Chapter 44 Rope Murder Case (6) Suspected of Framing...
Following the clues provided by the hot pot restaurant owner, several people found the butcher. This man was called Hu Maoshan. He was big and strong, with a wide face and a full beard. He was also much stronger than ordinary people. When several people arrived at his door, he was killing a pig. The pig was tied tightly to the table with a rope. Hu Maoshan held a sharp knife in his hand and stabbed it at the pig's neck. The pig let out a shrill scream. Then Hu Maoshan pulled out the knife, and the pig's blood gushed out. Hu Maoshan hurriedly got a basin to catch the blood.
When Sang Luo saw the wound on the pig's neck, she suddenly thought of how Lan Jianguo died. She and several colleagues looked at each other and felt that the person in front of them might be the real murderer.
Ma Shi Tu stepped forward and revealed his identity, asking Hu Maoshan to cooperate with the investigation. Hu Maoshan, with a cigarette between his lips, cursed a few times under his breath, but still did not dare to confront the police. He obediently put down the work in his hands, stood under the eaves with his hands behind his back. Several people from Team 3 put on gloves and conducted a simple search in the yard.
When Hu Maoshan slaughtered pigs, he needed to use ropes to tie them up. In addition to the rope on the table, the police also found three other hemp ropes in the yard. One of them was exactly the same as the murder weapon used to kill Lan Jianguo. It was also stained with old blood and lard, and the thickness was also the same.
Yuan Xiaohu took out the hemp rope from the first case and carefully compared the two ends of the two ropes. He found that the broken ends of the two ropes were extremely similar and could almost be completely spliced together. It was basically certain that the hemp rope used to kill Lan Jianguo was cut from this hemp rope.
After confirming this, the four men immediately handcuffed Hu Maoshan. Hu Maoshan looked panicked, as if he had no idea what was going on. He spit out the cigarette in his mouth and started shouting at the top of his voice:
"Help! The police are wrongly accusing me! I am a good person, why are you wrongly accusing me?"
"Hu Maoshan, we now suspect that you are involved in a murder that occurred on the 8th. Please come back to the bureau and cooperate with our investigation."
Ma Shi Tu said this simply, and then ignored his shouting and escorted him into the police car.
In the yard, the pigs that were not yet dead were making gurgling sounds, and blood was all over the table and quickly flowed down the table to the ground.
Even when he sat in the interrogation room, Hu Maoshan was still confused and kept repeating the same two sentences: "You wrongly accused a good person, I'm going to go out and sue you!"
Ma Shi Tu recounted the case: "On the morning of the 8th, a resident found a 50-year-old man named Lan Jianguo dead in Suzhai Lane. The cause of death was a cut on the neck and excessive blood loss. It was this rope that caused his death—"
Ma Shi Tu took out two ropes and said, "This is the rope that killed him that night, and this is the rope found in your yard. The cuts on the two ropes are the same, and they match up perfectly. In other words, the murder weapon was cut from the rope in your house. How do you explain this?"
Hu Maoshan frowned, "What should I explain? Officer, I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't even know the man you mentioned, and I don't know what the case is. It's just a piece of rope. What does it prove? There are so many ropes like this. Can just one piece of rope prove that I did it?"
Ma Shi Tu patiently explained, "Aged pig blood and lard were found on the murder weapon, and the thickness is the same as the rope in your house. Various evidences indicate that this rope is related to you."
Hu Maoshan blew his beard and glared: "Pig blood? Does the presence of pig blood prove that it was me? There are many butchers in the county, why don't you check others? Am I the only butcher in such a big Baiyun County?"
"But the cuts on these two ropes are the same," Ma Shi Tu emphasized, "which means that the murder weapon was cut from the rope in your house. This matter is definitely related to you."
Hu Maoshan opened his mouth wide and shouted without caring about anything: "I don't know, anyway, it wasn't me, I don't know anything! You are wronging me!"
"Do you know this person?" Ma Shi Tu glanced at Sang Luo. Sang Luo hurriedly took out a photo of Lan Jianguo and handed it to Hu Maoshan for him to identify it carefully.
Hu Maoshan looked at him for a while and shook his head in confusion: "It seems... I don't have any impression of him. Who is this person? Officer, please forgive me. I don't know this person at all. This matter has nothing to do with me!"
Hu Maoshan knew nothing about anything and refused to admit anything. Seeing his behavior, Ma Shi Tu had to suspend the interrogation. Since he refused to say anything, he decided to change the approach. They went back to the hot pot restaurant and asked the boss to help find the drinking buddies who often drank with Hu Maoshan, and then started interrogating them.
This group of people were obviously drinking buddies. When something happened, they immediately distanced themselves from each other. When they heard that Hu Maoshan was involved in a murder case, they all claimed that they didn't know Hu Maoshan. Among them, there was a man named Wu Li who actually gave Hu Maoshan away. When he saw Lan Jianguo's photo, he said:
"We know him! He's from the hot pot restaurant in the west of the city. He's a rag picker. He has no money to eat, and he always stares at us through the glass. Later, one time when we got drunk, we let him in and he ate with us at the table."
"Hu Maoshan was also at the dinner table that day. He looked down on the rag picker and thought he was poorly dressed. He kept mocking him, saying that he was born to be poor and that his ancestors would be poor for eight generations and that he was born to be a stepping stone for others."
Ma Shi Tu frowned: "They had a dispute over this?"
Wu Li shook his head: "They had an argument that night, but it didn't seem to be because of this, but because of the following few words. What else did they say later... Let me think..."
After a while, he slapped his head and said, "I remember now. This is what happened—"
As he spoke, he replayed the scene at that time for a few people:
Hu Maoshan kept making fun of him, and his friends were not good people either, so no one tried to stop him. Lan Jianguo didn't say anything at first, but just ate his own food with the bowl in his hand. After all, he was a man who ate his food, so he couldn't help but say this. But later, perhaps because he couldn't stand the insult, he slowly said:
"Don't look down on me. Even though I eat and wear shabby clothes, I have a treasure in my hand. As long as I have this treasure, I will live a more comfortable life than anyone else in the second half of my life. You can envy me as much as you want."
After hearing this, Hu Maoshan suddenly became competitive. He was a butcher and sold pork, and he usually made the most money among his friends. He also treated everyone to meals, and everyone praised him. No one dared to talk to him like that. He grabbed Lan Jianguo by the collar and cursed him in the face:
"I'll fuck your whole family! You dare to act cool in front of me? Today you must take out this treasure of yours and let me see it. If you can't take it out, I'll fuck your whole family and even dig up your ancestral graves!"
But no matter what he said, Lan Jianguo remained unmoved and just kept repeating, "You can't show this kind of stuff to people." This made Hu Maoshan angry. He thought that Lan Jianguo was making fun of him. In addition, he was drunk, so Hu Maoshan became even more daring. He beat Lan Jianguo and threw him on the street. He probably thought that this rag picker would not dare to call the police. Later, as he expected, no one came to his door and the matter just passed.
After interrogating Wu Li, Hu Maoshan's suspicion of committing the crime increased greatly. He had a conflict with Lan Jianguo and had a motive for committing the crime. The murder weapon was also taken from his home. He was also a butcher with a strong psychological quality and had all the conditions to commit the crime.
After lunch, Hu Maoshan was taken to the interrogation room again. When he heard Wu Li confess that he had a dispute with Lan Jianguo, Hu Maoshan looked puzzled:
"Has this ever happened? How come I have no recollection of it? Officer, you need to be clear, this bastard is wrongly accusing me!"
Ma Shi Tu said, "He is not the only one who said that. After listening to Wu Li's confession, we asked several of your other drinking buddies, and their confessions were the same as Wu Li's. We also asked the hot pot restaurant owner, and he said the same thing. You did have an argument with Lan Jianguo. Hu Maoshan, why did you lie to the police?!"
"F*ck, these bastards, they usually eat and drink at my expense, but when something happens, they push me out. When I get out, they'll come looking for them one by one!" Hu Maoshan cursed in a low voice, then said with a smile, "Officer, I didn't hide it on purpose. I'm a well-known dog-brained person. I can't remember anything I did after drinking. When I wake up the next morning, my mind is blank. You mentioned Lan Jianguo, I really don't have any impression of him at all!"
Ma Shi Tu ignored his words. He had been a criminal police officer for so long and had seen many people like him. He cleared his throat and asked directly to the point: "After 6pm on the 7th, where were you, what were you doing, and who were you with?"
The murderer must have hung up the rope after dark on the night of the 7th, otherwise someone might have seen it and taken it down in advance. It is dark at six o'clock, so the police judged that the murderer committed the crime between six and eleven o'clock in the evening.
“Hiss—” Hu Maoshan grinned, lowered his head and began to recall, “I’ve already said that I have a dog’s brain and can’t remember anything. You asked about what happened two days ago. Well, let me think about it… ah, I remember it now!”
Hu Maoshan said excitedly: "I was at home on the night of the 7th. I stayed at home all night and didn't go out! The thing is, my pork is usually sold to the stalls in the vegetable market after it is slaughtered. I go out to deliver pork once every morning, and then go to the nearby rural areas to collect live pigs in the afternoon. It's around 5 or 6 o'clock."
"At around 5 or 6 p.m. on the 7th, I came back from the countryside to collect pigs and rode my electric tricycle back home. When I reached a bend, I made a sharp turn and someone had left a lot of gravel on the ground. The bike jolted and I fell off. My butt hit the rocks and got a big scratch. My pants were stained with blood. I had planned to drink with them that night, but after this incident, I didn't go. I stayed in bed all night and felt better the next day."
"Who were you with that night? Is there anyone who can testify for you?" Ma Shi Tu asked.
Hu Maoshan immediately said, "Yes! My daughter can testify for me. She was the one who took care of me at home that night!"
Sang Luo noticed this information and asked, "How old is your daughter?"
Hu Maoshan thought for a moment before saying, "She seemed to be seventeen... or eighteen? Never mind, it's not important. Anyway, she was in high school. I fell and hurt my butt that day, so I called her back from school and asked her to buy medicine for me and cook dinner for me. If you don't believe me, go ask her!"
Ma Shi Tu told him seriously: "If your relatives can't prove your alibi, is there anyone else?"
Hu Maoshan was stunned: "Why can't my relatives? I clearly fell and hurt myself that night, why didn't you let my daughter come to prove it? Without other witnesses, who else can take care of me if I fell and hurt my butt?"
"Where is your wife? Have any friends come to visit you?" Ma Shi Tu asked.
Hu Maoshan had a bitter look on his face. "Oh, she died a long time ago, that short-lived ghost, leaving me a money-losing thing to raise. If it weren't for this encumbrance, I would have found a new wife a long time ago! Forget about that. On the night of the 7th, my friends didn't come to see me. Officer, you know their morals. They are all ruthless and have no humanity at all. How could they possibly come to visit me?"
Ma Shi Tu concluded: "In this case, your alibi is invalid and we can assume that you did not have an alibi on the night of the crime."
Hu Maoshan panicked when he heard this and shouted, "You are unreasonable! It clearly happened, why is it invalid? If you don't believe my daughter, then come and see my wound. Come on, come on, I'll take off my pants and show you!"
Before the master and the disciple could react, Hu Maoshan took off his pants, revealing his white buttocks and showing them to the two of them. There were indeed many scabbed scars on his buttocks, and it looked like the injuries were quite serious.
"Put on your pants!" Ma Shi Tu ordered him. "These scars could have been caused after you committed the crime. In short, without other witnesses, your alibi is invalid."
"Oh, why can't I explain it clearly?" Hu Maoshan pulled up his pants and wailed loudly, "Anyway, I am wronged. It's wronged! It's wronged!"
Seeing that no useful information could be obtained from Hu Maoshan, Ma Shi Tu ended the interrogation. The few of them returned to the office and began to discuss the existing information.
"This Hu Maoshan must be lying. He rarely tells the truth. There's no way he can escape the truth. He is the murderer!" Yuan Xiaohu said decisively.
"But..." Xie Ling'er said hesitantly, "It's a little irrational. Think about it, Lan Jianguo talked back at the table that night, and Hu Maoshan felt that he was insulted, so he beat Lan Jianguo up. He vented his anger on the spot, so there was no need to murder Lan Jianguo later."
"It's very likely for money," Ma Shi Tu touched the thermos cup. "Lan Jianguo said he has a treasure that will last him the rest of his life, which means the treasure must be worth a lot. Although Hu Maoshan usually makes a lot of money, who doesn't want to make a fortune?"
"Hu Maoshan wasn't the only one who heard these words at the dinner table that night," Sang Luo emphasized. "Others are also suspects. It's possible that they stole the rope from Hu Maoshan's house and then hung Lan Jianguo in the alley to kill him, and then put the blame on Hu Maoshan."
Sang Luo's statement attracted everyone's attention. Although this possibility is very small, in order to pursue the truth, the police should try to rule out every possibility. After all, no hard evidence such as fingerprints was found at the scene, and the only evidence was a rope. It is very easy to use a rope to frame others.
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