Chapter 87 Mandala 07
Luo Siwei felt like she was sitting on a small boat. The lake was calm and boundless. The surface of the water was like a mirror, reflecting the blue sky and white clouds. All around was quiet and silent.
She could see five people in the boat: two men, two women, and a boatman.
Apart from the couple, the others probably didn't know each other. They looked in different directions and didn't communicate much.
When the boat reached the middle of the water, it suddenly stopped.
The boatman turned his head, gave a strange smile, and then jumped off the stern of the boat.
Suddenly, a hole as big as a bowl appeared on the boat. It looked like a spring, with water constantly gushing out of it.
The people on the boat panicked instantly. They stood up, shouted for help, and tried to block the hole, but it was all in vain.
The boat sank silently, the cold water quickly covering my feet, calves, thighs, and waist...
My body lost its balance as the overwhelming pressure of water pressed down on me, enveloping my mouth and nose. I couldn't breathe, couldn't call for help.
Luo Siwei soaked in the water quietly, but did not feel uncomfortable.
She looked up and could see the people's reactions.
Panic is a natural instinct. Those who couldn't swim tried to scream, to call for help. They reached out to grasp, kicked their feet, flailed their arms, and even grabbed each other.
The body keeps floating up and down in the water. The more you want to breathe and the more you don't want to die, the faster the air in your body will be lost.
Their expressions gradually grew grim. Drowning was a terrifying way to die. Gradually, several people stopped moving, their bodies floating in the pale blue water in varying shapes.
Luo Siwei raised his eyes and saw that only one of the women among the group had turned her back and was swimming away...
Then she heard something, like applause.
Luo Siwei hurriedly turned around and found that he seemed to be floating in the center of a stage. There were people sitting around the stage, and the applause came from the audience.
Amidst the crackling applause, there was also the sound of something rolling and rubbing against the ground.
The sound was like faint thunder, getting closer and closer.
Luo Siwei was awakened and opened her eyes quickly, then she saw Shen Qing pulling her suitcase.
"Captain Luo, I've brought your luggage here for you." Shen Qing said apologetically, "Did I wake you up?"
"It's okay, I just wanted to take a break." Luo Siwei took the box and thanked him. She looked at her cell phone and turned off the alarm that was about to ring in three minutes.
The written report of the autopsy had not come out yet, and the family members had not arrived yet. After lunch, she took a nap for twenty minutes and had a somewhat strange dream.
After a while, Ni Xiang received a call and turned to her and said, "Captain Luo, the police said that a family member of the deceased came to identify the body."
Luo Siwei tied her hair back up, stood up, clapped her hands, and called out to the police officers, "Everyone, get to work."
There were three family members of the deceased who came to claim the body. A young man was supporting an elderly couple. The old man had a slight hunchback and the old lady seemed to have problems with her legs and feet, so the young man stood between them and supported them.
Ni Xiang registered their names. The old man was named Zhou Shuo and his wife was named Zheng Shouyan. They were both 60 years old.
The boy is their youngest son, who is a sophomore in high school at No. 3 Middle School this year. His name is Zhou Bingcheng.
No. 3 Middle School. Hearing the name, Luo Siwei looked up, and countless memories flooded in. That was the school where her mother had worked, and she had also attended high school there.
The deceased was named Zhou Han, the eldest son of the old couple and Zhou Bingcheng's brother.
The two people said that their eldest son went out this morning and has not returned since. No one answered the phone. The youngest son happened to see the news online and came to the municipal police station. The police officer at the front desk received the call and brought them here.
Luo Siwei asked Huo Cunsheng to take them to the forensic room to identify the body first. She whispered to him, "If you have any doubts, remember to write them down."
After a while, Huo Cunsheng came back trotting to report to Luo Siwei: "Captain Luo, I think there is something wrong with those old couple."
Luo Siwei raised his head and asked, "What's the problem?"
Huo Cunsheng thought for a moment and said, "After the old couple confirmed that the deceased was their son, although they cried, their reaction was cold and indifferent. The old man hardly shed a tear, and the old woman just kept wiping her eyes. They didn't ask me specifically how the ship sank, how many people died, or what happened. They quickly signed to claim the body."
Luo Siwei hummed, then asked, "Do you agree to an autopsy?"
Huo Cunsheng said, "Not yet. The medical examiner asked them to sign a consent form for an autopsy, but the old man said it was troublesome and he wanted to keep his son's body intact, so he refused to sign. The old lady cried for a while and then asked me how to handle the funeral, as if she was anxious to be cremated." He thought for a moment, "Instead, it was the young man who came with them who persuaded them to cooperate with the police investigation."
Luo Siwei said, "It's confirmed that the person died of drowning. An autopsy is just a fixed procedure, and even if it were done, it would be difficult to find anything new. The parents are old, so it's understandable that they don't want an autopsy. Are there any other suspicious points?"
After hearing her question, Huo Cunsheng thought for a moment and added, "Also, the relatives didn't ask whether there was any compensation."
Huo Cunsheng was, after all, a veteran detective with many years of experience, and he was very sensitive. What parent wouldn't cry and wail over the death of their son, desperate to find out the cause? Even if the parent-child relationship was cold, they would still try to make a fortune from their son's accidental death.
Even though the person is dead, you are still thinking about asking the other party to pay you a sum of money. This sounds immoral, but in reality, it is the inevitable reaction of many people and it is also human nature.
The old man lost his son, and it was an accidental death, so he needs at least some money to support himself in his old age.
Now the old couple did not mention the cause of death or the money. This reaction was too abnormal.
Luo Siwei asked again: "What about the younger brother's reaction? Is there anything special?"
Huo Cunsheng said, "I've also inquired about Zhou Bingcheng. He's an old man who had a son. He's more than ten years younger than his brother, and the two don't seem to have much affection for each other."
Luo Siwei had already drawn a relationship diagram and marked the first, second and third deceased persons. She had originally marked a question mark behind the first deceased person, the husband.
Now, after listening to Huo Cunsheng's story, she also put a question mark behind the second deceased.
An unemployed otaku has simpler social relationships.
If he was the target, who wanted to kill him? And why would they want to kill him?
And that old couple, what are they hiding, or what are they afraid of?
Ni Xiang quickly searched for the deceased Zhou Han's information based on the form the elderly couple had filled out. Her brows furrowed slightly. "He's 35, unemployed, and lives with his parents. Could this man be a parasite? No wonder his parents and brother reacted like that..."
Guo Zhengyao asked, "Should we begin the interrogation? The wife and the captain are still in the interrogation room."
Luo Siwei shook his head: "Wait a little longer, let's wait for the family of the third deceased."
Huo Cunsheng asked: "...How long will it take?"
Luo Siwei said, "Don't worry, it should be here soon."
Ni Xiang was a little puzzled: "Why?"
Luo Siwei explained, "This matter will soon become a hot topic in the city, and many people will see it. If this matter was intentional, then once the time comes, those people will be unable to suppress their excitement and will pay attention to related news..."
Huo Cunsheng lowered his head and thought for a while, then his frown relaxed: "You have something on your mind that you can't hide? You want to confirm the outcome as soon as possible, right?"
Luo Siwei said, "But these are just my guesses. Let's wait and see for the details. If no one shows up at three o'clock, we'll start interrogating the people who came here earlier."
A group of people waited until 2:30 in the afternoon.
Things developed just as Luo Siwei had expected. A teenage girl came to the office of the Criminal Investigation Team of the Municipal Bureau.
The girl panted and asked timidly, "My sister went to Xikou today. I heard... there was an accident there today. The police officer asked me to come here."
The family of the last deceased also arrived.
Luo Siwei turned his head to look at the girl. The girl had short hair, a small nose, small eyes, a flat nose bridge, dark skin, and ordinary looks.
She was about fourteen years old, not very tall, and thin. She was wearing a school uniform that didn't fit her well. The uniform seemed to have been washed many times, and some of the stains could no longer be washed out.
Today is the weekend and not class time, but the girl is still wearing her school uniform, and it is such a uniform, which makes Luo Siwei feel a little strange.
She compared the pictures of the deceased.
Although the female victim was drowned and had bleeding eyes and nose, it can still be seen from the photo that she had a pretty face and fair skin. The difference between these two sisters is quite big.
As if she felt the police officers' gazes, the girl hid backwards.
Seeing that she was scared, Luo Siwei asked softly, "What's your name?"
"Zhong Ziling." The girl answered timidly.
"Where are your parents?"
The girl raised her head and stammered, "I called my mom...she might be here soon. My dad...works out of town, so my mom is the only one taking care of us."
Luo Siwei naturally would not let an underage girl identify the body alone.
She looked up and asked, "Did you see the message first?"
The girl hummed softly.
Luo Siwei asked Ni Xiang to wait with the girl for a while and recorded the basic information first.
Coincidentally, this girl also studies in No. 3 Middle School and is in the second grade this year.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, a middle-aged woman finally ran hurriedly from the other end of the corridor. She looked like she was rushing over from her workplace.
The woman was tanned and slightly plump. She might work in the catering industry. She was wearing a slightly greasy apron and sleeves on both arms.
As soon as she entered the door, the woman was breathing heavily with an anxious look on her face. Her ponytail was about to come loose at the back of her head, and some dry and yellow hair hung down beside her cheeks.
As soon as she saw Zhong Ziling, the woman grabbed her and asked in a hoarse voice, "Is that your sister? Was the one who drowned your sister?"
Zhong Ziling hurriedly grabbed her and said, "Mom, don't worry, I haven't seen it yet..."
Huo Cunsheng stood up, took the mother and daughter away and led them to the forensic room.
A while later, Luo Siwei received a message from him: "I originally thought the girl was too young and asked her to wait outside, but she asked to go see. The mother was crying and very sad. She felt that this happened very suddenly, and she was calling the child's father. The sister was the whole time and seemed quite calm."
The family of the third deceased also appeared.
All the deceased have been identified one by one.
The relevant personnel were also taken to different interrogation rooms. Due to lack of space, they also borrowed several rooms from the Second Detachment for interrogation.
Ni Xiang quickly summarized the information about the accident. Luo Siwei led the police officers to hold a brief meeting to review the case.
"The accident occurred at 11:10 this morning in Wangjiang Lake, north of Donglan City. A small ferry was midway through its journey when it suddenly took on water. The boat sank in the deepest part of the lake."
"Except for the captain Liu Yilong and the female passenger Zhao Si who could swim and were lucky enough to be rescued, the other three people on the boat, none of whom could swim, all died."
As Luo Siwei spoke, he wrote the information on the whiteboard.
In this case, the identification of the deceased was particularly smooth.
"The first deceased was Chao Si's husband, Yan Xiuming. Chao Si was 24 years old and a white-collar worker at an advertising company. She and her husband met through a blind date introduced by her family and quickly married, obtaining their marriage certificate this spring. Yan Xiuming was 32 years old, a graduate student, and a mid-level manager at a major internet company."
"The second deceased was named Zhou Han, 35 years old, a technical secondary school graduate who had been unemployed for the past few years. He lived at home with his parents. After calling the police, it was Zhou Han's parents and younger brother who came to claim him. Zhou Han's younger brother, Zhou Bingcheng, was a sophomore at Donglan No. 3 Middle School, where he was an excellent student."
"The third deceased was named Zhong Zining, a college graduate who didn't have a stable job. The first person to arrive after receiving the news was his sister, Zhong Ziling, a sophomore at No. 3 Middle School. A woman named Wang Guifan, the deceased's mother, arrived later."
As an eyewitness to the accident, Luo Siwei told the police officers what she and Lao Huo had seen and the suspicious points they had discovered.
"If this wasn't an accident..." Guo Zhengyao frowned and asked, "The captain had no grudges against anyone on the ship, and none of them knew each other. Why would he kill people?"
Luo Siwei said: "I just feel that there are some doubts. Those are the issues we need to investigate now."
Shen Qing was puzzled: "What if it was murder? Who would be the murderer?"
Huo Cunsheng also said: "In general, most cases are murders for love, revenge, or money. The three people who died were very ordinary people. It doesn't seem like they were killed for money or for love. I think this matter is very strange."
"Let's start with the families. We need to gather information first." Luo Siwei tapped the whiteboard. "Due to the accident, most of the deceased's phones fell into the lake. The dead can't speak. We need to understand why these people came here at the same time and chose this boat."
At 3:30 in the afternoon, the police officers walked into the interrogation room and began to collect information from the victim's family members. They were both family members and suspects of the police.
An hour later, the police officers came out of the interrogation room and reported the situation to Luo Siwei.
The captain repeated his accusations.
Several family members did share the information they knew.
Zhao Si explained that she and Yan Xiuming had come here for a trip, specifically to take photos on the island in the middle of the lake. She recently created an account and wanted to create a travel vlog. They discussed and selected the route and location. They took a bus to a nearby location and arrived at the small ferry around 11 a.m., just in time to see the boat.
The captain charged each of them 25 yuan, a total of fifty yuan.
They didn't know the other two people on the boat.
They were silent the entire way, but halfway through the journey, the captain suddenly announced the boat was taking on water. They tried to save themselves, but the boat took on water quickly and sank. She knew the most basic breaststroke, so she swam a little on her own and was rescued.
The elderly couple, Zhou Shuo and Zheng Shouyan, also provided some information. Their son, Zhou Han, was at the island restaurant, planning to meet a female friend, saying he was going on a date. Zhou Han was a homebody who rarely went out, let alone hung out with girls. The elderly couple were delighted to hear this news, and urged their son to dress nicely, arrive early, and not be late.
The place and time are decided by the other party.
When the police officers asked who that friend was, Zheng Shouyan started shaking his head and said he didn't know.
Another officer questioned Wang Guifan, who said her daughter had received an application for a waitress position at a restaurant on the lake's heart island and had followed the directions to the restaurant for an interview. She didn't know which restaurant it was.
Not much of this information seems useful.
Guo Zhengyao said, "These people all said that the incident must have been an accident. They also said that they knew nothing else."
Huo Cunsheng also said: "Yes, even if there really is a murderer, or a suspect related to the case, I think they seem to have determined it. We have no other evidence."
Luo Siwei asked again: "Where is the captain? What did he say?"
Ni Xiang said, "That man kept repeating himself, saying he didn't know the others and didn't know who he would meet today. The boat fare was 25 yuan each for the couple and 30 yuan each for the other two, a total of 110 yuan, all in cash. His boat had never had any problems before, and he didn't know how it sank. His phone was also lost when he fell into the water."
Shen Qing asked: "Captain Luo, are we overthinking it? Is this really just an accident?"
According to regulations, without evidence, the police could only detain them for eight to twelve hours. The rescued young woman, Zhao Si, and the boat captain had been at the city police station since noon, meaning they had only a few hours left.
If these people are ultimately found not guilty, the later they are released, the more criticism they will generate, and the more passive the police will become.
"Don't worry, we'll check slowly." Luo Siwei remained calm. She turned around and said, "Tang Xi, verify this information with the merchants on the island."
After Luo Siwei finished the arrangement, he wrote down the feedback he had just received on the whiteboard.
The three deceased, two men and one woman, had relatives who were the first to arrive.
wife.
Parents and younger brother.
Sister and mother.
Their purposes for landing on the island were different.
travel.
Dating.
Apply for a job.
Then Luo Siwei showed the police officers some information she had previously searched on the Internet.
The first one is Zhou Bingcheng’s circle of friends, and two of the posts were marked in red by Luo Siwei.
"How can there be such people in this world who can live off their parents openly?"
Another one below: "It's so annoying to have a piece of trash around."
The second piece of paper is Zhong Ziling’s online space.
Luo Siwei also circled two sentences.
"It's so ugly. The prosthesis in her nose is almost sticking out of her face."
"She grinned at me and told me to study hard. Ugh, it made me want to throw up my breakfast. Why should I study hard? Should I be sucked dry by her like my parents and spend money on her plastic surgery?"
Guo Zhengyao asked, "These are... those two students?"
Although they had questioned them just now, after all, those two were minors, so they didn't ask as many details as the others.
Luo Siwei folded his arms and said, "I feel a sense of familiarity from these complaints."
Everyone thought hard after hearing this.
Huo Cunsheng suddenly remembered and looked up and said, "He Jin?!"
Luo Siwei nodded slightly.
He Jin had also made similar complaints about her family before. After the incident, her remarks were dug up by netizens and used as evidence to accuse her.
Young boys and girls in their teenage years will have some conflicts with their families.
He Jin said she was just venting, but what about this boy and this girl? Did they put their inner thoughts into practice?
As they were talking, Tang Xi came over to report the results of the investigation: "I contacted the eight restaurants on the island, and none of them are currently hiring waiters. Also, I asked those restaurants to retrieve the surveillance footage from that day, and there were no single women in the restaurant."
In other words, whether it was looking for a date or recruiting, it did not match the testimony.
Several people's mobile phones were lost, making it difficult to confirm their chat records.
At this point, Shen Qing also realized that something was wrong. It seemed that there were still some questions in this shipwreck case that they could not answer.
Luo Siwei said: "Not only that, there are even more coincidences."
She also printed out a copy of He Jin's previous file: "Zhao Si graduated from No. 3 Middle School a few years ago. He Jin attended junior high school there and transferred to another school in high school. You could say they are both alumni of No. 3 Middle School."
Ni Xiang looked at the documents in disbelief: "How... could this be such a coincidence?"
"We will collect more information about the deceased and continue to interrogate these people, especially the two minors. This time, we need to focus on determining their relationship with the deceased."
Luo Siwei paused and said, "Leave that boy, Zhou Bingcheng, to me for interrogation."
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