Animal Detective

Chapter 218: Wasting Police Resources

Speculation was useless. Evidence was what mattered.

So, the two of them spent the afternoon miserably continuing their canvassing.

But they still hadn’t found anything.

It wasn’t until almost four in the afternoon that a message suddenly appeared in the group chat.

It told everyone to return to the precinct, saying there had been a major development in the case.

This brought a flood of people out of the woodwork, all asking what the major development was.

Chen Chao had sent the message, but he didn’t give any specifics, only saying they could come back.

"Should we head back too?"

Shen Xin looked at Ding Yuwei.

In the better part of a day, they had visited nearly two hundred hardware stores, and their WeChat step counts had long since claimed the top spot.

The two of them quickly drove back to the precinct.

When they arrived, they happened to run into Old Zhou and Gan Yong, who were also returning.

The two of them had been investigating the victim’s social connections.

As soon as they saw Shen Xin, they asked if he knew what was going on.

Shen Xin shook his head, then asked if they had found anything. Weren’t they supposed to see Jiang Qi’s doctor?

Zhou Zhongyi said, "Jiang Qi’s illness is quite serious. It’s already in the mid-to-late stages. I heard they traveled to many countries and even tried some so-called experimental treatments."

"But none of it worked. In the end, I specifically asked the doctor how much longer Jiang Qi had to live, given her condition."

"He said it was impossible to say for sure, but based on his experience, he estimated she wouldn’t last more than a year, and her quality of life would be very poor."

Shen Xin nodded.

This was why the fundamental logic of Bai Jifei murdering Jiang Qi just didn’t add up.

If it were a different scenario—perhaps he saw there was no hope and his wife was suffering every day, so he chose to end her pain—

—even then, why resort to dismemberment? He could have used sleeping pills or even a pillow.

Shen Xin then asked if they’d discovered anything from the couple’s friends.

Zhou Zhongyi shook his head again. "They used to travel all over the world. After she got sick and they opened the kennel, they became more reclusive. Plus, he had to take care of Jiang Qi, so they lost touch with a lot of their friends."

Basically, no one had seen them recently. At most, they might have exchanged a text message or made a phone call during the New Year to check in.

As they spoke, the group arrived back at the office.

No one was there.

They stepped out to ask and learned everyone had gone to the interrogation room.

Shen Xin hurried toward the interrogation room.

He entered the observation room. It was crowded; even Lv Youwei was there.

Inside, Chen Chao was conducting an interrogation, but the subject wasn’t Bai Jifei. It was a man with glasses, a potbelly, and a square face with a broad chin.

Based on his age, he looked to be about the same as Bai Jifei.

"What’s going on?"

Shen Xin sidled up to Zhao Tianxing and asked in a low voice.

Zhao Tianxing pointed at the man inside, then said, "Let me tell you, this case just did a complete one-eighty. You’ll never guess."

Inside, Chen Chao happened to be asking, "So, you’re saying it was Bai Jifei who had you hire an online astroturfing army, create videos, and deliberately spread the news that he had murdered his wife."

What the fuck!

Shen Xin’s eyes flew wide open. He almost thought he was hearing things.

Bai Jifei had found this man to spread news online that he himself had murdered his wife.

’For real?’

’Has he lost his mind? Why would he do that?’

’If you wanted to go to prison, you could’ve just turned yourself in. There’s no need to make a scene online and earn yourself a reputation as a monster in human skin.’

’This Bai Jifei is sick. Seriously sick.’

Beside him, Ding Yuwei’s eyes were also wide with disbelief.

"Brother Xing, who is this guy?" she asked eagerly.

Zhao Tianxing said, "His name is Cao Rui. He was Bai Jifei’s classmate in elementary and middle school. They’re best friends, grew up together."

"So, you know how Captain Chen was investigating the newspaper office? Well, based on the phone number and transfer records, guess what? The account was registered using the secondary number on Cao Rui’s own phone."

"He didn’t even try to hide it. Captain Chen thought he’d made a mistake in his investigation."

"So they contacted this Cao Rui, and they got through to him directly. He was very polite, said he was on a business trip in Songpu and could be back in the afternoon. And sure enough, at a little after three, he just showed up on his own to cooperate with the investigation."

Shen Xin’s eyes were still wide.

’What in the world is going on?’

In the interrogation room, Chen Chao continued, "So where did you get all that information you posted online?"

Cao Rui sighed. "Officer, Old Bai was at his wit’s end. I actually tried to talk him out of it, but he seemed obsessed, completely fixated on it. He wouldn’t listen no matter what. What could I do?"

"I knew it was wrong, but he came to me for help. We’ve been brothers for so many years, and he was crying his eyes out. I had to help him."

Chen Chao was clearly confused. He said in a heavy voice, "Explain it carefully. Start from the beginning. What exactly did Bai Jifei ask you to help him with?"

Cao Rui sighed again. "On the seventh day of the New Year—that would be the 5th, I think. That night, Old Bai called me and said Jiang Qi was gone."

"Wait!"

Chen Chao quickly cut Cao Rui off, asking with a strange expression, "Jiang Qi was ’gone’?"

’Wasn’t she murdered?’

In the observation room, the team fell silent.

Cao Rui said, "She just left. Old Bai said that on the sixth, he went to Songpu in the morning. A customer had contacted him online, they’d agreed on a price for a dog, and the deposit was paid. He went to deliver it."

"But when he got to Songpu, the person said something came up and asked Old Bai to wait. He ended up waiting until almost noon."

"Then the person messaged again, said they didn’t want the dog anymore, and that Old Bai could keep the deposit. Old Bai didn’t think much of it and just went home. But when he got back, he found that Jiang Qi was gone. She’d left him a letter saying she had left."

In the interrogation room, Chen Chao was silent.

The colleague taking notes was stunned, forgetting to type.

’She was clearly dismembered, so how did she suddenly just leave? Go missing?’

In the observation room, Lv Youwei immediately looked at Sun Zhao. "Sun Zhao, what is going on?"

"Director Lv, don’t ask me. My head is spinning right now too."

Sun Zhao pointed to his own head.

’He’d seen that bloody dismemberment scene with his own eyes.’

"Holy shit!"

Just then, Shen Xin let out a cry of surprise.

He immediately drew everyone’s attention.

"What is it?" Sun Zhao asked, turning his head.

Shen Xin pointed at the room inside.

In the interrogation room, Cao Rui was continuing, "In the letter, Jiang Qi said not to look for her, and a bunch of other stuff. Once, I was drinking with Old Bai, and he got drunk and started crying to me."

"He said Jiang Qi didn’t want treatment anymore, felt she was a burden, and had even been secretly looking up information about euthanasia online."

Pointing at Cao Rui, Shen Xin said urgently, "Director Lv, Captain Sun, what if the murder scene was faked by Bai Jifei?"

"Faked?"

Zhao Tianxing exclaimed beside him, "Is he insane? Faking a crime scene to make himself look like the murderer?"

"Yes, that’s exactly it!"

Shen Xin’s mind felt like it had been zapped with electricity. He nodded eagerly.

As more and more information about this case came to light, Shen Xin had felt that something was increasingly off.

For example, Bai Jifei managing to delete the access control records.

’Since he had already chosen to dismember the body at home and given up on disposing of it, why would he bother deleting the access control records?’

’And the murder weapon. The dismemberment scene was cleaned so meticulously, yet he buried the weapon in his own yard, where it could be so easily found.’

’Then there was the matter of him filing a false police report so hastily, just four days after supposedly murdering and dismembering Jiang Qi. Thinking about it now, that was also abnormal.’

’They were homebodies anyway. He could have just dragged it out longer, reporting her missing only when he absolutely couldn’t hide it anymore.’

’If he had enough time to dismember a body, he had more than enough time to deal with the scene in the first-floor guest bathroom.’

’Although he had contaminated the bloodstains, it still couldn’t explain the sheer amount of blood on the floor.’

’If he really wanted to cover up the dismemberment, he could have just torn out the guest bathroom and renovated it. If he worked fast, it would have only taken a few days.’

’He could have been much more secretive and then faked a break-in, creating the illusion that his wife had been abducted.’

’But he didn’t. He rushed to file a report after only four days.’

’And of course, there was the persistent fundamental problem with the logic.’

’If he wanted to murder Jiang Qi, there was absolutely no need to use a method as extreme as dismemberment.’

’And then, with the case breaking just yesterday, he was already contacting reporters for interviews today, paying an online army to fan the flames and paint him as a murderer all over the internet.’

’All of these actions were abnormal and simply couldn’t be explained.’

’But if the goal was to turn himself into a murderer, then everything would make perfect sense.’

As for the reason, Shen Xin had figured that out too.

In the interrogation room, Cao Rui continued, "I never saw the letter, so I don’t know the specifics of what it said, but Old Bai was a complete wreck."

"I told him to go look for her. She’s a grown person; how could she just disappear for good? But he refused, saying Jiang Qi was so smart that if she hid, he’d never be able to find her."

"Then he told me he’d thought about it for a day and a night and came up with a plan. He said he wanted to turn himself into a murderer to force Jiang Qi out of hiding."

In the observation room, everyone turned in unison to look at Shen Xin.

Shen Xin couldn’t help but nod.

’That’s exactly it.’

Sun Zhao seemed to have figured it out too. He muttered, "Assuming Bai Jifei becomes known as the murderer who killed and dismembered his wife, and it gets exposed online, causing a huge uproar that everyone knows about..."

"In that situation, the only way to prove his innocence and clear his name would be for Jiang Qi to show up and prove she isn’t dead."

"I’ll be damned."

Sun Zhao sucked in a sharp breath and then cursed, "Has Bai Jifei lost his mind? How could he think of doing something like this? His wife is missing, so he should call the police!"

Everyone looked at each other, speechless.

At this point, everyone understood.

Ding Yuwei exclaimed, "So that means the dismemberment scene was entirely faked! That’s why we couldn’t detect any human DNA, not even on the ’murder weapon.’"

Shen Xin nodded.

’That’s the logic.’

The scene was cleaned to a degree that even an old hand like Cui Yan found incredible.

’But what if it was all faked?’

’The so-called murder weapon having no DNA on it probably means it was never even used.’

’And Bai Jifei’s goal was just as Sun Zhao had said.’

’Once the police locked onto him as the suspect, the only way to prove he wasn’t the murderer was for Jiang Qi herself to come forward and show she was still alive.’

’He really was using the most extreme method possible to force Jiang Qi out of hiding.’

’So Jiang Qi’s ’leaving’ probably meant she had found a place to wait for death alone.’

’And just as Cao Rui had said, Bai Jifei believed Jiang Qi was very smart and that he would never find her once she went into hiding.’

’So after racking his brains for a day, he came up with this ’genius’ plan.’

"The surveillance footage?"

Shen Xin muttered to himself, suddenly understanding a few more things.

Things that didn’t make sense before now clicked into place with the new premise that Bai Jifei had faked the scene.

For instance, the back door camera that was moved before the sixth.

’Maybe it wasn’t Bai Jifei who moved it, but Jiang Qi.’

’Or rather, the person who helped Jiang Qi hide moved it.’

’And as for why the surveillance and access control records were deleted, Shen Xin had initially thought it was because Bai Jifei had been caught on camera with some kind of evidence against him.’

’They were deleted in the morning, and that same afternoon, he went to the property management office to check them.’

’Now it all made sense. The surveillance and access control records were likely deleted by Jiang Qi.’

’In other words, Jiang Qi had also put a lot of thought into covering her tracks.’

’That’s why Bai Jifei would say she was a smart person and that he’d never be able to find her on his own.’

’These two...’

Shen Xin frowned, the same thought as Sun Zhao’s occurring to him.

’Are they crazy?’

’Your wife goes missing, so you call the police!’

’Do they have so little faith in the police that they think even we can’t find her? Did they really have to pull a stunt like this and waste police resources?’