Chapter 801: Chapter 426: The Final Game
Time ticked by second by second, leaving only the sound of keyboard typing and the occasional command in the office.
After 10 minutes, the engineer suddenly stopped, pointing to a slightly clearer area on the screen.
"Mr. Jiang, we’ve reached the limit."
"Look, we can basically confirm the car model is niche, the license plate is local—starts with a ’G’ and ends with a number ’3’, but the middle few characters... we’ve really tried our best."
Jiang An stared at the still somewhat distorted image and nodded: "Well, having the initial and final information is enough—start filtering in the city vehicle system: local plate, niche model, first letter G, last number 3."
"With these conditions, we should be able to significantly narrow the scope!"
"Got it!" Wan immediately responded, opened the police intranet, and entered the search criteria into the system.
In less than a minute, ten vehicle entries meeting the preliminary conditions suddenly popped up on the screen.
"Filter the niche models!" Jiang An ordered.
The results refreshed instantly—only one of the ten vehicles was a niche model.
"That’s it!"
Someone couldn’t help but shout, and the atmosphere in the surveillance room instantly ignited.
The long-suppressed anticipation finally found a breakthrough, with many exchanging high-fives and smiles of excitement appearing on their faces—the case had finally reached a turning point.
Jiang An also revealed a hint of a smile, but he quickly regained his composed demeanor, clapped his hands, and said: "Everyone has worked hard, but we’re not at the celebratory point yet."
"Check the owner details of this vehicle immediately and prepare to make an arrest."
He turned to look at everyone, his tone gradually serious: "This vehicle is very suspicious."
"If the owner isn’t just fishing by the river for leisure, then there’s a strong possibility that this is the person we’re looking for."
"Time, location, behavior—everything matches up."
Then Wan tilted his head, like he discovered something new, and queried: "But the crime occurred around 2 AM, and this vehicle appeared in the surveillance close to 6 AM, a whole four hours later!"
"Isn’t this time gap too bizarre? Did the culprit leave the car parked there all along?"
Jiang An’s lips curved subtly, as if he anticipated this question.
He calmly replied, "We tend to fall into a fixed mindset—thinking that the culprit would escape quickly after committing the crime."
"But if you think about it, if he intentionally stayed inside the car, or even lingered nearby, wouldn’t it be less likely to raise suspicion?"
"At 2 AM, driving away with sparse vehicles, any headlights would draw all attention."
"But wait till dawn, when there’s more traffic, blend in, wouldn’t that be ’stealth mode’?"
As soon as he finished speaking, several officers previously focused on note-taking raised their heads, with someone unable to help but interject: "That’s slick, it’s like having a built-in camouflage buff!"
Jiang An nodded, "Delay is inadvisable, we need to confront him soon."
Soon, everyone moved into action.
According to the system-registered information, the owner of the vehicle was named "Li Xiang", residing in a resettlement housing in the city village.
To avoid alerting the suspect, they specifically used a very ordinary gray sedan.
Before setting off, Jiang An emphasized: "The suspect is alert to counter-detection, we must be fully prepared, everyone carry guns."
Wan checked the magazine while muttering: "If this guy is really dreaming, then my ’early morning wake-up service’ will be quite the thrill."
plus minutes later, the car arrived at the destination silently.
They parked the car far away at the roadside outside the community, quietly approached the entrance.
The old man on duty in the guardroom was snoring deeply, rhythmically like keeping beat.
Wan initially wanted to show his credentials to explain the purpose, but seeing this situation, he couldn’t help but wink at Jiang An: "I’m genuinely envious of the old man’s sleep quality."
Jiang An chuckled softly, waved his hand, and the three of them slipped in without making any extra noise.
They quickly found building 1, unit 1, room 1.
Jiang An lowered his voice to swiftly allocate tasks: "You two, guard the entrance, listen for any movement."
"Wan, Qin Feng, the three of us will enter from the side balcony."
Soon, the trio quietly circled to the side of the house.
"Wow, there’s not even a security window?"
Wan whispered in complaint, "I carried the pliers all the way for nothing!"
Jiang An raised his right hand, made a "ready" gesture.
The three gripped their guns almost simultaneously, slipped over the balcony like shadows.
They entered the living room first, which was pitch-black inside.
The secondary bedroom door was slightly ajar, Wan gently pushed it open with his toe, sweeping the flashlight beam—empty.
The study was similarly wide open, and it was empty except for curtains fluttering lightly in the wind.
Finally, they stopped at the master bedroom’s entrance.
As the criminal investigation team leader, Jiang An signaled with a gesture, Wan and Qin Feng immediately dispersed to the sides, hiding along the wall.
He himself stepped to the side of the door, right hand steadily pressing the doorknob, took a deep breath—the next second, he pushed down fiercely!
"Police! Don’t move!"
The trio dashed into the room like lightning, the blinding beams from their flashlights converging on the bed.
A man shot out of bed, bleary-eyed, shouting in panic: "What’s going on? What are you doing?!"
Wan stepped forward, his voice firm and strong: "Police! Don’t move!"
The man froze instantly—three gun muzzles, black as night, and three beams of light directly shining on him, he was terrified and lay flat on the bed, motionless like a butterfly pinned as a specimen.
Wan deftly took out handcuffs, clicked them onto the man’s hands behind his back.
"Police? Why are you arresting me?"
"I haven’t done anything! Can’t you talk about this properly?!"
He struggled and shouted, his voice filled with panic.
minutes later, this man named Li Xiang had been brought into the interrogation room.
He was still in his crumpled pajamas, seated on the cold iron chair, with a look of confusion and unease.
"Why are you arresting me? What happened? In the middle of the night..."
At this moment, Jiang An entered the room.
"As the saying goes: If you don’t want a person to know, don’t do it yourself."
"We wouldn’t invite you here for no reason, you should be aware."
Speaking, he pushed two photos in front of Li Xiang—on them were pictures of two deceased.
"What... what’s this?"
Li Xiang glanced down, his voice suddenly lowered a bit, the previous energy seemed to deflate like a punctured balloon.
"Familiar, right? Two bodies were found by the East City River?"
"This... What’s that got to do with me..."
"A lot!"
Jiang An slammed the table, "What were you doing last night?"
"I... I don’t know what you’re talking about? I was home sleeping the whole night."
"Who saw you? Who can testify?"
"No one! I live alone!"
"No one to prove? So you were alone?"
"Yes, yeah, just me alone."
"In other words—you didn’t go out all night?"
"What time did you get home? What did you do when you got home? Tell me everything!"
"Around six or seven I got home... cooked noodles, watched TV, then went to sleep."
"That simple?"
"That simple! What else could it be?"
Jiang An suddenly leaned forward, his voice lowered further: "Let me ask you one last time—is it really that simple?"
Li Xiang swallowed, his gaze beginning to drift: "Yes... that’s what happened, nothing more to say."
"Then explain," Jiang An suddenly slowed his speech, speaking word by word, "why in the early hours yesterday, your car was found at the small woods by East City River—parked there for so long?"
"Don’t tell me the person driving wasn’t you."
In an instant, Li Xiang sucked in a cold breath, his whole body seemed frozen in the chair.
A few seconds later, he finally raised his head abruptly, his lips trembling, his gaze flickered between Wan and Jiang An, ultimately slumping his shoulders in defeat:
"Alas... Officer, I... I went fishing."
"Fishing? Weren’t you just insisting you were home all night?"
"I-There were dead bodies there, I was afraid of causing trouble!"
He almost started sobbing, "I’m telling the truth—I just went fishing, by myself, the rod’s still in the trunk now..."
