Case Files 013

Chapter 137: Ambush

I shared my thoughts with the group and then said, "Now we're just waiting for the test result, if everything matches," I paused, "Then our victim has to be Luo Sumei."

Actually from circumstantial evidence, I was already convinced that the victim was Luo Sumei, but before Chief Zhou, I didn't want to be so direct. It might be a blind hope but it was still better than nothing. After all, not everyone had the heart to face the truth.

Perhaps to help change the subject, Guan Zhenglin complained, "That will take too long. When we were at Dong Xing City, we would have the result in an hour. Now it has already been 3 days and we still haven't heard back from them yet."

That did lift Chief Zhou's mood somewhat. He stood, smiled at us and started the fire. "No matter what, life goes on. It's so cold here, you guys should have reminded me to stoke the flames." Seeing this, I didn't know what to say. After such a tragedy, he still placed our comfort first. If I was him, I wouldn't be in the mood to do these things. Chief Zhou was an innately caring person. I felt sad for Luo Sumei for losing such a good boyfriend.

Noting our silence, Chief Zhou continued Guan Zhenglin's conversation, "To be frank, it's because Elm Town is too small. We need to rely on the bigger city for any lab testing. The city lab doesn't serve only our jurisdiction, there is so much evidence that they need to go through before it's our turn." Guan Zhenglin shrugged, "But this speed is too slow."

Chief Zhou answered, "It can't be helped, that is our current national state. There will be people and places that take precedence. We are all government workers but there is still a chain of command. I don't know why you've been transferred to this place but your salary must have suffered because of it." I never cared about such things, I didn't even know how much money was in my account now. I ate at the station and rarely went shopping.

Gu Chen shook his head. "You spend how much you earn. Even though the salary at Dong Xing City was higher, the living cost there was higher as well. A small bowl of noodles costs 5 RMB here but in Dong Xing City, it would cost 20 RMB."

Chief Zhou sighed. "Gu Chen, you're still young, you don't get it. When you're at my age, you'll see that you not only have to be concerned about yourself. Why do you think so many people head towards the big cities, do you think they don't know the living costs would be higher there too?" Chief Zhou shook his head. "There are things that have price fluctuations and some things don't. For example, instant noodles, the price is standardized across the nation. So if your salary is, let's say, 1000 RMB higher than you would get in a small town, then that is a lot of additional income already."

Chief Zhou sounded melancholic when he talked about money. "Take, for example, 500000 RMB, do you think I can earn that much from working my whole life? My monthly salary plus bonus is only 3000 RMB. I'll have to save for 14 years without eating and spending to save 500000 RMB, but what kind of living doesn't use money?" Chief Zhou said despondently, "Assume I save 1000 RMB each month, it'll take 40 years before I reach my saving goal."

There's an idiom that says, a man without money is no man at all. It was crude but true. I was suddenly reminded of Liu Yinyan. He told me that ten million was only enough to purchase his bungalow's toilet.

After lighting up the coal stove, we stopped talking.

The next morning, we woke up and cleaned simply. It didn't snow yesterday night so there was no body dump. We used this opportunity to take a good sleep. Based on the weather, it looked like it would snow again today. Similar to yesterday, we came to the village head's home for breakfast. Along the way, we ran into Sun Kangning and his father.

"Kiddo, where are you going?" Seeing this carefree child, my mood brightened. It casted a ray of light through the haze of this case.

Sun Kangning grinned at me and said, "We're going to Uncle Lee's place for chess. The bad people have stolen his eyes so I'm now his eyes."

"This Uncle Lee can play chess without his eyes, that's impressive." I smiled.

Sun Kangning nodded. "Yes, even though Uncle Lee cannot see anything, he can also see everything. At noon, he can even cook for us." Then Sun Kangning turned to ask us, "Are you going to stay here like last time?'

"Last time?" This was our first time here.

Sun Kangning pointed at Chief Zhou. "Yes, this uncle used to come here often, and sometimes he stays here but he has never stayed this long before."

Chief Zhou ruffled the boy's head and answered, "Yes, I'm good friends with your village head elder, as good a friend as you and Uncle Lee."

Sun Kangning said with childlike innocence, "So are you grandpa village head's eyes as well?"

After saying goodbye to Sun Kangning, we arrived at the village head's home. At the dining table, I asked, "Sir, how did you become good friends with Chief Zhou when you're at least several decades older than him? Before we first arrived here, he already told us about you."

The village head took a sip of his porridge and looked at Chief Zhou. "It actually has to do with this village's unique situation. Normally, people will not come here but ever since Chief Zhou came to visit us for the first time, he often came back to visit us. Chief Zhou is a good man, he knew most of the villagers have physical problems so he often came with his unit to help out."

Chief Zhou shrugged. "Elm Town is a very safe town, we haven't had a murder in decades already. As the leader of the serious crime unit, I am quite free so I come here to help as much as I can." Seeing the smile on Chief Zhou's face, we smiled as well. However I did notice something strange. Chief Zhou came here to help out often, but the villagers didn't seem to be that close to him. Technically speaking, they shouldn't be so icy towards someone who aided them often.

The day passed by in peace. Mary sent me some messages around late afternoon and I read through them one by one. Mary told me that through the investigation of Luo Sumei's phone number, she found out that Luo Sumei's last phone call was made at 12 noon 4 days ago. This was probably the last person who saw Luo Sumei and thus most likely her murderer.

But when Mary went to trace the origin of this number, she realized it was from a burner phone. If this was an innocent meeting, the person wouldn't have covered up their tracks so well. They probably had sinister intentions to meet up with Luo Sumei.

That was the end of the first message.

The second message was about Mary's adventure this morning to the pedicurist's shop. Tony told Mary that Luo Sumei walked to his shop. When she left, she didn't call for a taxi either, she said the dummy would come fetch her. However, who was this dummy, what kind of vehicle he drove, Tony didn't pay particular attention.

Mary pulled the camera of the nearby traffic lights and noticed Luo Sumei was not seen after she entered a small alley. The camera didn't pick up the vehicle that fetched Luo Sumei either. Looks like the culprit knew about the traffic cam's blind spot. Based on Mary's prediction, it would take 1 to 2 hours to travel from the pedicurist's shop to First Drain Village. So this dummy had to be the last person to see Luo Sumei alive and thus our biggest suspect.

But I had not seen a single vehicle at First Drain Village, the only one was the truck Er Xiao used to stock up on his inventory. But would Luo Sumei date Er Xiao? Furthermore, the killer knew to park at a location where there was no camera, this proved that the killer was good at anti-surveillance and knew Elm Town very well. The killer wouldn't have predicted that Luo Sumei would go for a pedicure but they knew where the closest parking, which was shielded from the traffic cams, would be.

A hypothesis was forming in my head and the development of the case was aligning with it. I returned the phone back to my pocket and then turned to Chief Zhou, "Chief Zhou, I mean no offense but I have a question to ask you."

Chief Zhou nodded. "Go ahead, anything to help the case."

I asked, "When Luo Sumei was in a relationship with you, was she greedy for money?"

"Greedy for money?" Chief Zhou frowned, "I don't think so, or else she wouldn't be with me. I've told you before, I have to mail money home to my family every month and I don't have much left for myself. I don't think she agreed to be my girlfriend for my money."

I frowned. Luo Sumei wasn't particularly pretty so why would someone give her 500000 RMB? Was he really a dummy?

Gu Chen looked outside and said, "Wu Meng, it's time for our plan. The snow is quite thick today, I believe the killer might make their move tonight."

I looked out at the sky and agreed with Gu Chen's assessment.

"Come on." We stood up and then filed out from the room. Guan Zhenglin shouted from behind, "Wait, you're leaving me behind all alone? Bring me with you!"

I walked back to argue with her, "You won't be of any use there. You better just stay at home." By then Gu Chen and Chief Zhou had left the yard.

I whispered to Guan Zhenglin, "Actually, I have a mission for you, follow the directions on my phone. If there's no accident, we'll capture the killer soon." Guan Zhenglin took my phone with confusion. She had questions but I already raced out the door.