Chapter 67 Chapter 67 Evil Son!
Ji Yinhe's words made everyone inside and outside the interrogation room react -
They arrested the wrong person! Ma Guoqiang is not the real murderer! He is taking the blame for someone else!
No one spoke, the atmosphere was tense, and even Ji Yinhe's resounding question could be heard faintly in the room.
Ma Guoqiang opened his eyes wide in horror, and finally realized as if struck by lightning that he had said the wrong thing. He stammered for a long time and couldn't utter a word.
Tan Li pressed on, "Who forced you to confess to these murder charges?"
"No one forced me!" Ma Guoqiang sniffed and looked at Ji Yinhe. "That young officer just now was talking about a copycat, right? I wasn't paying attention and must have misheard!"
“…”
Ji Yinhe thought to himself, this person actually knew about the copycat offender, he must have been given a warning in advance.
This real murderer is much more difficult to deal with than the criminal we encountered in Jiangtan...
The interrogation had reached this point, and there was no way to proceed further. Tan Li led Ji Yinhe out of the inner room, and everyone stood in the corridor, at a loss as to what to do.
Zhao Zhuoqun put out his cigarette and frowned. "Captain Tan, I don't think Ma Guoqiang is the real murderer, but he must be connected to the real murderer. Why don't we start with his interpersonal relationships and slowly investigate his relatives, friends, and colleagues..."
"The scope is too large. We haven't visited Lin Qingliang and Ji Junjie clearly yet." Tan Li shook her head thoughtfully.
Guan Ye suggested, "How about... we go to the grassroots and hire an expert? If we're going to crack down, we'll have to use some tricks—"
"No." Tan Li narrowed her eyes. "I know what you're trying to say. Torture, that kind of grassroots nonsense, will never work with me."
She turned her gaze to Ji Yinhe, who had been silent the whole time, and raised her chin. "Xiao Ji, what do you think?"
"I'm thinking... about Ma Guoqiang's daughter." Comrade Xiao Ji raised his head. "Didn't he say that he killed to vent his anger because his daughter had been bullied... I think this might be a good starting point."
Tan Li nodded without comment, raised her finger, and wanted to ask Guan Ye to check the information of Ma Guoqiang's daughter.
Lu Zheng, who had disappeared at some point, had already taken out a notebook from his bag on the table, opened it, and handed it over with both hands.
Tan Li raised an eyebrow and her eyes fell on the page - that was the information that Lu Zheng and Ji Yinhe had written down in the personnel department of the Chinese medicine factory today.
"Hmm... Ma Guoqiang's daughter is called Ma Meifeng. She works at a small shop near the Chinese medicine factory. I can certainly ask her about this."
Tan Li closed the notebook and glanced around at everyone's anxious gaze.
"Old Zhao, Gao Ge, you two stay here and continue interrogating Ma Guoqiang... Xiao Ji, Teacher Lu, come with me to find Ma Meifeng!"
*
The night was gradually deepening. The long moon was high in the sky, illuminating the empty street. Only a dim yellow light was hanging at the door of the small shop at the corner of the alley.
It was closing time, and Ma Meifeng, sitting in a wheelchair, held the counter with one hand and turned the wheel with the other, and moved out from behind the counter.
The police car stopped quietly not far away.
There was no one on the road at this moment. Ma Meifeng raised her eyes in confusion and looked at the three people who got out of the car.
Tan Li took the lead. Seeing that the little girl was young and was guarding the store alone until late at night, she couldn't help but soften her tone.
"Ma Meifeng, we're from the Handong Provincial Department's crackdown team." She squatted down and showed him her ID. "Your father, Ma Guoqiang, is suspected of a serious murder and has been taken into custody."
Ma Meifeng was startled. She slapped the wheelchair handle and tried to jump up, but she stumbled and fell back down, yelling, "Officer, my dad couldn't possibly kill anyone!"
Generally speaking, the murderer's family members are unwilling to face reality, and their first reaction is denial.
However, considering that Ma Guoqiang was taking the blame for someone else, Ji Yinhe felt a little relieved.
It seems that Ma Meifeng is unaware of the situation, which would be a good entry point.
Tan Li patted the little girl's hand tenderly, "Can you tell us why it's impossible for your father to kill someone?"
"Officer, are you talking about... the serial murder and dismemberment case?" Ma Meifeng's tears fell. "Those bodies were all found in the early morning, which means the murderer committed the crime in the middle of the night, right? But my dad is at home with me every night... So it absolutely, absolutely couldn't be him!"
"...But you are Ma Guoqiang's daughter. Your testimony cannot be used directly as proof of innocence." Tan Li said coldly.
Ma Meifeng lowered her head and shook her head with a sigh.
"Officer, my dad is such a good man. You should know about him being expelled from the mental hospital... That day, I heard from a neighbor that he knelt in front of the director and begged, and was even kicked by a patient's family. I was so scared that I ran to the hospital to find him, but unexpectedly, he was crushed by a truck while crossing the road and broke both his legs..."
"Later, not only did my dad lose his job and have to pay compensation to the patient's family, he also had to find a way to get me medical treatment and prosthetic limbs... And my mom, she's long gone. We were really, really short of money. My dad worked four jobs and even made bamboo baskets at home at night so I could take them to the store during the day..."
Ma Meifeng pointed to a stack of bamboo baskets behind the glass counter and asked, "Officer, he always says he needs to save money to buy me a prosthetic limb. What good does it do him to kill people?"
Tan Li sighed, "But your father has indeed taken responsibility for this case... Perhaps it was just for the money, to give you a better future."
Ma Meifeng screamed at the top of her lungs, "No, it's impossible! He won't leave me alone!"
Tan Li held the little girl's trembling shoulders, and Ji Yinhe grabbed her cold hand and took over the conversation.
"Meifeng, we understand your perspective, and... I also believe your father is innocent." She tried to keep her tone gentle, trying to calm Ma Meifeng's agitation. "But he's insisting on confessing his guilt and refuses to reveal the real culprit... If you want to prove your father's innocence, why not help us, the police, think about who he's taking the blame for?"
"..." Ma Meifeng looked at the ground in a daze, and after a while she said, "I'm afraid... I can't think of it..."
Ji Yinhe changed his mind and asked, "Think about it... In the past six months, has anyone been in frequent contact with your father?"
Ma Meifeng thought for a long time, expressionless: "No."
Tan Li was a little anxious. She stood up and put her hands on her hips and said, "Forget it, it's so late. Let's go back to the provincial department first and try Ma Guoqiang again tomorrow."
"……All right."
Ji Yinhe had no better idea at the moment, so he could only help the little girl close the door of the convenience store and pull out the incandescent lamp on the window sill.
Tan Li had already gotten into the police car, and Lu Zheng was standing a few steps away waiting for her. Ji Yinhe watched the little girl go home in her wheelchair. After thinking for a while, he took out a notebook from his bag, wrote a few words on a page, and hurriedly chased after her.
"...This is the number of the provincial department's crackdown team. If you have anything you want to tell us, please call me as soon as possible." Ji Yinhe warned in a deep voice, "This case is serious and has a huge impact. Your father has already confessed to the crime. Although the physical evidence is not sufficient, if we can't catch a stronger suspect, we will have to close the case as soon as possible and transfer the file to the procuratorate. Do you understand me?"
Ma Meifeng opened her eyes wide and nodded, not quite understanding what she was saying.
Ji Yinhe sighed, "I will try my best to help you delay time... If you can remember anything, even just a little bit, we will follow the direction and investigate."
Ma Meifeng bit his lower lip. "Anything is fine? Even if it's not so conclusive..."
Comrade Xiao Ji gave the little girl an affirmative nod.
"...Okay." Ma Meifeng held her neck in her mouth and hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Around Chinese New Year, a man came to see my dad with some late-night snacks like barbecue skewers. He only came three times, not a lot, but they always chatted in the living room. My dad would close my door, and I couldn't understand what they were talking about... One night, he and my dad talked for a long time. I got up in the middle of the night to get some water, and he wasn't gone yet!... A few days later, I heard that body parts were found in Tongrong River Park."
Lu Zheng, who had been paying attention to Ji Yinhe's movements, heard the last half of the sentence and walked over quickly to ask, "Do you still remember that person's name?"
Ma Meifeng shook her head and said, "I don't know either. He's a middle-aged man, maybe, a little younger than my dad... If I had to say, my dad called him Yuanzi."
"Yuanzi... is it as far as far?"
Ma Meifeng: "I'm not quite sure about that..."
However, this clue still made Ji Yinhe very happy. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, and she discussed with Lu Zheng: "Maybe this person's name contains the word 'far'?"
Lu Zheng nodded, "Very likely."
After saying goodbye to Ma Meifeng, Ji Yinhe couldn't wait to get in the car and told Tan Li about the situation as soon as possible.
With an affirmative look from the team leader, the police car roared away.
After returning to the provincial department, Ji Yinhe trotted into the office and took out the list he had received from the Chinese medicine factory in the morning.
After a few seconds, she looked up at Tan Li who walked in quickly and said in a trembling voice:
"——Zhou Mingyuan."
Tan Li: "Hmm?"
Comrade Xiao Ji excitedly slapped the notebook in his hand and shouted, "Among the people at the Chinese Medicine Factory who fit the profile, Ma Guoqiang's workshop director is Zhou Mingyuan!"
*
The night fell heavily on the gradually falling asleep land of Jingzhou. The vast sky was boundless, with only a crescent moon shrouded in a hazy halo.
The whistling sound of the whistle broke the silence.
A police car stopped at the gate of the Chinese medicine factory’s staff quarters. More than a dozen policemen got out of the car and headed straight for a three-story red brick building.
A moment later, the agile female captain returned to the car with a group of police officers, looking frustrated.
The police car stopped for a moment, then turned around and left.
At the same time, on the seventh floor of the Third People's Hospital of the city, several buildings away.
The flickering red and blue lights finally disappeared from view. Zhou Mingyuan, standing by the window, withdrew his gaze, gripped the dagger in his hand, and turned to the bed in the corner with the nameplate "Zhou Dawei" on it.
Amid the "beep-beep" sound of the testing instrument, the old man was sleeping soundly, completely unaware of everything around him.
With a flash of cold light, Zhou Mingyuan stopped in front of the bed, turned the dagger, and stuffed it into the briefcase on the bedside table.
He stared at the old face in the moonlight and whispered softly, "Dad, I said, I will never become a person like you..."
The sound of the testing equipment accelerated rapidly. The old man on the bed struggled to wake up and cursed, "Bastard, bastard!"
Zhou Mingyuan just laughed, said something lightly, and strode away with his bag.
"Let's go, there's only one left... the last one!"
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