Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 65 Reaching the Summit

There was a large iron gate near the base of the chimney, but it was covered by a rusty padlock, making it impossible to open.

After all, it's a boiler flue; who would crawl into it for no reason?

At the other end of the chimney was a two-story-high brick boiler. Most of the equipment outside the boiler had been removed, leaving only a dirty entrance to the flue and a row of cast iron piles that could not be removed.

Nie Guoqiang held Lin Ge and stood by the chimney.

The ground was covered in coal ash, and the flue was pitch black and covered in cobwebs. The fallen coal dust had piled up into a two-finger-thick layer of grime at the bottom of the passage, beyond which nothing could be seen.

Even though there wasn't a single footprint on the mud, the man and the cat still confirmed their target without any doubt.

Needless to say, Lin Ge's sense of smell is infinitely more sensitive than his sight.

Nie Guoqiang, with his eagle-like eyes, quickly spotted several faint friction marks on the brick walls on both sides of the flue.

It can only be said that although Long Xiaojun is cunning and cautious, he is ultimately not a gecko and cannot fly.

After discovering that the exit route was blocked, he unhesitatingly chose to conceal the truth. Even if he didn't know how he had hidden the footprints, he could only hope that the police would be careless and overlook the traces in the filthy passage.

He underestimated the police.

Nie Guoqiang juggled Lin Ge, who immediately understood and slapped the walkie-talkie on his chest.

"Hello! This is Nie Guoqiang! I've found traces of the suspect; he's hiding in this coal-burning chimney."

There was a commotion on the other end of the walkie-talkie.

Soon, the people of Song and a large group of police rushed over, their excitement impossible to hide.

"People can hide in chimneys?"

A policeman muttered to himself in confusion; this thing touched on a blind spot in his knowledge.

"I just brought Junjun here, and it didn't find any trace of the people hiding!"

The police officer leading the police dog also looked incredulous.

The Song people didn't question it, and with a wave of their hand, they gave the order: "Send two people to go in and check! Be careful when you go in, there probably isn't a good path down there."

The two policemen did as instructed, biting flashlights as they climbed into the chimney.

Cursing and swearing could be heard coming from inside, clearly indicating that the flue wasn't as easy to navigate as one might expect. To put it bluntly, this thing was basically a large earthen stove, subjected to the pressure of burning coal over time; nobody knew what its internal condition was or if it had suffered any damage.

Several task force cadres accompanied Song Guoren to stand at the entrance of the chimney and look inside. They walked into the chimney, one step at a time, with the light from two flashlights shining through.

Everyone was a little nervous. What if something fell from above? What if there was a pool of water or a mud pit below...?

Fortunately, the chimney wasn't very big, with an inner diameter of only about 100 square meters. After finding a place to stay, the two policemen searched the inside carefully with flashlights, but found nothing that could allow anyone to hide.

It was just an empty, round room with muddy, broken puddles and sticky stuff underfoot.

"nobody?"

The Song people glanced at Nie Guoqiang, then looked up at the hundred-meter-high chimney.

At such a height, it should be enough to evade police dogs, right?
The others immediately realized what was happening, and one of them asked the glass factory cadre accompanying them, "Besides the ladder outside, is it possible to get up inside? Logically speaking, there should be similar climbing devices installed, right?"

"During the design and installation process, there was a frame inside made of steel bars."

The factory manager quickly explained, "But that was over a decade ago. This is a smoke extraction channel, and nobody knows if those steel bars can still bear the weight. Besides, as long as the chimney isn't damaged, no one would run inside, right?"

The man from Song nodded and pointed to the large iron gate on the side, saying, "Go and have two people open this gate. I'll go inside and take a look myself."

"Team leader!"

"Captain, no need!" Several people quickly stopped him, saying, "It's dark in here and we can't see anything. If we put a big light up, we can see clearly whether there's anyone there. That kid is fearless. What if a steel bar breaks and he falls and dies, son of a bitch?"

"Heh...you think he still has a chance of survival?"

The Song people sneered, but ultimately did not insist on going their own way.

Upon hearing from the factory officials that there were readily available large lights in the factory, the Song people ordered a few people to help fetch them, while the rest continued to wait at the boiler room entrance.

But not long after, a sudden cry of surprise came from outside.

"There's someone up there!"

"Someone has climbed out!"

Everyone looked up and saw a dark, messy human figure struggling to climb to the top of the chimney. After hearing the sound and noticing the light below, Long Xiaojun, who had been hiding inside the chimney, finally stopped pretending to be invisible.

Knowing that he was bound to be discovered sooner or later, he simply climbed to the top of the chimney in one go and sat down on the outer protective netting.

"He's actually inside! He's a ruthless person."

The man from Song sneered, "Get a megaphone and see if we can persuade him to turn himself in. Everyone, don't get too worked up. Give him some hope. Don't really push someone who's risking so much to live to the point of jumping off a building."

Everyone understood this principle and nodded in agreement.

However, things took an unexpected turn. Despite the police shouts urging him to surrender, Long Xiaojun remained completely unmoved. Even when the Song people vouched for him in their own name, Long Xiaojun lay motionless, as if asleep.

"This...this is troublesome!"

A policeman frowned: "We can't just block him down there and watch him starve to death, can we? But if we really send people up to arrest him... it's too dangerous! There's not even a place to put our feet down, and if a fight breaks out, it could cost two lives."

"Let's shout it out first and see if we can break through his psychological defenses."

The man from Song waved his hand.

This situation is indeed troublesome. The suspect has been found, but arresting him has become a huge problem.

The police don't need a suspect who died from a fall, nor do they want public opinion to escalate to the point where the police drove a suspect to suicide. The current situation is being witnessed by two or three hundred people in the factory, along with a growing crowd of onlookers. If all their hard work ends with Long Xiaojun dying before their eyes, not only will it damage public opinion and the reputation of the Zhangzhou Public Security Bureau, but it will also cause problems for the future direction of the case.

But right now, how can we bring this guy down alive?
Everyone was very troubled.

"Team Leader Song, how about we ask the SWAT team for help?" A policeman walked over; he was the deputy director of Baimiao Police Station. "Since we can't get the man up there, let's get a sniper rifle tranquilizer dart and see if we can knock him out in one go. The rest won't be difficult."

Nie Guoqiang rolled his eyes: "Liu Shengyou, did you not graduate from elementary school? Even kindergarten kids know that from this height, an egg falling from here could kill someone. You're holding a sniper rifle; let alone a tranquilizer dart, even a cardboard bullet could kill him."

"Nie Guoqiang, then give me an idea! All you do is cause trouble, huh!"

Liu Shengyou was furious and started cursing at Nie Guoqiang.

His anger was justified, because the glass factory happened to be within the jurisdiction of Baimiao Police Station.

However, frustratingly, the urban village outside the wall falls under the jurisdiction of the Zhanghe Police Station.

In other words, a murderer who committed a crime in the jurisdiction of Zhanghe Police Station has fled to Baimiao Police Station and caused such a commotion and chaos. What else could this be but an undeserved disaster for him?
You arrest people if you want, and solve cases if you want, but what's the logic behind driving a murderer into someone else's jurisdiction?
Although we are all police officers and should help each other, the Baimiao Police Station has an unexpected problem: a heinous murder case has been added to its jurisdiction during the year-end assessment. This is a difficult situation for anyone.

Police officers are human too!
Who doesn't want to look good and get a higher bonus during the year-end performance review?
But they were forced to get involved in this troublesome case, and the already insufficient manpower was further diverted and used. Anyone who cared about their subordinates would feel uncomfortable.

The people of Song knew this, so they simply ignored Liu Shengyou's curses.

Let them argue, the case still needs to be solved.

"Set up the protective netting, inside and out, so that if he jumps down we're caught completely unprepared. As for arresting him, let's brainstorm some ideas, don't rush it."

Although they knew that the protective netting couldn't prevent people from jumping from a height of over 100 meters, the people of Song still gave the order.

(End of this chapter)