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

Chapter 254 I did it all (Seeking monthly votes)
In his previous life, Zhou Yi had seen many murderers, all kinds of them.

Ruthless as Long Zhiqiang, cunning as Xu Jiaguang, and others filled with remorse and feeling wronged.

But he had never seen a murderer with the expression Yao Fenfang had just made.

Although it was only for a moment, Zhou Yi had the feeling that Yao Fenfang had been waiting for him to come in all along.

That fleeting look in his eyes was complex, containing many emotions, but notably lacking the fear a murderer should have.

Zhou Yi's original intention in leaving her waiting was to make her more anxious and terrified.

This is a simple psychological tactic.

Many criminal suspects, after being arrested, often have a strong sense of determination, whether they lie or refuse to cooperate. If you let them cool off for a while, during the retrial, their momentum will be greatly diminished, and they will lose their composure.

Zhou Yi and He Bin sat down, and Shi Tao asked He Bin to assist him in the interrogation.

After completing the standard procedures and asking basic questions, Zhou Yi got straight to the point.

"Yao Fenfang, tell me the whole story of how you killed Tang Xue's child, from beginning to end, including the time, place, and events, without omitting anything."

Yao Fenfang sniffed and nodded: "Okay."

"February 28th was a Thursday, and I was on the day shift. Our factory operates on a two-shift system: two days of day shifts, two days of night shifts, and two days off. Each shift lasts for twelve hours. So when I got home from get off work that day, it was already past 8:30."

“When I used to work the day shift, I would cook the food and leave it there so that Xiaoxue could heat it up and eat when she came home from school. Later, she got older and could cook for herself, so when I worked the day shift, she would cook for herself and then go to her room to do her homework. That day was the same. When I came home, she was doing her homework in her room. I opened the door and asked her if she had eaten. She said she had, so I closed the door, tidied up the room, and then went to sleep.”

"Around 1 a.m., I heard painful moans coming from the small snow house. At first, I thought I was mistaken or that it was a sound from outside, but after listening carefully, I realized that it seemed to be coming from the small snow house. I rushed over and found out that she was pregnant and her water had broken and she was about to give birth."

“I was completely stunned. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she was in so much pain that she just kept holding my hand and shouting, ‘Mommy, save me! Mommy, save me!’”

“We don’t have a phone at home because it’s too expensive to install, but our neighbors across the hall do. I rushed out to ask them to borrow their phone to call an ambulance. But just as I was about to knock on the door, my mind suddenly cleared up. If I took her to the hospital, the whole world would know that Xiaoxue had given birth. How could she face people after that? She still has to go to university and get married.”

"Therefore, I decided not to send the baby to the hospital. I will deliver the baby myself. I had a natural birth when I gave birth to Xiaoxue, so I know that as long as the baby is in the correct position and there are no problems such as the umbilical cord being wrapped around its neck, it is not impossible to give birth at home."

Fortunately, the process went relatively smoothly.

Seventeen years old is a minor in modern society, but in ancient times, she was already old enough to get married and have children.

Yao Fenfang's words were also very true. Giving birth at home is not difficult; what is difficult is the disinfection and treatment after giving birth.

When Yao Fenfang got to this point, she looked up hesitantly and asked, "Should I go into detail about this process?"

After a moment's thought, Zhou Yi asked in return, "Did anything unusual happen in between?"

Yao Fenfang shook her head, "No...no."

"Then let's skip it."

“Okay. After giving birth, Xiaoxue fell into a deep sleep. She was too tired, suffering like this at such a young age…” Yao Fenfang’s expression was full of pain.

"Then, I looked at the child and wondered what to do with him. I knew I couldn't keep him; if I did, there would be no way to explain it. As I was thinking, I don't know what happened, but I inexplicably reached out and grabbed his neck."

"When I came to my senses, the child was already dead. I... I'm so sorry for this child. He shouldn't have been born. I can only repay him by being his slave in my next life..."

Yao Fenfang gestured helplessly, as if she wanted to cover her face and cry, but she couldn't because her hands were restrained, and she was at a loss for what to do.

Throughout her explanation, Zhou Yi had kept a frown on her face and hadn't interrupted her. But upon hearing this, she suddenly asked, "Didn't you ever consider giving this child away?"

Yao Fenfang shook her head: "How am I supposed to explain to people where this child came from? Besides, I don't even know who to give him to."

"Then why not take him out and dump him? Wrap him in a blanket, find an intersection and put him down, it's not hard, is it? No one will find you in the middle of the night, and when it gets light, a kind person will naturally call the police. Even if they investigate, they won't be able to trace it back to you." Zhou Yi said coldly, "That was a life, and you just strangled it so easily?"

Yao Fenfang was stunned, her eyes clearly showing shock.

After a long pause, she finally spoke, "I...I was confused at the time, I didn't...I didn't expect..."

Zhou Yi finally caught a glimpse of a possibility and asked, "After you strangled the child, what did you do with the body?"

Yao Fenfang began to recount how she dismembered the body using a kitchen knife and then flushed it away through the toilet.

When Zhou Yi brought Yao Fenfang and Tang Xue back to the Municipal Bureau, he took a special look at their bathroom and found that it was a squat toilet, not a Western-style toilet.

Compared to a toilet, a squat toilet has the advantage of a wider opening and stronger flushing force, but the disadvantage is that it is not as hygienic as a toilet.

If it's a newborn, it doesn't require the extensive dismemberment work of an adult corpse; it can be disposed of in a squat toilet, except for the head.

Zhou Yi asked her, "So you used a knife to completely dismember the body and then flushed it away through the sewage pipes?"

Yao Fenfang nodded, but then suddenly seemed to remember something and shook her head again, saying, "There's... there's also a hammer, because some parts can't be flushed down, so we have to break them up before flushing."

Zhou Yi suddenly asked, "Is he a boy or a girl?"

"What?" Yao Fenfang was stunned again, then answered with a slight tremor in her voice, "Girl...girl."

"You did all this and your daughter didn't notice at all?"

“No, she’s sleeping soundly. She doesn’t know anything. I did it all by myself,” Yao Fenfang said urgently.

"Then what do you mean by saying the child is still alive?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi noticed that Yao Fenfang's shoulders, which had been tense, slumped slightly.

This reaction indicates that she suddenly felt relieved.

She replied, "After she woke up, she cried and looked for her child, so I lied to her and said that I had given the child away to someone else to raise. She just kept crying and crying for a long time."

"I'm sorry to her, but I really have no other choice."

Zhou Yi already had the answer in her heart.

"Yao Fenfang, is your daughter wearing a silver bracelet on her wrist?" Zhou Yi asked.

Yao Fenfang was a little confused by this question that seemed to have nothing to do with the matter. "Well... it seems so."

Do you know where this bracelet came from?

Yao Fenfang shook her head: "I don't know. She probably bought it from a small shop outside. She used to buy these kinds of things, but I scolded her for wasting money, so I haven't seen her buy them since. I guess she bought it secretly behind my back. What's wrong with this bracelet?"

"Just asking." Then Zhou Yi asked some trivial details, which Yao Fenfang answered one by one, with a very proper and cooperative attitude.

At the end of the interrogation, when she was asked to check and sign the transcript, Zhou Yi said, "Yao Fenfang, I need to remind you that once you sign, everything you say will have legal effect. You'd better think it through. If you did it, admit it; if you didn't, don't try to cover it up. Covering up is also a crime."

Yao Fenfang lowered her head and signed the document without saying a word.

After leaving the interrogation room and returning to the Third Brigade office, Zhou Yi's first words to Qiao Jiali were: "Yao Fenfang is lying. She didn't kill the child. It's very likely that Tang Xue did."

Qiao Jiali was startled. That withdrawn and introverted girl who couldn't even answer questions properly?

Zhou Yi gave his reasons for the analysis.

First, Yao Fenfang showed an eagerness to confess her crimes, both during the initial questioning and at the start of the interrogation.

This is unusual because she did not surrender herself. If she had surrendered herself, it would be understandable that she would have actively confessed in order to reduce her sentence.

She was clearly suspected during the police investigation, and the police had come to her door once before, only to be driven away by her aggressive attitude.

Second, when she confessed to the crime, she described the entire process and details of the crime in an overly clear and comprehensive manner.

The vast majority of people without a criminal record would be unable to remain calm and composed when faced with a murder.

From a scientific perspective, when a person is under high stress, the nerves in the brain will experience abnormal excitation and spasms, which will affect normal function. This is what people often refer to as a blank mind, which is a physiological phenomenon.

Therefore, Yao Fenfang's various reactions all indicate that the criminal process she described was prepared in advance and must have been rehearsed many times beforehand to be so smooth.

Zhou Yi did not interrupt her much while she was describing the facts of the crime, which was also to confirm this point.

There is a clear difference between an ordinary person telling the truth and an actor reciting lines.

Furthermore, he suspected that Yao Fenfang and Tang Xue had colluded beforehand. Not only was it at Yao Fenfang's request that Tang Xue say the child was still alive, but even Tang Xue's attitude might have been deliberately instructed by Yao Fenfang to do so.

The third point is that Yao Fenfang remained calm when mentioning the murdered child, but became very agitated when mentioning her daughter Tang Xue.

Because she didn't kill the child, and she might not even have ever seen the child, she was taken aback when Zhou Yi suddenly asked about the child's gender.

All signs indicate that Yao Fenfang is taking the blame for Tang Xue.

(End of this chapter)