong agreement with this.

Even if I wanted to say a few words to him, I had to buy two loaves of bread at the supermarket first. How could he agree to something as serious as murder just by talking?

Unfortunately, reality did not allow the two to stay on this topic for too long. Soon, another voice came from the other side: "Captain Lin, we have found something here!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Jiafan stretched out his long legs and in a few steps reached the edge of the hillside on the west side of the small temple. He stood there and looked down.

This hillside is only a few meters away from where the bloodstains were found before. The slope is not too steep, and there are wild grass and thorns growing underneath.

At this moment, two policemen wearing protective suits had already come down to the bottom of the hillside. One of them was holding an irregularly shaped stone in both hands and reported with his head tilted up: "Human blood reaction was found on this stone!"

After the stone was brought up, the first thing Lin Jiafan did was to take a few photos from various angles and sent them to Guo Zhen without any delay.

"Could this be the weapon the murderer used to kill Cui Da?" Luo Jingyao was very sensible and didn't get too close. Her eyes were wide open as she wanted to see more clearly.

"Brother Guo will use the computer to check whether the shape of the stone matches the crack on the victim's parietal bone. We have to wait for the specific comparison results to come out before we can make a conclusion." Although Lin Jiafan said this, he had already put on disposable gloves and carefully held the stone in his hands.

"The surface of the stone is too uneven, so it should be difficult to pick up fingerprints."

"This side of the stone is the most raised and stained with the most blood. The attacker must have used it to hit Cui Da's head." He muttered to himself while tightly grasping the other side of the stone with one hand and making a gesture of smashing it down.

Then he shook his head in denial: "This stone is still quite heavy, and its irregular surface makes it difficult to use strength with one hand."

Even he could easily drop the stone if he wasn't careful, let alone a woman like Zhou Hong.

Coming back to his senses, he casually tossed a pair of gloves to Luo Jingyao. After seeing her put them on, he handed the stone over and said, "You and Zhou Hong are about the same size, give it a try."

Luo Jingyao took the stone in a daze, held it tightly with her five fingers like claws, and swung it hard in the same way the man had just done.

Whoosh!

Because of the fast speed and great force, the stone flew through the air and even made a crisp sound as if the air was being torn apart.

“…”

“…”

After Luo Jingyao stopped, she looked at Lin Jiafan, and both of them saw a hint of embarrassment in each other's eyes.

"It seems like it's possible to do it with one hand." Luo Jingyao pursed her lips and explained awkwardly, "But I might be a little different from ordinary women. Due to the demands of my job, my grip strength is trained, and it's even stronger than the average man's."

More than just a few, her deadlift and handgrip strength results back then severely shattered the fragile hearts of many male team members.

The corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably, and Lin Jiafan silently stared at her right hand, which was holding the stone firmly, for a long time.

Just investigate this case, and no one will say anything.