Chapter 261 We Are Not Wrong
Shi Tao's words instantly attracted everyone's curious gaze, and they couldn't help but come over to take a look.
What he slapped on the table was an attendance sheet in an evidence bag, with March written in the month column.
But this attendance sheet was not from Yao Fenfang, but from a person with an unknown name called Jiang Guihua.
"Captain Shi, did you take the wrong one?" Zhou Yi asked.
Shi Tao raised an eyebrow and said, "Take a look at Yao Fenfang's attendance sheet for March from yesterday."
Zhou Yi did as he was told and put the two attendance sheets in the evidence bag together. A group of people gathered around to find the secret, while Shi Tao showed off on the side.
"Captain Shi, just tell me straight. These are just two attendance sheets, there's nothing wrong with them."
"Look again, look again." Shi Tao said with a smile.
Zhou Yi carefully compared the check-in records on March 1st.
This type of attendance sheet uses a card attendance machine. You insert the rectangular attendance sheet into the opening of the machine, and the machine will print the time on the card based on the time on the dial using the corresponding roller timetable inside. It was the most common attendance machine in the 1990s.
After adjustment, the accuracy is very high, and the machine will automatically match the date and commuting location without any mistakes.
The disadvantage is that it is easy for someone to punch in for you, because the card is not carried with you, but a unified card with your personal name written on it, which is placed next to the machine. When you go to and from get off work, you just need to find your own card to punch in.
This was also the reason why Qiao Jiali suspected that someone was punching in for her.
Zhou Yi discovered that Yao Fenfang No. 1 was on the night shift that day and clocked in at 8:00 sharp.
Since the machine can be accurate to the second, the time displayed on the card is 20:00:16.
Jiang Guihua works the day shift and gets off work at 20:00:11.
In other words, the punching time of the two cards differed by only five seconds, and basically one card was punched in after the other, because the attendance machine takes time to punch and insert the card.
Zhou Yi scratched his chin and said, "Captain Shi, could it be that on March 1st, these two cards were played by the same person?"
Shi Tao was slightly startled, "Go on."
"Judging from the time they punched in, it's basically a seamless transition. It's possible they bumped into each other on their way to and from work, but you definitely wouldn't bring that person back, Captain Shi. It could only be the same person punching in, either Yao Fenfang or this Jiang Guihua. Regardless of who it was, it means one of them covered for the other."
"However, when we interrogated Yao Fenfang, she only said that she had asked Tang Xue for leave on Friday. She didn't say that she had someone else cover for her that day."
"What we learned from the class teacher proves that Yao Fenfang lied about Tang Xue's leave request. The leave wasn't requested that day, but was made up on Monday, the weekend after."
"Why would Yao Fenfang lie about asking for leave? If she was so stressed out the night before from murder and dismemberment at home that she forgot to ask for leave the next day and then made up for it later, that would make sense. But during the interrogation, when she was able to clearly and in detail recount the entire crime, she chose to lie about asking for leave. That's a bit of an attempt to cover up something."
"Why didn't she say she made it up on Monday? Because she felt guilty, because she wasn't at home on Friday! She couldn't possibly ask Tang Xue for leave on Friday! She was afraid we would question her and expose her flaws."
Everyone was attracted by Zhou Yi's analysis and stopped staring at the attendance sheet on the table. Instead, they stared at Zhou Yi.
"Not only that, the birth date is not February 28th, but March 1st."
Someone couldn't help but ask: "Why?"
"If Yao Fenfang delivered her daughter at home on the first night, then killed and dismembered her body, and then, after a night of tossing and turning, didn't stay home to care for her daughter the next day when she was extremely weak, but instead went to cover for someone else, working 24 hours straight, would she have risked her life for a little money? Does this match the care she showed for her daughter?"
"That makes sense." Everyone nodded. After tossing and turning all night like this, not only the body is exhausted, but also the mind is highly tense. If a normal person continues to work for another day and night, he or she simply cannot endure it.
"I hadn't figured out the problem here before, but the two attendance sheets Captain Shi brought back gave me the answer. On March 1st, Yao Fenfang filled in for Jiang Guihua, working the day shift and then the night shift, so she needed to punch in twice at exactly 8 a.m. The next morning, after returning home from get off work, she noticed something was wrong with Tang Xue and subsequently confirmed that she had given birth and murdered the child. In order to take the blame for Tang Xue's crime and take all the responsibility on herself, she falsified the date of the birth to the previous night, so that the timeline would make sense."
"Tang Xue skipped school on March 1st, likely due to physical discomfort caused by her impending labor. She then gave birth to the child at home alone and committed the murder and dismemberment. When Yao Fenfang learned she didn't attend school on Friday, she worried she wouldn't be able to explain herself during the investigation. So, when she dropped Tang Xue off at school on Monday, she personally asked for leave from the teacher. During the interrogation, she emphasized that she had asked for leave that day, but avoided mentioning her own covering shift, precisely to avoid arousing our suspicions."
Zhou Yi gave Shi Tao a thumbs-up and said, "It took a veteran like Captain Shi to figure this out. He spotted the clue from just one attendance sheet. If it were me, I would have definitely overlooked the attendance sheet of someone unrelated."
"Captain Shi, awesome! I have to learn from you."
As Zhou Yi praised him, everyone looked at Shi Tao with admiration.
Shi Tao said modestly: Not at all.
But I was wondering in my heart why I didn’t seem to feel as good as when I slammed the attendance sheet on the table just now.
"Captain Shi, have you confirmed with Jiang Guihua about the substitute shift?" Zhou Yi asked.
Shi Tao nodded. He didn't find out through an attendance sheet. If it was really as Zhou Yi said, he should have found out when he was looking through the attendance sheet last night.
He thought of this possibility when he went to the plastic factory with Gu Changhai today to find out the situation. He heard from his coworkers that Yao Fenfang worked very hard and sometimes covered for others.
After checking, I found out that I had indeed covered for someone else on March 1st, and then I checked the attendance record.
Shi Tao boasted that he was very perceptive and could discover such things.
I wanted to pretend, but ended up looking like I was helping Zhou Yi.
However, at this time, he had already been promoted by Zhou Yi, and if he came down, he would lose face, so he could only pretend to be stupid.
Anyway, no one except Gu Changhai knows the details.
"But Zhou Yi, you are wrong about one thing. Yao Fenfang was not filling in for Jiang Guihua, but buying the shift," said Shi Tao.
"Buy a class? What does that mean?" Zhou Yi asked.
"The factory has a perfect attendance bonus, so taking leave is disadvantageous. So, workers usually either swap shifts with each other or add a small amount to their regular wages to buy someone else's shift. Yao Fenfang is very concerned about her income, and she's one of those people who's often asked by her coworkers to buy her shifts. We took a statement from Jiang Guihua, and she confirmed that she had something going on at home that day, so she asked Yao Fenfang to buy her shift, and that she had agreed to that arrangement the day before."
Zhou Yi suddenly realized: "So that's how it is. I've learned a lot."
How could Zhou Yi not know about this? His family were all steel mill workers, and he had known about this kind of thing since he was in elementary school.
It's nothing more than pretending to be stupid to make Shi Tao less noticeable.
"Zhou Yi, with this attendance sheet and Jiang Guihua's transcript, can we expose Yao Fenfang's lies?" someone asked.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi shook his head: "Not enough!"
"Not enough? This is at least enough to re-examine her," said Shi Tao.
"Yes, we can use this as an opening for a retrial. But this isn't direct evidence, and it can't prove the crime was committed on March 1st. Yao Fenfang can only admit she lied or misremembered," Zhou Yi said sharply. "You have to understand that if a mother is determined to take the blame for her daughter, all interrogation techniques will be in vain."
"We must produce irrefutable evidence!"
The originally high morale of the crowd was inevitably hit again.
Someone curled his lips and said, "Then this... clue was all in vain."
Zhou Yi quickly said, "No, this clue is very useful. At least from our perspective, it helps us determine the direction of our investigation. What are we still investigating for? Isn't it just to find out the truth and bring justice to that child who was murdered at birth?"
"If everyone really just wanted to close the case quickly, it could have been closed yesterday. After all, Yao Fenfang confessed everything."
"So, Team Shi, this clue is crucial because it tells us that we're on the right track! We're not wrong!"
Zhou Yi's words instantly boosted the originally low morale. Even Shi Tao was excited by what he said and nodded vigorously, saying, "Yes, we are heading in the right direction!"
"Then Zhou Yi, what do you think we should do next? We'll listen to you!" He Bin said.
"Yes, we..." Shi Tao suddenly realized. Huh? Who is your captain?
Zhou Yi said that the key now is to prove that Tang Xue was not born on February 28th.
However, there was no autopsy to prove the time of death of the deceased, and the medical examination could only confirm that Tang Xue had given birth to a child. There was no physical evidence such as video to prove it.
The only way to have a chance is to have witnesses!
As long as someone can prove that they had seen Tang Xue on March 1st, the lie fabricated by Yao Fenfang would be self-defeating.
Because she said that Tang Xue didn't know about the process of her killing and dismembering the body, because Tang Xue was seriously injured after giving birth and had been in a coma for a long time.
Under normal circumstances, a woman who has given birth naturally can only get out of bed and move around properly after one day, and should avoid going out. This is basic common sense.
Therefore, if anyone saw Tang Xue outside on March 1st, it would prove that she had not given birth yet!
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