Chapter 754: Suspicious Points!
Yong County Criminal Investigation Team!
By the time Xiao Zhanwu returned to his office, it was already past ten o’clock.
As he pushed open the door, he saw Li Yi hunched over his desk, writing furiously, with several pages of completed letters already laid out in front of him.
Xiao Zhanwu walked over quickly and asked, with a hint of surprise, “Have you discovered a problem?”
Li Yi put down his pen, nodded, and said, “Yes, something definitely doesn’t feel right!”
“Whose case?”
“Tan Cheng’s!”
“That doesn’t make sense. We’ve analyzed Tan Cheng’s case thoroughly. The evidence is solid, and the suspect has confessed to his escape. How could there be a problem?” Xiao Zhanwu frowned.
Li Yi replied immediately, “The sequence of events in the case is indeed flawless—there are no issues with that. But the person is wrong!”
“The person?”
Xiao Zhanwu asked again, “Who exactly are you referring to? Tan Cheng, or…”
“Jiang Lin!”
“This… what’s wrong with him?” Xiao Zhanwu asked, puzzled.
“You must have looked into this Jiang Lin’s background, right?”
“We have. He’s from a commune in our county. He was sentenced to three and a half years for theft, and this time, he had three more years added to his sentence for planning a prison break,” Xiao Zhanwu said.
“That’s exactly the problem. According to the case file, Jiang Lin was imprisoned in 1979. By the time his escape attempt was uncovered, he had already served one year and ten months of his sentence—meaning he had less than half of his sentence left!”
Li Yi continued, “He’s made it this far—was it really necessary to attempt a prison break at the very last moment?”
“Well… I asked the prisoner, Jiang Lin, about this myself. His reason was that life in prison was simply too harsh—the food was terrible and he had to work every day. He just couldn’t take it anymore!” Xiao Zhanwu said.
Li Yi continued: “Even if Jiang Lin really couldn’t stand prison life and wanted to escape, why would he let others know about it? He even left behind a complete escape plan—it’s as if all that evidence was deliberately left behind to get him caught. Isn’t that a bit stupid?”
“Also, there are dozens of people in a single cell block. How long has Tan Cheng been in prison?
Why would Tan Cheng just happen to see and expose this? Isn’t that a bit too coincidental?”
Xiao Zhanwu’s brow furrowed instantly. They hadn’t considered these points earlier during the investigation—after all, this was simply a case based on a tip-off.
Plus, the case had both witness and physical evidence, and the suspect himself had confessed to his actions without reservation, so they’d simply followed standard procedure without digging deeper.
But now that Li Yi had brought it up, something really did seem off!
“So, are you suggesting this is a fabricated case of seeking a reduced sentence through meritorious service—that Jiang Lin intentionally set this up for Tan Cheng?” Xiao Zhanwu asked.
“It’s possible!”
“But… why would Jiang Lin do that? What would he gain from it?” Xiao Zhanwu asked.
Li Yi replied immediately, “We’ll find out once we investigate. Start with Jiang Lin himself, then look into his family—it shouldn’t be too hard!”
If this matter is indeed as they suspect, there must be some exchange of favors involved. As long as they look into Jiang Lin’s family situation, they might find the answer.
“Alright, I’ll handle this as soon as possible, but we’ll have to wait a bit!” Xiao Zhanwu said.
“Wait for what?” Li Yi frowned.
“To be honest, there have been several cases of missing women in the county recently, which has caused quite a stir. The higher-ups have ordered us to solve these cases within a deadline, so we simply can’t spare the manpower to investigate this right now!”
Xiao Zhanwu continued, “But rest assured, now that we’ve identified a lead, we certainly won’t just sit idly by! Once we’ve solved the missing women cases, I’ll personally look into this matter!”
Li Yi suddenly looked at Xiao Zhanwu and asked, “Are you saying there have been multiple cases of missing women in Yong County?”
“That’s right. To be precise, we’ve received reports of six cases so far!” Xiao Zhanwu replied.
“Do you know a young woman named Jiang Xiaoya?” Li Yi asked.
“You know Xiaoya… Wait, you ran into Xiaoya at the movie theater yesterday, didn’t you?”
Li Yi nodded, then briefly recounted what had happened the previous afternoon.
Xiao Zhanwu sighed and said, “Xiaoya used to be under Dalong’s protection, so I know this young girl. After her mother went missing, she came to me, asking me to help find her. I sent people out to look for her right away, but unfortunately…”
“Not a single clue?”
“No. Xiaoya said her mother went to her grandmother’s house in the village to borrow money, but when we went there, her grandparents both said her mother hadn’t been there. We also conducted a thorough search and canvassed the area both in and out of town, but her mother seems to have vanished into thin air, so…”
“So what?” Li Yi asked.
“So at the time, we assumed that Xiaoya’s mother couldn’t stand this kind of life and had run off with someone, leaving her two children behind!”
Then Xiao Zhanwu changed the subject and continued, “But recently, there have been a series of reports from people saying their wives have gone missing. So we’re starting to think our earlier assumption might be wrong—Xiao Ya’s mother might have been trafficked!”
“Trafficking?”
“Right. Since these cases are so strikingly similar, our unit decided to consolidate them for investigation. While looking into one of them, a witness mentioned that the missing woman had a brief conversation with a man of unclear appearance on the street and left with him. So we’ve preliminarily determined this to be a particularly heinous case of human trafficking!” Xiao Zhanwu said.
“That’s certainly a lead, but if it really is a human trafficking case, it won’t be easy to find her!” Li Yi sighed.
“That’s true. It’s been so long; she might have been sold off already!”
But Xiao Zhanwu immediately added, “Regardless, we must track down these human traffickers and provide closure for the victim and her family!”
“Right! By the way, Captain Xiao, do you know where Xiaoya’s grandparents live?” Li Yi asked again.
“Are you thinking of sending the sisters to their grandparents’ place?”
“Yes. As you know, we can’t stay here much longer. If their mother isn’t found soon, these two sisters might not survive the winter. It’s better to entrust them to their relatives,” Li Yi said.
Xiao Zhanwu sighed and said, “There’s no need to go. It’s pointless!”
“What do you mean?”
“Xiao Ya’s grandparents don’t want them at all. We took the sisters back there a fortnight ago, but not only did the old couple refuse to take the girls in, their uncles and aunts did too!”
Hearing this, Li Yi’s brows furrowed involuntarily!
“Is it because of their family’s financial situation?”
Xiao Zhanwu shook his head and said, “That’s part of it, but more importantly, the elderly couple believe Xiaoya’s mother brought misfortune that led to their son’s death. Plus, since Xiaoya and her sister are both girls…”
Li Yi took a deep breath and said, “If that’s the case, what should we do about these two sisters?”
“Let’s first try to find their mother. If we can’t find her, we’ll have no choice but to send them to the county orphanage. What do you think?”
Li Yi paused briefly, then said, “Let’s do that for now. We’ll discuss the rest later!”
“Okay…”
…….