Animal Detective

Chapter 325 - 266: Grave Suspicion

A few minutes later, Chen Chao and his team, who must have been canvassing the area, rushed over.

After they arrived, they were relieved to see that Shen Xin and the others hadn’t acted yet.

They had to wait for Zhang Hancheng to get there before doing anything.

He pulled Shen Xin aside and questioned him thoroughly about the situation from beginning to end.

Just as Shen Xin finished his explanation, Zhang Hancheng arrived in a frantic hurry.

"This is promising."

Chen Chao gave Shen Xin a look and hurried forward to greet him.

There were more than ten people in the group, led by Zhang Hancheng.

Liu Baoqing and Ren Haiguang weren’t there; they were probably investigating elsewhere and couldn’t make it in time.

"Give me the situation."

Zhang Hancheng’s expression was stern, but he couldn’t hide the excitement in his eyes.

He was the deputy head of the special task force, and with a three-day deadline to solve the case, the pressure on him was immense.

How could he not be thrilled now that there was a breakthrough?

Shen Xin explained his theory regarding the suspect’s route during the initial pursuit.

Zhang Hancheng stood on an elevated spot, gazing down at the road below and the construction site in the distance.

He then turned to look at Shitang Mountain behind them and pulled out his phone to check the map.

He looked up at Du Yong and said, "Isn’t there a problem with the motive? After killing Huang Weili, why kill Xu Rulin too?"

Clearly, these old hands had immediately thought of the same issue.

Du Yong must have been pondering it as well. He said, "It can only mean that there’s a real connection between Xu Rulin and Huang Weili that we haven’t uncovered yet."

"Or there’s another possibility. Xu Rulin lied. He witnessed something he didn’t tell us about and perhaps decided to blackmail Hu Yueqin."

Zhang Hancheng thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, that’s not right. Do you remember the report? It said Zhao Cunyong was the last person to leave, and we confirmed that. So Xu Rulin couldn’t have witnessed the crime as it happened."

"Unless he left and came back. Or maybe he witnessed something before the crime, slowly pieced it together afterward, and that’s what got him killed."

"That’s not right either."

He continued to shake his head. "Look, Hu Yueqin hired a hitman. From Xu Rulin’s perspective, he wouldn’t have known that. We never released any case details to the public."

"So he would have no reason to suspect Hu Yueqin hired a hitman, decide to blackmail her, and then get himself killed as a result."

Du Yong nodded, his eyebrows knitting together even more tightly.

The logic didn’t add up.

"Let’s find the guy first," Zhang Hancheng said with a wave of his hand, signaling he was done thinking about it.

’Once we catch him and confirm he’s the suspect, we can ask about the motive. It won’t be too late.’

After speaking, he clapped Shen Xin on the shoulder and said with a grin, "Kid, you’re a real lucky charm."

In his view, solving a cold case that had been on the books for years definitely had to involve a bit of luck.

He didn’t say any more, leading his men straight to the project management office.

There were people in the project office.

A large crowd of plainclothes police officers swarming in gave them a start.

A quick check confirmed that there was indeed a man named Fan Lei.

He had been hired at the construction site over a month ago through a labor company.

That was right after the New Year, when the site had just resumed work.

He worked as a general laborer on the site.

Zhang Hancheng asked, "Don’t you all have access control systems now? You have to use facial recognition to enter the site. Check and see if he’s on-site right now."

The project manager quickly called someone over to check.

The result was that he was not.

There was no facial recognition data for Fan Lei entering or leaving today.

Nor was there any for yesterday, the day of the incident.

Checking further back, there was also no facial recognition data for him on the 19th and 20th.

Those days weren’t the weekend, and even if they were, the construction site wouldn’t close.

The only way to be absent was to take leave for personal matters.

Zhang Hancheng silently clenched his fists. The suspicion on Fan Lei was growing.

After a moment’s thought, Zhang Hancheng said, "Contact your dorm manager. Tell him to find Fan Lei and say there’s a problem with his attendance records, that he needs to come and confirm it."

After saying that, he waved to Chen Chao.

Chen Chao understood and immediately led Shen Xin and the others downstairs to wait.

Shen Xin stood with Zhao Tianxing.

Zhao Tianxing was muttering to himself, saying he hoped the killer was Fan Lei.

His step count on WeChat had been nearly thirty thousand yesterday. When he got back, he collapsed into bed like a corpse and couldn’t be woken up no matter what.

Unexpectedly, after a few minutes, Fan Lei hadn’t appeared, but Zhang Hancheng and his men came downstairs.

The man wasn’t in his dorm room.

They had asked the foreman, who said he had taken leave for the past two days.

Zhang Hancheng led the crowd toward the dormitory. Just as they were nearing the entrance, he remembered something and quickly told Shen Xin to get Odin.

Using scent for identification was probably the best way to confirm Fan Lei’s suspicion at the moment.

Shen Xin quickly brought Odin over and followed the group into the dormitory.

Fan Lei lived in Block F, Room 109 on the first floor.

It was a six-person room.

All the workers were at their posts now, so the room was empty.

The dorm manager pointed to the bunk bed farthest in, by the window on the right-hand side, and said that was Fan Lei’s bunk.

The room was filled with six bunk beds, leaving only a two-meter-wide path down the middle.

The bottom bunks were for sleeping, the top bunks were for storage, and things were piled up beside and under the beds as well.

The smell was quite strong, too.

Zhang Hancheng entered the room, took a look around, then picked up the bedding from the bed.

The scent would be strongest in the bedding.

"Odin."

Shen Xin tugged on Odin’s leash, explaining what he needed him to do.

’I know.’

After hearing Odin’s thought, Shen Xin led him forward to sniff Fan Lei’s quilt.

Everyone watched nervously.

The smell was indeed very strong. Odin took a brief sniff, seemed to ponder for a moment, and then barked once at Shen Xin.

Zhang Hancheng eagerly asked what it meant.

Shen Xin nodded excitedly at Zhang Hancheng. "It’s him."

Odin’s thought had been: ’Same.’

That meant the scent was a match.

The killer was Fan Lei.

"YES!"

Zhang Hancheng pumped his fist in excitement.

Everyone present was thrilled.

With the deadline to solve the case, everyone had been under immense pressure.

Although the man hadn’t been apprehended yet, just locking him in as the suspect was as good as solving the case.

"Xiaoshen, you’ve performed a great service!"

Zhang Hancheng pointed at Shen Xin, shouting excitedly, and immediately pulled out his phone to make calls, contacting people to come and process the scene.

Du Yong also immediately arranged for Chen Chao to take some men to find the dorm manager and foreman, asking where Fan Lei went and who he was usually close to.

Of course, he also had to arrange for someone to find Yao Qian and Fan Shunxi.

Shen Xin was just as excited. He ruffled Odin’s head vigorously, praising him profusely.

Zhang Hancheng strode out, pointing at Odin as he walked and shouting, "Get Odin something to eat! Something good!"

Everyone was invigorated, feeling as though dawn had finally broken through the darkness.

When Liu Baoqing arrived, he went straight to Odin, hugged him, and gave him several big kisses.

From now on, Odin was going to be the New District Branch’s treasure.

Now that they had confirmed the suspect, the next steps would be much easier.

Police cars began arriving one after another.

Kong Lingzhi and Zhao Hongjie both arrived.

The commotion really startled the workers on-site and the people in the project office.

Shen Xin had become the hero of the hour and couldn’t even get a word in. Just as Zhao Hongjie and the others finished praising him, Ren Haiguang seized a moment when Chen Chao wasn’t looking to pull Shen Xin aside and try to curry favor, saying that Shen Xin absolutely had to train a few good police dogs for their Xinbei Branch later.

He added that since Shen Xin was from Xinbei himself, it was all the more reason.

At the scene, a tackle box and fishing rod were found under Fan Lei’s bed.

When they asked his roommates, they said Fan Lei had moved in about a month ago. He was a quiet, honest man who didn’t say much.

And he liked to go fishing after work.

When asked where, they said it was Shitang Reservoir.

In that case, he was very likely scouting the location.

Then, the night before last, on the 25th, he came back very late, almost 2 AM. One of his roommates, who was up scrolling on his phone, casually asked him how many fish he’d caught to be back so late.

Similarly, on the 19th, he had also returned very late.

His electric scooter was also found. It was a black, step-through model.

Comparing it with the surveillance video, it was the same vehicle.

They even found the motorcycle helmet.

At this point, it was basically confirmed that Fan Lei was a major suspect in the crime.

Zhang Hancheng and his team had already started formulating a plan to capture him.

They had located Yao Qian and Fan Shunxi, but neither of them knew Fan Lei’s whereabouts.

Because Fan Lei lived at the construction site and rarely went home, he and his wife didn’t have much contact.

Most importantly, Fan Lei’s phone number was showing as switched off. It had been off since yesterday.

Zhang Hancheng had reason to suspect that Fan Lei might be trying to flee.

They had already contacted the railway and other public transportation authorities to check Fan Lei’s ticket purchase information.

Everything was under a real-name system, so if he bought a ticket, they would definitely know.

Along with that, they were also checking the WeChat account under his name, looking at his usage history and payment information.

If he took a taxi to leave, there would surely be a transaction record.

They could also check the road network surveillance.

He had taken leave yesterday and today, and the last time anyone saw him was yesterday morning, a little after 10 AM.

So, starting from that time, they could check the surveillance. With the Skynet system, they could quickly pinpoint his movements.

In modern society, you could say that as long as you know who the suspect is, it’s almost impossible not to catch them.

With everyone bustling about, Shen Xin suddenly found himself with nothing to do.

In Zhang Hancheng’s words, Shen Xin had only one job: to look after Odin, the hero of the day.

Once the forensics team was done with their examination, Shen Xin took the opportunity to enter Fan Lei’s dorm room and look around.

Fan Lei’s belongings had been thoroughly searched.

His bedding was simple: a mattress pad and a quilt.

The duvet cover looked like it had never been washed; it was quite dirty.

His pillow was especially telling. The spot on the white pillowcase where his head rested was almost black.

Glancing around the room, Shen Xin’s eyes fell on a half-empty box of Jingshuang instant noodles on the top bunk.

’That’s probably the cheapest brand of instant noodles there is.’

He didn’t have many clothes, just a small rice cooker, some toiletries, and two washbasins.

This was likely the sum of Fan Lei’s worldly possessions.

According to his roommates, Fan Lei was extremely frugal.

Take food, for example. The dormitory had a cafeteria where a meal cost 8 yuan.

The food wasn’t great. The "chicken legs" were actually duck wing roots, and the vegetables were always the cheapest available.

For 8 yuan a meal in this day and age, you couldn’t ask for much.

But because the food was so bad, many workers bought their meals outside.

Only Fan Lei was reluctant to even spend 8 yuan on a meal. He usually just made two packets of instant noodles or cooked some rice to eat with pickled vegetables.

Someone had once asked him why he was so thrifty, telling him that at his age, he should eat a little better.

He explained that his son wasn’t married yet and would need a lot of money in the future. Since he didn’t earn much himself, he was saving what he could for his son.

Looking at everything before him, Shen Xin could imagine just how frugal Fan Lei was in his daily life.

And when he thought about Fan Shunxi, who was a good-for-nothing messing around in society, Shen Xin couldn’t help but feel a sense of melancholy.

Just then, Shen Xin’s gaze fell upon a small bag belonging to Fan Lei on the bed.

It probably held some everyday items. It had been turned out, revealing two white plastic medicine bottles.

Shen Xin moved closer to take a look.

One bottle was sodium bicarbonate tablets, and the other was ibuprofen.

Both were the cheap kind, the ones that come in bottles of 100 tablets.

Shen Xin looked it up on his phone. Sodium bicarbonate tablets were mainly used to neutralize stomach acid and relieve stomach pain.

Combined with the painkillers, and considering Fan Lei’s long-term poor diet, he probably had some sort of stomach ailment.

Just as he was thinking about this, someone outside called his name.

It was Geng Ke.

Hurrying outside the dormitory, he saw Zhang Hancheng beckoning to him. With a serious expression, Zhang Hancheng said, "Xiaoshen, we’ve checked the nearby surveillance, but we haven’t found any trace of Fan Lei."

"He didn’t take his electric scooter. The nearest bus stop is three hundred meters from here, and we’ve checked the surveillance from all the buses during that time frame yesterday. We didn’t find him."

This was a dead-end road leading up the mountain, and there was no surveillance at the intersection.

There was a camera at the T-junction not far away, though.

"However, the camera at the dormitory entrance did capture him leaving at 10:17 yesterday morning, carrying a bag."

"During our canvassing, we found someone who saw Fan Lei heading up the mountain with his bag."

"So he might have escaped by crossing the mountain on foot. Shen Xin, it’s been over 24 hours since yesterday. Do you think it’s possible to track his escape route over the mountain with a police dog?"

Reviewing all the surveillance footage around Shitang Mountain would likely yield a discovery, but it would take time.

Right now, the most efficient way to confirm his route was still the police dog.