Xu Dayuan hung up the phone and looked towards the first-floor corridor, indeed seeing Zhang Ping and Ma Liang bringing in a sowhat burly tall youth, followed by the sound of footsteps as Liu Yufei hurried in.
Ma Liang was quick to react and smiled at Liu Yufei.
"Mrs. Fei, should we go to the interview room and wait now?"
Liu Yufei nodded, and Ma Liang also reached out politely to the youth, guiding him to the interview room.
Liu Yufei approached Xu Dayuan.
"Leader, do you want to ask, or should I?"
"Let’s do it together. I’ll just listen. Have you checked his account like Zhang Ping was supposed to?"
"I checked it on the way here. So far there’s no issue. Every month, ten thousand seven transfers from Zhang Wannian’s account to this driver, Wang Kaitao. On October 2nd, probably the day after he resigned, Zhang Wannian transferred an additional ten thousand to him. His call records, though, are very clean."
Xu Dayuan gestured with his chin, and the two entered the interview room.
Zhang Ping called for the clerk. He wasn’t inside. The youth, upon seeing Xu Dayuan, always acted like a mouse seeing a cat. Ma Liang, on the other hand, gave Xu Dayuan a cheerful glance. Xu Dayuan pulled out a chair a bit; he didn’t sit close to the table but rather sat looking at the driver across from him.
The youth was close to one ter eighty in height, sowhat lighter than Mr. Zhao though definitely over 100 kilograms, with an ordinary face, sporting black-frad glasses, and with more than fifty moles and freckles of various sizes on his face. He looked around the few police officers with a bit of nervousness.
It is normal for people to be nervous when they co to the public security bureau. His behavior was quite typical, and despite fear in his eyes, there was no evasion. He seed on the verge of saying more.
"Your na is Wang Kaitao? Introduce yourself."
"My na is Wang Kaitao. I graduated with a nursing major, but I didn’t join a large hospital because the inco was too low, and I didn’t like the strict rules or that kind of atmosphere. So I went solo, and my license hangs in a small clinic. I renew it every year and pay the insurance.
I take jobs myself, and at night I care for a bedridden patient, handling injections, bedsores care, and massage; altogether it takes two hours. As for the dayti, I currently have four clients. Although it’s busy, my inco is much higher than it would be in a hospital, at least thirty thousand a month to start."
Xu Dayuan thought for a mont. He rembered He Shancun once complained that the nurses’ inco in their hospital was quite low, with ordinary nurses earning around five thousand. Based on what he said, his inco was indeed impressive.
"Do you know why we’ve brought you here?"
Wang Kaitao nodded, his cheek flesh twitching slightly as he pushed his glasses up. He seed to feel that nodding was rather casual and quickly added:
"I know. A female officer called just now, asking when I stopped being Zhang Wannian’s driver and many other detailed things. I guess sothing might have happened to Zhang Wannian, but I didn’t dare to ask."
This response sowhat surprised Xu Dayuan. It seed that Wang Kaitao was not as simple as he appeared to be; he was rather astute.
"Zhang Wannian is dead."
Wang Kaitao was startled and imdiately stood up from the chair, waving his hands frantically.
"I didn’t kill anyone. I’m just a nurse who does private jobs. I was Zhang Wannian’s driver and even accompanied him through his surgery and chemotherapy, as well as arranging trips. But taking care of him alone is more exhausting than doing three or four other jobs. He needed on call, but I had other places to go and couldn’t just sit around waiting for a phone call.
After his chemotherapy ended in June, I resigned, suggesting he find soone else. I couldn’t find a replacent, so I asked for a salary reduction and only took care of him in the afternoons. He didn’t object, but my salary wasn’t reduced.
When I resigned this ti, he didn’t refuse, and even transferred an extra ten thousand the next day. I thought this boss was very principled. Other than being a bit anxious and suspicious because of his illness, there was nothing seriously wrong with him; he was easy to take care of. Why would I kill such a golden goose?"
Xu Dayuan waved his hand.
"Sit down, listen to carefully. If we thought you were the murderer, we wouldn’t be talking politely with you here. You’d already be handcuffed and locked in the chair. Think carefully, since the surgery until you resigned, did he have any friends who contacted him?
Or family mbers who ca to see him? We’ve checked his records and found he has a son and a daughter, and his company is right there in Dayao City. Didn’t anyone from the company co to see him?"
Wang Kaitao thought it over and shook his head firmly.
"No. When I first t him, he said he signed off on the surgery himself. He had arranged for a notarization with the doctor in advance. From March, when he started preparing for the surgery, until the end of his chemotherapy in June, not a single relative or friend ca to see him.
During his hospitalization, he had a caretaker, and I kept his mobile phone and stuff. There were no calls or ssages from his children. As for his enterprise, I heard him ntion that he had hired a managent company to take over on a profit-sharing basis.
Let think, it was exactly 40% of the net profit. Anyway, those who have been sick are very reflective. They often do things they didn’t do before. He said he struggled a lot in his early life, even weighing the cost of a beef noodle soup outside.
Now he has left behind a business, the children are grown up and don’t need his care and attention. His wife thought he was only focused on business, and the children weren’t close to him, so in the end, all he had was a pile of money and a body full of sickness. Now he’s co to terms with it. He doesn’t ask for much, just hoping to live another five years."
After June, I often took him on short trips around the area, also to help him relax and interact with more people. I noticed that he really liked hiking, so I dragged him to an outdoor sports store to get so gear, and occasionally we would go to Zhu Mountains and Mount Fu for a stroll."
Liu Yufei asked:
"How many phone numbers does he have?"
The question caught Wang Kaitao off guard, and he replied almost without thinking:
"I only know one."
Xu Dayuan squinted his eyes, and when he heard about the trip, he thought of the attire of the two deceased individuals and quickly asked:
"You ntioned going to an outdoor sports store, do you rember the na of the store you went to?"
This question seed to stump Wang Kaitao for a mont; he paused, then took out his phone, about to search before he looked at Xu Dayuan awkwardly.
"Can I take a look at the map? I really can’t rember the na, but I roughly know the location. It’s on the north side of the intersection of Jiefang Road and Heping Road."
Xu Dayuan raised his hand to indicate that it was okay to look it up, then Wang Kaitao used the map to search and excitedly held his phone up to Xu Dayuan upon finding the location.
"Here, this is the store: Aing Outdoor Sports Equipnt Store."
Seeing the na of the store, Xu Dayuan thought for a mont and then dialed Zhao Xinli’s number. It didn’t take long for Zhao Xinli to answer the call.
"What’s up, boss? Any plans, or are you inviting us to dinner?"
Xu Dayuan coughed to ease his embarrassnt, as before Zhou Ning and the others went to Dayao City, he had indeed said he would treat them to a al, but it had been almost two months without fulfilling that promise.
"Cut the crap, I’m asking you, when we were investigating the first deceased, Liu Xiangrui, do you rember the na of that chain outdoor sports equipnt company he owned?"
"Oh, that company. Let think, I believe it’s called Aing Outdoor Sports, their logo is a papercut of a person climbing a mountain."
"Got it, thanks."
With a click, Xu Dayuan hung up and looked at Wang Kaitao.
"When did you take him to this outdoor equipnt store? Did he frequent that place? At the ti, did you have any interaction with the people there, did he talk a bit more with anyone?"
A barrage of questions overwheld Wang Kaitao. He wasn’t foolish, he heard the words ’first deceased’, which he knew signified sothing important. Swallowing hard, he carefully recalled and said:
"The first ti we went to that store was after his chemotherapy had finished, and his strength hadn’t fully recovered. I thought I’d take him to buy so walking-appropriate clothes and shoes, as he was usually in leather shoes or suits, and while hospitalized, he only wore a few sets of pajamas, he didn’t bring anything else.
We went there a few more tis, and in August, it seed like the store was expanded and redecorated quite beautifully. There were flowers at the door, and he went in by himself while I took a phone call— one of my patients I was looking after felt unwell, and I told Zhang Wannian.
He told to go ahead; when it was over, call him; if he wasn’t able to get a hold of , he could take a taxi back to the sanitarium on his own. I left and called him after I was done, which was over an hour later, and he was still at the store, so I went to pick him up. I didn’t go in that ti. When he ca out, he was carrying bags big and small, quite a few of them.
I joked with him, asking if he bought so much because it was free. He said it was a grand reopening, and as a rechargeable mber, there were discount activities and he could also join the club which was organized by their store, with activities each month, and it was just a few ten thousand yuan in total.
I was quite impressed but I didn’t go in to see if he had chatted with anyone. After that, he went back to Dayao City for a few days. When he returned, he wasn’t in good shape. I took him hiking in Zhu Mountains, but I don’t know if he participated in any activities organized by that store."
Xu Dayuan nodded, although he didn’t find any further clues, and Wang Kaitao knew only so much, but now it seed he could connect the two deceased individuals– Zhang Wannian had visited the new store of the second deceased, Liu Xiangrui, and may also have joined the club.
Standing up, Xu Dayuan shook hands with Wang Kaitao and said:
"Thank you for your cooperation, and sorry for interrupting your money-making. We might need your help again if we have any questions later."
Wang Kaitao was sowhat flattered, knowing from a glance that Xu Dayuan was a high-ranking officer. He was pleasantly surprised by the courteous speech, with any dissatisfaction from the car journey evaporating early on.
"You’re too kind. What I know is limited and not very helpful. Oh right, I seed to have forgotten to ntion, although no one visited Zhang Wannian in the past six months, he seed to always wait for a phone call on weekends.
At first I didn’t notice, but later I realized, it seed like he was chatting with a girl, speaking softly and tenderly. I don’t know what they talked about; there were no nas, no terms of address, he just called the person ’girl’. I even asked if it was your older daughter, but he didn’t answer."
Xu Dayuan was startled, and with a hint of excitent, he pursued the lead:
"Saturday or Sunday? I’ll have soone check it out."
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