Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 125 The Suitcase Corpse Disposal Case 6
The criminal investigation team then rushed to the Yunchuan Hotel, three kilometers away.

On the way, Zheng Yan received a call from the trace evidence testing department.

“We checked the suitcase; it’s a Rimowa, a German brand, and costs over five thousand. The casters don’t show much wear, so it probably hasn’t been used for long.”

"No usable fingerprints or palm prints were extracted from the surface of the suitcase. There was only a sticker that had been torn off and soaked in water. It was an airport baggage tag, but the barcode could not be restored, so it was impossible to identify which airport it was from."

"However, a complete shoe print, size 37, was found at the body disposal site. Based on the traces, it is speculated that the murderer was female. There were also tangled threads in the weeds, which are a type of fabric called acetate fiber, which has become very popular in women's clothing in the last two years."

Zheng Yan concluded: "Therefore, the murderer is a woman, between 1.65 and 1.75 meters tall, wearing size 37 shoes, and dressed in a clothing made of acetate at the time of the crime."

Tan Jia searched online for gossip about the deceased's rumored girlfriend and happened to see the celebrity's information: "This Qi Ziqin is 1.72 meters tall."

Xiao Chen: "So she really could be the murderer. But what was her motive? Isn't creating a fake couple a mutual thing? Could it be that they weren't just a fake couple?"

"Who knows? Let's confirm if it's her first. We'll ask about the details later."

To confirm this, the first thing to do is to check the surveillance footage.

They first reviewed the surveillance footage from around 11:30 p.m. last night. Based on the time the deceased left the hotel and the time it would take to get to the Yun Chuan Hotel, he should have appeared around that time if he had indeed been there.

A man wearing a hat and mask soon appeared in the video, and it was confirmed from his clothes and hat that he was the deceased, Tang Tianyu.

After entering the hotel, he went straight to the elevator.

In the dozen or so surveillance videos, the corridor on the fifth floor suddenly lit up.

"He went to the fifth floor." Xiao Chen asked the security guard to zoom in on the video footage from the fifth floor, and sure enough, they saw the deceased's figure.

He walked quickly with his head down, finally stopping at the door of room 508. He swiped his card, pushed the door open, and slipped inside.

"Having a room key and being able to enter freely without needing help suggests an unusual relationship between the deceased and the people in this room. Who lives in room 508?"

The hotel staff checked and gave a name.

Brother Pan said, "This is Qi Ziqin's agent."

Xiao Chen was momentarily confused: "His rumored girlfriend's manager... huh?!"

Pan quickly defended his artist's innocence, saying, "No, no! It was a room booked for the artist to protect their privacy!"

Tan Jia crossed his arms: "So he does have some kind of closer relationship with Qi Ziqin, the kind that even his agent and assistant don't know about."

Pan hesitated for a moment, then sighed and said, "I always thought their relationship was just so-so. Apart from the promotional period for the drama, they hardly ever met, and I never saw Tianyu talking on the phone for hours. If they were really dating... how did they even start dating?"

"We probably just started talking. We developed feelings for each other while chatting, and it was a very ambiguous time. It just so happened that we were both filming in the same city, only three kilometers apart, so we decided to meet up. We left our room key somewhere we both knew about," Tan Jia said casually.

After she finished speaking, she noticed that several people had turned to look at her.

"how?"

“You seem very familiar with this process.”

She shrugged casually: "I'm at that age."

Then, in a businesslike manner, he analyzed, "But this was precisely when their relationship was at its best, so why was he killed after he went in?"

“There’s something wrong with Qi Ziqin. Or maybe you’re wrong; their relationship is more complicated,” Zheng Yan said. They continued watching the surveillance footage.

At 12:46 a.m., the door to room 508 reopened, and an even thinner figure walked out, also wearing a mask and hat, with his head down so his face could not be seen.

And he was dragging a black suitcase behind him.

Brother Pan stared intently at the figure.

Tang Tianyu was stuffed into a suitcase and was still alive.

This realization adds enough horror to the visuals in the video.

In the dead of night, the murderer dragged the victim away naturally; the sound of the casters on the carpet was barely audible, and the corridor was dimly lit.

When the voice-activated light was turned on by noises from other rooms, viewers' eyelids twitched.

Zheng Yan: "It seems that 508 is the primary crime scene. This Qi Ziqin seems very calm, walking at a leisurely pace, and she didn't even glance at her suitcase twice."

Looking at the later video, Qi Ziqin returned to the door of room 508 at 3:41 a.m., naturally swiped her card to open the door and went in, and left with the other people next door at around 9 a.m. today.

He remained calm throughout, as if nothing had happened.

It was as if killing Tang Tianyu was just an ordinary, everyday thing that he did casually.

“I’m actually quite curious about her relationship with the deceased,” Tan Jia said. “It’s like one of them went to meet a secret girlfriend, while the other seemed to have been waiting to kill him all along. How complicated must their relationship be?”

Zheng Yan copied the surveillance video and immediately assigned tasks: one team went to "invite" Qi Ziqin, and another team went to search room 508.

The crime scene was, as usual, a state-of-the-art forensic examination.

Compared to the tidy room the deceased had just moved into, room 508 was a mess. Several suitcases were scattered on the floor, one of the two beds was covered with clothes, bottles and jars were everywhere in the bathroom, and a crumpled script was on the small table next to the bed, with labels and pens lying around haphazardly.

The strangest thing was that there were no clothes on the laundry rack outside the shower room, but a transparent box containing various daggers, candlesticks, and clothes, all stained with blood and rust.

Xiao Chen was shocked: "Could Qi Ziqin be an evil serial killer? Are these her spoils of war?"

"The spoils are still covered in blood. Aren't you afraid of arousing suspicion by leaving them here so openly? Even if it's not other people, the manager and assistant will surely come in. I bet they're just props."

As Tan Jia spoke, he leaned closer to examine the garment more closely, and when the trace evidence was picked up, he even leaned in to smell it.

"There is no smell of blood."

If you poke one of the daggers again, it's not made of metal.

She thought for a moment, then went outside and asked Brother Pan, "Didn't you say Qi Ziqin is filming a movie? What movie is she filming?"

Pan immediately used his agent's network and got the result in less than a minute: "It's a time-travel thriller, The Mystery of 1920."

Tan Jia nodded: "So these things are props."

“But this knife isn’t.” Zheng Yan suddenly picked up a folding knife with dark red bloodstains from the pile of props.

"It's rather blunt, rusty, and has serrations on one side. When you stab someone, it will create an oval-shaped impact wound on the skin," he said, while dabbing some blood with a cotton swab and spraying it with luminol, which produced a blue fluorescence. "The blood is real. This is the murder weapon."

(End of this chapter)