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

Chapter 508 Habitual Thief
"Old Yang," someone called from outside the door, "I've brought Miao Zhuang back to you. He's locked up in room number two."

Yang Chuan quickly replied, "Okay, thank you for your hard work."

"Officer Zhou, are you full? Want some more? The fast food restaurant is right next door."

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand: "I'm full, I'm full. If I eat any more, I'll have to lie down."

"Have some water. Don't rush that strong seedling. Let him cool off a bit, maybe scare him a little." She poured water for Zhou Yi. "By the way, you said there was another point we overlooked. What is it?"

"Thank you." Zhou Yi took the cup and said, "Ge Fangfang is dead. Who are the beneficiaries?"

Yang Chuan thought for a moment and shook his head: "What good would it do for the child, unless... the parents bought insurance?"

Zhou Yi shook his head and said, "That's unlikely."

Let's not even talk about how complicated the insurance business is, or how the insurance industry was in the economically underdeveloped Northwest region in 1997.

Given the family's unique circumstances, it's impossible for Miao Genhua to have the understanding to make money through insurance fraud.

As for Ma Weichang, if he had problems with his cash flow and wanted to commit insurance fraud, then Miao Genhua should be the one who died.

"Ma Weichang is dead, so who are the beneficiaries?" Zhou Yi asked.

Yang Chuan answered without hesitation, "It must be Miao Genhua. They are a legally married couple. Unless he made a separate will, but making a will is something that old people do. Who in their thirties, in the prime of their life, makes a will? It's very unlucky."

“That’s right, Officer Yang, you’re absolutely right. Without a will, Miao Genhua is the biggest beneficiary. Because when Ma Weichang divorced his ex-wife, he left with nothing.”

"Leaving with nothing means that his quarry business and funds belong to his and Miao Genhua's marital property. Even if his son with his ex-wife Zhang Guifen also has a certain right to inherit, the portion he can inherit is only 50% of 50%, which is one-quarter."

Yang Chuan exclaimed, "My God, Miao Genhua can inherit three-quarters of the estate in one go! This is outrageous!"

The reason Zhou Yi had such suspicions was because of Ge Hongqi's incident back then.

Not long after marrying Ge Hongqi, Miao Genhua had an affair with Shi Jian and slept with him.

This led her to be unsure of whose child Ge Fangfang was.

In this situation, Ge Hongqi died from a work-related injury, and Miao Genhua had a major falling out with the Ge family over the distribution of the compensation.

This shows that this woman has no concept of shame at heart; she does not feel guilty or ashamed because of it.

Especially in rural areas where people believe in retribution and that the dead will come after you to settle scores, she remained fearless.

When Ge Hongqi was mentioned, there was no respect or remorse for the deceased. Instead, people said that Ge Hongqi was unhygienic and that they had never thought much of Ge Hongqi.

People with such a weak sense of morality can do this once, and they can do it a second time.

Moreover, Zhou Yi, recalling his previous interrogation of Miao Genhua, discovered another suspicious point.

Miao Genhua's explanation for knowing that Ma Weichang might have been killed was that Shi Jian had vowed to avenge Ge Fangfang.

But upon closer reflection, when Zhou Yi first tested her, Miao Genhua subconsciously assumed that Ma Weichang was dead.

But shouldn't a normal person's first reaction be to confirm whether Ma Weichang is still alive?
It seems this woman wasn't telling the truth after all.

Looking at Yang Chuan, Zhou Yi suddenly thought of Zhou Xiangdong, who had just made a "guest appearance".

Perhaps Zhou Xiangdong's style of handling cases is more suited to this kind of tough guy.

A highly civilized approach to case handling might indeed not be suitable for this environment.

“Officer Yang, let’s go and meet this Miao Zhuang,” Zhou Yi said, standing up.

"it is good!"

……

In the interrogation room, the short-statured Miao Zhuang sat there with his neck hunched over.

He doesn't look people in the eye directly, but instead turns his body to the side and uses his peripheral vision to observe them.

Zhou Yi recalled something that Miao Genhua had mentioned, but Ma Weichang hadn't.

It's about Miao Zhuang stealing 500 yuan from Ma Weichang back then.

This kid looks shifty; he's probably done his fair share of petty theft.

"Miao Zhuang! Sit up straight! Do you think you're in your own home?" Yang Chuan slammed his hand on the table and scolded.

Miao Zhuang shifted his buttocks and then sat up a little straighter, but his whole body was still hunched over like a shrimp, making him look quite sleazy.

According to the data, Miao Zhuang is 21 years old, a full seven years younger than Miao Genhua.

This is actually a rare occurrence in rural areas.

In rural areas, if the firstborn is a girl, they will definitely try to have a boy as soon as possible, and they won't give up until they have a boy.

In the 1950s and 60s, a large part of the reason was that males were equivalent to productivity.

But later, the idea of ​​valuing sons over daughters completely took over.

It is said that in many places, families without boys are looked down upon by those around them.

So everyone wanted to have a son, and as a result, several years later, it became extremely difficult for men in rural areas to find wives, and there were bachelors everywhere who couldn't afford the bride price and couldn't get married.

On the contrary, the city is full of unmarried women.

"Miao Zhuang, do you know why I brought you back?" Zhou Yi asked with a serious expression.

Miao Zhuang shook his head.

"Don't you know what you've done? Or do you think no one will find out?" This is the most common scare tactic.

People who feel guilty and have weak psychological defenses will be easily frightened out.

Miao Zhuang's expression changed, and he asked weakly, "Did my brother-in-law tell you everything?"

Zhou Yi and Yang Chuan exchanged a glance.

Miao Zhuang said indignantly, "How could he do this? He broke his promise. Didn't he say he wouldn't tell the police?"

"Hehehe, what are you muttering to yourself?" Yang Chuan slammed his hand on the table and shouted, "Confess everything you've been hiding, down to the last detail. Don't make us tell you, or you'll be in big trouble!"

"I only stole two thousand yuan from him. I even knelt down and begged him to apologize in front of my sister, and he promised her he wouldn't call the police. Why is he telling you all this?" Miao Zhuang said disdainfully. "He slept with my sister and treated my niece like that. I haven't even settled accounts with him yet..."

"Wait, what did he do to your niece? Is it Ge Fangfang?" Zhou Yi immediately asked, frowning.

“He secretly kissed my niece while she was taking a nap, and I caught him. If it weren’t for the fact that he gave me two hundred yuan, I would have told my mom and sister long ago. That bastard has the nerve to say that I was mistaken.”

Zhou Yi asked, "How did he kiss you?"

Miao Zhuang's answer made Zhou Yi and Yang Chuan feel nauseous.

Miao Zhuang said, "They were kissing like that, lying down, and I saw his tongue sticking out."

Yang Chuan, known for his straightforward temper, glared at Miao Genhua and asked, "He did all that, and you didn't even tell Miao Genhua?"

Miao Zhuang's features contorted as he whispered, "But he did give me the money, didn't he?"

"How many times has he done this?"

"I don't know, I only ran into it once." Then he actually laughed and said, "If I had run into it a few more times, I would have been rich long ago."

Zhou Yi asked, "So how much money did you steal from Ma Weichang in total?"

Seeing that the question had returned to stealing money, Miao Zhuang suddenly felt a little guilty: "It was just... just that one time."

"Bullshit, you stole five hundred the first time, do you think we don't know?" Yang Chuan said.

Miao Zhuang lowered his head guiltily, "I...I really can't remember. I usually only take small amounts of money, like thirty or fifty, maybe a hundred at most. I've only taken more than that twice, I promise."

That's interesting. It seems that not only Miao Genhua, but Miao Zhuang is also a thief, a habitual thief.

Zhou Yi asked, "Where did you steal them from?"

“My brother-in-law likes to carry a wallet under his arm, and sometimes he just puts it in the car. I would sneak some pocket money when he wasn’t looking.”

"How many times has Ma Weichang discovered this?"

"I... I don't think they noticed. I only take things based on how much money is in them. If there's a lot of money, I'll take it; if there's little, I won't touch it."

Zhou Yi discovered that Miao Zhuang was not as cowardly as he appeared on the surface, because when he confessed, he never said he stole, but only that he took.

"Why were you caught those two times? Did you steal too much?"

Miao Zhuang scratched his head and said, "The first time I was inexperienced and took too much, and he found out very quickly. So I learned my lesson and didn't dare to take too much after that."

"What about the two thousand that time?" You have to understand that this was in 1997. Two thousand yuan was a considerable sum of money. It was enough to buy one square meter of housing in Haicheng, the most expensive city in the country.

“I was really out of options that time, so I secretly took an envelope from his drawer. There was two thousand yuan inside. I… I thought maybe he thought the envelope was lost. But I didn’t expect him to accuse me of taking it and even hit me with a stick.” Miao Zhuang brushed aside his greasy hair, revealing a patch of scalp under his left side, and said with a mournful face, “Look, I had to get several stitches, and this patch of hair hasn’t grown back yet.”

Zhou Yi squinted and looked at it; there was indeed a noticeable scar on the scalp, indicating that the blow had been quite severe.

This confirmed Zhou Xiangdong's opinion; Ma Weichang was not as kind-hearted as Zhou Yi had thought.

Yang Chuan stood up, walked out, and asked Miao Zhuang to extend his hands.

Miao Zhuang was trembling with fear, thinking he was about to be beaten, so scared that his chin almost shrank into his neck.

Yang Chuan grabbed his arms and looked at them. Zhou Yi knew he was checking to see if Miao Zhuang had taken drugs.

Because Miao Zhuang's previous statement was, "There's really no other way."

Frequent theft is usually related to prostitution, gambling, and drugs.

Judging from Miao Zhuang's pathetic appearance, the chances of him being associated with Huang are slim.

After checking, Yang Chuan returned to his seat and shook his head at Zhou Yi, indicating that Miao Zhuang should not have a history of drug use.

Then all that's left is gambling.

"Miao Zhuang, what was your purpose in stealing the money?"

"Let's play that fruit machine." Yang Chuan explained to Zhou Yi in a low voice, "It's similar to a slot machine; these are very popular in the arcades around here."

Zhou Yi nodded to indicate that he understood.

He didn't really care why Miao Zhuang stole the money; it was just a trivial matter.

Moreover, the fact that he dared to steal Ma Weichang's money proves that he definitely stole more than just Ma Weichang's money; he probably stole a lot of money from his sister Miao Genhua, as well as his mother.

No wonder Miao Genhua had to beg Ma Weichang to arrange a job for him; who would dare to use such a scoundrel?

What Zhou Yi was concerned about was another problem revealed in his confession.

"Miao Zhuang, you said you stole this money from a drawer. Which drawer?" Zhou Yi asked.

“The quarry, huh?” Miao Zhuang answered without hesitation.

"In that office built with corrugated steel sheets at the quarry?"

"Ah."

Zhou Yi didn't speak, but instead opened the transcript in his hand, looked at it, and said, "In the interrogation just now, you said that only Ma Weichang had the key to the quarry office, right?"

As soon as he said that, Miao Zhuang's face turned pale, because he realized that he might have said something wrong.

Upon hearing this, Yang Chuan realized what was going on. "Right, wasn't it said that only Ma Weichang could open that office?"
"Did you make a copy of the key?" Yang Chuan asked.

Miao Zhuang knew he couldn't explain anymore, so he could only nod.

He then confessed that he not only secretly made a copy of the office key, but also made a copy of the key to the locked drawer of his desk.

The goal was to steal some money whenever possible and then go to the arcade to play fruit machines.

Ma Weichang hadn't noticed before because he got carried away playing and borrowed a lot of money from the arcade, which then ballooned to two thousand yuan due to interest.

In order to avoid getting beaten up, I mustered up the courage to steal something big.

Ma Weichang immediately grabbed a stick and broke his head. He then called Miao Genhua over and said he would call the police to send Miao Zhuang to jail.

While pleading with Ma Weichang, Miao Genhua made Miao Zhuang kneel down and apologize to him.

Finally, Miao Genhua promised that if Miao Zhuang stole anything again, she would chop off both of his hands, and only then did Ma Weichang give up.

Miao Zhuang said that this happened about half a year ago.

He also blamed Ma Weichang for being too ruthless, because Ma Weichang wanted to use his salary and the 300 yuan he gave his sister each month to offset the 2,000 yuan.

However, later, Ma Weichang was caught kissing Ge Fangfang.

Ma Weichang not only gave him two hundred yuan, but also cancelled the deduction from his pay.

During the on-site investigation of the quarry office, the police found nothing suspicious except for the pair of underwear.

The police also opened and inspected the drawer where Miao Zhuang stole the money, but found no cash inside. They are unsure whether the cash was stolen or if it was never there to begin with.

However, there are two ledgers inside: one records the workers' attendance and wages, and the other records the loading and unloading of goods from the quarry.

This suggests that Ma Weichang did not keep a large amount of cash in the quarry's office; he likely only kept cash when paying the workers' wages each month.

As for the cash flow records of incoming and outgoing goods, as well as financial and tax details, there are other places to store them and people to handle them.

Miao Zhuang and the quarry workers both said they didn't know this. In particular, Miao Zhuang confessed that Ma Weichang basically didn't let anyone else handle money matters, and he personally distributed wages every time.

So Li Linglong has already arranged for people to investigate, but the efficiency of the various departments here is not very high, and there has been no progress so far.

In fact, Miao Zhuang's act of secretly making a copy of the key was not very significant.

Because Ma Weichang is dead, but the key he had is missing.

This is somewhat like trying to hide something obvious.

Because as long as there is a possibility that Ma Weichang was murdered and then faked his suicide, then no matter where the key is, the murderer can directly use the key to open the door and enter the office.

It's possible that Ge Fangfang's underwear, which she was wearing when she disappeared, was left in the office, waiting for the police to find it.

Therefore, the real key to whether Miao Zhuang had a key or not lies in the fingerprints extracted from the scene, especially those in the drawer where money was kept. After technical analysis and comparison, we can determine whether Miao Zhuang's fingerprints are found in those fingerprints.

This is crucial. If not, it proves that someone deliberately cleaned up fingerprints, footprints, and other traces.

It's impossible for Miao Zhuang to be clever enough to wipe away all his fingerprints when stealing money.

Only premeditated murder would warrant such caution.

"Miao Zhuang, tell me about what happened on July 22nd," Zhou Yi said.

"Didn't you already ask that?"

Yang Chuan retorted angrily, "Do you think this is a vegetable market? You answer whatever they ask you, and who gave you permission to contradict them!"

Miao Zhuang shrank back, not daring to utter a sound.

Yang Chuan glared at him and said, "Speak up, are you mute?"

Miao Zhuang hurriedly and cautiously began, "Well... that day my brother-in-law said he was going to Antong because there seemed to be a discrepancy in the accounts, and he needed to check the ledgers at the warehouse there. We had agreed that I would drive him there, but then he said he had a headache and didn't want to go anymore. He wanted to sleep for a while and asked me to go and get the ledgers back for him. So I went by myself, that's all."

Zhou Yi looked at the previous statement and found that Miao Zhuang's account was no different from what he had said before.

Where did you start from?

"It's Xipinggou."

What time was it?

"It should be close to four... a little after four o'clock, I didn't check the exact time, I don't have a watch."

"Besides you and Ma Weichang, were there any other people around at the time?"

Miao Zhuang shook his head: "No, it's just the two of us."

Zhou Yi frowned. "Have all the workers gone home by now?"

"Ah... I think they've finished work by now."

Seeing Miao Zhuang's hesitant tone, Zhou Yi questioned, "It is or it isn't. What do you mean by 'seems like'?"

“I… didn’t pay much attention,” Miao Zhuang explained. “When I have nothing to do, I usually sleep in the car.”

"So no one saw you leave alone, right?"

Miao Zhuang was taken aback for a moment, then answered yes.

"If that's the case, how can you prove that Ma Weichang didn't go there at the time, but was sleeping in the office?"

Zhou Yi said coldly, "Ma Weichang is dead. There's no way to verify his story. Does that mean whatever you say is true? Miao Zhuang, are you lying?"

Yang Chuan, who was standing nearby, chided him sternly, "Giving false testimony will land you in jail. Think it through."

Visibly, Miao Zhuang broke out in a cold sweat.

He kept swallowing, as if he was thinking about how to answer.

Yang Chuan kept pressuring him to answer quickly.

Suddenly, as if grasping at a straw, he shouted, "I...I can prove it! I can prove it!"

"how to prove?"

“An…the person who looks after the warehouse at Tong’s place can testify!” Miao Zhuang said, raising his hand. “That man’s surname is Tian, ​​and Old Tian can testify that I went there alone that day. You can find Old Tian, ​​and he’ll tell you everything!”

Zhou Yi and Yang Chuan exchanged a glance, and Yang Chuan stood up and said, "I'll have someone go to Antong to confirm right now."

As soon as Yang Chuan left the interrogation room, Zhou Yi suspended the questioning, as that would not be in accordance with procedure.

But he didn't stop there; his eyes were fixed on Miao Zhuang.

At this moment, Miao Zhuang had a look of relief on his face, as if he had survived a disaster.

Zhou Yi flipped through his personal profile, which stated that he had only completed junior high school, indicating that he wasn't academically inclined, much like Shi Jian.

However, Shi Jian's parents are divorced and his family of origin has serious problems, while Miao Zhuang's family at least looks like a home, although it is probably not a good family either.

“Miao Zhuang,” Zhou Yi called out, looking at the documents.

Miao Zhuang, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, shuddered when he heard his name called and looked up at Zhou Yi.

What year did you get your driver's license?

Looking at the documents, Zhou Yi thought of a question.

In the 1990s, in a rural area of ​​Northwest China, how did a young man who hadn't even finished junior high school, whose parents were farmers, come up with the idea of ​​getting a driver's license?

Let alone the rural areas here, these days the probability of owning a private car in most rural areas across the country is extremely low.

Therefore, the fact that Miao Zhuang can drive is actually quite out of character for him.

Upon hearing this question, Miao Zhuang breathed a sigh of relief: "I started learning at eighteen."

"Oh, three or four years ago. Driving lessons here aren't cheap, are they?"

"Hmm, several thousand, I guess." Miao Zhuang lowered his guard when he realized the question was irrelevant.

"How did you come up with the idea of ​​getting a driver's license?" Zhou Yi asked, feigning casualness.

"Uncle Dong asked me to learn it."

"Uncle Dong? Which Uncle Dong?"

Miao Zhuang replied, "It's our village chief, Miao Dongfang."

(End of this chapter)