Chapter 281: Chapter 278 What Exactly Do You Want to Ask?_1
In the interrogation room.
Xu Dan was still struggling incessantly, as if trying to break free from the handcuffs. Watching her enraged state, Xu Dayuan furrowed his brows slightly without speaking and turned to leave the interrogation room; his actions left Zhang Sannian stunned.
Accompanied by the sound of the door opening, Xu Dayuan had already entered the adjacent observation room and walked straight toward Zhou Ning.
"Xu Dan doesn’t look quite right. In the related examinations, does this person have a mental illness, or is she on drugs? Why does she seem so agitated?"
Zhou Ning had also noticed this and stared into the interrogation room for a moment. This wasn’t something he could assess.
"I suggest we give Xu Dan a physical and a mental evaluation. If she’s pretending to be ’mentally unstable,’ it’s obviously to evade criminal responsibility. Ten years of normalcy after murder, but once the police find evidence, she becomes mentally unstable. Such precise timing?"
While he was speaking, Xu Dan rolled her eyes back, her whole body shuddered, her back arched, and her body contorted, while her arms straightened out, grasping tightly. She looked as if she was having an epileptic seizure.
Xu Dayuan hurried back to the interrogation room and had people remove Xu Dan from the interrogation chair; however, the handcuffs remained on. Zhang Sannian had already dialed the emergency number 120.
Zhou Ning dialed He Shancun’s cell phone.
"What’s up?"
"An urgent matter. A criminal suspect we’ve arrested is very manic; I don’t know if it’s real or an act. Now her body’s arched, her eyes are rolled back, and she has full-body convulsions. Is this an epileptic seizure?"
"Can’t determine from the description, but sending her to the hospital is in your interest. Have a psychiatric consultation, an electroencephalogram usually reveals it. Also, record a video of the seizure; I’ll find someone to take a look,"
After hanging up, Mr. Zhao had heard and began recording a video; he even turned on the law enforcement recorder, then sent the video to He Shancun.
The sound of the approaching ambulance could already be heard outside. Criminal investigators brought the emergency medical team inside, and Xu Dan was loaded onto the vehicle and taken away. Xu Dayuan’s face was ashen as he approached Zhou Ning’s side.
"If Xu Dan has a mental illness, she’ll escape punishment."
Zhou Ning patted Xu Dayuan’s arm, giving him a comforting smile.
"Don’t worry, leader. I just spoke with Mr. Xu. While she’s sent to the hospital, let’s have a psychiatric consultation to see if it’s real or fake by getting an electroencephalogram. In addition, Xu Dan’s parents can be brought in to understand the situation better.
After all, according to the Chen Family, Chen Ningyu might have been victimized on August 12, 2002. Drugging, killing, dismembering, hiding the body, and cleaning the crime scene are a series of actions that, for an eighteen-year-old, physically frail Xu Dan, would require at least five to six hours.
Was there no one at Xu Dan’s home? Although Xu Qing was studying elsewhere and was on summer break, the father worked as a village doctor, a profession that’s virtually never off duty throughout the year; wasn’t he home?
And what about Xu Dan’s mother? August is the peak of summer break; wasn’t she at home either? Of course, there were also the elderly members of the Xu family. We can start by investigating them, right?"
Xu Dayuan nodded and exhaled, his arm around Zhou Ning’s shoulder, his anxious mood eased somewhat.
"I was too impatient. My thoughts were completely scrambled by Xu Dan’s seizure. Have Zhu Xingxing and Liu Yufei follow to the hospital and keep an eye on the situation there; you and I will look at Xu Dan’s parents."
Zhou Ning nodded. Since arriving in Rudong City, every day had been filled with intense work that was physically and mentally draining. He fully understood Xu Dayuan’s impatience.
"Alright, I’ll listen with you, but Mr. Tao was injured, so he should go to the hospital with Liu Yufei and stitch up,"
Xu Dayuan quickly went to make some arrangements. Mr. Zeng and Mr. Bai led people from Rudong City to bring Xu Dan’s parents over, while Tao Zhenshan went to the hospital with Liu Yufei and Zhu Xingxing.
Zhou Ning saw Mr. Qu at the door, looking on with interest, and waved at him.
"What’s up, Director Zhou?"
"Check something for me. When Xu Dan entered the tax bureau, was it through a public service exam or was she assigned there after graduation? I need all the information on her annual medical reports, especially her past medical history, as well as her physical examination report when entering public service. Look for any history of mental illness, epilepsy, somnambulism, or hysteria."
Mr. Qu nodded, entered the observation room quickly, and began to tap away at his computer. Shortly, investigative results were displayed on the screen, which he promptly turned around for Zhou Ning to see.
"Xu Dan joined the tax system in 2006 and passed all medical examinations. Looking at the details of her public service physical, none of the various mental illnesses you mentioned were there; there was no family history of such ailments either. The only unqualified item was sandy gallstones."
Relieved by this information, Zhou Ning still couldn’t ignore Xu Dan’s recent behavior, which was too similar to an epileptic seizure. Perhaps she had seen a real epileptic seizure before; otherwise, she wouldn’t know these details.
Mr. Zhao, clutching a law enforcement recorder, was adjusting the speed and watching intently. Zhou Ning glanced and saw nothing unusual. Just as he was about to speak, Mr. Zhao’s eyes widened and his mouth gaped open.
"Wow, is Xu Dan really that fierce?"
Zhou Ning paused.
"What happened?"
Mr. Zhao quickly handed the recorder to Mr. Qu, signaling him to export the video inside and play it on the computer. As it began to play, Mr. Zhao pointed out the spot they needed to watch, then said:
"This is Mr. Zeng’s law enforcement recorder; it just snapped at the back clip and he swapped it with me. I accidentally saw the footage of Xu Dan being arrested. She left the tax bureau’s lobby while continuously on the phone, then got into a car and started to violently assault the police officers."
"Look at this, when she rushed towards the gate at the end, Mr. Tao’s car hit and stopped her. She didn’t get out of the car and, Mrs. Liu smashed the glass, but she still tried to reverse and hit someone. This is simply the behavior of a lunatic,"
Zhou Ning stared at the video, his brows tightly furrowed.
"Mr. Qu, check who called Xu Dan just now. Clearly, Xu Dan knew the police were outside waiting to capture her, so she drove away frantically.
No! It wasn’t a frantic escape, this was creating a ’history of mental illness’ in order to evade legal punishment. The person who called to tip her off might be an insider."
Mr. Zhao blinked, understanding the implication in Zhou Ning’s words.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, you mean that someone tipped off Xu Dan, telling her we were going to arrest her so she should leave quickly or act like she has a mental illness in public. That way, he would be confident in manipulating the diagnostic outcome. With that diagnosis, she would be deemed incapable of conducting her own affairs,"
Zhou Ning nodded, and just then Mr. Qu had already found some information. Seeing the number, Mr. Qu hurriedly ran a search.
"This is a landline. I checked and this number belongs to Rudong Municipal Public Security Bureau. Wait, let me see, which office it’s from."
Mr. Zhao waved his hand.
"No need to search further, I’ll call Mr. Zhang. I think he should know and, even if we find out, we still need to check who exactly made the call from this side."
Zhou Ning nodded and Mr. Zhao rushed out, almost stumbling as he went. Zhou Ning pulled out his police terminal and looked up Xu Dan’s information. Her husband’s name was Li Kelin and for his workplace, it was listed as the Water Resources Bureau.
This discovery left Zhou Ning somewhat puzzled. Based on his speculation, the person closest to Xu Dan, her husband, would either have to be working in the public security bureau or a hospital to know the police’s actions and manipulate the diagnostic outcome, yet he was with neither.
Lost in thought, Zhou Ning didn’t have to ponder for long, as Zhang Sannian and Xu Dayuan approached swiftly.
Zhou Ning shared his recent findings with them, showed them the number, conveyed his judgement, and even presented the results he had searched for in the police terminal for them to see.
Zhang Sannian’s expression grew even more awkward as he typed the number into his phone, displaying the remark for the immigration management section.
"Do you need me to check the surveillance?" Mr. Qu asked softly.
"Other than the interrogation room, lobby, and hallways, there’s no surveillance in the other offices of the Public Security Bureau. Director Xu, I’ll go to the immigration management section now,"
Xu Dayuan nodded, and with people in tow, Mr. Zhang left. Mr. Zhao looked puzzled.
"Why do I feel like Mr. Zhang doesn’t look good? Did he find something out?"
Xu Dayuan didn’t speak. Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes slightly.
"The immigration management section of a county-level city generally has a small staff, maybe two or three people, and someone has to be at the window to handle business. So, the real number of people in the office would be small; perhaps Mr. Zhang knows them?"
Xu Dayuan nodded. He also felt uncomfortable about this. After all, in his many years of policing, there were times when people he knew crossed the line, tipping off criminal suspects or engaging in corruption.
Before the silence lasted long, Mr. Zeng and Mr. Bai arrived quickly, followed by an elderly couple. The couple was dressed simply and neatly, looking tense. Xu Dayuan gestured to Mr. Zeng and Mr. Bai to take the parents to the nearby conversation room. The only difference between this room and the interrogation room was that it didn’t have an interrogation chair, but instead a table with several chairs. However, next door was still an observation room.
Xu Dayuan glanced at Zhou Ning, who quickly nodded, understanding the signal to watch from the observation room. Xu Dayuan entered the conversation room with Mr. Zeng and Mr. Bai.
With so many police officers around, the elderly couple looked extremely nervous, gripping each other’s arms. At Xu Dayuan’s gesture, they sat across from him at the table.
"Xu Xiangnian and Zhang Shan, right? Let’s introduce ourselves, don’t be nervous, we just want to talk and understand the situation. We’ll take a statement from both of you. Just say what you know, and if you’re worried about your heart, we have medication here you can take beforehand,"
The elderly couple nodded. Seeing that the police were so polite, they immediately felt less tense. Xu Xiangnian spoke first.
"My name is Xu Xiangnian, born in 1955, 58 years of age this year by the traditional count. I graduated from Jiangzhe Province Health School in 1973 with a focus on clinical medicine, then returned to our village’s brigade to work as a health worker. After the reforms, I opened this clinic and acquired a physician’s license along with other relevant permits."
Xu Dayuan nodded and turned to Zhang Shan, Xu Xiangnian’s wife.
"My name is Zhang Shan, born in 1956, a year younger than him. I passed the college entrance exam in ’77 and graduated from Ludong Teacher’s University. That year I had our eldest, Xu Qing, and got assigned directly to Sunshou Town Middle School. I just retired last year."
"Did the elderly pass away at the end of last year?"
Xu Xiangnian made an affirming noise.
"My father passed away at the end of last year, just after his 92nd birthday. The old man was quite stubborn, but being the youngest son, I could only take good care of him. What exactly do you want to ask?"
Xu Dayuan looked at the two, fixing his gaze on their eyes as he asked:
"I want to know if you were at home on August 12, 2002, which is the year Xu Dan took the college entrance exam. Who else was at home?"
