"I don't think so, she never mentioned having any such friends," Yu Lihui replied.
Yu Lihui appeared gentle and, after a brief conversation, I found him to be a laid-back man. His salary likely wasn't high, and his lifestyle was frugal. His teeth were pearly white, he smelled of no alcohol, indicating he neither smoked nor drank. There were no signs of scuffs on his fingers, suggesting he didn't gamble either. He seemed like a decent person.
"Then, how did you and Liu Shuhua meet? According to our investigation, you don't work at the same place!"
"We met online. It was quite a coincidence, actually. We stumbled upon each other on Douyin. I guess you could call it fate." Yu Lihui's response was accompanied by my observation of his micro-expressions. His nasal muscles seemed normal, and his eyes didn't dart around, indicating he wasn't lying.
"One last question, were you two compatible in that regard?"
However, Yu Lihui became a little annoyed at this question. "Consultant He, why are you asking something like this?"
"I just want to understand more. It might be helpful for the case?"
"Of course we were compatible!" Yu Lihui, though embarrassed, pushed himself to answer. Strangely, when he spoke about this matter, his pupils contracted slightly. Why would this fellow lie about something like this?
Could it be that their relationship wasn't good at all? And he was trying to cover it up.
I didn't confront him then, but politely said, "Alright! Mr. Yu, that's all for today!"
After he left, I called Gao Mingqiang and asked him to keep an eye on Yu Lihui.
Then Liu Yuning returned, rubbing her waist and complaining, "I'm exhausted. We've visited quite a few veterinary clinics and other places with the police, but we've found nothing. Consultant He, perhaps you were mistaken this time! Maybe it was an accident!"
"But how do you explain that someone entered the room and the person ended up injured? Was it suicide?"
"It wasn't suicide. The wounds on her neck and the red ribbon can't be explained by that."
"You know that. If there hadn't been a lack of surveillance in the room, it might have been captured. At that moment, someone should have used guitar music to guide a wolfdog into the room. After committing the crime, they used the guitar music again to command it to leave. That way, we wouldn't be able to find that person. At most, we'd only find the wolfdog. If we focus our attention on the wolfdog, and manage to find it, it would be easy to find its owner!"
Hearing me say this, Liu Yuning seemed enlightened. "How did I not think of that!"
"Stop complaining and let's see if this approach yields any results!" I urged.
"Okay! If you can solve this case this time..."
"Let's not talk about meals. I just hope you'll listen to my suggestions more in the future."
"Mm... Alright, let's talk after it's solved. We don't know your capabilities until the very end."
Ugh, I thought to myself, aren't you the captain now? Why are you pushing all the responsibility onto me? Is it just because my grandfather is influential?
I really wanted to retort, but as the saying goes, "The superior's authority weighs heavily." I didn't say it out loud. Liu Yuning assigned people to handle it and quickly followed suit.
This time, I was also assigned to go out. I was paired with a police officer named Xia Hou. On the way, he asked me, "Are you really a descendant of the Judge of Judgments?"
Judge of Judgments was the police force's nickname for my grandfather. I replied, "Yes. Xia Hou, are you new?"
"Yes! I just joined the criminal investigation team. It's an honor to cooperate with you! My specialty is bomb disposal!"
"Oh? So you're a bomb disposal expert. That's impressive, I might need your help sometime!"
"You're too kind. I'm just an ordinary bomb disposal technician, not really an expert."
Xia Hou's full name is Xia Hou Tengfei, he's 23 years old and just joined our police force this year. He's the kind of talented young officer who's exceptionally handsome and has a sunny disposition. When he first arrived at the station, he drove a BMW. At the time, our colleagues were curious: why would a rich second-generation heir become a police officer?
Only I sensed an underlying defiance in Xia Hou and brought him in. Gao Mingqiang usually assists me, but if he's busy, I'll ask Xia Hou for help.
We arrived at Liu Shuhua's home together. This time, I needed to thoroughly re-examine the scene.
Liu Shuhua's home was a newly purchased two-bedroom, one-living room apartment, reportedly bought with savings from her and her husband as their marital home. The wedding ceremony was held in the small garden of the apartment complex downstairs. Their apartment was on the second floor.
The apartment didn't look large and was furnished very ordinarily, with relatively inexpensive furniture. It was clear that their financial situation was modest.
I took out the Luminol reagent and sprayed it around the room. Soon, I detected a blue reaction on the floor. I then used a blacklight and followed a bloodstain to her bed, discovering that the blood had dripped onto it from above. This indicated that Liu Shuhua had moved after being bitten.
There were no other shoe prints or fingerprints at the scene. It's likely the perpetrator never entered the room themselves but, as before, commanded their animal to commit the crime.
This time, I used a wide-spectrum light source and bio-sampling equipment to search the entire room. I refused to believe there were no other discoveries. As I reached under the bed, I found evidence that a floor tile had possibly been pried open.
I asked Xia Hou to help me move the bed. Together, we flipped the bed over. Then, I knelt by the tile and lifted it with force, revealing a conspicuous small hole!
"So there's a secret passage here! Judging by its size, it could accommodate a wolfdog!" Xia Hou exclaimed.
"Yes, it seems the wolfdog entered the room through here. The so-called locked-room murder is now debunked!"
"Shall we go down and take a look!"
Xia Hou and I cautiously entered the passage. Since it was a residential building, we descended to the unit on the floor below. However, this unit was empty, appearing to be an unsold, unfinished shell.
The walls were all bare cement, and a makeshift cement staircase connected to the ceiling of this space. Using this staircase, the wolfdog could climb up at any time.
As we descended, we felt quite cramped, as the wolfdog was short and we had to crawl down like animals.
Searching everywhere, we finally found a crucial clue. In the living room of this unfinished unit, I discovered numerous shoe prints of the same size. Moreover, there was an un-flushed puddle of urine in the toilet bowl of the bathroom. I collected it into a test tube. Xia Hou excitedly remarked, "This could very well be left by the perpetrator!"