After finishing the detailed case files, Ping An had a general picture of the situation that night in his mind, and also discovered a fatal flaw. That was, before Li Le left, he clearly stated that he closed the door, but why could Qiao Er still enter with "the door not closed"?
In the case files, the police also investigated this detail and finally concluded that one of them must have lied. However, because all the hotel surveillance that night was undergoing maintenance and upgrades, there was no way to prove who lied.
Secondly, after Wang Bao was murdered, the police investigation found that during the time of Wang Bao's murder, Hua Yu and Qiao Er claimed to be sleeping in their rooms, Li Le said he was on his way home, and Miller said it was too late and he slept in his car.
No one could prove their whereabouts at that time.
Although there was no surveillance in the hotel, if nothing unexpected happened, the killer should be among these four people. Ping An carefully reviewed the information of the four people and took out a piece of white paper, then started drawing a timeline.
Wang Bao's time of death was around 11 p.m. before midnight. If none of these four people were the murderer, then the time they saw Wang Bao should all be before 11 p.m.; this was a fixed premise.
According to the police inquiry of these four people, the only one who could state the exact time of entering Wang Bao's room was Qiao Er, because Qiao Er glanced at the time on his phone when he received the call to deliver medicine, which was 11:20 p.m. Wang Bao happened to see Miller when he left the room, and Miller also confirmed this encounter. Therefore, Qiao Er's suspicion was the smallest, or could be set aside for now.
If that were the case, wouldn't the suspicion on Hua Yu and Li Le, who arrived earlier, also be the smallest?
Ping An was not sure about this, because although these two left one after another, they did not see each other. What if they entered more than once?
In fact, before the police questioned these four people, they did not know who entered Wang Bao's room first. This ranking was determined by the German police based on the confessions of these four people. For example, according to the hotel lobby staff, Li Le arrived at the hotel just after 10 p.m., but his departure time was unknown. However, Hua Yu did not have an exact time for entering Wang Bao's room. When determining the timelines of these two, the police judged the process of these two helping Wang Bao to undress and concluded that Hua Yu arrived before Li Le. As for Qiao Er and Miller later, although they had exact times, even though Miller's arrival and departure times at the hotel could not be determined, it could be determined that Qiao Er arrived before Miller.
Therefore, after 10 p.m., Hua Yu, Li Le, Qiao Er, and Miller entered Wang Bao's room in this order.
After studying the suspects, Ping An began to examine the police's investigation direction.
First, the forensic doctor inferred that based on a person's nerves and alertness, a person in a normal reaction would not allow someone to stab them in the thigh, unless—intimate activities were taking place, and Miller...
Secondly, according to the confessions, either Qiao Er or Li Le was lying. Did Li Le deliberately not close the door? Or did Qiao Er deliberately say the door was open? Or, was there a fifth person between Li Le and Qiao Er?
Finally, this translator, Hua Yu, met Wang Bao for the first time. He was from China, had no benefit disputes, and was the first to come to Wang Bao's room. He didn't look like a murderer at all.
After studying this topic, Ping An continued to study the case files. Which one should he study next? Oh, it was the police's on-site inspection report.
The deceased Wang Bao's personal belongings in the room after death were all there, and no cash or valuables on his person were lost, so robbery-murder could be ruled out.
During the inspection of the room, the police found half-smoked cigar in the ashtray on the bedside table and a stack of documents on the sofa. The top document was delivered by Hua Yu and also had Hua Yu's fingerprints on it. Basically, everything was there, except in the bathroom, two large bath towels were missing. However, according to the hotel staff, when Wang Bao was discovered, the bathroom was full of blood and bloody water. To avoid damaging the scene, they used towels to cover the floor, and it seemed these towels were discarded afterward.
Oh, some police officers tried to make a fuss about these towels, arguing that bath towels could be tied into ropes. But because Wang Bao lived on such a high floor, it was basically impossible for outsiders to enter or escape in this way, so this theory was overturned.
At midnight, Ping An finally finished reading all the case files. He looked up at Su Tang and found that the girl had already fallen asleep. Zhang Xiaoao, however, was not asleep and was constantly playing with his phone.
"Alright, it's time to go back." After hugging Adam, who was yawning, Ping An was about to leave.
"Old friend, I'm no longer in charge of cases now. If you need me, I'll come out of retirement," Adam said.
"No, no, old buddy, you've helped me a lot. This case isn't as complicated as it seems," Ping An said. "If I have time, I'll come find you again."
Outside Adam's house, Ping An hailed a taxi and returned to the hotel.
In the hotel room, Gao Xiaofei and Mei Qian were still fast asleep. Ping An couldn't stand it, so he squeezed in with Zhang Xiaoao for the night.
"Master, do you already know who the killer is?" Zhang Xiaoao, still somewhat excited about the robbery case, asked in the room.
"More or less!" Ping An said. "We'll need to do some further questioning tomorrow."
"Oh, Master, I have some questions I'd like to ask you about that robbery case you experienced," Zhang Xiaoao said, seeming reluctant for Ping An to fall asleep.
"Ask away," Ping An said.
"If it were someone else in the restaurant that day, not you, would the robbers have succeeded?" Zhang Xiaoao asked.
"No!" Ping An replied simply.
"Why?" Zhang Xiaoao asked.
"You've always disliked dealing with cases, why are you so interested today?" Ping An asked.
"Because I discovered that the so-called robbery case in the restaurant never happened," Zhang Xiaoao said. "It's your fault. You told it so well that I thought it was real. But when I checked online, I found out there was no such case at all!"
"Then consider it as me telling you a story, wouldn't that be fine?" Ping An said, closing his eyes.
"It's fine, but I just want to know why you don't think the robbers would have succeeded?" Zhang Xiaoao continued to ask.
This child seemed a bit stubborn today.
"Because a real police officer wouldn't be careless enough to not distinguish between three or four robbers entering the restaurant!" Ping An said.
"Is it just because of that?" Zhang Xiaoao asked.
"Unless, there were only three robbers from the start," Ping An said, sounding very sleepy but still patiently. "Loopholes always exist from the beginning. Otherwise, how would the police solve cases! Alright, you've asked enough questions today. Go to sleep!"
"Okay, goodnight Master!" Zhang Xiaoao finally fell silent.
The next day, Ping An, with his disciples, visited the Hamburg police station with Gao Xiaofei and Mei Qian. As expected, the police station only provided personal information for Hua Yu, Li Le, Qiao Er, and Miller, and no other useful information was given.
"So much time has passed, the suspects have been released, gone home, or returned to work. How can we investigate?" Gao Xiaofei was speechless.
"Using the police's methods won't work, and we don't have law enforcement power in Germany," Mei Qian looked at Ping An and said, "This time it's up to you."
"Me? Well, I do have a few questions I'd like to ask those four people. After asking them, we can go home," Ping An said. "I can tell you both responsibly now that Wang Bao's death is related to the commercial matter that Cui Sanye commissioned me to investigate this time."
"Then go and ask!" Mei Qian said. "Li Le, Qiao Er, and Hua Yu are all our people. Hao Wen, and that Miller is a foreigner. We can communicate with the police again."
Gao Xiaofei and Mei Qian had other business to attend to. Ping An and the others returned to the hotel first, preparing to meet those four people.
Because he still held the identity of an auditor, Ping An easily met Li Le, the head of the European company.
"Alright, there are some things I didn't tell the police. I know who you are, and I know that old man got angry and sent you, the great detective, over," Li Le said, appearing very agitated upon seeing Ping An.
"Your suspicion is the greatest, because before Mr. Wang Bao died, he called President Cui and said he had discovered something fishy." Ping An and Li Le were talking in a cafe in a restaurant.
"Of course it is!" Li Le said, somewhat agitated upon hearing this. "Because the so-called fishy business was what I discovered!"
"You discovered it?" Ping An asked.
"Yes, I did discover it," Li Le said. "When I took over this job, I was full of confidence. I originally wanted to make a lot of money for the boss, but I didn't expect to lose money. The company sent an audit team, which was actually requested by me because I also couldn't understand why we lost money."
"Then why didn't you tell the first group of people after you discovered the fishy business?" Ping An asked.
"Because I hadn't discovered it yet. It was after Mr. Wang Bao arrived and I followed his suggestions that I started to take targeted action to investigate. As a result, I really found a problem. And I went to see Mr. Wang Bao that night precisely because I had just discovered the problem and was very anxious," Li Le replied.
"Can you tell me what the problem was?" Ping An asked.
"This—" Li Le looked at Ping An and remained silent for a long time.
"Alright, the company is the company, and the case is the case. If you can explain it clearly to the audit leader you're working with this time, then that's fine," Ping An said. "I just don't understand why you didn't tell the police the truth?"
"Because I don't trust the people here, not a single one!" Li Le said. "With tens of billions of business at stake, if someone found out that I discovered the fishy business and the problems, then I would be the next to die."
"Hmm, I understand your situation," Ping An said, looking at Li Le. "Now, please answer two questions for me. First, when you saw Wang Bao, was he smoking? Second, when you left the room, did you definitely close the door?"