Chapter 16 ①
The case meeting was about to begin. Li Qingyao had been busy all morning and his mouth was dry and his eyes were dry. He picked up the cup and ran to the tea room to make tea.
She had just washed the cups when someone walked into the tea room, and their tall shadow blocked the light from the door. She turned around and saw Chen Pu and blinked.
Chen Pu didn't even say hello to her. He walked to the tea table with two boxes of tea tucked under his armpits and a gray-black porcelain cup with a wide mouth and gold rim in his hand. He took out the two boxes of tea and threw them next to the pile of tea, chrysanthemum and wolfberry jars that everyone had put.
The tea was found by Chen Pu at home early in the morning.
Li Qingyao immediately leaned over and took a closer look at the words on the tea box. Oh, it was an old brand of Baihao Yinzhen. This box cost over a thousand.
Chen Pu had a gloomy face and went to wash the teacups.
Li Qingyao: "As the boss, you put the tea here to let everyone who sees it get a share?"
Chen Pu was rinsing the bottom of the cup with his head down: "Nonsense, it was given to me by someone else. It's almost moldy when I keep it at home."
Li Qingyao picked up the box and took a look. It was clearly this year's new tea! With a smile on her face, she opened a box, poured a little into the cup, and carefully sealed the tea bag.
Hot water poured into the cup, and the tea leaves were full and green, with a faint fragrance. Li Qingyao took a deep sniff.
Chen Pu squinted at her greedy look, sighed in his heart, and walked to the tea table with the cup in hand. His eyes fell on a simple paper bag of tea leaves beside him: "Is this the tea you brought?"
"Well, it's not a famous brand, but my uncle stir-fried it, and it's pretty good."
Chen Pu frowned and seemed to hesitate for a moment before he grabbed her bag of tea and poured it into the cup. This person's hands seemed to have no control over their weight, and he poured out half a cup of tea in one go. He didn't care and picked up the cup and poured hot water into it.
Li Qingyao was stunned: "Do you eat it as a meal?"
Chen Pu leaned over and took the cup of water with one hand, and raised his eyelids: "Can't bear to part with it?"
Li Qingyao held the teacup in both hands and shook his head: "I just thought of an idiom."
"What?"
Cow chewing peony. Li Qingyao had a well-behaved smile on his face: "It's worth it."
Chen Pu didn't expect her flattery to be so shameless. He finally smiled and said, "I told you not to do that." He took the full cup of tea and walked away briskly.
——
Only one day and one night had passed since the night of Liu Huaixin's death, but the work in the four reconnaissance directions arranged by Chen Pu had basically come to an end.
On Fang Kai's side, the person in charge of the Zhang Liangwei investigation has already concluded that Zhang Liangwei has nothing to do with this murder case. His abnormal behavior at the crime scene was mainly due to the anonymous letter and his suspicion of Liu Huaixin. However, there has been no progress in following this clue to investigate the anonymous letter - Fang Kai has organized people to compare the handwriting of more than 60% of the teachers and students of No. 29 Middle School, but no match was found. Who wrote the anonymous letter and who the insider was remains a mystery.
Yan Yong reported the results of the physical evidence investigation: the autopsy further confirmed that Liu Huaixin died of excessive blood loss, the fatal injury was the wound on the wrist, the body had no other internal or external injuries, and had not taken poison, the cause of death was clear and unique. What’s important is that the results of the on-site DNA and fingerprint test comparison came out. There were more than a dozen people, including several colleagues of Liu Huaixin, including Zhou Cen, Gao Jichang, Fang Chenyu, etc., and Zhang Liangwei’s fingerprints were also among them. In addition, there are fingerprints of several of Liu Huaixin's relatives, distributed throughout the house - this is consistent with Liu Huaixin's daily social circle, and does not mean that these people are suspects. In addition, only Liu Huaixin had fingerprints on the suicide note, pen, fruit knife, bathtub, recorder and machete.
The third line is the crime scene monitoring and personnel investigation, which Zhou Yangxin is responsible for. The building where Liu Huaixin lived had six floors and 42 households. At the time of the crime, 14 households were empty. Of the remaining 28 households, 16 were excluded because they did not know Liu Huaixin and had no motive to kill him, leaving 12 households. Among these 12 households, 10 are school teachers and 2 are senior high school students who rent the houses. Gao Jichang and Fang Chenyu also live in the same building, Fang Chenyu lives on the first floor and Gao Jichang lives on the fifth floor.
Finally, there is the Zhang Xiyu case line which is in charge of by Chen Pu and Li Qingyao. Li Qingyao printed out all the transcripts from yesterday and distributed them to everyone. After reading the transcript, everyone was a little surprised - it turned out that the information prepared by Li Qingyao was different from that of others. She wrote the previous formal transcripts according to the format, with clear logic and facts. But at the end, she also attached a few pages of paper, which recorded every detail, objectively, and without any subjective judgment, including the clothing, accessories, office environment, etc. of each person she interviewed. These even include the Apple Watch worn by Sun Haochen, the bookshelf and lighter in Gao Jichang's office, and Fang Chenyu's brand-name shirt.
Because these people were only questioned and not suspects, it was impossible for the police to take photos and record these things. Soon people realized that with these seemingly useless details recorded by Li Qingyao, those who did not go to the scene could also have an immersive and intuitive impression.
"That's a good idea." Fang Kai smiled slightly, "Xiao Li, thank you for your hard work."
Yan Yong was amazed: "This is several thousand words, you are really good at writing."
Li Qingyao just smiled shyly: "I'm a newcomer, so I can only start early. I don't know if these are useful, so I just wrote them down. If I do something wrong, please give me some advice."
Everyone looked at her with more loving eyes.
Only Chen Pu looked numb.
"Okay." Chen Pu said, "Everyone's information is synchronized. Now let's talk about how to arrest people next."
Some people seemed to be thinking about something, while others looked at each other in bewilderment - does Chen Pu mean that they can catch the person today?
Everyone took out their black notebooks and pens, ready to take notes. Li Qingyao also received a black leather notebook this morning, but she felt that the tip of the pen was not fine enough and the ink was not smooth enough, so she continued to use her own light blue translucent fountain pen. Chen Pu's eyes quickly swept over her pen and he began to call out people: "Lao Fang."
Fang Kai touched his chin and said, "I think the most clear and valuable results of the current investigation are the fingerprints in Liu Huaixin's home. It can be concluded that the murderer did not clean the scene. Then, there are only a dozen acquaintances' fingerprints, which point to two completely different possibilities: First, the murderer is among these dozen people, and the fingerprints he left at the scene on the day of the crime are also mixed in with these fingerprints. It is even possible that he also understands this, so he did not clean the scene; second, the murderer is not an acquaintance of Liu Huaixin, and has never been to his home before. He has a high degree of anti-reconnaissance awareness and did not leave any fingerprints. I personally tend to the first possibility."
Everyone nodded. Fang Kai has always been the most reliable person in the team except Chen Pu. He is mature and prudent by nature. If he doesn't speak, he must be sure of his decision before speaking.
"I agree with Fang Kai's opinion. The murderer is among those dozen or so acquaintances." Yan Yong spoke up second. "The surveillance camera at the entrance of the building where the crime occurred did not capture any suspicious persons entering or leaving. The crime occurred at dinner time, when 12 households were at home and had interactions with Liu Huaixin's daily life. If the murderer was among them, he could easily leave the scene, flee back home, and escape surveillance."
"How many people overlap on the two lists?" Chen Pu asked.
Yan Yong quickly compared the information and answered, "There are six people in total, all men: Fang Chenyu, Gao Jichang, two other first-year high school teachers: Xu Fangming, Zhao Ruiyun, and two parents of third-year high school students: Qian Yuanling and Wu Xuefeng."
However, Zhou Yangxin seemed to like to go against Yan Yong. He put the black notebook on the table and said, "Although I also tend to believe that the crime was committed by an acquaintance, I am responsible for the surveillance, so I have to sing two different tunes: First, although the current investigation shows that the 16 households other than these 12 households have no connection with Liu Huaixin and have no motive for murder. But after all, we only investigated for one day, and if there is a deeper motive, it is possible to miss it; second, the building has only one entrance and exit, but there is a small road behind the building and no surveillance. It is not impossible for the murderer to escape from the lower floors. Of course, both possibilities are very small."
Yan Yong said angrily, "You still say it's very unlikely? Our police force is limited. We can't check every direction. It will take forever to find out! Do you know about the 80/20 rule?"
Zhou Yangxin, a new copyist, looked very thin and hard under his black T-shirt: "Whether to investigate or not is one thing, but leaving no trace of the part I'm responsible for is another."
Chen Pu spoke up and made the final decision: "Zhou Yangxin is right, everyone should learn from him. I have noted these two points, are there any others?"
Everyone was talking about it, and based on the physical evidence, many people agreed that the crime was committed by an acquaintance. At least now, we have the list of suspects, right?
Li Qingyao wrote down every key point they said in his notebook, and before he knew it, he had drawn a picture of the intertwined relationships. He was biting the tip of his pen and frowning in thought when he heard Chen Pu say, "Li Qingyao, stop being a quail."
Li Qingyao looked up and saw Chen Pu staring at her... mouth with a look of disgust?
Li Qingyao realized it belatedly and spit out the pen, and everyone fell silent.
Last time, during a short meeting at the crime scene, Chen Pu arranged the direction of the investigation. This newcomer only said one thing to Chen Pu: The deceased committed suicide. Although her reasons sounded reasonable, they were obviously contrary to the general direction of the investigation. Now Chen Pu has personally led her to investigate the case for a day, and everyone also wants to hear how important this top student from the provincial department is.
Li Qingyao put down his notebook and pen, placed one arm on the table, let the other arm hang down, overlapped his palms, his ten fingers were white and slender, and his back was straight. Among a group of droopy and rustic criminal police, he was like a simple and elegant little white crane. She said: "I also agree that it was an acquaintance who committed the crime. The third person at the crime scene, Zhang Xiyu's lover, was between Fang Chenyu and Gao Jichang."
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