Murder Puzzle Code 7
Chapter 7
“Hello, this is Aneng Maintenance. How can I help you?”
The soft and sweet voice on the other end of the phone did not relieve the criminal investigator’s worries at all. Du Zheng clamped the phone to the side of his neck, holding a notebook and pen in his hand, and asked, “Hello, I am Detective Du Zheng from the Serious Crime Group Two of the Jianglong City Criminal Investigation Unit. There is a murder case and I need your company to provide some clues. Is it convenient?”
The customer service representative on the opposite side suddenly fell silent. After a while, she said timidly: "You can ask, I... will try my best to answer you."
Du Zheng thought for a while and felt that it was necessary to let the other party relax, so he said: “Little sister, don't be nervous. We just want to investigate some clues from you. If your company has no problems, the police will not make things difficult for you.”
"Okay..." the customer service employee responded, turning to look at the supervisor who had been standing behind her.
Seeing the supervisor nodding, the employee felt relieved to continue the conversation.
Du Zheng: "Did you receive a maintenance appointment for Room 1402, Building 6, Chaoyang Community, a week ago, on May 30?"
"Wait a moment, let me check."
A quick keyboard sound came from the other end of the phone, and then the customer service replied: “Hello, at 12:23 noon on May 30, a woman named Tan Jing made an appointment for maintenance of the outdoor air conditioner of our company. The address is the one you mentioned.”
Du Zheng listened and took notes, and then asked: "Understood. They cancelled the appointment later, right? Who cancelled it?"
“The cancellation record on our end is June 3 at 9 a.m. The person who cancelled the appointment was a man who claimed to be Ms.Tan’s husband.”
The customer service employee hesitantly turned to look at the supervisor who was walking away, and continued in a low voice, “Officer, actually I remember this. I originally wanted to call Ms. Tan again to confirm, but there was a woman next to the caller at the time. She said she was Ms. Tan and confirmed that there was no need to come for the maintenance, so I cancelled the appointment.”
“How are you sure she was Ms. Tan?” Du Zheng asked.
The customer service employee was embarrassed and said: “Police officer, we are a small company, so the reputation of our customers is very important to us, so we will try our best to agree to the requests made by our customers.”
Du Zheng felt a little helpless. No matter how beautiful the ideal life was, they all lived in reality. There were too many uncontrollable factors, and the police could not keep an eye on everyone at all times and follow their standards.
He asked: "Does your company keep call recordings?"
"Yes." The customer service immediately replied. Although their company was small, they still had a lot of rules. Their customer service must be assessed every once in a while, and the recordings of past calls were their assessment content.
Du Zheng, who had almost given up hope, breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this and said to the customer service: "Can you please pull up these two call recordings and send them to me later?"
"Okay!" The employee immediately agreed. It was not difficult for their customer service to retrieve the call records.
Although she was just a small customer service employee, she felt it was a great honour to be able to help the police solve the case.
The customer service put down the phone and found that the supervisor had walked up behind her at some point. She immediately stood up and lowered her head without daring to speak.
The supervisor stared at her coldly for a moment, then suddenly said: "Why are you standing still? The police want the call record, so hurry up and send them!"
"Ah?" The customer service staff was a little surprised, then her expression turned to joy, and she sat back at her desk and started working.
As she turned around, the supervisor smiled and nodded happily. In this environment, she couldn’t control the company's arrangements and plans, but as long as she could change it personally, why not do it?
At the corner not far away, a worker saw everything in the office, and a sinister look flashed in his eyes. Then he came out with the tools, greeted the supervisor, and said, "I have repaired your company’s sewer!"
The supervisor went to the toilet to check it again and nodded with satisfaction, "Go to the finance department to settle the bill. Leave a business card before you leave. I'll call you next time if there's another problem."
"Okay!" The worker laughed loudly, which made other people in the office unhappy and caused some complaints.
The worker immediately lowered his voice and stopped disturbing. He received his salary from the finance department, looked at the customer service employee who was still checking records from a distance, his eyes were meaningful. He smiled silently, and left the office with the tools.
After hanging up the phone, Du Zheng closed the notebook and went upstairs. When he saw the captain standing at the door, he stepped forward and said, “The company confirmed that they did not send anyone over. The person who cancelled the appointment was a male. The customer service will send the call record later.”
"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Yu Jing nodded, but his eyes were fixed on the room.
Du Zheng followed the captain's line of sight and saw that Fang Zhishu had already tied the safety rope. With Zhou Xiaoyang's help, he jumped out of the window and prepared to check the air conditioner on the outer wall.
Lu Yan raised his eyes to look at Fang Zhishu, pointed at the master bedroom and said, "Let's start with the master bedroom. Since the murderer came for the child, the master bedroom was his priority."
Fang Zhishu nodded, checked the rope on his body, and nodded at Zhou Xiaoyang. In order not to destroy the evidence, he carefully stepped out of the window sill wearing shoe covers, stepped on the depression in the outer wall, and moved bit by bit towards the air conditioner.
Climbing at high altitudes was inherently dangerous, and with shoe covers on, it was even more difficult. Although Zhou Xiaoyang said several times that he could go out to check for physical evidence and Fang Zhishu could provide guidance from inside, Fang Zhishu still insisted on checking it himself.
He was indeed lazy and occasionally procrastinated, but he clearly distinguished priorities; this was his job and his responsibility as a trace inspection worker. When he should be serious, he will never slack off.
Even though it was only early summer, the outdoor temperature had already reached 36 degrees. The salty sweat slid down his forehead, getting into his eyes as if on purpose. Fang Zhishu suddenly felt that his eyes were so sore that it was difficult to open them. He closed his eyes tightly, squeezed the sweat out of his eyes, regained consciousness, and continued to climb toward the goal.
But the outdoor air conditioner was installed far further than he imagined, and he needed to go around a corner to see it. Fang Zhishu hung on the wall, thinking about how he should go around the corner.
The maintenance worker who was cleaning the neighbour's outdoor air conditioner saw that the police had followed him out. With confusion written all over his face, he pointed to the corner in front and shouted: "Officer, you can go around the water pipe. Be careful!"
Fang Zhishu followed the worker’s guidance and saw that there was indeed an area to stay on both sides of the water pipe. He clenched his molars and approached, only to see half a footprint faintly visible on the edge of the corner.
“This is…”
Fang Zhishu was a little confused and tried to look down. But he was on the 14th floor of a high-rise building. If he fell, the consequences would be disastrous. He took a deep breath, held on to the decoration of the exterior wall with both hands, and sat back slightly.
He was very aware that his legs were shaking, and the strength in his hands seemed to be slowly being withdrawn. Everything around him slowed down a lot. It was only a few minutes, but he felt like several days had passed.
He held his breath and cautiously turned his head to look down, fearing that he would lose his grip and fall if he relaxed even a little.
"There seem to be footprints next to the water pipe!" Fang Zhishu squinted his eyes and tried to see more clearly. He could only vaguely see footprints all the way down the outer wall.
But at the height of the 14th floor, let alone climbing, he felt frightened even standing up. How could someone climb up from below?
Fang Zhishu thought and looked up along the footprints. The footprints indeed stopped on the 14th floor. There were some scratch marks on the air-conditioner platform just one step away from him.
He grabbed the railing of the small platform and stepped over it. The ground was firm, and he felt a little safer.
Fang Zhishu turned on the camera hanging around his neck, took a picture of the details of the outdoor platform, and shouted to the others in the master bedroom: "I found something!"
After taking all the photos, when he returned to the master bedroom and stepped on the floor, his feet were so weak that he almost knelt down.
Lu Yan reached out and held Fang Zhishu's hand, his eyes locked on the window in front of him.
"Thank you!" Fang Zhishu grabbed Lu Yan's hand and struggled to stand up, but before he could stand firmly, Lu Yan suddenly took a step forward.
Without any support, Fang Zhishu almost fell to the ground, grabbing things randomly with both hands. When he looked up and saw that it was Captain Yu who had just come over, he breathed a sigh of relief and thanked: "Thank you Captain..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yu Jing grabbed Fang Zhishu's collar and carried him aside, "Thank you for your hard work. You should take a rest first and report to me later."
After he finished speaking, he had already walked to Lu Yan.
Fang Zhishu smiled bitterly, casually hooked a police officer's neck and slowly said, "No... weren't they still arguing in the morning?"
The police officer stood still with difficulty. Fang Zhishu leaned against him, with the weight of his body pressing on him, but he still responded immediately, “Forensic doctor Lu just made a new discovery. The handle of the window seems to be loose.”
"Really? Then I have to go and take a look." When Fang Zhishu heard this, he immediately became interested and went forward to see.
He suddenly stopped, turned to look at the police officer, and asked, “What's your name? I've never seen you before.”
He was different from Lu Yan and Lin Xiangli. He had always worked in the Forensic Identification Center, but this time he was transferred to the Crime Team to help with them, so he had met most of the people in the police station. But the young comrade in front of him was indeed unfamiliar to him.
Upon hearing this, Chu Li bowed seriously and responded: “Hello, Senior Fang, my name is Chu Li. I just graduated from the police academy and am a new police officer in the Serious Crime Team!”
Fang Zhishu nodded, "Chu Li, okay, I'll remember it."
After he said that, he turned around and walked to the window.
Lu Yan wore gloves and with tweezers, he carefully removed a strand of cotton thread from the handle's bayonet, "It seems new."
Fang Zhishu took out the evidence bag and took the cotton thread and observed it carefully, “Judging from the traces of the break, it was torn. Based on the degree of contamination on the surface of the cotton thread, it is most likely new. I will take it back for a test and give you the results.”
Yu Jing continued to observe the window. The screw on the handle had been loosened, so the handle could be easily lifted. However, the screw was not rusty and the spiral was not worn. It looked more like it had been deliberately unscrewed.
Then he waved behind him, "Xiao Chu, take a photo of the details of the window. Go back to the team to find Meng Jingyi and see if you can simulate opening the window with cotton thread from the outside."
"Okay, Captain!" Chu Li obediently stepped forward to take pictures, and Fang Zhishu kindly taught him how to take pictures of the physical evidence at the scene.
Chu Li listened carefully and immediately mastered the technique.
"Good job, young man, you have a bright future!" Fang Zhishu patted Chu Li on the shoulder and immediately caught up with Yu Jing.
Chu Li was high-spirited, "Thank you!"
Fang Zhishu turned on the camera and handed it to Yu Jing, “I found footprints on both sides of the water pipes on the outer wall. There is no Spider-Man in this world. Climbing to the 14th floor purely by hands and feet is not something ordinary people can do. So I went to the outdoor platform to take a look, and there were obvious scratches on the railings.”
Yu Jing enlarged the photo and stared at it. Such circular scratches were more like those left by ropes.
He boldly hypothesised: "So someone tied a rope to the railing, climbed all the way to the 14th floor with the help of the rope and water pipes, and jumped into the deceased's home through the window?"
Fang Zhishu nodded, "So my guess is that the deceased came to the scene for the first time to make arrangements, and then returned to the scene on the night of the crime to commit the crime."
Lu Yan listened on the sidelines and said at the right time: “So this air-conditioner repairman of unknown origin is the biggest suspect. Since he came here for the child, the child is probably still alive.”
"We must quickly find the child before the murderer commits the next crime!" Yu Jing clenched his fists and asked loudly, "How’s the search going in the field?"
Zhou Xiaoyang's voice came from outside the door, "Boss, they said they found a mobile phone stained with blood in the grass!"
The author has something to say:
Small theatre:
*Little Policeman’s Report*
Chu Li: Captain Yu... hello, I... my name is Chu Li, I just... just graduated... from the police academy, I... I…
Yu Jing (with a weird look on his face): I remember that your physical examination report didn’t say you had a stuttering problem.
Chu Li: I...I'm...nervous.
Yu Jing (laughing): What are you nervous about? Don't worry, I'm very kind.
Zhou Xiaoyang who was passing: Absolutely(not)!
Chu Li: Cap...Captain Yu, your phone is ringing.
(Yu Jing took out a keypad phone from his bag.)
Chu Li (surprised): Captain Yu, are you still using such an old mobile phone?
Yu Jing: No, I use it to keep in touch with my old friend.
Chu Li: Oh...that must be a very precious friend. After all, not many people use this kind of mobile phone these days.
Yu Jing (smiling): Yes, very precious, but young man, you ask too many questions.
VV: My favourite character(CL) beside LY and YJ has arrived (≧∇≦)/
Love the chapter ❤️
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