Chapter 79
Lin Jiafan simply took a step to the side, exposing Luo Jingyao completely to everyone's eyes: "She's considered one of us."
One of us?
Lao Lei's expression improved a little, but he was still skeptical about her identity. "Your last name is Luo, right? Why didn't you tell me that when I asked you just now?"
After saying that, he looked at the man standing beside him and asked, "Are you new to the Special Case Investigation Team?"
"Strictly speaking, not really." Lin Jiafan explained, his arms folded across his chest. "You've probably all heard that the Municipal Bureau hired a very high-level physical trainer specifically for our team, right?"
Old Lei always wanted to laugh when he mentioned this. The Special Case Investigation Team had been established for years, and yet these people were being singled out for separate training. This kind of treatment might not be unprecedented, but it was definitely unprecedented.
"I heard that a while ago, one of my guys ran into some of your guys at the Municipal Bureau for a meeting. They were grinning as they walked down the stairs, and you could fit a ball between their legs when they walked."
Lin Jiafan raised his eyebrows without comment.
Lao Lei looked at him, then suddenly realized something: "Miss Luo is your team's physical trainer? I can't tell..."
Luo Jingyao was wearing a loose windbreaker and sweatpants today, and her arms and legs looked thin, which was indeed not very convincing.
"But even if Miss Luo is a physical trainer hired by the Municipal Bureau, she cannot participate in the case investigation. This is against the rules." Lao Lei came back to his senses and still refused, but he did not forget his previous suspicion.
"Besides... today is a workday, and you, Captain Lin, brought your physical trainer out hiking?"
As soon as the words fell, ambiguous gazes moved back and forth between the two of them.
"Old Lei, how could I not know that what you said was against the rules?" Lin Jiafan took two steps forward with a mysterious air and lowered his voice in his ear, "Coach Luo has participated in several cases as a special consultant before, and the bureau has paid out countless consulting fees. Today I'm lending it to you for free, and you're still picking on it?"
"What's more, she's quite familiar with the preliminary circumstances of this case. You're a seasoned detective, wouldn't you take advantage of something like this?"
With just a few simple words, Lao Lei's mind shifted from doubting their relationship to whether he should take advantage of her, without any effort at all.
"Is it true?" Lao Lei still couldn't be completely relieved.
"She can barely be considered a person involved in the case now, right? Just ask whatever you want to ask, no one is stopping you." Lin Jiafan spread his hands and found a way out for the other party.
Once you go down, it won’t be easy to get back up.
Lao Lei raised his hand and touched his hair. He felt that asking a few questions would not cause any harm and was not a violation of discipline. He signaled to the two of them to sit down first.
"Then I'll follow Captain Lin and call Coach Luo." He cleared his throat and adopted the demeanor he usually displayed to the client. "Our conversation will be recorded, and Coach Luo's signature will be required. Is that okay?"
"No problem." Luo Jingyao replied. After all, she was very familiar with this process.
"How did you get to know that kid named Xiaozhe?" Lao Lei asked in a deep voice.
"The day before yesterday, my friends and I went hiking together. It started raining on the way to the B&B on the mountain. For safety reasons, the driver brought us to the Qingshan Rescue Association for shelter..." Luo Jingyao clearly recounted the whole cause and effect of the incident.
She also truthfully explained why she happened to be here today. She was really just worried that Xiaozhe had broken his ribs or something, so she wanted to come and take a look.
"Did you see Xiaozhe when you came this morning?" Lao Lei asked again.
Luo Jingyao shook her head. "At the time, Achao said Xiaozhe was still asleep in the room. I felt sorry for him, especially since he had just been injured, so I didn't ask them to go and call him."
"No one can tell the exact time when Xiaozhe was last seen. Only Aunt Zhang, who is in charge of taking care of the child, gave a rough estimate. She said she went in to clean the room around six in the morning and he was still lying in bed." Lao Lei frowned and unconsciously turned the pen in his hand.
"What was the general idea you mentioned before?" At this time, Lin Jiafan, who had been sitting next to him in silence, suddenly spoke.
"As a rule, when encountering a case like this, we must first check whether the welfare home or charity organization has any problems with abusing the rescued people." It was obvious that Lao Lei had fallen into Lin Jiafan's trap at this moment. He completely forgot about the so-called violation of the rules just now and directly stated his next plan.
"This isn't the first time Xiaozhe has run away. He's always wanted to leave because there must be some reason. But today, not only did he run away, he also took someone else with him. We can't rule out the possibility that he thought he was saving the little girl named Guoguo."
"I think we should start from two aspects. First, we should start from Xiaozhe himself to determine where he might have gone. Second, we should see if anyone in the organization is hiding something."
Lin Jiafan nodded in agreement. Judging from the evidence currently available to the police, there was absolutely no problem with the investigation direction given by Lao Lei.
The point is, is this really all the evidence there is?
He came to his senses and sent a signal to Lao Lei opposite him to seek his opinion.
Lao Lei spent a few seconds to successfully decipher the meaning of the signal. Only then did he realize what he had just said. He threw the pen in his hand on the table in despair. He turned around and simply pretended to ignore it.
After receiving the other party's tacit consent, Lin Jiafan turned his head and looked at Luo Jingyao: "Coach Luo, according to you, you first came here the night before yesterday, and you didn't see Xiaozhe that night."
She nodded affirmatively: "But Ah Chao showed me Xiaozhe's photo, so when I found him fainted by the stream the next day, I was able to recognize his identity immediately."
After a brief pause, Lin Jiafan continued, "You performed CPR on Xiaozhe. Did he spit out a lot of water after he woke up? Is there anything else on his body worth noting?"
"It wasn't much vomit, just a little bit." Luo Jingyao frowned and recalled carefully. Her memory began to become vivid under the intentional guidance of the people around her.
"He still had some injuries on his body. At the time, I thought he had fallen while staying out overnight alone, but now it seems that's not the case. The injuries are concentrated on his brow bone and cheekbone. They look more like the result of violence. The color looks very fresh, and it can't be more than ten hours old."
"Coach Luo, are you so sure?" Lao Lei couldn't help but turn back and interrupted her rudely.
"Believe me, Coach Luo is an expert when it comes to violent injuries like this." Lin Jiafan responded to Lao Lei's question, his gaze returning to her. "Ten hours before the time you rescued him, Xiaozhe would have already escaped from here, so he probably didn't get injured at the association."
"The creek where he was found is less than a ten-minute drive from here. Even if the weather conditions were bad that day, it could be reached in less than two hours. It's too close for a child trying to escape."
Lin Jiafan sat leisurely on a chair, slightly turned sideways with his legs crossed, his right arm resting on the back of the chair, and the slender fingers of his left hand tapping lightly on his thigh.
After a brief moment of thought, he raised his eyelids behind his glasses. "There were many people camping by the stream at the time, but Xiaozhe wasn't discovered until long after you arrived. He didn't vomit much water after you revived him."
"I think we can basically rule out the possibility that he fainted upstream and was washed down."
"You mean..." Luo Jingyao carefully expressed her suspicions: "He walked over there on his own and fainted in the stream on purpose to attract everyone's attention?"
Nodding in affirmation, Lin Jiafan offered his own conclusion: "There's more than one campsite on Black Wind Mountain, but that's the closest to the Qingshan Rescue Association. Even if the people present don't recognize him, the Rescue Association will be the first to arrive."
After all, 120 and 110 are too far away.
"But why? Since he wanted to return to the Qingshan Rescue Association, why did he run away the night before? And what was his purpose in coming back? Just to take another child with him?" Lao Lei was puzzled.
"I guess you'll have to ask the guy who beat him about these questions." Lin Jiafan adjusted his sitting position, leaning his upper body slightly forward. "But a while ago, I attended a nationwide internal exchange meeting and heard about a very interesting case."
"In Zhaoxi City, Sichuan Province, there have been numerous cases of children disappearing from orphanages over the past two years, all of whom were children with obvious disabilities. After a long investigation, local police finally uncovered a group."
"The organization originally took in homeless teenagers and trained them to steal and rob. Later, it gradually developed into sending these teenagers to local welfare homes or charities, and then using them to secretly bring out younger disabled children."
As for what happens to the stolen disabled children, there have been few news reports about this in recent years.
"You mean, Xiaozhe might also be a member of that kind of organization?" Lao Lei immediately became restless. You know, this kind of case is time-sensitive and must be solved before they transfer the child.
Without directly responding to this question, Lin Jiafan looked at Luo Jingyao again: "Since you haven't seen Xiaozhe today, have you seen Guoguo? When was the last time you saw her?"
Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her violently beating heart and slowly closed her eyes.
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