Chapter 415 Good Luck Hotel
In addition to angering Zhou Yi, Sister Flour's words also made him and Chen Yan realize a problem.
Although the task force tried its best to block the information, the speed at which the information spread far exceeded their expectations.
It seems that not only the vast campus but also the whole society has known about it.
Although it is only a matter of time, especially if the case is not solved, it will eventually turn out to be the same as in the previous life.
Fortunately, the Internet was not well developed in those days and traditional media was still easy to control, so the influence of the grand case had not yet fermented.
"When did she resign?" Zhou Yi ignored the other party's question.
Moreover, he had already seen that this foreman was a complete waste, and this lady was probably the boss's wife.
"She just gave me the money and left the next day. I've never seen anyone so ungrateful. If I hadn't felt sorry for her, I wouldn't have hired her. I gave her a bite of food, but she's so arrogant."
"Young man, was she really killed? I heard she was chopped into pieces."
Zhou Yi asked coldly: "So you know something, right? Since you know, then come back with us and cooperate with the investigation." As he said that, he took out the shiny handcuffs.
The older sister was stunned. She realized that Zhou Yi's expression didn't seem like he was joking. She was startled and stepped back. She quickly waved her hands and said, "I don't know, I don't know. I just heard it from the customers."
Zhou Yi turned around and held up Lu Xiaoshuang's photo and asked the fat man, "What did you do to her while she was working here?"
When the fat man heard this, he immediately shook his head, and the fat on his face swayed. "No, I didn't do anything."
“Have you ever been sexually harassed?”
"Sex...what the hell is that?" The fat man didn't understand.
Chen Yan scolded: "He just touched the little girl with bad intentions!"
"No... no, this damn girl wouldn't even let me touch her. She just touched my hand and then she muttered that she was going to call the police." The fat man blurted out.
Without waiting for Zhou Yi to get angry, Chen Yan took out handcuffs and wanted to arrest the fat man for hooliganism because the fat man himself admitted to the crime of insulting and molesting women.
The fat guy was confused, shouting that it was unfair and saying that he just touched the hand and was slapped, so it was even. He also shouted, "Sister, save me!"
The lady behind the counter rushed out, yelling and screaming, and the scene was in chaos for a while.
Immediately afterwards, a shirtless burly man ran out from the kitchen with two kitchen knives in his hands, yelling and cursing as he rushed towards Zhou Yi and Chen Yan.
But the next second, the big guy immediately gave in. The two kitchen knives fell to the ground with a clang, and he was so scared that he raised his hands in surrender.
Because the gun in Zhou Yi's hand was pointed at him.
The commotion scared away the remaining guests. The flour lady was so anxious that she yelled, "You haven't paid yet! You haven't paid yet."
A police officer on patrol happened to pass by and came in to ask what was going on.
The flour lady and the fat man turned the tables and pointed at Zhou Yi and Chen Yan, saying that they were impersonating police officers.
Only the shirtless guys didn't dare to say a word. The other party already had a pistol, but these two blind guys still dared to say that. They were really courting death.
The two patrol policemen were from a nearby police station. After confirming the identities of Zhou Yi and Chen Yan, Sister Flour and the fat man were dumbfounded.
Zhou Yi sneered, "You're already suspected of insulting and molesting women, and now you're slandering public officials. Fine, fine, it looks like you're doomed to be in jail."
Then, with the help of the police station, the situation of the Haoyunlai Restaurant was quickly clarified.
In addition to these three people, they also questioned the store staff and surrounding merchants.
It turned out that this older lady with a powdered face was not the boss, nor the receptionist, but the accountant of the hotel.
The fat guy is indeed the foreman and also the eldest sister's younger brother.
As for the shirtless man who rushed out with a knife, he was the cook and also the eldest sister's lover.
Yes, the two guys, who are almost a hundred years old in total, are lovers. What's even more outrageous is that the flour lady has a husband and son in the countryside.
But this chef is not the boss.
Because the real boss passed away in March, he was an old man.
The old man opened this shop with his wife in his early years. It was just a fly restaurant at the beginning, but later it gained a reputation because of its large portions and delicious taste. It had many regular customers and the small shop was turned into a large-scale restaurant.
The only regret is that the couple never had any children. Later, the old woman passed away, leaving only the old man.
The old man devoted all his energy to the business, and the restaurant became more and more famous, and the business was getting better and better.
The chef was an apprentice the old man had taken in a long time ago. He had followed the old man for a long time and had always worked diligently. The old man was thinking of passing the business to his apprentice after he passed away.
Although this apprentice learned the old man's skills, his character was questionable. He was married twice and divorced twice because of infidelity.
Later, he started dating the eldest sister who was in charge of accounting, and the eldest sister brought her own brother to be the foreman.
However, when the old man was alive, these three people could not do anything evil. At most, they would do some small tricks secretly.
Especially the fat foreman, who likes to take advantage of young and beautiful waitresses and has been scolded by the old man many times.
When Lu Xiaoshuang was working here, the old man was still alive, but his health had begun to decline and he rarely took care of her.
As soon as the old man died in March, these three people completely let themselves go and started to do all kinds of evil.
He is domineering and extravagant to his employees, and short-changing and perfunctory in his meals to his customers.
The retribution soon came. The restaurant's business plummeted and regular customers left, cursing.
Some waiters and cooks couldn't stand these three people and ran away. As a result, in just over a month, this place became the depressed state it is today.
Zhou Yi went to the kitchen to take a look. Not only was the hygiene condition worrying, but he also found some "good things" and decided to give them a good send-off.
So I called the industrial and commercial department and told them that there were two barrels of gutter oil in the kitchen of Haoyunlai Restaurant, which was suspected to be a food safety issue, and asked them to deal with it.
Anyway, it cannot escape suspension of business, rectification and fines. I guess with this series of combined punches, the Good Luck Restaurant will be completely out of business.
As for this fat foreman, he is not so easy to get.
Under the ideological work of Chen Yan and the police officers from the police station, a young female waitress stood up and accused the fat man of molesting her. She also mentioned that the original receptionist also resigned because she could not bear the harassment from the foreman.
Before October 1997, there was still the crime of hooliganism, so this guy will probably have a hard time next.
However, Zhou Yi and Chen Yan didn't care about this matter and just let the police station follow up and handle it.
And this fat man with an ugly appearance was crying with tears and snot.
He shouted that he was wrong and would never do it again, and begged them to let him go.
Looking at his utterly miserable appearance, Zhou Yi sneered, "You don't know you're wrong. You just know you have to pay the price for your actions and that you'll be punished by law."
Zhou Yi vented his anger on behalf of Lu Xiaoshuang, and the frustration that had been pent up in his heart for many days was also relieved.
Then they did two more things.
The first thing is to rule out the suspicion of this fat guy. Since he is here and has harassed Lu Xiaoshuang before, the necessary procedures must be followed.
The fat man explained that he had been at the store during the day and playing mahjong with friends at night, and provided the contact information of three of his mahjong buddies. Zhou Yi called each one to confirm on the spot.
Zhou Yi then took out Xu Liu's photo and asked if anyone in the store knew him, but everyone said they had never seen him.
It seems that the only people who have seen Xu Liu are the resigned receptionist and Lu Xiaoshuang.
After finding out the contact information of the girl at the front desk, the two men thanked their two colleagues at the police station for their hard work and handed over the follow-up work to them.
Then I continued to look for people and found a clean-looking noodle shop nearby to have a bowl of beef noodles.
Chen Yan said he would treat Zhou Yi, and Zhou Yi did not refuse.
After paying at the counter, Chen Yan walked back and sat down, putting two bottles of Jianlibao on the table.
Zhou Yi looked at Jianlibao and smiled knowingly.
The two of them opened the cans with a snap.
"Zhou Yi, after verifying all of this today, it should be possible to prove that Lu Xiaoshuang didn't have the time to commit the crime, right?"
"Well, all that's left is the fingerprints on the murder weapon. Fingerprints alone are isolated evidence and have no legal weight. Lu Xiaoshuang can be cleared of her status as a suspect."
This is why he came here in person to check these things today. He wanted to confirm them as soon as possible.
Lu Xiaoshuang was previously identified as a suspect for three reasons: criminal motive, lack of alibi, and key physical evidence.
The motive of a crime is a subjective judgment made by criminal investigators based on investigative clues.
Objective evidence is the absence of an alibi and physical evidence. If there is only one of them, it is considered an isolated evidence.
For example, when the crime happened, you cannot provide a valid alibi, just like Xiao Bing said that I was sleeping alone at home.
Or you have a strong alibi, but your fingerprints appear on the murder weapon.
Either of these two situations occurring alone is considered isolated evidence.
In judicial terms, it is clearly stipulated that a single piece of evidence cannot be used as evidence to determine the facts of a case, and it must be supplemented or confirmed by other evidence.
Therefore, as long as Zhou Yi can get one of the alibi and physical evidence, Lu Xiaoshuang can successfully get rid of the identity of a suspect.
Zhou Yi was in a good mood. The two young men finished their noodles in no time and then went to find the girl at the front desk.
This took some time, and finally we found the girl in another restaurant.
She still works as a receptionist. She is not very good-looking, but she is tall and slender.
After learning about their purpose, the girl wiped away her tears and repeatedly said that she was willing to come forward to accuse the fat guy, which showed that she had been bullied quite badly before.
Zhou Yi then took out Xu Liu's photo and asked her to identify her. Unexpectedly, she recognized her at a glance and said that she remembered this girl because she was dressed very fashionably and had makeup and lipstick on. She thought she came to eat, but she said she was here to interview for a waiter position.
Originally, Zhou Yi just wanted to confirm this matter, but unexpectedly, after asking the front desk girl a few more questions, he made a new discovery.
When the receptionist recalled Xu Liu's visit to the hotel, she mentioned a piece of information that the task force had not previously obtained.
She said that while Xu Liu was waiting, he looked at his pager several times and seemed a little uneasy.
This was very surprising because the task force had previously searched Xu Liu's personal belongings and questioned her family and roommates to confirm whether she had any communication tools.
But no pager or mobile phone was found, and the roommates confirmed that they had never seen such things.
As for the IC card for the school public telephone, it is an anonymous stored-value card and can be purchased at the campus canteen.
And even if the name is recorded, the IC card background does not have the function of querying call records. Due to technical limitations, it is not possible these days.
Unexpectedly, from a tiny clue, he accidentally learned that Xu Liu had a pager.
She has never revealed this pager in front of her classmates. There is probably something fishy going on, otherwise why would she hide it?
Zhou Yi guessed that the pager should have been bought by the man for Xu Liu to use for contact when necessary.
As for her anxiously checking her pager while waiting for the interview, it was actually a kind of psychological cry for help similar to that of a drowning person.
This shows that deep down in her heart, she is unwilling to work to earn money like Lu Xiaoshuang did, and hopes that this man can change his mind and continue to maintain a relationship with her.
However, it is very likely that this pager cannot be found, as the murderer must have disposed of it.
The only hope now is to find the pager number and then check the communication records through the number.
Of course, we can only find the number that has been called, but not the content, and the reason is naturally that the technology cannot support it.
The two men left their identity information and contact information with the receptionist and then Zhou Yi called Ni Jianrong directly to report.
Now that Wu Yongcheng has taken leave, he naturally has to report any discoveries directly to Ni Jianrong.
Although he could also report to Liang Wei, as both of them were deputy team leaders of the task force, this kind of matter was inherently very delicate. If he reported to Liang Wei, who came from the provincial department, bypassing Ni Jianrong, it would easily cause Ni Jianrong's dissatisfaction.
At this critical juncture, it is better to have less trouble than more.
What's more, Wu Yongcheng also said that since the Long Zhiqiang case, his relationship with Ni Jianrong has eased, and when the list of task force members was initially drawn up, Ni Jianrong did not object to his joining.
Ni Jianrong was very excited when he heard the news, because the current large-scale survey and investigation had indeed made no progress, especially since the people who were sent all the way to Huaixing were his subordinates. Naturally, he wanted to make a breakthrough as soon as possible.
"Zhou Yi, you did a great job," Ni Jianrong praised over the phone. "I'll have someone review Xu Liu's academic records and her roommate's teacher to see if they can find the pager number."
Zhou Yi felt that this wouldn't work and would probably be an ineffective investigation, so he tactfully said, "Captain Ni, how about we expand the scope of the investigation?"
"How do you expand it?"
"I'm wondering, Xu Liu doesn't have many friends on campus, her grades are average, and she doesn't work part-time. So what does she do in her spare time? College isn't like high school, there aren't as many classes, so extracurricular activities are much more enriching. You could check for clubs, interest groups, academic lectures, or open classes across the school. These usually require separate registration information, so there might be some clues. It's just a lot of work, and it requires a lot of manpower and time."
As soon as Zhou Yi finished speaking, Ni Jianrong immediately said, "Your suggestion is very good. I will arrange for it to be implemented immediately."
"Team Ni..."
"What's wrong? Is there anything else?"
"Are you and Captain Liang in the task force or the bureau now? I'd like to report to you and Captain Liang in person about some of the progress of today's investigation."
Ni Jianrong was stunned: "Didn't I just report it?"
Zhou Yi instantly realized that Captain Ni clearly didn't understand his intentions, so he explained, "It's not about the pager. It's mainly about confirming Lu Xiaoshuang's confession."
"Oh, there's no need to report this in person. Just organize the investigation and hand it over to the back-office team. Then we can synchronize it with everyone during the meeting."
The operation of the task force also has rules. Zhou Yi and his colleagues are the field staff who fight on the front lines. The organization and archiving of case materials, coordination of information flow, etc. are all the responsibility of the internal affairs team, which is equivalent to the original command center, but belongs to the internal task force.
Zhou Yi was so anxious that he almost scratched his ears and cheeks and turned into a monkey. This Captain Ni is so stupid. I have pointed out the direction for you, don’t you understand what I mean?
At this time, Liang Wei's voice came from the phone: "Team Leader Ni, there's a small matter. Oh, you're on the phone, right?"
Zhou Yi then heard Ni Jianrong say, "Zhou Yi called and said he wanted to report to us in person about the investigation and verification of Lu Xiaoshuang's confession."
"Oh, Zhou Yi..." Liang Wei paused for a second before saying, "Then let him come."
Zhou Yi was overjoyed. The experts from the provincial department had high emotional intelligence. Ni Jianrong just said, "We are in the bureau, come over."
Zhou Yi immediately thanked the two leaders and drove back to the bureau with Chen Yan.
His purpose was simply to hope that the task force would release Lu Xiaoshuang as soon as possible, otherwise why would he have to rush to report to them in person.
The two went straight to Ni Jianrong's office, knocked on the door, and were let in.
But when he opened the door, he found four people in the room.
In addition to Ni Jianrong and Liang Wei, there were two strangers Zhou Yi had never met.
These two men are around 50 or 60 years old and appear to be leaders, but judging from their temperament, they are probably not leaders within the public security system.
Zhou Yi thought it was a leader from the city, so he quickly said sorry to bother him and was about to close the door.
Unexpectedly, Liang Wei stood up and said with a smile: "If you have nothing to do, come in. We are almost done chatting here."
Seeing him stand up, the other three also stood up and began to exchange pleasantries with each other.
Zhou Yi learned from their conversation that these two were not leaders from the city, but were sent by the school.
Because Liang Wei called them professors.
Ni Jianrong told Liang Wei that he would see the two school leaders off. Liang Wei smiled and said thank you for your hard work, Team Leader Ni. Then he said hello to the two elders: "Principal Liu, Dean Chen, I won't see you off. I still have some work to do here."
The two school leaders glanced at Zhou Yi and Chen Yan at the door and said with a smile, "No, no, the case is important. Thank you for your hard work."
Ni Jianrong sent the two school leaders downstairs, and the voices of the three people talking gradually faded away.
Liang Wei said, "Come in and sit down."
Zhou Yi and Chen Yan walked in and sat down on the chairs where the two school leaders had just sat.
Liang Wei removed the two empty cups of tea from the table and said helplessly, "A vice president and a college dean claim to be collaborating with the police on behalf of the school, but then they keep coming to the task force every few days, urging us to solve the case. We can't chase them away, nor can we casually tell them the focus of the investigation, so Director Xie has no choice but to avoid the task force."
Zhou Yi smiled and said, "So you and Captain Ni are also trying to hide from them?"
Liang Wei smiled and said, "The task force couldn't find us, so they came to the police station. We've been going back and forth for a long time. I'm glad you guys are back."
After a while, Ni Jianrong, who had sent the person away, also came back.
As soon as he entered the door, he and Liang Wei looked at each other with a helpless smile. Zhou Yi did not expect that the school would keep a close eye on him. After all, there was no record of such a thing in the case file of the previous life.
Liang Wei poured a glass of water for the two of them and said, "Come on, young comrades, tell us about your gains today."
So Zhou Yi reported the situation of verifying Lu Xiaoshuang's confession and the fact that Xu Liu had a pager.
Liang Wei was surprised: "Oh, really? This clue is good and very useful. This pager must have some meaning. Let's find it quickly."
At this time, Ni Jianrong said, "When I sent Principal Liu and Dean Chen off just now, I told them that in addition to the regular investigation, I also asked them to cooperate in compiling the registration information of campus clubs, interest groups, academic lectures, and open classes for us. The regular information may not be found."
Liang Wei nodded repeatedly: "Team Ni is really experienced and moves quickly."
Ni Jianrong smiled and said nothing, but he caught a glimpse of Zhou Yi out of the corner of his eye and found that Zhou Yi was lowering his head to organize the documents in his hands without even raising his head.
Zhou Yi placed the documents in front of the two men and said, "These are records signed and confirmed by witnesses. Please review them, leaders."
Liang Wei picked it up and took a look at it. With a half-smile on his face, he turned to Ni Jianrong and asked, "Captain Ni, since it can be confirmed that Lu Xiaoshuang didn't have the time to commit the crime, can we remove her as a suspect? After all, the law clearly stipulates that a single piece of evidence is inadequate."
Ni Jianrong glanced at Zhou Yi and said, "I have no objection."
Liang Wei said to Zhou Yi, "Let's go through the process and have her fill out a written application in person."
Zhou Yi suppressed his inner excitement and thanked the two of them.
Of course, it would not be possible to release the person on the same day according to normal procedures, but at least the matter was finally resolved, and Lu Xiaoshuang no longer needed to bear such a psychological burden.
"Zhou Yi, there's one more thing I need to remind you of," Liang Wei said.
"As you analyzed earlier, the murderer's original targets may have included Xu Liu and Lu Xiaoshuang. So, after Lu Xiaoshuang is released, how can we properly arrange for her safety?"
This question immediately made Zhou Yi fall into deep thought, because he really hadn't thought about it yet, but Liang Wei's words made sense.
"Two leaders, has Xiao Bing not been found yet?" Zhou Yi asked.
…
About two kilometers west of Daguan Street, there is a small river.
There is a lonely little house by the river. An old lady is sitting on a bench at the door, laboriously breaking corn kernels by hand.
A policeman in uniform came over and asked, "Old lady, have you seen this person?"
The police officer took out a photocopy, and the person in the photo was Xiao Bing.
The old lady looked up, looked at the policeman in confusion, and asked with her ear tilted: "What?"
The police officer knew that her hearing was not working well, so he raised his voice and asked again.
The old lady waved her hand and said, "There's no one left at home. I'm the only one left."
Seeing that she was not answering the question, the police stopped asking and stretched their necks to look into the house. The simple little house was filled with all kinds of garbage that they had picked up, making the light dim and unable to see anything.
Seeing that the old lady ignored him and continued to work with her head down, the police officer turned and left.
"Come on, get busy."
The old lady lowered her head and worked attentively until she had cracked all the corn in the basket. Then she pounded her waist, slowly stood up, and carried the basket of corn kernels into the house.
When she entered the room, she closed the door.
The old lady pulled the switch rope, and a five-watt incandescent lamp lit up on the simple roof beam.
Under the dim light, the old lady pushed aside the pile of debris in the corner, revealing an old bamboo curtain leaning against the corner of the wall.
The old lady lifted the bamboo curtain, and the light illuminated a nervous face.
"Xiaobing, it's okay, come out." The old lady said with a smile.
The person under the curtain was Xiao Bing, whom the police were searching for.
His eyes were like a frightened bird.
"Mother-in-law, the police didn't find anything, right?" Xiao Bing asked in a low voice.
In the corner behind him, something moved.
He was a person curled up in a ball.
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