Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

He paused, then emphasized, "As the property manager, Zhang Jianjun may have a strong sense of counter-surveillance. Our investigation must be discreet to avoid alerting him. Once we have evidence of his crimes, we will arrest him immediately. In addition, the technical department should prioritize comparing Zhang Jianjun's DNA with the skin tissue samples taken from the scene; this is the key evidence to identify him."

Sunlight streamed through the blinds, casting long, thin patches of light on the conference table. Zhang Hui placed Zhang Jianjun's photo on the whiteboard. The property manager in the photo wore a suit and had a gentle smile. No one would suspect that this seemingly refined man was actually the mastermind behind Li Zhiguo's murder. "We will definitely find the evidence as soon as possible and bring justice to Li Zhiguo," Zhang Hui said firmly. Everyone present nodded in agreement.

As the meeting adjourned, Lu Chuan watched the busy figures of everyone, knowing in his heart that the case had reached a crucial stage. As long as the investigation focused on the two leads of Zhang Jianjun and Li Wei, the secret of the illegal transportation would eventually be uncovered, and the murderer of Li Zhiguo would be severely punished by law. In the corridor of the Criminal Investigation Division, footsteps echoed, each person carrying a clear goal, moving towards the truth—the moment when the crime hidden beneath the Haotian Building would be exposed was approaching.

On the morning of August 26, in the parking lot of the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment, Wang Shuai and Zhang Hui, each carrying an investigation bag, prepared to head to Haotian Building and Zhang Jianjun's residence to conduct an in-depth investigation. As per the case analysis meeting's plan, the two needed to break through Zhang Jianjun's whereabouts, financial transactions, and social relationships to verify whether he was "Brother Zhang" and whether he was directly related to Li Zhiguo's murder.

"First, go to Haotian Building to retrieve Zhang Jianjun's entry and exit records for August 22nd, focusing on whether he entered the underground parking lot during the time Li Zhiguo was murdered (10 PM - 11 PM)." Wang Shuai started the car and turned the steering wheel towards Haotian Building. "In addition, we need to talk to the long-time employees of the property management to see if Zhang Jianjun has any unusual behavior, such as going to the parking lot late at night or having frequent contact with the renovation team."

Upon arriving at Haotian Building, the two went straight to the property management office. When questioned, Zhang Jianjun's secretary, Li Na, initially hesitated, but after showing her identification and legal documents, she cooperated by retrieving the attendance records: "Manager Zhang clocked out of the building at 5 pm on August 22nd as usual, and did not return to work until 9 am the next morning. There is no record of him returning in between."

"Are you sure there are no exceptions? For example, using an access card to open the door without going through the card-swiping channel?" Zhang Hui pressed. Li Na recalled, "The building's access control system has records. After 6 p.m. on the 22nd, there were no records of Manager Zhang's access card being used, and there were no records of him entering or leaving the underground parking lot."

This result surprised the two of them. Wang Shuai immediately changed his approach: "Go to the monitoring room and retrieve the surveillance footage of Zhang Jianjun leaving get off work, as well as the municipal surveillance footage of the roads around the building, to see where he went after get off work."

Surveillance footage shows that at 5:10 PM on August 22, Zhang Jianjun drove a black Mercedes-Benz sedan out of the Haotian Building parking lot and headed east along Jiefang Road. Wang Shuai had technicians track the vehicle's trajectory and discovered that the Mercedes-Benz eventually entered the "Jinxiu Garden" residential complex in the eastern part of the city—Zhang Jianjun's residence. Strangely, after entering the complex, the vehicle did not leave again until 7 AM the next morning.

"Was he at home all night? But if so, how do we explain the suspect vehicle in the underground parking lot and his height and shoe size?" Zhang Hui frowned, tracing his finger across the map. "Or did he have another car parked outside the complex, and then switch to it after get off work to go to Haotian Building?"

The two immediately went to Jinxiu Garden residential complex to retrieve surveillance footage from the underground parking lot. Sure enough, at 8:30 PM on the 22nd, a black Toyota Camry without license plates drove out of the underground parking lot. The driver was wearing a black jacket and a baseball cap; although his face was obscured, his height and build were highly similar to Zhang Jianjun's. More importantly, the vehicle's right taillight was not working, perfectly matching the "suspicious vehicle characteristics" described by the cleaning lady, Li Guiqin!
"Check the registration information for this Camry to see if it's related to Zhang Jianjun." Wang Shuai asked his teammate Xiao Chen to contact the vehicle management office, while he and Zhang Hui inquired with the community security guards, "Does this car often park in the community? Who is the owner?"

Security guard Mr. Liu recalled, "This car started appearing in the community about a month ago. It always parked in a secluded spot in the underground parking lot. The owner rarely showed up. I saw him once, wearing a mask, and he looked like Manager Zhang, but I wasn't sure." He added, "Around 8 p.m. on the 22nd, I saw Manager Zhang come out of the building, walk towards the Camry, drive away, and then come back and park it around 1 a.m. After that, he didn't move it again."

At this moment, Xiao Chen sent a message: "This Camry was purchased from a used car market in another city three months ago and is registered under the name of a person named 'Liu Qiang,' but 'Liu Qiang's' identity information is forged, and the actual controller of the vehicle cannot be determined. However, we found that the funds used to purchase the vehicle came from an anonymous account, and the upstream funds of this account had three transfers with Zhang Jianjun's wife's bank card, the most recent one being a week before the purchase of the car, when 15 yuan was transferred."

As the clues gradually came together, Wang Shuai and Zhang Hui immediately went to Zhang Jianjun's residence. With the cooperation of the property management, the two entered Zhang Jianjun's vacant storage room—a place rarely visited by anyone, the floor covered in dust, but a trace in the corner caught their attention: there were marks on the floor that had been wiped, and a small amount of white putty powder remained at the edges, consistent with the composition of the putty powder in the B1 floor renovation area of ​​Haotian Building.

“Take a sample of the putty powder and send it to the lab for comparison.” Zhang Hui squatted down and picked up a little powder with tweezers. “Also, check if there are any cotton or linen items, such as ropes or towels.”

Deep inside the wardrobe in the storage room, the two found a black cloth bag containing a 1.5-meter-long cotton-linen rope with a small amount of brown stains on it. "Let's test the stain with a test strip to see if it's blood," Wang Shuai said, holding his breath as he watched the test strip change color—it was positive, a preliminary diagnosis of blood. More importantly, the rope's fiber composition perfectly matched the cotton-linen fibers extracted from the strangulation marks on Li Zhiguo's neck!
Meanwhile, technicians reported the DNA comparison results: the skin tissue fragments extracted from the ventilation duct matched the DNA extracted from the fingerprint sample left by Zhang Jianjun due to a previous traffic violation with a 99.99% match; the fingerprints on the Toyota Camry bumper fragments, although blurry, showed a high degree of similarity to Zhang Jianjun's fingerprint features after enhancement processing. (End of Chapter)