But the problem now was how to prove that the skeleton was Wang Xia.
For a moment, everyone was at a loss.
Just then, Detective Li walked over, holding a note in his hand. "Captain Hu, take a look at this."
Hu Jia took the note and saw a long passage written on it, but it all boiled down to a few words: "Wife, I'm sorry, I'll never hit you again."
There was no signature or date, but Detective Chen said that this note was found in Liu Li's closet. It was assumed that this note was written by Wang Yangang to his wife Liu Li.
"Hit his wife?" Lü Qingqing pondered, could Liu Li's death be related to Wang Yangang?
Thinking of this, she also recalled the brotherly relationship between Wang Yangang and Wang Yanlin. Could it be that Liu Li discovered something and was silenced?
If there was no clue from Wang Yanlin's direction, why not investigate Wang Yangang? Perhaps by digging into him, the whole case would be solved.
Lü Qingqing shared her thoughts with everyone present, and they all found it feasible.
Thus, Wang Yangang was listed as the prime suspect.
"Did you write this guarantee letter?"
"Mm."
"Did you, a police officer, hit your wife?"
"A few times."
After some questioning, Wang Yangang admitted to hitting people, but he denied killing Liu Li.
Wang Yangang said that he entered the town yesterday afternoon. Since the winery in town operated during the day, deliveries were usually made after closing hours.
Yesterday evening, at 8:30 PM, Wang Yangang started his deliveries and did not return. His next-door neighbor could testify to this, as he had greeted the neighbor when he left.
This meant he had a solid alibi.
Hu Jia scratched his head. Could there be such a possibility?
Although Wang Yangang and Liu Lin had recently married and appeared to be very much in love, Wang Yangang actually had a habit of domestic violence.
Even though Wang Yanlin had written a "no more hitting his wife" guarantee, everyone knew that some people, when impulsive, would hit regardless of guarantees or even a gun pointed at them.
So, yesterday, Wang Yangang and Liu Li had another conflict. Liu Li, in anger, returned to Huayan Village, and Wang Yangang also returned.
The two began to fight again as soon as they disagreed.
As a result, Liu Li was completely defeated. In the fierce conflict, Wang Yangang accidentally strangled Liu Li to death. To falsify the alibi, Wang Yangang rushed back to town, deliberately pretending to make deliveries, and specifically greeted the neighbor to get an alibi. In reality, Wang Yangang did not make deliveries but returned to the village to burn the body.
Since the room door was locked when Liu Li died, it was clearly a crime committed by someone familiar. Secondly, burning the body but not the house might be out of fear of escalating losses.
To verify the truthfulness of Wang Yangang's words, they only needed to question the store from which he claimed to have made deliveries.
This task fell to Guan Jinsong, a young and swift lad.
Soon, Guan Jinsong brought back news. Wang Yangang was indeed making deliveries that night, and he did not have time to commit the crime. However, according to people in town, Wang Yangang and Liu Li's relationship had been in serious trouble recently, and they often argued.
And in their arguments, a title often appeared: "Second Brother!"
Second Brother?
Could it refer to Wang Yanlin?
This was an even more important clue.
After all, a woman alone at home would not let an unfamiliar man enter, and Wang Yanlin happened to be an acquaintance.
However, faced with such an accusation, Wang Yanlin cried out his innocence.
"I met with Officer Lü yesterday afternoon, and then I went out to town."
Wang Yanlin also went to town?
Seeing that no one believed him, Wang Yanlin gave a detailed explanation. He said that the new year was approaching, and with the Spring Festival nearing, many places needed temporary workers. So, he took the opportunity during his delivery rounds to look at many job postings.
To prove his words were true, Wang Yanlin detailed the requirements on each job posting.
He said the first shop was a carpentry shop at the entrance of the town, but their job posting stated an 8-hour workday, which Wang Yanlin thought was too time-consuming.
Then there was the second shop, about 300 meters from the carpentry shop, a grain and oil store, but they required loading and unloading goods at midnight, which Wang Yanlin felt did not match his schedule, so he gave up.
There was also a clothing store in the middle of town, but they only hired women, and then...
Wang Chenglin listed seven or eight shops in a row. To prove he wasn't lying, Guan Jinsong went to town again. He checked the job postings at each location Wang Yanlin mentioned, and found that the content of the job postings was exactly as Wang Yanlin described.
If Wang Yanlin had indeed gone to town, it would take a considerable amount of time to look through all of them.
Moreover, Wang Yanlin said that because he stayed in town too late, he slept at a friend's house and only returned this morning, which was also confirmed by Guan Jinsong.
Uh.
Alright, Wang Yanlin and Wang Yangang both had alibis, so this lead seemed to be cut off.
However, Guan Jinsong had a different opinion: "If they weren't at the scene, is it possible they hired someone to kill?"
After all, why those "knife-wielding people" came to Huayan Village was still a mystery, and they likely came to accomplish something.
And from the time they arrived until they left, only one incident occurred in the village: Wang Yangang's house caught fire, and Liu Li was burned to death.
"But didn't those 'knife-wielding people' say they did nothing? And Luo Wenwu has woken up, and he also admitted that he didn't see those people take any action," Zhan Ruoxuan raised a doubt.
Hu Jia pondered for a moment: "There were no less than ten people in that group. It's indeed unlikely to deploy ten people to kill one woman."
Hearing Hu Jia say this, Guan Jinsong felt a little discouraged.
Indeed, who would deploy ten men to kill a defenseless woman?
"But!" Hu Jia's tone shifted, "We can combine this case with the skeleton case."
Hu Jia said that if Wang Yanlin hadn't become a police officer, it meant someone had replaced him. And Aunt Luo had said that Wang Xia had said ten years ago that he was going to join the army, but he returned a year later.
If he had really joined the army, he would definitely not have returned after a year, unless he was a deserter.
Since Wang Xia was not pursued as a deserter, he might have impersonated Wang Yanlin to become a police officer.
However, for some unknown reason, he was eventually killed.
And the killer was likely Wang Yanlin, as he was the last person to see Wang Xia.
And this matter might have been known by his sister-in-law Liu Li, which led to her death.
"These are all my speculations, but..." Hu Jia wrote everyone's names on the ground, and finally connected each name to Wang Yanlin's head, "Wang Yanlin is the only one connected to both cases. Therefore, he must be investigated!"
"And Tong Meng, what role did she play in this?" Tong Meng had always been a thorn in Lü Qingqing's side.
It was like, you knew the other person was guilty, but you just couldn't find any evidence against her.
It was very frustrating.
Zhan Ruoxuan pouted, "Hmph, since she went to Wang Xia's old house, she's definitely connected to Wang Xia's affairs. Once we find out how Wang Xia died, she'll naturally reveal herself."
"You seem to hate her a lot," Lü Qingqing said with a smile. "What's wrong? Still resent her for hitting you before?"
Zhan Ruoxuan leaned against Lü Qingqing, "Guess!"
Cough, cough!
Hu Jia coughed twice, his eyes shooting towards Zhan Ruoxuan like cold arrows.
Zhan Ruoxuan's mouth twitched. This petty man really didn't deserve our Qingqing's magnanimity.
However, a good man doesn't fight with a jealous man. Zhan Ruoxuan turned to Guan Jinsong again, "How about you guess?"