Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 249 Major Discovery (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

When Zhou Yi arrived at Donghai Community, in addition to Shi Tao and He Bin, Miao Cheng and his men were also there.

Miao Cheng was delighted to see his old friend Zhou Yi, but he was also puzzled and uneasy about the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment suddenly focusing on the Donghai Community again.

"Zhou Yi, is there any information that needs to be supplemented or improved regarding Zhang Hui's case?" Miao Cheng asked.

"Didn't Captain Shi tell Officer Miao?" Zhou Yi asked.

Shi Tao laughed: "I'm waiting for you to tell me, I'm afraid I'll scare Old Miao to death if I do."

Not long ago, when the whole city was searching for Long Zhiqiang and his gang, Miao Cheng spotted the van, which is how he met Shi Tao.

"What exactly is going on?" Miao Cheng looked at Zhou Yi expectantly.

"The body parts we retrieved from the septic tank last time may have contained human tissue from another person. We suspect that there is more than one dismemberment case in Donghai Community. Moreover, the other case should be earlier than the Zhang Hui case."

Miao Cheng stared wide-eyed in disbelief after hearing this.

"This...you're not kidding, are you?"

Zhou Yi shook his head and talked about the newly built DNA testing laboratory in the provincial department.

He wasn't sure what the first case was after the provincial department's DNA lab was built and put into use in the previous life, but clearly, it was this double dismemberment case in Donghai Community now.

Miao Cheng was so shocked that he didn't know what to say. In the end, he could only say, "Anyway, with Officer Zhou here, this case will definitely be solved, it will definitely be solved."

Before Zhou Yi arrived, Shi Tao and his team had already conducted extensive investigations into several suspicious individuals from yesterday.

It mainly came from Miao Cheng and the neighborhood committee.

First, there was the middle-aged couple. Although they had already gone to work, He Bin found the only scrap metal recycling station near the community and confirmed that the couple had indeed been selling him scrap iron for a long time.

At first, I took them to his recycling station to sell. Later, we got to know each other better, and I would ask him to come and pick them up every two or three months, for at least two or three years.

He Bin asked him, "Didn't you ever think that the iron blocks you collected were stolen?"
The recycling station owner retorted confidently: "What? It says so on the label. It's not gold, how would I know where it came from?"

In this kind of situation, both the seller and the buyer are fully aware of the truth.

When Shi Tao found out, he wasn't really surprised, since Zhou Yi had been right all along.

His point was that this kind of thing should be left to the police station to handle, so as not to waste their energy.

Then there was the widow. Miao Cheng remembered her because he had responded to a call while on duty late one night.

It wasn't the young widow who called the police, but her neighbor across the hall.

Two men got into a fight in front of the young widow's house in the middle of the night, and there was blood.

Fearing that someone might die, the neighbor quickly called the police.

When Miao Cheng and his colleagues arrived, they found three people at the scene: a sexy young widow, a shirtless man wearing a thick gold chain, and a man with a buzz cut whose head was bleeding.

Miao Cheng immediately took the three of them back, and after asking them a question, their worldviews were completely shattered.

Both men claimed to be the young widow's boyfriend, but Miao Cheng discovered that both of them were married.

The man with the thick gold chain was a small business owner in his early forties. He was usually very generous and essentially kept the young widow as a mistress, visiting her every few days to spend the night.

The young man with the buzz cut was the young widow's mahjong partner, and they gradually became involved. He was younger, better looking, and stronger than the young boss, and had only recently gotten married.

Neither man knew of the other's existence. The young widow managed her time very well, one providing money and the other providing emotional support and other things, and they lived in peace.

But the worst thing about a game with three people is a sudden surprise.

That day, the young man's wife went to visit her parents temporarily, and feeling lonely, he decided to go find the young widow and surprise her.

When they knocked on the door, the surprise turned into a shock.

The older brother and the younger man got into a fight after exchanging only a few words.

Miao Cheng was quite amazed, but he could only mediate the situation as a fight, not as prostitution. After all, neither keeping a mistress nor adultery is illegal, only morally wrong.

But for these three people, morality is probably worthless.

As for the old man who was carrying a pot on his head, Director Chen of the neighborhood committee said that the old man was indeed a bit eccentric, superstitious about qigong, and often got angry with his wife. Whenever he got angry, he would tell people that his wife had died.

Finally, the neighborhood committee found the phone number left by the elderly couple's daughter. After inquiring, they confirmed that the old lady had indeed gone to her own home after her parents had argued.

As for the mother and daughter, Director Chen said that he only knew that the family had been divorced for a long time. The woman worked in a plastics factory and was usually quite fierce and controlling. It was common for her to scold her daughter.

My daughter should be a junior in high school this year, around seventeen years old, and she studies at Xiangyang Middle School, which is not far away.

Director Chen said that apart from the fact that this family usually scolds their children quite harshly, he hadn't heard of anything else.

After eliminating all possibilities one by one, the most suspicious one was room 201 in building number 30.

Director Chen said he didn't remember this household.

Miao Cheng used the records at his office to find the landlord of the apartment and contacted him. However, the landlord said that he worked in another province and his family had come with him. He only came back to Hongcheng during holidays and knew nothing about the tenants. He said that the rent was usually paid via bank transfer.

However, he provided the other party's name and ID number, which matched the information he had previously registered.

The tenant's name is Yuan Shuai, he is 28 years old and lives in Kangcheng next door.

That's all the information available.

Before Zhou Yi arrived, Shi Tao, He Bin, and Miao Cheng were discussing what to do next.

"Did the landlord agree to let us break down the door?" Zhou Yi asked.

Shi Tao said, "It's not that we disagree, but the landlord's point is that if nothing is found and the tenant decides not to rent, we have to compensate him."

Zhou Yi understood immediately; so that's what happened.

In principle, if the police cause property damage to citizens during the investigation, citizens can seek compensation from the public security authorities. However, such compensation is for direct damages, such as breaking down a door or damaging vehicles on the roadside during the pursuit of a fugitive.

However, since the investigation led to the tenant not renewing the lease, the likelihood of receiving compensation for this indirect loss is very small.

This landlord is quite shrewd. He knows that after the dismemberment case in Donghai Community, the apartment will definitely be hard to rent out in the future. If the tenant terminates the lease on their own, he has nothing to say, but now he seems to be trying to pin the blame on the police.

Zhou Yi knew that there was a saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." As long as he was loud and fussy enough, the higher-ups would most likely compromise in order to quell the situation, and then the police officers below would have to learn a bunch of regulations.

Zhou Yi said, "Team Leader Shi, how about this, we won't break down the door, we'll just find a locksmith. Anyway, the landlord has already agreed to let us into the house, his only request is to compensate for his losses, so we'll just take a look, it won't cause much damage, right? As for the tenant, if he really hasn't broken the law, then let him file a complaint. Otherwise, just letting things drag on like this isn't a solution."

Zhou Yi said this mainly because he was certain that there was something wrong with the house. What kind of good person would rent a house and make it so dark and gloomy?

Shi Tao nudged Zhou Yi with his elbow and said, "You've got potential, kid. You're much more flexible than Lao Wu. When it comes to handling cases, sometimes you have to be a little more flexible. If you follow the rules too strictly, it's not going to work."

The two agreed and didn't delay any longer. They asked Miao Cheng to find a locksmith, since most legitimate locksmiths are registered with the police station.

The driver arrived quickly, but he appeared visibly nervous surrounded by several police officers.

"Don't be nervous, this is legal, it's with the landlord's permission, just keep your hands steady," Shi Tao encouraged.

The repairman smiled awkwardly, and then with a click, the door lock was opened.

Immediately, everyone smelled a foul odor.

But it wasn't the rotten smell you might imagine; it was the musty smell of stagnant air from a long period of poor ventilation, mixed with some other indescribable odors.

Zhou Yi immediately thought of tombs, wondering if this was the smell when tomb raiders opened the tomb doors.

The room was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything. Shi Tao reached out and touched the light switch.

Once the lights came on, the scene inside made everyone immediately understand what this place was for.

This two-bedroom apartment has been transformed into a small casino.

Not only does it have the same Paramount poker table as casinos, but it also has several slot machines.

The group walked around the house and found that, in addition to the various gambling equipment in the living room, one of the bedrooms had a wall of football match information sheets, a huge odds table, and a television set.

The entire interior of the house has also undergone special modifications, not just by sealing off all the windows, but by covering all the walls with a layer of sound-absorbing cotton.

"These things are something else, there's even a professional betting site for sports betting," Shi Tao said, patting a slot machine.

“Team Leader Shi, these are not equipment that just anyone can get their hands on,” Zhou Yi said.

Gambling may seem common, but it is actually quite different from what the general public perceives.

Playing cards in a regular card room with relatives and friends, and having some wins and losses, doesn't count as gambling at all.

Only gambling involving multiple people and large sums of money for profit, with the winners taking a large cut, constitutes illegal gambling.

“Yes, this Yuan Shuai is definitely worth investigating,” Shi Tao said.

The person who can run a casino in a residential area without being discovered is no ordinary person.

Moreover, judging from his appearance, he left in a hurry, without taking any equipment with him, most likely because he was scared away by the police brought in by the Zhang Hui case.

That's quite a high level of vigilance. However, this eliminates the issue of whether or not the lease can be terminated. According to regulations, the landlord still needs to come back to give a statement.

But it also means that all the suspicious leads we worked so hard to uncover yesterday have gone cold.

After that, all they could do was conduct investigations on the relocated residents they had found, running around everywhere.

But nothing of value was ever discovered.

As the day was drawing to a close, around 3:30 p.m., Zhou Yi received a call from Xu Nian.

"Zhou Yi, come back quickly! Old Qin has finished the autopsy and made a major discovery."

　Today is the 1st, please give me your monthly votes, thank you.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)