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

Chapter 489 Joys and sorrows
Director Chen and Zhao Liang didn't know the specific meaning of the term "pedophile," but they understood the word "pervert."

Moreover, their suspicions were similar to Zhou Yi's.

After all, no matter how much a stepfather likes his stepdaughter and treats her as his own, they sleep in the same bed at night and he even bathes her.

Either they're incredibly carefree, or there's something wrong with them.

“My daughter is only four years old, and I no longer bathe her; her mother does it. My wife says that sons should avoid their mothers as they grow up, and daughters should avoid their fathers,” Zhao Liang said indignantly.

Zhou Yi asked, "Are there any other witnesses who can corroborate the two things Miao Genhua's mother mentioned?"

Zhao Liang nodded: "We asked Miao Genhua's younger brother, Miao Zhuang. Although his description was not as detailed as his mother's, the meaning was basically the same."

"Oh, Miao Zhuang works at the quarry, but he doesn't do manual labor. He usually runs errands and drives for his brother-in-law. He said that Ma Weichang is very good to him, and he is also very good to his sister and mother, so he doesn't think there's anything wrong with him being good to his niece."

Zhou Yi stroked his chin and nodded. Miao Zhuang was twenty-one years old, and most likely didn't have much education or experience, so he probably wouldn't think that way.

Director Chen spoke up: "We all feel that Ma Weichang is being a bit too nice to Ge Fangfang, but after thinking about it, this matter doesn't seem to have anything to do with Ge Fangfang's disappearance. Xiao Zhao just mentioned you, saying that you come from a big city and are a criminal police officer, so you're very knowledgeable. He was also coming to return the bicycle, so I came along to hear what you think."

Director Chen spoke very frankly.

Zhou Yi was also able to analyze their predicament from the previous information.

A six-year-old girl has mysteriously disappeared; this is no small case for the police station.

Then, during the investigation, some unusual information was discovered, but this information was only suspicious and not a conclusion.

That doesn't change the nature of the matter, and there's no reason for the county bureau to investigate in a more serious direction.

The local police station is short-staffed and lacks experience.

In addition, they don't have a strong sense of discipline.

And the events that had happened before made Zhao Liang trust Zhou Yi, so he ended up approaching Zhou Yi by chance.

Otherwise, with so many cases across the country every day, how could such a coincidence happen?

"Gentlemen, I don't actually have a long service record. You are both seniors I can learn from, especially Chief Chen, who must be over fifty years old, right?"

Director Chen nodded.

"Compared to your extensive police career, I'm just showing off my skills in front of an expert," Zhou Yi said eloquently.

Then, changing the subject, he said, "However, you may have a deeper connection to the grassroots level and your leadership skills are beyond my reach. But in some criminal cases, I have indeed been fortunate enough to learn more from my leaders and colleagues, so I'll just briefly share my thoughts. Please don't laugh if I'm wrong."

The two nodded repeatedly: "Okay, please help us analyze it."

Director Chen didn't want to put pressure on him, so he added, "Speak freely."

“Ge Fangfang is a six-year-old girl who does not have full capacity for civil conduct. If we can rule out accidents and abduction, then the only remaining possibility is that she was controlled by someone.”

If it's controlled by humans, there are only two possibilities: kidnapping or murder.

The incident occurred on July 22nd, four days ago. If it were a kidnapping for ransom, the child's family should have been notified long ago. It's impossible that nothing has been done until now, which doesn't make sense for a kidnapping crime.

Therefore, by process of elimination, the only remaining answer is murder.

If murder is suspected, then the motive must be analyzed. My previous reason for suspecting Ma Weichang was that he might have had a disagreement with Miao Genhua about having children, and therefore held a grudge, seeing Ge Fangfang as an obstacle.

However, based on the various clues discovered so far, I admit that my analysis was wrong. At least Ma Weichang did not have any hostility towards Ge Fangfang, or rather, he did not show any hostility.

As for whether he has a pathological pedophilic tendency, we'll analyze that later.

The motives for committing crimes are nothing more than crimes of passion, revenge killings, and crimes for money.

Without kidnapping and extortion, the disappearance or death of a child is unlikely to cause any financial changes, making the possibility of murder for money very low.

In this case, a crime of passion and a crime of revenge are theoretically the same thing, because a six-year-old child could not possibly have such a criminal motive. The real target of the child was actually the adult, namely Miao Genhua.

As for why it wasn't Ma Weichang...

The reason is simple: although Ma Weichang likes his stepdaughter Ge Fangfang very much, if an enemy targets Ma Weichang, the first target will definitely be Ma Weichang's biological son with his ex-wife, not a stepdaughter who has no blood relation to him.

Therefore, it is more likely to target seedlings and roots.

Miao Genhua got married and had children relatively early; she's only 28 this year. That means she was only 22 to 25 years old during the three years she was a widow.

At her age in the city, many women are still unmarried, and given her status as a young widow, she is very likely to attract unwanted attention.

Although I may be being disrespectful, it is generally true that unmarried women and divorced women of the same age have different attitudes toward relationships and marriage.

As the saying goes, a widow's door is always full of gossip.

This "right and wrong" refers to the relationship between men and women.

Therefore, I believe that there is a possibility that someone might seek revenge against Miao Genhua because of her emotional disputes before her remarriage.

The next step is to find Miao Genhua and focus on understanding her social relationships, to see if there are any men who have been pursuing her for a long time but cannot have her.

In addition, it's best to ask the village chief about the interpersonal relationships among the Miao people in the village to see if they have any enemies or have had any conflicts with anyone.

After all, people in rural areas generally have lower levels of education, making them more susceptible to forming feuds and seeking revenge for seemingly inexplicable reasons.

This is not an exaggeration by Zhou Yi. He had seen many similar incidents in his previous life. There were many instances where people who had lived in the same village for generations, as well as between sisters-in-law and brothers, had tragic consequences over a piece of land or even a tree.

Of course, there are also cases in the city, upstairs and downstairs, where Zhou Yi has dealt with many situations where people have to resort to knives because of noise or dripping water from clothes drying.

Director Chen nodded repeatedly: "Yes, what you said makes sense. This direction should be thoroughly investigated."

Zhao Liang asked doubtfully, "So we're not going to investigate Ma Weichang?"

Clearly, he was very concerned about the alleged molestation of Ge Fangfang by Ma Weichang.

“Ma Weichang’s attitude toward Ge Fangfang is indeed not quite normal. We can investigate this further, especially Miao Genhua herself. As the child’s mother, if something were really wrong, she couldn’t have been completely unaware.”

Zhou Yi frowned and said, "But if Ma Weichang really did molest Ge Fangfang, then what was his motive for killing her?"

"Perhaps Miao Genhua discovered his perverted behavior, so he became enraged and killed her to silence her?" Zhao Liang said.

Zhou Yi slowly shook his head: "No, if Miao Genhua or someone else discovered Ma Weichang's behavior and he wanted to kill them to cover it up, shouldn't he kill the person who discovered it? There's no reason for him to target Ge Fangfang. Not only would that not cover it up, it would also make him more likely to be exposed."

After listening to Zhou Yi's words, Zhao Liang couldn't help but agree, "It seems... that makes sense."

Suddenly he asked again, "Is it possible that no one has discovered it yet, but what Ma Weichang did to Ge Fangfang was more than just molestation? And because he was afraid of being discovered, he decided to go all the way and make sure Ge Fangfang disappeared, so that there would be no way to prove anything?"

“Brother Zhao, the possibility you mentioned is indeed possible. However, there are a few details that don’t make logical sense.”

Zhou Yi knew what Zhao Liang meant by "not just indecent assault".

"What details?"

"First of all, Ma Weichang did not stay in Xipinggou for long, which is easy to verify. Although I do not know why he married Miao Genhua, after the marriage, Miao Genhua did not move to the city with him, but stayed in Xipinggou. For Ma Weichang, the Miao family seems to be more like a hotel, where he would stay for a while every now and then."

"Under these circumstances, how many opportunities would Ma Weichang have to be alone with Ge Fangfang? Even if they did have such opportunities, what are the chances that he could commit a crime like rape without being discovered at the time and afterward?"

“The Miao family doesn’t just have Miao Genhua; there’s also her mother and younger brother. A six-year-old girl may not be able to distinguish between molestation and rape, but rape is a violent act that causes real pain and harm. Such a young child simply cannot bear it, and the consequences are very serious.”

“Ma Weichang ran a quarry near Xipinggou, and many people in the village relied on him for their livelihood, including his brother-in-law Miao Zhuang. This means that the Miao family was supported by him. This implies that Ma Weichang was a highly respected figure in the Miao family. Even if we assume that the Miao family kept this a secret for the sake of money, Ma Weichang would have even less reason to kill the child.”

"Besides, the probability of the child's mother, maternal grandmother, and uncle all swallowing their anger is almost zero. If they really did swallow their anger, the child's maternal grandmother would not have mentioned bathing when you questioned her."

"Secondly, there's the time of the incident. On July 22nd, Ge Fangfang's behavior when she disappeared was that she was playing with other children in the village before they parted ways and she disappeared."

"If Ma Weichang committed a crime of passion, lost control and did a bestial act, and then wanted to destroy the evidence, then it must have happened at the same time as or immediately after the rape. In that case, Ge Fangfang would not have been able to go out that day."

Zhou Yi paused for a moment and then said, "Unless..."

Zhao Liang hurriedly asked, "Unless what?"

"Unless something happened on July 22nd that caused Ma Weichang to lose control of his emotions and impulsively do something to hurt Ge Fangfang."

Zhou Yi believes that, from the perspective of murder alone, Ma Weichang's motive for killing Ge Fangfang is not sufficient.

However, if it's a crime of passion, where someone kills in a fit of rage and then tries to cover up the crime by destroying the body, that's a possibility. In that case, the most likely scenario for such a loss of emotional control would be an argument with Miao Genhua.

“But…” Zhao Liang was clearly still fixated on the suspicion against Ma Weichang.

At this moment, Director Chen spoke up: "I think Zhou Yi makes a lot of sense. We should just investigate in these directions. Anyway, if we find any clues that suggest Ge Fangfang may have been murdered, we can report it to the county. Criminal cases involving human lives should be handled by the county. It's not something we can worry about."

Director Chen's attitude was quite clear: if it was a missing person case, then there was absolutely no clue at the moment.

Therefore, we need to look for clues to confirm whether it is a murder case.

Once a clue is found, they don't need to worry about it anymore. They can just report it to the county bureau and let the county bureau's criminal investigation team handle it.

This is a typical mindset of a grassroots leader; the division of responsibilities is clear and distinct, and there's nothing wrong with it.

The only problem is that once the case is in the hands of the county bureau, he will no longer be able to investigate the situation.

For a veteran detective, this is like reading a book with great enthusiasm, only to find that the last few pages are gone, torn out and used for cooking. It's incredibly frustrating.

Now that the director had expressed his opinion, Zhao Liang naturally stopped insisting on his own.

Director Chen was quite straightforward. Touching his tanned, bald head, he immediately assigned Zhao Liang a task, saying that he would take a group to Xipinggou again to find out about the Miao people's interpersonal relationships in the village from the village chief.

Tell Zhao Liang to go back to the station and call someone else to go to the county hospital to talk to Miao Genhua and Ma Weichang.

Two more people need to be sent to the city to try and find Ma Weichang's ex-wife and son to find out what's going on.

After speaking, Director Chen patted his trouser leg, stood up, and smiled as he reached out his hand.

"Comrade Zhou Yi, thank you for helping us analyze the case. You are indeed different from those incompetent people in the county bureau, even though you are young.

Zhou Yi had just stood up and reached out when he was taken aback: "Idiot...idiot?"

Thinking to myself, for a director to give such an evaluation, it seems there must have been some past grudges.

But since it was someone else's business, he pretended not to hear it and simply exchanged polite pleasantries with the other party.

Seeing that it was getting late and they had finished their conversation, the two prepared to say goodbye.

Zhou Yi asked, "Brother Zhao, when are you planning to go to the county hospital?"

Zhao Liang glanced at his watch, then looked at Director Chen beside him and asked, "Director, should I borrow a car from the town government next door? There are no buses running at this hour, so it's inconvenient to go to the county."

Director Chen nodded: "Okay, see if Lao Liu has a car, try to borrow it from him. Well, there's nothing we can do about it. If you can't borrow it, then try again tomorrow morning."

"Okay." Then Zhao Liang turned to Zhou Yi and asked, "What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

"I'd like to hitch a ride and also get some allergy medication."

Zhou Yi certainly didn't want to get medicine; he didn't have any allergies. He just wanted to find an excuse to see in person what kind of people Miao Genhua and Ma Weichang were.

Because what I hear is mostly secondhand information, it's easy for the description to contain some subjective judgments from the person making the statement.

I'll just watch from the sidelines and not say a word.

Neither Zhao Liang nor Director Chen thought much of it. Director Chen said that since that was the case, Zhao Liang should just go to the county hospital tomorrow, so that Zhou Yi wouldn't have to make a wasted trip with them if they couldn't borrow a car later, and it wouldn't be convenient for them to come back later.

Upon hearing what Director Chen said, Zhao Liang immediately smiled and nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Zhou Yi had already noticed that Zhao Liang didn't want to "work overtime".

This was exactly what he wanted, and it was all thanks to Zhou Yi. Zhao Liang warmly arranged with Zhou Yi to pick him up the next morning.

Lu Guohua had already returned the bicycle, but seeing that they were talking about serious business, he didn't come to disturb them.

Seeing that they were about to leave, they came up and warmly invited them to stay for dinner.

Of course, the other party didn't stay. After exchanging a few polite words, they drove away in their police car.

Zhou Yi watched them leave, then turned around and found Lu Xiaoshuang standing in the sunset looking at him.

"Brother Yi, is there any hope for that child?"

"Did you hear everything?"

Lu Xiaoshuang nodded: "I heard a little bit at first, but I didn't dare to listen any further. This child reminds me of Xu Xinxin."

"Judging from the current situation, it should be different from Xu Xinxin's situation. But... this child is probably in grave danger."

A six-year-old child has been missing for four days, and the chances of him surviving are extremely slim.

Zhou Yi comforted him, saying, "There's always a chance of something going wrong. Maybe he's still alive."

This consolation seemed somewhat weak, and Lu Xiaoshuang sighed, saying, "My mom told me to call you for dinner."

As the sun sets, countless tragedies and joys unfold in this world every day.

……

The next day was July 27th.

Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang bought return tickets for the 29th, and they had to leave around noon on the 28th after having lunch.

The time spent together always seems too short. This morning, Zhou Yi noticed that Lu Guohua and Su Xiuying had a look of reluctance to part with their daughter and sadness at the impending separation in their eyes.

Su Xiuying has already started preparing food for the journey, as well as a sweater she's knitting for her daughter.

A mother worries when her son travels a thousand miles; this is the feeling of normal parents.

Zhou Yi wasn't worried about the Lu family of three, since the worst calamity had already passed.

What he's most worried about now is the case in Xipinggou. He only has less than two days left in Shacao Town, and he's afraid he won't have the chance to investigate it thoroughly.

Around 7 a.m., Zhao Liang arrived in a police car to pick him up.

Accompanying them was an old policeman, whom Zhou Yi had met before. He was the same old policeman who had called for help for Zhao Liang when Zhou Yi went to the police station in Shacao Town to find him.

After Zhao Liang introduced them to each other, the three of them set off.

It takes almost an hour to drive from Yangjiatun to the county seat.

The old policeman was a man of few words and had a rather simple and honest personality; Zhao Liang and Zhou Yi were the ones doing most of the talking.

"Oh, Zhou Yi, I really have to thank you for yesterday," Zhao Liang, who was driving, said with emotion.

"Thank me? Why?" Zhou Yi asked curiously.

“Last night, my mother-in-law had something to do and asked us to come back for dinner. If I don’t go, my wife will scold me again.”

Zhou Yi laughed and said, "Brother Zhao, I didn't know you were so henpecked."

"Well, it's not that. I'm just afraid she'll start nagging me again, complaining that I can't make a lot of money as a policeman."

"You don't know, my mother-in-law had seven daughters, so it's inevitable that she'll compare her seven sons-in-law. If all seven of them were in similar circumstances, that would be fine, but two of them have become rich in business, so the rest of them have a hard time."

“My wife keeps telling me to learn from these two brothers-in-law, and she’s even thinking of having me quit my job and go to the city to do business with them.”

Zhao Liang curled his lip and said, "I'd rather die than put up with this humiliation."

Zhou Yi smiled faintly, "Every family has its own troubles."

"A woman's nagging is the most annoying thing. Sigh, it's no use telling you now, you'll understand after you get married."

Zhou Yi didn't refute it, but he knew that this kind of thing was actually related to the family environment, and children's values ​​were generally influenced by their parents.

"Brother Zhao, did you go to Xipinggou after yesterday?"

Zhao Liang nodded: "They went, our director led a team. By the way, I just wanted to tell you about the new discovery. Director Chen praised you to me first thing this morning, saying you're amazing."

(End of this chapter)