Animal Detective

Chapter 133: The Growing Suspicion

It had been a few months since he’d joined the Criminal Investigation Division.

For the first time, Shen Xin truly understood what it felt like to be so busy he didn’t know whether he was coming or going.

He spent his days running around, verifying the backgrounds and social connections of Wang Lei and Zhang Qingpeng.

And in whatever spare moments he had, he still had to take care of three dogs.

Training was a whole other story.

He’d bought the bite-protection suit a while ago, but Shen Xin still hadn’t found the time to start the training.

Then there was Dou Dou’s drug and explosives detection training, which he couldn’t get to at all.

With no one watching him, Tiger Stripes was slacking off every day and had somehow managed to get a whole size fatter.

And on top of all that, he had to worry about feeding them.

Wang Xihai was also bugging him to film more videos.

It wasn’t just him, either. The fans were getting impatient too. It had been over ten days since the last video of Dou Dou, and some fans had even shown up at the precinct entrance, asking if Dou Dou had died heroically in the line of duty.

And that was just at work. He still had three more at home.

Da Mei, Evil Bully, and Da Mei’s hellion of a son were always running wild. Every time he opened his front door, it was like opening a blind box.

Then there was Xiao Hong’s case.

They had gone through the files and found nothing. After a quick meeting, Sun Zhao and Chen Chao decided they had no choice but to widen the search parameters, going back another two years.

Perhaps because the case had been reopened, Gao Liyun started visiting the precinct more frequently, stopping by every few days to ask about the progress.

Sure enough, she was back again today, a weekend.

"I’m sorry, we don’t have any news yet." Those were Sun Zhao’s exact words.

The details of the investigation couldn’t be disclosed, of course, so no matter how many times she came, his answer was always the same.

Today, she’d brought her son with her.

His name was Xiao Haitao.

He was a sturdy-looking boy, and his eyes and brows bore a slight resemblance to Xiao Hong’s.

While Gao Liyun went into Sun Zhao’s office to talk, the boy sat waiting at the desk next to Shen Xin’s.

One moment he was picking his nose, the next he was fiddling with the things on the desk. He was a restless little kid.

Perhaps sensing Shen Xin’s gaze, he waved.

"What is it?" Shen Xin asked, moving closer.

Xiao Haitao glanced at the closed office door, then lowered his voice. "Mister, you can’t find the killer, can you?"

Shen Xin’s expression flickered. He was about to say, ’Don’t worry, we’ll definitely find the killer,’ but Xiao Haitao continued, "If you really can’t find him, then... could you just stop looking?"

Shen Xin froze.

It took a long moment for Shen Xin to recover. He asked the boy what he meant.

"It’s just... really annoying," Xiao Haitao said, plucking the spines from the cactus on Zhao Tianxing’s desk one by one. "My mom’s always coming here to ask you guys questions. And after she asks, she goes home and gets all mad. It’s driving me crazy."

Truth be told, Shen Xin wasn’t great with kids and had no idea what went on in their little minds.

After a moment’s thought, Shen Xin asked, "Don’t you miss your dad?"

Xiao Haitao shook his head. "I’ve never even met him."

Realization dawned on Shen Xin.

’That’s right.’ Xiao Haitao was only a few months old when Xiao Hong died. He had no memory of his father at all.

Xiao Haitao continued, "It’s mainly my mom. She’s always talking about it, so now everyone knows my dad was murdered. I used to tell everyone he died from an illness, but now kids ask me how he was killed, and if it was like on TV."

"How am I supposed to know? It’s just so annoying."

"Officer, if you can’t find him, just stop looking, okay? He’s already dead, anyway."

Shen Xin ruffled the boy’s hair, a sudden tightness in his chest.

’Shen Xin didn’t think the boy was cold-blooded or heartless.’

’He had no memory of Xiao Hong.’

’Everything he’d ever known about Xiao Hong, he’d learned from Gao Liyun.’

’He knew his father had been murdered and the killer was never found.’

’Gao Liyun wanted justice. She always said that, at the very least, her son deserved to know how his father died.’

’But maybe, just maybe, six-year-old Xiao Haitao didn’t want to know.’

’It was possible that in his heart, he’d rather his father had simply died of an illness. That way, other kids wouldn’t keep asking him, again and again, how his father was murdered.’

’And every time Gao Liyun came to the precinct, she was, in effect, repeatedly reminding him that he had a father who had been murdered.’

’For him, it had probably become a burden.’

Shen Xin wanted to ask him if he missed Xiao Hong.

But he swallowed the words before they could escape.

’What good would it do to ask?’

’He was already missing a father’s love; now that absence had become a scar, one that was constantly being picked open.’

"Don’t worry," Shen Xin said with a smile. "I have a feeling we’re going to solve your dad’s case very soon. Everything will be better then."

Xiao Haitao made a face at Shen Xin, then slumped onto the desk and went back to plucking spines from the cactus.

Gao Liyun was the same as always. She asked for an update, didn’t make a scene, then bowed gratefully and left.

Sun Zhao saw the mother and son out the door. He watched them walk away, then sighed and said suddenly, "Xiaoshen, let’s go with your idea and post another reward notice. I’ll go talk to Director Lv in a minute and see if we can raise the amount."

Shen Xin nodded eagerly.

The precinct had limited manpower, and they couldn’t ask the local stations for help—those officers were just as busy.

The case files hadn’t yielded any useful clues, and their canvassing had come up empty.

As far as Shen Xin was concerned, if they wanted to cast a wide net, a reward was still the best way to do it.

Especially an online reward notice, which would have a much wider reach.

He led Shen Xin back inside. "That other case," he said as they walked, "the guy who died of rabies. How’s the investigation going? Can you confirm if it was a homicide? If you don’t have any clear evidence, don’t get bogged down."

"You especially. You need to get back to your actual job."

He pointed at Shen Xin.

"Captain Sun, my job *is* solving cases," Shen Xin retorted.

"I’m not telling you to stop solving cases," Sun Zhao said. "You’re still on Xiao Hong’s case, right? I’m talking about the dogs. If you can get those three trained, they’ll be just as useful as another detective."

"I am training them," Shen Xin forced a smile. "In any case, I’m still faster than the guys at the K-9 center."

"Well, pick up the pace. Old Jiang was bugging me about it just yesterday," Sun Zhao added before heading upstairs to find Lv Youwei.

Just as he got back to his desk, Ding Yuwei returned.

She pulled over the whiteboard, its surface covered in a dense web of dates and timelines.

It was Chen Chao’s idea.

First, they investigated Wang Lei’s social circle.

If he was murdered, there had to be a motive. That usually boiled down to three things: money, love, or revenge.

Money? They’d looked into it.

He was a content creator and financially independent. His bank statements were clean.

He hadn’t borrowed money from anyone, nor was he involved in any financial disputes.

Love? They checked that too.

He was single. His last girlfriend was two years ago.

They had met his parents, simple, honest farmers from Baidian Town in Xinbei District. They didn’t have any complicated social ties either.

So revenge could be ruled out.

The second line of inquiry was the cause of death itself.

Chen Chao’s idea was to reconstruct his timeline.

He’d been bitten by a dog. They had consulted Dr. Qian, who believed that since the wound was on the chin—close to the brain—the incubation period would have been very short, likely within two weeks.

That meant they could work backward and check his movements from October 6th up to the 10th.

They needed to find out exactly where Wang Lei went and what he did each day.

If they found a rabid dog in any of those locations, a direct overlap in their paths, they could pinpoint how he got infected.

They had his phone and had even pulled his cell location data. They had basically mapped out his every move for those few days.

"Foot massage. Took a cab to Yu Lan Pavilion. Got the 689-yuan package, paid in cash."

Ding Yuwei took a quick gulp of water and filled in the last blank on the timeline for October 8th: seven to nine p.m.

Shen Xin stepped closer, his eyes scanning the entire whiteboard.

With this final detail filled in, his entire schedule from the 6th to the 10th was now complete.

"The masseuse is okay?" Shen Xin asked.

Ding Yuwei blushed slightly. "She’s fine. She was with a client when I got there, but I still advised her to get a rabies shot just in case."

Shen Xin studied the whiteboard.

Take the newly completed day, for example.

His phone alarm was set for seven a.m., but it wasn’t until almost ten that the residential complex’s security cameras caught Wang Lei going downstairs in his pajamas. He went to his usual breakfast stall just outside.

He had a bowl of wontons in sauce and a steamer of soup dumplings.

After that, he went to a nearby supermarket for snacks, returning home around eleven to edit videos and browse the web.

His browser history confirmed this.

He ordered takeout at 1:30 p.m.

A little after two, he went downstairs to film a video; the elderly residents of the complex could attest to this.

He filmed for two hours before going home.

Then, a little before six, he went out for dinner at a stir-fry place.

After dinner, just as Ding Yuwei had discovered, he went for a foot massage.

He didn’t get home until after nine, at which point he started a livestream, according to his account history.

He streamed until past eleven, then ordered some malatang for a late-night snack.

The other days were much the same. He was a homebody with a relatively regular schedule. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and no apparent opportunity for him to have come into contact with a rabid dog.

"That’s strange," Shen Xin frowned. "Could he have been bitten earlier?"

The question was no longer about the possibility of homicide. The deeper they investigated, the less likely it seemed that Wang Lei had ever encountered a rabid dog at all.

And yet, he had died of rabies.

Compared to the suspicious circumstances around Zhang Qingpeng, this particular mystery was only growing deeper.