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

Zhang Hui frowned. He had thought the gambling debt dispute would provide a breakthrough, but the trail had gone cold. "Now we need to focus on Zhang Tiancheng's brother-in-law, Li Wei. He had an argument with Zhang Tiancheng two weeks ago, and Liu Mei said that Zhang Tiancheng had tried to borrow money from him. We need to investigate his whereabouts thoroughly," Zhang Hui told his team.

The next morning at 8 a.m., Zhang Hui led Li Ming and Zhao Qian to the Sunshine Residential Complex where Li Wei lived. Following the address provided by Liu Mei, they found apartment 302, unit 1, building 4, but no one answered after knocking for a while. Their neighbor, Aunt Wang, poked her head out and looked them over: "You're looking for Li Wei? He didn't come home last night. That kid's always out gallivanting and rarely stays home overnight."

"Do you know where he usually goes? Does he have any regular friends?" Zhang Hui asked. Aunt Wang sighed, "Him? Besides gambling at the card room, he goes to the bathhouse to find prostitutes. He's quite close to Zhao Lei from the neighborhood; the two of them often go out together." Zhang Hui immediately obtained Zhao Lei's address and contact information and rushed to Zhao Lei's house.

At 9:20 a.m., Zhang Hui met Li Wei at Zhao Lei's house. Li Wei was about 35 years old, tall, wearing a black jacket, with disheveled hair and cloudy eyes. He appeared visibly flustered upon seeing the police: "Officer, do you need something?" "Are you Li Wei? Zhang Tiancheng is your brother-in-law, right? We'd like to know some things about you and Zhang Tiancheng," Zhang Hui said, showing his police ID.

Li Wei's expression changed, and he subconsciously took a step back: "What happened to my brother-in-law? I have nothing to say to him." "Zhang Tiancheng was murdered. We understand that you went to see him half a month ago and even had an argument with him. Tell me what happened then." Zhang Hui's tone was serious. Li Wei's face instantly turned pale, and his lips trembled: "He...he was murdered? I didn't know! Half a month ago, I went to see him to borrow money, but he refused, and we argued a bit. I didn't kill him!"

"Why did you borrow money from him? How much? What for?" Li Ming pressed. Li Wei rubbed his hands together and stammered, "I...I owed someone 10,000 yuan in gambling debts, and they were pressing me hard, so I wanted to borrow some money from him to tide me over. He said he didn't have any money himself and even called me a lazy bum. I couldn't stand it, so I argued with him and then left." "Did Zhang Tiancheng mention that he owed money to anyone?" Zhang Hui asked. Li Wei shook his head: "No, he didn't. He's very stingy and never talks about his affairs with outsiders."

"Where were you between 11:30 PM the night before last and 1 AM yesterday? What were you doing? Can anyone testify to that?" Zhang Hui posed the core question. Li Wei's eyes flickered, and he dared not look Zhang Hui in the eye: "I... I was sleeping at home. Zhao Lei can testify to that." Zhang Hui looked at Zhao Lei, who quickly said, "Officer, Li Wei was indeed at my house the night before last. We drank together and then went to sleep."

"Is that so?" Zhang Hui sneered. "We checked the surveillance footage from Sunshine Community. You left the community at 10 p.m. the night before last and never came back until you appeared near Zhao Lei's house at 8 a.m. this morning. Why were you sleeping at home?" Li Wei's face changed drastically, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "I... I remembered wrong. I went out for a walk the night before last and then went to Zhao Lei's house."

"Wandering around? Where did you wander around? What did you do?" Zhang Hui pressed on relentlessly. Li Wei was speechless for a long time before finally whispering, "I...I went to the 'Jinyu Bath Center' in the western part of the city, found a prostitute, and spent the night there." Zhang Hui immediately arranged for his team to go to the Jinyu Bath Center to verify the situation, while simultaneously interrogating Li Wei further: "Besides soliciting prostitution, what else did you do? Did you go near Binhe West Road in the northern part of the city?"

"No! I absolutely never went to the North City District!" Li Wei quickly denied. "After I came out of the bathhouse, I went to 'Bald's' card room, played two hands of cards, lost some money, and then went to find Zhao Lei." To verify Li Wei's statement, Zhang Hui asked his team to retrieve the surveillance footage and consumption records of the Jinyu Bathhouse, as well as the surveillance footage of "Bald"'s card room.

At 2 PM, the team reported that surveillance footage from the Jinyu Bathhouse showed Li Wei entering at 10:30 PM the night before last and leaving at 1:10 AM, with purchase records confirming his prostitution activities. Surveillance footage from the "Bald Man" card room showed Li Wei entering at 1:30 AM and leaving at 3 AM, playing cards throughout that time, corroborated by multiple witnesses. Zhang Tiancheng's murder occurred between 11:30 PM the night before last and 1 AM the following morning, during which time Li Wei was at the bathhouse, providing a complete alibi.

Zhang Hui interrogated Li Wei again, presenting him with surveillance screenshots from the bathhouse and the card room. Seeing the irrefutable evidence, Li Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Officer, I really didn't kill my brother-in-law. Although we argued, it wouldn't have led me to take his life! I'm just a gambler and a womanizer; I've never committed murder." Zhang Hui observed Li Wei's expression and saw that he seemed relieved and not lying. Furthermore, the surveillance footage and witness testimonies proved he was not present at the time of the incident, so he ruled out Li Wei as a suspect.

Subsequently, Zhang Hui led his team to visit Zhang Tiancheng's other relatives and several of his mahjong partners, but found no valuable clues. One of the partners reported that Zhang Tiancheng had indeed recently incurred a debt, but no one knew who it was owed to; they only knew that the debt collectors were aggressive and had once blocked Zhang Tiancheng's path outside the mahjong parlor, but they hadn't seen their faces clearly. Zhang Hui immediately arranged for his team to investigate "Baldy's" mahjong parlor, searching for witnesses who were present at the time. However, "Baldy" stated that it happened last month and he couldn't remember the details, and the other mahjong partners present also said they hadn't noticed anything.

At 7 p.m., Zhang Hui led his team back to the Criminal Investigation Detachment and reported the investigation results to Lu Chuan: "Team Leader Lu, after two days of interviews and investigations, we have figured out Zhang Tiancheng's social connections. He is usually honest, but has a gambling addiction and has been dealt with by the police before. He had disputes with Wu Bo and Zhou Liang over gambling debts, but both of them were driving during the time of the incident and have alibis, so they have been ruled out as suspects. His brother-in-law, Li Wei, is suspicious. It has been confirmed that he went to a prostitute on the day of the incident and then went to a card room to gamble. He has a complete alibi and has also been ruled out as a suspect. We also interviewed his relatives, friends, and card-playing buddies and found that he did have an unexplained debt recently and had been harassed by debt collectors, but we were unable to identify the debt collectors. Currently, the investigation into his interpersonal relationships has also stalled."

After listening to the report, Lu Chuan frowned, his fingers lightly tapping the table. The conference room was silent; everyone could feel the pressure of the case. "Any new progress from the technical department?" Lu Chuan asked. (End of Chapter)