Chapter 13
"Could it be that Huang Guojun wrote this to Wang Guifen before he died?" Guo Zhen continued to read, unwilling to give up. Then he shook his head. "The last date on the letter is this year. Could it be that Huang Guojun has truly returned from the dead? It seems this copycat is so thorough that he even spared the mother."
Pan Chang was feeling somewhat relieved at this moment. "Thankfully, Wang Guifen was only focused on leveraging public opinion to 'clear her son's name,' and didn't let any shady media outlets trick her into releasing these letters. Otherwise, even if I held more press conferences, I wouldn't be able to dispel the rumors of ghosts killing people!"
"It is inevitable that Wang Guifen, who is so greedy for money, would not choose to expose these letters." Lin Jiafan obviously has his own opinion on this.
The fact that she didn't report the incident to the police after receiving the letters was enough to demonstrate her scheming. She was presumably preoccupied with the potential profit she could extract from this bizarre situation. So, once she was certain the murders described in the letters had indeed occurred, she couldn't wait to make a scene at the police station, even demanding a whopping five million yuan in compensation.
"Look, this letter is dated September 3rd, the day the first copycat murder occurred. The writer clearly mentioned the crime he had committed between the lines and said that this was to complete the unfinished work before."
"However, because the Public Security Bureau concealed some key details from the beginning, Wang Guifen did not act rashly until she could confirm the authenticity of the contents of the letter."
"It wasn't until the evening of September 8th, when some media outlets broke the agreement and leaked some details of the case in a press release, and then on September 9th... yesterday, she received a new letter in which the killer admitted to committing another crime, even giving the approximate location of the crime scene. That's when Wang Guifen finally made up her mind to go to the city police station and cause a scene."
After listening to Lin Jiafan's word-by-word analysis, Guo Zhen and Pan Chang couldn't help but be surprised.
"Isn't she afraid that the person who wrote the letter is a pervert? Does she really think that if someone calls her "Mom" a few times, he is her biological son? If any normal person encounters such a thing, the first thing they would think of is to call the police, right? At worst, they can pay a shaman to exorcise the evil spirits!" Pan Chang's words were rough but his logic was sound, and his thin face was full of disgust.
"If she were a normal person, how could she do something like blatantly filming customers' privacy in the store where she works?" Lin Jiafan stood up and looked at the man and woman next to him inquiringly: "Who has time to come downstairs and meet Wang Guifen with me?"
"Unfortunately, Director Zhang just sent me a text message asking me to go to his office after the meeting. He said he wanted to discuss with me some issues regarding the direction of subsequent online public opinion." Pan Chang said regretfully.
On the other side, Guo Zhen was quite happy: "Captain Lin, take me with you! I will be fine for the time being after the autopsy."
Unexpectedly, Pang Guang, who had been busy in front of the computer, suddenly opened his mouth and said, "No, what should I do if everyone leaves? I just ordered a cup of iced American coffee to refresh myself, and the data in my computer is at a critical juncture. I can't leave without someone!"
Guo Zhen and Pan Chang both gave him a cold shrug at his somewhat shameless words. Only Lin Jiafan turned back before leaving, raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the sofa. "I think Coach Luo wouldn't mind doing you a small favor."
After saying that, the office door slammed shut.
"Tsk." Pang Guang poked his head out from behind the computer screen and gave the still-bewildered Luo Jingyao a sympathetic look, but he said without hesitation, "Because the nature of our work is rather special, the bureau has a rule that delivery drivers can't come in. All the food deliveries are left with the guard at the main gate. I'd like to trouble Coach Luo to come over and talk to the person with the phone number ending in 7389."
Taking a deep breath silently, she finally left the office without saying anything. It was indeed her fault that she spent 1,688 yuan without knowing why, and Lin Jiafan insisted on not taking her money. So, she had to find a way to make herself feel better, right?
Luo Jingyao didn't think there was anything wrong with the man's attitude. The daily salary of 1,688 was much better than what she had earned in the underground competitions before.
When she successfully retrieved Pang Guang's milk tea, she found that he did not look quite right as soon as she entered the room. The wrinkles between his brows were so big that they could almost kill a fly. He was sighing while holding the computer screen.
Luo Jingyao slowly walked over to the young man, gently placed the cup of iced American coffee on a corner of the desk, and tentatively asked, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your computer?"
Pang Guang shook his head without even raising his eyelids. "There's nothing wrong with the computer, and there's nothing wrong with the program I wrote, so what went wrong? There's still no connection between the two victims. I've searched everywhere related to fitness, but to no avail!"
"..." The weight of this question was really too much for Luo Jingyao. She cautiously took a step back and prepared to go back to the sofa.
However, at this moment, the report in Pang Guang's hand suddenly caught her sight, and she saw the photos of the two victims.
They are two extremely young and bright smiling faces...
Luo Jingyao pursed her lips in regret, but a thought suddenly popped up in her mind: "Since Officer Pang is so confident in his skills, I wonder if he can check their social media accounts at will?"
"Of course!" Pang Guang patted his chest proudly, and then revealed an understanding expression: "Huh? You mean to investigate their lives from the perspective of the Internet? There is indeed a possibility that there are some clues left online!"
He did it right away. His big, bony hands almost left afterimages on the keyboard, and soon two dialog boxes popped up.
After hurriedly checking the contents of the dialog box, Pang Guang once again slumped his shoulders in disappointment. "These two people seem to have a very low desire to share. What about their promise to record their beautiful lives anytime, anywhere? Can this be considered a common point?"
"Hmm..." Luo Jingyao replied uncertainly, then directed the young man to scroll down to the bottom of the page for the first victim, Zhuo Meiling. "Is it just my imagination, or was this Miss Zhuo really a lot fatter six months ago?"
"It shouldn't be your illusion." Pang Guang carefully checked the victim's photo in the materials at hand. "This photo is the latest ID photo provided by the employer. I heard it was taken a few days before she disappeared."
Luo Jingyao's gaze fell again on the slightly rounded face of the second victim, Gong Lingling, and she asked uncertainly, "Have you ever looked into weight loss training camps? Logically, those institutions would have things like magnesium powder."
"Huh?" Pang Guangchang looked bewildered. "I checked every business and store with any fitness-related qualifications, even those selling equipment and protein powder."
Hearing this, Luo Jingyao looked embarrassed and carefully explained, "Well... From what I understand, the government has very strict standards for regulating weight loss training camps, but they also have to admit that this industry has good prospects. This inevitably leads to a mixed bag of practitioners."
"In fact, many training camps on the market do not have legal qualifications. Some use the guise of beauty treatments, some use the banner of healthy diet, some claim to be accommodation, and some simply have no documents at all. However, most consumers are unaware of these scams and are simply attracted by the widespread advertising."
"Can we do it this way?" Pang Guang was inspired and started a new round of investigation on the spot.
As he quickly typed the code into the program, he was distracted by curiosity: "How come Coach Luo knows so much about this industry?"
Great question!
Luo Jingyao turned her face away slightly, trying to hide the embarrassment in her eyes: "When I first retired, I worked as a coach in a similar place for a while."
I can only say that she made the wrong friends and was simply fooled. After working for a few days, she found something was wrong and quickly slipped away.
After getting the answer, Pang Guang did not continue asking questions, but instead focused his attention on the computer screen in front of him.
Time passed minute by minute, Luo Jingyao even took a nap while sitting on the sofa. Finally, when it was getting dark outside, the young man suddenly stood up and hammered the desk in front of him hard!
"Fuck, no matter how awesome you are, I still caught you!"
Luo Jingyao was startled and was about to ask something when she was interrupted by a male voice at the door.
"What did you catch?"
The next second, Guo Zhen pushed the door open and walked in, followed by Lin Jiafan who had also left and returned.
"The connection between the two victims!" Pang Guang excitedly rushed in front of the two people in a few strides, saying in a hurried tone: "I was able to find this key point thanks to Coach Luo's reminder!"
"After searching many times without success, I chose to list all the past spending records of the two of them. I found that the first deceased, Zhuo Meiling, had spent a total of 28,888 at a beauty salon called 'Slimming Beauty' more than half a year ago."
"And the second deceased also spent 28,888 at a daily diet adjustment institution called 'Light Food Generation' a month ago. This number should be able to explain something, right? Here comes the more exciting part! The operator behind these two completely different institutions is actually the same person!" Pang Guang proudly stuffed a piece of paper he had just printed into Lin Jiafan's hand.
"From today on, please respectfully call me a genius!"
"You did a really good job this time!" Guo Zhen patted his shoulder in affirmation, then gave a brief account of Wang Guifen's situation. "Wang Guifen said she didn't know who the letter writers were. Each letter was pinned to the door handle, and she never had any direct contact with the writer. Regarding the statements in those letters, it doesn't seem like this person is lying."
"As for the case of secretly filming customers' private videos for profit, Captain Lin plans to transfer her to the Criminal Investigation Detachment first. We'll see what the results are there before making a decision."
Pang Guang naturally had no objection to this.
Lin Jiafan had finished reading all the information the young man had found out. After hesitating for two seconds, he took out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number according to the contact information of the two store owners shown on the paper.
The moment he dialed the number, he walked to the sofa and handed the phone under Luo Jingyao's nose without saying a word.
Hearing the beeping sound coming from her ears, Luo Jingyao widened her eyes in surprise.
One thousand six hundred and eighty-eight.
She understood Lin Jiafan's silent lip movements and resigned herself to taking the call.
At the same time, a suspicious voice came from the receiver: "Hello? Who are you looking for?"
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