Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 185 The Murderer Tan Jia 4
The guesthouse receptionist is being questioned.

She was a woman in her twenties or thirties. She was the one who checked Tan Jia and his group in the day before yesterday. She stayed at the front desk until the early hours of last night and did not see the deceased come or go.

Or rather, they didn't notice.

"People who can come into this venue are all staying overnight, because this place is more than ten kilometers away from the nearest residential area. So people coming in and out of the guesthouse are either guests or people staying at another guesthouse who are visiting friends. We usually don't stop people."

"Besides, I'm the only one at the front desk. When I go to the restroom or am busy entering data, I can't pay attention to who's coming in and out. He must have gone in when I wasn't looking, because he was dressed rather distinctively. If I had seen him, I would definitely have remembered him."

"What's going on with the room cards?" one of the team members asked. "The surveillance footage shows that the person who entered room 107 last night simply swiped their card to get in. The room card for 107 is in the room, and the only remaining card that can open the door is the master card. Where is your master card?"

Receptionist: "It's with our manager. The master card has usage rights and can only be held by specific people. When using it, you need to register the time and reason for use."

They then asked the manager, who replied that no one had used the master card last night, there was no record of its use in the system, and the card had been in the manager's office drawer all night and had not been touched.

"It's been in the drawer the whole time, are you sure?"

“I’m sure, because I put this card in there myself, in the hidden compartment with a five-yuan bill, it’s my habit,” the manager said, opening the drawer.

Xiao Chen overheard the question and went back to tell Tan Jia about it.

The guesthouse staff denied that the person used the master card to open your room.

Tan Jia was not surprised: "Whether it's true or not, their best answer is to deny it. If someone really was involved, it would be very difficult to find out. It would be best if they didn't participate and the master card wasn't used. The most troublesome thing would be if they didn't participate but the master card was stolen, and they gave false testimony to shirk responsibility."

That would waste a lot of time trying to find out the truth and cause them to miss some crucial clues.

Xiao Chen could only reassure her: "What we can think of, they can think of too. The team is quite capable, with several veteran criminal police officers. Don't worry."

Then he asked, "Where's your brother?"

She gestured subtly towards the room: "He went to check the rooms and the guesthouse's kitchen."

"What do you mean?"

“I think that the person who swaggered in last night to commit murder and frame someone must have made more than one preparation. There must have been noise from my fight with the person, and also from the fight between the murderer and the victim. Even if their mouths were covered and they couldn’t scream, given how chaotic the scene was, someone must have heard some of the sounds of them hitting furniture and walls during the fight, right? But so far, all the guests I’ve questioned say they haven’t heard anything.”

Xiao Chen opened his eyes wide and hesitated before saying, "You suspect someone has given you sleeping pills?"

"Who knows? Now I'm suspected of being the murderer and I want to prove myself, so I can't let any clue slip by."

Tan Jia leaned back on the sofa, bumping the wound on the back of his head and hissing.

Lin Zhiyue, who was standing next to her, immediately pulled her close to his chest and carefully checked her wound: "Does it still hurt a lot? Let's go to the hospital."

"Wait a minute, I'm waiting for news from the tech team."

She didn't refuse the hug, just like before when she had a back injury and could only hug a plush toy or a pillow, she leaned on his shoulder.

"What news from the tech team? I'll go and follow up."

"I want to know if the person who opened the door in the surveillance video is the deceased. But you'd better not go, or you'll overturn their computer and have to pay for it."

She knew perfectly well that this person, though seemingly quiet and aloof, actually had a terrible temper. People who suffered severe childhood trauma often have this problem.

Fortunately, the technical team reached a conclusion quickly. After repeatedly processing the surveillance footage and comparing it with the deceased's photos, they finally confirmed—

The deceased was the person who broke into room 107 last night and tried to kill Tan Jia.

But in the end, he was killed by another unknown person.

“Regardless, the deceased’s identity will definitely point to some key clues. Why did he come to kill me? Why was he chosen to frame me? That person must have had a special reason for choosing him,” Tan Jia said. But Zheng Yan told her some mixed news: “Investigating the deceased’s identity is a bit difficult. So far, no one here knows him, and there’s no match in the system. Moreover, it seems that he came here to kill someone on his own initiative, so he’s probably not from the vicinity, or even from this city. Investigating his identity won’t be easy.”

They won't resort to seeking help online unless absolutely necessary. For now, they can only hope the DNA lab can provide some useful clues, such as identifying their family through the Y chromosome database.

Tan Jia frowned: "What about surveillance footage from other places? Even if we can't find his identity, we can at least find out his origin. Where did he come from, which route did he take, and where did he appear before?"

"Also, regarding the third person I mentioned, after thinking about it and ruling out the possibility that I'm out of my mind, that person appeared in my room but wasn't on last night's security footage. Could it be like the previous case of the body dumped in the stalker's suitcase, where the murderer entered the room beforehand and hid inside?"

Zheng Yan: "That's possible. I'll have someone continue reviewing the surveillance footage. You should go to the hospital right away; we'll take care of things here."

Lin Zhiyue kept staring at them, as if he couldn't wait to slit their throats and make sure they couldn't say anything to distract Tan Jia.

Tan Jia was indeed still enduring a headache, and dared not nod too much. After taking one last look at the scene, she followed Lin Zhiyue to the hospital.

After treating his wounds and having a brain CT scan, Lin Zhiyue was finally admitted to a VIP ward. He paid a hefty sum for two days of access, which he used solely for rest.

The private room was quiet. Tan Jia closed her eyes, feeling sleepy from the lingering throbbing pain and dizziness. Her thoughts, which were analyzing the clues, were turning slower and slower.

Then suddenly I heard Lin Zhiyue say, "I'm sorry."

She opened her eyes: "Why should I apologize? This has nothing to do with you."

Lin Zhiyue hunched over, his head bowed into her hands, as if he were kowtowing in repentance.

“Eleven years ago, after I ran away home, my parents hugged me and said sorry, that they shouldn’t have let me go out to play. I always felt that those words were meaningless.”

This was the first time he had spoken about something that happened eleven years ago in a calm and proactive manner.

He added, "Now I regret agreeing to come out and have fun. I also want to say something meaningless."

Tan Jia used the fingers that were pressed against his forehead to randomly scratch his eyelashes: "It's not easy for someone as intelligent as you to say something like this. But you could just say that you like me and are worried about me."

"...I was worried about you. If I had been there last night..."

"Hey, that's a bit too much."

Lin Zhiyue raised his head, slowly leaned closer, and kissed her eyes, which she had unconsciously closed.

"But it's okay, I'll take good care of you every day from now on. You can sleep soundly."

She chuckled through her nose and, with her eyes closed, slowly drifted off to sleep.

When Tan Ming went to the hospital to visit someone, he entered the ward and saw Lin Zhiyue, who was standing in front of him like a guardian angel, before he saw his sister. He looked up at Lin Zhiyue, then looked down and continued playing with Tan Jia's fingers.

"do not speak."

"...There's news."

"She's sleeping."

"...It's bad news."

"She's sleeping."

Lin Zhiyue repeated, as if to say that even if Tan Jia really killed someone, he could still get her out of trouble and continue sleeping, so no matter how bad the news was, he shouldn't bother her.

Tan Ming: "...Tell her that the forensic examination revealed that the murder weapon only had her fingerprints on it. She is in a very dangerous situation."

(End of this chapter)