Chapter 96: Chapter 43: Burglary (Please subscribe, bookmark, and vote)_2
"Yes, a homicide occurred here in District Six, a cement factory worker was killed at home. We currently suspect it’s a robbery and murder. Please come over quickly," Zhao Donglai responded.
"Okay, I’ll be right there." Upon hearing about the homicide, Luo Fei’s expression immediately turned serious.
After hanging up the phone.
"What’s wrong?" Yang Mei asked with concern when she noticed Luo Fei’s serious expression.
Luo Fei replied, "There’s been a homicide in District Six."
"Beep beep beep." Yang Mei’s phone rang as well.
"It’s from my uncle." Yang Mei told Luo Fei while answering the call, indeed it was about this matter.
With a homicide occurring, watching the movie was out of the question.
Luo Fei and Yang Mei left the cinema, each hailing a cab separately. Luo Fei headed directly to the crime scene, while Yang Mei first returned to the criminal investigation team to gather tools.
Within ten minutes, Luo Fei arrived at District Six, Building Ten, Apartment 888.
Yellow police tape surrounded the outside of the house, with two local officers maintaining order, and seven or eight neighboring onlookers outside the tape.
"Criminal Investigation Team, Luo Fei." Luo Fei approached the caution tape, showing his credentials to the officer who was about to stop him. He then opened the tape to enter the house, only to notice the peephole on the security door was slightly askew, suggesting that someone had removed and replaced it.
After pondering for a few seconds, Luo Fei entered the room.
Inside the room were Zhao Donglai, team leader Yang Su, and three local officers.
The most shocking sight in the room was the blood splattered everywhere, staining the entire space. On the floor, coffee table, and sofa, bright red bloodstains painted a horrifyingly gory picture.
On the sofa beside the coffee table lay a blood-drenched figure, clad in a POLO shirt. The shirt was now torn and tattered, soaked into a deep red by the blood.
"Captain, team leader." Luo Fei greeted Zhao Donglai and Yang Su, yet his gaze fixated on the bloodied figure on the sofa, a familiar person.
Cheng Zhiyou, for sure, the middle-aged man who won ten thousand bucks in the lottery at the square during the Spring Festival. With Luo Fei’s memory and vision, he couldn’t be mistaken.
"What is it? Do you know him?" Noticing Luo Fei’s expression, Zhao Donglai inquired. Luo Fei then mentioned how Cheng Zhiyou had won ten thousand yuan during the Spring Festival.
"Yes, it’s him." Zhao Donglai nodded.
"Sob sob." From the bedroom on the right side of the living room came the sound of low sobbing.
Luo Fei looked puzzled towards the bedroom.
"That’s the victim’s son," Yang Su explained.
"Captain Zhao, Team Leader, what’s the situation now?" Luo Fei asked.
Yang Su replied, "It was the victim’s son who reported it. The victim’s son came back at half-past five, opened the door, and found Cheng Zhiyou lying in a pool of blood, with the bedroom ransacked, and the prize money Cheng Zhiyou had won before was completely missing. Captain Zhao and I checked and found signs that the peephole of the security door was tampered with, leading us to suspect the perpetrator entered through the peephole. It seems likely to be a robbery-murder case."
As Yang Su was speaking, Yang Mei arrived followed shortly by Wu Xiaoyue and the forensic team from the Technical Department.
The team started examining the crime scene for evidence, while Luo Fei began surveying the room.
Subsequently, Luo Fei went to the bedroom where the victim’s son was staying.
Upon softly pushing the door open, the bedroom revealed a delicate-looking young man sitting on the bed, with red, swollen eyes and a sorrowful expression on his face.
Nonetheless, Luo Fei’s face turned grim. Above the young man’s head hovered a dense black aura, within which a menacing figure lingered.
It was unmistakable; the young man before him was somehow involved in the murder.
But why would he kill his own father?
Was it for the ten thousand bucks?
Or was it hate? But what kind of hatred would drive a son to take a knife against his own father?
Confirming a connection between the young man and the victim’s death, Luo Fei didn’t immediately question the victim’s son but instead retreated back to the living room.
After that, more members of the criminal investigation team trickled in, under Zhao Donglai’s instructions, questioning the surrounding neighbors about the victim and any details from the day of the incident.
At apartment 886, Luo Fei, accompanied by Sun Jun and Wang Yong from Group Three, was gathering information.
"Ma’am, didn’t you hear anything last night?" Luo Fei asked a middle-aged woman in her fifties, considering that 886 was immediately adjacent to the victim’s apartment. Normally, when Cheng Zhiyou was stabbed, much noise should have been made, and she should have heard something.
"I really didn’t hear anything. Maybe I was in a deep sleep, and my hearing isn’t very good anymore with age. But what happened to Old Cheng is just too tragic. Yesterday, I met him at the door, and I even joked that he should treat us to dinner for winning the ten thousand yuan prize. I never imagined such a thing would happen overnight," the woman rambled on.
"Ma’am, was Cheng Zhiyou generally on good terms with his son?" Luo Fei continued.
"Not very well, it seemed that those two didn’t communicate much. And I’ve lived next to them for many years, yet I’ve never seen the father and son walk together outside," the woman replied.
Luo Fei: "Do you know the reason behind their relationship?"
Woman: "I wouldn’t know that; how would I know about their father-son affairs?"
Luo Fei: "When did Cheng Zhiyou’s wife pass away?"
Woman: "I remember Old Cheng’s wife passed when Cheng Wei was five or six years old. It was terminal cancer; she couldn’t be saved."
After inquiring with the woman from 886, Luo Fei headed downstairs to the seventh floor to question the tenants below the victim.
Before long, the forensic results from the Technical Department were ready.
"The victim suffered eight knife wounds—two on the arm, four on the abdomen, and two on the waist—but none were fatal. The actual cause of death was excessive blood loss. Judging from the blood footprints and splatters, the victim presumably entered the house and encountered the burglar. The suspect hadn’t expected the homeowner to return at that moment and, in a panic, stabbed the victim. The victim didn’t die instantly, instead attempted to fight back," Yang Mei reported on the forensic team’s findings.
"We discovered some scuff marks on the security door handle, and combined with the misaligned peephole, we suspect the perpetrator might have gained access through the peephole."
"However, it seems the suspect was wearing gloves because no fingerprints were collected on the scene. Fortunately, we found a set of shoe prints left by the suspect in the blood—size 44—and by analyzing the direction of the victim’s wounds, we’ve deduced the suspect to be approximately 1.8 meters tall," Yang Mei detailed the technical examination results.
Luo Fei frowned. He’d noted that the victim’s son was at most 1.75 meters tall, far from 1.8 meters. Additionally, when inspecting, Luo Fei had noticed the son’s shoe collection lacked size 44 footwear.
Thus, the actual murderer was likely someone else, but given the menacing aura above the son’s head, he might be an accomplice.
As an accomplice, the son could have handed the key to his accomplices to allow them to enter, leaving misleading evidence on the doorknob and peephole to divert police suspicion and clear the son’s name.
At eight in the evening, the Criminal Investigation Team held a meeting, with all members present except for two who were out of town.
The meeting aimed to address the recent murder case of Cheng Zhiyou.
For a murder to occur during the Spring Festival had severe repercussions. The station chief of Wucheng had already called twice, demanding the Criminal Investigation Team solve the case swiftly to minimize its impact.
The meeting stretched until eleven at night, roughly outlining the investigation’s direction.
Even worse, that evening, a news story trended online: "Ningjiang County Spring Festival Lottery Winner Brutally Murdered at Home, Suspected Robbery-Homicide, Public Safety in Ningjiang County in Question," featuring some blurry photos likely snapped by a spectator beyond the police tape and posted online.
As a result, in the middle of the night, Wucheng called Zhao Donglai again.
Following the homicide, the entire Criminal Investigation Team mobilized.
Early on the fourth morning, Luo Fei led Group Three to find the victim’s son Cheng Wei’s girlfriend, Zhao Yi.
According to Cheng Wei’s testimony, he claimed to have been with his girlfriend Zhao Yi all day on the day his father Cheng Zhiyou was murdered.