Chapter 48 Red Leaves 09
They contacted a locksmith and came to Unit 3 that Zhu Sheng mentioned.
Zhu Sheng first used the key to open Room 802, which contained three bedrooms and a living room. It was obvious that no one had lived there for some time. It was an ordinary rental house, and the room was very empty.
The locksmith then opened room 701 downstairs, which was also empty.
As soon as she opened the door, Luo Siwei was aware of a strange smell, like a foul odor or a musty smell. She frowned and walked in. There were no windows in the room and the curtains were drawn. It looked no different from an ordinary room.
Ni Xiang was also choked by the smell here. She coughed a few times and walked in pinching her nose.
Room 802 downstairs and upstairs are decorated in the same way, with opposite structures and almost identical layouts. Even the furniture is similar, but the feeling they give is completely opposite.
It may be because the curtains in this house are drawn all year round, preventing sunlight from coming in, causing mold to grow in the house and creating a musty smell.
Smell is something that cannot be seen or touched, but it can greatly affect people's mood.
Luo Siwei put on shoe covers and walked inside with bated breath. She looked at the mirror cabinet and door handle in the bathroom and said, "It's been cleaned. It's very clean here."
Ni Xiang understood what Luo Siwei meant. They had just come out of room 802. While the two rooms looked similar, they were actually different in some subtle ways. There were fingerprints on the mirror cabinet in room 802, as well as on the doorknob. There was also some undiscarded trash in the room, while this room, room 701, was exceptionally clean, as if someone had meticulously cleaned it.
Luo Siwei thought this situation was very strange. Which normal tenant would completely erase all fingerprints and traces when moving out?
Then they came to room 902. There was also a strange smell in the room, which was somewhat similar to the smell in room 701, but obviously much less unpleasant.
The curtains in this room were also drawn, and there was almost no sunlight coming in. There was some dust in the room, and the floor and windows had been carefully swept.
After looking at these strange rooms, Luo Siwei asked Ni Xiang to take photos, and then she asked Zhu Sheng to go back and wait for news from the police.
Luo Siwei took the elevator downstairs and sent a message, preparing to ask Guo Zhengyao to bring the evidence personnel over for a thorough inspection.
As soon as they walked downstairs, they saw Chi Li and several police officers coming towards them.
Luo Siwei was caught red-handed when she looked up, and her eyes met Chi Li's in an instant.
Luo Siwei did a standard military training backward turn and was about to run away when she heard Chi Li say behind her: "Come back, the nurse called and told me."
Come to think of it, the hospital nurses still had to make rounds in the afternoon, so it was impossible for them to be unaware of her escape. The emergency contact person in the hospital was Chi Li, so naturally they asked him.
The truth was revealed, and Luo Siwei felt a little helpless. She put on a smile and turned around: "I'm sorry, Captain Chi, I'm also anxious about the case, and there is no treatment in the afternoon, so I will go back to the hospital now..." After saying that, she was ready to turn around and leave.
"Wait a minute." Chi Li called her again.
Luo Siwei was stunned and turned to look at Chi Li. Chi Li's handsome face was expressionless. Luo Siwei's heart was hanging in the air, she couldn't figure out what he was thinking.
Chi Li looked at the time and said, "Let's check these houses together before going back."
Luo Si raised her eyebrows slightly, somewhat confused. She didn't know why Captain Chi was so merciful this time.
Chi Li explained to her: "The test results are out, and the indicators are basically normal. The doctor prescribed some medicine for you. I will take you back to complete the discharge procedures later."
Luo Siwei finally understood, and she relaxed completely. She let out a long breath and muttered softly, "If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have hidden..."
Chi Li asked: "What did you say?"
Luo Siwei hurriedly said, "I just got some information from the agent." Then she told Chi Li what Zhu Sheng had confessed.
As she spoke, she kept her eyes on Chi Li. This deputy captain had spent the entire night working on a report, and today he led the team out for a search. Even now, he still looked energetic. It turned out that there were people who could work non-stop, without sleep or rest, and without feeling tired.
They took a quick look upstairs and downstairs, and Chi Li said, "The evidence personnel will be divided into two teams. I will be responsible for the 7th floor, and you will check the 9th floor."
Luo Siwei nodded: "Okay, see you later."
Walking into Room 701, Chi Li touched his nose and he also smelled a strange smell in the room.
Chi Li sniffed around, trying to determine the source of the smell. Finally, he squatted down and looked intently at the ground beneath his feet. The smell seemed to be coming from the cracks in the floor tiles in the corners of the walls. The environment could be cleaned, but these cracks retained the smell forever.
The windows in this room are always closed, so no sunlight can get in, and some corners of the walls are already moldy.
Apart from the musty smell, there was still another odor that was very unpleasant. Chi Li searched in his mind, wondering when he had smelled this smell before.
Chi Li thought for a moment and frowned slightly. The smell in the room might be left by a dead person.
This is the unpleasant smell that only a fresh corpse has, and it is different from the smell in the forensic room.
Simply put, after a person dies, he or she will become incontinent, and blood, sweat, and urine will seep into and stain clothes, splashing into the cracks in the walls without being cleaned up in time, leaving behind a similar stench.
After confirming this, Chi Li took the physical evidence and searched for clues.
They first conducted a luminol test. Although the room had been cleaned, traces were inevitably left on the floor. The chemical reaction of luminol made the remaining bloodstains visible, and several large areas of fluorescent color appeared in the living room.
Physical evidence Su Qi said: "There are a lot of dripping blood."
Chi Li squatted down and called him: "Here, why are some of the luminol reacted with darker colors?"
Normally, when luminol comes into contact with blood, the color it reacts with is fluorescent blue. However, when there is a small piece of blood, the color after the reaction tends to be dark blue.
Su Qi carefully examined it for a while, then looked up and told Chi Li: "Maybe it wasn't wiped clean. In addition to the blood, it seems that some darker liquid has dripped."
Chi Li asked: "What could it be?"
Su Qi thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's the blue ink?"
Chi Li recalled the previous situation and said, "It might have been left by a pen. There was also a pen in the pocket of the corpse."
Su Qi said: "We will collect the samples and then go back for testing."
The police then found two more small blood spots in the corner of the wall. Su Qi carefully dipped a cotton swab into them and prepared to go back for DNA testing. Then he asked Chi Li: "Where should we search next?"
Chi Li said: "Follow the elevator and the corridor to search down. This may be the first crime scene. The murderer needs to transport the body, so he may have moved it to a new place, leaving traces of the transfer."
If Bao Hongyuan was murdered here, then the car must be the secondary scene, and the deep well where the body was thrown must be at least the third scene.
At the same time, Luo Siwei and his men entered the bedroom of room 902 upstairs.
Just like when they first entered, the evidence officers also observed the bathroom and the door handle for a while, then said, "It's been wiped several times. It's very clean."
In their opinion, there are probably no valid traces in such a room.
Luo Siwei said, "Do a luminol test."
Soon, the room was sprayed with reagents, and the evidence officer replied: "There are only trace amounts of blood in the bathroom and kitchen, which should be left over from normal life."
Luo Siwei thought about it. It was often said that one must dig three feet into the ground to find clues. Since there were no traces in the house now, he might as well give it a try.
Thinking of this, Luo Siwei squatted down and tapped the wooden floor of the bedroom with his gloved fingers. A pungent smell suddenly filled the room, and a lot of dust floated out from the cracks in the floor.
This floor was renovated a few years ago. It is of low quality. It will shake and creak when people walk on it. Such floors are naturally not spliced tightly. The gaps are visible to the naked eye. Some of the gaps are so big that half a finger can be squeezed in.
"There should be quite a lot of hair left there." Luo Siwei said in a deep voice, "Pry open the wooden floor and search it bit by bit."
Soon, the evidence found tools to pry open the wooden floor. As the wooden floor was pried open piece by piece, they indeed found something on the moisture-proof mat.
Ni Xiang was also beside him and said happily: "Captain Luo, we found hair, and there is a lot of it!"
Some of these hairs are shed daily, while others fall in when sweeping the floor or making the bed. Many of them fall out naturally and have hair follicles.
Gradually, each strand of hair was placed into evidence bags, numbered, and placed on the dining table.
Luo Siwei took pictures of these hairs one by one and then observed them carefully.
These may be left by tenants who have lived here over the years. However, since the renovation was completed in the early years, there won't be much hair left. Most of them should be left after the renovation in the past two years.
The hair was long, short, black, white, some very fine, some naturally curly, clearly not from just one person or just a few. It hadn't been that long since the building was demolished, and even if the tenants were changing rooms every six months, there wouldn't be so much hair in one room at once.
Luo Siwei said, "Zhu Sheng's judgment may be correct. These two houses may have been turned into low-priced shared rental housing by the sub-landlord. Many people must have lived there before."
Only in this way could the situation described by the young couple in Room 802 be possible. When there are more people, the frequency of getting up at night will increase, which will inevitably make noise, and the sound of flushing the toilet will be heard many times.
The residents here always keep their curtains drawn for fear of being discovered. What the female tenant saw is also easy to explain: perhaps the elderly person had an emergency and was carried out by a family member. As for whether it wasn't the same elderly person, it could be a mistake, or perhaps one was the mother and the other the mother-in-law. It's also possible that the young man being carried was not the same person.
In short, there must be a reasonable explanation for everything.
Ni Xiang asked from the side: "There are no partitions in this house, how do those people sleep?"
Luo Siwei guessed, "Maybe men and women sleep on the floor separately? Anyway, a house like this can accommodate quite a few people."
Ni Xiang asked: "Where are those people now?"
"Either they felt unsafe living here, or they received some news and moved out early," Luo Siwei said. "I'll ask Lao Huo to scout around and see how many major sub-landlords there are nearby."
Those sub-landlords always open their doors to do business, so they will definitely leave some clues somewhere for them to check.
Residential communities are now cracking down on group renting, as it poses a safety hazard. However, Fulu Community is so large that the property management team can't manage it all, and they even deliberately turn a blind eye.
These multi-unit rentals have a strategy for dealing with inspections, much like guerrilla warfare. When things get tense, someone tips them off, and they wait for the inspectors to arrive, then move back in when things are quiet. They even avoid their neighbors and don't go out at the same time.
It’s just that the phenomenon of shared renting has brought hardship to the neighbors upstairs and downstairs.
Luo Siwei carefully looked at the hairs in front of her one by one, and suddenly frowned.
Ni Xiang noticed the change in her expression and came over to ask, "Captain Luo, is there something wrong with these hairs?"
Luo Siwei pointed to the evidence bags in front of him and said, "Most of them are white hair."
This shows that a large number of elderly people once lived here.
Ni Xiang wrote it down, then bit the tip of the pen thoughtfully.
The whole team was busy until four o'clock in the afternoon, and Chi Li came up from downstairs to inspect the situation.
Luo Siwei asked, "How's the situation over there?"
Chi Li said: "Cleaned bloodstains were found in the room and the elevator, and can be traced all the way to the north gate of the community."
Luo Siwei pondered: "In other words, the murderer may have carried the injured Bao Hongyuan all the way to the north gate, and then boarded the vehicle."
"That should be the case." Chi Li said as he walked to the bedroom door. He looked at the room that was almost torn down to pieces and frowned, "Your search was really thorough."
"It's been a long time since I put in the work, and I've gained a lot." Luo Siwei sat on the sofa and pointed to the bags of evidence piled up on the dining table in front of her.
Then she pointed to the two piles of hair, one of which had already formed a small mountain. "About 80 percent of it is white."
Chi Li looked at it carefully and also found something unusual about this clue.
He then coughed and said to Ni Xiang, who was taking notes with the team, "Go back and check the bedroom floor in 701 and preserve the evidence. Also, remember to arrange for someone to restore the things that were dismantled."
Ni Xiang wrote down his words: "Then the related expenses..."
Luo Siwei only just thought about this. She panicked a little: "I... am here to investigate a case... These wooden floors should be reusable..."
Chi Li said, "As for expenses, we can apply for major case investigation funds separately from Director Chen." At this point, he looked at Luo Siwei and said, "We can't deduct it from the team members' wages."
Luo Siwei: “…”
Is it still too late for her to change her Alipay password now?
The police officers' investigation had just arrived here when they found new information from the surrounding investigation. Guo Zhengyao brought over several nearby neighbors to report the situation to them.
The leader was a retired woman in her fifties. She said as soon as she opened her mouth, "I've long felt that there are problems with these households, and they're huge."
Luo Siwei asked: "Auntie, what's the problem?"
"They're usually like thieves, so few people go out." The aunt said mysteriously, lowering her voice, "I suspect someone here is deliberately kidnapping the old lady."
All the police officers had question marks on their faces; they had never heard of such a thing.
Kidnappers usually kidnap children or wealthy businessmen. How much ransom can you get for kidnapping an old lady?
Moreover, the old lady was frail and sickly, difficult to take care of. So they kidnapped her and took her back to be worshipped as a mother? This was illogical.
Besides, if someone really did kidnap the old lady, what was their motive? To kill her? To get a ransom? How could it be that after so long, the police didn't receive a single report?
The retired woman said with a serious face, "It's true. I once saw the curtains drawn back and there were different old ladies standing in the gap, looking down at the stairs with horrified expressions. I was so scared..." She shuddered as she spoke, "I had nightmares for several days."
Luo Siwei imagined the scene and looked down at the pile of white hair in front of him. Could it be that someone really imprisoned the old people here?
Maybe there was just an old man living here who happened to be looking downstairs?
"Now that you mention it, I remember..." an old man next to me suddenly realized, "I found a piece of change by the flower bed downstairs. It had something scribbled on it: 'Who can take me away... I want freedom.' And something else: 'I don't want to live anymore, let me die.'"
Things were sounding increasingly suspicious. Luo Siwei frowned, "Is the money still there?"
"The words on it are hard to read. I thought someone was playing a joke and spent it without noticing," the old man said in embarrassment. "Besides, it doesn't look like a formal request for help. It doesn't specify which household or person it is from, and there's no contact information for relatives or anything like that. If he had written a request for help and called the police, I would have helped."
Luo Siwei asked: "What's the time?"
"Half a year ago. I don't remember the exact location, but it was on the left side of the garden."
Luo Siwei asked some more questions, and the neighbors answered, but there were no new clues. They hadn't formally met with the two families, and they didn't know any specific information.
In the blink of an eye, it was time to finish work. After arranging the follow-up work, Captain Chi turned to Luo Siwei and said seriously, "Come on, I'll take you back to the hospital."
Luo Siwei then remembered that there were still some unfinished business at the hospital. She had forgotten that she was a patient. She lowered her head and followed Chi Li away from the scene.
Chi Li got out of the car and drove all the way to the hospital. They first went to the ward to pack their things, and then walked towards the doctor's office.
When she reached the door, Luo Siwei's pace slowed down unconsciously, and she felt like she was being taken to the execution ground.
After entering the office, the young doctor who was on rounds during the day gestured for them to go find the director inside.
The young doctor even made a gesture of wiping his neck towards Luo Siwei, and then put his hands together, as if asking her to wish herself good luck.
Luo Siwei walked in with her head held high and saw her printed medical records on the corner of the doctor's desk.
The chief physician was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing square black-framed glasses and dressed in simple clothes. The moment he saw her, he flew into a rage: "Girl, how can you be so unconscious as a patient? You really don't take your body seriously. The results aren't out yet. What if you faint outside? It could be life-threatening!"
Luo Siwei nodded continuously, not thinking of how to answer. When she went out, she really felt that she was fine and didn't think too much about it.
Chi Li said from the side: "I'm sorry, Director Liu, you also know that our profession is special. There was an emergency in the afternoon, so I called her over."
Luo Siwei gave him a look of gratitude.
"Really?" The doctor seemed a little unconvinced and asked, "She's young and naive. How could you, as a leader, act so recklessly?"
Chi Li said seriously: "She is too crucial. The criminal investigation team can't function without her."
Luo Siwei heard a hint of irony in these words and wanted to find a hole to crawl into.
The doctor's expression was a little skeptical.
Chi Li said seriously again: "She brought the evidence team to search in the afternoon and removed all the decorations in the house."
After hearing this, Luo Siwei's face turned even redder.
"Destroying the house? Isn't that like a Husky? You seem so quiet and gentle, I didn't expect that." The doctor was tickled by something strange and laughed.
Luo Siwei looked at her toes awkwardly, digging her fingers into the ground.
Chi Li explained: "In the end, we found a lot of evidence, and we will restore it."
Hearing this, Director Liu's anger dissipated a little. He waved his hand and said, "Forget it. Being a police officer isn't easy either."
Then he handed Luo Siwei all the documents and medical records: "I've prescribed medicine for you. Take it according to the instructions on the list and don't miss any doses. Come back for a checkup in a week."
Luo Siwei nodded and said, "Thank you, thank you for your trouble."
After everything was done and he wrote his discharge summary, Chi Li went downstairs to complete the settlement procedures. He paid at the window and the medical staff handed him a form to sign.
Luo Siwei leaned forward and said, "Let me see, how much does it cost in total?"
Chi Li blocked it with his hand: "Don't look at it, it's a public account anyway."
Luo Siwei sighed, "The benefits here at the Municipal Bureau are really good. We can even stay in a special ward. Before, when I was in the Third Branch, we all lived in a three-person room."
"Who asked you to sacrifice yourself for others and live with Ni Xiang and Lan Anan?" Chi Li looked up at her.
Luo Siwei was speechless after hearing this.
Chi Li calmly folded the receipt into a square shape and put it in his pocket, then said, "I'll take you home."
On the way back, Luo Siwei was still thinking about Bao Hongyuan. The police had gained a lot that day. Information had been collected from the physical evidence, and the hair and bloodstains would be subjected to basic tests and information collection one by one.
She was still thinking about the strange testimonies.
However, according to her experience, testimonies are all from the perspective of an observer, which will bring in some subjective emotions and judgments, and sometimes may not be the truth.
In short, you can't not believe it, but you can't believe it completely either.
Chi left the car and looked ahead, then asked her, "What do you think of the case now?"
Luo Siwei sorted out the clues in her mind: "I now have some suspicion that the murderer is the sub-landlord. The old man who was thrown down first may have died in the rented house and had no relatives or friends. The sub-landlord was unable to deal with the body properly, so he threw it into the well. The other victims may have been people who had disputes with the sub-landlord. In this way, the old man, the landlord, the sub-landlord, and the body in the well are all connected."
Chi Li nodded thoughtfully. His inference was reasonable, but could things be so simple?
Luo Siwei tilted her head and asked, "Captain Chi, do you understand the rental market?"
Chi Li answered briefly: "I live alone, so I don't know much about it."
Luo Siwei said, "I've always rented a house, so I have some understanding of these things. I also have some experience."
Chi Li asked: "What did you summarize?"
There was still some distance left on the way back when Luo Siwei began to explain everything clearly: "Many landlords have requirements for tenants. For example, the most popular tenants in the market are single women. Landlords think women are clean and keep their houses relatively well-maintained. These people are their prime customers, and they'll be willing to rent to them even if the price drops."
"In the rental market, the next most popular tenants are young couples without children, who don't graffiti on the walls and are stable, which is also what agents and landlords prefer. Next in line are single men and middle-aged couples with older children. Less popular tenants are pregnant couples or young couples with children, and families with elderly parents."
"No matter how run-down or old the house is, almost all landlords are particularly averse to two types of people renting their houses: single elderly people over 70 years old, and poor people who can't make ends meet."
"Old people may get sick, have accidents, or even die. Single elderly people are at even greater risk. Some elderly people who die alone may not be discovered for more than ten days. No landlord would be willing to take the risk of leaving their own house. Therefore, single elderly people often cannot rent a house they like even if they have money. Even if they do find one, they need to pay more rent or deposit than others. As for the poor, they are very unpredictable. They may not be able to pay, default on the rent, or find someone else."
Luo Siwei concluded: "There is another type of situation that makes renting a house the most difficult, which is the combination of these two."
Chi Li understood what she meant: "A poor old man."
Luo Siwei said, "So, at this time, sub-landlords are needed. Sub-landlords can make a profit from the difference in rent by converting a single house into a shared rental. They just collect the money and are never picky about the tenants. If you don't pay, you will be kicked out. So they can be said to provide a place for some elderly people to live."
This is a very cruel reality.
The car was silent for a moment. Luo Siwei sighed and said, "Many young people feel they have enough freedom and don't want to save money to buy a house. But I will still choose to save money to buy a house in the future. I think that it is not prepared for my younger self, but for my older self. When I am old, having a house and being able to die in my own home or in the hospital is also a happy thing."
Chi Li said, "You've overlooked one issue. Some elderly people may have owned houses. They were once middle class and may have had children. There's a term called bankruptcy in old age. People may fall back into poverty due to illness, or lose their property due to family problems. I once saw an elderly couple sell their house to help their son pay off his gambling debts."
This was something Luo Siwei hadn't considered before. She was stunned for a moment and leaned back in her seat.
It was already dark outside the window, and the street lights along the way were on, like a falling galaxy. She carefully considered various ways, but felt that there was no solution. Life is unpredictable, and no matter how well prepared one is, there is no way to deal with various emergencies.
When they were about to get off the bus, Luo Siwei said, "You're right. Maybe there really is such a thing as fate in this world."
Chi Li was not as pessimistic as her. He parked the car at the gate of Luo Siwei's community: "What I mean is, since everything is possible in the future, it is better to control the present and have a clear conscience."
This sentence untied the knot in Luo Siwei's heart, and she felt her body warm up again: "Yes, if you try your best from a young age and take every choice you make seriously, then in the end, even if the result is not satisfactory, you will not regret it."
She put her knowledge into practice and said, "Thank you, Captain Chi. I've decided that instead of worrying about all that other stuff, I'd better solve this case as soon as possible."
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