Chapter 40 Rope Murder Case (2) Inevitability or Accident...
After Mother Qiao finished speaking, Ma Shi Tu thanked her and then took the three of them to Shuangjiang Street. After asking the neighbors, they finally learned that the victim's name was Lan Jianguo and that he lived at No. 17 Shuangjiang Street. He had a daughter named Lan Yue who attended Baiyun County No. 3 High School.
Sang Luo looked at the house where the victim lived through the window. It was a very old bungalow, but it was very large. In addition to the living room, there were several bedrooms. It was probably used by Lan Jianguo to store waste.
The group rushed to Baiyun County No. 3 High School. There were a few kids squatting at the door smoking. They were obviously bad students. Ma Shi Tu honked the horn to disperse them. Several people got off the car and walked into the campus. They found Lan Yue's class, called her out alone, and told her the unfortunate news in the corridor.
The moment she heard the news, Lan Yue opened her eyes wide and stared at Ma Shi Tu, as if she was bewitched. She didn't say a word and the others didn't dare to say anything more. There was silence all around. About half a minute later, her eyes rolled back and she fell backwards in a daze, falling directly into Sang Luo's arms.
Sang Luo caught the person in time, and several people drove her to the hospital. The doctor judged that she had fainted due to fright and arranged for her to be hospitalized. Xie Ling'er stayed in the hospital to accompany her, and the remaining three continued their investigation.
In the car, none of the three spoke and the atmosphere was a bit depressing. Sang Luo silently analyzed the case in his mind. The crime scene was a remote alley where few people walked. Based on the traces at the scene, it can be judged that no one else passed by that night except Lan Jianguo, so there were no witnesses in this case and there was no surveillance at the scene. The only clue the police had was the rope.
The surface of the rope is rough and fingerprints cannot be detected on it, so we can only hope to detect useful biological samples on the rope.
The three drove back to the police station. Ma Shi Tu made the next work arrangements. Yuan Xiaohu would drive the rope to the municipal bureau for testing, and Sang Luo and he would be responsible for investigating the victim's interpersonal relationships.
After having lunch at the company, Yuan Xiaohu drove away. He left in the afternoon and would not be back until tomorrow morning at the earliest.
The forensic doctor issued an autopsy report, the results of which showed that Lan Jianguo died from excessive blood loss due to a cut in his carotid artery. No other abnormalities were found on his body.
Ma Shi Tu took Sang Luo back to Shuangjiang Street and officially began to visit and investigate the neighbors. According to the neighbors, Lan Jianguo was a man of few words and seldom greeted people. However, he liked children and was especially friendly to them. He often carried candies in his pocket and gave them to passing children. Most of the children did not look kindly to him, but he did not mind.
In addition, he goes out early and comes back late, and rarely meets his neighbors. Most of his neighbors have never spoken to him and don't know much about his personal situation.
After visiting the neighbors, Ma Shi Tu took out Lan Jianguo's mobile phone, opened his address book, wrote down the recent calls, and then dialed them with his own mobile phone. These people were all Lan Jianguo's customers. When they had waste to sell at home, they would call Lan Jianguo, and Lan Jianguo would rush over on his electric tricycle.
Ma Shi Tu began to take Sang Luo to visit these customers. Most of them said that Lan Jianguo was an honest man of few words, and that the price of recycling waste was fair and he would never cheat on the weight. However, they didn't know much about Lan Jianguo's private life.
There was only one family that was an exception. The hostess of this family was a chatterbox. She grabbed Ma Shi Tu and said a lot:
"Oh, this uncle is a good man! You don't know, I once asked him to sell old books, and sold all the old books in the cabinet. But after a while, he came back, knocked on my door, handed me 20 yuan, and said he found it in the book. Then I knew that my wife had been hiding some private money behind my back!"
"Tell me, twenty yuan! How much food can I buy with this? If he hadn't returned the money on his own initiative, I wouldn't have known about it! If the money was lost, we would have had another fight when my husband got home from get off work! It's all thanks to this uncle. He himself is not rich, but he still returned the money. What a good man!"
Ma Shi Tu took note of this and left with Sang Luo. The last place they were going to was the garbage recycling station in Baiyun County. All the waste that Lan Jianguo received in a day would be sold here. The owner of the waste recycling station was named Zhao. He had dealt with Ma Shi Tu before because of other cases. When they met this time, they recognized each other at once.
"Officer Ma!" Boss Zhao came up to him with a smile and a warm attitude. "What brings you here? Another case?"
Ma Shi Tu shook hands with him and took out Lan Jianguo's photo. When Boss Zhao saw his photo, he recognized him at a glance:
"Hey, isn't this Jianguo? He often comes to my place. What happened? Did he commit a crime?"
"He was killed," Ma Shi Tu said seriously, "I came to you to see if there are any clues."
Upon hearing this, Boss Zhao sighed: "Oh, what a miserable life! He is working in the lowest level of the industry, and he has endless suffering every day. And there are people who want to kill him. Oh, how inhumane!"
"What do you think of his personality?" Ma Shi Tu asked the usual question.
Boss Zhao thought for a moment and said, "He is an honest and dull person. His life is so hard that he is reluctant to spend any money he earns. He insists on saving it, saying that it will be used for his daughter's college education in the future. But now that he is gone, all the money has been left to his daughter. He didn't get to enjoy any of the happiness at all! What a loss!"
Ma Shi Tu: "Do you know he has a daughter?"
Boss Zhao waved his hand and said, "Of course. He always comes here, and we got to know each other. It's inevitable that we talked a little more. He used to be from Qiaomai Village, and he used to farm in the village. Later, he had a daughter, so he moved to the county town for her schooling. He was a farmer, and couldn't find a job, so he had to work as a rag collector. But he was hardworking and willing to work hard, so he was able to support himself and his daughter."
"What about his wife? Did she get divorced or passed away?" Ma Shi Tu asked, while Sang Luo quickly recorded the notes.
Boss Zhao smacked his lips. "I don't know. I've never heard him mention his wife, and I haven't asked. For a poor farmer like him, his wife usually runs away with someone else and leaves the child for him to raise. If I ask this, wouldn't that be deliberately poking at someone's sore spot?"
At this point, Boss Zhao sighed, "This father and daughter are so pitiful. They depend on each other for survival and have a hard life. They can't even afford meat. Now Jianguo is gone, what will happen to his daughter in the future? She doesn't know if she can go to school. No matter who did this, this person is so bad that he ruined the lives of two people in one go. If I were Jianguo, I would go after him even if I turned into a ghost!"
Boss Zhao was getting angrier and angrier, so Ma Shi Tu took the opportunity to ask, "Do you have any suspects?"
Boss Zhao was horrified: "Hey, Officer Ma, you can't say that. This is a murder suspicion. How can I put it on someone else?"
"As far as you know, does Lan Jianguo have any enemies with anyone?" Ma Shi Tu asked in a different way.
Boss Zhao shook his head decisively: "No, officer, you haven't seen him. If you see him, you will understand. He has a soft personality. Anyone can bully him. Even if you hit him, he won't fight back. Who can make an enemy of such a person?"
Seeing that he could not get any information from the interpersonal relationship aspect, Ma Shi Tu started asking about the working hours of the scrap recycling station. He then learned that it opened at eight in the morning and closed at ten in the evening. Most scrap sellers would come here around six or seven in the evening to unload a truckload of scrap. Lan Jianguo came later than ordinary people. He always wanted to collect more, so he always came when the recycling station was about to close. Sometimes, if he missed the closing time, he would take the scrap home first and come back to sell it the next morning.
Sang Luo nodded, and had Lan Jianguo's movements in his mind - he went out early every morning, worked outside all day, usually sold the waste in his car at ten o'clock in the evening, and then went home to sleep. On the day of the incident, he probably worked too late and missed the closing time of the recycling station, so he rushed home with a full car of waste.
This made Sang Luo wonder: Is Suzhai Lane the only way for Lan Jianguo to go home every day? Was it inevitable or accidental that he bumped into the rope?
After Lan Yue wakes up, Sang Luo plans to ask her.
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