heart poison

At night, in Block B of Shancheng Business Center, Kong Jie is pushing a garbage truck, cleaning floor by floor.

Shancheng Business Center is an old-fashioned office building in Los Angeles. When it was first built, the word "office building" was still very rare in people's eyes, and the people who could work in the office building were all "elites".But over the past ten years, Los Angeles has developed rapidly, and towering office buildings lined up one after another. The Shancheng Business Center is like an old man who has gradually lost its status.A large number of enterprises settled in moved to office buildings with better locations and better facilities, and those who stayed were either because the contracts had not yet expired, or because they could not afford the high rent of other houses, and they were lingering like Shancheng Business Center.

There are also new companies moving in, but without exception, they are all extremely small companies that may go bankrupt at any time.

In the past, the four buildings of Shancheng Business Center were thriving with people coming and going, but now many floors are empty, like a ghost building, only two buildings AB are in better condition.

Almost all the employees who have settled in the company complain that the elevator is too bad, and there are often problems. They either tremble like they are about to fall in the next second, or the lights flicker, as if they entered the scene of a horror film by mistake; the level of security is even more impressive. Worried, most of the camera is broken, it looks like a decoration, the guard is either watching TV with headphones, or dozing off with his mouth open, whoever has his wallet, mobile phone and notebook stolen, deserves to be unlucky; the most disgusting thing is the sanitary conditions, there are not many toilets One is clean. Many female employees dare not go to the bathroom at all. They would rather go to the hotel across the road to go to the bathroom. The stairwell is also dirty. between.

As a cleaner, Kong Jie was once complained by some employees, saying that she was irresponsible and that she was hardly seen during the day.

She was also annoyed, Shancheng only gave her money for cleaning at night, why should she come during the day?The toilets are full of shit, the stairwells are full of garbage—is it her fault?

"I don't have the quality, so it's my fault?" The toilet on the 14th floor was blocked again. Kong Jie was wearing a mask, cursing while unblocking it.

She was so tired that she dropped the mop and rag and leaned against the window of the public corridor to smoke.

At this point, the people in the office building were basically gone, the offices were pitch black and silent, and there was an inexplicable gloomy feeling.

But Kong Jie has long been used to it.

She has worked here for many years, and a batch of companies came and went, but she was always there.

After smoking a cigarette, Kong Jie sighed and was about to continue cleaning when he heard a ferocious meow.

Following the cry, it turned out to be a raccoon cat that had been fed fat.

Shancheng Business Center used to have a rule that it was not allowed to keep small animals in the building, but no one cares about it these years. Many young white-collar workers keep cats and dogs in the office, and some stray cats often come to beg for food.Kong Jie herself sometimes carries cat food, and feeds some when she encounters it.

These stray cats are generally very docile, and their voices are soft. As long as they are not frightened, they will never hiss in horror.

Kong Jie was a little surprised.

After the raccoon cat barked, it quickly rushed into the stairwell, and there was no more sound.Kong Jie was stunned for a moment, his heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and he rarely felt a strange fear.

"Strange." She covered her chest and said to herself, "What's there to be afraid of?"

Having said that, she was still a little worried, so she quickly picked up the mop, planning to finish the cleaning early, call it a day, and leave this dark "ghost building" before 12 o'clock.

What needs to be cleaned every day is the toilet and trash can. As for the stairwell, no one checks it anyway, and she only cleans it two or three times a week.

It was cleaned the day before, and it will not be used today.

She stretched herself. She had already pushed the garbage truck into the elevator and was about to go to another floor, but she felt guilty again.

I don't usually clean the stairwell, and I don't feel this way.

She collected herself, thinking that she was probably influenced by that cat.

At this time, there was another meowing sound from upstairs.Kong Jie tensed up, turned around slowly, and looked at the dark stairwell.

There is a sound-activated light installed there, and it will not turn on without sound.But many voice-activated lights have been damaged, which is why she is reluctant to clean the stairwell.

She got goosebumps all over her body, swallowed her saliva, and walked towards the stairwell as if lured.

As expected, the voice-activated light on this floor was broken. She turned on the flashlight of her mobile phone and nervously took a picture upstairs.The cat didn't know where it went, and takeaway boxes and instant noodle boxes were thrown on the ground.She cursed aloud, perhaps to embolden her courage, after scolding, the tension eased a little.Panting, she went up the stairs.

The stairwell is blocked and the smell is difficult to dissipate.She was used to the sour smell, and found that the smell today was a bit unusual.

It seems to have an iron smell?

She shuddered, and her steps began to tremble.

Continuing to walk up, the smell of iron became stronger and stronger. She grabbed the phone hard, her fingers trembling badly, and the light of the phone's flashlight kept shaking.

After passing the corner, her footsteps suddenly stopped, the phone fell to the ground, and the lights went out suddenly.

Just now, she saw a woman with blood all over her face.

Hysterical screams resounded through the old office building.

??

Hua Chong squatted on the stairs, looking at the old woman who had already passed away with cold eyes.

The old woman's forehead was battered, the blood on her face had coagulated, her hair was disheveled, mixed with the coagulated blood, covering most of her face.

Her clothes were very ordinary, with a blood-stained mask dropped on the floor, an outdated canvas bag on her arm, and old sneakers on her feet with frayed heels.

Hua Chong lowered his head, looked at the ID card in his hand, and murmured, "Liang Ping."

The old woman carried her ID card with her, and the source of the corpse has been identified.

Liang Ping, 65 years old this year.

Xu Kan took off the blood-stained gloves, and said in a deep voice: "The deceased's face was swollen and his teeth fell out. It is suspected that it was caused by a blow. The fatal injury was a blow to the head. The time of death was between 10:11 and [-]:[-] yesterday morning." Between. I took a cursory look just now and found that there were other injuries on the deceased’s body, and how it was caused, we still need to go back and do an autopsy. In addition, there was skin tissue in the left middle finger and ring finger of the deceased, which may be related to the murderer.”

"She was beaten to death by someone holding her head down?" Hua Chong looked at the blood on the wall, gritted his teeth, and his eyes became colder.

Xu Kan sighed, "Yes. There are obvious tear-like scars on her scalp, and the blood on the wall matches the scar on her forehead."

"Who is so mad?" Zhang Mao was trembling with anger, "Killed to death? This is an old man! She is also a woman!"

"It may not be as simple as being hit and killed." Xu Kan said: "I guess she was abused during her lifetime. Flower team, her family..."

"Already checking." Hua Chong turned around, but did not see Liu Zhiqin, and asked, "Where's Brother Xiao Liu?"

One person replied: "I went to check the surveillance."

Hua Chong nodded and was about to leave the stairwell when he turned around and said, "Li Xun."

Li Xun raised his head, "Huh?"

"The scene has not been destroyed, extract all the traces that exist here for me."

"understand!"

Hua Chong's heart was heavy, and as soon as he came out of the stairwell, he punched the wall with his fist.

Cutting the throat, strangling the neck, bumping the forehead, every killing of the old man was horribly cruel.

The same murderer is not necessarily behind these murders, but the hearts of these murderers are equally vicious.

Kong Jie was trembling all over, sitting on the short pile and trembling, murmured: "My God, my God, how could such a thing happen? Ghost, ghost, ghost!"

Hua Chong's eyes froze, "Is there a ghost?"

"They, they all said this, this building is too old, there are, there are ghosts!" Kong Jie's eyes were slack, his face was pale, and his hands were tightly twisted, "She died, her death was too scary, I still listen to it." It’s here, the cat, the cat is meowing! It must be a ghost, a ghost made it!”

It is not surprising that there are cats at the scene of the murder. As for ghosts, that is nonsense.

Hua Chong called Zhang Mao to give Kong Jie a statement, and then walked straight to the elevator.

This is the 15th floor. The elevator went down quickly, making a "creaking" sound, and shaking very badly. The lights flickered on and off, and it seemed that it hadn't been nursed for a long time.

Even if there is an elevator accident in this kind of place, it is not uncommon.

The business management floor of Shancheng Business Center is on the fourth floor.In the middle of the night, the fourth floor was brightly lit. The middle-level staff had probably never dealt with such a thing before. They were anxious and frightened, with panic written all over their faces.

Hua Chong walked quickly to the office where the surveillance records were stored, where Liu Zhiqin and the members of the technical investigation team were busy.

"How is it?" Hua Chong asked.

Liu Zhiqin clicked on a video, "The cameras at the gate and the front hall captured her. She entered the office building at 10:03 am yesterday, lingered in the front hall for a while, and entered the No. 10 elevator at 14:2."

The video is not clear, but even though the image is blurry, it can be seen that Liang Ping is flustered and uneasy, as if she is looking for someone, and seems to be very hesitant, struggling in some way.

Hua Chong put one hand on the back of Liu Zhiqin's chair, "Which floor did she go to?"

"Floor 16." Liu Zhiqin tapped the keyboard and called up another video.

Liang Ping appeared on the 16th floor, looked left and right, looked at the guide board with the company signage for a while, hesitated again, and did not turn left until 10:20 and walked into a corridor.

"The corridor is a public area, so there should be cameras." Liu Zhiqin let go of the mouse, "But the camera in the corridor is broken, and I can't see which company she went to. But I have observed the floor structure, and the stairwell is just in the In the corridor, facing the elevator. Liang Ping has never come out since she entered the corridor, and neither the elevator nor the surveillance cameras at the gate caught her. By the way, is the time of death determined?"

"Xu Kan said it was between 10:11 and [-]:[-] in the morning."

"That's right." Liu Zhiqin stood up, "Liang Ping was looking for someone in a certain company on the 16th floor, and for a reason we don't know yet, she was taken into the stairwell. was killed."

"It's easy to check." Hua Chong said: "Even if the camera in the corridor is broken, the cameras of the various companies inside should be able to work, and there will always be someone who can capture Liang Ping and the person Liang Ping is looking for. But..."

"Ok?"

"It seems that Liang Ping took the initiative to find this person. How courageous is this person to take Liang Ping to the stairwell and kill him in full view? 'He' didn't even dispose of the body."

Liu Zhiqin stared at the fixed display screen, and said after a long while: "I'll call out the surveillance cameras of each company now."

Hua Chong said: "Can it be done?"

"It's fine if you have permission." Liu Zhiqin opened his notebook, and several data frames immediately appeared on the desktop. He said while operating, "It's already early in the morning. When they come to open the door and adjust the monitoring, I don't know how much time it will be delayed."

Hua Chong silently watched Liu Zhiqin busy. After a while, all the surveillance records of the three companies on the left side of the 16th floor were obtained.

The members of the technical investigation team surrounded him, while Shancheng's middle-level staff stood aside in fear.

"Here!" Liu Zhiqin clicked the mouse, "It's photographed, what she entered is..."

Hua Chong saw the company name at the front desk of the office, "Feiqu Foreign Trade."

Liang Ping stood by the door of Feiqu Foreign Trade and looked inside cautiously. A female employee came up to her and said a few words to her, beckoning to call a male employee in a suit.Half a minute later, the male employee invited Liang Ping to sit down on the sofa by the front desk, and put a glass of water on the coffee table, as if asking her to wait a while.

At 10:27, a tall and strong man came to the front desk.Liang Ping stood up immediately, took off her mask facing the man, and said something.The man looked at her for a moment and was also talking, with a fierce expression on his face.

"Could it be this person?" a technical scout said.

At 10:32, the man grabbed Liang Ping's arm and roughly dragged Liang Ping out of the office.

The camera of a nearby company captured that it was this man who pulled Liang Ping into the stairwell.

At 10:49, the man reappeared in the surveillance with a hostile face and was massaging the wrist of his left hand with his right hand.

And Liang Ping never came out of the stairwell again.

??

The serious crime team searched for the man in the video and Liang Ping's family overnight, and the autopsy and trace extraction were also carried out at the same time.

The Trace Inspection Division found a set of footprints in the stairwell, among which there are most likely the murderer's footprints.

The autopsy report given by the Forensic Medicine Department was heartbreaking—Liang Ping was covered with scars, some of which were new and some of which were old. Among them, the waist was the most serious, caused by a stick-shaped blunt object with a diameter of two centimeters.Other places, such as legs, arms, shoulders, and even the face, have varying degrees of injuries.Facial swelling and tooth loss are caused by slapping.The right leg was once broken.There are old scars on both knees, caused by kneeling for a long time.

The forensic department had a tense atmosphere. Hua Chong held the autopsy report, his brows furrowed tighter, his fingers trembling slightly.

This old woman who died tragically, the crimes she suffered during her lifetime may be more painful than death.

But what pain is more unbearable than being caught by the hair and smashed to death?

Who is the person who brutally abused her?

The bell broke the silence, Hua Chong picked it up, and heard Zhang Mao's angry and shocked voice, "Flower team, we found Liang Ping's family. He, they..."

Hua Chong noticed something different, "What about them?"

"Liang Ping's son is that beast in the video!"

??

Police cars raced through the night.In the early hours of the morning, there were almost no other vehicles on the road.Hua Chong stepped on the accelerator, clenched his back molars.Liu Zhiqin sat on the co-pilot with a gloomy expression.

The injuries on Liang Ping's body can basically be concluded that they were caused by years of domestic violence.The person who abused her was either her husband or his son.And her son may be her murderer!

Beating one's own mother to death was simply chilling.

Police lights lit up the night sky in residential areas.

Father and son Ou Huanguo and Ou Zhan were wearing pajamas and looked at the policemen in the room in panic, as if they didn't understand what happened.Zhao Xiaotu, Ou Zhan's wife, was so frightened that she huddled in a corner and dared not move.

Hua Chong stared at Ou Zhan, suppressed the urge to punch him to the ground, and asked coldly, "Where's your mother?"

Maybe the word "mother" is too unfamiliar, Ou Zhan, who is tall and big, reacted for a while, and then said: "She, she... I don't know, she is not at home, and she didn't come back today."

Ou Huanguo's face was mean and old, and his voice was dry, "She didn't come back, she didn't even cook meals, and she ignored housework. We don't know where she went."

"Is she part of your family?" Hua Chong asked angrily.

"Of course." Ou Zhan pointed to a closed door, "That's her bedroom."

A criminal policeman walked over, pushed open the door, and a strong smell of medicinal liquor wafted out.

Hua Chong tightened his fingers, "Since she is a member of your family, she doesn't come home late at night and her whereabouts are unknown, but you fell asleep peacefully?"

Ou Zhan said embarrassingly: "This, this... If she doesn't come back by herself, we have nothing to do. Besides, even if she disappeared, it will be less than a day, and there is no way to call the police."

"Have you thought about calling the police?" Hua Chong stared into Ou Zhan's eyes.Ou Zhan was stunned, "Huh?"

"Take it away!" Hua Chong dropped two words, and immediately a police officer stepped forward and restrained Ou Zhan.

Ou Zhan yelled: "What are you doing? Fuck me! Let me go! This is my home, if you want to arrest me, at least explain what I have done!"

Hua Chong turned around, walked to the TV wall, took down a stick hanging there, and found that its diameter was exactly two centimeters.

Ou Huanguo hurried over, trying to grab the stick.Hua Chong moved away, "The wound on Liang Ping's body was caused by you using this stick?"

Both father and son were stunned at the same time, and Zhao Xiaotu cried even harder.

Hua Chong turned to Ou Zhan, "Yesterday morning, Liang Ping visited you at Feiqu Foreign Trade in Block B of Shancheng?"

Ou Zhan was dumbfounded, "How do you know?"

Hua Chong approached, "You two got into an argument, you dragged her into the stairwell."

Ou Zhan's sweat slid down his face, and he took a step back suddenly.

"What did you do to her in the stairwell?"

"What can I do to her?" Ou Zhan said irritably: "She came to the company to find me out of nowhere, and said some weird things in front of my colleagues. I warned her not to look for trouble!"

"Inexplicable words?" Hua Chong said slowly, "What words?"

"She..." Ou Zhan hesitated, hesitating for a long time before saying anything.

"She put down the mask so you can see her knocked out teeth and swollen face?"

Ou Zhan's pupils shrank.

"I guessed right?" Hua Chong walked a few steps and stopped between Ou Zhan and Ou Huanguo, "Which one of you caused the wound on her face?"

Ou Huanguo leaned on the back of his chair and said nothing.On the contrary, Ou Zhan roared as if he woke up suddenly: "Is something wrong with her?"

"What happened?" Hua Chong glared at Ou Zhan, "She is dead, in the stairwell you dragged her into."

For a while, the cold air of winter night poured into the room, and the air seemed to be frozen.

Hua Chong raised his chin to the policeman holding Ou Zhan, "Take it down."

Ou Zhan raised his eyes blankly, looked at Ouhuan Guo, then at Zhao Xiaotu, "Dead? What do you mean?"

Ou Huanguo was the first to react. He strode forward and slapped Ou Zhan on the face, "You bastard!"

Ou Zhan seemed to be stupefied, "My mother, she..."

??

Sitting under the bright light of the interrogation room, Ou Zhan still looked ignorant.

"He's pretending!" Zhang Mao shouted: "A set of footprints in the stairwell has been confirmed to be his. Liang Ping's nails and his skin tissue have been compared! He killed his mother, The evidence is conclusive, and you dare to pretend you don’t know anything!”

Xiao Chengxin is not a member of the serious crime team. He should be sleeping at home at this time, but he also appeared in the criminal investigation team, and echoed: "Is this something that people can do?"

Liu Zhiqin walked into the interrogation room quickly, and Hua Chongzheng put the photos of Liang Ping's tragic death in the stairwell on the table one by one, "You pulled your mother into the stairwell, your hand was scratched by her, she was hit It's bloody. Ou Zhan, how can you deal with the mother who gave birth to you and raised you?"

Ou Zhan said in surprise: "How could it be me? I didn't kill anyone! How could I kill my mother!"

Hua Chong looked at him coldly.Liu Zhiqin pulled out the chair and sat down.

"You guys, do you doubt me?" Ou Zhan leaned forward, "It's not me! I just quarreled with her!"

Zhang Mao stared at the monitor and cursed: "Fart! You're lying!"

"What's the noise?" Hua Chong asked.

Ou Zhan panicked, "She came to my company to make trouble and said she would tell me to lead me, I..."

"You beat her at home?"

"Hmm! I don't know why she suddenly went crazy, she never dared to do this before." Ou Zhan picked at her fingers, "She took off the mask and showed me her swollen face and one missing tooth .What the hell is none of my business? It wasn't me who beat her yesterday, how dare she still make trouble with me?"

"So you pulled her into the stairwell?"

"Otherwise, what should I do? Let her continue to go crazy and ruin my job?"

"In the stairwell, you and your mother continued to argue and eventually, you grabbed her by the hair and slammed her against the wall."

"I didn't!" Ou Zhan slapped the table, "I said I didn't!"

"You have fought with her before." Hua Chong said, "Otherwise she wouldn't have scratched the skin on the back of your hand while struggling."

Ou Zhan saw the injury on his hand, and his shoulders began to tremble, "I just, I just slapped her, it wasn't me who killed her! You believe me!"

"Believe you? Believe you!" Zhang Mao clenched his fists, probably thinking of his mother, his eyes suddenly turned red, "How can there be such a person in the world? No matter how dark-hearted he is, he can't torture and kill his mother! What's wrong with the old man? Why should he be treated like this?"

Xiao Chengxin, who was standing aside, coughed twice, "Do you think it's appropriate for me to talk to the flower team about the previous case?"

Zhang Mao was stunned, "What case? The case of your accumulated case team? Fuck it, we have two cases in hand!"

Xiao Chengxin lowered his head, seemed to be thinking, and said after a while: "But there is a case on my side, and an old man was also killed."