Animal Detective

Chapter 212 Monitoring
Water, moon, and dew on the mountain.

Today is February 8th, the tenth day of the Lunar New Year.

The festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival has not completely dissipated, but the neighborhood remains calm.

After all, the occupancy rate is not high.

26 buildings.

Shen Xin got out of the car and looked around.

There's a security camera diagonally opposite.

Then there are cameras every 50 meters, all the way to the ends of both sides.

It's a villa community, after all, so the security cameras cover it very closely.

It is 11:20 a.m.

Bai Jifei described the timeline as follows.

He usually gets up at five in the morning and walks his dog before dawn.

Because there are many dogs in the kennel, they are walked in batches: one batch in the morning, one batch in the afternoon, and one batch in the evening.

I get up early to avoid crowds and prevent disturbing others.

Then, when he walks the dog in the morning, he will also go to the nearby farmers' market to buy groceries.

If you go earlier, the vegetables will be fresher.

He left home at about 5:30.

When I left, my wife was still asleep.

The wife sleeps on a professional nursing bed, which is too small for two people, so they sleep separately.

After going out, walking the dog is a good way to get some exercise.

Then I went to buy groceries and got home around 6:20 pm today.

At this time, it was not yet fully light.

He found the door ajar.

Feeling something was amiss, I hurried inside and discovered that the entire villa was without power.

He rushed to check on his wife and found that she was missing and her wheelchair was gone.

ALS usually starts with atrophy in the distal extremities. In Jiang Qi's case, the disease has progressed to the middle stage, and the muscles in her trunk have already begun to atrophy.

Therefore, Jiang Qi is unable to act independently on a daily basis and relies entirely on Bai Jifei's help.

There are quite a few security cameras in the villa, because they are used to monitor the dogs.

However, due to the power outage, it is impossible to know what happened.

Bai Jifei immediately ran to the gate and asked if he had seen his wife, but the gatekeeper replied that he had not.

He then went to the property management office to check the external surveillance footage, but still couldn't find his wife.

A perfectly healthy person just vanished like that.

He hurriedly contacted both families, without revealing that his wife was missing, only asking where she was now.

His parents are both at home.

Jiang Qi's parents are also far away in Songpu.

The property management suggested he report the case to the police station. On his way to the Hutang Police Station, he had the idea that his wife had been murdered.

Therefore, I made a last-minute decision to report the case directly to the Criminal Investigation Division of the branch office.

The time is 9:20 AM.

At that time, Shen Xin was still working at the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

From a timeline perspective alone, there doesn't seem to be any problem.

But upon closer examination, there are actually quite a few problems.

Shen Xin told Bai Jifei to wait outside while he went forward to check the lock on the main entrance.

The villa is a detached house with a wall and front and back yards.

There is a front door and a back door.

The wall is of normal height, but it's the kind that anyone with quick hands and feet can easily climb over.

Then, in the corner of the wall, there is a surveillance camera facing the main gate.

The main entrance is currently closed.

Shen Xin stepped forward and examined the lock carefully, but found no obvious signs of prying.

Moreover, it's clearly a Class C lock cylinder, which isn't easy to pick.

Therefore, if you want to sneak in, the best way is actually to climb over the wall and unlock it from the inside.

Shen Xin led Ding Yuwei around to the back door.

“The surveillance camera,” Ding Yuwei pointed to the top of the wall.

Shen Xin also saw it; the surveillance camera on the wall facing the back door was pointing towards the sky.

It looks like someone pushed the camera up from below.

The back door is tightly closed, and the lock cylinders should be the same.

Shen Xin went to the wall next to the back gate and looked it over carefully. He found the friction marks from being stepped on at about half a meter high.

That does indeed show signs of intrusion.

Shen Xin called Yu Xiaoping over and asked her to take pictures to look for footprints in the green belt.

Judging from the looks of it, it seems like someone evaded surveillance, climbed over the wall from here, and then left through the door.

Shen Xin didn't rush inside. Instead, he followed the road from the back door, looking for surveillance cameras on both sides.

Bai Jifei's villa is located in the northeast of the community, but it is not next to the community wall. There is a large green belt outside the back door, and across the green belt is another row of villas.

“This surveillance camera has been tampered with, hasn’t it?” Ding Yuwei said, pointing to the most recent surveillance camera.

Shen Xin nodded.

There are surveillance cameras on both sides of the back door, but the most recent one is turned to the other side.

Further ahead, there are more surveillance cameras.

"If we go through the green belt, can we avoid the surveillance cameras?" Ding Yuwei asked again.

This place is very remote; to put it bluntly, it's the countryside.

Therefore, the land price is not expensive. In order to sell the houses better, the landscaping of the community is particularly good. There are lush trees and various artificial green belts between the two rows of villas.

As Ding Yuwei said, going through the green belt is a way to avoid surveillance.

Shen Xin walked along the green belt, looking around, and felt that only one surveillance camera had been disturbed.

It's possible, as Ding Yuwei said, that she crawled through the green belt to get close to the back door and then moved the camera in a blind spot of the surveillance.

But to find out the specifics, we can check the surveillance footage with the property management. No matter how careful the suspect is, they will definitely leave some traces.

The most direct question is, how did you get in?

It's surrounded by a wall, barbed wire, and covered by security cameras, so it's not easy to get in.

One more thing, how did they get the person away?
That was a patient with ALS who couldn't move and had a wheelchair. If you wanted to take him away quietly, you'd need a car at least.

Checking the vehicles entering and leaving the community during this period will definitely reveal something.

There was grass in the green belt, and there were signs of people walking on it, but no complete footprints were left.

Shen Xin contacted Chen Chao and briefly explained the situation.

There were signs of intrusion, so Jiang Qi's disappearance is suspicious; she may have been kidnapped.

Chen Chao said he would bring people to provide support, and asked Yu Xiaoping to conduct an on-site survey first, and then start the basic investigation.

This means the property management checks the surveillance footage and conducts site visits.

Bai Jifei squatted by the car, his expression tense and flustered.

Upon seeing Shen Xin return, he instinctively stood up, wanting to ask what had happened.

"Don't worry."

Shen Xin offered a word of comfort and then asked him where the villa's electrical distribution box was.

Bai Jifei said, "It's in the electrical room against the wall in the backyard."

Shen Xin nodded slightly.

If that's the case, then if the suspect climbed over the wall and entered the villa, he could have directly cut off the power supply to the villa from the outside and shut down the surveillance system.

"Don't rush, wait a little longer."

Shen Xin gave Ding Yuwei a few instructions, telling her to first visit the neighborhood while he went to the property management office to retrieve the surveillance footage.

The property management company was clearly aware that a resident had gone missing and was quite concerned.

The property manager, Tang Hualong, led Shen Xin to the monitoring room, repeatedly assuring him along the way that the community's security was very strict.

Shen Xin disagreed with this point.

Despite being a villa community, the occupancy rate is low, and it's estimated that collecting property management fees won't be easy.

If property management fees are not collected in full, then daily security and maintenance will definitely be worse.

"By the way, Officer Shen, there's something I need to tell you."

As he entered, Tang Hualong said somewhat awkwardly, "It was on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year that our property's surveillance system malfunctioned. The main unit broke down, and all the saved surveillance videos disappeared."

"I don't know the specifics. I asked them, and they said I didn't accidentally delete it. It just disappeared inexplicably."

Shen Xin glanced at him helplessly.

So you just praised the community's security as very strict?

(End of this chapter)