You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 385 The Death of a Key Witness!

August 10, 11:00 AM.

Inside Sangong Lane.

The alley is an uphill slope with red brick walls on both sides.

A lane branched off at the bottom of the slope. This lane was actually behind the buildings on the main street, such as the back doors of supermarkets, restaurants, and daily necessities stores.

The alley was nearly five meters wide when someone rode out of it on a bicycle and rang their bell.

"Jingle Bell……"

Yang Jinwen stood at the fork in the road, glanced at the young man riding the old-fashioned bicycle, and then asked the members of the joint defense team, "Who is the leader among you?"

"Boss, it's me."

"what is your name?"

"Dou Yi".

"Take a few people and go up there to investigate."

"it is good."

"Use walkie-talkies to communicate in case of emergency, and use mobile phones if the distance is too far."

My surname is Yang, I'm from the Third Brigade of Qincheng Prison. Please write down my number.

Dou Yi's eyes lit up when he heard his name, and he glanced at Yang Jinwen thoughtfully.

After Yang Jinwen gave the number, he nodded and led his men up the slope.

"Old Dou, this person looks familiar."

"Didn't you read the Qincheng Evening News? The taxi murder case in November was solved by their Third Brigade. There's a picture of Captain Yang in the newspaper."

Once they went up, they saw a community gate standing there, with the words "Mingyue Community" written on it.

Yang Jinwen, Maozi, and Wu Daqing strode forward from the alley below.

After traveling about 100 meters, if you refer to the main road on the outside, you have reached the end of the road, which is where you turn.

This is a small park, but next to the right, which is to Yang Jinwen and the others' left, is a cliff.

Above them is the Mingyue residential area, which the joint defense team is currently inspecting.

The park is relatively open. It's not entirely accurate to call the right-hand side a cliff, as it's covered with trees and thorns, which were deliberately planted to prevent landslides caused by summer rainstorms.

Below the cliff is a two-lane asphalt road, and a row of cars is parked right next to the cliff.

After seeing this, Maozi and Wu Daqing quickly walked a few steps and identified each vehicle one by one.
After they had put about twenty meters between themselves and Yang Jinwen, Wu Daqing suddenly turned around and shouted, "Captain Yang, we've found the car! This should be it!"

Yang Jinwen quickened his pace, and after taking only two steps, he saw Maozi wipe the back window of the car with his sleeve, then lean closer to look inside.

Then, the cat shouted loudly, "There's someone inside! There's someone inside!"

Yang Jinwen ran to the car and glanced at the car model and license plate. It was indeed a red Buick with local license plates, and the last digit of the license plate was 3.

He pushed the cat aside, looked through the car window, and saw that there was indeed a person lying in the back seat.

Yang Jinwen grabbed the car door handle and tried to pull it out, but the door was locked and he couldn't budge it.

Wu Daqing and Maozi, one of them tried to pull the driver's side door, and the other went around the car and tried to pull the other side door, but they still couldn't budge it.

"It won't open."

Yang Jinwen looked around as he said, "Daqing, call an ambulance! Quickly!"

"Okay, okay!" came the reply from Maozi, because he knew that Wu Daqing only had a pager on him.

Cat took out his mobile phone and dialed the hospital's number while watching Yang Jinwen take out handcuffs from behind his waist.

Yang Jinwen overlapped the two metal rings of the handcuffs, held them in his hand, and smashed them hard against the driver's side window.

"Oh!"

"Boom! Boom!"

Wu Daqing also found a stone from a distance and started smashing it from the side.

After a few moments, the car window on Yang Jinwen's side cracked first. He used his elbow to repeatedly strike the cracked window until a hole appeared, then reached out and opened the driver's side door from the inside.

As soon as the door opened, Wu Daqing walked around and got into the car. He glanced at the situation in the back seat, his heart skipped a beat, and then he opened the back door.

Yang Jinwen got in from the back seat, helped the old lady who had fallen down in the back seat up, reached out to touch her neck, and then touched her chest.

The old woman's body was cold, her face was pale, and her muscles had become stiff.

Maozi hung up the phone and shouted, "Captain Yang, the ambulance is on its way. Captain Yang, how is she?"

Before Yang Jinwen could answer, Maozi had already figured out the situation. Captain Yang was sitting still, his eyes slightly narrowed, and he exuded a chilling aura, like a dark cloud gathering above his head.

If the old lady were still alive, he wouldn't be so motionless.

Wu Daqing climbed out of the car, shaking his head and sighing, "He's already dead."

The cat swallowed hard, its heart skipping a few beats.

Yang Jinwen gently placed the old woman's body on the back seat, got out of the car, and instructed, "Call the forensic doctor and call the branch office to inform them of the situation."

"Okay." Cat nodded, picked up her phone, then walked to the side, turned her back to Yang Jinwen, and slapped herself hard.

"You jinx! You jinx!" Cat's wrists were trembling. Yang Jinwen looked around the park. It was midday, and the sky was overcast and cold. Because it had snowed a few days ago and the sun hadn't come out, there were very few people in the park.

He looked into the car again. The old woman who had died had gray hair. She was wearing a very thin cotton coat on her upper body and ill-fitting floral cotton pants on her lower body. There was a large hole in her left knee, revealing yellowed, low-quality cotton wool.

She wore a green liberation shoe on her left foot and a pair of black stockings on her right foot.

A burlap sack fell onto the back seat; it must have contained all her belongings.

Yang Jinwen took a deep breath, picked up the burlap sack, and dumped its contents onto the ground: a dirty ceramic bowl, a found thermos, some cardboard, and yellowed toilet paper.

As for food, or anything edible, there was none at all.

Wu Daqing took out the sketch and compared it with the portrait drawn by Yang Jinwen. The similarity was as high as 90%.

Without a doubt, this was the homeless old woman whom the two thugs tied up in the car, and also the reason why the victims Li Song and Fan Chuanping were murdered.

Now that Li Song and Fan Chuanping have been murdered, the most crucial witness is also dead!
With three people murdered in quick succession, the nature of this case is becoming increasingly serious!
Wu Daqing looked at Captain Yang, whose expression had never been so serious, and whose whole body exuded a stern aura.

He took out disposable blue gloves from his pocket, put them on, walked around to the front of the car, and looked at the license plate number.

"Call the traffic police branch and find the owner of the Qin A01323 vehicle!"

Maozi was on the phone with the detachment, his hands trembling uncontrollably. Upon hearing the call, he nodded quickly.

Yang Jinwen then got into the driver's seat and observed the situation inside the car.

The car keys had been removed, and there was a thermos on the seat. He picked it up, unscrewed the cap, and found it contained cold tea.

On the center console was an opened pack of cigarettes; the brand was 555.

Yang Jinwen opened the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat and took out several lighters, brand-new work gloves, and a handwritten three-part form.

There was a stack of forms, and Yang Jinwen looked at them one by one.

These are all invoices issued by gas stations and CNG stations. They show the amount, the quantity of fuel, and the address of the station.

The addresses of the stations are not fixed; some are gas stations in Tayan District, some in Xingye District, and most are agricultural machinery gas stations in Gaolin District.

Yang Jinwen squinted and looked at Wu Daqing outside the car: "The day before yesterday, also on the afternoon of the 8th, didn't we see a farm machinery gas station on Yulin Road?"

Wu Daqing recalled for a moment and replied, "Yes, but not on Yulin Road, but on the left side of the intersection, called Honggu Road."

"Honggu Road?"

"Yes."

Yang Jinwen raised his face and asked, "Which department in Yulin is in charge of the investigation?"

"Yulin Police Station".

“Call them and tell them to go to the agricultural machinery gas station on Honggu Road immediately to investigate. Make sure the gas station staff can identify the two criminals from their sketches.”

Wu Daqing nodded.

Yang Jinwen continued, "Also, in Xingye District and Tayan District, the names of the gas stations are on the list. Have someone go and ask them too."

"clear."

Wu Daqing didn't have a mobile phone, so Yang Jinwen had to give him his own and then continue to observe the inside of the car.

There were very few items in the car, and not many traces were left. The most useful item was the gas station receipt. Secondly, although it was a red sedan, judging from the interior, it was most likely driven by a man.

Now, the biggest question lingering in Yang Jinwen's mind is that the incident occurred on the afternoon of December 7th, Li Song and Fan Chuanping were murdered, and the two criminals fled after committing the crime. It is now noon on December 10th.

Almost three days have passed, and the two thugs have not come to take the car away. Moreover, the old lady they had taken hostage died in the car.

Why is that?
Besides, why did they take the old lady hostage?
Why did they dare to kill after Li Song and Fan Chuanping stopped them?
Based on this, the crimes committed by these two criminals may be even more serious than murder!

Since the day the incident occurred, the detachment has deployed personnel at transportation hubs such as train stations and bus stations to stake out and arrest the suspects.

After sketching the two criminals, the staff at the airport, train station, and bus station were carefully questioned based on their height and characteristics. They had not seen the two men at these locations.

Therefore, it is highly likely that these two criminals are still hiding in Qincheng City.

The investigation has been going on for almost three days, covering a radius of three kilometers around the crime scene. The next step is to continue expanding the scope of the investigation.

These two people couldn't have hidden themselves that well. Humans need to eat and drink, and they have survival needs, so they would definitely leave some clues.

Unless these two criminals are indeed part of a criminal gang, there is no way to explain why no one has seen them for three whole days!

That can only mean that they have someone behind them!

After Yang Jinwen got out of the car, he saw three cars driving in from the main road in the distance.

The lead vehicle was Wu Kai's car, followed by the forensic investigation vehicle from the detachment.

After getting out of the car, Wu Kai saw the body inside and sighed deeply.

"This old woman has no money and no home. What are these people doing holding her hostage? Now that three people have died, the top leader will definitely have to get involved. Yang Jinwen, can you handle this?"

Yang Jinwen shook his head.

Wu Kai said worriedly, "The cases that the first team is handling are almost solved. I'll have them come and help you."

It's already December, and there's only a little over two weeks until 99. If we can't solve the case before the end of the year, it'll become a cold case.

Yang Jinwen shook his head not because he thought the case was unsolvable, but because he murmured, "Captain Wu, you just said that homeless people have no money or power. How can we extract benefits from them? Who would target them?"
I'm thinking, if this group is specifically targeting homeless people in a large-scale crime operation, then this old lady might not be an isolated case!

Upon hearing the word 'large-scale,' Wu Kai couldn't help but shudder and nearly lost his footing.

(End of this chapter)