Chapter 763: Closed-Room Murder
Translator: Azza
Editor: Conspiracing
The next afternoon, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to see the class representative who organized the classmate’s reunion, but the class representative impatiently refused the two people’s request. "This reunion has been in preparation for over two months, and many classmates came from other places. If I cancel it just because of your casual words, even if I agreed to it, others wouldn’t. Shouldn’t you police arrest that crazy woman?"
"You have already had four classmates die. Isn't that enough to sound the alarm? I didn't ask you to cancel it. You can postpone it, such as holding it next month." Lin Dongxue reasoned.
"Impossible!" The class representative sneered. "Why would we be afraid of her when there’s so many of us? How funny. Almost the whole class bullied her back then. Is she capable of killing us all?"
"What's the reason for not cancelling?" Chen Shi asked.
"What reason do we need? We just don't fear her!"
"I noticed that you are often trying to get close to a certain classmate in the group. According to his profile, he’s an executive of the company that works upstream of yours. The class reunion is just so you can personally flatter him, am I right?!"
The class representative became irritated. "There is no such thing. The class reunion is to connect with each other. It’s been 20 years since we graduated. It’s rare to get together in this vast world. Why is it so unscrupulous in your mouth? The police's thinking is really dark!"
The class representative was as smelly and hard as the bricks in a bathroom. They couldn’t persuade him no matter what, so they could only leave their contact information and leave.
Lin Dongxue said, "I will tell Captain Lin to put some people at the scene tomorrow, just in case!"
"All right, I’ll go as well."
Chen Shi was in a conflicted mood. He was both looking forward to an incident and hoping that everything would be okay. All the conclusions at the moment were just speculations based on history, and there was no direct evidence that Hanmeng was taking revenge on her old classmates. If there was another murder...
The mobile phone in Chen Shi's pocket beeped, and he took it out. It turns out that it was the one that Du Zilin had lent him. There was a transfer notification on it saying that one of the bank cards of the phone owner had just transferred over four million out.
When Chen Shi usually received such messages, he’d regard them as fraudulent text messages. He suddenly realized that Du Zilin was indeed a rich man, so he called the bank to verify it. The bank confirmed that the transfer information was real.
"Why did he transfer so much money out all of a sudden? To whom did he transfer it to?" Chen Shi questioned.
"Contact him!" Lin Dongxue said.
"His phone is in my hand. How can I contact him? We’ll have to make a trip."
When they arrived at Du Zilin’s “reclusive” villa, the two pressed the answering machine, but there was no response. They had a bad premonition. Chen Shi boosted Lin Dongxue over the courtyard wall, then took a few steps back to haul himself up, grabbing onto the courtyard wall before flipping in.
The front door was locked. Chen Shi pried it open, and a bloody smell oozed out.
The nerves of the two immediately tensed. When they got to the corridor, Du Zilin was lying on the back of the iron gate covered in blood, holding the railing tightly with both hands. The iron gate that had been used to protect him had turned into an obstacle when he was trying to escape.
Chen Shi slapped him in the face and called out his name desperately. Du Zilin slowly opened his eyes and said, "They were here..." Then, his head dropped and he died.
Confirming that Du Zilin had no pulse, Chen Shi stood up and said, "Call Old Peng over!"
Around 5:00, several police cars arrived at the scene. The iron door took nearly half an hour to pry open. Du Zilin died of a sharp weapon causing a puncture wound. The strange thing was that these injuries were all concentrated on the shoulder and back. Based on the angle of the weapon punctures, the murderer stabbed him from behind and was at least one meter and ninety centimetres.
The other end of the corridor was sealed with bricks. Neither the iron door nor the main entrance had signs of it being pried open. There was a lot of blood in the bedroom. That seemed to be the first crime scene. Only the footprints of the deceased were among the messy blood stains.
"It's so weird. It's totally... a closed-room murder!" Lin Dongxue said.
Chen Shi found a key in a small bowl on the cabinet, picked it up, and said, "Can we use this key to unlock the lock from the outside?"
The two tried it. Although there was a gap in the iron door, Du Zilin welded an iron plate to the outside of the lock to be safe. It was impossible to reach in and unlock the lock from the outside, unless the person's hands were like tentacles and could bend.
"Where did the murderer come in?" Chen Shi looked up and checked the ceiling. The ceiling and walls were all covered with fireproof cotton, and it seemed as though there were no flaws.
He brought over a herringbone ladder from the corridor and inspected each piece of fireproof cotton one by one. He suddenly found that one of the pieces was loose. He opened it and it revealed a hole in the back.
"Go to the second floor!" Chen Shi said.
He and Lin Dongxue went to the second floor. The windows on the entire second floor were sealed. Only a small skylight had light shining in. The hole was facing the floor which could be lifted up. Lin Dongxue asked, "Why leave a hole here?"
"Maybe it was set aside to install the chandelier when it was designed..." Chen Shi used his hand to measure it. "This hole is very small. Could people pass through it?"
The two called several forensic police officers to come up to check, and they actually found fingerprints around the hole.
After completing the on-site survey, Peng Sijue and the others withdrew first. Chen Shi stood in the bloodstained room as if looking for something. He pointed to a table. "I remember that when I came yesterday, there was a laptop on the table... The murderer not only killed him, but also took away Du Zilin’s savings. It was really a clear goal."
"You mean the bank password was saved in the laptop?"
"Yes, it seems that the murderer is someone who lacks money."
"Who do you think Du Zilin was talking about before he died? Hanmeng? Or the three people Xu Xiaodong was monitoring?"
"Xiaodong didn't contact me. Did those three people never leave?"
Chen Shi dialed Xu Xiaodong's number, but found that he couldn't get through. A bad feeling washed over him, so he and Lin Dongxue rushed to find him.
Outside the old house, Xu Xiaodong's car was parked there, but he was gone.
There was still half a drink and an unfinished burger in the car. His mobile phone was also left in the car. Chen Shi asked the uncle of the nearby concession stand and the uncle said that the person in the car had left half an hour ago. He wasn’t sure where he went.
The two had no choice but to inquire while searching nearby. They got to a commercial street. As it was already dark, most of the shops were closed, and there was a group of people fighting on the street. It seemed to be one versus many.
Lin Dongxue glanced over and found that Xu Xiaodong was the one who was fighting with a group of gangsters.
"Old Chen, Old Chen!"
Before Chen Shi could come over, Lin Dongxue hurried over, showing her ID and shouting, "Police! All of you stop!"
Seeing this, the little gangsters immediately dispersed and ran away.
Xu Xiaodong suffered a bit of superficial injuries and was leaning on his knees gasping. When Lin Dongxue came running over, he showed a silly smile at her. "Dongxue, look at how amazing I am! Those gangsters were bullying a girl. I couldn’t stand by and watch, so I took action. Haha, it was really fun."
"Who allowed you to come here..."
Xu Xiaodong suddenly grabbed Lin Dongxue's hand. Lin Dongxue's eyes widened and she quickly threw his hand away. It was Xu Xiaodong's turn to be dumbfounded. He saw Chen Shi coming from behind and said in surprise, "Brother Chen, why are you in my dream?"
"Dream?" Chen Shi raised his eyebrow. "Why don't you pinch yourself? This is reality!"
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