I'm not a genius detective

Chapter 128 Pan Xia visited Ping An Garden (Two chapters combined)

The scene of Du Juncai's death was relatively simple. After a preliminary examination, the forensic doctor quickly transported the body back to the branch office for a full autopsy.

The investigation and monitoring are still ongoing.

The visits did not go smoothly. The community is quite large, and the turnover of tenants is high. Permanent residents simply do not pay attention to unfamiliar neighbors they pass by.

Let alone different buildings, even in the same building and the same unit, permanent residents don't have much of an impression of their neighbors; they only know the apartment across the hall.

Du Juncai and Lü Zhanpeng live across from a couple, who are the main targets of their inquiries. However, today they went out shopping and ate dinner out, not returning home until after nine o'clock.

They knew nothing about what was happening in the neighborhood.

There was no other way but to ask the two men about their impressions of Du Juncai and his companion, and to investigate any suspicious clues from the sidelines.

We've reviewed the surveillance footage; it shows one main gate and one south gate.

From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., the surveillance cameras at the main gate of the residential area only captured Du Juncai entering and exiting, but did not capture any image of Pan Xia.

The same was true at the South Gate; Pan Xia was not photographed there.

Needless to say, Lü Zhanpeng stayed at the branch office the whole time and never left.

It was late, and as the crowd gradually dispersed, Ji Bowei ordered the troops to pack up.

Branch office.

In the conference room, the technical team's investigation results had been submitted. They found the footprints of three people at the crime scene: Du Juncai, Lü Zhanpeng, and Pan Xia.

Du Juncai and Lü Zhanpeng lived there, while Pan Xia came from another province to visit her son; the footprints made sense.

No fourth person's footprints were found.

Furthermore, there is a lot of dust on the room floor from the perspective of trace evidence examination. If the suspect was wearing something like shoe covers, you could find edge traces or some fiber residue on the floor, but none of these were found.

Foot covers can only conceal the pattern on the soles of shoes; they cannot be completely seamless unless the floor is extremely clean.

Preliminary investigation has determined that only the victim and the mother and child entered and exited the crime scene. If the perpetrator entered the house and poisoned the victim in the afternoon, the suspect can only be Pan Xia.

Of course, this is only a preliminary survey. After daybreak, the technical team will continue to Ping An Garden for a second resurvey.

If the investigators still can't find any clues, there will be a third or fourth re-examination.

The forensic team is still conducting the autopsy, but the water from the water dispenser and Du Juncai's cup have been brought back, and cyanide was detected.

The process of death was clearly visible.

Ji Bowei, after integrating the clues he had gathered, said at the meeting: "At noon, the victim, Du Juncai, went home and drank water from the water dispenser. At that time, the water was not poisonous."

Du Juncai left home at 1:30 PM and returned around 5:40 PM. He then drank water from a cup and died from poisoning. Therefore, the suspect poisoned him sometime between 1:30 PM and 5:40 PM.

Everyone nodded in agreement; the timing of the poisoning was fine.

“It’s obvious that Pan Xia is a prime suspect,” Ji Bowen continued. “But the security cameras at the community gate didn’t capture her entering or leaving, which means… there may be other ways she entered or left the community.”

Hu Lihui said, "We need to conduct a thorough investigation to see if we can enter the community by climbing over the wall, and also check the Chensu Hotel area at the same time."

The case just happened, and tonight is destined to be another all-nighter. There's no way we can rest; everyone has to keep working after the meeting.

Ji Bowei nodded: "One team will go to Chensu Hotel, and two teams will go to Ping'an Community to first determine whether Pan Xia has an alibi."

"Old Hu, you're coming with me to interrogate Pan Xia and Lü Zhanpeng."

Hu Lihui: "Okay."

The meeting adjourned, but the investigation continued.

trial room.

Ji Bowei sat down in front of Pan Xia. He didn't mention Du Juncai's death, but only asked if the other party had been to Ping An Garden during the day.

“No, I’ve been at the hotel the whole time,” Pan Xia denied. “I thought Du Jun was a good kid, but I didn’t expect him to have been bullying Zhan Peng for the past few years. I don’t want to see him.”

Ji Bowei: "Is that the truth?"

Pan Xia: "Of course it's the truth. Why would I lie? You...you don't think I killed him, do you?!"

On the other hand, Lü Zhanpeng also stated that he was completely unaware of Du Juncai's death: "I was at the branch office the whole time, how could I have had time to kill him!"

Hu Lihui looked at him: "I haven't even asked yet, and you're already in such a hurry to produce your alibi?"

Lü Zhanpeng: "You've brought me to the interrogation room, isn't it because you suspect I poisoned Du Juncai?"

Hu Lihui: "How do you know that Du Juncai died of poisoning?"

Lü Zhanpeng said helplessly, "My major in college was chemistry, and I am very familiar with the poisoning reaction of cyanide. Du Juncai's appearance clearly showed that he had taken cyanide."

I...I did want to kill him with cyanide, but I haven't done it yet. This is just too...too..."

During the interrogation, Han Ling, Tong Feng, and others arrived at Ping An Garden. They entered through the main gate and split up, with one team searching from the left and the other from the right, until the two teams met and completed their search.

The community is surrounded by a fence that is 2.2 meters high and has spikes at the top. It would be difficult and dangerous to climb over, and it is unlikely that a middle-aged woman like Pan Xia would be able to do so in this way.

If she really did sneak into Ping An Garden during the day to poison the plants, and avoided the surveillance cameras at the main gate and south gate of the community, there must have been an easier way.

Han Ling and Tong Feng walked slowly along the fence, checking inch by inch. Han Ling went first and then Tong Feng went behind to check again, to prevent any omissions.

Twenty minutes later, Han Ling stopped and pushed aside the branches and weeds in front of him, revealing a rectangular space that was missing a vertical pole.

The distance between the vertical bars of a normal fence is between 10 and 15 centimeters. This is a safety design to prevent outsiders from entering and to prevent children in the community from crawling out and increasing uncontrollable risks.

Now that one is gone, the space has doubled.

Han Ling stepped forward and roughly measured it; the width was about 30 centimeters.

He tried to squeeze out sideways, but failed. He would get stuck, and forcibly compressing his muscles would cause injury.

30 centimeters is just the limit of width, at the critical point of the compressibility range of an adult human body, and it is very difficult for a normal adult male to squeeze through.

If it's a thin woman, it should be about the same.

Han Ling recalled Pan Xia's body type and head size, and ultimately judged that she should be able to pass smoothly.

Behind him, Tong Feng immediately turned around to look for surveillance cameras after seeing the hidden fenced space, but unfortunately the place was too remote and the property management had not installed any.

“If Pan Xia comes in from here and goes to the building where Du Juncai is, she might be captured by other surveillance cameras along the way,” Tong Feng said.

Han Ling nodded, took out her phone and took a few photos, then continued searching.

Entering the community through the broken fence is only one possibility; the search must be comprehensive and no detail can be overlooked.

Soon, the two exploration teams met and exchanged their results.

"A fence?" After a moment's thought, the colleague waved and led Han Ling and Tong Feng back. "We've also found a way in and out."

The two followed their colleague to the northwest corner of the community, where there was a small gate for pedestrians, but it was locked, rusty, and looked abandoned.

The door isn't high, only about 150 centimeters, and even a nimble child can easily climb over it.

"There's a security camera here, but it's broken," the colleague said, pointing to the nearest building wall.

Han Ling and Tong Feng turned their heads and saw that there was indeed a surveillance camera there, but the lens seemed to be broken.

To get a clearer view, Han Ling quickly walked over and observed up close that the lens showed spiderweb-like cracks spreading outwards from the center, with irregular fragments.

This situation clearly indicates that it has been impacted by external forces.

"Was it vandalized?" A colleague came over and asked Han Ling for her opinion.

Han Ling nodded: "I think it was sabotage, a bit like... marbles, which could be done with a slingshot."

As he spoke, he looked around and found nothing resembling marbles, but there were quite a few pebbles of similar size.

Colleague: "Something feels off to me. This shouldn't be related to the case, right?"

There's no shortage of unruly kids everywhere, and in a mixed community like Ping An Garden, there are even more. Children raised by parents with low moral standards are unlikely to have high moral character. This isn't prejudice; it's a fact.

It's not surprising that a mischievous child damaged surveillance cameras.

“We’ll have to ask the property management,” Han Ling said.

Colleague: "I made the call; I was the one who contacted the property management company before."

As he spoke, he took out his phone and dialed the property manager's number to inquire when and how the surveillance camera at the northwest corner gate had broken down.

The property manager had already been through a lot and was still awake. He was quite polite to the police, and after a brief exchange, his colleague put down his phone.

"It broke two months ago when it was hit by a hard object. The property management reviewed the surveillance footage at the time, and the video recording just before the camera broke was completely preserved, but now the video is gone."

"The property management reported it to the police, but they couldn't find out who did it. They also suspect that the child deliberately vandalized it."

From the property management's perspective, it's highly likely that the child did it. Adults are mentally mature and have no reason to damage the surveillance cameras without cause.

However, the police see it differently; sabotaging surveillance cameras is one of the counter-surveillance tactics used by many criminals.

Han Ling took out a cigarette case and handed out cigarettes to his colleagues, saying, "I've observed the area along the way. There are quite a few surveillance cameras in the community. However, the community is large. If you are familiar with the coverage area of ​​the surveillance cameras, you should be able to avoid them by going through blind spots."

My colleague lit a cigarette and said, "Are you talking about Pan Xia?"

Han Ling shook his head: "I'm just analyzing the possibility of avoiding surveillance. At least for now, we can confirm that Pan Xia has the means to enter and exit the community without going through the main gate and the south gate."

Tong Feng spoke up: "Could it really be that Pan Xia helped her son kill someone? I have a feeling it's a bit suspicious. Shouldn't normal parents do their best to stop it? Let alone get involved themselves."

Furthermore, there wasn't a life-or-death feud between Lü Zhanpeng and Du Juncai; it wasn't at all a matter of life and death that required killing each other.

Tong Feng's colleague agreed: "It's really unreasonable. On the other hand, would Lü Zhanpeng let his own mother kill someone for him? It doesn't make sense in terms of either emotion or logic."

Han Ling, smoking a cigarette, said, "Investigate. We need more clues. We know nothing right now."

The group returned to the branch office and reported the investigation results to Hu Lihui and Ji Bowen.

Upon learning that there were other ways to enter and exit the community without being captured by surveillance cameras, Ji Bowen immediately ordered the police officers from the technical squadron to set out and investigate the damaged fence and the small gate in the northwest corner.

If a leading clue is discovered, the case will see a breakthrough.

Half an hour later, the police officers who went to the Chensu Hotel to investigate also returned. The hotel receptionist and owner said that they had not noticed Pan Xia going out except for lunch and afternoon meal times.

However, Pan Xia's alibi was destined to be insufficient, because the Chensu Hotel had a back door.

The back door was unlocked, and anyone could come and go as they pleased. There were no surveillance cameras along the way, and the front desk couldn't see anyone coming or going.

There is a staircase between the front desk and the back door. Going up the staircase leads to the hotel rooms, while coming down the staircase, turning right leads to the front desk and turning left leads to the back door. If you walk quietly, you won't notice anything.

This hotel is small and cheap. The owner doesn't care about management at all. As long as people come to stay and he makes money, he doesn't care about anything else.

"Pan Xia had the means to commit the crime." It was Hu Lihui who said this, confirming the fact.

"Wait a minute." Ji Bowei spoke up at this moment, "I've thought about this for a long time, and it doesn't make sense logically. If Pan Xia was the one who poisoned Du Juncai, the motive could only be her son, Lü Zhanpeng, right? Why would she bring her son to the branch office to turn herself in before she did it?"

When the question was raised, everyone fell silent.

Analyzing the logic behind the behavior, it is indeed fragmented and completely contrary to common sense.

Since the decision to kill Du Juncai had already been made, it would be too easy to give the son an alibi. For example, he could simply leave Qingchang or stay at the company all day and volunteer to work overtime. As long as he did not appear in Ping'an Garden, the alibi would be valid.

Why bother bringing your son to turn yourself in? Why even tell the police directly that you want to poison Du Juncai with cyanide?
The phrase "adding feet to a snake" is insufficient to describe the situation.

If Lü Zhanpeng has an alibi, it will be difficult for the police to identify Pan Xia as a suspect by investigating Du Juncai's interpersonal relationships. Wouldn't it be better to commit murder quietly?

It's ridiculous to jump straight into the faces of criminal investigators.

After a long silence, Fang Zhou said, "We can't focus all our attention on Pan Xia. Judging from Lü Zhanpeng's evaluation of Du Juncai, Du Juncai's personality is very annoying. With this kind of personality, he has offended far more than just Lü Zhanpeng."

Ji Bowei nodded slightly, then looked at Han Ling: "Han Ling, what do you think?"

Han Ling spoke up: "I agree with what Brother Zhou said. First, he turned himself in in preparation for murder, and then the person actually died. The modus operandi was almost exactly the same. There is no murderer that stupid."

Pan Xia and her son may or may not have known, but I think they were not the ones who did it. We need to thoroughly investigate Du Juncai's interpersonal relationships.

Du Juncai and Lü Zhanpeng both studied chemistry, and most of their interpersonal relationships were also with chemistry majors, right? It's not surprising that they used cyanide to kill someone; perhaps it was just a coincidence?
Lu Zhanpeng wanted to kill someone with cyanide, and the real killer shared the same idea, also choosing cyanide.

Everyone nodded; this direction was more reasonable than investigating Pan Xia.

At this point in the discussion, Ji Bowei checked the time and said, "Let's get to work. Since we're limited by the late hour, let's start by checking Du Juncai's phone and computer to find a second person with a motive."

Han Ling, Tong Feng, you two go meet Du Juncai's girlfriend first thing tomorrow morning to find out what's going on.

Both men: "Yes, Captain Ji."

……

At four in the morning, the case took a turn.

The technical squadron is back, the DNA swabbing is complete and testing has begun. In addition, the overt investigation has also yielded significant findings.

They found remnants of clothing fibers hanging on sharp branches around the broken fence, and samples have been taken and are being compared.

At the same time, two policewomen went to the detention room to carefully examine Pan Xia's clothes and finally found traces of tearing and fraying under her arms.

The fiber comparison didn't take long, and once the results were in, Ji Bowen immediately interrogated Pan Xia.

"Pan Xia, I'll ask you one more time, did you go to Ping An Garden yesterday afternoon?" Ji Bowei's voice turned cold.

Pan Xia said impatiently, "No, didn't I say no! I've been at the hotel the whole time!"

Ji Bowei presented evidence: "We found fabric fibers identical to your clothes near a broken fence in Ping An Garden. Also, DNA testing is underway. In such a narrow space, do you think you could squeeze in and out without leaving any skin tissue?"

Upon hearing this, Pan Xia paused for a moment, then lowered her head and remained silent.

Seeing this, Ji Bowen was furious. So, you mother and son turning yourselves in is just playing house with the police, is it?!

"Pan Xia! Did you go to Ping An Garden yesterday afternoon or not? Tell the truth!"

Pan Xia raised her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and said, "I've been there."

Ji Bowei: "Where are you going?!"

Pan Xia: "I didn't do anything, just wandered around."

Ji Bowei: "Wandering around aimlessly and crawling through the fence??"

Pan Xia looked up, met Ji Bowei's gaze, and said something that instantly raised Ji Bowei's blood pressure: "Is it illegal?"

No problem, it's definitely not illegal.

It's my freedom to use the main gate, and it's also my freedom to crawl through the fence.

Ji Bowei realized that everyone had underestimated this ordinary middle-aged woman. What was she really up to? Did she really kill Du Juncai? If so, why was she playing the role of turning herself in?

"Didn't you go to Lü Zhanpeng and Du Juncai's house?"

Pan Xia: "No, I just took a stroll around and went back to the hotel when I got tired."

Ji Bowei sorted through the clues he had gathered. The discovery of the community fence only proved that Pan Xia had entered and exited, but it did not prove that Pan Xia had poisoned the animals.

Moreover, as discussed at the last meeting, if Pan Xia intended to poison Du Juncai, why did she bring her son to surrender herself to the authorities?

Only Pan Xia herself can answer this question; the police lack clues and evidence, making it difficult for them to speculate.

“Pan Xia, I need to remind you of something,” Ji Bowei said. “Even if you didn’t directly participate in the murder, providing poison to someone else to commit a crime makes you an accomplice to intentional homicide. If the person who provides the poison is the principal offender, they will face the death penalty. Have you thought this through?”

According to Article 67, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Law, even if a criminal suspect does not have the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender, as long as they truthfully confess their crimes, they may be given a lighter punishment. If they perform meritorious service due to truthfully confessing their crimes, their punishment may be directly reduced. Do you understand?

The one who provided the poison was Lü Zhanpeng. It was unlikely that Pan Xia had access to cyanide. At the same time, Ji Bowei was telling the other party about the benefits of telling the truth.

Pan Xia: "I have a low level of education and I can't understand it."

(End of this chapter)