Detective: From the Police Academy

Chapter 237 Prisoner

The night wind seemed to blow straight down from the starry sky, blowing into the lapels of clothes and making people's backs cold.

The rustling sounds around the temple are so empty and lonely that the sound seems even more silent.

The vegetable garden is on the flat land in the southeast, about a football field away from the temple. If Zhao Zhuer had not confessed, there would be hope of finding the cellar, but it would definitely be several days late.

But during these few days, the two women locked in the cellar might be in danger of death.

When the group walked into the shack, they saw a wooden board on the ground with three locks hanging on it.

This cellar was originally used to store oranges, but it has long been abandoned and used to imprison people.

Luo Rui held a flashlight in his hand, shone it behind him, and said, "Bring the hydraulic pliers over and cut off the lock."

Fang Yonghui nodded and did as he was told immediately.

There were quite a few people standing around the cellar, including Li Nong and his gang, Cai Xiaojing and Zhao Ming, the latter of whom was waiting to inspect the scene.

Because there were women imprisoned downstairs, two doctors and a nurse were also called.

The policeman carrying the camera pointed the lens at the cellar and nodded to Fang Yonghui.

"Then I cut it!"

Fang Yonghui inserted one end of the hydraulic pliers into the lock, and with a force, the lock fell onto the wooden board.

After cutting off the three locks, Yang Bo quickly lifted up the heavy wooden board and shone several flashlights down.

Suddenly, a foul smell and heat came out of the cellar.

Everyone in the group couldn't help but cover their noses.

The halo of the flashlight first shone on a woman's thigh and then her face. She was leaning against a bamboo basket, and it was unclear whether she was dead or alive.

The other woman was still able to move, and when she suddenly saw the glaring light, she immediately crawled inside, trembling with fear, like a frightened animal.

Both women were naked with messy hair, which was extremely shocking in the pale light.

Cai Xiaojing quickly comforted them: "Don't be afraid, we are the police, we are here to save you!"

There was no echo in the cellar, but afterwards there was a faint crying sound, as if someone was trying hard to suppress his emotions.

Cai Xiaojing continued to shout to the inside: "Don't be afraid, we are really the police, we will come down right away and take you out."

Yang Bo and Fang Yonghui quickly assembled a metal ladder, and when they reached down, they just touched the soft ground.

Cai Xiaojing went down the ladder with a female police officer.

Looking from above, the cellar is very large, estimated to be about sixty square meters.

Li Nong sighed and turned his eyes away, unable to bear to look at it.

"What a sin! What kind of behavior does this monk have? He robs, kills, and rapes women in this temple!"

Qi Lei said: "According to Zhao Zhuer's confession, these two women were also hikers who went camping in Fengya Mountain. They were arrested more than a month ago. The two brothers Zhao Dong and Zhao Qiang came to the temple almost every day..."

He didn't say the second half of the sentence, but everyone knew it. The two brothers were bachelors and had a strong desire for women.

Moreover, these two were also the main culprits in the first murder.

They were the ones who murdered one man and two women, and the two female bodies that had turned into bones were also raped by them before they died.

As for the source of the gun, they stole it from two poachers when they committed the second murder. Later, they changed their method of committing crimes and used guns to kill people.

Lao Bao asked from the side: "According to you, this monk didn't participate?"

Qi Lei curled his lips and said, "Of course not, the most brutal one is this monk, damn thing, he is not a human being, forget it, the person is already dead.

Zhao Zhuer and Niu Daming were slightly better off. Both of them were brainwashed and followed the others in the robbery and murder in order to build a golden statue of the Bodhisattva for the temple.

Zhao Zhuer was brought in by his grandfather because he failed the college entrance examination and had nowhere to rest his empty spirit. Niu Daming himself had cancer, and after chemotherapy, he recovered. The old man thought that it was the Bodhisattva who saved him, so he became more and more superstitious and joined in. There is a saying among the believers, what is it called? "

"It's to fulfill a vow." Luo Rui answered slowly, "It means that your prayers have been answered by the Bodhisattva, so you have to do something for the Bodhisattva."

Li Nong smacked his lips and said, "Isn't this a naked transaction?"

Qi Lei took over the conversation: "That's true. How else can we explain the incense money? Bodhisattvas and Buddhas also want money. They are all businessmen."

As he spoke, a woman climbed out from the ladder, wearing a green military coat.

Two nurses in white coats rushed forward to support her.

Next came the second woman, who had already fainted. Cai Xiaojing lifted her body up, while Fang Yonghui and Yang Bo held her hands and pulled her up.

Both women were very beautiful and young, both under thirty years old.

When they reached the ground and saw the uniformed police officers, the woman who was more conscious burst into tears.

The police officers present were all somewhat moved.

After being imprisoned for more than a month, the woman's spirit was on the verge of collapse. She held the nurse's hand tightly and was unwilling to let go.

After she was relieved, Luo Rui stepped forward and tried to ask, "I am the deputy captain of the Shahe County Criminal Police Brigade. Don't worry, the criminals have been arrested by our police. Tell me, are there only two of you imprisoned here?"

The woman didn't even look at him, nor did she answer the question, her body trembling slightly.

Seeing this, Cai Xiaojing said, "Let her calm down first, and let me ask her later."

Luo Rui nodded and had to give up.

A rack was built in the northwest corner of the vegetable garden, with loofah vines entwined around the rack, and the vines had dried up.

Several searchlights were set up in the mud nearby, and four policemen were taking turns wielding hoes in their hands.

According to Zhao Zhuer's confession, three bodies were buried in the vegetable garden, and they were all female bodies.

Because the body had been buried for less than half a year, there were a lot of insects near the mud. Even in late autumn, there were still a lot of green-headed flies crawling on the loofah vines. When illuminated by the searchlight, these flies flew around buzzing like a swarm of bees.

Zhao Chunlai and Han Jinli had already put on their equipment and were standing by to give orders.

Zhao Zhuer did not participate in burying the body. The specific location was confessed by the two brothers Zhao Dong and Zhao Qiang. Even if they didn't tell him, Zhao Chunlai would be able to find the burial place.

Because it takes a process and a certain amount of time for the corpse to rot completely.

The soil is in a rather special condition due to human disturbance, and the body was buried for too short a time, so the growth of plants is also very different.

Don't think that corpses can provide nutrients for plants. When microorganisms decompose corpses, they release acid, which actually affects the growth of plants, not to mention attracting a large number of insects nearby.

For example, the green-headed flies flying around the loofah vines all evolved from maggots. Where did maggots come from? They naturally reproduced during the decomposition of corpses.

As a forensic doctor, Han Jinli naturally understood this knowledge, so Zhao Chunlai didn't tell her.

"Hasn't it been dug out yet?" Li Nong walked over here with his hands behind his back, looking worried.

Zhao Chunlai glanced at him and said, "Do you think you are digging sweet potatoes?"

Li Nong was choked, but he was not angry. He quickly put his hands in front of him and said, "No, Doctor Zhao, don't be angry. I am just anxious."

When the police are investigating a homicide, their primary concern is not catching the criminal but finding the victim's body.

It’s the same old saying, without a body there is no way to convict the suspect. The prosecutor can only postpone the case and keep putting pressure on the county bureau to find the body as soon as possible.

This is why, after killing someone, the body must be hidden.

Those who often kill people know that there are many ways to deal with corpses, and throwing them far away or burying them nearby are common operations.

Those with better psychological qualities would dismember the body, stew it directly in a pot until the skin and flesh are removed from the bones, making it difficult to perform DNA comparison. The bones would then be ground into powder and flushed down the drain. Alternatively, they would use chemicals to melt it directly, but chemicals are strictly controlled. If the amount is too small, it would be difficult to handle, but if the amount is too large, it would be easy to trace.

So killing people is easy, but dealing with corpses is difficult. It requires strength and intelligence.

Little did people know that the murderers of their wives had no way to deal with the bodies. They would either dismember the bodies in the bathroom and throw the body parts away, or they would hide their wives' bodies in the freezer until the police came to their homes and opened the freezer and took a look, and they were immediately scared out of their wits.

Zhao Chunlai was used to seeing this, and analyzed: "The bodies were buried quite deep, probably because they considered this place to be a key place for the people, and these criminals were more or less in awe of it."

Bullshit! Li Nong complained in his heart, if he had a fear of God, he would not have committed such serious crimes as robbery and murder.

When the pit was dug half a meter deep, Zhao Chunlai immediately called a halt, only to see a number of maggots wriggling in the soil.

When shining a flashlight on it, the white maggots were seen twisting their bodies, looking as fat as silkworms.

Han Jinli quickly took out a glass jar from the investigation box and put the maggots into it with tweezers. These things had to be taken back to the laboratory for examination to serve as evidence of the victim's time of death.

It took more than an hour to catch the maggots. After that, the police did not dare to continue digging. Instead, they wore three layers of latex gloves and carefully dug the soil.

Soon, a pair of feet of the corpse came out, followed by the calves, thighs, and even the chest and head.

The corpse was highly decomposed and covered with maggots.

Li Nong stood far away, shaking his head, and walked to another place where corpses were being dug up.

The situation here is also not optimistic, but unlike the previous burial site, this body is buried shallowly, and the entire female body has been fully exposed. It may be that there are relatively few people burying the bodies, so the pit was not dug very deep.

Due to time constraints and the inquiries not being completed, the police do not yet know the names of the female victims.

Li Nong sighed deeply and walked to the third burial site. He saw Luo Rui wielding a shovel and digging the soil carefully. His forehead was covered with sweat and his eyes did not even blink.

Li Nong advised: "You don't need to come in person."

The young police officer standing aside quickly explained: "Li Da, Luo Da must dig it himself, I..."

Li Nong waved to him: "Don't be nervous, it's none of your business." Luo Rui continued to wave the shovel until Zhao Chunlai ran over and shouted to stop. He then stopped and wiped the sweat from his face.

Several policemen knelt on the mud and began to bend over and dig the soil.

Luo Rui also put on gloves and did the same movements.

Zhao Chunlai glanced at Li Nong and said, "The deputy captain has already taken the field himself, and you are just sitting here enjoying the cool air?"

"Me?" Li Nong was speechless, and then explained: "I can't stand looking at corpses."

"Then why are you still the captain of the criminal police?"

This was the first time that Li Nong and Zhao Chunlai dealt with each other and he didn't know much about each other's character. But through the contact over the past few days, he understood that this was a person who didn't keep his mouth shut. To put it nicely, he was too direct in his words, and to put it bluntly, he was a black-bellied person, a complete black-bellied person.

"That's not what I meant. These girls died so tragically that I couldn't bear to watch it!" Li Nong blurted out with a somewhat dissatisfied expression on his face.

Zhao Chunlai nodded, and Li Nong thought he understood.

"Then see how Luo Rui could bear to watch? He is much younger than you, right? He hasn't been a police officer as long as you have, right?"

"I..." Li Nong was speechless and simply shut up.

"Two years ago, when this guy just started college, he investigated the disappearance of Zhu Lizhi with Chen Hao and Cai Xiaojing. They found the bodies of two girls. They were buried under a silver hazel. This guy dug out the bodies just like he is doing now."

Li Nong's body paused for a moment. He had read about Luo Rui's affairs from the files. He was very clear about this case. It caused a lot of uproar in Guangxing City at that time. After all, it involved a female celebrity and providing sexual services to rich people, which led to the disappearance of girls in the welfare home.

"If there is anyone who can be a criminal policeman, I think Luo Rui is not qualified!"

Li Nong looked at Zhao Chunlai in surprise. Others all regarded Luo Rui as a criminal investigation genius. In the past year or so, he had overshadowed the Green Ghost Chen Hao.

Let’s not talk about anything else. Even if we take these cases from Shahe County to other counties, they are all much better than those solved by other county bureaus. Not only are they all serious cases that have been solved, but they are also solved in a very short time. When faced with these cases, other units either have no idea where to start, or the investigation time is several months or even half a year. How can they be solved in a week or two?

Zhao Chunlai's words made Li Nong frown. He asked, "Why is he unqualified?"

Zhao Chunlai twitched his chin and said, "If he was as carefree and heartless as you, it would be fine, but he is not!

You guys, stop thinking about solving cases and finding bodies all the time. Stop just thinking about arresting people and fighting crime every day!
The psychological preparation of the police officers must be done well, especially Luo Rui. Find him a psychologist and don't let him face such tragedies all the time, otherwise he will not be able to bear it sooner or later!"

Li Nong looked at Luo Rui, only to see him kneeling in the dirt, digging the soil with his hands with such concentration that he didn't even have time to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

He did the same thing when he dug up Yan Xiao's body half a month ago.

Li Nong finally understood what Zhao Chunlai meant. He sniffed, walked to Luo Rui and said, "Luo Rui, take a break. I'll take your place."

"No need, I can do it myself." Luo Rui muttered without turning his head.

"Then drink some water and take a rest first. We are not in a hurry!"

Suddenly, Luo Rui turned to look at Li Nong: "Not anxious? If you were buried in this mud, would your family be anxious?"

"what?"

Li Nong choked and was unable to speak for a moment.

Luo Rui turned back and continued digging the soil.

Li Nong didn't know how to persuade him anymore, so he just let him go.

Luo Rui did not stop until all the bodies were revealed. Then he followed Zhao Chunlai to help collect evidence nearby.

After staying up all night, the sky gradually brightened and everyone was exhausted and looked listless.

Luo Rui slept in the main hall of the temple for more than an hour.

He rubbed his eyes and looked up. Three golden statues of Bodhisattva stood before him. There were also rows of pedestals on both sides of the hall, which seemed to be prepared for sculpting Bodhisattva statues.

Luo Rui was a little dazed and felt that the scene before him was extremely unreal.

The logistics staff brought breakfast from the foot of the mountain, and a group of police officers were eating it around the table next to them.

Li Nong brought fried dough sticks and soy milk to Luo Rui.

"It's still hot. Eat something first, and then we'll go down the mountain."

"Where's the body?"

"When you were asleep, you were carried down the mountain. I guess you have already been transported to the funeral home by now."

Luo Rui shook his head to make himself more sober, and then looked at Li Nong.

"Li Da, I was wrong last night. I shouldn't have lost my temper with you and said such harsh words. I apologize to you. I'm sorry!"

Li Nong smiled and patted his shoulder: "Look at what you said, it's okay, I often lose my temper too, don't worry, I can understand!"

"Okay, then I'll go see Director Zhao. I wonder how his investigation is going."

After the hostages were rescued, Zhao Ming and Miao Shouqiang went down to the cellar.

Although the case is already very clear, we still have to be extremely careful in determining the number of criminals. Although there are only five people's footprints at the scene of the body dumping, it does not mean that there are only five people who committed the murder. There may be other potential murderers.

Li Nong said, "Director Zhao has come up and is washing his face. After you finish your breakfast, we can have the meeting again, okay?"

Luo Rui had no choice but to agree.

Half an hour later, the criminal police gathered in the main hall, facing the solemn and dignified statue of Bodhisattva, and discussed the case.

Cai Xiaojing spoke first: "The two girls we rescued are named Tang Feifei and Li Qiuju, who is still in a coma. The two did not know each other, but they both came to Shahe County for tourism. They did not come alone. Among the three female bodies we dug out, one is Tang Feifei's mother and the other is Li Qiuju's classmate. As for the other female deceased, according to Tang Feifei, she seems to be a local of Shahe County."

Cai Xiaojing paused and continued, "Fan Ming imprisoned them here. In order to prevent them from escaping, he only gave them one meal a day. The portion was very small, sometimes a piece of bread, or a corn. Anyway, he wanted to keep them hungry. In addition, Fan Ming did not violate them. It was mainly the brothers Zhao Qiang and Zhao Dong..."

Li Nong took over the conversation: "Fan Ming didn't violate them? Zhao Zhuer's confession didn't say that."

Qi Lei asked: "If Fan Ming really didn't violate them, then why did he agree to imprison them in the temple?"

Cai Xiaojing looked at the golden Buddha statue in front of her and said, "For money, the girls said that there are men coming every day, and there are a lot of them, all of them are villagers from several villages at the foot of the mountain."

At this time, Zhao Ming said: "I did extract a lot of people's hair, footprints and fingerprints in the cellar, and there were hundreds of spots of semen in the bedding!"

Hearing this, the detectives were silent. Qi Lei cursed: "You are such a bastard!"

Luo Rui looked at the golden Buddha statue in the main hall and said, "Fan Ming must have made these golden Buddha statues to make money, so he treated these women as..."

Li Nong gritted his teeth and said, "Catch, arrest all these people!"

Zhao Ming responded: "Fingerprints, footprints, and cyanide are the most direct evidence. I will try to screen them out one by one and not let anyone go!"

Li Nong nodded: "Okay! Damn it, all these beasts have formed a profit chain, and no one has reported the case!"

Zhao Ming was about to leave, but immediately turned back.

"One more thing. I had people search all night yesterday, but they didn't find the murder weapon."

Luo Rui asked, "Do you mean the sharp weapon they used to kill the first group of people?"

Zhao Ming nodded: "Yes, one man and two women, three skeletons, the man's throat was cut."

Qi Lei touched the back of his head and pondered, "Zhao Zhuer's confession said that the three people were killed by the brothers Zhao Dong and Zhao Qiang, using the butcher knife from Zhao Dong's house. He said that after the killing, Fan Ming kept the knife. We didn't find the knife in the brothers' homes, so we guess Fan Ming threw it away somewhere."

"Could it be Niu Daming?"

Li Nong replied: "We have asked Captain Kang Bolin to arrest the man. There is no news from him yet. Let's wait until he is arrested."

Luo Rui said, "Five people died first, and then they killed three more people, a total of eight people. They were either tourists or poachers. Moreover, their clothes were stripped before they died. Not to mention the things they carried with them, where did these things and the clothes of the dead go? How did Fan Ming deal with it?"

"Either they were buried or burned." Li Nong felt that it seemed unlikely to find these things.

He raised his head and saw Luo Rui's eyes looking at the golden statue of Bodhisattva in front of the hall.

“When was this Buddha statue created?”

"Ah?" Li Nong was startled.

Qi Lei quickly took out a notebook from his back pocket, flipped through several pages, and found that this question had not been asked during the interrogation.

Luo Rui walked straight forward, followed by a large group of people.

The Bodhisattva statue was obviously created not long ago, and there are mud marks under the base.

Luo Rui stretched out his hand, touched the base of the Bodhisattva statue, then twisted it with his fingers, and his fingers were covered with golden particles.

"You don't mean to..." Li Nong swallowed and didn't dare to say it out loud.

Qi Lei also opened his eyes wide. Although he was a public employee and should not have any reverence for gods, he was old and still believed in it to some extent.

Luo Rui snorted coldly and said to the policeman next to him: "Go and get the hammer."

Li Nong immediately advised: "Luo Rui, do you really want to break it open?"

He narrowed his eyes and stared at the Buddha statue. "What's the point of a Buddha statue made of mortal flesh and blood?!"

Soon, the police found a second hammer in the side hall.

After Luo Rui took it, he climbed directly onto the pedestal and swung the hammer in his hand hard, smashing it at the golden statue of Bodhisattva.

Thanks to 20240328191129993 for the 500-point reward. Thank you very much.

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(End of this chapter)