Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Late at night, the Quliang Police Station.
It was no wonder that Gao Facai insisted on sending the evidence and corpses to Caohai City, as the Quliang Police Station was really poorly equipped.
The old building was built in the 1980s, and its exterior walls were very faded. In fact, it looked more like an old mansion than a proper police station.
Also, the smell in the station was quite strange. Maybe it was because the police here often dealt with fishermen’s disputes, but the air was filled with an unpleasant smell of salted fish, even in the office!
“Leader!” Zeng Ke spoke excitedly to Zhao Yu, “I still have two questions! First, why do you believe so strongly that Captain Dou must be the real murderer? Is it really because of the cigarette butts?”
“Of course not!” Zhao Yu took a sip of his energy drink, then said brightly, “Although I am a good judge of men’s characters, I can’t just guess things randomly! If Captain Dou had not tried to tamper with Xie Hao’s memory card, I would not have been so firm in my convictions!”
“Oh…” Zeng Ke nodded. “I see… If he was clean, he couldn’t have wanted to destroy the memory card! Leader, this trap that we set up really played a big role in his undoing!”
“Actually…” Zhao Yu said, “It’s not just about the memory card! You see, we made so many assumptions before, but in the end, none of them were right! All of the possibilities of people that we thought had committed the crime ended up not coinciding with the evidence from the scenes we investigated. But, if the culprit really is Captain Dou, everything makes sense!”
Zeng Ke then asked, “What’s the saying in the film? Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth!”
“Well… I think it’s more of a coincidence!” Zhao Yu said. “Among the cases I have encountered before, the most difficult ones were those that had some coincidences in them! Take this case for example, the crime scenes of the murder seem to have been carefully planned, but were somehow also extremely hastily executed.”
Zhao Yu then said, “That fact, coupled with Guo Yihang’s disappearance and Xu You’s injuries, made this case appear to be more like a sudden action than a calculated plan. So, I think this case is quite a conundrum!”
He shook his head. “Later on, we learned that Captain Dou is the child of the lighthouse couple, which could be a motive. Then, the cigarette butts were added to the evidence, while the drug was found to be related to Captain Dou, which could tell us his means of committing the crime.”
Zhao Yu then added, “Moreover, Captain Dou wanted to destroy the memory card. All of these things basically culminated to make him the murderer in my eyes!”
In fact, there were a few other things that Zhao Yu wanted to mention, which were his hexagrams. Three times he had received the same hexagram in a row, which he knew must refer to Captain Dou! But… He didn’t mention that at the moment.
“Brilliant!” Zeng Ke complimented him, then asked, “However, in my mind, second thing is not clear enough. How can you be so certain that Captain Dou’s accomplice was his mother?”
“Well, it’s not just my intuition!” Zhao Yu said. “In fact, the whole thing happened because of this old lady! Xie Hao told Li Qian that he thought he saw a woman with long hair, so I mentioned long hair in front of Captain Dou. As a result, Captain Dou had a great reaction!”
Zhao Yu then said, “Captain Dou was eager to destroy Xie Hao’s memory card, which showed that he was really worried about what Xie Hao might have seen or have taken a picture of with his phone. However, although Captain Dou’s hair is not short, it cannot be called long either, so I suspect that Captain Dou was worried about his accomplice, who must have long hair, being exposed by whatever was on the card.”
Zhao Yu then continued to explain, “We have investigated the background details of Captain Dou. Except for his mother, Liu Caiyun, there are no other corresponding subjects.”
“This is true.” Zeng Ke nodded. “And… Even though Liu Caiyun is already 61 years old, she is qualified to be an accomplice!”
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Zhao Yu then said as he shook his head, “Well… Honestly… As to who is the accomplice and who is the prime culprit… That’s hard to say!”
Zeng Ke frowned. “You mean… You doubt…”
“Don’t you find that the old lady seems to really be the mastermind here?” Zhao Yu shook his head and sighed. “Although a widowed mother deserves people’s sympathy, if she has evil thoughts, the child could be easily affected by them! I’m afraid that the old lighthouse murderer was really…”
“Boss!” At that moment, Ran Tao pushed the door open and said excitedly, “One of them has confessed. Guess which one!”
“Don’t waste my time,” Zhao Yu stood up and went out. He then asked, “What did Captain Dou say?”
Ran Tao raised his thumb in a congratulatory way, then said, “Boss, you are amazing!”
Zhao Yu said coldly, “Captain Dou wanted to kill himself, so I knew it was only a matter of time before he confessed to everything! Besides, the old lady is stubborn, so I knew she wouldn’t give up that easily!”
“Um… Boss!” Ran Tao caught hold of Zhao Yu’s arm as he whispered, “Wu Xiumin is interrogating Captain Dou inside. She wanted me to tell you that you must not enter the interrogation room, as Captain Dou hates your guts right now. So, she is worried that…”
“Okay, I’m not a kid. Do I need you to remind me of that?” Zhao Yu then left and went straight to the monitoring room that was next to the interrogation room.
After he opened the door, he saw that Bureau Chief Wang, who was on crutches, as well as several municipal and provincial senior officials, were all there. As Bureau Chief Wang was the lowest ranked among them, although his foot was injured, he dared not sit in a chair.
Zhao Yu did not care about having polite manners, so after entering, he pulled out a chair directly and sat down! By this time, Captain Dou had already confessed partly, so everyone just nodded to each other and did not say any formal greetings, but only listened carefully.
“I can only tell you what happened from the time that I remember,” Captain Dou said.
He had washed his face, but his body was still covered with dust. Also, someone had given him a cigarette.
As he enjoyed smoking it, he said to Wu Xiumin, “I grew up in Doujiazhuang. From the time I remember, I did only two things… Fighting and watching fighting! My stepfather was a drunkard. He always drank too much, then beat my mother or hit me! Finally, my mother couldn’t stay any longer, so she took me away!”
Captain Dou blew a smoke ring, then said, “But, I can’t remember much of that time. I only know that that it was a very hard time. We lived in rescue stations, shacks, or hospitals! Finally, we settled down in Quliang. My mother worked at a fishery, weaving fishing nets. Although we were poor, we could at least make a living.”
Captain Dou took a strong puff of his cigarette, then said, “Later, I became a soldier and did well. When I came back, I became a policeman. Zhao Yu was right. My mother told me that my father was a lighthouse keeper and said that he was killed by Cai Xiangbin!”
He shook his head, then said, “Cai Xiangbin’s family bullied her, so she had to flee Yongjin Island! At that time, I had just been born, so my mother had to marry Dou Youlin in order for us to survive!”
He sighed, then sent out another puff of smoke. “I heard later that the bastar* died soon after we left. When I became a policeman, I thought about registering my mother, but she just refused.”
Captain Dou shook his head in recollection. “She didn’t want to spend money on that, and she was also afraid that someone would know that she was Liu Caiyun! I could feel that the lighthouse incident had a profound impact on my mother! So, there are still some things that I dare not ask her, even to this day.”
Captain Dou lamented, “Soon, we bought a house, and our days seemed to get better and better. As my mother’s thoughts are very different from most young people my age or younger, I listened to her about everything. So, because of this, my marriage was doomed. Hence… I was divorced!”
As he was speaking, Captain Dou finished smoking the cigarette. He pressed the cigarette into the ashtray on the table in front of him, then looked up at the ceiling and said sadly, “That movie crew really shouldn’t have come!”