Zhang Qiang looked at Zhou Ning with a complex gaze, his mouth slightly open, as if in surprise, then he hung his head, an action that said it all.
Zhou Ning got the ssage and signaled Sun Gaotie to send the autopsy report contents directly to Mr. Qu, after all, he was with Liu Yufei, and imdiately Zhou Ning called Liu Yufei’s cell phone.
"Liu Da, we are at the funeral ho now, He Jiahong’s body has just been delivered, and it’s well-preserved, we’ve just finished the autopsy, and the report has been sent."
There was a hint of exhaustion in Liu Yufei’s voice, but upon hearing that the autopsy was over, she asked eagerly,
"I don’t want to look at it now, just tell about the autopsy, can the cause of death be determined?"
"To put it simply, He Jiahong’s cause of death was a blow to the temporal region, causing her to fall. The autopsy revealed contrecoup injuries to the falx cerebri and corpus callosum, intracranial hemorrhage, and clear signs of sexual assault. We’ll have to wait for the test results for more details. From what was collected, her body was not thoroughly cleaned, which is the only good news.
She had binding injuries on her wrists and ankles, and there were evident abrasions on the insides and outsides of her limbs, showing signs of struggle. She was probably padded with clothing and tied up with ropes, but nothing relevant was found on the rooftop. As for multiple fractures on her body and organ damage, those were postmortem injuries, which is to say, she was thrown down the building in a critical state."
"Good, I’m having Mr. Shan’s team send soone back for the tests. You just wait there, soone will co to bring you back. Oh right, that forensic doctor over there, is he still there?"
Zhou Ning nodded, glancing at Doctor Zhang. Opportunities co and go in an instant, and Zhou Ning was no soft-hearted man. He felt no extre emotions of anger or deliberate cover-up concerning Zhang Qiang’s choices.
"He’s here. The body refrigerator rented out by He Hongjian had its lock replaced by soone. They probably realized that the body inside wasn’t the victim, so they switched the lock. The lock will be sent back for examination too, and it only has glove prints on it.
Doctor Zhang seed unaware of this, but he was able to confirm the victim He Jiahong’s identity. I need to verify one more thing with you, and that is whether the victim’s body can be stored here?"
Liu Yufei hesitated and remained silent for a while before speaking:
"The concern you raised is indeed an issue. I’ll have the people sending for the tests to directly transport the body back to the city bureau, Zhang Qiang, have your people bring everyone back. The second batch of personnel I’ve arranged has already arrived, we’ll discuss everything once you get back to the scene."
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes slightly. To speak thusly ant at least that Liu Yufei hadn’t left the primary cri scene. He had finished the autopsy and was yet to leave, there was only one explanation, which was that sothing had been found.
"Alright, we’ll be right back."
After hanging up, Zhou Ning didn’t look at Zhang Qiang. Mr. Zhao had already called the man who had transported the body. Soon, several policen walked in. Although Zhou Ning couldn’t recall their nas, he knew they were from Xinghua Municipal Bureau, dispatched this ti.
Without needing to say more, the officers took Zheng Qiang away. Although they didn’t handcuff him, they were escorted by two people out of the building, and the body was moved using a stretcher cart. Sun Gaotie and Mr. Zhao finished dismantling the equipnt and loaded everything back into the vehicle with Mr. Wang.
Once back in the car, Zhou Ning found Zhang Qiang and two policen waiting inside the car. Obviously, their vehicle had taken the body for the tests, as they had to transport it as well. With Zhang Qiang there, Zhou Ning didn’t say anything else but gestured to Mr. Zhao to find sothing for the two policen to eat. They did not refuse and even thanked him profusely.
Rember, they had either been transporting the body or rushing to the funeral ho without a break; there were no restaurants around, and they were so hungry their eyes glowed. Bread, sausages, and mineral water beca luxurious food for them. Seeing how they couldn’t get enough, Mr. Zhao reluctantly gave up the boxed al he had hidden away and shared it with them.
Half an hour later, when they got back to the Salt Company Community, they noticed many vehicles parked outside the community, across the street. Zhou Ning glanced at them; there were two police cars and over a dozen private cars. However, compared to the situation when they arrived in the morning, this street now seed a bit too lively.
Mr. Zhao ca over hastily and whispered:
"I had Sun Gaotie record a video with the law enforcent recorder and make a loop. We’ll send this to Liu Da later. The police cars are probably from the Xinghua Municipal Bureau sent to help. As for those private cars, we could look into them more closely."
Zhou Ning didn’t respond but quickly walked to the guard room where Liu Yufei and the others were inside. The small guard room seed a bit crowded. When Zhou Ning arrived, Fang Mu hurried over to greet him with a smile.
"Director Zhou, you’re back. We still have so boxed als here."
Zhou Ning waved his hand.
"We’ve eaten already. The boxed als were prepared by driver Mr. Wang in the canteen before coming out. Did you find anything on your side?"
Liu Yufei nodded.
"The surveillance in the guard room was not just deleted, but the computer mainfra was outright replaced. The contents of the storage card are missing from the front, and Mr. Qu said there is no cloud storage, so recovery is impossible unless we find the computer that was removed at the ti."
Fang Mu stroked the stubble on his chin, obviously very agitated.
"I contacted the Salt Company, and they said that this community is managed by a property managent company, so although it bears their na, it really doesn’t have much to do with them from beginning to end. It used to be their land, and they nad it for convenience when it was developed.
Then I went to the property managent company, and the person in charge said the surveillance mainfra had a short circuit and the motherboard burned out. They called the computer repair service to check, and were told that the mainfra was unusable. They replaced it with a new one, but they didn’t save the previous surveillance footage separately."
Liu Yufei crossed her arms and nodded toward the cars across from the community.
"Several police officers from Xinghua Municipal Bureau ca, but they just sat in their cars without getting out. From your departure until now, so many vehicles have stopped around here. It’s obvious that many people in Xinghua don’t want us to continue the investigation. And the video provided by He Hongjian, although it has a tistamp, lacks the original footage, making the evidence easily refutable.
I went door to door, and many of the residents above the second floor moved out after the incident at the He family’s ho, citing a simple reason. They thought that since soone had died, and with children still in school, it could impact them. That’s why the six households on the third, fourth, and fifth floors all moved out.
The families across the hall and on the first floor aren’t tenants, just elderly living there with poor hearing—they couldn’t even hear the knocking, let alone the possibility that they’re deliberately hiding sothing. As for the landlords of the three floors above, all have been contacted. Four of them ca to open the doors. At that ti, the two households on the fourth floor had gone back to their hotown and have now moved out.
The rooms were cleaned but not repainted. Mr. Yang inspected them one by one and found nothing of value. Only the two households on the east side of the fifth floor haven’t shown up yet. According to the residents of the first and second floors, it seems that these two households have cleaned up their places.
I just got in touch, and they won’t be available until tomorrow. Director Zhou, do you think our speculation might be off? Could the victim have been killed on the rooftop, and everything at ground level was just disguised, after all, you found chloroform on the rooftop and inside the drainpipe?"
For a mont, Zhou Ning also doubted his own judgnt. After a brief contemplation, his gaze towards Liu Yufei hardened a bit.
"I think we’re on the right track. Since the people from the fifth floor aren’t here, we’ll wait for them to arrive and then investigate. But as for the tenants, could we question them again? In such an old building, not to ntion shouting, even running up two steps would be heard by every household in the five stories. I an taking them to the Xinghua Municipal Bureau because talking in the police station, as opposed to investigating in their hos, imposes a different kind of pressure."
Liu Yufei smiled and glanced at Fang Mu, who quickly spoke up.
"Liu Da was thinking the sa thing. I’ve already sent people to contact these tenants, and they’re also picking up He Hongjian’s wife. We have another doubt: He Jiahong didn’t co back late at night after 11, a senior high school girl facing the college entrance exam, who could rent a place here, clearly caring about the child’s education and safety. But why didn’t she go looking for her or make a phone call that day?"
Mr. Zhao blinked.
"Have you checked He Jiahong’s phone records?"
Fang Mu nodded.
"Not just her phone records, but those of the coach Liu Kai ntioned by He Hongjian and He Jiahong’s classmate Tang Jianghai as well. What’s surprising is that after 5:00 PM on March 28, 2013, these two only made contact with two other people."
Seeing Fang Mu pause, Mr. Zhao leaned in closer.
"Which two? It can’t be that the phone records are just them calling each other, can it?"
Fang Mu gave a thumbs-up and gestured towards Mr. Zhao.
"Right on the money. It’s just the three of them calling each other back and forth. The last call was made from Tang Jianghai to Liu Kai at 22:15, lasting only 17 seconds. I’ve contacted both Tang Jianghai and Liu Kai—Liu Kai got back to first. According to him, Tang Jianghai has another ten minutes or so before finishing an exam and being able to co out."
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes; he rembered that according to the contents He Hongjian had written, Tang Jianghai had taken He Jiahong to a dinner party, withdrew money after the al, and there was a period of an hour and a half when He Jiahong was playing with her phone in front of a restaurant, while Tang Jianghai went in to eat.
Putting other things aside, if He Jiahong could wait outside for so long, their relationship was definitely out of the ordinary. But if they were close, why couldn’t He Jiahong join the dinner and had to wait outside?
Besides, the person inside that black sedan just had to call He Jiahong, and she would follow along, but Tang Jianghai kept chasing the car and insisted on taking He Jiahong to the dormitory. They were both on the sa athletics team—didn’t he know that He Jiahong didn’t live on campus?
This case had too many inexplicable parts, and everywhere there seed to be issues.
"Then let’s wait a bit and head to the Xinghua Municipal Bureau for questioning. Bring He Hongjian’s wife, Liu Kai, and Tang Jianghai all together. And what about that black sedan—did Mr. Qu find any information?"
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