Chapter 199: Chapter 198: A Drop of Blood in the Trunk_1
In the interrogation room, Xu Dayuan stared at Wang Ligang.
"During the subsequent training sessions, did you notice any changes in Tan Ran? I’m referring to her physical condition."
Wang Ligang thought for a moment, then shook his head slightly.
"I didn’t detect any physical changes, it was just that her athletic performance plummeted. She couldn’t even beat Wang Ying in the provincial selection trials. I talked to her twice, advising her that if she couldn’t train normally, I could help her apply to a sports university. That way, even if she left the competitive scene, she could still have a decent career. That was also her parents’ wish."
"Did her parents seek you out?"
"They did, just this May. We had a deep conversation. My advice to her was really for her future consideration. After all, she has been with me since she was ten. I wouldn’t want to harm her. I had already made contact with the provincial sports university, but... but I never expected this to happen."
Visibly agitated, Wang Ligang spoke as Xu Dayuan sighed deeply.
"Tan Ran’s foot injury is severe, it’s not a simple cut. She even had surgery to remove a steel pin last year. You didn’t know about this?"
Wang Ligang was taken aback, gripping the edge of the table, his face filled with confusion.
"What are you talking about? Zhang Yu told me it was just a cut that didn’t heal well at first and reopened, making the healing process very slow. That’s why her control over her footwork diminished, and he asked me to reduce the leg strength training as much as possible. What steel pin? What is going on here?"
Xu Dayuan lifted his cellphone in front of Wang Ligang.
"This is Tan Ran’s X-ray. You can see the marks where the steel pin was removed, and there’s a misalignment in two of her metatarsal bones. The doctor said that her fracture was very severe and, of course, the nerve damage was even worse. It might not have seemed serious at first, but because of early movement, it led to irreversible damage.
According to the X-ray, Tan Ran’s foot is deformed, and she’ll suffer muscular atrophy in the leg – in layman’s terms, her right leg will be much thinner than her left. You can even see her limping when she walks quickly. Do you understand now? It seems you didn’t care for Tan Ran as much as you claimed."
Wang Ligang stared blankly at the X-ray, continuously shaking his head, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"Impossible, I didn’t notice any issue with the way she walked."
Just then, Zhou Ning’s phone rang. It was Mr. Zhao.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, come quickly. We’ve found long hair and bloodstains in Wang Ligang’s trunk."
Zhou Ning paused and glanced at Wang Ligang inside the interrogation room before responding:
"Where are you now?"
"At the technical department’s garage laboratory."
Zhou Ning hung up the call, composed a message, and sent it to Xu Dayuan before turning and leaving the observation room.
Upon reaching the garage occupied by the laboratory, he saw two cars lined up inside. Mr. Zhao seemed to hear Zhou Ning’s footsteps and waved at him repeatedly.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, come over here and have a look!"
Zhou Ning hurried over. It was a brand new black Camry. Having been car shopping for several months, he had some knowledge – this model was the latest of the year, with the high-end version costing nearly three hundred thousand.
However, for a coach, the price tag of the car was still acceptable.
Approaching the trunk, Mr. Zhao, holding a bright flashlight, pointed something out to Zhou Ning.
"Look at the edge of this blanket, there’s a tiny, tiny bloodstain. At first, I even thought it was just a mark from a drop of oil, plus there’s a scratch underneath."
Saying this, he lifted the edge of the blanket, revealing the bloodstain, which was larger than it appeared on the surface.
"Have you sent it for testing?"
"Already sent. But it puzzles me – why just one drop of blood? According to our previous investigation, that suitcase was very well-sealed. It didn’t take on water even after days in the sea. If it was used to transport a corpse, there shouldn’t be any blood dripping, right? Maybe it’s something that got on the outside of the case?"
Zhou Ning pursed his lips and shook his head slightly.
"Don’t forget, the victim was dismembered. We didn’t find her head or hands and feet in the suitcase. Perhaps when moving that part of the body, some blood could have dripped. But the comparison should be quick, right?"
"Yeah, Mrs. Cui said she’d first compare the blood types. If there’s a match, she’ll inform us immediately, then carry out the DNA comparison. She promised not to delay our investigation."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Mr. Zhao’s phone received a message. The blood sample sent for testing matched Tan Ran’s blood type. Mr. Zhao showed it to Zhou Ning.
"Then we need to investigate thoroughly. Where has this car been? Did it pass through the alley in the Enbo Residential Area on September 7th?"
Mr. Zhao dialed Xu Dayuan’s phone number. After a long ring, it was finally answered. He relayed their findings to Xu Dayuan and then hung up.
Zhou Ning was somewhat perplexed by this action.
"What’s up?"
"They said the surveillance footage has been sent to Mr. Qu. The tech department people are with him now. They’ve identified several vehicles, but the footage isn’t clear and needs some enhancement."
Zhou Ning nodded.
"Keep checking Wang Ligang’s car, see if there are fingerprints on the door from somebody else."
"Zhou Xiaozhou, do you think that this was not done by Wang Ligang?"
Zhou Ning didn’t speak and glanced at the car next to them.
"Whose car is that?"
"Doctor Zhang’s, why?"
"Do you think someone who could silently kill and dismember a person, arrange the scene with Xing Xiaoli’s bloody footprints, and even leave bloody fingerprints would use their own car to transport the body? Even if they did, wouldn’t they clean the car interior traces or simply change the upholstery? After all, that would be more prudent, right?"
Mr. Zhao fell into thought, then nodded.
"That makes sense. Oh, and Doctor Zhang’s car seat covers and the trunk liner are brand new, spotlessly clean, it’s obvious at a glance."
Zhou Ning raised his eyebrow and quickly walked to the other car; sure enough, the Jetta’s interior was indeed clean. Although the car was a bit beaten up, the inside was as tidy as a new car’s.
Zhou Ning dialed Bai Ruixin’s phone since Doctor Zhang had been taken away by him just now.
"Mr. Bai, ask Zhang Yu when he changed the interior of his car, where it was changed, and why?"
"Ah, Mrs. Liu is here, I’ll let her ask."
Liu Yufei took the phone, Zhou Ning repeated his questions, Liu Yufei said to wait a moment but didn’t hang up the phone, and then started to question Doctor Zhang.
"Tell me, when did you change the car’s interior, where, and why? Don’t tell me it was some roadside shop, even if so, it doesn’t matter, just be clear about which road it was on, I can find it all the same."
Zhang Yu didn’t hesitate and answered directly:
"There’s nothing to hide, after I celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday, there were mackerels in the car, and it seems the melted ice seeped inside, so there was a fishy smell everywhere. That’s why I had the interior cleaned and replaced things like the rear padding board. As for the seat covers, I just changed them while I was at it.
The shop is a garage run by a buddy of mine, called ’I Love My Home’ on Gaozhou Road, next to the Gaozhou Road gas station. I have his phone number. You can verify this. I remember I went on the 17th, left the car there and picked it up in the evening. The phone number is 1390********."
Zhou Ning remembered Doctor Zhang mentioning that his father-in-law’s birthday was on the 7th, and he had gone to Jimi Cliff for mackerels. This time point indeed coincided somewhat with the time of the victim’s death.
"You heard that? Do you need me to help you verify it?"
"We need someone to go check it out. We have to see if the items he replaced are still there."
"Wait, I’m on my way."
After hanging up, Mr. Zhao’s chubby face leaned in.
"We already found bloodstains in Wang Ligang’s car, why are we still looking into Doctor Zhang’s?"
Zhou Ning’s brows were furrowed as he looked up at the two Jettas.
"Wang Ligang was not particularly attentive to Tan Ran, even leaving her to her own devices later on. His wife controlled all the dormitory keys. But Tan Ran was like a daughter to him, he had no reason to kill."
"And Doctor Zhang did?"
"I can’t be sure, but Doctor Zhang knew too many of Tan Ran’s secrets, and as for her leg injury, if Doctor Zhang could have offered professional advice, I think things wouldn’t have reached this point. Our investigation over the past few days has shown that Tan Ran is a very capricious girl.
She comes from a wealthy family and has no real plan for the future. Although the suggestions Wang Ligang gave seemed to spell the end of her sports career, they weren’t a bad way out. But to Tan Ran, these things didn’t matter, she preferred to chase after Xing Xiaoli."
Mr. Zhao shook his head.
"I can’t analyze all that. I’ll go with Mrs. Liu to the car wash and see if we can find something. But if you’re talking about being calculative, I think Wang Ying is the most sly one. She’s a girl who holds her cards close to her vest, ready to take advantage of both sides with a single word."
Zhou Ning didn’t respond, knowing all too well that Wang Ying was the one with the most scheming mind, using her relation to Wang Ligang as leverage in the team. It seemed like it was her idea for Xing Xiaoli to buy a house and even to borrow money from Tan Ran.
Thinking of this, Zhou Ning waved his hand.
"You go. I’m going to find Xu Da; they’re probably finished over there."
After Mr. Zhao left, Yang Xuetong came over, carrying a case. They had hurried out of Enbo Residential Area, leaving Yang Xuetong to continue the search in Apartment 201. Seeing the evidence bag, Zhou Ning quickly stopped.
"Found something?"
Yang Xuetong lifted the evidence bag, which contained two old cell phones and a hard drive covered in fingerprints. One of the phone screens was even cracked.
"Found them inside the overhead cabinet right by the entrance of 201, hidden very secretly. I’m not sure which girl they belong to, but the phones are locked, I can’t unlock them. I was thinking of taking them back to Mr. Qu to have a look."
"Do we know whose fingerprints are on them?"
