Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 156 The person behind the scenes
“Zhang Fei is very likely not the murderer,” Chen Shu blurted out.

Xu Chaofan and Zhu Li were extremely surprised.

Xu Chaofan solemnly asked on behalf of Zhu Li, "A Shu, this is no joke. This case is being watched by the city's top official, and it's a task directly assigned by the Municipal Bureau. The entire Criminal Investigation Division has gone to X Province to arrest people!"

Chen Shu pulled a piece of paper from the case file bag and handed it to Xu Chaofan.

Xu Chaofan looked down and saw the identity information of Zhang Fei, the husband of the deceased Xiao Yan.

He carefully examined it from beginning to end but found nothing suspicious.

Julie, who had also peeked over and scanned the documents, exchanged glances with him, both of them filled with doubt.

"Zhang Fei was 1.88 meters tall and weighed nearly 180 kilograms."

Chen Shu then pulled out another photo from the scene and showed it to everyone.

This is a photo taken during the day of the concrete ground in the courtyard where the crime scene was located. There is a rather obvious dark purple bloodstain on the ground, stretching from the northwest corner of the concrete ground all the way to the entrance of the main house where the body was found.

"The deceased was about 1.5 meters tall and of slender build. The injury was only to his head. According to the photos of the scene, the deceased was likely hit on the concrete floor by the murderer with a weapon and then dragged into the house headfirst."

Two reasons: the killer didn't want to touch the blood on the victim's head; the killer was too weak to lift the body.

Xu Chaofan and Zhu Li nodded repeatedly after hearing this.

Chen Shu then pulled out two more sheets of A4 paper and handed them over.

This picture shows the murder weapon used by the killer: two palm-sized stones, along with a diagram of the crime scene.

"If the choice of the crime location and time was unavoidable because the suspect committed a crime of passion, then why didn't the murder weapon, which weighed only about ten kilograms, simply be thrown into a nearby reservoir after the crime, given the perpetrator had ample time to calmly consider the situation? The same applies to the body; why not tie a stone to it and throw it into the reservoir as well?"
The answer is that the murderer couldn't move it, or simply didn't have the strength.

Then, pointing to the scene diagram where the murder weapon was found, he said, "The police found the stone that the murderer used to commit the crime in a corner of the yard. I remember that corner was messy with a lot of stones piled up together."

This indicates that the murderer intentionally and deliberately attempted to conceal the murder weapon. Furthermore, the last known location of the victim's phone was at the crime scene, clearly suggesting that the phone was either switched off and taken by the murderer, or thrown into the reservoir. This further supports the murderer's intention to hide the phone.

To reiterate, if he had the intention, why didn't he just throw the stone used in the crime into the reservoir?

Chen Shu calmly gazed at Zhang Liyun, who had already emerged from the interrogation room: "Clearly, the murderer is someone who is either very weak or short in stature. In any case, it's definitely not Zhang Fei."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Liyun immediately became anxious.

Although he had always wanted to stay out of it and just drift through life, the importance of this case was undeniable. If everything was as the policeman in front of him described, then the situation had reached an extremely critical point.

On the other hand, with the entire Criminal Investigation Division dispatched to X Province, he was the only Criminal Investigation Division investigator left in Dongzhou, and undoubtedly all the pressure and responsibility fell on his shoulders.

He immediately lost his composure, looking at the police officer in front of him who had consistently ranked first in the branch office in terms of the number of cases solved over the years, and unconsciously adopted a tone of seeking advice: "Chief Chen, what do you think we should do next?"

Why are you asking me this, you're a criminal investigation instructor? Isn't this your job? Despite the complaints, we're colleagues, so Chen Shu wouldn't just stand by and do nothing. He first reminded Xu Chaofan to transfer Ma Hengyuan from the interrogation room to the detention room, then led a group of people into the adjacent interrogation room in a flurry, dumping all the documents from the case file bags and spreading them across the entire table.

He asked Zhang Liyun to help him get a stack of A4 paper from the printer, then took out a pen from his shirt pocket, leaned over the table, and began to carefully study each stroke.

After arranging things, Xu Chaofan rushed over. His hands were slightly numb, and his heart was pounding.

My active participation in this murder case was not only because I genuinely wanted to change Julie's perception that the police officers at the local station were incompetent at handling major cases, but also because I was tired of the tediousness of handling routine public order cases year after year.

What police officer doesn't like solving big cases!
Even though he was already over forty!
At this moment, he was no longer the deputy director of the Dongming Police Station who was responsible for turning the station from the second-to-last place in the overall performance rankings over the years!
He just wanted to see how this case would be solved next!
He had a premonition that something big was about to happen!

An hour later, Chen Shu sat on the table in the interrogation room and handed several printed documents to everyone.

"Our initial misconception was that we empirically concluded the case was a revenge crime committed by an acquaintance based on the victim's injuries. Coincidentally, at that moment, the victim's affair was exposed, and her husband also turned off his phone and went straight back to his hometown. This immediately drew our attention!"

As everyone looked at the documents in their hands, they pondered Chen Shu's explanation.

Julie hesitated and said, "So you mean it was just a coincidence that the deceased Zhang Fei left Dongzhou to return to his hometown?"

“I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence, but based on the evidence at the scene, the murderer’s physique and physical characteristics do not match Zhang Fei’s. We don’t need to worry about Zhang Fei; the criminal investigation team has already gone to the area, and I believe they will receive a lot of information soon. What we need to do now is find the person hiding behind Zhang Fei and Ma Hengyuan.”

Julie got tired of looking at the documents, put them aside, and asked directly, "How do I find it?"

Chen Shu pulled out a stack of call detail records, shook them in front of everyone, and then threw them on the table: "We rely too much on call detail record analysis. As a result, in this case, after investigating the deceased's call records on that day and confirming Zhang Fei's suspicion of communication, we immediately locked onto him. Little did we know that with the development of civilian technology, people now communicate not only by phone but also by WeChat, QQ, and so on."

Juliet's brows relaxed: "Oh, you mean you want to go to Tencent to investigate the deceased's chat history from that day?"

Xu Chaofan, who has extensive experience in handling cases, finally found an opportunity to say, "They definitely won't give it to us, so there's no need to try."

"Huh? Why?"

Chen Shu waved his hand, interrupting, "Time is of the essence, so I'll get straight to the point. We'll split into two groups. Xu Chaofan and Forensic Doctor Zhu will be one team, responsible for collecting fingerprints from the iron gate and chain at the entrance of the crime scene compound, as well as footprints from inside the main house where the crime occurred. Zhang Zhi and I will take Ma Hengyuan to the victim's house to see if we can find anything."

Chen Shu's analysis made everyone feel much clearer, as if they had found a backbone and were certain of their goal, no longer as lost and confused as before!

"Zhang, what do you think?" After all, it was a case from the Criminal Investigation Department, so Chen Shu habitually arranged the work and then consulted Zhang Liyun.

Zhang Liyun understood the gist of it, and as a veteran criminal investigator, he also highly approved of Chen Shu's deductions and arrangements.

This case is too important; now that it has come to this point, he desperately wants someone to step forward and take the blame for him.

Upon hearing Chen Shu's inquiry, he nodded repeatedly and said, "I'll do as Chen says!"

(End of this chapter)