"I dare not! What's going on!"
"I, my, my, I'm looking for Captain Mei from the city bureau."
"I'm not excited, I'm anxious, I'm angry! Why are you taking my daughter away?"
....
In the courtyard of the Fan County Public Security Bureau, Wang Sanfa shouted loudly, while the police officer in charge of him tried his best to control him.
Inside the building, in the director's office.
"Captain Mei, last night I followed your instructions and did a comparison overnight. In the toolbox of the model you provided, there is indeed a small T-shaped socket wrench. After the forensic doctor compared it, oh, you already have the results. The long wound on the deceased's head was indeed caused by that wrench." Director Niu glanced at Wang Sanfa, who was shouting below, closed a window, and said to Mei Qian, who was sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed, "The case file from the city bureau also matches. The suspect Wang Jiao has never had a mental illness. However, what does this prove? Why are you so sure she killed someone?"
"I didn't suspect her at first, she exposed herself," Mei Qian said. "There are three things about this case that I couldn't figure out: First, why was the deceased there? Second, what was the murder weapon? Third, how did the killer escape."
Originally, after the crime, Mei Qian had been thinking about a very important question: regardless of whether the killer was the person Hei Dou was tracking or someone else, how did they escape after the murder?
After moving into the care home, Mei Qian carefully observed the four-story building and found that it was built in the 1970s or 1980s. Buildings were rare at that time, and buildings from that era had a standard feature: a garbage chute in the hallway. Many people who grew up in urban buildings in the 80s must remember that they didn't need to go downstairs to throw out the trash. There was a garbage chute in the building. If you opened the tin lid and threw the trash in, it would fall to the garbage pile downstairs. Of course, modern buildings no longer have this feature, but the care home building happened to have this garbage chute.
"I asked the doorman, and this building was renovated ten years ago. The garbage chute was sealed at that time. The chute covers inside the building are located under the radiators at both ends of the corridor. Because the chute covers inside and outside the building were painted, most people wouldn't find them," Mei Qian said. "Director Niu can arrange for the brothers to measure it later. Of course, I measured it at the time. The chute opening inside the building is square, about 1 meter long. The chute opening outside the building is slightly larger, also square, about 120 to 140 centimeters long. The area inside the chute is about 1.5 square meters. Oh, by the way, there's a very thick rope near Chen Fei's room's chute opening, probably used for going up and down."
"No wonder we never knew how the deceased got in, or how the killer left. The mystery was this garbage chute!" Director Niu immediately understood and immediately called for people to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the care home building.
"After knowing about the garbage chute, my thoughts slowly opened up. Since I couldn't determine if the person Hei Dou was tracking was the killer, I started by looking for the murder weapon," Mei Qian said. "But there was nothing at the crime scene that could be used as a murder weapon—because the deceased's wound was too unusual. I also thought, since the killer could escape, maybe they took the murder weapon with them?"
If the killer took the murder weapon, it would be adding insult to injury and making it impossible to solve the case. Mei Qian was indeed stuck at the time. When he went to the crime scene alone to find inspiration, he accidentally saw A Jiao.
"It's early in the morning. Even the most unreliable auxiliary police officers wouldn't fall asleep, especially in a place where someone had died," Mei Qian said. "When I saw A Jiao was also at the scene, I rashly assumed that A Jiao had sneaked in while the auxiliary police were dozing off. But later, when I repeatedly questioned that auxiliary police officer, he said he hadn't stayed up all night and would never doze off in such a place, unless... he had taken sleeping pills..."
That auxiliary police officer ate breakfast at the care home, and in a place like a care home, sleeping pills were essential. If half a pill was slipped into his bowl without him noticing, he would probably fall asleep in no time.
"When I saw A Jiao, I mistakenly thought that she, as a girl, had secretly returned to her room to get something. It's understandable, a girl, right?" Mei Qian said. "However, she left empty-handed. She was wearing patient clothes, which had no pockets, so she couldn't have taken anything. After seeing her leave, I entered her room without authorization—to be honest, I still didn't suspect her at the time. In her room, I saw that toolbox and a penmanship practice book."
Afterward, Mei Qian found traces of ink smudges in Chen Fei's room and immediately thought of the penmanship practice book in A Jiao's room. He wanted to re-examine the ink, but found that he had accidentally locked the door for them.
"I couldn't be sure if A Jiao's ink was the same as the deceased's, but through the ink, I thought of the toolbox again. I always felt that some tool could have caused the wound on the deceased's head." Mei Qian said, in order not to alert her, he did not force open A Jiao's room, but asked Director Niu to deliberately damage the car tire so he could openly enter A Jiao's room.
Later, Mei Qian learned that A Jiao's room only had the penmanship practice book but no ink, and the toolbox was missing only the small T-shaped socket wrench; finally, Da Zhang brought the crucial information about A Jiao's connection with Tie Dan. With this comparison, A Jiao's suspicion grew stronger.
"I understand. So you asked me to do the comparison overnight, but why did you also ask me to request the case files from the city?" Director Niu asked.
"Because I wanted to know if A Jiao was actually a mental patient," Mei Qian said. "The first time I saw A Jiao, she was dirty all over, with black on her hands. I thought she was a patient and didn't pay much attention. Later, I realized that she was the last patient to appear, and might have just crawled out of the garbage chute. The black on her hands was not dirt, but ink that had been covered up. When I later checked the garbage chute, I indeed found ink stains at the chute opening outside the building. I guess she had poured the ink into the garbage chute. The bottle and the murder weapon should be in the chute."
Speaking of this, Mei Qian took out an evidence bag from his backpack. Inside the bag was an ink bottle.
"I went to search again early this morning and found the ink bottle," Mei Qian said. "The garbage chute A Jiao came out of led to the courtyard. That's where Wang Sanfa saw A Jiao and called her over."
Everything seemed to fit, but Mei Qian still couldn't figure out two things. First, where was the murder weapon? Second, what was A Jiao doing when she secretly returned to her room?
"Could it be that after the crime, A Jiao was so focused on cleaning up the ink that she forgot to take the murder weapon out? You know, if we investigate further, we'll definitely compare the murder weapon, and then the toolbox in her room will be exposed," Director Niu said. "Of course, it's also possible that she was in a hurry and had to either take the entire toolbox or dispose of the murder weapon properly. If she only took the murder weapon, it would be like trying to hide something that is obviously there. But the toolbox was too heavy, and she couldn't escape with it, so she had to put the murder weapon in the box first, to delay the exposure for a while."
"Yes, when I suddenly appeared, I startled A Jiao, who was about to deal with the toolbox. After weighing her options, she could only take the murder weapon," Mei Qian said. "But how did she take it out?"
Mei Qian found through an online comparison that this type of T-shaped socket wrench consisted of two pipe fittings. One was long, about fifteen centimeters, and the short one was about ten centimeters. When assembled, the short one was inserted into the hollow in the middle of the long one for use. How could A Jiao take out such a moderately sized tool?
"Could she have just thrown it out the window?"
"No, both sides of the building are cemented, and the cleaning staff sweeps it so clean that there isn't even a leaf."
Where could she have put it?
As the evidence chain of the case was about to be closed, they didn't know how the murder weapon was taken away.
Just as Mei Qian and Director Niu were deep in thought, a comrade responsible for investigating the care home called. He said that a socket wrench had been found under A Jiao's new bed in her new dormitory, and it would be brought back immediately for comparison. As for other matters, they were as Mei Qian had said. They found a lot of ink stains in the garbage chute of the care home, and also found a pair of sneakers in another chute.
"That was probably dropped by the person Hei Dou was chasing," Mei Qian said after hearing the report. "Now, we should go and question A Jiao."
In the interrogation room, Mei Qian saw A Jiao without a mask for the first time.
He was shocked.
A Jiao had long scars on both sides of her mouth, like a smiling clown.
"She didn't say much after coming in. We asked about the basic situation, and she only said 'yes' a few times," the interrogating officer reported.
"Let me do it," Mei Qian said, looking at Director Niu. Seeing him nod, he sat down at the interrogation table.
"Wang Jiao? How did you get the scars on your mouth?" Mei Qian asked gently, as if it were yesterday.
The other party remained silent.
"You don't want to say, alright, then let me ask you, did you kill Tie Dan?" Mei Qian asked.
The other party still didn't speak, but nodded.
"How did you kill him? Why did you kill him? Tell me in detail," Mei Qian said, lowering his head to look at Wang Jiao's file.
Just then, Wang Jiao, who was sitting in the interrogation chair, suddenly smiled eerily, then opened her mouth.
As Mei Qian looked up, he swore he had never seen such a bizarre scene. Wang Jiao's mouth opened wider and wider, stretching her scars, and she seemed like a giant-mouthed monster.
"Oh my god!" a police officer present cried out in fear.
"Clang!" A fruit knife, opened, fell from her mouth without any warning.
What a horrifying scene this was!
"Not good!" Seeing the fruit knife fall into Wang Jiao's hand, Mei Qian, who reacted belatedly, rushed out.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Although Wang Jiao's hands were cuffed, as soon as she grabbed the knife, her head slammed down. The not-so-sharp knife was immediately inserted into her mouth. Because her mouth was open so wide, she even swallowed her hand holding the knife.
A stream of blood flowed from Wang Jiao's mouth.