Chapter 40
Wang Wei probably feared taking responsibility, so his face looked unhappy. Fang Hao said, "Manager Wang, don't be nervous. We want to find these two people. Do you know where they are now?"
Wang Wei immediately explained the whole story.
It turns out that when the peak season comes and there is a shortage of manpower, the logistics department will recruit some local people for logistics, cleaning, security and other work, pay them daily wages and use them flexibly.
The deep mountains behind the Heili Peak are adjacent to Jiangxi Province, and there are still large areas that have not been developed. Transportation is inconvenient, and there is no conclusion as to how those mountains will be developed in the future. The travel agency does not have extra staff to go over the mountains and maintain some useless small attractions.
Now that the National Day is approaching and there has been a lot of rain in Xiangcheng this year, Wang Wei wants to recruit a few temporary workers to live in the mountains to guard against mudslides or insects and animals that destroy the original ecological attractions.
Shangren and Luolong went to the most remote mountain. Half a month ago, Wang Wei sent someone to drive the two people to the foot of the mountain, and they climbed up by themselves. There is a wooden house that belonged to the old forest ranger on the mountain. They can just carry their daily necessities up there. Since the signal is poor in the deep mountains, they agreed to receive monthly wages. When the time comes, they will take a few photos of the maintenance of the mountain attractions and come to the logistics department to collect their money.
During the previous interview, Wang Wei saw that both of them were tall and strong, and the salary they offered was low. There was nothing to steal except a bare mountain and an old wooden house, so Wang Wei just looked at the resumes of the two men. It's been less than a month and the two sides have not contacted each other.
Fang Hao immediately asked Wang Wei to lead the way, take everyone with him, and drive to the old mountain.
Even in the Heili Peak Scenic Area, the straight-line distance is not far, but it still took an hour and a half to drive along the winding mountain road to get there. When they arrived at the mountain, everyone was stunned.
There were several heavy rains in the mountains in the past two days, but there was no problem in the core scenic area outside, so no one knew the situation in the uninhabited areas deep in the mountains.
Now, the only country dirt road in front of them, which was only wide enough for one car to enter and exit, had long disappeared. A muddy stream more than ten meters wide rushed past the road. The huge rocks and soil were piled up like a small mountain, making it impossible for cars and people to pass through.
"Is there any other way?" Fang Hao asked anxiously.
Wang Wei answered hesitantly, "No. There used to be an abandoned road that crossed the river with a stone bridge. But the bridge was destroyed by a flood two years ago and has never been repaired. Otherwise, we have to take a detour over the mountains, which would take a day or two."
"Take me to see that stone bridge!"
The group walked along the mountain road for a while and came to a small river.
The stream is about seventy or eighty meters wide. There is a single bridge in the river that was built with huge gray-white stone slabs in an unknown era. But now, the stone slabs have been broken into pieces, and the widest break is more than ten meters wide. This is exactly the narrowest bend of the river, the water is very turbulent and there are many reefs.
Fang Hao has very rich experience and he can tell at a glance that even speedboats are in trouble. Besides, it was already dark. If we mobilized the speedboats to transport them in and made a long detour, it would probably take almost the same time as it would to open the road. It would also be dangerous to sail at night. So he said decisively: "I will immediately apply for support to open the road."
——
It was nearly ten o'clock in the evening, but the lights in the Public Security Bureau's conference room were brightly on.
Today is the second day of the Qian Chengfeng case and also the second case analysis meeting. Each group reports on their work progress and the criminal police team determines the next direction of investigation.
Not only are all the backbone members of the second team present, but also people from all major supporting departments. Team three captain Fang Hao is on his way back.
Ding Guoqiang glanced at his watch and said, "Let's not wait for Fang Hao, let's start first."
Fang Kai first reported the situation to Xiang Siling: from the 300 people who were similar to the portrait selected by the system, Xiang Siling finally identified three people who were most similar to the suspect she saw that day, and she said she was relatively confident.
It made sense to the experienced criminal police that Xiang Siling could not identify the suspect with 100% accuracy - at a murder scene, a normal person would be extremely tense, not to mention that she had to protect her children and must avoid angering the suspect. According to common sense, she would not have the opportunity to take a close look at the suspect's appearance.
The projector showed pictures of three men.
The first one is Luo Long. The other two men did look similar, but upon closer inspection, they were slightly different. One has a wider chin, the other has lighter skin.
Fang Kai said: "According to our investigation, the two men behind had definite alibis on the day of the incident, and they were strangers to Qian Chengfeng, so they can be ruled out as suspects. Only Luo Long should be the third person who did live broadcasts with Qian Chengfeng and Liu Huaixin back then. Moreover, he has been missing on the day of the incident and at present. Chen Pu is responsible for investigating Luo Long's specific situation, so I will not go into details."
There were fewer people attending the meeting today than last time. Li Qingyao and Chen Pu came in together and sat on the chairs behind him, only a foot away. She was holding a pen to take notes when Chen Pu turned around, put his arm on the back of the chair, glanced at her seriously and said, "Li Qingyao, report."
Li Qingyao stood up and answered, "Yes."
She opened the investigation record book and began to introduce Luo Long's situation. Including his life story, family situation, criminal record; the core evaluation of him by the prison warden and his cellmates; his relationship with Shangren; and his whereabouts after he was released from prison.
The content was complicated and fragmentary, but Li Qingyao's organization was very clear, his sentences were concise and accurate, and his voice was soft and pleasant, so no matter what he said, it felt like he was telling a story. Everyone had printed survey records in their hands, and they were all attracted unconsciously and looked up to listen to what she said.
Ding Guoqiang was sitting there, distracted for a moment, thinking that next time if he needed a spokesperson to deal with reporters or take pictures for promotional posters, Li Qingyao would be a good choice. In the past, he thought Chen Pu had a good image and wanted him to go, but Chen Pu refused and thought it was embarrassing. What a terrible disciple.
After Li Qingyao reported these objective investigation results, she was about to change the topic and say, "But we think..." When someone knocked on the door, she was interrupted.
Ding Guoqiang: "Come in."
Fang Hao walked in in a hurry, covered in dust. He said to Ding Guoqiang, "Boss, I'm sorry to be late. Hei Lifeng hasn't finished his work yet."
Ding Guoqiang waved his hand and said it was okay.
An old detective asked, "Fang Hao, where did you roll with all this?"
Fang Hao's seat was next to Chen Pu. He threw his police hat on the conference table and said, "Don't mention it. Boss, I've confirmed with the person in charge of the scenic area that Luo Long and Shang Ren went there as temporary workers half a month ago and lived in Laoshan to guard the forest. It rained heavily in the mountains a few days ago and the road was washed away. The armed police and the road administration department have been contacted and they are repairing it. My people are still guarding over there to help, and this outfit is also for helping with the work. It is estimated that the road will be open early tomorrow morning, and then we will go into the mountain to arrest people."
Everyone was excited after hearing this. Ding Guoqiang smiled for the first time that night and said, "Okay, thank you for your hard work."
Fang Hao then glanced at Chen Pu and said, "Thank you, it's all thanks to the clues found by your team 2."
Chen Pu raised his eyebrows, and the two men performed the same fake smile.
"It's a small matter." Chen Pu said, "It's not worth thanking. It's all for investigating the case."
Someone asked: "Could those two people have already run away?"
Fang Hao replied: "It's possible. Then we can only flee to the mountainous area in the direction of Gan Province. No matter what, we have to get into the mountains first."
"It seems that the murderer must be Luo Long." Someone said while smoking a cigarette, "The time and place are ready, and he is familiar with the terrain of Heili Peak. He became a forest ranger just to kill people."
This statement was echoed by the majority of people. Fang Hao also said: "It is definitely the case, there is no doubt about it."
Ding Guoqiang said, "Okay, everyone be quiet for a moment. Li Qingyao, please continue."
Li Qingyao, who was still standing, glanced at Chen Pu calmly.
Chen Pu remained sitting sideways and glanced at her. His expression was still indifferent, but the index finger on the armrest of the chair was slightly bent inward and pointed at himself.
Li Qingyao understood what he meant: whether he should be the one to draw the next conclusion.
Fang Kai's arrival interrupted Li Qingyao's report, and changed the direction of the situation at the scene, making everyone tend to believe that Luo Long was the murderer.
However, Chen Pu and Li Qingyao were the ones who investigated Luolong, and they were the only ones who had the most in-depth knowledge of many situations. It is reasonable for others to judge that Luo Long is the murderer based on the existing objective clues.
As a junior investigator, Li Qingyao will feel pressured in his next report and may face more doubts.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Chen Pu, because he is very familiar with singing a different tune. How nice it is that I can slap Fang Hao in the face today.
However, Li Qingyao did not respond to Chen Pu. She lowered her eyes and began to speak. The first sentence she said was to praise others: "I agree that Luo Long and Shang Ren are of great importance to this case. Opening up the mountain road and catching these two people are the keys to solving the case. Thank you for your hard work, Team Leader Fang!" When she said this, she gave Fang Hao a sweet smile, the kind of smile that young people would give to their senior counterparts, a slightly cheerful and cheerful smile.
Fang Hao felt happy and nodded to the generous and sensible team leader with a smile. He caught a glimpse of Chen Pu beside him from the corner of his eye, and felt even more disgusted.
Chen Pu listened and thought, it’s happening again. However, saying a few tactful and objective words could reduce the pressure she faced. Chen Pu felt that this was her own ability.
"However..." Li Qingyao changed the subject, his tone soft but firm, "We believe that there are still great doubts about Luo Long being the murderer. The main reasons are the following five grounds:
1. Height. Based on the footprints at the scene, it was estimated that the murderer was at most 175cm tall, but Luo Long was only 184cm tall.
2. Economic ability. After Luo Long and Shang Ren were released from prison, they had no source of income and were extremely poor in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation. Shangren uses an old-fashioned phone, while Luolong doesn't even have a mobile phone and even asked his parents for money to buy one. How can two people like this afford guns? Where to buy a gun?
3. Personality traits. Both Luo Long's criminal history and his performance in prison over the past five years reflect that although he is somewhat clever, he is essentially an impulsive and irritable person. His several imprisonments were all related to crimes of passion. This is contrary to the planning, purposefulness and meticulousness shown by the murderer in this case. Luo Long doesn't have this kind of crime style. ♂
4. Luo Long is a sex criminal. Not only was he sent to prison for rape, he even couldn't help harassing the single girl who lived upstairs. How could he face such a beauty like Xiang Siling without reaching out for her? Not only did he not reach out his hand, but from Xiang Siling's entire confession, we can see that during the 35 minutes that the two of them were together, Luo Long did not have any thoughts in that regard at all. This is not in line with Luo Long's character.
5. Motivation. While in prison, Luo Long once boasted about his two college friends to his cellmates. There was never any mention of hatred in the conversation. On the contrary, he was proud of their obedience. It is easy for a person to conceal something for a while, but it is difficult to conceal it for five years. I think what Luo Long revealed in prison about his relationship with Liu Huaixin and Qian Chengfeng is true. He did not hate them and had no motive to kill them.
The above is the main basis for us to believe that Luo Long is not the murderer in this case. ”
The meeting room was quiet for a while, and then discussions began to arise. Many people nodded, thinking that what Li Qingyao said made sense; some people fell into deep thought; and some people frowned or shook their heads, including Fang Hao.
Ding Guoqiang seemed to have anticipated this scene. As usual, he would ask his favorite troublemaker apprentice to come out and calm the situation: "Chen Pu, don't shrink back, what do you say?"
Chen Pu was about to speak and everyone fell silent.
Chen Pu smiled and said, "I'm not backing down, Captain Ding. I can't tell you everything. We have to give young people a chance. In my opinion, Luo Long is definitely not the murderer. He lied to Xiang Siling. She was at the crime scene that day and saw the murderer. She even spent 35 minutes with the murderer in front of the corpse. But every word she said was false. She described the suspect to us based on Luo Long's appearance. He was not the person she saw with her own eyes."
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