Chapter 410 Basement
Qiu Zhiyong was, after all, a veteran with rich experience in on-site investigations. During the investigation, he discovered some clues.
It’s just that the location of the floor-standing clothes hanger is a bit abrupt.
It is located between the end of the bed and the wardrobe. Although it is against the wall, it will block the wardrobe door.
The problem is that there are not many furnishings in this room and the layout is very empty. There is no need to put a floor-standing clothes rack in such a place.
So he started checking his closets and clothes racks, suspecting something was hidden inside.
But nothing was found.
Just when he thought he was overthinking it, he suddenly realized that the floor tiles under his feet felt a little weird.
There is a slight feeling of looseness.
After some searching, he discovered that the floor tile where the clothes hanger was originally placed was loose.
And it feels heavy when you open it.
This floor tile is attached to a metal cellar entrance that opens upwards.
Everyone gathered around the dark cellar entrance, shocked.
What kind of good person would dig a basement at home and hide the entrance so well?
You can see that there is a ladder at the entrance to climb down.
Zhou Yi volunteered to climb down first with a flashlight. He really wanted to find out what kind of person Xiao Bing was.
I originally thought he was an upright and good person, but now I find more and more problems with him.
Is he really the perverted murderer in the grand case?
Zhou Yi climbed down a few steps and reached the bottom.
The actual depth of this cellar was not very deep, because after Zhou Yi went down, half of his head was still exposed outside.
He could only squat down and shine the flashlight.
Unsure of what was going on, the people above were still waiting, but Zhou Yi below was silent.
Liang Wei asked from above: "Zhou Yi, what's going on down there?"
Suddenly, there was a click and the light below came on, which was obviously much brighter than the light above.
Zhou Yi poked his head out and said, "Captain Liang, Captain Ni, do you want to come down and take a look? It's quite small down there, so we don't need to bring too many people down."
Upon hearing this, Ni Jianrong made a gesture of invitation to Liang Wei.
Then the two of them climbed down one after another.
Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong were not as tall as Zhou Yigao, but they couldn't stand up straight either, so they could only bend over.
In the end, the two of them simply squatted down.
But the scene in the cellar left the two of them stunned.
This cellar is not big, only less than four square meters.
Like Zhou Yi, the two men thought that this was a dark and damp basement used for illegal activities before coming down, and it might even be the crime scene where Xu Liu was murdered and his body was disposed of.
But under the light from the wall, what appeared before their eyes was a small room.
The height of the entire basement is about 1.7 meters, and it is covered with tiles from top to bottom and left to right, giving people an unusually cold feeling.
There is a single bed, a small wardrobe and a bookshelf in the basement.
The single bed is a one-meter-wide iron bed with a thin quilt, a bamboo mat on top of the quilt, and a pillow covered with a bamboo mat pillowcase.
At the end of the bed, there is a ladder against the wall. Further on, directly below the wardrobe on the ground, there is a small TV cabinet with a color TV and a VCR on it. The TV cabinet is also filled with videotapes.
There is also a floor fan in the corner next to the TV.
The basement filled with these things looks very crowded, but just like the one above, everything is arranged so neatly as if it were arranged with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The books on the bookshelf are arranged in order according to their height.
The videotapes in the TV cabinet are all neatly arranged.
"This..." Liang Wei pointed around, "Is this Xiao Bing's secret base?"
Because it really looks like a child's favorite secret base, many boys have fantasized about having such a private little room when they were young.
Ni Jianrong said: "I thought this was the first crime scene of this case."
"Hey, I thought so too." Liang Wei pointed at the wardrobe and said, "Zhou Yi, can you check if there are any suspicious items in there?"
Because Zhou Yi was at the innermost part and the basement was too small, if Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong wanted to get through, they had to crawl over the bed.
Zhou Yi, wearing gloves and foot covers, opened the wardrobe and looked through it.
The wardrobe is divided into two parts, the upper part is filled with lighter and thinner summer clothes for women, and the colors are very bright, mainly yellow, green and blue.
There are two drawers in the lower part, but they cannot be fully opened because they are blocked by the single bed.
The first drawer was opened and it was full of women's underwear.
When the second drawer was opened, the first thing I saw was a plastic bag.
Zhou Yi saw the words on the plastic bag at a glance: Hongcheng Third People's Hospital.
Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat and he quickly took out the bag.
When I opened it, I saw that it was full of medicine boxes. I picked one up and found that they were all empty.
There was a box among them that looked familiar to him. It should be one of the boxes of medicine that Xiao Bing had prescribed in the hospital when he first met him.
He took a look and handed several medicine boxes to Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong, because these medicines were not for treating male sexual dysfunction at all.
The two took it and looked at it. Liang Wei said in surprise: "These are all medicines for treating mental illness."
That’s right, there are several kinds of medicine in the bag, and their names are all weird, such as “Risperidone”, “Aripiprazole”, etc. You have no idea what they are used for just by looking at the names, but the packaging boxes have targeted symptoms, and they are all commonly used medicines for the treatment of mental illnesses.
Could it be that Chen Yan had guessed it right? Did Xiao Bing have schizophrenia?
Did he imagine his alter ego to be Lu Xiaoshuang? And then transform this basement into "Lu Xiaoshuang's room"?
Zhou Yi couldn't imagine Xiao Bing, who was in a split personality state, pretending to be a woman. It was too weird and scary.
Zhou Yi then lay down to see if there was anything under the bed, but there was nothing underneath the iron bed.
However, Zhou Yi did not find nothing, but discovered two strange things.
First, the iron bed is completely fixed to the ground.
Second, a very thick hemp rope was tied to each of the four legs of the iron bed, and a leather strap was sewn to the other end of the hemp rope.
This thing made Zhou Yi stunned, because it looked familiar. It seemed that similar things were also found in Xu Jiaguang and Zhang Hui's homes.
What the hell is this Xiao Bing doing?
He told Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong about his discovery, and Liang Wei asked Lao Qiu to come down and do the specific investigation work.
Then the three of them crawled out of the basement, and Liang Wei immediately issued three orders.
Conduct a thorough search of Xiao Bing's home and count everything in the basement.
Intensify the search for Xiao Bing and conduct visits and investigations into all of Xiao Bing's social relationships.
Based on these medicines, people were sent to the Third Municipal Hospital to check the relevant medical records.
The search of Xiao Bing's house alone lasted until late at night.
But the results of the on-site investigation made the case even more confusing.
First of all, here are the test results of the luminol reagent. Lao Qiu and his men used luminol in every corner of the inner and outer rooms and the basement.
Especially in the basement, it was used twice over and over again.
As a result, there was no reaction at all.
It is not impossible that the murderer knew how to remove the bloodstains and had done a special cleanup.
But it is almost impossible to leave no trace at all.
Because a large amount of blood will be produced during the dismemberment process, this blood will not only splash but also seep into the surface of objects.
For example, in the gaps between floor tiles, on walls and ceilings, in the fiber structure of wooden furniture, etc.
It is not difficult to wash away the blood, but it is difficult to eliminate all traces unless the murderer has demolished and renovated the entire house.
No blood residue was detected in the kitchen knives and all the drainage pipes in the house.
The possibility that Xiao Bing's home was the murder and dismemberment scene can basically be ruled out.
Next, fingerprints and footprints.
After ruling out Zhou Yi and Chen Yan's footprints, two more people's footprints were found in Xiao Bing's house.
One is number 42 and the other is number 37.
The 42-digit number is basically confirmed to be Xiao Bing's.
As for the size 37, it should be for women, but I’m not sure if it’s Lu Xiaoshuang’s, although the size is basically the same.
But the fingerprints were strange. Only Xiao Bing's fingerprints were found in the room, no one else's.
Including the books, videotapes and medicine boxes in the basement, there was only Xiao Bing's fingerprints.
Then there are the books in the basement. Most of them are stamped with the seal of the Xinhua Bookstore. This kind of seal is used to prove that the books have been sold, and it was very common in some places back then.
Most of these books are relatively obscure literary works, mainly from abroad.
The Xinhua Bookstore is closed. We will send someone to investigate the situation after daybreak.
Those videotapes are similar, mainly foreign art films, but the purchasing channels for the videotapes are unknown.
Finally, Xiao Bing's bicycle was found near a bus stop two kilometers away. The task force is contacting the bus company to confirm, because there are three buses passing by the stop, one of which is heading to the long-distance bus station.
Theoretically speaking, as a university teacher with no criminal record, Xiao Bing should not have a strong anti-reconnaissance awareness.
He was not like Sun Kun, who intercepted the Qian Lailai case, who searched his home for a large number of crime movies or books to teach himself.
So theoretically he shouldn't be difficult to catch.
After the investigation, the police sealed Xiao Bing's house and left.
After leaving Xiao Bing's house, Zhou Yi originally planned to return to the bureau because he didn't know what the situation was like with Lu Xiaoshuang.
He only knew that Lu Xiaoshuang's interrogation was conducted by Xiang Jie and Qiao Jiali.
He was not sure whether he could see Lu Xiaoshuang now, or whether his superiors would allow him to do so.
However, the majority of the team returned to the task force, and because all the information had to be filed with the clerical team, he could only return to the task force with Chen Yan first.
I happened to meet the person Liang Wei sent to the Third Municipal Hospital. After asking, I found out that the hospital's prescription records also have to be checked manually, and if the patient is self-paying, there may not be a corresponding record. I can only wait for the hospital to give the results.
Everyone was notified to go to the conference room for a meeting. It was already two o'clock in the morning and everyone was exhausted.
As soon as everyone entered the meeting room, they smelled the aroma of food and saw many midnight snacks on the table.
"Captain Ni and I bought some midnight snacks for everyone. Let's eat and chat." Liang Wei said.
Everyone thanked the two leaders.
Zhou Yi saw Qiao Jiali and Xiang Jie in the crowd at a glance. It seemed that the interrogation of Lu Xiaoshuang was over.
He hurried over and greeted Xiang Jie first.
Then he sat next to Qiao Jiali and looked at her expectantly.
"Sister Qiao..."
Qiao Jiali pushed a bowl of wontons in front of him and said, "Come, have something to eat."
Zhou Yi was so anxious that he had no mood to eat, but he couldn't ask directly in front of so many people.
Qiao Jiali smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, she's very good and very smart."
At this time, Liang Wei said: "Everyone, eat and watch something at the same time."
…
Right in front of the conference room, Liang Wei had someone bring in a 24-inch color TV.
Next to it, in sharp contrast to the huge TV, is a small silver-black Sony DV connected to the TV via a signal transmission cable.
This imported high-end product was brought by Liang Wei.
Hongcheng’s current interrogation is not yet subject to surveillance recording.
While eating, everyone watched the interrogation video on TV.
Since it is not a surveillance camera but a portable DV, the viewing angle is not a downward view but a frontal view.
And the only person appearing in the camera was Lu Xiaoshuang.
But outside the camera, there is Qiao Jiali's voice.
What made Zhou Yi relieved was that Lu Xiaoshuang was not handcuffed.
But her complexion was not very good, and she had a sense of fatigue as if she had just recovered from a serious illness. After all, she had been to the gates of hell twice.
But her expression was very calm, without any helplessness or panic.
Qiao Jiali's voice rang out, "Lu Xiaoshuang, we are from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Municipal Bureau. Considering your previous health condition, we haven't informed you yet. Today is May 8th, and we are now officially announcing to you that you are suspected of involvement in Xu Liu's murder. Therefore, we are formally summoning you for questioning."
Hearing the words "Xu Liu was murdered", Lu Xiaoshuang couldn't hide her shock, and it was obvious that she was not pretending.
But she did not immediately cry out for injustice or raise questions, nor did she become emotional or lose control.
In the footage, Qiao Jiali walked over, showed her the subpoena, and said, "This is your subpoena, you can confirm it."
Lu Xiaoshuang leaned in to take a closer look, then nodded.
Zhou Yi saw her clenching her fists in the picture, obviously trying to suppress her fear.
Qiao Jiali returned to her seat and said, "We will now interrogate you according to the law. We hope you will actively cooperate and answer our questions truthfully. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Lu Xiaoshuang straightened her back and answered facing the camera.
Zhou Yi had a feeling that when Lu Xiaoshuang faced the camera, her gaze seemed to penetrate the screen and meet his own.
She must have known that she could see, and believed in the police and in herself.
"Now we're officially starting." Qiao Jiali asked, "Name."
"Lu Xiaoshuang."
"age."
"Nineteen."
“Place of household registration.”
"No. 28, Xingnan Road, Qingshan District, Hongcheng."
"Work."
"Hongcheng University, Class of 1996, freshman majoring in financial management."
"Tell me everything you did from April 28th to May 1st. What time period, where, and what you did. The more detailed the better."
"Okay, let me think about it." Lu Xiaoshuang nodded and began to describe in detail her every move since April 28th. Although her voice inevitably trembled slightly, the overall narration process was very smooth, clear and logical.
When Qiao Jiali asked her further questions about what she had said, she responded quickly and cooperated very well throughout the process.
Rather than an interrogation, it felt more like a thesis defense.
This left a good impression on most people present. Many of them were engaged in front-line criminal investigation work and had come into contact with all kinds of criminal suspects.
Those who are so calm and cooperative are basically innocent and have no guilt in their hearts.
Of course, there are also a few criminal suspects with extremely strong psychological qualities and deep scheming, but these people all have a lot of social experience and have been in the world of intrigue for a long time.
Zhou Yi discovered that even Liang Wei was nodding slightly.
Lu Xiaoshuang's description of the two and a half days from April 28th to noon on April 30th was very detailed and completely consistent with the information found by the task force.
Then, it was noon on April 30th.
Lu Xiaoshuang said, "The classes on the morning of April 30th ended at 12:00, and the last class was Principles of Economics. Since I didn't understand a few of the knowledge points the teacher covered, I took the initiative to ask Professor Fan for advice after class. So when Youyou asked me to go back to the dormitory with her, I let her go first."
"Oh, Mo Youyou is my roommate and sleeps on the upper bunk."
Qiao Jiali said: "Well, we know, you continue."
"Okay, I left the classroom about seven or eight minutes late. All the students had left by then. Our classroom is on the fourth floor. After I came down from the teaching building, I planned to go to the cafeteria to eat, then go back to the dormitory to pack my things before going to my grandma's house. I promised my grandma the last time I went back."
"When I went downstairs, I saw Teacher Xiao." Lu Xiaoshuang paused and asked cautiously, "Do you... know Teacher Xiao?"
"Is it Xiao Bing?" Qiao Jiali asked.
"Yes, he is a teacher at the Foreign Languages College of our school."
"We know him, go on."
Lu Xiaoshuang nodded. "I was quite surprised to see him at the time. I thought he was waiting for someone, so I took the initiative to greet him. Then... he told me..."
It was not until this time that Lu Xiaoshuang showed hesitation for the first time.
Qiao Jiali asked calmly, "What did he tell you? Don't feel any psychological burden, and don't hide anything. Telling the truth is the only way to help yourself."
Lu Xiaoshuang took a deep breath and said, "Teacher Xiao told me... Officer Zhou asked him to bring me a message, saying that Officer Zhou is waiting for me at home..."
When she finished speaking, Lu Xiaoshuang lowered her head.
Zhou Yi finally understood why she hesitated before, because what she said involved himself.
She was worried about getting into trouble.
And the address she used was not Brother Zhou, but Police Officer Zhou.
Just to avoid suspicion.
But what she said could not really be separated from Zhou Yi.
Qiao Jiali, who was in charge of the interrogation, also understood this, so she took the initiative to ask a sensitive question: "Who is Officer Zhou you are talking about? What is your relationship with him?"
"It's Officer Zhou Yi from your city's Criminal Investigation Division. He... is my savior. He saved me once."
Qiao Jiali did not continue to ask this question, which was enough. After all, Zhou Yi was not in Hongcheng at the time and had no suspicion of being involved in the case.
Moreover, Zhou Yi's rescue of Lu Xiaoshuang was reported on local TV news and was a public matter.
"After Xiao Bing said this to you, did you ask him for details?"
Lu Xiaoshuang replied, "I did ask, but Teacher Xiao seemed very nervous at the time, looking around constantly. I was affected by his emotions and couldn't help but get nervous too."
Zhou Yi discovered that after Lu Xiaoshuang said this, she had a very brief expression of wanting to say something but stopping herself.
Zhou Yi's heart tightened, and he guessed a possibility.
Lu Xiaoshuang might not really be affected by Xiao Bing's nervousness.
Instead, he might have remembered the safety issues that he had repeatedly mentioned to her before, which caused her to make associations and become a little confused.
"Did Xiao Bing say anything else?"
Lu Xiaoshuang shook her head. "He left in a hurry after he finished speaking. Oh, and before he left, he told me to be careful on the road."
Zhou Yi was a little confused.
If Xiao Bing looked for Lu Xiaoshuang in order to trick her out of school, then why did he remind him to be careful on the road?
Is it a provocation? Is it the thrill of toying with prey?
Moreover, even Lu Xiaoshuang could see that he was nervous. Isn't this a bit inconsistent with the psychological quality of a murderer who could commit such a shocking crime as Hongda?
If he is not the murderer, why did he run away tonight?
The upper left corner of the surveillance video has the date and time of the DV shooting. Judging from the time, Lu Xiaoshuang mentioned that Xiao Bing asked her to be careful on the road, which was about the same time as Ni Jianrong called her.
It is estimated that Ni Jianrong had been listening to the entire interrogation process in the monitoring room next door. After hearing the previous sentence, he couldn't wait to call Zhou Yi and asked them to control Xiao Bing.
In the video, Qiao Jiali's voice asks, "Do you have Officer Zhou's contact information? Have you ever thought about contacting Officer Zhou to ask if this is true?"
"I had Officer Zhou's mobile phone number, and I thought about calling him to ask about the situation, because Officer Zhou had told me he was going on a business trip, so I wasn't sure if he had returned."
Zhou Yi couldn't help but get nervous, because he did have the same question as Qiao Jiali. Judging from Lu Xiaoshuang's personality, she wouldn't have thought of calling him in advance.
As long as there is such a phone call, not only Lu Xiaoshuang will be safe, but Xiao Bing will also immediately become suspected by himself.
Lu Xiaoshuang continued, "So I went back to the dormitory and wanted to go to the duty room to borrow the dormitory manager's phone."
"Did you encounter anyone or any special situations on your way back to the dormitory?"
"I ran into my roommate Mo Youyou, but I didn't pay attention. I was so focused on wondering if something had happened that she called me. She asked me why I wasn't going to dinner, and I said I was going to see Officer Zhou. Oh, she had also met Officer Zhou a few times."
"continue."
"When I returned to the dormitory, I found that the door of the duty room was locked and I didn't know where the aunt had gone. I waited for about five or six minutes but no one came, so I went back to the dormitory."
Qiao Jiali asked, "There should be a public telephone in your school, right?"
Lu Xiaoshuang nodded. "Yes, there are shared phone booths on campus. But you have to buy a special IC card, which is quite expensive..." She said embarrassedly, "I don't usually need to make phone calls. My parents don't have a phone, so I didn't buy one."
Zhou Yi couldn't help but sigh in his heart. It was really unnecessary for Lu Xiaoshuang to buy an IC card for the school, and she was reluctant to buy it.
But if my aunt was in the duty room at that time, that one phone call could have prevented everything that happened later.
Although Xu Liu was probably already dead by then.
"Then you left school?" Qiao Jiali asked.
"Well, I went back to the dormitory to pack my things and left. I was going to visit Officer Zhou's house."
"What time did you leave school?"
"It was around 12:30 when I came out of the dormitory. I looked at the time and it took about ten minutes to walk from our dormitory to the school gate." The time she said was exactly the same as the surveillance record at the main gate.
"Then I took bus No. 68. The bus stop was about 400 meters east of the school gate. From the school to Officer Zhou's house, it took... 14 stops. I waited for about ten minutes, and then the bus arrived."
"Do you have any evidence to prove that you took bus No. 68 at that time?" Qiao Jiali asked.
"I bought the ticket and kept the ticket stub in the small pocket on top of my schoolbag. I usually keep track of my spending, so I always keep it..." Lu Xiaoshuang seemed to notice something was wrong with Qiao Jiali's expression as she spoke, and asked weakly, "Is my schoolbag... missing?"
The school gate surveillance showed that Lu Xiaoshuang was carrying her old schoolbag when she left the school.
After she was rescued from the mine, the task force investigated and verified, but did not find the old schoolbag.
Qiao Jiali paused and said, "It's okay. Since you've already bought the ticket, we'll check with the ticket seller."
"Did you notice anything unusual while you were in the car? Or did you notice someone was following you?"
Hearing this question, Lu Xiaoshuang frowned slightly and said, "I'm not sure if that's abnormal."
"It's okay, just tell me."
Lu Xiaoshuang said, "There's a strange-looking person in the car."
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