Chapter 91
"Have you finished reading it? Tell me if you've finished. What's it called?"
Just before Achao's heartbeat was about to go haywire, Pang Guang finally spoke first, asking with a frown.
"Zhou...Zhou Zhichao."
"How did you get to know Lu Deshu?"
Achao opened his mouth, his dark face showing hesitation, as if he wanted to deny it.
Seeing this, Pang Guang interrupted him, raising an eyebrow in a warning. "I advise you to think it over carefully before you confess. You're sitting here, you don't really think the police know nothing, do you? I discovered the relationship between you two in just a few minutes."
The muscles on his cheek twitched uncontrollably, and Ah Chao's eyelids moved, but he remained silent.
"You won't cry until you see the coffin." Pang Guang scoffed and threw another record on the interrogation table in front of him. "Here are the call records we retrieved from Lu Deshu over the past two years. You and he had unusually frequent calls for a few days every once in a while, and these frequent calls coincided with the disappearance dates of many rescued children."
"Also, there's a bank account in your name. Every time a rescued child goes missing, a sum of money from unknown sources is deposited into it."
"Do you want me to continue? It's only a matter of time before we find the connection between the various accounts that sent you money and Lu Deshu."
Ah Chao's hands, pinned to his front by the interrogation chair, clenched tightly together. After two minutes of silence, he seemed to have made up his mind. He took a deep breath and spoke, "Lu Deshu and I are from the same hometown. He and my cousin went to elementary school. We met four years ago when we returned home for a New Year's dinner."
"He returned to the village looking so impressive, driving a luxury car and wearing designer clothes. My cousin told me he was doing big business in the city, but no one in the village could explain what exactly he did."
"I didn't expect him to actually approach me after learning I was working at the Qingshan Rescue Association, saying he wanted to collaborate. At first, he didn't elaborate on what he wanted to do, but simply asked me a lot of questions about the association, like the structure of the house, my daily commute, and so on... Then he gave me some money."
"It wasn't until the first child went missing from the association that I realized something was amiss. I privately confronted Lu Deshu. Unexpectedly, he shamelessly admitted it. I wanted to return the money and report it to the police, but he said I had already committed a crime and would drag me into it no matter what if he was caught."
"Then... I was given another sum of hush money. I was having some financial problems at the time, so..."
So after being coerced and lured by Lu Deshu, Zhou Zhichao officially joined the gang and assisted this group in doing this unscrupulous business.
Because he couldn't just focus on the Qingshan Rescue Association to make money, he began to actively volunteer in various charities and welfare homes of all sizes in Jinshi. Every time he got familiar with a place, it wouldn't be long before a rescued child would mysteriously go missing in that place.
"I've never been involved in child abduction before, seriously!"
Seeing that Lin Jiafan and Pang Guang's expressions were getting gloomier, Ah Chao was eager to defend himself: "I was only responsible for providing basic information about the various charities and welfare homes. As for what they did afterwards, I have no idea."
"Really?" Lin Jiafan finally spoke, his dark eyes behind his glasses staring at him intently. "You're still trying to make this pointless struggle at this point? Because you weren't actually involved in the kidnapping of these children, do you think their disappearance has nothing to do with you?"
"If you hadn't provided the Ludeshu gang with inside information, they wouldn't have been able to operate so smoothly every time. Are you trying to build a chastity archway after receiving payment?"
Lin Jiafan's voice was cold, and his words were even more ruthless: "Zhou Zhichao, you have to have a bottom line. You can't have it all. If you confess your guilt today, I will look at you with a higher regard."
Pang Guang next to him echoed, "You've clearly noticed something was amiss since the first child disappeared, yet you still chose to continue providing inside information to Lu Deshu. Isn't that knowingly committing a crime?"
"And you said you weren't involved in kidnapping children? Then what about Guoguo this time? We found your and He Jinzhe's footprints on the path outside the back door of the Qingshan Rescue Association, proving you were involved in Guoguo's kidnapping!"
"I...this..." Achao seemed to still want to find an excuse, but the amount of evidence the police had was obviously beyond his expectations.
After a long while, the man finally gave up his feeble resistance, lowered his head slightly, and said in a tone that could not be any softer, "I swear this is the only time. This time, the child named Xiaozhe that Lu Deshu sent here is really a little abnormal. He must have been forced into this job before he was fully trained."
"He hasn't been very well behaved since the day he arrived at the Qingshan Rescue Association. He has been refusing to communicate with the other rescued children in the same room, so I warned him privately."
"I didn't expect this kid to actually throw a tantrum. He found an opportunity to slip away the next day. Luckily, Lu Deshu and the others found him and gave him a good beating. He then obediently returned to the Qingshan Rescue Association."
Lin Jiafan chuckled knowingly: "Come to think of it, this matter is all thanks to Miss Luo."
Unexpectedly, even this link has been exposed under the noses of the police. Ah Chao was a little embarrassed for a moment and couldn't help but stammered: "Yes..."
"The night I brought him back to the association, Lu Deshu told me he wanted to end the fight quickly. I was still hesitating about who to attack, but Aunt Zhang unexpectedly provided such a good opportunity."
"It's a pity that Guoguo is also very stubborn. She refused to go with He Jinzhe no matter what. In order to prevent her from making a fuss and being discovered, I had to intervene. Go out from the back door and follow the path overgrown with weeds to get back to the roadside. Lu Deshu's people will be waiting there."
When the police were collecting evidence, they verified where the back door path led to, and Zhou Zhichao did not lie about this.
Although the path is hidden, it is very cleverly built. If you walk fast, it only takes a few minutes to go back and forth.
In addition, when the incident happened, most of the people in the association were on the second floor watching Luo Jingyao's "donation ceremony", which left him with plenty of time, enough for him to transfer the child out and then run back to cry "stop thief".
Lin Jiafan pondered for a few seconds, then asked, "Do you recognize the person who came to pick you up?"
"It seems that one of them is called Brother Dao and the other is called Brother Hao. I have seen them before in Lu Deshu's territory." Achao simply blurted out everything he knew. Anyway, things have developed to this point, and he has nothing to hide anymore.
"They took the child away and gave him some calming medicine. I have no idea where he was sent after that. I only heard Lu Deshu mention it over dinner once, and it seemed like he was going to Sichuan Province."
As expected, everything came to a close at this moment. Lin Jiafan frowned heavily, and his mood did not become relieved because the suspect confessed the crime truthfully.
He would rather the missing children had nothing to do with the human trafficking organization in Sichuan Province, at least they would not encounter so many terrible things.
"Captain Lin..." Pang Guang spoke at the right time, reminding everyone that the interrogation was almost over.
The key point is that there is more than one suspect on the entire sixth floor. It is said that the ones who were just intercepted from Beihe Province have also been sent there, and they will have a lot to do next.
Coming back to his senses, Lin Jiafan wordlessly pulled out a photo from his phone: "Remember this child?"
Ah Chao's eyes widened in surprise: "Little Potato?"
"Where are the others? Were they also transferred to Sichuan Province by Lu Deshu?"
"I don't know about that. You have to ask him!" Achao shrugged, looking helpless.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Jiafan, who had not held much hope, stood up and left the interrogation room with Pang Guang.
In the corridor, they ran into Luo Jingyao who had just come out of the observation room.
Facing the rabbit eyes that were reddened with fatigue, Lin Jiafan subconsciously comforted him, "We'll find them. The people we brought back from Beihe Province should be from the Sichuan Province human trafficking organization. They probably know where Little Potato was sold to."
As they were talking, someone at the end of the corridor called out their names.
"Go to the office upstairs and have a rest first. I'll notify you as soon as there is any news." Lin Jiafan could only give a few hurried instructions, and then left quickly with Pang Guang without stopping.
office?
Luo Jingyao hesitated for a long time and finally gave up the idea of going upstairs. After all, that was the daily office of the Special Case Investigation Team. If something was lost there, she wouldn't be able to explain it even if she had mouths all over her body!
After thinking it over, she walked out of the case handling area and came to the lounge on the other side of the corridor.
Anyway, there is food and drink here, and it is right opposite the electronic door of the case handling area. The indoor temperature is kept at 24 degrees all year round, so it is really comfortable to stay here.
In this way, Luo Jingyao spent the whole afternoon watching different faces coming in and out of the door. It was not until the night outside the window fell that she blinked her sore eyes and fell asleep unknowingly.
Suddenly, she seemed to hear some sound in her ears. She wanted to open her eyes to see what was happening, but after her shoulder felt heavy and her body felt warm, she fell into a deep sleep again.
The office building of the Jinshi Public Security Bureau was still brightly lit late at night. In the lounge, where the only sound was the whirring of the air-conditioning vents, Luo Jingyao suddenly sat up from the table.
She quickly noticed the baseball jacket she was wearing, and for a moment her mind was at a loss as to what to do.
I looked up in confusion at the clock hanging on the wall, then looked at the sky outside the window. It was already past one in the morning of the next day.
At this moment, there was a sound coming from the door opposite the lounge.
The moment Lin Jiafan walked in, the first thing he saw was Luo Jingyao, who was sitting at the table in a daze and had not yet fully recovered.
The two gazes met in mid-air. Looking at the twinkling lights in her eyes, Lin Jiafan shook his head slightly with difficulty.
"Those people in Sichuan province said they had never seen small potatoes."
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