51 Red Roses
Fang Cheng shook his head: "That's not a fruit knife, it's just a scalpel disguised as a fruit knife."
Zhou Yun asked in confusion, "But how did this murder happen? Gu Mansheng died in the sea, not at Lu Xiaoman's house. Does that mean the yacht on Donglin Island wasn't the primary crime scene? Was it at Lu Xiaoman's house?"
Lin Long took out his phone and gave the order: "Da Huang, take some men to arrest Lu Xiaoman, and also have the forensic team go to her house to collect all the knives and check for any traces of the victim's blood!"
Fang Chengjin smiled slightly: "The trial has begun. Call them all over: Shen Jun, Gu Qianfan, and Lu Xiaoman. This murder case, which was based on a body double, should come to an end."
**
That noon, the three were taken to different interrogation rooms.
First was Gu Qianfan, dressed in a black suit, his face exuding an air of nobility and composure.
Lin Long walked in and sat in the judge's seat.
He was wearing headphones, the other end of which was connected to Fang Chengjin outside the trial window.
Fang Chengjin's voice immediately came out: "Ask him what Gu Mansheng looked like when he saw her that night, the key point is whether Gu Mansheng was facing away or facing the front."
Lin Long met Gu Qianfan's eyes, his sharp aura, honed over many years, fully unleashed: "Mr. Gu, please describe what Gu Mansheng looked like when you saw her on the yacht the night the murder occurred."
Gu Qianfan recalled: "That night I boarded the ship. I remember now, she was facing me sideways. She was wearing a long red dress and a round hat. I could only see half of her face."
Lin Long: "Are you sure it's Gu Mansheng?"
After a few seconds of silence, Gu Qianfan nodded: "Although I don't have much contact with her, I can still recognize her appearance and figure. However, the lighting was a bit dim that day, and I only saw half of her face. If you say it's not Gu Mansheng... then it does look a bit like her."
Lin Long continued, "What's the relationship between Gu Mansheng and Shen Jun?"
Gu Qianfan said coldly, "What else can a live-in son-in-law do? Every time I see Dr. Shen, he's all fawning over me."
Lin Long: "How did Gu Mansheng contact you that night?"
Gu Qianfan took out his phone to prove himself: "You can see for yourselves, I'm not lying to you. She sent me the text message herself, and this number belongs to her."
The big yellow dog next to him immediately took a picture of the text message and then showed it to Lin Long.
Lin Long read the text message and saw nothing amiss. At that moment, Fang Chengjin's voice came through his earphones.
"He's not a suspect, move on to the next one."
Lin Long had no choice but to leave the interrogation room and return to the small room behind the glass window to meet up with Fang Chengjin.
When asked who to interrogate next, Fang Cheng replied cautiously, "Interrogate Lu Xiaoman first."
Lin Long then went to Lu Xiaoman's interrogation room.
Upon entering the room, Lu Xiaoman's face was still wrapped in bandages, and her eyes showed some fear.
"Why did you arrest me?! I'm going to sue you!"
Lin Long sneered and threw the evidence bag on the table. Inside the bag was a gleaming scalpel.
"This knife was stuck in the apple; you wouldn't even notice it was a scalpel unless you looked closely. Ms. Lu, how did you come to have a scalpel?"
Lu Xiaoman immediately felt awkward, gripping the edge of the chair, and dared not glare at Lin Long.
"Well... it's none of your business what kind of knife I use to cut fruit. I just bought any knife I wanted."
As they were talking, Da Huang opened the door from outside and came in quickly to Lin Long's side. "Boss, the test results are in."
Lin Long took the test report, glanced at it, remained silent for a few seconds, then braced himself on the table with both hands, like a giant tiger leaping up from the ground, and raised the report. "It seems you won't give up until you've hit rock bottom. This knife has Gu Mansheng's DNA traces, and your home is also the primary crime scene. We've already found a large amount of blood in the bathroom! The physical evidence is there, what's your explanation!"
Lu Xiaoman trembled slightly, her hands clenched tightly together. The surrounding silence felt like knives stabbing at the bandages on her face.
"Impossible... It's been cleaned thoroughly, there couldn't be any bloodstains..."
Lu Xiaoman covered her head and hugged herself tightly.
"Tell me, how did you kill him?" Lin Long tossed the medical report aside, sat down, and looked relaxed.
Lu Xiaoman shook her head and bit her lip.
On the other side, through the glass window outside the interrogation room, Da Huang also handed over a report to Fang Chengjin for review.
Zhou Yun took a closer look and exclaimed, "How is this possible? There's no DNA trace in the house or on that knife!"
Fang Cheng remained calm and composed, flipping through the report pages: "It's normal. Shen Jun is a doctor; he performs surgery with a combination of boldness and meticulousness. He must have wiped away the bloodstains, but it's alright..."
Fang Chengjin slightly curled his lips and, under the surprised gazes of Zhou Yun and Da Huang, calmly said, "The combined effect of hydrogen peroxide and enzyme-based cleaning agents... that's the smell I detected that day."
The report was handed back to Da Huang again. "Have the forensic doctor go to Lu Xiaoman's house to conduct an examination, preferably on the walls. There must be blood that accidentally splashed into the cracks."
Big Yellow nodded and immediately got to work.
Through the glass window, Fang Cheng's gaze was fixed on the interrogation room.
**
Lu Xiaoman's voice was hoarse as she slowly spoke, "I killed them. Arrest me."
Lin Long frowned slightly, not in a hurry to draw a conclusion.
"Since you killed the person, explain the process of your killing."
Lu Xiaoman was like a stone statue, gray and lifeless.
“I killed her long ago and hid her in the yacht. Later, I used Lu Xiaoman’s phone to contact Gu Qianfan and asked him to come to the yacht. I pretended to be Gu Mansheng and made you mistakenly believe that she was the last person Gu Mansheng saw before she died.”
Just a few words, nothing more.
Lin Long: "Why did you kill Gu Mansheng?"
Lu Xiaoman let out a low laugh. "If I want to kill someone, I just kill them. Do I need a reason?"
Lin Long's gaze sharpened: "I suspect you didn't kill anyone at all. The real killer was probably Shen Jun."
Lu Xiaoman remained silent.
After a long silence, Lin Long continued, "You have no connection with Gu Mansheng. The only connection you have is with Shen Jun. He is definitely having an affair with you and has promised you many things. One of them is that if Gu Mansheng dies, you can get Gu Mansheng's property and live happily ever after with him."
Lu Xiaoman chuckled twice: "Officer, you have quite the imagination. Solving cases requires evidence. You say Dr. Shen committed murder, where is the evidence?"
Lin Long remained silent, but his gaze remained fixed on Lu Xiaoman.
After a while, Fang Chengjin's voice came through the earphone, "Ask her how she contacted Gu Qianfan, whether by text message or phone, and how she unlocked Gu Mansheng's phone password."
Lin Long asked the question.
Lu Xiaoman thought for a moment and replied, "After Gu Mansheng died, I used her fingerprint to unlock the phone and sent a text message to Gu Qianfan."
After answering, Lu Xiaoman remained silent.
Lin Long didn't ask any further questions. He tapped his fingers lightly on the table a few times, a playful smile appearing on his lips. A moment later, a reply came through the earphones again.
“Da Huang checked, and Gu Mansheng’s phone is unlocked with a password, not a fingerprint. She’s lying.”
Lin Long smiled knowingly, but in Lu Xiaoman's eyes, that smile was the smile of a devil.
Lin Long stood up, walked over to Lu Xiaoman, bent down slightly and approached her, "You don't know, do you? In Hong Kong's high society, most of the wealthy don't use fingerprint or facial recognition, just to prevent their organs from being cut off and then used to unlock the combination lock."
Lu Xiaoman's eyes were filled with nothing but panic.
**
Emerging from the interrogation room, Lin Long let out a long sigh of relief. Pushing open the door, he looked relaxed. "Now only Shen Jun remains. The evidence is conclusive; we can actually arrest Shen Jun now."
Zhou Yun raised an eyebrow and reminded him, "Don't open the champagne halfway through. Conviction requires complete evidence. Lu Xiaoman is a witness, but her testimony might be overturned. We'd better find physical evidence. That scalpel doesn't have Shen Jun's fingerprints. How can we prove that he killed him, especially since he was at a bar that night?"
Fang Chengjin: "What if Gu Mansheng didn't die that night?"
Zhou Yun and Lin Long looked surprised.
Fang Chengjin: "The primary crime scene must be Lu Xiaoman's house. I've never smelled such a complex odor before. There must be traces of Shen Jun's crime in the bathroom, his fingerprints... Let the forensic doctor check."
Lin Long put his hands on his hips, looking somewhat troubled: "Forensic testing takes time, and we can't be sure if we can find out within 24 hours, but we can't detain prisoners for more than 24 hours."
Fang Cheng looked at Lin Long and said, "Go interrogate Shen Jun. I have a way to make him confess."
**
Interrogation Room No. 3.
When Lin Long pushed open the door and came in, Shen Jun was wearing a light blue shirt and black suit pants, with his back straight.
Shen Jun: "I have already hired a lawyer. Your decision to designate me as a suspect is absurd. I will sue your police station."
Lin Long calmly sat down, resting his elbows on the table to close the distance between them.
“Dr. Shen, your lover Lu Xiaoman has confessed. You were the one who killed Gu Mansheng, and she helped you kill him.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Jun frowned slightly, but quickly smoothed it out, and said calmly, "You've got it wrong. I don't know Lu Xiaoman. Besides, I love my fiancée Gu Mansheng very much. I would never kill her. What reason would I have to kill her?"
Lin Long continued, "Three years ago, when Gu Mansheng's parents passed away, they made a will for her, stating that if Gu Mansheng died, all of her estate would be yours."
Shen Jun: "How come I didn't know?"
Lin Long's eyes narrowed slightly.
The air in the interrogation room was like static electricity; the slightest carelessness could cause a firecracker to go off.
Shen Jun smiled, then suddenly said, "I forgot to mention, Lu Xiaoman has schizophrenia, so her words can't be trusted." As he spoke, he took out a mental health assessment report from the file bag he had brought and placed it on the table.
Lin Long took the report, read the document, handed it to Da Huang, and asked him to give it to Fang Chengjin. Then he turned around and looked at Shen Jun.
"How did you get this proof? Didn't you say you didn't know her?"
Shen Jun: "She came to our hospital for a check-up, so she's considered a patient. I just happened to run into her when she came for her check-up that day; it was purely by chance. Officer, you're slandering me like this, so of course I can't let go of the opportunity to prove myself."
Lin Long remained silent for a moment, waiting for a reply from his earpiece.
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