when the moon whispers

Chapter 566: Rose-Fear (Part )
Case Seven Rose
Forty-Five Fears (Part 2)
"'Afraid'... this word is used in a very subtle way."

Gu Xing leaned against the window sill in the corridor, looking at the fragrant breeze blowing past the parking lot downstairs, his eyebrows unconsciously knitted. He held the lighter in his hand and rubbed it twice, "click, click", but before he could take out a half-smoked cigarette from his trouser pocket, a head popped out of the deputy captain's office.

Geng Zhi didn't say anything. He just stared at Gu Xing with a frown, waiting until Gu Xing stood up obediently with his hands on both sides of his trouser seams. Then he withdrew half of his body and closed the door. After two seconds of silence, he couldn't help but say the trivial things that he had been holding in his mouth. He suddenly opened the door and seriously criticized Captain Gu for his bad behavior of smoking everywhere, which was harmful to health. Before turning around and slowly closing the door, he glanced at the head that was peeking out from the door of the small meeting room to watch the fun.

"The patient is still here. If you want to smoke, go downstairs and smoke first, then come back!"

"I went to the corridor just because I was afraid of the secondhand smoke."

Gu Xing's argument was still on the tip of her tongue when she was shaken by the muffled sound of the door being slammed. She slumped her shoulders in dismay, and when she saw Jiang Mo's gloating eyes, she laughed angrily. She slapped her on the back of the head and sent her back to the small meeting room. Before she could pick up the serious case at hand, Zhou Xiaomiao came running towards Gu Xing from a distance. She waved and asked in a gibberish if she had seen Jiang Xiaomo. Then she came close and bumped into Jiang Mo's arms, who had come out to investigate. She held her waist and squeezed it twice before raising her head. Facing Captain Gu's sidelong look, she pointed in the direction of the reception room with a serious face, "A hotel manager named... Zhang Han came to see me. She said it was related to the suspected disappearance of a hotel guest."

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After leaving the hotel, Zhang Han seemed a little tense. He was calm and composed but not stage-frightened. However, his knuckles holding the water cup were so tense that they turned white. He swallowed a few times and quietly looked around the interior of the reception room, with a hint of uneasiness on his face.

"You're saying that the fire alarm is probably not your internal problem at all?"

Jiang Mo slowly refilled Zhang Han's cup of tea, which had been empty ten minutes after they met. He kept an eye on Zhang Han's hesitant and sneaky glances, and reached out to knock the law enforcement device at the end of her sight onto the table. "Can you tell me in detail?"

Zhang Han was probably too nervous, and the slight sound of the law enforcement device falling over made his shoulders shake slightly. He looked fixedly in the direction of the camera, pursed his lips, and slowly suppressed a sigh.

"...It's like this. The hotel's fire alarm...was originally intended to be handled as a false alarm."

"But they probably just wanted to make some smoke and ghosts at first, and then make me the scapegoat after the residents complained, and that was it. No one thought that they would make such a big scene that the fire department would be called to the scene. I didn't expect that the accounts would match, and the fines imposed by the fire department and the compensations to the residents were far beyond expectations, so the boss showed up and ended up in trouble."

Jiang Mo knocked on the handle of the teapot and raised his eyebrows in understanding, "So the confession doesn't match?"

"Although two of the relatives acted on their own initiative first, the two of them were actually covering up for each other." Zhang Han smiled bitterly and nodded. "Burning paper in a basin to provoke the ghost was planned in advance, but burning pillowcases in a basin was not. They both thought that the other party had done such a stupid thing, and before they met, they cleaned up the evidence in the utility room one after another. One of them first discovered that there was a pillowcase burned in the iron basin, and hurriedly threw the pillowcase into the room in room 432 that had not been cleaned up yet. The other one saw the burning smell and saw something that had not been disposed of, and threw it into the garbage bag of the cleaning car before we arrived."

"It's just that they're not very good at hiding things. They just smelled the smell and revealed their little trick." Jiang Mo snorted and tilted his head to look at Zhang Han's expression, "How did you know?"

"It's... eavesdropping?" Zhang Han raised his eyebrows, not hiding the ambition in his eyes. "They were too clever for their own good, and I just went along with it. The hotel is a chain, and someone has to take responsibility for such a big business accident, and I have to protect myself. I don't want my annual salary and future career to be ruined by this blunder."

Jiang Mo was not surprised, and raised his eyebrows slightly, "Have you agreed on the terms?"

"Contact the police to find out who deliberately allowed the smoking and make him bear all the rectification losses and maintenance costs of the hotel. The boss will be willing to give me the recommendation to the hotel headquarters this year. From now on, the family affairs of this small chain will have nothing to do with me."

"Want to use the police as guns?"

Jiang Mo stared at Zhang Han's tightly clasped fingers, was silent for two seconds, then suddenly raised his eyes, motionlessly watching Zhang Han's face as he tried to find peace of mind despite the momentary panic, and smiled with the corners of his eyes slightly curved.

"Burning something under the smoke alarm is at least a provocation, and if it gets bigger, it's arson. The cause of this matter is more or less related to your internal fight. If this case is investigated, I can't guarantee how far it will be investigated and whose background will be exposed."

Jiang Mo picked up the ballpoint pen on the table and quickly turned it around in his palm a few times. "Zhang Han, tell me everything you know now. It will be lenient if you confess."

Zhang Han's face froze: "...I...why don't I understand what you are saying, Officer Jiang?"

"First of all, I have no say in the internal struggles of the hotel. How could I find the burnt cloth hidden in the guest room by smell when both of them were present but unaware of it? It can barely be attributed to coincidence." Jiang Mo paused as he twirled the ballpoint pen, and tapped the table twice, "Click, click." "But I have seen the surveillance. Before the fire alarm sounded, the surveillance at almost all key locations below the fourth floor had problems with interruption at different times. In other words, the surveillance on the regular in and out routes of the hotel had been tampered with by insiders. Now you are reporting the case with a vague and subjective speculation that it has nothing to do with the insiders... Manager Zhang, since you want to ask for help, you should show some real sincerity. Let me see."

Jiang Mo raised the corner of his lips slightly, leaned forward and approached Zhang Han's evasive gaze.

"Let me explain one thing first. The surveillance inside the hotel, except for the fourth floor where the two relatives and the boss tampered with the footage, are the other missing videos really damaged by a malfunction, or were they deliberately deleted by someone to hide something else?"

Due to work and health reasons, I will be working on another day~
"Floor heating in the south makes the swallows at home, and leisure in the north is priceless."