The landlord arrived. He was a tall, thin middle-aged man. He was bald.
“Hello, police officer.”
The landlord handed a cigarette to Old Zhang.
Old Zhang did not pick it up. Instead, he took out the camera and placed it in the landlord’s palm, showing it to him.
The landlord’s face immediately turned green with fear. At first, he thought that the police were here to check on the fire hazards or to investigate the identity of the migrant workers. He did not expect the police to find this.
“What is this?” The landlord wanted to deny it.
Not everyone could win an Oscar award after all. His acting skills were definitely not up to that standard.
Moreover, facing the police on the Internet wasn’t as significant as when a real police officer in a police uniform stood in front of you. Any normal person would feel a little apprehensive, let alone someone with guilt?
Zhang Yanfeng saw through the landlord’s lie at a glance. He immediately said to Little Cao who had followed him, “Capture him. Don’t allow him to contact his family. Also, get someone to search his residence.”
As he said that, Zhang Yanfeng extended his hand and pointed at the landlord. He lowered his voice and said, “If we find out that you have this video on your computer or somewhere else, do you know what the consequences will be?”
Zhang Yanfeng himself was not very clear about the specific consequences. This was because the domestic law was somewhat vague in this regard. Many cases were settled through negotiation of compensation even if the victim involved the police.
However, this did not stop Old Zhang from pretending to be an expert to create psychological pressure on the landlord.
If this matter were to spread, compensation would be a small matter. It would result in a huge loss of face. As expected, the landlord could not take it anymore. He grabbed Zhang Yanfeng’s hand and said, “I was wrong. I was blinded by the lard. I was wrong… I was wrong…”
“Why are you so stupid, landlord? You are so shameless!”, The female tenant next to him started scolding him.
“Alright, we will handle this matter. I will take him away first.”
Zhang Yanfeng was not here to handle any small camera issues. He was here for the murder case.
“Officer, you can’t let him off so easily!”
“I have it under control. Wait for our notice.”
As he said that, Zhang Yanfeng dragged the landlord out of the room.
The landlord was kneeling on the ground almost kowtowing to Old Zhang. He kept begging Old Zhang not to spread the news, and not to let his wife know.
“Let me ask you something…”
“Officer, I have a clue to report!”
Zhang Yanfeng and the landlord spoke at the same time.
“You go first.” Zhang Yanfeng nodded.
“I installed this for a reason. I really didn’t do anything dirty. Honestly, you have to believe me.”
“A reason?”
“Yes, there is a reason. Two years ago, I had a tenant named Xia or Wang Chunhua who went missing. I installed this camera because of this matter. This was for the safety of the tenants.”
‘Who was he lying to? For the safety of the tenants? Why didn’t he put the camera in the corridor instead? Did he put it in the bathroom because he was worried that the tenant would slip and fall while taking a shower?’
However, Old Zhang was not in a hurry to scold him. Instead, he asked, “Xia Chunhua? Do you know about Xia Chunhua’s disappearance?”
Zhang Yanfeng grabbed the landlord’s neck and roared, “Tell me everything. What else do you know?!”
The landlord was stunned for a few seconds before he immediately nodded.
“I have a video. It’s at my house.”
“…”
Zhang Yanfeng brought Little Cao to the landlord’s house. The landlord lived a little further away. It was a three-bedroom apartment with a living room.
Upon pushing the door open, the landlord’s wife could be seen cooking in the kitchen. She walked out wearing an apron when she saw that someone had returned.
“This is…?”
“This is the police. I’m assisting the police in investigating some matters regarding the tenants,” the landlord explained quickly.
Zhang Yanfeng nodded. The focus was on investigating the case. He did not mind covering for the landlord first.
In fact, he would not mind encouraging the landlord and the tenants to settle matters privately with compensation if the landlord could provide sufficient valuable clues. This would prove to be more beneficial to the tenants than going to court.
The landlord would not be afraid of boiling water once the matter was made public but that won’t be the case if the matter was not made public yet. The landlord would try his best to pacify the tenants with compensation to silence the matter.
This did not mean that Zhang Yanfeng was bending the law for personal gain. According to his experience, most of these victims were more than willing to receive some practical compensation. If you forcefully dragged the landlord to expose him to the law, the victim would not appreciate your kindness and despise you for meddling in their business.
Everyone entered the landlord’s study. The landlord’s wife brought tea and left. Zhang Yanfeng asked Xiao Cao to stand at the door. The landlord then turned on his computer with relief. He clicked into the folder.
“Here is the video from October 2016. It’s precisely because of this incident that I placed a camera in the tenants’ room. However, I didn’t tell them because I was afraid that they wouldn’t understand my good intentions. I was afraid that they would misunderstand…”
“Shut up and open the video,” Zhang Yanfeng commanded. The landlord’s excuse was too lame. ‘How did you have the video of Xia Chunhua’s accident if you only placed the cameras after?’
The landlord opened the video. The video wasn’t particularly clear. Perhaps the landlord’s camera from a few years ago wasn’t advanced or high-end. However, the video showed the general situation quite clearly. At the very least, it was much clearer than ordinary cameras.
They were here to see the incident scene. There was only a pile of black and white dots mosaic. What was there to see?
A woman was taking a bath in the scene. The video would occasionally show the woman’s face. Zhang Yanfeng carefully studied her face and called Little Cao to take a look. Little Cao confirmed that it was Xia Chunhua!
He continued to watch. He watched for twenty minutes!
Zhang Yanfeng lowered his head to look at the progress bar. He realized that there were twenty more minutes left.
“She took such a long bath?”
“That’s right. These tenants take long baths to prevent themselves from being at a disadvantage because the water fee is shared equally. They don’t economize. Otherwise, won’t they be taken advantage of if others use too much and they use too little?”
“Fast-forward!” Zhang Yanfeng urged.
Although this was a physical evidence scene, Zhang Yanfeng and Little Cao did not have any thoughts of blasphemy in their hearts. After all, the deceased was still the most important. It was better to skip some scenes.
The woman who was currently taking a bath in the scene had been killed and buried by the riverside two years ago. She had died without any news. It was inexplicably heartbreaking.
The landlord started to fast-forward to the 37th minute of the video. He had watched this video many times. In the video, a man in a raincoat suddenly appeared. He covered Xia Chunhua’s face and dragged her out of the bathroom.
This man must be the murderer!
However, the man in the video was wearing a big mask that completely covered his face.
“Why didn’t you f*cking call the police at that time?” Zhang Yanfeng scolded.
“I’m not sure if something bad happened…”
“She didn’t even take her things away. She just disappeared. How can you be sure nothing happened?”
“What if she had a sugar daddy and ran away? The lock at the rental house wasn’t broken.”
“F*ck you!” Zhang Yanfeng kicked the landlord’s body to the ground. He didn’t dare to make any noise.
Outside the door, his wife seemed to have heard the noise. She ran over to knock on the door and ask what was going on.
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. Go do your thing!” The landlord immediately shouted.
Zhang Yanfeng knew very well that this b*stard landlord had been worried that the fact that he had secretly recorded the incident would be exposed if he called the police. Therefore, he chose to remain silent about a life that might have been harmed!
“Time. Tell me the time.”
Zhang Yanfeng replayed the video and looked at the time. There was a note in the video that said it was 3:20 pm on October 24, 2016. He started to recall the layout of the low-rent housing that he had visited before.
The murderer buried the body. This meant that the body was taken away after he killed Xia Chunhua. Regardless of whether he took the living or the dead, the target of such a big person was very obvious.
“Xiao Cao, let’s go. Follow me back!”
Zhang Yanfeng ignored the landlord who was still sitting on the ground. They left him behind.
Zhang Yanfeng let Xiao Cao drive him back to the entrance of the low-rent house. However, Zhang Yanfeng did not go up this time. Instead, he turned his head and looked at a construction bank beside the corridor.
“The murderer must have brought the victim down. This low-rent house only has this one corridor. The murderer must have entered and exited from here at that time. On October 24, 2016, after 3:20 pm, the murderer might have brought the victim out from here!”
“Let’s go. Follow me to this bank to retrieve their surveillance footage.”
“Ah, would the bank agree to let us retrieve the surveillance footage so quickly?”
“The bank isn’t a Didi.”
“Oh, that’s true. But it’s been almost two years. Could the surveillance footage have been deleted long ago?”
It was normal for surveillance footage in many places to be deleted once every three months or half a year due to memory capacity.
“The People’s Bank of China’s rule seems to be half a year, but most other banks will maintain two or even three years of video backup. This is to tie in with the Statute of Limitations of Civil Litigation.”
Zhang Yanfeng brought Little Cao into the bank and showed his ID card. He requested to see the surveillance video archives. At the same time, he explained that the matter was urgent and that the necessary procedures would be handled later.
The bank did not make things difficult at all. They immediately expressed that they would fully cooperate with the local police in handling the case.
The video was pulled out on the computer in the surveillance room shortly after. Zhang Yanfeng requested that it be played in double-speed mode at the time of the incident. When the surveillance time reached 3:40pm, Zhang Yanfeng decisively called for a stop. “Rewind it a little and play it slowly!”
The screen rewound and began to play it frame by frame. On the screen,
at the entrance of the corridor, an old man appeared. The old man was dressed as a renovation worker, and he was carrying a snakeskin sack.
“Enlarge!”
The screen was enlarged. The bank staff in the monitoring room were not professionals. There was no way to restore the image clarity. However, Old Zhang immediately recognized the guy when the screen was enlarged. The guy took off his mask and carried down a sack with a cigarette in his mouth.
It was the old man. The last old man who died! He should have been controlled by Gui Yu at that time.
Old Zhang let out a long sigh. He knew who the real murderer was. The reason why he continued to investigate was to find evidence. Here was the evidence of the old master’s exoneration!