RTEW Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Painstaking Investigation

In the conference room, representatives from all groups were present. He Wei was organizing the clues from the fatal fall case. The detailed autopsy report had come out, and the results were consistent with the preliminary findings at the scene—the deceased was indeed pushed off the building while conscious and alive. It was an out-and-out murder case.

He had blunt force trauma on his back and defensive wounds on his left forearm. Based on the degree of subcutaneous hemorrhage and bone fracture damage, it was inferred that the injuries were caused by a cylindrical metal rod, similar to a baseball bat. Although it didn’t cause lacerations, the striking surface of the metal bat might have retained some of the victim’s skin tissue.

Trace examination results showed that the loose thread on the button found on the rooftop was cotton fabric, and the partial fingerprint belonged to the deceased, Chen Lei; after comparison, it was confirmed to be his right thumbprint. The partial shoe print on the step, the heel print near the base of the wall, and the set of fingerprints on the railing all belonged entirely to the deceased.

“This looks like it was premeditated for a long time. Was the killer wearing gloves and shoe covers while committing the crime?” Chong Zhen raised a doubt.

Zheng Youqing nodded: “It’s possible. Almost all the physical evidence we collected belongs to the victim, including that air vent. Didn’t Xiaoxiao go up to take a look? She didn’t collect any fingerprints either.”

“But there was hair,” Yun Xiaoxiao turned sideways to complain to Zheng Youqing. “I picked it out from among the dead bugs!”

“Although it’s disgusting, Xiaoxiao, reality is cruel,” Zheng Youqing handed the lab report to He Wei.

He Wei opened it, took a look, and paused slightly: “Synthetic fiber?”

“That’s right,” Zheng Youqing shrugged. “It wasn’t real human hair, so it doesn’t possess any biological information. It’s a wig.”

“The rope marks found on the exterior wall are all old; they were likely left behind from repairing the AC units in the past. The killer didn’t come up from the outside wall,” Hu Songkai added.

Xia Liang raised his hand: “I’ve watched the surveillance footage going back three days. I haven’t found any suspicious behavior from the hotel’s employees or guests. The deceased’s last phone call was to his wife at eight o’clock; the rest were all work-related communications. There was no sign of conflict with anyone.”

A brief silence fell over the conference room. He Wei stood up, picked up a marker, and began organizing the currently grasped information on the whiteboard. There was no biological evidence from the killer whatsoever, not even a shadow was seen. This person was as elusive as a ghost on a rainy night, invisible and untouchable.

“Actually, it’s not surprising. An elderly person is unlikely to be agile enough to crawl into an air vent,” He Wei tapped the whiteboard with his index finger. “The killer possesses a certain level of counter-reconnaissance ability and didn’t leave us anything useful. But this just makes it more challenging, right?”

The people in the conference room exchanged blank glances. No, we just feel like we have no clues. We don’t treat solving cases as a hobby and cannot resonate with Captain He.

“Xiaoxiao, Chong Zhen.”

The two called out responded. He Wei instructed them to take two teams out—one to investigate Chen Lei’s social connections, and the other to investigate if anyone matching the characteristics of the haunted old man could be found.

“A meticulously planned murder like this definitely has a hidden backstory. Comb through all the villages within three kilometers of the hotel; don’t miss anything.”

Little Chen from the tech team knocked on the door. The examination results for the deceased’s clothing, sent over by Luo Ying, were out. The tear marks on the collar were artificially caused, and the scratch marks on the back matched the rust on the railing. Combined with the defensive wounds on the left forearm, it was enough to deduce the scene of Chen Lei struggling before falling from the building.

“What about that partial shoe print?” Hu Songkai asked. “Did he try to run away during the struggle, and only after putting half a foot on the step did he realize it was the roof? That wouldn’t be escaping; that would be seeking death.”

“We can discuss this during the throwing experiment,” He Wei capped his marker. “Go borrow a dummy of similar height and weight from the police academy, and let’s go back to the scene. Lan-jie, if you’re not busy this morning, you can come with us.”

After the meeting, Hu Songkai, He Wei, and Du Ruanlan walked to the parking lot together. Hu Songkai asked: “Are you driving or am I?”

“Whatever.”

“Why hasn’t Old Zheng assigned you an assistant yet? You have to do everything yourself,” Hu Songkai suddenly thought of something and came to a realization. “Oh, wait, that’s not right. This morning I saw Miss Zheng sticking to you and bringing you things again. Old Zheng is definitely doing this on purpose! He’s creating opportunities for his daughter, wanting to recruit you as a son-in-law.”

He Wei told him to stop talking nonsense. Zheng Youqing had fair skin and was beautiful; she was the apple of the Municipal Bureau Chief’s eye. So many people were wearing out the threshold trying to court her, how could it ever be his turn?

Hu Songkai grabbed his arm: “Don’t disbelieve me! Really, I genuinely feel Old Zheng has this intention. If you become the Chief’s son-in-law, your future prospects will be limitless!”

Du Ruanlan listened with great interest and patted He Wei’s shoulder. “Youqing is gentle, cute, and pretty. She’s not a bad match for you.”

“I don’t have that kind of blessing,” He Wei was already in the car. Starting the engine, he reminded them, “Seatbelts. Hitting your head doesn’t count as a work injury.”

————

He Wei and Hu Songkai were on the rooftop, dressing the dummy in a shirt and dress pants identical to the deceased’s. Du Ruanlan was downstairs, waiting to observe the dummy’s falling posture and the distance of the landing spot.

“The deceased was near the drop point, was attacked from behind, and then turned around, raising his arm to block,” Hu Songkai grabbed the dummy’s left arm and lifted it. “He wanted to escape, stepped onto the step, realized there was nowhere to run, and was casually pushed down by the killer?”

“In life-or-death situations, based on survival instincts, the judgments most people make are the most advantageous ones,” He Wei took the dummy over. “I actually think the defensive wounds occurred first. The deceased struggled with the killer, tearing off a button, and then wanted to call for help over the railing, only to be attacked from behind again.”

The dummy’s hands gripped the railing, posed as if hanging over it. Hu Songkai snapped his fingers: “The killer wanted to push him down, and he was struggling! He stepped up to find a pivot point!”

He Wei nodded and simulated the scene with Hu Songkai once more. After pushing the dummy down, Du Ruanlan’s cold voice crackled over the walkie-talkie: “Incorrect. The landing point is off; it’s in front of the flowerbed.”

The dummy was brought back up. Hu Songkai tried a different method—instead of pushing the back, he grabbed it by the neck and threw it down headfirst. The landing point was still wrong, with an even greater deviation.

He Wei stroked his chin: “He lifted one foot as a pivot point, right? If the suspect—as we’ve tried—couldn’t push him down from behind, nor lift him and throw him down, there’s only one method left.”

Hu Songkai understood again. This time, he hugged the dummy’s other leg, lifted it, and tipped it over the edge. He and He Wei looked down together. After inspecting the landing, Du Ruanlan gave an “OK” gesture. This was exactly how the person fell; the minor data deviation was negligible.

Hu Songkai wiped the sweat from his forehead. “It looks like the killer is male. It wouldn’t be easy for an average, petite female to flip a grown man over in this posture.”

The hotel was closed for business today; only the security guard was on duty patrolling. The hotel owner, Pan Pinghai, was a middle-aged man in his fifties with a buzz cut, dark-skinned and skinny. He was the deceased’s cousin-in-law (husband of a cousin-aunt) and came to ask about the progress of the case on behalf of the relatives.

“You’re expecting the case to be solved in just a few hours?” Hu Songkai sized him up. “Why didn’t you come last night?”

Pan Pinghai hurriedly explained that he had gone out of town and had just returned that morning. He was severely shocked when he got home and heard his nephew had an accident at the hotel.

While Hu Songkai asked some basic questions, He Wei called the security guard surnamed Li over. “How was the relationship between your boss and the manager usually?”

“The boss doesn’t come around much. Our hotel was entirely managed by the manager,” Security Guard Li said mysteriously. “But a few days ago, they had an argument in the office. I heard the boss cursing at the manager; it seemed the accounts didn’t match.”

“Chen Lei was embezzling funds?”

Security Guard Li shook his head. “I wouldn’t know about that. I’m just a lowly security guard; how could I know about the leaders’ little schemes?”

He Wei smiled, and the security guard returned an honest, simple-minded grin. Hu Songkai finished his questioning and headed back with He Wei. On the way, the two exchanged opinions. The mention of the financial conflict meant they could perhaps dig deeper along this line.

Back at the bureau, Xia Liang reported that he had watched the surveillance footage from a week ago and finally found something wrong.

“Captain He, look,” Xia Liang pointed at the screen, which was split into two sections. “The left is from before April 7th, and the right is from April 7th to today. Does it look a bit different?”

He Wei narrowed his eyes and quickly spotted the difference. The area illuminated by the camera had slightly deviated. Although both just looked like a stairwell at first glance, careful observation revealed that the camera after the 7th had shifted to the right.

“I have a habit of paying attention to edges and corners when looking at things. When I got to the 7th, there was suddenly more of the stair corner visible at the bottom. Only by comparing them did I realize the camera had been tampered with.”

He Wei reached out and patted the top of Xia Liang’s head. “Not bad. Young people really do have good eyes. Is it like this on every floor?”

Xia Liang nodded. Every floor was the same; they had all been shifted a tiny angle to the right.

He Wei grabbed his jacket. Hu Songkai had just returned from the convenience store with a bottle of a drink and had barely unscrewed the cap when He Wei snatched it away: “Er-hu, we’re going to the hotel again.”

After saying that, he twisted off the cap, took a sip, and frowned. “Why did you buy peach flavor? It’s so sweet.”

“…Fuck, did you learn this habit of casually robbing people from that bandit Heng next door?!” Hu Songkai said venomously. “I already drank from that!”

He Wei glanced at him, his look making it obvious he had no intention of responding. Without wasting any more words, he took him and Xia Liang back to the Shengshi Grand Hotel.

Seeing the police car return, the security guard scratched the back of his head. “Comrade Police, why are you back again?”

He Wei locked the car. “It’s nothing. Just borrowing your security room for a bit.”

———

He Wei and Xia Liang were in the security room looking at the monitors, while Hu Songkai was in the stairwell, pressing tightly against the wall, trying to figure out how wide the camera’s blind spot was.

“Er-hu, a bit more to the left. Yes, pull your head back a bit more. What posture are you in right now?”

Pressed tightly against the wall, Hu Songkai struggled to hold the walkie-talkie. “I’m completely plastered against the wall right now, like a gecko. Going downstairs in this posture is too exhausting. But if someone was very familiar with the terrain, they could probably move very fast.”

“Finish walking down one floor first.”

A minute later, Hu Songkai walked from the first floor to the second floor, and his figure never appeared on the surveillance monitor. Security Guard Li, watching the excitement from the side, exclaimed in amazement: “Mother of God, you can hide like that?! It’s my first time seeing it!”

At this point, the suspect’s modus operandi could be preliminarily determined. He Wei jotted down a few key pieces of information: Male, short stature, has a certain martial arts foundation, highly familiar with the hotel’s internal layout, meticulous, and possesses counter-reconnaissance abilities.

Yun Xiaoxiao and Chong Zhen’s investigative visits had also yielded clues. Upon returning, they both spoke at the same time: “Major discovery.”

“Xiaoxiao goes first.”

“Yes,” Yun Xiaoxiao opened her palm-sized notebook. “Chen Lei’s family relations were not harmonious. His wife, Wang Cui, has a lover on the outside. According to neighbors, they often had rendezvous while Chen Lei was working the night shift. Last night, a black Buick was parked at the intersection near his house—it belonged to that lover.”

“Did you find out whose car it is?” He Wei seemed to remember something. “When we went to the hotel, we saw a black Buick.”

Yun Xiaoxiao nodded. “Captain, you guessed right. Wang Cui’s lover is the hotel owner, Chen Lei’s cousin-in-law, Pan Pinghai.”

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