Wang Ke pushed open the bedroom door.
He saw Zhou Ze fast asleep on the bed. Bai Yingying and Lin Ke were lying on the mat next to the bed. They slept together under a quilt.
Wang Ke didn’t go in to disturb them. He closed the door gently. He turned around and went down.
Lin Ke immediately opened her eyes. Bai Yingying, who was beside her, also opened her eyes. The two girls lifted the quilt together and realized that they were scarcely clothed. They lifted Zhou Ze’s quilt and found their clothes hidden inside. They immediately put them on.
Boss Zhou slept soundly, not noticing anything. He was indeed tired.
“Why didn’t you lock the door?” Bai Yingying said.
“Wouldn’t it be more suspicious to lock the door?” Lin Ke retorted.
“It’s better than this.”
“He’s the father of this body of mine.”
“Your father-daughter relationship is really messy.”
The two girls tidied up. Lin Ke pushed the door open and walked down.
Wang Ke was sitting on the first floor reading a book.
Lawyer An and Old Zhang were standing at the door discussing something. Old Zhang was still holding his cell phone. It seemed that the police station had something to inform him about.
“You’re awake?”
Wang Ke put down the magazine in his hand and looked at his daughter who was walking down the stairs.
“Yes,” Lin Ke replied.
“School season is about to start. Have you had enough fun?” Wang Ke asked.
Lin Ke was stunned when she heard that. “Where’s my mother?”
“I brought her back with me. Her condition is stable now. There won’t be any problems for the time being.” Wang Ke looked around and said, “Are you used to living in the bookstore?”
“I’m quite used to it.”
“Do you still want to continue living here?”
“I’ll listen to what you say.”
“I think it’s better to go to school. Don’t be playful.”
“Okay, I’ll move back in two days to go to school.”
Wang Ke smiled and got up. He walked to Lin Ke’s side and wanted to touch his daughter’s head. Lin Ke took a step back and avoided Wang Ke’s hand.
“I’m not a child anymore. You don’t have to do that all the time.”
Wang Ke nodded. “My daughter has grown up.”
The conversation between the father and daughter was very simple. Wang Ke looked at the time and asked, “I’ll pick you up in two days?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll leave first then.”
“Okay.”
Wang Ke left and drove off in his car.
Old Zhang also left. The provincial special task force had called an internal meeting. All the relevant personnel had to attend. Old Zhang originally did not need to attend because he had already been separated from the special task force. Perhaps because he had just provided new information, he was also informed to attend the meeting.
Lawyer An stretched his back. He was ready to be a defense lawyer. Based on the evidence he had at hand, he was quite confident.
“Yo, why is your father leaving so quickly?” Lawyer An teased.
“He came to tell me that school is about to start.”
“He misses his daughter.”
Little Loli raised her head and looked at Lawyer An. She said in a deep voice, “I know.”
“It’s good that you know.”
Lawyer An twisted open his large thermos cup and realized that the coffee was about to run out again. He scraped up the rest.
Then, Lawyer An simply placed the bank card that he had intended to donate in the morning on the side.
“You’ll feel bad if you keep drinking your expensive coffee for free, won’t you?”
It was a pity that Boss Zhou was currently in a deep sleep. If he knew about this when he woke up, he would be so happy.
…
Zhang Yanfeng returned to the station and went straight into the meeting room. There were many people in the meeting room. After all, it was a big case that involved more than ten lives. Even the ministry was very concerned about it. Every detail and progress of this case affected everyone.
Zhang Yanfeng found a seat in the back row and sat down. He took out his notebook and prepared to draw a comic.
Zhang Yanfeng was not intentionally slacking off. He already knew the a-z of this case. He didn’t have much interest in listening to any more meetings.
In the extremely solemn atmosphere of the meeting room, Old Zhang felt out of place.
“The meeting will now begin. Officer Chen, please inform everyone of the latest developments in the case.”
‘Officer Chen?’ Old Zhang raised his head in surprise.
A female police officer walked forward.
Old Zhang glanced at her police rank. Tsk…
Then, he looked at her appearance. Tsk… Tsk…
Old Zhang closed his notebook and prepared to listen attentively.
Old Zhang was not daydreaming about unseemly things. His son was old enough to get married. Although he looked like he was only 30 years old now, Old Zhang had long passed the age where he could not move his legs even when he saw a beautiful woman.
He was interested because he had heard of this woman. She was famous in the provincial department. In the past few years, she has solved many big cases and gained fame.
It was common for men and women to be unequal in the workplace. This was the same in the police station. However, it was not because of discrimination in the true sense. It was because the job of the police was inherently more biased toward men. If women wanted to be the best here, they often needed to do better.
Each task force would have a few female police officers in TV series. It was not realistic. It was made up to attract the audience.
“I came a few days late and did not participate in the preliminary investigation with everyone. After I came to Tongcheng, I spent two days integrating the physical evidence and various clues. In the morning, Tongcheng City Bureau handed over a very valuable piece of evidence.”
Officer Chen wore a ponytail and stood on the stage valiantly. The projection screen behind her slowly opened.
“There is one thing I want to say. I took the time to take a look at the crime scene after that. It was indecently destroyed by someone. I hope that the person responsible for this will be held accountable.”
Everyone was silent. Her temper was really bad to directly pursue responsibility.
Old Zhang smiled in his heart. The crime scene was destroyed because his boss and the maid fought there.
“When I joined, I received news that everyone had basically accepted the suspect, Lu, as the murderer of this case. The suspect admitted it after he was arrested. However, the suspect has changed his confession in the past few days. I’m not surprised that he did so. In fact, it would be really strange if he insisted that he was the one who killed the person.”
“Everyone, please look at the picture behind me. This is a picture of the wound on the body of the deceased, Luo. The cause of death was excessive blood loss. However, I have personally identified these wounds. The wounds on the buttocks, calves, arms, and these few places were the result of a kitchen knife.”
“The suspect was holding a kitchen knife when he was caught at the crime scene. Everyone, please pay attention to the details of the wounds. I have done a 3D simulation. Everyone, please pay attention to the cutting pattern of these few wounds.”
Most of the people present were experienced police officers. At first, they might not think much of it. However, everyone’s expressions changed when the simulation picture came out.
“Does everyone feel that the position of the blade and the direction of the cut are very strange?”
Officer Chen made a cutting motion.
“Everyone try doing a simulation. Use your palm as the blade and cut a tendon on your calf. Now try the opposite. If you take a knife and cut a piece of meat on someone else’s body, the direction of the blade and the force used are different.”
“It might be a coincidence if it was only one wound. However, if most of the wounds are like this, then it can’t be described as a coincidence.”
“Officer Chen, what do you mean?”
“Yes, I think that the person who cut the victim’s body is not the suspect, Lu. It was the victim, Luo.”
The policemen were shocked. The victim cut off his own flesh?
“The murderer could have forced him…” a policeman suggested but he stopped midway. The murderer gave the victim a knife and let him cut off his own flesh? Wouldn’t the victim resist?
“There was no evidence of being tied up on the victim’s body. This means that the probability of the victim being in a state of freedom before he died is very high.”
“In addition, evidence shows that blood stains and fingerprints of the deceased were found in the kitchen’s seasoning pot and the gas stove.”
“It is very normal for the fingerprints of the deceased to be found on the things in the deceased’s home. However, none of the appliances in the kitchen have Lu’s fingerprints besides the knife in the suspect’s hand when the police arrived at the scene.”
“Lu was holding the knife and waiting for the police to arrive. He admitted that he had killed the victim at the beginning. It shows that there was no need for Lu to clean up his fingerprints. He had no such motive. Moreover, how could he simply remove his fingerprints but keep the victim’s fingerprints? Therefore, I believe that the victim cut off his own flesh and cooked it personally.”
“Finally, there are very clear fingerprints of the victim on the refrigerator. You can see this picture. I tried to follow the direction of the fingerprint and the details of further processing. We can deduce the victim’s movements at the time.”
“Although we found the suspect’s fingerprints on the outside of the refrigerator, we did not find them on the inside. However, we found the victim’s fingerprints there.”
“In the morning, colleagues from the Tongcheng district criminal police unit sent over a new piece of evidence. It was preliminarily confirmed that the dead Xia Chunhua with the serial number F was killed by the victim of this case, Luo, in 2016.”
“I came to the conclusion that the victim, Luo, was the real murderer of this serial murder case. The current suspect, Lu, didn’t have the motive to kill. Lu is old. He probably found the dead body because he went to Miss Lu’s place to look for his phone. He was mentally stimulated and had hallucinations.”
“You want us to inform the public that the deceased cut off his own flesh and then used his flesh to stir-fry vegetables. Then, he ate and chatted with Lu. Then, the deceased lay down in the freezer after Lu had left and died?”
“Officer Chen, do you think the public will believe such a report?”
“Will the public believe it?”
“How should we, the police, explain to the public?”
“We are police officers, not the foreman at the entrance of the clubhouse.”
“We only need to explain to the national emblem above our heads and to the truth that we have discovered!”
Officer Chen turned off the projector and continued, “Now, I suggest that the prosecution of the suspect, Lu, be dismissed due to insufficient evidence. In this case, Lu may very well be a victim. What did the serial killer trick him into coming to his home for? There’s no need to explain too much, right?”
“We locked the real victim in the detention center for such a long time. Lu has already suffered mental damage. If Lu’s condition worsened because of our custody, the police would need to explain!”