Flower Museum Headless Dismemberment Case (10)
In the interrogation room, Meng Siqi and Zhao Leiting conducted a new round of interrogation. Li Muxiao was interrogated for most of the day. Meng Siqi could see the annoyance on his face. He seemed very unwilling to cooperate, so he answered many questions weakly.
When Meng Siqi asked him what he was doing on the morning of March 26, he said, "I've told you many times that I was sleeping and I was not feeling well. I only heard about the museum incident at noon."
With an annoyed tone, he reached out and touched the chain hanging around his neck inside the collar, touched it and put it back into the collar.
"You said you heard about this at noon. How did you get to know it?"
Li Muxiao lives alone. Meng Siqi knew about the search. It was a very poor environment, with no TV or radio. She thought she could get some details out of him.
"Officer, are you trying to say that I don't have any listening equipment and I can't hear such big news? If you go out for a walk, everyone knows that something happened in the museum. If you buy a bun, the owner will say, 'A headless female corpse, chopped into pieces, it's too tragic.'"
Obviously, these details were not that difficult to fill in. Perhaps his logical chain had been questioned countless times throughout the day and was interlocked seamlessly.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Meng Siqi had already gone beyond the interrogation line suggested by Lu He. She just felt that this case might not be so big that it would damage the image of the city. What if it was just a revenge between a boyfriend and girlfriend?
When she asked this question, she clearly noticed a different light in Li Muxiao's eyes. He should have hated all the questions today, but this question might be the first time he encountered it, so when he was asked, his mood changed. He did not look weak and perfunctory as before, but calm. This was not the calmness when facing the questioner, but the calmness he longed for.
He opened his mouth and said, "No."
Although Meng Siqi did not believe it, such private matters could only be confirmed through field visits. Of course, field visits might not reveal the truth, as many boyfriend-girlfriend relationships might be more obscure. Another type of relationship is unrequited love, which might only exist between one party and be even more difficult for others to detect.
Meng Siqi had no problem with it. She looked at Zhao Leiting, and he shook his head as well. The interrogation ended. She wanted to take the confession with her to discuss the next strategy with Lu He.
Lu He was in the office and had already compared the previous confessions. When he saw Meng Siqi and Zhao Lei Ting coming over, he immediately brought two chairs for them to sit down.
After Meng Siqi sat down, she deliberately observed Lu He's table. It was spotless and had a desk lamp on. When she was close, Lu He's unique wood smell made her feel familiar and friendly, and also a sense of calmness.
Lu He took Zhao Leiting's notebook and compared it with their interrogation statements. His eyes were calm and sharp. After a while, he put down the notes in his hand, turned around and said, "There are no loopholes. Li Muxiao's confession is very solid. However, what do you think about the last question?"
Meng Siqi knew he was talking about the "girlfriend" issue, and she said, "I just wonder if this case has something to do with the relationship between a man and a woman."
In fact, no one thought about it in this way from the beginning. Lu He pursed his lips and looked at Meng Siqi.
They had experienced many things together. Meng Siqi could sense the tenderness in Lu He's eyes. He said slowly, "It's possible."
Meng Siqi nodded and gave Lu He a faint smile in return. Seeing that Lu He seemed to be lost in thought, she stood up and left without discussing further, fearing to disturb his train of thought.
Lu He looked at her thin back and had a different feeling. He remembered the scenes of her going away from him again and again, as if what he saw was not real.
It seemed as if Meng Siqi had known him for a very long time, just like a long river of time, which suddenly passed through his mind, but she was the bright star in this long river.
He is a person who is very indifferent to emotions. He has no plans to fall in love or get married. In his life plan, perhaps these are all optional questions, but when Meng Siqi mentioned the word "emotion", he thought about the word itself. He would not have thought about this word originally, which made him feel stunned, as if he was in another world.
However, at this moment, an urgent "road team" at the door brought him back to reality.
Before Meng Siqi walked out of the door, she met Lin Mingjia from the Information Department again. Lin Mingjia's expression was the same as last time, nervous and anxious, with a letter in her hand. After saying hello briefly to her and Zhao Leiting, he went straight to Lu He.
Meng Siqi turned around, worried that the same thing would happen again.
Lin Mingjia handed the letter to Lu He, "Captain Lu, the suspect has sent another letter."
Most of the team members except Luo Xiaoguo were there. They all stood up immediately, looking nervous.
Meng Siqi walked back quickly. Lu He frowned slightly and handed her the letter. The words written on the paper shocked her again: Let him go, Officer Lu! I'm still waiting for you!
"He" must be Li Muxiao. The handwriting on this piece of paper is almost the same as the previous letter. Has the detained Li Muxiao been acquitted? Is the real suspect still out there making trouble?
Lu He asked, "Did anyone see the messenger?"
There is a referendum mailbox at the entrance of the Municipal Bureau. Since there are no cameras, it is difficult to detect who passes by there. However, this time Lu He specifically asked the Information Department to arrange people to conduct surveillance.
Lin Mingjia said: "There are no suspicious people."
Lu He understood that there were no suspicious people, which meant there was no one who looked like the suspect, but that didn't mean the suspect wouldn't ask someone to deliver a letter, such as his relatives or friends, or find a random passerby and promise him a favor, or find an ignorant child. These were all ways of delivering a letter, so the suspect must have made careful arrangements.
"Lin Mingjia, tell Lao Cao to contact all the major newspapers immediately and make sure the suspect doesn't leak information through the newspapers."
"Okay, Team Lu, I got it. I'll report it right away."
Lu He stood up and quickly walked towards the crime board, saying in a serious tone: "Listen up, everyone in Team One. Activate the emergency plan and start a new round of investigation on the suspect!"
Lu He walked to the crime board and was immediately surrounded by a group of people. Lu He picked up a piece of chalk and quickly crossed out some information to indicate that these clues were outdated or only related to Li Muxiao.
He circled several more messages to indicate that clues needed to be followed up. He immediately assigned tasks and everyone followed his orders. Finally, he looked at Meng Siqi and said in a deep and powerful voice, "Meng Siqi, Zhao Leiting, try to find clues about the suspect's purchase of flowers as soon as possible."
"Okay, team road." The two responded.
With a nervous mood, Meng Siqi left the office. Not only was she nervous, but she also felt uneasy. Almost half of the time to solve the case had passed, and the suspect was not only at large, but he had also repeatedly provoked the police station.
She didn't even dare to pay attention to the newspaper news. Now not only the newspapers, but even the Jinyang City TV News Network were constantly updating the museum murder case. If the bureau hadn't done a lot of work, the suspect and the information at the scene would not have been leaked.
But this does not mean that it is safe. Once a threshold is reached, perhaps more information or even the arrogance of the suspect will be unable to resist spreading. By then, the whole city will be in panic.
In Lu He's eyes, the information about the flower purchase address must be very important, and she must find the clues as quickly as possible.
That evening, she and Zhao Leiting started checking the flower shops around the museum one by one. By around nine o'clock, the flower shops were closing one after another, so the two had to go home and continue the search the next day.
The next day, they continued their investigation. In the morning, in a flower shop, Meng Siqi found several similar flowers. If she could match them one by one with the flowers on the suspect's cart, she would undoubtedly have found an important clue. She quickly asked, "Madam boss, do you have all these flowers?"
She showed her a piece of paper she had written in advance. The proprietress, who was about 30 years old, took it, looked at it, and replied: "Champagne rose, violet and... none of these are available." She pointed with her finger.
"Is it not today, or has it never been?"
The lady boss replied: “Never.”
"Okay, thank you."
At this time, a couple came to buy flowers. Meng Siqi deliberately said, "Madam, please talk to them first, and I will think about it."
"Okay, you two can take a look first." The proprietress responded with a smile and went to serve the couple.
Zhao Leiting picked up a solitary daisy, sniffed it and asked, "Do you want to ask about the situation?"
She deliberately lowered her voice: "I was just wondering if it was possible that the suspect bought the flowers other than the champagne roses and violets from somewhere else, so I wanted to ask her."
Zhao Leiting also replied in a low voice: "That's true. If I were a suspect, buying so many flowers at once would easily arouse suspicion."
After the couple bought the flowers, a new customer came and Meng Siqi waited for a while. Although she was in a hurry, she still tried not to disturb other people's business. The flower shop was not large and the proprietress should be a young mother. Maybe every business was an important supplement to the family's finances.
After seeing off the couple, the lady boss asked with a smile, "Have you two made up your mind?"
"It's like this," Meng Siqi said apologetically, "We are from the Municipal Bureau. We are not here to buy flowers today."
She was about to take out her police ID, but Zhao Lei Ting acted quickly and showed it to her.
The proprietress's smile froze for a moment. She stretched out her arms in a gesture of welcoming customers, then unnaturally lowered them, her palms pressed against her white apron. She asked cautiously in a dry tone, "Is there something wrong with our store?"
"Please don't misunderstand," Meng Siqi hurriedly comforted her, "It has nothing to do with the flower shop. We are here to ask you something."
"You say it."
"Did a thin man, about 175cm tall, between 20 and 35 years old, come to you this week and buy the flowers I mentioned?"
The lady boss seemed to be thinking seriously, and after a while, she shook her head, "No, I don't have many kinds of flowers here, and customers usually buy one or two bouquets, so if they buy seven or eight kinds of flowers at a time, it would leave a deep impression on me."
"Is it possible that you bought it several times?" Meng Siqi continued to ask.
The lady boss thought about it and shook her head again: "Except for Women's Day on March 8, there were more people buying flowers. After that, there were no more people coming to buy flowers multiple times."
Today is March 20th, and it has only been a dozen days. Meng Siqi believes that the proprietress should not have remembered it wrongly.
She then asked: "Are there any customers who bought champagne roses and violets at the same time? Do you remember it?"
The proprietress shook her head slowly: "No impression." She looked through the account book again and found multiple records of customers buying these two kinds of flowers at the same time, but she had no impression of the suspect's appearance.
After saying goodbye to the flower shop, the two discussed on the street. Zhao Leiting had a new idea, "Siqi, we have been looking for a flower shop. I wonder if it is possible that the suspect got the flowers from inside the company. If he is an employee of the company, it should not be difficult for him to take a batch of flowers away."
Meng Siqi thought about it carefully and realized that it was possible, but if the flowers were taken from the company, the risk of the suspect would be higher. She decided to take two steps, continuing to investigate nearby flower shops and the company at the same time.
Zhao Leiting quickly called the company and asked them to check the delivery records. The two of them continued to visit the flower shop.
The two visited for a day and found that the situation in other flower shops was similar to that of the flower shop owned by the young proprietress. There were always a few kinds of flowers missing, which meant that they did not find any useful clues.
The next day, the manager of the Hoh Xil Tourism Company called back and said that he was busy before the exhibition and didn't pay much attention to it, but there was no news of any company items being lost. It seems that this connection is broken.
In the afternoon, they found a larger flower shop, but it was ten kilometers away from the museum and beyond the original investigation range.
After matching the flowers on the list one by one, Meng Siqi found that there was a kind of flower that she couldn't find no matter how hard she tried, and she hadn't seen it in the flower shop before. She quickly asked the clerk in the flower shop: "Why don't you sell this kind of flower?"
The female clerk picked up her list, took a look at it and said with a smile: "This kind of flower doesn't have a particularly good meaning, so not many people buy it, so our flower shop doesn't have it prepared."
Meng Siqi looked at the four words "white rose flower" again and again. She really didn't understand the language of flowers. She had never thought that the eight flowers on this list had a language.
Zhao Lei Ting was equally puzzled. Both of them had no experience in love, let alone buying flowers as gifts. Besides, there was no way to know the meaning of some flowers unless you looked them up in the dictionary.
The female clerk seemed to see what the two were thinking, and pointed to a flower language picture on the wall with words on it. She said, "Look, the main flower language of our flower shop is written on it."
Meng Si looked up and saw that there were about 10 to 20 different flower languages on the map. White roses symbolize purity and true love; violets symbolize eternal beauty and love... and so on. The meanings of flower languages are all very beautiful, and they are nothing more than beautiful symbols of love, friendship, and family affection. Since the flower shop did not sell hibiscus flowers, there was no such flower language on the map.
"What is the meaning of the white rose flower?" Meng Siqi asked.
The female clerk replied: "The beauty of the end!"
The beauty of the end of life? Meng Siqi had never thought that people at the end of their lives could still be beautiful. The strong contrast of these words and the sadness made her feel as if she had discovered a secret.