The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1182: 4 Clues

The air in the meeting room instantly tensed. Sparrows outside the window hopped and chirped on the branches, but their sounds couldn't penetrate the heavy atmosphere. Old Zhao spoke first: "I think Li Jun is the most suspicious. The size 42 shoe print, borrowing the shovel, and his sudden resignation all match up. Moreover, he was a temporary worker, and his identity was fake. There's obviously something wrong with him."

“But Li Jun had no motive,” Xiao Wu countered, flipping through Li Jun’s registration information. “He only worked for three days before leaving, had no connection with Deng Yong, and had no reason to kill him. On the contrary, Zhou Jianming had a freight dispute and lied to conceal that he knew Deng Yong, so his motive was much stronger.”

Xiao Yang shook his head: "Zhou Jianming's height and shoe print match, but he's the site manager and familiar with the blind spots of the surveillance cameras. If he committed the crime, there's no need for him to borrow a shovel from a temporary worker; it would be more convenient to use the site's tools and avoid being exposed." He pointed to the photo of the white van on the screen, "The van that Xiao Wang photographed has a license plate ending in 6, and it's a Wuling Hongguang. If Li Jun is an outsider, it makes more sense for him to use a van to transport the body."

“No, that’s not right. Deng Yong was a dump truck driver. He was clearing construction waste at the construction site on the night of October 1st. Where is his truck?” Zhang Lin suddenly interjected. “The body was buried in the foundation pit, but the dump truck is missing. The suspect couldn’t have driven the truck away—it must have been hidden near the construction site or destroyed. If Zhou Jianming is the murderer, he could easily hide the truck in the construction site warehouse. Li Jun didn’t have that option.”

Xiao Wang added: "When I visited the site, I asked around and found that there was a hidden compartment in the construction site warehouse that was usually locked, and only Zhou Jianming had the key. On the evening of October 1, someone saw Zhou Jianming go to the warehouse. He said he was 'checking materials,' but no one else was there."

Xiao Zhou, however, offered a different perspective: "The unknown DNA found under Deng Yong's fingernails hasn't yielded results yet. Only if it's compared with Zhao Gang or Zhou Jianming can we identify the suspect. Moreover, Zhao Gang also had the means to commit the crime—he's a dump truck driver, familiar with the construction site routes, and he was also clearing debris near Oriental Garden on the night of October 1st, giving him the opportunity to come into contact with Deng Yong."

"What about Zhao Gang's alibi?" Li Ming pressed. Xiao Zhou flipped through the records: "He said he was repairing his car in the company parking lot at 10 pm on October 1st. A colleague saw him, but the colleague only saw his car, not him, so it cannot be completely verified."

When the discussion reached a stalemate, Xiao Wang from the technical department pushed open the door, clutching a newly printed report. "The black fibers in the shovel head and the size 42 shoe print are completely consistent with Deng Yong's work clothes; the unknown DNA in the fingernail crevices has ruled out Li Jun (extracted from a water cup left by the labor company) and Zhao Gang, and partially matches Zhou Jianming's DNA profile—but only 12 loci match, which does not meet the identification standard, and may be due to contamination."

“Partially matches?” Zhang Lin took the report. “Could it be that Zhou Jianming and Deng Yong had some contact, perhaps during an argument?” Xiao Wang nodded: “That possibility cannot be ruled out. We need to re-extract Zhou Jianming’s sample for verification. In addition, Deng Yong’s phone was found in the drainage ditch at the north gate of the construction site. The motherboard was damaged, and only the last three calls could be recovered: 8 pm on October 1st with the dispatcher, 9:15 pm with Zhou Jianming, the content of which was ‘The freight must be settled today, otherwise I will contact the developer’, and at 9:30 pm, when I called Zhou Jianming again, no one answered.”

"That's it!" Old Zhao slammed his hand on the table. "Deng Yong asked Zhou Jianming for the freight payment, and the two got into an argument at the construction site. Zhou Jianming accidentally killed him, hid the body in the warehouse, and later buried the body in the foundation pit with a shovel. He even threw away the cell phone. The size 42 shoe print, the warehouse indentation, the freight dispute—it all connects!"

"But why would Zhou Jianming need to borrow a shovel?" Xiao Wu was still puzzled. "He's in charge, it's easy for him to get a shovel, there's no need for him to borrow Lao Zhang's." Xiao Yang suddenly remembered something: "Lao Zhang said his shovel was 'flat-headed and 1.2 meters long,' which is the same model as the shovel head we found, but there was no fingerprint of Zhou Jianming on the shovel head—he might have been wearing gloves, or he might have deliberately wiped it off."

Zhang Lin added: "If Zhou Jianming is the murderer, the force he exerted with his right hand when strangling Deng Yong might have left a specific finger mark on his neck. Although the body was highly decomposed, the 'punctate epidermal abrasions' found during the previous autopsy were distributed in the same direction as the strangulation with his right hand. Zhou Jianming had an old injury on his right index finger, which might affect the shape of the mark. We need to verify this again."

Li Ming paused for a moment, then drew four lines on the table with his fingertips: "The clues now point to Zhou Jianming, but the evidence is not yet sufficient. We need to break through in four directions. First, Xiao Wang will lead the team to revisit the construction site, focusing on checking the warehouse compartments and the drainage ditch at the north gate, looking for shovel handles and Zhou Jianming's gloves; at the same time, we will expand the search area for vans to confirm whether the Wuling Hongguang with the last four digits 6 is related to Zhou Jianming."

"The second team, led by Xiao Yang, will re-extract Zhou Jianming's DNA sample and verify the matching results from under his fingernails; they will also check the construction site surveillance footage, especially the records of Zhou Jianming entering and leaving the warehouse on the night of October 1st, even if the footage is blurry." Li Ming paused, then continued.

"The third team, led by Xiao Zhou, will check Zhou Jianming's financial records to see if there are any traces of him transferring money to Deng Yong; at the same time, they will contact the developer to verify whether Deng Yong really wants to complain to the developer, and whether Zhou Jianming has any motive for misappropriating project funds or being afraid of being exposed."

"Fourth route, the technical department is handling this urgently: verify Zhou Jianming's DNA, recover more data from Deng Yong's phone, and test the shovel head for trace amounts of Zhou Jianming's DNA (such as sweat or skin flakes). In addition, Zhang Lin is rechecking the autopsy report to see if the neck pressure marks match the old injury on Zhou Jianming's right hand."

He looked at everyone: "Zhou Jianming is a prime suspect, but we can't let our guard down. If the DNA test doesn't match, we'll have to go back to the leads on Li Jun and the man in the hoodie. Deng Yong's dump truck hasn't been found yet; it's crucial evidence. Xiao Yang, you need to organize people to search the abandoned factories and parking lots around the construction site. Make sure you find it."

As the morning light gradually crept across the conference table, casting golden dapples on Deng Yong's photograph, Xiao Zhou stapled Zhou Jianming's call logs and DNA report together, Lao Zhao wrote in his notebook, "At 9:15 PM on October 1st, Deng Yong urged for the freight payment," while Xiao Wu organized the checklist for the van.

"Meeting adjourned. We'll summarize the progress at noon." Li Ming picked up his enamel mug; the tea inside had gone cold. As everyone stood up, the meeting room door was blown open by the wind, letting in the earthy smell of the construction site—the place where Deng Yong had last worked, and where the truth lay hidden. Xiao Yang rushed to the construction site with his investigation kit, Xiao Wang contacted the surveillance company on his phone, and Xiao Zhou dialed the developer's number. Everyone knew that the next few hours would determine whether the case could break through the deadlock.

Each group carried out their work according to Li Ming's instructions.

A discovery was made very quickly.