Neverland

The end of this winter rain was also not good, and it lasted for several hours before it stopped completely.

A thin layer of ice had formed on the marble platform at the entrance of the Municipal Bureau. It was glowing warmly under the lamp, and it slipped when one stepped on it.

At 06:30 in the evening, the street lights outside were turned on on time, and the window of the forensic office could just have a panoramic view of the situation outside the gate of the Municipal Bureau. Yan Cen stood in front of the window with only the last third of the cigarette left in his hand.

The forensic room is in the shade, and the light is not very good. It is also gloomy during the day, and the lights are often turned on.

But for Yan Cen, there is no difference between day and night.So after nightfall, he didn't bother to move, and casually leaned against the window, smoking a Coke can on the window sill.

The cigarette butt fell from the mouth of the small soda can, and the hot flame was extinguished in the water, making a soft hiss.Yan Cen's eyes moved slightly, and he took another cigarette out of the cigarette case.

Judging from the frequency of Yan Cen's use, he probably won't survive tonight with this pack of cigarettes.

The metal near the outlet of the plastic lighter was licked by the flames and became slightly hot. Yan Cen pressed the lighter again, and the flames jumped out with a puff.

This trembling flame is as useless as the matches sold by the little match girl. It barely ignites the cigarette, and it will automatically go out after three seconds in the air.

The only light source in the room appeared for a moment and then disappeared again, as quickly as a human illusion.

In addition to the forensic room on the second floor, there are several other offices. The entire corridor at the other end is dedicated to the criminal investigation team, and the few scattered rooms near the forensic room seem to be administrative offices.

—— Yan Cen walked around twice, but didn't take a closer look.

The Municipal Bureau is always in a hurry, and there will never be a lack of voices in the corridor, but the voices and footsteps will reach a small peak at around 06:30 in the evening, and it will stay for about half an hour.Those who don’t need to work overtime call their friends, some rush home to get an early sleep, and some call their friends to eat bullfrog hot pot at an old shop in the backstreet.

Those who stay to work overtime are also uneasy. They have to collect all the materials they need, or sort out the things they are busy with, and work overtime together with unlucky colleagues.

Some people on the trace inspection side were blocked and couldn't go to the appointed location, so they could only walk back with the evidence bag while dialing the number to cancel the location.

These cumbersome voices were intertwined and entered Yan Cen's ears.

The cigarette between his fingers was bright and dark, and the sparks devoured the thin paper roll, roasting the tobacco into fragile white ash.

The warm yellow street lights outside the window and the red brake lights on the road are distortedly blended together, randomly smearing the grand occasion of "heavy traffic".In the corridor behind, there was a very bright white light poking through the crack of the door, and the general stopped two steps away from the door.

Lively or clean up.

He hid in the dark, feeling like a lonely ghost.

Yan Cen bit his cigarette holder, his eyes casually fell out of the window, and he casually patrolled the three-acre land at the gate of the Municipal Bureau.

The white mist filtered out from his body, followed by the warm breath, leaving a thin layer of mist on the cold window.

This body seldom smokes, and its habit to this kind of thing is very limited. Yan Cen licked his lips and felt that his throat was a little dry belatedly.

At five past eight in the evening, the traffic jam at the gate of the Municipal Bureau eased a lot. A dusty jeep drove in from the gate, turned into the parking lot familiarly, and filled an empty parking space near the gate. full.

The next second, the door of the cab opened, and a familiar figure Yan Cen jumped out of the car.He tightened his neckline, gathered his down jacket and rushed into the gate of the Municipal Bureau in three steps and two steps. When he entered the door, he almost slipped at the door, and staggered and jumped in the door.

An unconscious smile finally appeared on Yan Cen's face, he slightly raised his eyebrows, threw the half-smoked cigarette in his hand into the ashtray, and extinguished it.

He looked up at the wall clock on the wall, moved his stiff limbs, and waited patiently in the office for 10 minutes before picking up the report he had prepared on the table and walking out of the forensic office.

The door of Xu Muzhou's office was wide open and brightly lit.

Xu Muzhou was probably exhausted, so he threw his coat on the sofa as soon as he entered the door.When Yan Cen came to knock on the door, he was slumped on the office chair imitating a salted fish pillow.

Afraid of scaring him by going in rashly, Yan Cen stood by the door and knocked, seeing Xu Muzhou opened his eyes, he said: "Deputy Captain Xu, I'm here to deliver the autopsy report."

"Hey, haven't you gotten off work yet? You've worked hard." Xu Muzhou wiped his face, sat up straight and asked, "What did you find?"

Yan Cen looked at the time and said: "According to the current temperature situation, the time of death is between 24 hours when parked at room temperature. Judging from the condition of the corpse, the time of death should be between 05:30 am and [-]:[-] in the morning. It is jagged, and the murder weapon should be judged as a blunt weapon... Well, it may be the kind with an inverted hook, which is the kind I told you before."

Yan Cen closed the folder in his hand, then leaned slightly, and put the folder on Xu Muzhou's desk.

"The report includes a sample of the shape of the murder weapon. You can go to a hardware store or other places to find similar things based on this feature, and then come back and compare the scars." Yan Cen said: "But because the wound itself is actually very damaged. Serious, so it can only be defined from the fibers of the muscle torn, there will be a certain deviation, I personally suggest that it is best to identify the suspect first and then consider the murder weapon."

Xu Muzhou leaned on the back of the chair, rubbing the space between his brows tiredly.

He followed the scene for most of the day, and the technical department almost blew his phone all afternoon.Xu Muzhou drove the small broken jeep, and led the action group around Shanghai for three and a half circles. He personally did everything from interviews to trace inspections. After a busy day, his throat was almost smoky.

He waved his hand at Yan Cen weakly, and Yan Cen knowingly poured him a glass of water and put it by his hand.

"We rummaged through the twelve trash cans in Jiahe Community, and even the trash cans half a street away, but we didn't find anything suspected of being a murder weapon. It should have been taken away by the murderer." Xu Mu Zhou said: "It is also possible that he tried to deal with it."

Yan Cen nodded, and said very "understanding": "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"The victim's social relationship is simple, and we have searched the bank account, current funds and so on." Xu Muzhou said hoarsely: "Everything is normal...but the time of death should be after 03:30 in the morning."

Yan Cen was slightly taken aback.

"So sure?" Yan Cen asked.

Xu Muzhou took out his cell phone from his pocket, searched through the photo album, and pulled out a photo.He put the phone on the table, turned it 180 degrees, and pushed it under Yan Cen's nose.

On the photo was a call log pulled out from the backstage, which clearly showed that Xu Kang answered a call at 25:[-] in the morning.

It was an unfamiliar number without a note, it was a landline, and the call time showed three minutes and 26 seconds—that is to say, the caller had communicated with Xu Kang before, and it was not a harassing call.

"If an acquaintance commits the crime, is the murderer calling?" Yan Cen asked habitually, "Have you checked the phone number?"

"Check it out." Xu Muzhou said, "A pole is eight feet away——where do you think it is?"

Yan Cen honestly made a puzzled expression of "all ears".

"It's on the other side of Shanghai." Xu Muzhou said, "North of the development zone."

The Shencheng Development Zone has a large area, but the development progress has only been completed by one-third so far. There are five or six construction sites, large and small, and there is only one bus line for entry and exit. Compared with several old urban areas in Shanghai , It can be described with the word "desolate".

The north of the development zone is just opposite to the Shanyuan District where the Jiahe Community is located, so even if you drive here, it takes less than an hour to talk.If the call was made by the murderer to make an appointment with Xu Kang, the timing would be just right.

"We found the landline. It was a canteen near a construction site in the north of the development zone. Unfortunately, we didn't touch the murderer's tail." Xu Muzhou said, "Let's not talk about surveillance cameras there. Just a sick old dog guarding the gate."

"Oh, how can anyone use a landline to make calls in this day and age?" At that time, the proprietress of the canteen picked up a bottle of Coke from the shelf, wiped the dust on it with a cloth, and squinted at Xu Muzhou He laughed and said, "At most, the nearby construction workers came to beat him—but that guy last night, he looked evil."

The proprietress is a native of Shencheng, she speaks with an accent, and needs to add three or four modal particles to a sentence, Xu Muzhou bent over aggrievedly and hid from the rain under the eaves of the low canteen, took the coke after paying and unscrewed it I took a sip.

"What evil method?" Xu Muzhou asked casually.

"Unlike the people around here, the young man is well-dressed, like a big boss, and he looks very rich." The proprietress said: "The young man is a little taller than you, and he came to borrow the phone in the middle of the night. I gave him 100 yuan in change, and I said I wanted some money from him, but he disappeared as soon as I turned around—I even saw Baba took a look at the money box this morning, but fortunately, the money was still money."

Xu Muzhou was not in the mood to tell ghost stories with her, so he asked straight to the point: "Have you seen what he looks like?"

"Oh, that's not true." The proprietress said, "The young man is wearing a mask and a hat to cover himself tightly."

Xu Muzhou thought for a while, took out a photo from his pocket, handed it to the proprietress, and asked, "Does it look like this person?"

The proprietress took the photo and looked at it for a long time, then returned the photo to Xu Muzhou with regret, and shook her head: "I don't really see it."

"So——" Yan Cen asked after listening to Xu Muzhou's report, "So, it's not Qi Yuan?"

"Well, I'm not sure." Xu Muzhou took a sip of water and waved his hand at him: "The proprietress said that it was too tightly covered, so I couldn't see it, so I can't be sure. We checked Qi Yuan's whereabouts last night, according to his secretary It is said that Qi Yuan worked overtime until 09:30 yesterday, and then was sent home by the driver. It was after ten o'clock in the evening when he arrived home, and his whereabouts after that cannot be verified."

"But the behavior of the man who came to borrow the phone was very suspicious. The proprietress also kept an eye out. After listening to him talking on the phone, she heard a very strange opening speech." Xu Muzhou said.

"What?" Yan Cen asked.

"He said—hey, I'm the Ace of Spades." Xu Muzhou said.