Family murder mystery (4)

Hu Gang said hurriedly: "Ma Changgui found me one day and said that the company had a batch of steel that needed to be processed. If it was successful... give it to me, give me a reward of 10,000 yuan... This batch of steel was sold to a factory in another province. I know that Zhu Gongyou also had a share, because at that time it was said to be divided into three parts. Zhu Gongyou was the financial manager, and it was he who issued the invoice, and the money had to pass through him."

"It was worker Zhu who suggested setting the fire. He said it would be safer that way... But, but, no one pursued the matter later. I never intended to kill anyone..."

Zhao Leiting immediately asked, "You mean, you, Ma Changgui, and Zhu Gongyou did steal the company's steel and sell it, but Zhu Gongyou's death had nothing to do with you?"

"I admit that I sold the steel! But how could I kill worker Zhu? I have no grudge against him. What good would it do me to kill him?" Hu Gang's lips trembled as he said this.

Zhao Lei Ting confirmed with the Korean team with his eyes.

Han Changlin did not respond immediately. Although he still suspected Hu Gang, he had no direct evidence. Moreover, Hu Gang mentioned that Zhu Gongyou took the initiative to propose burning down the finance office and destroying the invoices. Combined with Zhu Gongyou's attitude when he was investigated in July, this seemed to prove that Zhu Gongyou was an active conspirator and they had no motive to kill Zhu Gongyou.

Moreover, none of Zhu Gongyou's family property was lost, and excluding the possibility of uneven distribution of the spoils, there was really no other motive for murder. He gave Zhao Leiting a look of confirmation.

After receiving the message from the Korean team, Zhao Leiting said loudly to Hu Gang: "Hu Gang, we will find out whether everything you said is true."

"I didn't kill anyone, police comrade, please believe me! Believe me!"

Han Changlin stood up and said sternly: "Stealing company property is no small matter!"

He immediately ordered Ma Changgui and the other man to be detained. After returning to the office, he immediately ordered a task to investigate the whereabouts of the two men the night before, otherwise they could not be cleared of the suspicion of murder.

After two days of visits and investigations, it was confirmed that Ma Changgui and the other person had an alibi for that period of time.

Several witnesses testified that around 8 o'clock that evening, Ma Changgui and his partner appeared in different places. It was very difficult for them to reach Zhu's home at 8 or 9 o'clock.

There were obstacles in the direction of the investigation. Meng Siqi obviously found that Han Changlin was often at a loss, especially after he came out of Director Liu's office that day, he spoke a little aggressively.

In this case, everyone could only expand the scope of the investigation, but still did not find any clues. The murderer's whereabouts that night seemed to be flawless.

That day, she received a call record from the Telephone Administration. It was a call record within one month of the murder of Zhu Gongyou and his family. Han Changlin asked her to sort it out.

She sorted out the call records and found a problem. There was a phone call that had been made to Zhu's home several times within a week, including when Zhu was at work during the day. In other words, the call was made to Zhu's wife, You Meihua.

She remembered that You Meihua's tongue was cut off after her death, which means that the suspect might not be targeting Zhu Gongyou, but You Meihua. If the person who made the call is found, then the suspect will most likely be identified.

Her eyes rested on the call record of the day You Meihua was murdered. She used a pen to circle a nearly ten-minute call record.

The call reached the telephone exchange and they responded within a few minutes.

After sending the call records to Han Chang-min, she said cautiously, "Captain Han, I checked the call records and found a number that contacted You Meihua several times in a week."

Han Changlin took the paper, which had been circled by Meng Siqi. This number was indeed too frequent. When he raised his head, his eyes sparkled, "Did you find out who it was?"

"The call came from a hotel. Most likely a pay phone."

"Xiao Meng, contact the hotel immediately to check."

"Hello, Team Korea." Meng Siqi returned to his seat and immediately contacted the hotel. The hotel replied that the number was a public pay phone at the front desk and they were not sure who had called.

Zhao Lei Ting came back just in time and saw her biting the tip of a pen in a daze. He smiled and said, "What are you thinking about?"

Meng Siqi briefly explained the situation, and Zhao Leiting slapped his thigh, "Come on, let's go to the hotel quickly."

After explaining the situation to Han Changlin, the two drove quickly to the hotel. This hotel was not far from Zhu's home, and it seemed that they were one step closer to the truth.

There was a small window at the front desk of the hotel, and there was a red landline phone in the window. The lady boss asked, "Are you staying at the hotel?"

Zhao Leiting showed his police ID and said, "We are police officers from the Jinyang City Public Security Bureau. Can we take out your housing records for the past week?"

The proprietress thought it was the police coming to check the room, so she quickly took out her record book and explained, "Comrade, I have made formal records here, don't worry, there is definitely no prostitution or sexual transactions..."

Meng Siqi: “…”

Zhao Lei Ting gave the proprietress a cold look: "Did I ask you this?"

The proprietress then fell silent.

Right on the small windowsill, Meng Siqi quickly flipped through the record book, and suddenly a very conspicuous name caught her eye.

The name is "You Shenghua", which is only one character different from the deceased You Meihua. This is definitely not a coincidence. He must be a relative of You Meihua or something.

Living in a hotel and calling your loved ones frequently does not seem reasonable.

When asked about what happened that afternoon, the lady boss frowned, as if trying to recall. After a while, she suddenly realized and said, "Yes, a man called me that afternoon. He talked for about ten minutes, and it seemed that we had an argument."

Zhao Leiting asked: "Do you remember what that person looked like? What were they arguing about?"

"I don't remember. I was watching TV the whole time," she said as the sound of a TV series was still playing in the room. "It seemed to be a dialect, like from Yangxi. After he hung up the phone, he looked at the charge and cursed a few times, saying it was too expensive. If you say it's too expensive, then don't call me..."

The proprietress complained a few more times, but Zhao Leiting didn't want to listen any more, so he just said thank you and left.

Meng Siqi thought that it was not uncommon for murders to occur due to grudges between relatives. If You Shenghua went to You Meihua's house that night, it would be easy for him to enter the house without arousing the victim's defenses.

What were they arguing about? Could this be the suspect's motive for committing the crime?

Unexpectedly, it was already evening when they went out. Zhao Leiting asked her if she wanted to eat something on the roadside. Meng Siqi was really hungry, so she bought a cake on the roadside and also bought one for Zhao Leiting. "Don't thank me, this cake is to thank you for your time."

Zhao Leiting took the cake and sighed: "Bo Liang! Is this the only cake I'm worth?"

Meng Siqi pretended to be pitiful and said, "This cake is worth a day's bus ride. Do you have any misunderstandings about me as an intern?"

Zhao Lei Ting pursed his lips, "It turns out that this is a cake full of love. I will definitely worship it."

There's no hope. Meng Siqi pretended to show his disgust towards him.

Zhao Lei Ting took a big bite of the cake and made a phone call to the landline next to the stall. The call was back to the bureau. While eating the cake, he explained the situation here to the Korean team.

After hanging up the phone and paying the coins, Zhao Leiting said, "It's too late today. I'll take you home. The Korean team asked the bureau to check You Shenghua's home address. We'll go investigate tomorrow morning."

In the car, Zhao Leiting said: "The Korean team just praised you."

"Really?" Meng Siqi didn't believe it.

"Why would I lie to you? The Korean team said that you have a good eye and can find the truth in the subtleties. You have a bright future!"

Meng Siqi rolled his eyes at him and said, "You are so good at making it up!"

Although she said this, Meng Siqi was very happy in her heart. What if the Korean team really said that? She would be very happy to hear the Korean team's praise. She would be promoted to a regular member. She wished the Korean team would praise her every day.

After getting off the car, when she just walked into the yard of her house, she heard loud talking and laughing from the living room, as if there were several people inside.

As soon as she entered the door, she saw people playing mahjong around a table in the living room, making a crackling sound. Among them was her brother Meng Tingzhe, and her mother Ye Xiuhui was standing behind Meng Tingzhe, watching the game.

There were two men and one woman, about the same age as Meng Tingzhe. One of them was wearing a suit and tie, with neat and stylish hair and a sharp face. He was playing mahjong with one hand and holding a cigarette with the other.

When he spoke, his expression suddenly froze, and his eyes were fixed on Meng Siqi. Burned by that gaze, Meng Siqi tucked in her windbreaker unconsciously. She usually wore casual clothes after get off work.

At this time, the others seemed to have noticed someone coming into the room. The thirty-year-old woman playing mahjong half-opened her red lips and smiled brightly: "Who is this beautiful lady? Tingzhe, please introduce her."

At that time, another man also turned around, his pupils shrank slightly, "Could this be your sister? It turns out that she is even more beautiful in person."

Meng Siqi felt a little embarrassed by the compliments. She thought she might as well smile back and go upstairs.

However, Meng Tingzhe said to the man in a suit beside him, "Brother Sheng, my sister is Meng Siqi."

The man in a suit named Brother Sheng kept staring at her, slowed down his movements, took a long puff of cigarette, raised a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, and nodded with an ambiguous tone.

Ye Xiuhui stood at the back with a smile on her face, waving at Meng Siqi, "Hey, Siqi, come here, these are your brother's friends, they came to visit us today, come and say hello."

Meng Siqi was not someone who would ignore the occasion. She walked forward and smiled, "Welcome!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment after hearing such a simple sentence. Ye Xiuhui felt that the atmosphere was a little cold, so she said hurriedly, "Let me introduce you. This is President Jiang. He is from Jinyang, oh no, in our province..."

"Mom," Meng Siqi interrupted her politely, "I just chased the murderer and I'm a little tired. I'm going to rest first. Sorry everyone!"

"Hey, Siqi!" Meng Tingzhe took out a box from under the table, "I bought this for you, a scarf!"

"Thank you." Meng Siqi still felt that it was best not to cause any unpleasantness in such an occasion, so she stepped forward and took it.

Just as she was about to leave, she was stopped by the voice of the man in a suit: "Ms. Meng, please stay."

He slowly put out his cigarette in the ashtray, fished out a silver box from his pocket, took out a business card, slowly stood up halfway, and presented it with both hands, "My business card, Jiang Sheng!"

This action seemed to have a special symbolic meaning. At the moment when Meng Siqi hesitated, Ye Xiuhui smiled and said, "Siqi, why don't you take it quickly?"

Meng Siqi put down the scarf box, took his business card with both hands, and said, "Sorry, I'm still in the internship period and don't have a business card."

"You're welcome. Keep in touch when you're free." Jiang Sheng's tone was tender, with an ambiguous light flashing in his eyes.

"Okay, if you have any difficulties, you can call our police station at any time."

There seemed to be something wrong with this sentence. Jiang Sheng's expression froze for a moment before he slowly smiled.

The expressions of the other couple at the card table were also a little frozen, but the smiles on Ye Xiuhui and Meng Tingzhe's faces faded a lot.

When Meng Siqi just went upstairs, she vaguely heard the man downstairs laughing: "Brother Sheng, this is the first time you have encountered a nail."

"I'm sorry, my sister is like this. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you all." Meng Tingzhe said with a smile.

"I really like this kind of personality." The woman said with a smile, "Look, Mr. Jiang likes it too."

There was a lot of noise downstairs, but as soon as Meng Siqi closed the door, he could no longer hear anything.

Early the next morning, Meng Siqi could still smell cigarette smoke when she went downstairs. She didn't like the smell of cigarettes very much.

She took the steamed bread from the table and said, "Aunt Chang, I won't eat at home this morning. I have to go to work."

"Hey, isn't it still early?"

"There's a case."

At this point, Aunt Chang stopped trying to persuade her to stay and gave her a boiled egg before she left.

As luck would have it, Ye Xiuhui just walked into the living room yawning and shouted, "Meng Siqi, stop right there, you unruly thing... Hey, stop right there, I still have something to say to you... you idiot..."

Meng Siqi got up early today, but when she arrived at the police station, Zhao Leiting was already packing his equipment. He glanced at her and said, "Let's get ready. We found You Shenghua's address, in a town in Yangxi County."

Meng Siqi's first reaction was that the place was quite a distance away from Jinyang City, so it was not difficult to explain why You Shenghua lived in a hotel in the city.

"Are you ready?" After a while, Feng Shaomin came over.

"Okay, Brother Feng."

Meng Siqi also nodded. This time, her master was leading the team, so she got into the car with him. On the way, Feng Shaomin reminded them in a serious tone: "If You Shenghua is indeed a suspect, everyone should be more cautious today. Do not act without my order!"

Meng Siqi had already made a note of it. He turned his head and looked at her from the front row. "Did you make a note of it?"

"Remember the Master."

After the car left the city, it began to enter the mountainous area. Meng Siqi had learned that Jinyang City was not a wealthy city in the province, and many counties were located in the mountainous areas and were relatively poor. Transportation was a problem. This trip to Yangxi County was a daunting one for her.

Fortunately, she prepared a plastic bag in advance. On the way, she vomited once. Zhao Lei Ting said anxiously: "Do you want to stop and rest for a while?"

"It'll be fine after you vomit." Meng Siqi pretended to be relaxed, "Just drive your car!"

"Please keep some motion sickness medicine in your car next time," Feng Shaomin reminded.

Zhao Lei Ting nodded heavily, "Brother Feng, I will definitely not forget next time."