Chapter 217: Chapter 216 Left-Handed_1
Inside the auto repair shop.
As soon as they approached, Wang Guangren ran alertly toward the back. Before he reached the east gate, Liu Yufei kicked his left leg, sending Wang Guangren straight to the ground.
By then, he had already raised a wrench, aiming to smash it at Liu Yufei’s legs, but with a swift turn, Liu Yufei pressed her knee into Wang Guangren’s back, grabbed his right hand that was holding the wrench, and twisted hard. Wang Guangren shrieked in pain, his arm twisted behind him, and he lay on the ground, howling.
"Who are you people? Let go of me!"
"Stop shouting, I’m a police officer!"
As she spoke, Liu Yufei had already handcuffed Wang Guangren, and then she lifted him up, grabbed his hand, and dragged him out.
Wang Guangli was somewhat dumbfounded, squatting on the ground watching his brother Wang Guangren being dragged out in a panic.
"Comrade police, what exactly did we do? What’s going on here?"
Xu Dayuan waved his hand, signaling Liu Yufei to put the man in the car. Several criminal police officers stepped forward and took Wang Guangren away. At that moment, Mr. Zeng ran out from the other side of the courtyard, unable to hide his excitement.
"There’s a Wuyang Honda New Sharp Wing 125 in the yard, its license plate all muddy. I wiped it off, and the plate number is Lu B58353."
This discovery was the most direct piece of evidence. Xu Dayuan gestured.
"Take the motorcycle, and also call Zhou Xiaozhou, asking him to send a couple of forensic experts here to look for the murder weapon. Take Wang Guangli back for questioning as well."
...
Half an hour later.
The car stopped, and Zhou Ning and the others got out. Mr. Zeng hurried over.
"Doctor Zhou, you’re here. We haven’t touched anything inside the auto repair shop, and the Wuyang Honda has been sent to the substation, but we’re not sure if the murder weapon is there."
"Let’s take a look. Have your men back off for now."
Finding a suspect had everyone excited. Gao Tie carried the investigation kit and ran over, distributing items. Everyone put on shoe covers and gloves and began to enter the repair shop, while Yang Xuetong went over to the residential part.
Entering the repair shop, it was incredibly messy with tools scattered everywhere. Mr. Zhao observed for a moment, found the light switch, and turned it on. The room brightened up, though it was still quite dim compared to the outside.
Holding the Luminol reagent, Mr. Zhao sprayed it on every wrench he encountered. After making a full round of the repair shop and not finding any blood traces, he scratched his head, puzzled.
"Tell me, Zhou Xiaozhou, could we have made a mistake? Maybe Wang Guangren isn’t the murderer?"
Zhou Ning shook his head and thought for a moment before saying:
"Xu Da already said that the repair shop belongs to his brother. For someone with OCD, this place is too chaotic to just throw the murder weapon. It must be hidden somewhere. Let’s search carefully for a cellar, a tool room, or any hidden spots."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhao regained his confidence, went through the small door on the east side, which directly connected to the brothers’ houses. There were three main rooms in the courtyard, and three side rooms on the east, with the east side obviously being a later addition made of cement and the walls still showing white saltpeter.
Yang Xuetong came out from the main house and shook his head at them.
"The main house is a mess, but there’s no blood."
Mr. Zhao pointed to the side room on the east.
"This was built later, feels like it was prepared for the younger brother’s bridal chamber. Let’s check inside."
Zhou Ning didn’t move; he just stood in the courtyard, looking around, noticing that the auto repair shop took up the position of the west wing. Behind this east side door, there was a space between it and the main house, but with the door closed, he saw that there was a wall as tall as the door itself.
Zhou Ning stood on tiptoe and saw that the low wall had a top, indicating that a small room had been built against the adjoining walls of the two houses, but there was no door on this low wall.
Zhou Ning went back to the repair shop and looked carefully at the position on the east side. Only then did he notice that the wall, where a decorative painting was hung, actually concealed a hidden door.
He moved closer, and Gao Tie followed, handing over a bottle of Luminol. Zhou Ning smiled as he looked at Gao Tie, who was now very quick to react.
Zhou Ning took the Luminol and sprayed two squirts at the doorknob below the decorative painting. A faint glow appeared, and Gao Tie exclaimed with joy.
"Blood traces, there really are blood traces!"
Zhou Ning turned the spherical doorknob, and with a creak, the door opened, releasing a damp musty smell. Zhou Ning pressed down on his mask’s nose clip and lifted his flashlight to illuminate the small room.
Indeed, it was a storage room filled with various items. Motorcycle helmets hung on the wall alongside a backpack. Seeing the backpack, Zhou Ning’s eyes lit up, as it had a white embroidered pattern slanted across it, depicting two cherries.
This discovery matched the surveillance footage.
Zhou Ning touched the backpack, which seemed to be bulging with many items inside. His heart rate started to quicken. Murderers with OCD often have special habits, such as collecting victims’ socks, underwear, or even fingers, as recorded in many internationally renowned major cases.
After taking down the backpack, Gao Tie had already brought over a small folding table. Zhou Ning placed the backpack on it, and Gao Tie quickly took photos. The bloodstains on the zipper were visible even without having to spray it with Luminol reagent.
Unzipping the backpack, two zippered plastic file bags appeared, containing many wallets of various shapes, neatly arranged.
Zhou Ning opened them to check, and inside were not only cash but also various cards and IDs, and one even contained two charms alongside four IDs. Zhou Ning remembered these were from four of the skeletonized victims.
Almost every wallet had bloodstains, and as he pulled out the two zippered bags, underneath was a long, heavy object wrapped in a newspaper. Zhou Ning carefully unwrapped it, revealing a large adjustable wrench with a plastic handle and a flashlight-shaped stun gun.
The wrench was stained with blood, and fingerprints were visible on the handle. This discovery made Zhou Ning take a deep breath.
"Go call the two of them; we can head back for comparisons now!"
Sun Gaotie was brimming with excitement and was about to turn around when he eagerly said to Zhou Ning,
"Team leader, can I take fingerprints and blood samples from the suspect? I’d like to give it a try!"
"Sure, both brothers need to have their samples taken anyway."
....
January 7, 2012
As coughs emitted from the computer, Zhou Ning sprung up as if electrocuted and glanced at the time— it was already 7:10.
He hadn’t expected to wait all night, but the lab was indeed overwhelmed with tests, so he couldn’t blame Mrs. Cui. The DNA of nineteen individuals needed to be compared, including blood traces, physical evidence, wrenches, stun guns—everything had to be tested once over. This was more comparison work than they had to do with any previous case they’d handled.
After reviewing the results, Zhou Ning grabbed his police jacket and headed outside. Everyone, exhausted, was sprawled and sleeping on the couch and tables. He didn’t wake them, considering they had all been up until the late hours last night.
Standing outside the interrogation room, Zhou Ning was about to pull out his phone when he saw Mr. Bai poking his head out from the observation room.
"Dr. Zhou, you’re up early?"
Zhou Ning smiled and nodded. He had already caught the scent of the pancake roll.
"How about Xu Da? Still using the fatigue tactics?"
Mr. Bai darted up to him, shaking his head excitedly and pointing inside the observation room,
"Mr. Tao took over in the wee hours. Xu Da’s voice has gone hoarse, and he’s eating breakfast. After all, he hasn’t really slept for three days and seems to be catching a cold. However, that guy is tough as nails. No matter how much you shout or lecture, he won’t say a word, won’t eat or drink."
Zhou Ning had followed Mr. Bai into the observation room, no wonder Xu Dayuan hadn’t shown up; he was now leaning back in his chair asleep, holding a pancake roll.
Mr. Bai was about to wake someone when Zhou Ning stopped his hand and placed the report on the table; Liu Yufei had come over after rinsing her mouth.
"Last night, Xu Da said you guys found the backpack and the murder weapon. Does that mean the test results are already out?"
Zhou Ning pursed his lips and nodded.
"It’s not just those. We also found nineteen wallets, each with bloodstains and containing IDs, cards, business cards, and so on. The report just came out; DNA from the nineteen victims and Wang Guangren’s fingerprints all match up."
Liu Yufei clenched her fist and swung it vigorously, as if her time spent in the detective squad had taught her to be more of a man than an actual man.
"Beautiful, it doesn’t even matter if he admits it now or not."
"Mm, but there’s a problem."
Liu Yufei was taken aback.
"What problem?"
"What problem?"
As Xu Dayuan spoke up, Zhou Ning looked over to find Xu Dayuan had already awoken, his eyes bloodshot and his mouth edged with fever blisters.
Zhou Ning pulled out a report with the results of the chemical analysis of the murder weapon.
"On it, besides finding Wang Guangren’s fingerprints and the imprint of the knitted gloves, we also found the left thumbprint of Wang Guangli on the side. Of course, I initially overlooked it, since this fingerprint was pressed underneath. But this print is half a blood fingerprint, and the blood is that of victim number five, Zhu Yuzhen, who was skeletonized."
After Zhou Ning finished, this time it was Xu Dayuan who was stunned. He jumped up, rubbing his disheveled hair, started pacing in place, raised his hand for a moment, and then turned to Zhou Ning.
"Are you suggesting that his brother, Wang Guangli, might not be unaware but rather one of the participants and possibly the one who killed Zhu Yuzhen last year?"
Zhou Ning nodded, activated his smartphone, pulled up the picture of the skeletonized victim number five, then zoomed in on the location of the injuries for Xu Dayuan to see.
"On my way here, I looked at the pictures of the skull of the victim. Zhu Yuzhen’s facial skull was indeed smashed, but the degree of splintering isn’t as severe as with the other victims. Take a look at the others."
As he said this, Zhou Ning opened other photos, comparing them one by one.
It’s true, looking at them individually, not placed together, there didn’t seem to be any difference. But compared like this, it was evident that victim number five’s facial fractures were a direct collapse, not shattered to pieces like the others.
Under such evidence, it was hard not to be suspicious. However, this meant that the demand for proof in court would be even stricter since this involved sentencing.
"Mr. Zeng, go bring Wang Guangli back here; it looks like we almost overlooked him."
Xu Dayuan’s brow was furrowed as he pointed at the picture of the fingerprint on the weapon.
"Is this the only evidence we’ve found so far?"
Zhou Ning nodded and then looked toward Xu Dayuan, shaking his head slightly.
"Actually, there’s another piece of evidence. Analyzing the picture, the one who attacked skeletonized victim number five, although they also used both hands, shows a clear directional force. I believe this assailant is left-handed."
Xu Dayuan narrowed his eyes.
"Are you certain?"
