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

Looking at the items in the evidence bag, Wang Qiang's face turned deathly pale. He couldn't utter a word, his head bowed low, as he was escorted into the police car by his teammates. Meanwhile, the third team, while lying in ambush at the back door, also found Zhang Wanli's black toolbox and brass watch in the warehouse. The traces of grease leakage inside the toolbox matched the test results of the soil from the upper reaches of the Beihe River, and the broken part of the watchband perfectly matched the metal fragments on Zhang Wanli's wrist, further strengthening the chain of evidence.

At 4:30 PM, the arrest team escorted Wang Qiang back to the Criminal Investigation Detachment. In the police car, Wang Qiang remained silent, staring blankly out the window. Zhang Hui, sitting in the passenger seat, took out his phone and sent a message to Lu Chuan: "Wang Qiang has been successfully apprehended. The murder weapon and the victim's belongings were recovered at the scene. There were no injuries, and the staff are in stable condition."

Lu Chuan quickly replied: "Thank you for your hard work. Arrange the interrogation immediately and make sure Wang Qiang truthfully confesses to the entire crime, completes the chain of evidence, and gives Zhang Wanli's family a fair explanation."

The lights in the interrogation room of the Criminal Investigation Detachment were icy cold. Wang Qiang sat in a metal interrogation chair, his hands firmly handcuffed to the armrests. He wore a wrinkled black coat, the collar stained with grease from the auto repair shop, his hair plastered messily to his forehead, yet his eyes held a deliberate arrogance. When he was first brought in, he was shouting in the corridor, "You've arrested the wrong person!" Now, facing Wang Shuai behind the interrogation table, this arrogance concealed an unconcealable panic.

Wang Shuai opened the file in front of him, tapped the "Zhang Wanli Neck Fiber Test Report" lightly with his fingertips, and said in a calm but penetrating voice: "Name, age, occupation, and where you were and what you did between 8 pm and 11 pm six days ago, do I need to repeat that?"

Wang Qiang's Adam's apple bobbed, and he tilted his head to one side, avoiding Wang Shuai's gaze: "My name is Wang Qiang, 45 years old, owner of Tongda Auto Repair Shop. I was at home with my wife and children six nights ago. I told you this already, but you didn't believe me, and you still dragged me here. I'm going to sue you for illegal detention!" He deliberately raised his voice, as if to bolster his courage, but his hands on his knees clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"At home with your wife and kids?" Wang Shuai picked up a screenshot from a surveillance camera and shoved it in front of Wang Qiang. The image clearly showed him driving a small truck away from the auto repair shop at 8:15 p.m. six days ago. "This is the surveillance footage from the repair shop entrance. You drove out at 8:15 p.m. and didn't come back until 11:10 p.m. In those three hours, which home were you referring to as 'at home'? Was it the rocky beach upstream of the Beihe River, or the riverbank where you dumped the body?"

Wang Qiang's body stiffened abruptly, as if all his strength had been drained away, and his earlier arrogance crumbled instantly. He stared at the surveillance screenshot, his lips trembling, unable to speak for a long time. After a while, he finally managed to squeeze out, "I... I just went out to take care of some personal business. It has nothing to do with Zhang Wanli. Whether he lives or dies is none of my business!" His eyes began to dart away, no longer daring to look at Wang Shuai. His gaze swept back and forth across the corner of the interrogation room, as if searching for a crack in the wall to escape.

Wang Shuai didn't rush to ask further questions. Instead, he produced a second piece of evidence: a photo of a cotton rag stained with dark red stains. "Do you recognize this? It was found in an abandoned wooden crate in your auto repair shop's warehouse. The fibers on the rag are exactly the same as the fibers at the ligature mark on Zhang Wanli's neck; the dark red stains on it have been tested and are Zhang Wanli's blood. You say it has nothing to do with you, then how come the murder weapon used to kill Zhang Wanli was in your warehouse?"

"I don't know! That's an old rag from the factory, anyone can use it. Someone must have put it there to frame me!" Wang Qiang's voice was choked with sobs, and tears welled up unexpectedly, sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto the interrogation record. "Zhang Wanli and I just had a wage dispute. If he wanted to report me, I would at most pay him compensation. How could I possibly kill him? You can't convict me based on a rag!" He cried as he struggled with his wrists, the handcuffs clanging against the armrests, as if trying to prove his "innocence."

Watching his clumsy performance, Wang Shuai produced the third piece of evidence: a DNA test report. "The DNA on the filter of the 'Yellow Crane Tower' cigarette butt in the poplar grove upstream of the Beihe River is a perfect match for yours; the skin tissue fragments in Zhang Wanli's fingernails, although not yours, combined with the cigarette butt and tire tracks, confirm that they belong to the same suspect team. You said you've never been to the Beihe River, so how did your DNA end up at the body disposal scene?"

These words were like a sharp knife, piercing through Wang Qiang's last pretense. His crying abruptly stopped, his body slumped in the chair, his head bowed low, his shoulders trembling violently. After a few minutes, he raised his head, his eyes red, tears still streaming down his face, his voice tinged with despair: "Yes... I went to Beihe, but I just went to clear my head. I didn't kill Zhang Wanli. When I got there, he was already gone..."

"Relax?" Wang Shuai picked up the GPS track map of the small truck and pointed to the mark "stayed at the rocky beach for 1 hour". "Going to the rocky beach in the suburbs to relax at 9 pm, and even driving a truck to stay for 1 hour, is exactly the key time to dispose of the body? The shape of the hammer head in your warehouse matches the blunt force injury on Zhang Wanli's temple perfectly, and the cement powder on it is consistent with the composition of the rocky beach in Beihe. Did you accidentally get these on your 'relaxation'?"

Wang Qiang's lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out. He looked at the evidence on the table; each piece was like a mountain, pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe. Wang Shuai softened his tone, his voice carrying a hint of guidance: "Wang Qiang, if you confess now, you can still try to get leniency. Do you think you can hide it? Your truck's tracks, the murder weapon in the warehouse, your sister's transfer records—everything proves your crime. If you explain things clearly, at least you can give Zhang Wanli's family an explanation, and also leave yourself a way out."

These words completely shattered Wang Qiang's mental defenses. He covered his face with his hands, suppressed sobs escaping through his fingers, his voice filled with remorse: "I was wrong... I shouldn't have killed him... He forced me to..."

Wang Shuai handed her a tissue, and after he calmed down a bit, he asked, "Why did you kill him? Tell me the whole story clearly."

Wang Qiang wiped away his tears and began to confess in a broken voice: "My business has been bad these past few years. The auto repair shop has been losing money. To save money, I haven't paid social security for my employees, and I've also evaded taxes. I haven't paid wages for several months either. Zhang Wanli knows about these things. He asked me for his wages several times, but I refused. He then said, 'If you don't pay me, I'll report you to the labor department and expose your tax evasion.'" (End of Chapter)