Chapter 147 147 That means they are very likely to be through other...
Because of Dr. Hu's fame, it was not difficult to find out some information about her. Ji An only made a few phone calls and found out Dr. Hu's exact address.
They didn't even have time to eat lunch and drove straight to the local police station.
At this time, Jiang Yingyao's ID came in very handy. After confirming that the ID was authentic, the police officers at the police station enthusiastically gave very detailed answers to the questions they raised.
"We were deeply impressed by Dr. Hu," said the chubby, elderly police officer who greeted them, pouring them some water. "She dedicated her life to medicine. She married young but didn't have time to have children. She and her husband became separated and divorced in her thirties."
The old policeman placed his water cup in front of each of them, smiled, and said, "Of course, these things were told to me by my mentor when I first started working. In our area, anyone with a heart problem went to see Dr. Hu. Even though she retired and didn't see many patients anymore, she was very enthusiastic and would often help the neighbors review their X-rays. I remember when her house was burglarized, it was around the end of last year."
The old policeman also sat down on a nearby iron chair and said, "If I remember correctly, it was the 31st, and the next day was New Year's Day. I was on duty that night and talking to my colleagues when I suddenly received a call about a burglary."
Finally hearing the key point, Guan Xia didn't even bother to drink water. His heart suddenly trembled and his expression became very serious.
The old police officer said: "My colleagues and I rushed to the scene and saw that someone had indeed broken into the house, but the two thieves were blocked inside. There were people gathered under the windows of the corridor. We finally squeezed in. The two thieves were beaten and had swollen noses and faces. When they saw us, they shouted for help."
Guan Xia subconsciously asked, "Nothing was stolen?"
"Yes," the old policeman said, "According to the neighbor across from Dr. Hu's house whose statement we later recorded, he discovered the thieves not long after they entered through the window. He had just returned from get off work and looked up to see that the kitchen window of Dr. Hu's house was not closed. He remembered it clearly. After Dr. Hu passed away, they helped Dr. Hu's nephew-grandson with the funeral arrangements. They helped tidy up the house before he left, and all the windows were closed properly. There was absolutely no way any of them were left out. What else could this situation be? It must have been a thief. So while he was still downstairs, he called a familiar neighbor and together they trapped the people inside."
Jiang Yingyao asked, "Can we see the confession records of the two thieves?"
The old policeman smiled and said, "Yes, of course, follow me."
First, they went through the paperwork, then spent some time finding the case file for the failed burglary. The old policeman pulled out the pages of confession and handed them to Jiang Yingyao, saying, "It's all here. Take a look."
Guan Xia and Ji An immediately came over and leaned their heads over to look together.
The confession was not long. The thieves probably didn't succeed, and since they were habitual offenders, they spoke out very readily.
The confession said that they heard that the family was dead and the person who inherited the house was not in this city and had not returned to live there, so they had an idea. Thinking that the New Year was approaching, they might as well steal some things and sell them to have a good New Year. Unexpectedly, they were discovered as soon as they entered the house. Not only did they not tell anyone that they had not stolen anything, they were also beaten. Seeing the ferocious looks of those people, they thought they were going to die in the house. Fortunately, the police arrived quickly.
After reading the short three-page confession, Ji An raised his head and asked, "Are these two people still in prison?"
The old policeman nodded. "He's a habitual thief. He committed two more crimes before this one. Plus, he just got out of prison not long ago. But the amounts he stole weren't big, so he was only sentenced to one year and three months. He's currently serving six months."
Jiang Yingyao asked in which prison he was serving his sentence. After getting a definite answer, he said goodbye to the old policeman and left the police station.
"It looks like our guess was right," Jiang Yingyao said as soon as he got in the car. "Then let's check on these two thieves. If they're habitual thieves, then they were probably instructed to steal. Checking their bank statements and those of their families should be easy enough to uncover something."
"Let's go," Guan Xia glanced at the time. "We still have a few hours before dark, so let's go and visit him. If we hurry, we might even be able to visit him in prison in time."
Not only Guan Xia was extremely anxious, Ji An and Jiang Yingyao were equally anxious. They didn't even bother to reply to Qi Baifa's message in the group. They just glanced at it quickly and continued to think hard.
Although the two habitual thieves often go in and out of the police station and prison and seem to have no fixed place to live, they are actually married. Either their parents are in poor health or their children are sick.
The three of them walked around the urban village where the two families lived, especially observing and asking around near where the two families lived, and they found out some information.
Although the two habitual thieves failed to steal from Dr. Hu's house and the stolen goods were returned in the previous two cases, it was surprising that the two families were not short of money in terms of food, clothing and daily expenses during this period.
Especially the child with a congenital disease, who actually had the money to have an operation in April this year. Although the family was secretive when they went out and came back, and chose to come back late at night, there was no shortage of idle people in this urban village. That night, two people had just come back from playing mahjong and saw from a distance that the child was held in the arms of the thief's wife and trotted up the stairs.
The owner of a small restaurant nearby said that recently, both of their families had made a fortune from nowhere, and they used cash. When they asked, they just said it was the winnings from scratch-off lottery tickets. But everyone knows that such unexpected wealth has to go through the bank and is taxed, so how could it be given in cash? They privately suspected that the two thieves might have done more than just those two tickets, but the police didn't find out.
After visiting here, Guan Xia and the others' guess was confirmed, so they ran back to the car and prepared to change the location to the prison where the two thieves were serving their sentences.
In order to save time, Ji An and Jiang Yingyao took turns driving. While one was driving, the other took the opportunity to have lunch in the car.
After quickly filling his stomach with three hamburgers, Jiang Yingyao drank some water while asking Ji An to pull over in front and he would drive.
The two of them changed seats. Ji An wolfed down his food, mumbling, "The clues to those two habitual thieves are pretty clear now. Doctor Hu must have noticed something before he died, and he might have some evidence. I just don't know if we can get them to talk this time. If we can get them to confess who ordered them and what they stole, that would be a lot easier."
"They are two habitual thieves, and they are not the core members of the organization. It should not be difficult to stop them from talking." Guan Xia said hesitantly.
Jiang Yingyao suddenly said, "Based on our previous investigation, the cash they gave me shows that they have a very clear understanding of the two habitual thieves' basic information, including their home addresses. They also had close contact with them. I suspect they are likely threatening them with their families."
At this point, Guan Xia suddenly realized something and said, "Could they possibly be keeping a close eye on the families of those two people for a long time? If we were openly asking around for information like we did just now, wouldn't that alert them and alert them?"
"It shouldn't be," Ji An said. "Two stupid thieves who failed nearly a year ago. Based on what we know about the organization's behavior, as long as they are still alive, it means that in their eyes, these two people are insignificant and not worth their time."
Guan Xia also reacted. Indeed, the members of the suspected organization in this city were obviously much more ruthless. They fought with the intention of dying together and wiped out the witnesses very cleanly. If they really cared, these two stupid thieves would definitely not be alive now.
The prison where the two habitual thieves were serving their sentences was in the completely opposite direction of where their families lived. It took more than an hour to drive there, and there was a bit of traffic jam. By the time the three of them arrived, it was dark.
Because we had contacted them in advance, the visit went smoothly. The first thief brought out was a very short and thin man.
Some of them had pointed chins and monkey-like faces, and their eyes kept rolling around since they entered the visiting room. They were very good at observing people's expressions and sat obediently on the chairs opposite without the prison guards having to waste any words. However, they didn't know what they noticed from Guan Xia and the others and felt a little uneasy. They looked up from time to time to glance at Guan Xia and the others, and their expressions kept changing.
At this moment, it was obvious that the home court had to be handed over to the more experienced Ji An and Jiang Yingyao, so Guan Xia just sat quietly on the side, observing the people in front of him.
Ji An and Jiang Yingyao didn't say anything at first. They stared at the habitual thief opposite them with solemn expressions for a while, giving him enough mental pressure before they slowly spoke.
Jiang Yingyao was the first to ask, "Have you heard of the name Hu Suhua?"
Guan Xia looked at the person in front of her very attentively, not missing any details of his expression and body language.
As Jiang Yingyao finished speaking, the person sitting opposite him subconsciously curled his fingers, then feigned confusion and asked, "Who? Hu Suhua? I've never heard of her. Is she the owner of the house I burglarized? When we scout a location, we usually just observe the target's daily routine and don't deliberately ask for their name."
The first habitual thief self-righteously explained a few more sentences and tried hard to look sincere.
Jiang Yingyao laughed when he heard it, then his expression changed and he said seriously, "I forgot to introduce myself. My last name is Jiang, you can call me Officer Jiang. As for my profession, I'm a criminal police officer. You should be able to guess why I'm here."
Jiang Yingyao said this and smiled meaningfully at the habitual thief.
The habitual thief shuddered noticeably, then drooped his head as if deflated, saying, "I can tell. I could tell from your demeanor the moment you walked in."
"Then you still have a lucky mentality!" Ji An was obviously playing the good guy. After the habitual thief finished speaking, he slammed the table heavily with anger.
The habitual thief was frightened and trembled for a moment, then blurted out, "I just noticed it, but I really don't know what big case I'm involved in. I just stole something, I really didn't do anything against the law. That Doctor Hu didn't kill me. I really just stole something."
"Still telling the truth!" Ji An slammed the table again. "If you weren't involved, how could you have such a clear purpose in stealing things? Tell the truth, what exactly did you steal?"
Guan Xia now knew why this habitual thief had been so restless since he came in. It turned out that he had keenly noticed the identities of Jiang Yingyao and Ji An, and suspected that he had been inadvertently involved in a murder case. However, he was a little timid and wanted to fight back. However, he was immediately panicked by the tricks of Ji An and Jiang Yingyao.
The habitual thief was afraid that if he spoke too slowly he would be labeled an accomplice to the murder, so he spoke quickly: "A cell phone, it's just a cell phone. When that person found me, he didn't tell me what kind of cell phone it was. He just asked me to go into Dr. Hu's house and steal every cell phone I could find, no matter if it was new or old. He wanted it as long as it was a cell phone. He also said that if I succeeded, he would give me a sum of money. If I succeeded, he would give me an extra cell phone and another sum of money. That's why I took such a big risk and went."
The habitual thief said dejectedly, "I felt that this was a hard-earned job. Not only did the man ask us to steal by name, but he also specifically stole cell phones. I'm not very educated, but I know what's in a cell phone. It's nothing more than photos, recordings, or some documents. I wasn't very happy at the time, but the idiot partnered with me said it was an easy job, so I agreed. I could tell that he was a bit tough, so I was afraid of getting into trouble if I changed my mind, so I agreed too."
The habitual thief grew angrier as he spoke. "What happened? This job was just as I expected, damn hard. We're both experienced, and we spent a long time scouting the location beforehand. But we'd been inside for less than ten minutes, and before I even had a cell phone, there was a knock on the door. It sounded like there was more than one person, and they were so aggressive, like they wanted to kill me. I immediately wanted to run out the window, but when I looked over, there were even more people gathered under the window. We had no choice but to accept our fate."
"You know quite a lot," Ji An said, "it seems you've done similar work before."
The habitual thief immediately cried out for justice, "Comrade police, I swear, I swear on my bedridden old father, I really did it this one time, and I didn't succeed."
Jiang Yingyao asked, "Do you remember what that person looks like?"
The habitual thief shook his head. "Don't say you remember. I haven't seen it clearly. Who would dare to do such a thing openly? They must be wrapped up tightly. Let alone him. My brother and I were also fully armed when we went there. And the place where we met was dark. I could only make out that it was a person, a woman. She was quite tall, more than a head taller than me, estimated to be over 175cm tall. She had a nice voice. Although she deliberately lowered her voice, I can still hear it from who I am. And the woman had long legs. She was wearing jeans and boots. Even though her upper body was wrapped very tightly, you couldn't tell whether she was fat or not."
"I haven't seen it clearly yet," Ji An said sarcastically, "How did they connect? Was there a middleman who introduced the job, or did she specifically come to you guys?"
The habitual thief replied, "I don't know about that. I tried to ask her who introduced my brother and me to her, but she didn't answer. She even said something to me, telling me not to ask about things I shouldn't ask about, and to be careful not to get killed if I knew too much. I've said before that I'm a coward, so I didn't dare to ask. Even after that, I never said I didn't want to do it anymore."
In the following time, Jiang Yingyao and Ji An asked the same question over and over again in different ways, until the habitual thief had no answer and was about to cry. Guan Xia and the others judged that this person was probably not lying, so they asked the prison guards to take him back.
Similarly, another one was not let off. Compared with the previous one, the other habitual thief was much more physically deformed. He was tall among ordinary people, with small eyes and thick eyebrows. You could tell from his eyes that he was a bit silly.
In fact, he was not as smart as before. He did not realize the identities of Jiang Yingyao and Ji An at all. He was reluctant to answer at first, but when he heard that they were criminal police, he immediately became honest and answered whatever was asked.
Jiang Yingyao and Ji An asked the same question several times in different ways. After confirming that the answer was exactly the same as the previous person's, they thanked the prison guard and left.
"With this confession, we have found a breakthrough." Jiang Yingyao said as soon as he got in the car.
Guan Xia pounded his shoulder wearily and said, "Our work this day has been truly fruitless. We've traveled to several locations and gathered a ton of leads. I was just wondering, if the data on the phone is truly that valuable, even though the two thieves failed, those people definitely won't let it go. They might resort to other methods later. I suspect they've probably already got the phone they're looking for."
Ji An didn't start the car immediately. He just turned on the headlights, turned around and looked at Guan Xia and said, "Since there haven't been any more thefts since then, it means they probably used other routes."
Before Ji An finished speaking, Jiang Yingyao followed up with a tacit understanding, "The great-nephew who inherited Dr. Hu's estate and came to attend Dr. Hu's funeral."
Guan Xia also thought of it and sighed, "Well, although we have found a clue, it's like walking into a circle. We have to continue to investigate the next link. I still remember what the habitual thief said. When they were scouting the area, they found out that the heir to the estate was not in this city and would not come to live here. That's why they decided to take action. If we investigate him, won't we have to run away again?"
After traveling thousands of miles to Shangshuang City, Guan Xia never expected that the clues would extend to other cities.
"Let's go back and discuss it first," Ji An turned around and started the car. "It's almost ten o'clock in the evening. I guess everyone else has already returned to the hotel. I just checked my phone and Zhong Xiaoyu has called several times."
Guan Xia was reminded of this and remembered that she had hardly looked at her phone all afternoon. She took it out and saw that she had more missed calls.
There were calls from Pang Le, Xu Nian, and Zhong Xiaoyu. I guess no one answered Ji An's call, so Zhong Xiaoyu called her cell phone.
After taking a look at the dark sky outside the car window, Guan Xia called Pang Le back, explained the situation, and agreed to talk in detail at the hotel. Then they set off on their return journey to the hotel.
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