lcionline Chapter 1100 The Whereabouts of Old Master Sun
Chapter 1100 The Whereabouts of Old Master Sun
“They argued at the door for three minutes,” the owner gestured. “The man in the hoodie grabbed Chen Miao’s arm, but Chen Miao shook him off and got into the taxi. The car almost crashed into a telephone pole as it drove off.” This detail matches the GPS track of Chen Miao’s taxi—there was indeed an S-shaped route at 10:05, which seemed to indicate the driver was in an agitated state.
On the fifth day of the investigation, Xiao Zhou's team had interviewed 32 people and verified 47 leads, but most of them had reached dead ends. Li Juan's alibi was valid, Hu Zi had witnesses from the nightclub, and although Zhao Qiang had a motive, 11 employees could testify that he had attended a meeting at the company on the evening of July 12. "The most troublesome one is Chen Miao's lover, Wang Li," Xiao Zhou said, rubbing his throbbing temples. "She said that Chen Miao had a recording pen in his black leather bag, but we didn't find it in his house or car. It's very likely that the murderer took it."
The relationship diagram on the blackboard grew increasingly complex, with red lines spreading like veins. Suddenly, Xiao Zhou drew a line between the names "Tongda Taxi Company" and "Scarface": "Zhao Qiang's brother-in-law works at 'Scarface's' loan shark company—this connection was overlooked before!" He pulled up the call log and found that Zhao Qiang and "Scarface" had a phone call at 9:30 PM on July 12th, lasting 1 minute and 17 seconds. "This time point is exactly after Chen Miao left Wang Li's house and before he went to the gas station!"
The fluorescent lights in the information center suddenly flickered. Looking at the clues on the blackboard, Xiao Zhou suddenly realized that behind Chen Miao's complex interpersonal relationships might lie two parallel motives for murder—Zhao Qiang's attempt to prevent a report, and "Scarface's" attempt to cover up a loan sharking dispute. The appearance of Sun Laosi had woven these two threads into a deadlock by the pond. "Investigate Zhao Qiang's brother-in-law's whereabouts," he grabbed the walkie-talkie, "and 'Scarface's' vehicle trajectory on the night of July 12th, focusing on whether he passed that convenience store."
As darkness fell outside the window, Xiao Zhou noticed a overlooked detail on the last page of Chen Miao's call log—at 10:10 PM on July 12th, he had sent a text message to the taxi company's dispatch center: "My car broke down on the way, please call a tow truck for me." The location where this text message was sent was only 1.2 kilometers from the pond, but the dispatch center replied: "The tow truck will take an hour."
“His car wasn’t broken down at all,” Xiao Zhou suddenly realized, “he was forced to stop there.” He drew a question mark between “Sun Laosi” and “Scarface” on the blackboard, “Is this man in the hoodie Sun Laosi, or someone sent by ‘Scarface’?” Although the investigation had reached a stalemate, more and more clues pointed to the fact that Chen Miao’s death was not a murder caused by a single motive, but a tragedy caused by multiple intertwined contradictions.
As the technicians were preparing to leave work, Xiao Zhou's phone suddenly rang. It was the gas station owner calling: "I just remembered something. Around 10 PM on July 12th, when Chen Miao was refueling, a black sedan kept following him. The last three digits of the license plate were 735, the same as 'Scarface's' car!" This news was like a key suddenly inserted into this complicated lock—Zhao Qiang's license plate number was indeed *A?735XX.
Meanwhile, Xiao Wang's investigation has also made significant progress.
Xiao Wang's leather shoes crunched on the broken glass of the brick kiln. The search on the seventh day had reached a stalemate; Sun Laosi's tricycle was still nowhere to be found. In the muddy ground by the pond, only corn leaves, swollen from the rain, swayed in the wind. "Brother Hui just sent word that the last three digits of Zhao Qiang's license plate are 735," he said into the walkie-talkie, his fingertip tracing the "Sun Laosi's Social Relations" notebook. "I'll try my luck at the scrap yard again; the old man there said he saw a red tricycle last Wednesday."
The scrap yard owner was squatting in the pile of scrap metal, picking through steel bars, rust stains leaving dark red marks on his work pants. "That's right," he gestured with his greasy fingers, "there's a newly welded iron crowbar in the truck bed, and a hoodie stuffed under the seat with a hole in the left cuff." Xiao Wang's heart skipped a beat; the hoodie's features perfectly matched the description given by the witness at the pond.
"Where is he? What did the driver look like?" Xiao Wang pressed, the pages of the notebook rustling in the wind. The boss suddenly lowered his voice: "It was Sun Laosi! He was limping on his left leg, haggling with me, saying he wanted to dismantle the tricycle and sell it for scrap metal, and told me not to tell anyone I'd seen him." He pointed to a pile of scrap metal in the corner, "I took the crowbar, it's over there, there seem to be some dark red marks on it."
Sure enough, traces of blood were hidden in the rust on the crowbar, which tested positive for type AB—matching Chen Miao's blood type. Xiao Wang immediately retrieved the surveillance footage from the area around the scrap yard. Although the footage was blurry, it was clear that at 11:05 PM on July 12th, Sun Laosi did indeed appear at the entrance on a red tricycle. The black backpack in the back of the tricycle was swaying back and forth, and the red knot on the zipper was particularly conspicuous in the moonlight.
"Where did he go after selling the car?" Xiao Wang zoomed in on the surveillance footage. After leaving the scrap yard, Sun Laosi turned onto a small road leading to a neighboring county. There were only cornfields and an abandoned water pump house there. Technicians found a cigarette butt in the haystack of the water pump house. DNA testing showed that it matched the sample provided by Sun Laosi's parents perfectly, and the brand of tobacco was the same as that sold at the small shop by the pond.
There were fresh campfire marks in the corner of the pump room, and biscuit wrappers remained in the ashes, with a production date of July 12, matching the shopping receipt found on Sun Laosi's kang (heated brick bed). "He stayed here for at least three days," Xiao Wang said, brushing away the ashes with a twig. "The fingerprints on the biscuit wrappers belong to Sun Laosi, and there was also a mineral water bottle nearby. Saliva stains on the bottle neck showed that he was still here on July 15."
On the evening of the seventh day, police from a neighboring county reported that a man with a limp left leg had been found using someone else's ID to access the internet in a corner of an unlicensed internet cafe. When Xiao Wang arrived, Sun Laosi was dozing off at the keyboard, a fresh scar on his left wrist gleaming bluish-purple under the fluorescent light, and the soup in the instant noodle bucket in front of him had gone cold.
"You're the guy in the hoodie by the pond, aren't you?" Xiao Wang slammed a screenshot from the security camera onto the table. The image showed a red tricycle parked in front of the scrap yard, the iron crowbar in its bed gleaming coldly. Sun Laosi's shoulders suddenly slumped, his knuckles tapping heavily on the table: "I just wanted to escape loan sharks, I didn't kill anyone!"
"What were you doing next to Chen Miao's taxi at 10 p.m. on July 12?" Xiao Wang's pen tip traced the words "cigarette butt DNA". "The convenience store owner saw you grabbing his arm and arguing with him."