The Case of Love

Chapter 21 Illusion
"I'm from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Beijing Public Security Bureau. You are Zhao Xiaogang's wife, right?" Ma Nan confirmed with her.

"Yes, it's me. What happened to Zhao Xiaogang?" The woman was very anxious, her voice trembling.

"We found a burnt car in the suburbs of Beijing, and the owner was him," Ma Nan said. Judging from the current situation, the person in the car is likely to be the owner, Zhao Xiaogang.

"He's not at home now, I'll call him right now!" The woman became even more panicked.

"We called him but couldn't get through. We found the people's belongings in the cab. Although they were burned, you should be able to tell whether they belonged to Zhao Xiaogang." Whenever Ma Nan said such things to the victim's family, he felt the most uncomfortable. He could imagine the pain the woman was feeling at that moment.

"Is there anyone in the car? How is he?" the woman asked in a crying voice.

"He's dead." said Ma Nan.

On the other end of the phone, the woman was silent for a while and told Ma Nan that she was going to the Public Security Bureau.

The atmosphere in the office was somewhat solemn. Although the identity of the victim was soon confirmed, none of them were excited about the progress of the case.

More than 20 minutes later, Zhao Xiaogang's wife Wu Yan arrived and Ma Nan went downstairs to pick her up.

When Wu Yan saw the mobile phone and lighter they brought back from the crime scene, she was stunned for a moment and then burst into tears.

"This is his stuff, it's his!"

Her frail body was shaky due to the pain, and she seemed ready to fall to the ground at any moment. Su Xiaohan hurried forward to support her.

"Captain Zhou, can I take her to the lounge for a while?" Su Xiaohan couldn't bear to see the heartbroken woman beside her.

Zhou Yifeng didn't object and nodded to her.

Entering the lounge, Su Xiaohan comforted Wu Yan from time to time, and also learned some things about Zhao Xiaogang from her. Three years ago, Zhao Xiaogang started a business in building materials. At the beginning, he made a lot of money and the scale of the company also expanded. In the past year or so, he has become busier and busier, often traveling on business, and sometimes he doesn't go home for more than half a month.

After Wu Yan calmed down, Su Xiaohan asked, "Ms. Wu, as far as you know, has your husband ever offended anyone?"

"I really don't know about that, but my husband has a bad temper and he might offend someone." Wu Yan said uncertainly.

"Does he have any close friends?" Su Xiaohan asked again.

"My husband and he had a childhood friend named Wang Chunjiang, and they opened the building materials company together." Wu Yan replied quickly.

"Do you have Wang Chunjiang's contact information?" Su Xiaohan thought, maybe she could find out more about Zhao Xiaogang from Wang Chunjiang.

"I have!"

Wu Yan found Wang Chunjiang's phone number in her phone book and showed it to Su Xiaohan, who sent the number to Zhou Yifeng.

Su Xiaohan asked Wu Yan a few more questions and then sent her away.

Zhou Yifeng has called Wang Chunjiang and asked him to come to the Public Security Bureau to cooperate with the investigation. Upon learning that his friend might have died in the car, Wang Chunjiang's first reaction was that it was unlikely. Because as far as he knew, Zhao Xiaogang had not driven this van for a long time. He bought this car before he started his company. Since he became a boss, he felt that the van did not match his status and bought an off-road vehicle. Wang Chunjiang's words made Zhou Yifeng fall into deep thought. Could it be that the person in the car was not Zhao Xiaogang? But why were Zhao Xiaogang's mobile phone and lighter in the car? Apart from this, there were no other people's belongings.

Dozens of minutes later, Zhou Yifeng and Su Xiaohan met Wang Chunjiang in the inquiry room with questions.

Wang Chunjiang looks to be about 40 years old. He is very thin but very energetic, with a shrewd look in his eyes.

Seeing the cell phone and lighter wrapped in evidence bags on the table, Wang Chunjiang was sure that both items belonged to Zhao Xiaogang. However, he raised a question: "Comrade police, this cell phone belongs to Xiaogang, but I remember he no longer uses it and has bought a new one."

Wang Chunjiang's words made Zhou Yifeng even more suspicious. The van and the cell phone belonged to Zhao Xiaogang, but they were all old items that he no longer used. Would he drive a car he didn't want to drive and use a cell phone that he had discarded? Could it be...

Zhou Yifeng thought halfway and temporarily overturned his idea. Without evidence, he couldn't make a bold inference.

Just as Zhou Yifeng was about to ask another question, the cell phone in his pocket rang. He took out his phone and looked down. It was Sun Yidan calling.

He picked up the phone, and Sun Yidan's voice was obviously excited: "Captain Zhou, there is a new discovery, can you come over?"

Zhou Yifeng signaled Su Xiaohan to go with him and asked Wang Chunjiang to wait for them in the inquiry room.

On the highly carbonized body, Sun Yidan found a small tuft of hair. This tuft of hair was located at the back of the head of the deceased. Because it was close to the car seat and not in direct contact with the air, it was not burned.

Looking at the hair in the bag, Su Xiaohan asked in confusion, "Captain Zhou, this strand of hair looks to be about ten centimeters long, and the hair on the back of the head of an average man is relatively short. If the hair on the back of the head can be as long as ten centimeters, then the deceased's hairstyle should be medium-long. Wu Yan said that her husband was in the building materials business and was the boss. Logically, he shouldn't have this hairstyle."

"Your analysis is correct! Xiaohan, call Wu Yan and ask about Zhao Xiaogang's hairstyle before his death, and then ask Zhao Xiaogang's family to do a DNA comparison."

Zhou Yifeng became more suspicious that the deceased in the car was not Zhao Xiaogang, but it could only be confirmed after comparing the DNA on the deceased's hair with that of Zhao Xiaogang.

Su Xiaohan agreed to go out and make a phone call. Sun Yidan continued, "Captain Zhou, there are multiple marks of blunt force trauma on the deceased's skull, several of which caused comminuted fractures. This level of bone injury could not have occurred when the car rolled over into a dry ditch, because the height of the dry ditch is only over 1 meter, and the car could not have rolled over many times and caused the head to bump around in the car. In other words, the deceased died of a comminuted fracture of the skull, and then someone set fire to the deceased and the car together."

Zhou Yifeng frowned slightly. Sun Yidan's analysis was correct. The deceased was killed and put into the car and burned together, and then the illusion of a car accident was created.

After a while, Su Xiaohan came back after finishing her phone call. According to Wu Yan, Zhao Xiaogang had not been home for nearly half a month. However, when she last saw him, his hair was not long. Even if he had not had a haircut for half a month, it would not have been medium-long. They had been married for ten years and had no children, so they could only ask Zhao Xiaogang's father, Zhao Xingcheng, to cooperate in the DNA comparison.

Coming out of the forensic room, Zhou Yifeng walked and thought, he always felt that there was something wrong with Zhao Xiaogang. He and his wife had no children, and he often did not come home for a long time. He suspected that he might have someone outside.

When Zhou Yifeng and Zhao Xiaogang inquired, they learned some new information from Wang Chunjiang, which made Zhou Yifeng more confident in his judgment. According to Wang Chunjiang, they were doing building materials business together. The business was good in the first year, but in the past year or so, the capital chain was broken and they still owed hundreds of thousands of debts. He and Zhao Xiaogang agreed to quit after paying off the debts and do some small business.

"As far as you know, is Zhao Xiaogang very busy recently? Does he often go on business trips?" Zhou Yifeng asked.

"Comrade police officer, we have no business to do, what can we be busy with? We haven't seen each other for almost half a month, he should be at home. I was in a bad mood and didn't look for him." Wang Chunjiang said without thinking.

"That's strange. Wu Yan said he often goes on business trips. During his most recent business trip, he hasn't been home for almost half a month." Su Xiaohan looked at Wang Chunjiang and then at Zhou Yifeng.

If what Wang Chunjiang and Wu Yan said is true, then there is definitely something wrong with this Zhao Xiaogang!