Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 782 The Belated Case Analysis Meeting
Hotel lobby, coffee shop.

"After committing the murder, Zheng Jie escaped outside by hanging a rope from the room. The cleaning lady, Zheng Amei, chose to enter the room the following morning to lock the open window, thus completing the closed loop of the locked room. In this way, the extra six seconds were just right."

Chen Shu picked up his water glass and gulped down the coffee that had long since gone cold.

He slammed the cup down with a thud, effectively ending his speech.

All eyes were fixed on Chen Shu, who was sitting in the middle.

Jiang Hai, the youngest, leaned forward and subconsciously licked his dry lips, finding his mouth and throat parched.

Being a police officer is so interesting!

Those tough years of high school were totally worth it!
The police academy students, who did not yet have law enforcement authority, were so confident, their eyes shining, just waiting for the show to begin.

The belated case analysis meeting officially began, and Chen Shu confidently stated, "The murderer is not Zheng Amei, but her son, Zheng Jie."

After a pause, Chen Shuchao nodded to Ma Rongcheng, who was sitting next to him, and said, "This can be corroborated by the forged shoe prints of 'big feet wearing small shoes' that Ma deduced at the scene."

Ma Rongcheng nodded reservedly and smiled.

Since Zheng Jie and Zheng Amei were arrested, the major crime squad of the district brigade organized elite police officers to investigate overnight. Ma Rongcheng, who had nothing to do, received a WeChat message from Jiang Hai saying that Officer Chen had solved the mystery of the case, which aroused his curiosity.

In addition, Huang Mao mentioned that Officer Chen had previously visited a fraud industrial park in Myanmar, which happened to be related to the anti-fraud series of cases in the Myanmar KK Industrial Park that Huang Mao was investigating in the provincial department's special task force. So Huang Mao led the way to the hotel.

Having received Chen Shu's affirmation, Ma Rongcheng appeared calm on the surface, but was secretly overjoyed.

After a few seconds of thought, Chen Shu got straight to the point: "I speculate that Zheng Jie entered and exited the crime scene through the hotel room window. And when the cleaning lady, Zheng Amei, entered the room the next day, her purpose was to lock the window that Zheng Jie had opened when he escaped, thus creating the illusion of a locked room and making the police mistakenly believe that there was no one else in the room, and thus judge it as a suicide case."

Jiang Hai stroked his chin and slowly said, "Brother Shu, do you mean that Zheng Jie entered the crime scene through the window, killed the person inside, then faked it as a suicide, and finally escaped through the window?"

"Then the next morning, Zheng Amei, the hotel's cleaning lady, entered the room under the pretext of requesting cleaning in the morning, locked the window from the inside, and pretended it was a locked room. She then called the police, thus creating the illusion of a locked room murder. Hmm, logically, that does make sense."

Jiang Hai looked up instantly, as if he had remembered something.

He spoke faster, as if afraid that others wouldn't hear him: "When I came back from breakfast with Brother Shu and Brother Chuan, we heard Zheng Amei's scream as soon as we got out of the elevator. In the end, we ignored the terrified older sister and thought that we were also the first witnesses, so we took all the blame for what happened."

As he spoke, Jiang Hai showed a look of shame, because since the case occurred, he had been the most proactive person, always rushing to the front line in everything.

Naturally, they also put themselves in the position of the first witness, thinking that they were the first witnesses after the incident.

Zhu Yiba chuckled coldly, a hint of self-deprecation in his voice, "I never would have guessed that her move was so brilliant. She locked the window from the inside in a very short time when she entered, which was equivalent to patching up the last loophole in the secret room. Who would have thought that the cleaning lady responsible for cleaning the hotel every day would be an accomplice of the murderer?"

Jiang Hai clenched his fist, realizing something, and said, "I understand! That's why Zheng Amei kept lingering in the corridor without entering the room, and only opened the door when other guests appeared!"

"Unfortunately, the person who came was both a guest and a genuine police officer." Chen Chuan straightened his chest in high spirits, his eyebrows curving into a smile, whether it was because he had solved a murder case or for some other reason was unclear.

Huang Mao was equally delighted. After all, this was his first time handling a murder case, and now, things had taken a dramatic turn, turning what was initially believed to be a suicide into a murder. He could probably brag about this for a whole year at the dinner table.

He was naturally in a very good mood.

But in an instant, Huang Mao remembered Ma Rongcheng's words when he asked him to lead the way.

"Xiao Huang, since you don't have anything to do at work anyway, why don't you come with me to find Officer Chen and the others?"

Am I even a police officer in charge? The blond-haired man was a bit bewildered, his mood plummeted, and he stopped listening to what everyone was saying afterward.

Apart from the blond guy who was practically bursting with pent-up frustration, the coffee shop was filled with a joyful and cheerful atmosphere.

Ma Rongcheng, who originally came to exchange information about the scam industrial park in Myanmar, kept his own deductions to himself after listening to Chen Shu's reasoning.

After several rounds of back and forth, Ma Rongcheng felt there was a chance, but there was still one problem in the whole case that had not been solved, namely that Zheng Jie had a solid alibi for the time period of the crime.

First, the hotel's surveillance video captured him leaving the hotel, as well as his travel records on the ride-hailing app;

Secondly, the bar's surveillance video also proved that Zheng Jie was drinking with his friends inside during those few hours;
Finally, after Zheng Jie finished drinking, he also took a taxi back to the hotel.

The alibi was very complete. If it weren't for the fact that this guy was a first-time offender and had poor control over his mindset and emotions, allowing the police to see through him at a glance, it would have been a real problem.

Simply put, how do we break Zheng Jie's alibi?
This information was gathered by Ma Rongcheng from the investigators at the Criminal Investigation Department. However, he was just an expert from the provincial department who came to support the grassroots level, and Chen Shu and others were just fellow tourists from other provinces. Neither side needed to investigate the case in detail.

Therefore, Ma Rongcheng did not mention these doubts. He took some time to chat with Chen Shu about the situation of the Myanmar fraud park and obtained some good information. After that, he was in a hurry to return to the provincial department's special task force to handle some business, so he prepared to say goodbye and go back.

However, Ma Rongcheng, who wanted to leave, was warmly persuaded to stay. The reason was simple: he would have to eat anyway, so why not eat together here?

Huang Mao, needless to say, felt that everyone was one of their own, and the others felt the same way, so without anyone having to greet him, and without anyone having to greet him, he happily followed along.

One thing that sets the police force apart from other jobs in society is that the level of intimacy among colleagues is much higher than in ordinary jobs, especially for special police and criminal police officers.

For special police, whether it's patrolling, going on missions, or even daily training, the entire team is deployed, and there are basically no individuals left out.

A group of people doing the same work and eating the same food together, and even sleeping and showering in the same room during annual training camps, naturally develop a deep bond over time.

The criminal police are in a similar situation. During the investigation, they basically eat and live together. Sometimes, in order to stake out a suspect, they may squeeze into a car for ten or twenty days, smelling the same sour and smelly odor, and eating biscuits full of bitterness.

Then, during the arrest, everyone worked together to bring down those criminals who endangered society. Afterwards, individual and collective rewards rained down like raindrops, and this sense of honor from sharing joys and sorrows tightly bound them together again.

Often, this close working relationship is the main motivation for grassroots police officers to work overtime in all kinds of weather and endure "007-style" work overtime.

The salaries and benefits of public security, procuratorate, and judicial personnel that exceed those of ordinary civil servants are not a motivation for grassroots police officers, at least not the main motivation.

(End of this chapter)