Chapter 22 Bird of Paradise 07
He Jin was sitting in the interrogation room of the Municipal Bureau.
During the time just now, she was left here alone, and the girl kept her head down, feeling a little helpless.
Luo Siwei entered the interrogation room. Seeing that He Jin's makeup was even more smudged from crying, she asked Ni Xiang to take her to wash her face before questioning her.
After washing her face, He Jin was still sobbing softly. Her thin arms were only as thick as other people's wrists, which made her look pitiful.
Luo Siwei handed her a pack of tissues and asked Ni Xiang to pour her a glass of warm water.
He Jin said thank you and took out a tissue to gently wipe away her tears.
Luo Siwei sat across from her and said, "You must tell the truth about what happened last night."
He Jin hummed and nodded like a chick pecking at rice. Luo Siwei then continued to ask her, "Where did you go last night after you quarreled with your parents?"
He Jin bit his finger as he recalled for a moment, then whispered, "I went to a bar... I had some savings from my part-time job, so I drank and danced to the music. Then a few men dragged me to a private room to drink. We played until after midnight, and I don't remember much after that..."
"Who are those men?"
He Jin shook his head: "I don't know them..."
"What are his physical features?"
"I can't remember..."
"No contact information?"
“No.”
"How did you get there and back? What kind of transportation did you take?"
"I took a taxi there, so I should have taken a taxi back."
Luo Siwei asked: "Was it electronic payment?" If it was electronic payment, he could follow the clues to find the taxi driver and question him.
He Jin frowned and thought for a while, then shook his head: "It should be cash."
It seemed this information was difficult to verify, so Luo Siwei could only continue asking, "What happened next? What happened after you returned to the community?"
"Then I thought, I've had a fight with my parents, they definitely won't let me in. I called a classmate, but because it was too late, no one answered, so I just kept walking. After that... I'm not sure. When I came to, I was sitting on a bench in a small park near my home."
He Jin's statements began to become confusing.
Luo Siwei asked: "Have you been home during this time?"
He Jin shook her head: "Probably not." Then she added, "I drank too much and I really can't remember."
"When did you get the scar on your hand?"
"Probably last night... there was a man in the bar smoking and playing with a lighter, and then I woke up and found this scar on my body."
These questions are similar to the ones Guo Zhengyao asked before.
Luo Siwei emphasized again: "He Jin, you must tell us everything, all the details. Only in this way can we help you and find the murderer."
He Jin lowered his head and nodded, looking a little absent-minded, and it was unclear whether he had heard what she said.
Luo Siwei looked at the information sheet and noticed a key point: He Jin would be eighteen years old in a few days.
Criminal suspects under the age of eighteen rarely receive the death penalty even if they have committed serious crimes. Most of them will receive light sentences. Luo Siwei didn't know if the girl in front of her had considered this if she was the real murderer.
Luo Siwei then didn't rush to ask about what happened yesterday, but instead focused the interrogation on He Jin's personal experience. She asked about He Jin's life from childhood to adulthood, where he grew up, which schools he attended, whether he had a boyfriend, and how he got along with his classmates.
Some questions are obvious and seemingly irrelevant to the case, but they are actually crucial in the interrogation process. Luo Siwei wants to use these questions to help He Jin let down his guard and build trust. More importantly, Luo Siwei wants to use these questions to observe He Jin's normal reactions.
He Jin cooperated very well and answered her while sobbing.
The girl is very talkative and sometimes she would talk about other things. She would say a lot when asked a question.
After chatting for a while and laying the groundwork, Luo Siwei continued to ask, "So, what was the reason for your quarrel with your parents yesterday?"
He Jin lowered his head and whispered, "I had a fight with my mom yesterday because she wanted me to repeat a grade, but I didn't want to."
"How is your relationship with your family?" Luo Siwei continued to ask.
He Jin raised his head and took a deep breath: "Not very good."
Luo Siwei asked, "Can you tell me in detail?"
He Jin said, "Family, if they care too much, they will cause chaos. My parents care about me too much. They always think that I am not growing up. They care about me so much that they want to control everything. I don't like this kind of lack of freedom."
"Can you be more specific?"
"My mother is quite authoritarian and a bit paranoid. Ever since we were little, she's always made us eat and dress according to her preferences. If she thinks the weather is cold, she'll make me put on more clothes. If I get sleepy from studying until midnight, she'll force me to drink soup. If she feels sleepy, she'll demand I go to bed too. It's exhausting to be around her."
Luo Siwei: "Are there any other conflicts between you?"
He Jin opened up: "After I got a cell phone, she would secretly look at my phone to see which boy I was chatting with and whether I was studying hard. She encouraged me to write a diary, and then secretly read it..."
"Skirts can't be that short, you can't socialize with men outside, you can't smoke... There are too many rules."
"She planned a path for me to grow up, asking me to get into a good university and even said she would support me in studying abroad. But I didn't want to. I felt that even after I graduated, I would still be restricted and would still have to earn money. So why didn't I start earning money sooner?"
"They didn't go to college either, but they're still doing well. When I was little, I watched others doing sales in their company. I wanted to join their family business, but they pushed me and insisted I go to school."
Luo Siwei asked: "So you guys often quarrel?"
He Jin lowered his head and looked at his hands, twisting a tissue in his hand: "We have argued about this many times."
Hearing this, Luo Siwei asked her, "Has there been anything else besides quarreling?"
He Jin tilted his head. "I tried running away from home. I started school early, at the age of twelve, in junior high school. I had a little pocket money, so I started saving it slowly. Later, when I had saved two hundred yuan, I ran away from home. When the money ran out, I returned home. My mother was scared and hugged me and cried. Then my parents beat me together and told me never to do such a thing again."
He Jin took the initiative to mention her running away from home. She seemed to rarely talk about these things with others, but now that she finally had a place to vent, she talked a lot. Most of them were small matters between parents and children, all of which gave adolescent girls a headache.
Luo Siwei remembered the police report: "Have you ever taken your parents' money?"
He Jin was stunned for a moment, then nodded. She sniffed, "They promised me that if I ranked in the top five in the class, they would buy me a new phone. I tied for fifth, and my mom said, 'That's not even top five, that's sixth.' I was so angry and wanted to run away from home, so... I took the money..."
"Later, my mother called the police. Actually, her original intention wasn't because of the money. I took the money and she didn't know where I had gone. She was worried I might get into danger and go out again. The police came and contacted me, so I went back. My mother was extremely regretful and kept saying, 'What if I have a criminal record?'"
He Jin is now speaking for those who called the police to arrest his parents.
Luo Siwei asked, "What about your brothers and sisters? How is your relationship with them?"
He Jin said, "My sister is pretty and obedient, and she doesn't cause me any trouble. My brother is a little naughty, but most of the time he's quite sensible. He even makes me birthday presents himself. Of course, there are arguments and fights between siblings, but basically there aren't any major conflicts."
Luo Siwei listened to this and tried to judge whether the girl in front of her would commit murder or arson in anger. She asked tentatively, "What about the relationship between you and your family..."
He Jin said, "Even if there are some frictions from time to time, we are still family after all." She wiped her tears and asked, "Is my mother awake?"
Luo Siwei said: "She is still being rescued."
He Jin cried again, tears streaming down her face. "Police sister, please believe me. I didn't kill my family... I miss my mom, I want to go see her..."
I don’t know if it was the call of police sister that moved her, or the girl crying and saying “Please believe me” and “I miss my mother” that touched her a little. Ni Xiang felt a sudden tightness in her chest when she heard the girl crying.
But excluding these confessions, He Jin's movements last night were too suspicious, and she has not been able to give a reasonable explanation until now.
Luo Siwei also frowned.
Based on the degree of suspicion alone, Luo Siwei felt that He Jin was a very strong suspect, but from the words she read, she felt that the girl in front of her would not kill her relatives because of such trivial matters.
Could it be that He Jin is hiding something?
Luo Siwei has always been able to see through other people's lies. When she was at the scene, she also felt that He Jin was very suspicious.
But this time in the interrogation room, she failed to find any obvious flaws in the girl's behavior.
As usual, Luo Siwei set a lot of questions during the interrogation to observe the suspect in front of her. The right and wrong of these questions were often obvious, so that she could observe the other party's normal reaction when answering the truth, and thus judge whether she was lying when asked key questions.
He Jin's answer was very fluent, with some girlish micro-expressions, which were not enough to be judged as a lie.
Luo Siwei's interrogation techniques are mostly aimed at those extremely vicious criminals. She can use softness to overcome hardness and see the light through the clouds.
She knew how to force them to speak, how to see through their lies, how to corner them. But facing a weak girl who had just lost a loved one, who was fully cooperating with the investigation and talking about family trivia, she had so many interrogation techniques, but she had no idea where to start.
He Jin's statements can verify each other, echo each other in everything, and the details are relative. His micro-expressions and tone are very natural, and there sounds nothing wrong with it.
Because of the above reasons, Luo Siwei was unable to judge whether what the girl said was true or false.
Luo Siwei felt that if there were lies in these words, then He Jin's lying skills must have been perfect.
After the questioning, Luo Siwei stood up and said, "The police will look for more evidence. If you are innocent, we will not wrongly accuse you."
She hadn't finished her sentence yet - but if you are the culprit, we will send you to jail.
After Luo Siwei and Ni Xiang finished the interrogation, they walked out of the interrogation room. They returned to the office to organize the documents.
After a while, Tang Xi suddenly poked his head out from behind the computer: "Captain Luo, I have some new discoveries here." After hearing this, the police officers in the team walked over and looked at Tang Xi's screen.
Tang Xi was comparing surveillance cameras. Just as Huo Cunsheng had said before, there were quite a few surveillance cameras near these buildings, but none of them were directly facing the corridor entrances. Most of the surveillance cameras could only capture the open space under the residential buildings.
This surveillance video shows the scene after the fire. Men, women, and children gathered downstairs, illuminated by the firelight, making the image even brighter. Neighbors anxiously looked up at the burning floor.
Among the crowd, a figure attracted everyone's attention.
The man stood far behind the neighbors, about four or five meters away, almost completely in the shadows, blending into the thick night.
It was not until the firelight gradually brightened that everyone could see clearly that it was a slender woman who was looking up with everyone else.
Luo Siwei's gaze fixed on the person, his brows furrowed slightly. In the picture, the woman was thin and thin, wearing thin clothes in the night wind, appearing to be alone.
The wind blew up her skirt and hair, revealing her pretty face.
Tang Xi processed the image slightly, and the surveillance became clearer, so everyone could see it more clearly.
"It's He Jin..." Guo Zhengyao said softly.
The girl stood there with a cold expression, watching her mother struggling in the flames. She was completely different from the girl crying and trembling in the interrogation room in the surveillance camera.
Tang Xi found the footage captured by another surveillance camera, which was shot from the back of the crowd. From the video, it can be seen that He Jin was already nearby when the fire started, and she did not leave until the burned Liu Wangnan ran out.
Huo Cunsheng made the expected sound of "tsk tsk". "Sure enough, he was already there. What did I say?"
Ni Xiang was surprised: "How could that be? She just said..."
Luo Siwei interrupted her: "She might be lying."
What you said about not going home is a complete lie.
Ni Xiang felt the blood rushing to her head. Although she did not completely believe He Jin, this feeling still made her feel very uncomfortable.
Luo Siwei was also silent for a moment.
The current situation suggests that He Jin may have lied more than just this one, and they failed to discern the lies during the interrogation. There may be more falsehoods in He Jin's words.
She may have cleverly concealed her murderous intentions and the true situation.
They need to interrogate again.
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