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

Chapter 411 Basement

Qiu Zhiyong was, after all, a seasoned veteran with extensive experience in on-site investigation. During the investigation, he discovered some clues.

The placement of that floor-standing clothes rack looks a bit out of place.

The space between the foot of the bed and the wardrobe, although against the wall, will block the wardrobe door.

The problem is that the room is not furnished and the layout is very empty, so there is absolutely no need to put a floor-standing clothes rack in such a place.

So he started checking the wardrobe and hangers, suspecting that something was hidden inside.

But nothing was found.

Just when he thought he was overthinking it, he suddenly realized that the floor tiles under his feet felt a little strange.

There's a slight feeling of looseness.

After some exploration, he discovered that the floor tiles where the clothes hangers had been placed were actually loose.

And it felt very heavy when I opened it.

This floor tile was affixed to a metal entrance to a cellar that could be opened upwards.

The crowd stood around the dark, gaping cellar entrance, utterly astonished.

What kind of kind person would dig a basement in their house, and hide the entrance so well?

As you can see, there is a ladder at the entrance that you can climb down.

Zhou Yi volunteered to take a flashlight and climb down first, eager to find out what kind of person Xiao Bing was.

I originally thought he was an honest and good person, but now I'm discovering more and more problems with him.

Could he really be the deranged killer behind this massive case?

Zhou Yi climbed down a few steps and reached the bottom.

The cellar wasn't actually very deep, because when Zhou Yi went down, half of his head was still sticking out.

He could only squat down and shine a flashlight on it.

Because the situation was uncertain, those above were still waiting, but Zhou Yi below remained silent.

Liang Wei asked from above, "Zhou Yi, what's the situation down there?"

Suddenly, with a click, the light below turned on, much brighter than the light above.

Zhou Yi poked his head out and said, "Captain Liang, Captain Ni, would you like to come down and take a look? But it's relatively small down here, so we don't need many people to come down."

Upon hearing this, Ni Jianrong gestured to Liang Wei to invite him to join him.

Then the two of them climbed down one after the other.

Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong were not as tall as Zhou Yi, but they couldn't stand up straight under him either, so they had to bend over.

Finally, the two of them squatted down as well.

The scene inside the cellar left the two of them completely bewildered.

The cellar is small, less than four square meters.

Like Zhou Yi, the two of them thought before coming down that this was a dark and damp basement used for illegal activities, or even the primary crime scene where Xu Liu was murdered and her body disposed of.

But what they saw under the wall light was a small room.

The entire basement has a height of about 1.7 meters, and it is covered with tiles on all sides, giving it an unusually cold and sterile feel.

There is a single bed, a small wardrobe, and a bookshelf in the basement.

The single bed is a one-meter-wide iron frame bed, covered with a thin quilt, on which is a bamboo mat, and a pillow with a bamboo mat pillowcase.

At the foot of the bed, right next to the ladder against the wall, there's a small TV cabinet directly below the wardrobe on the floor. On top of it is a color TV, a VCR, and the cabinet is crammed with videotapes.

In the corner next to the television, there was also a floor fan.

The basement, crammed with these things, felt very cramped, but like the area above, everything was arranged with an almost obsessive-compulsive neatness.

The books on the bookshelf are arranged in order of height.

The videotapes in the TV cabinet were all neatly arranged.

“This…” Liang Wei pointed around, “Is this Xiao Bing’s secret base?”

Because it really resembles a secret hideout that a child would love, many boys have fantasized about having such a private little room when they were young.

Ni Jianrong said, "I thought this was the primary crime scene in this case."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too." Liang Wei pointed to the wardrobe and said, "Zhou Yi, can you check inside for any suspicious items?"

Because Zhou Yi was at the very back, and the basement was too small, Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong would have to climb over the bed if they wanted to get there.

Wearing gloves and shoe covers, Zhou Yi opened the wardrobe and rummaged through it.

The wardrobe is divided into two parts, the upper part is full of light and thin women's summer clothes hanging on the wall, and the colors are very bright, mainly yellow, green and blue.

The lower part has two drawers, which cannot be fully opened because they are blocked by the single bed.

The first drawer was opened, and it was full of women's underwear.

When you pull out the second drawer, the first thing you see is a plastic bag.

Zhou Yi immediately noticed the words on the plastic bag: Hongcheng Third People's Hospital.

Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly took out the bag.

When I opened it, I found it was full of medicine boxes, but when I picked them up, I found they were all empty.

One of the boxes looked familiar to him; it should be one of the boxes of medicine Xiao Bing prescribed at the hospital when he first met Xiao Bing.

He glanced at them and handed the medicine boxes to Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong, because these medicines were not for treating male sexual dysfunction at all.

The two took the medicine and looked at it. Liang Wei exclaimed in surprise, "These are all medications for treating mental illness!"

That's right, there were several kinds of medicine in the bag, with strange names like "risperidone" and "aripiperazole". You couldn't tell what they were for just by looking at the names, but the packaging indicated the symptoms. They were all commonly used medications for treating mental illnesses.

Did Chen Yan really guess right? Does Xiao Bing have dissociative identity disorder?

Did he imagine his other personality as Lu Xiaoshuang? And then transform this basement into "Lu Xiaoshuang's room"?
Zhou Yi couldn't imagine Xiao Bing in a state of split personality pretending to be a woman; it was too bizarre and terrifying.

Zhou Yi then lay down to check under the bed. But there was nothing there.

However, Zhou Yi did discover something strange, including two oddities.

First, the iron bunk bed is completely fixed to the ground.

Secondly, each of the four legs of the iron bed frame was tied with a thick hemp rope, and the other end of the rope was sewn with a leather strap.

This thing stunned Zhou Yi because it looked somewhat familiar; it seemed that similar items had been found in Xu Jiaguang's and Zhang Hui's homes before.

What on earth is Xiao Bing up to?

He told Liang Wei and Ni Jianrong about the discovery, and Liang Wei called Lao Qiu down to do the specific investigation work.

The three of them then climbed out of the basement, and Liang Wei immediately issued three orders.

Conduct a thorough search of Xiao Bing's house and inventory everything in the basement.

The manhunt for Xiao Bing has been intensified, and an investigation has been launched into all of Xiao Bing's social connections.

Based on these medications, we sent people to the Third Municipal Hospital to check the relevant medical records in reverse order.

The search of Xiao Bing's house alone lasted until late at night.

However, the results of the on-site investigation only made the case more perplexing.

First, there was the test result of the luminol reagent. Old Qiu and his men used luminol in every corner of the inner and outer rooms and the basement.

Especially in the basement, it was used twice.

There was absolutely no reaction from the reagent.

It's not impossible that the murderer knew how to remove bloodstains and had specifically cleaned them up.

But it's almost impossible to leave not even the slightest trace.

Because a large amount of blood is generated during the dismemberment process, this blood not only splashes but also seeps into the surface of the object.

For example, in the gaps between floor tiles, on walls and ceilings, and in the fiber structure of wooden furniture, etc.

Washing away blood isn't difficult, but to eliminate all traces, the murderer would have to completely demolish and renovate the entire house.

No blood residue was detected in the kitchen knives or any of the drain pipes.

It can be largely ruled out that Xiao Bing's home was the scene of the murder and dismemberment.

Next came fingerprints and footprints.

After ruling out Zhou Yi and Chen Yan's footprints, two more footprints were found in Xiao Bing's house.

One is 42 yards, and the other is 37 yards.

The 42-yard mark is almost certainly Xiao Bing's.

As for the size 37 one, it should be a woman's size, but it's uncertain whether it belongs to Lu Xiaoshuang, although the size is basically the same.

However, the fingerprints were strange; only Xiao Bing's fingerprints were found in the room, and no one else's were found.

Even the books, videotapes, and medicine boxes in the basement only had Xiao Bing's fingerprints on them.

Then there were the books in the basement, most of which were stamped with the seal of the Xinhua Bookstore. This kind of seal was used to prove that the books had been sold, and it was very common in some places back then.

Most of these books are rather obscure literary works, primarily from abroad.

The Xinhua Bookstore is already closed; we'll send someone to find out what's going on after daybreak.

The videotapes were similar, mainly featuring foreign art films, but the channels for purchasing them were unclear.

Finally, Xiao Bing's bicycle was found near a bus stop two kilometers away. The task force is contacting the bus company to confirm, as three buses pass by that stop, one of which goes to the long-distance bus station.

Theoretically speaking, Xiao Bing, as a university teacher with no criminal record, should not have a strong sense of counter-surveillance.

Unlike Sun Kun, who intercepted the money in the Qian Lailai case, he didn't find a large number of crime movies or books in his home to teach himself.

So theoretically, he shouldn't be too difficult to capture.

After completing the investigation, the police sealed off Xiao Bing's house and then left.

After leaving Xiao Bing's house, Zhou Yi originally planned to return to the bureau because he didn't know how Lu Xiaoshuang was doing.

All he knew was that Lu Xiaoshuang's interrogation was conducted by Xiang Jie and Qiao Jiali.

He wasn't sure if he could see Lu Xiaoshuang now, or if his superiors would allow him to.

However, most of the team returned to the task force because all the data needed to be archived for the internal affairs team, so he could only return to the task force with Chen Yan first.

Just then, Liang Wei's people who had gone to the Third Municipal Hospital returned. Upon asking, they learned that the hospital's prescription records also had to be checked manually, and if the patient was paying out of pocket, there might not be a corresponding record, so they could only wait for the hospital to give them the results.

Everyone was notified to go to the main conference room for a meeting. It was already 2 a.m., and everyone was exhausted.

As soon as everyone entered the conference room, they smelled the aroma of food; there were many late-night snacks laid out on the table.

“Team Leader Ni and I bought some late-night snacks for everyone. Let’s eat and chat,” Liang Wei said.

Everyone expressed their gratitude to the two leaders.

Zhou Yi spotted Qiao Jiali and Xiang Jie in the crowd immediately, indicating that the interrogation of Lu Xiaoshuang had ended.

He quickly went over and greeted Xiang Jie first.

Then he sat down next to Qiao Jiali, looking at her with expectant eyes.

"Sister Qiao..." Qiao Jiali pushed a bowl of wontons in front of him and said, "Here, have something to eat."

Zhou Yi was so anxious that she had no appetite, but she couldn't very well ask in front of so many people.

Qiao Jiali smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, she's very good and also very smart."

At this point, Liang Wei said, "Let's eat while we look at something."

……

Directly in front of the main conference room, Liang Wei had a 24-inch color TV brought in.

In stark contrast to the enormous television set was a small, silver-black Sony DV camera, connected to the television via a signal cable.

This high-end imported vehicle was brought by Liang Wei.

Hongcheng's interrogation is not yet subject to surveillance recording.

The group ate while watching the interrogation video on television.

Since it's not a surveillance camera but a portable DV camera, the viewing angle is not from above, but from level with the camera.

And the only person appearing in the shot is Lu Xiaoshuang.

However, Qiao Jiali's voice could be heard off-camera.

To Zhou Yi's relief, Lu Xiaoshuang was not handcuffed.

However, her complexion was not very good, and she had a noticeable fatigue from recovering from a serious illness, after all, she had been on the verge of death twice.

However, her expression remained calm, showing no sign of helplessness or panic.

Qiao Jiali's voice rang out: "Lu Xiaoshuang, we are from the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division. Considering your previous health condition, we haven't informed you yet. Today is May 8th, and we are now officially announcing to you that, due to your involvement in the Xu Liu murder case, you are suspected of being involved, and therefore we are now formally summoning you for interrogation."

Upon hearing the words "Xu Liu was murdered," Lu Xiaoshuang could not hide her shock; it was clear she wasn't faking it.

But she did not immediately protest her innocence or raise any questions, nor did she become emotional or lose control.

In the footage, Qiao Jiali walked over, showed her the summons warrant, and said, "This is your summons warrant. You can check it."

Lu Xiaoshuang leaned closer to take a closer look, then nodded.

Zhou Yi saw her clench her fist in the video, clearly trying to control her fear.

Qiao Jiali returned to her seat and said, "We will now question you according to the law. We hope you will cooperate actively and answer our questions truthfully, understand?"

"Understood." Lu Xiaoshuang straightened her back and answered directly to the camera.

Zhou Yi had a feeling that Lu Xiaoshuang's gaze when she faced the camera seemed to penetrate the screen and meet his own.

She must have known she could see, and she trusted the police and herself.

"Let's begin now," Qiao Jiali asked. "Names?"

"Lu Xiaoshuang".

"age."

"Nineteen."

“Place of domicile.”

No. 28, Xingnan Road, Qingshan District, Hongcheng.

"Work unit".

"A freshman majoring in Financial Management at Hongcheng University, class of '96."

"Describe all your actions from April 28th to May 1st, including the time period, location, and what you did. The more detailed the better."

“Okay, let me think.” Lu Xiaoshuang nodded and began to describe in detail her every move since April 28th. Although her voice trembled slightly, her overall narration was very smooth, clear, and logical.

When Qiao Jiali pressed her for details, she responded quickly and was highly cooperative throughout.

It was less like an interrogation and more like a thesis defense.

This gave most of the people present a good impression, many of whom were front-line criminal investigators who had come into contact with all sorts of criminal suspects.

Those who are so open and cooperative are generally innocent and have no guilty conscience.

Of course, there are also a very few criminal suspects with extremely strong psychological qualities and deep cunning, but such people have a lot of social experience and have been in the world of intrigue for a long time.

Zhou Yi noticed that even Liang Wei was nodding slightly.

Lu Xiaoshuang's description of the events from April 28th to noon on the 30th was very detailed and completely consistent with the information found by the special investigation team.

Then, it was noon on April 30th.

Lu Xiaoshuang said, "The classes on the morning of April 30th ended at 12 o'clock. The last class was Principles of Economics. Because I didn't understand a few points that the teacher talked about in class, I took the initiative to ask Professor Fan for help after class. So when Youyou called me to go back to the dormitory together, I let her go first."

"Oh, Mo Youyou is my roommate, she sleeps in the bunk above me."

Qiao Jiali said, "Yes, we know, please continue."

"Okay, I left the classroom about seven or eight minutes late. All the students had already left by then. Our classroom is on the fourth floor. After I came down from the teaching building, I planned to go to the cafeteria to eat first, then go back to the dormitory to pack my things before going to my grandma's house. I promised my grandma when I went back last time."

"And then I saw Teacher Xiao when I went downstairs." Lu Xiaoshuang paused, then cautiously asked, "Do you... know Teacher Xiao?"

"Is it Xiao Bing?" Qiao Jiali asked.

"Yes, he is a teacher in the School of Foreign Languages ​​at our university."

“We know him, go on.”

Lu Xiaoshuang nodded: "I was quite surprised to see him. I thought he was waiting for someone, so I greeted him first. Then... he said to me..."

It was only at this moment that Lu Xiaoshuang hesitated for the first time.

Qiao Jiali asked calmly, "What did he tell you? Don't feel guilty, and don't hide anything from me. Describing it truthfully is the best way to help yourself."

Lu Xiaoshuang took a deep breath and said, "Teacher Xiao told me... Officer Zhou asked him to pass on a message to me, saying that Officer Zhou is waiting for me at home..."

As she finished speaking, Lu Xiaoshuang lowered her head.

Zhou Yi finally understood why she had hesitated earlier: because what she said involved him.

She was worried that it would cause her trouble.

Moreover, she didn't address him as "Brother Zhou," but rather as "Officer Zhou."

It was to avoid suspicion.

However, what she said couldn't really be separated from Zhou Yi.

Qiao Jiali, who was in charge of the interrogation, understood this, so she proactively asked a sensitive question: "Who is this Officer Zhou you mentioned? What is your relationship with him?"

"It's Officer Zhou Yi from your city's Criminal Investigation Division. He... is my savior; he saved my life."

Qiao Jiali didn't pursue the matter further, which was enough, since Zhou Yi wasn't in Hongcheng at the time and had no involvement in the case.

Moreover, Zhou Yi's rescue of Lu Xiaoshuang was reported on local television news; it was a public fact.

After Xiao Bing said that to you, did you ask him for more details?

Lu Xiaoshuang replied, "I asked, but Teacher Xiao seemed very nervous at the time, constantly looking around. I was affected by his emotions and couldn't help but feel nervous too."

Zhou Yi noticed that after Lu Xiaoshuang finished speaking, she had a very brief expression of hesitation.

Zhou Yi's heart tightened; he guessed at a possibility.

Lu Xiaoshuang may not have really been affected by Xiao Bing's nervousness.

Instead, she might have remembered the safety issues he had repeatedly mentioned to her before, which led her to make those connections and thus lose her composure.

"Did Xiao Bing say anything else?"

Lu Xiaoshuang shook her head: "He left in a hurry after he finished speaking. Oh, he told me to be careful on the road before he left."

Zhou Yi was a little confused.

If Xiao Bing sought out Lu Xiaoshuang to lure her out of school, then why did he remind her to be careful on the road?
Is it provocation? Or the thrill of toying with one's prey?

Moreover, even Lu Xiaoshuang could tell he was nervous. Doesn't that seem a bit out of character for a murderer capable of committing such a shocking crime as the Grand Case?

If he's not the murderer, then why did he run away tonight?
The top left corner of the surveillance footage shows the date and time of the DV recording. Judging from the time, Lu Xiaoshuang's mention of Xiao Bing telling her to be careful on the road comes around the same time as Ni Jianrong's phone call to her.

It's estimated that Ni Jianrong was listening to the entire interrogation from the monitoring room next door. After hearing the first sentence, he couldn't wait to call Zhou Yi and tell them to take control of Xiao Bing.

In the video, Qiao Jiali's voice asks, "Do you have Officer Zhou's contact information? Didn't you think of contacting Officer Zhou first to ask if this was true?"

“I have Officer Zhou’s mobile phone number. I thought I would call him to ask about the situation because he had mentioned to me that he was going on a business trip, so I was not sure if he had returned.”

Zhou Yi couldn't help but feel nervous, because he had indeed had the same question as Qiao Jiali. Given Lu Xiaoshuang's personality, she wouldn't have thought of calling him beforehand, would she?

With just one phone call like that, not only would Lu Xiaoshuang be safe, but Xiao Bing would also immediately become a suspect.

Lu Xiaoshuang continued, "So I went back to the dormitory, intending to borrow a phone from the dormitory supervisor in the duty room."

"Did you encounter any people or encounter any unusual situations on your way back to the dormitory?"

“I ran into my roommate Mo Youyou, but I didn’t pay attention. I was thinking about whether something had happened. She was the one who called me. She asked me why I wasn’t going to eat, and I replied that I was going to see Officer Zhou later. Oh, she’s seen Officer Zhou a few times too.”

"continue."

"When I got back to my dorm, I found that the door to the duty room was locked and the auntie had disappeared. I waited for about five or six minutes but no one came, so I went back to my dorm."

Qiao Jiali asked, "Your school should have public telephones, right?"

Lu Xiaoshuang nodded: "Yes, there are shared phone booths on campus. But you have to buy a special IC card for them, which is quite expensive..." She said embarrassedly, "I don't usually need to make phone calls. My parents don't have a phone line, so I didn't buy one."

Zhou Yi couldn't help but sigh inwardly. The IC card for the school was indeed unnecessary for Lu Xiaoshuang, and she couldn't bear to buy it.

But if the aunt had been in the duty room at the time, one phone call could have prevented everything that happened afterward.

Although Xu Liu was most likely already dead by then.

"And then you left the school?" Qiao Jiali asked.

"Well, I went back to my dorm to pack my things and then left. I'm going to visit Officer Zhou."

What time did you leave school?

"I think it was 12:30 when I left the dormitory. I checked the time. It takes about ten minutes to walk from our dormitory to the school gate." The time she said matched the surveillance footage at the main gate perfectly.

"Then I took the No. 68 bus. The bus stop is about 400 meters east of the school gate. It takes 14 stops to get from the school to near Officer Zhou's house. I waited for about 10 minutes before the bus came."

"What evidence do you have to prove that you took the No. 68 bus at that time?" Qiao Jiali asked.

"I bought a ticket, and I have the ticket stub. I put it in the small pocket on top of my backpack because I always keep track of my spending..." As Lu Xiaoshuang spoke, she seemed to notice that Qiao Jiali's expression was a little off, and asked weakly, "My backpack... is it missing?"

The school gate surveillance footage shows that Lu Xiaoshuang was carrying her old schoolbag when she left the school.

After she was rescued from the mine, the task force investigated and verified that the old schoolbag was not found.

Qiao Jiali paused for a moment and said, "It's okay. Since you've bought a ticket, we'll check with the ticket seller to verify the situation."

"Did you notice anything unusual while you were in the car? Or did you realize that someone was following you?"

Upon hearing this question, Lu Xiaoshuang frowned slightly and said, "I'm not sure if that counts as abnormal."

"It's okay, just say it."

Lu Xiaoshuang said, "There was a person on the bus who looked rather strange."

　Thanks to a certain "space" user on Qread for the donation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)