Five Cases - CH 15

Chapter 15

Near the end of July, the sun was particularly intense. Linhua City in Zhuchuan Province was located in the northern part of China, with a temperate climate and a monsoon season during the summer.

Successive rainstorms and high temperatures were particularly present in Linhua City.

Ji Fanyang and Lu Hui stood beneath the large tree at the head of the village. Ji Fanyang held the coroner’s report in his hands and read the key points out loud to Lu Hui: “The deceased’s time of death was about six days ago, with an error interval of less than one day…”

“One week ago, between the hours of nine and ten at night, the deceased fell into the pond and drowned.” Lu Hui said.

“…How do you know?” Ji Fanyang asked.

“The deceased drank too much, and he definitely came back after playing cards. It was dark, raining, the path slippery, and the deceased delirious.” Lu Hui analyzed, “The deceased’s wife called the local police station seven or eight times. From this, we can infer the time of death.”

Ji Fanyang nodded to indicate his understanding, but as he was about to start reading out loud again, he was stopped by Lu Hui’s raised hand: “Don’t worry about this for now. Go talk to the old lady over there. See who Li Peng had grudges with.”

Ji Fanyang put down the report and walked over to the old lady sitting at the front of the village.

Lu Hui slipped both hands into his pockets, leisurely enjoying the shade under the tree. As he looked at Ji Fanyang’s back, once again seeing Ji Fanyang half squat beside the old lady, his smiling face warm, and when looking at his gentle expression, his tone of voice must have been courteous and amiable as well.

Lu Hui bent over to pick up the coroner’s report.  He had already skimmed it twice, so his making Ji Fanyang read it out loud had just been for instructing Ji Fanyang about case investigation. In terms of teaching capacity, Lu Hui was first-rate, but in terms of etiquette, Lu Hui was bottom-tier out of the whole country.

Sunlight filtered through the tree’s foliage onto Lu Hui, outlining his gaunt figure. He was like a specter; even the scorching heat could not suppress his icy, piercing gaze.

Ji Fanyang turned his head toward Lu Hui and smiled slightly, then stood and said goodbye to the old lady. He walked back over to Lu Hui: “The old woman was on guard against me, but after asking a few questions, she mentioned a child who just took the Gaokao[1], Li Yun.”

Lu Hui tilted his head, waiting for Ji Fanyang to finish speaking. When the thirty-something-year-old man tilted his head like that, it gave him an inexplicable air of young innocence.

Ji Fanyang paused for a moment, then took a breath and continued: “Li Yun’s mother has also slept with Li Peng before.”

“That should be a grievance between Li Peng and his father, then. What connection is there with Li Yun?” Lu Hui said.

“The old woman only said so much.” Ji Fanyang spread his hands, “It seems like Li Yun and Li Weiguo had equal motive.”

Lu Hui shook his head: “Then why did the old man in the ancestral hall only fess up about Li Weiguo, not Li Yun? For these secrets, we must find Li Yun.”

Ji Fanyang straightened up, then said: “A child who’s just completed the Gaokao…might be underage. We need a guardian with them.”

“It’s just a chat, not an interrogation.” Lu Hui said, “First, we’ll look into Li Yun’s family background. Give the Luowan local police a call and have them transfer all their files on Li Yun’s family.”

“Okay.” Ji Fanyang walked off to the side to make the call.

Rao Feifei and Yang Jie came over, with Yang Jie carrying the whiteboard Lu Hui left by the side of the pond.

Lu Hui raised an eyebrow, watching Rao Feifei as she walked over: ‘Finished your questioning?”

“We can almost be certain that it was Li Weiguo.” Rao Feifei said, her expression assured, “Li Weiguo was away for many years due to work, only returning to Li Family Village two weeks ago just in time to catch his wife in bed with the deceased. After he grabbed a shovel and beat away Li Peng, he argued with his wife. Everyone in the neighborhood heard it. The forensics technician said that the footprint lifted from the soil over there was the same shoe size as Li Weiguo.”

“Li Weiguo goes out during the day to drink, comes home at night to beat his wife, only staying together for the kids. Three days ago, Li Weiguo left again for work.” Yang Jie said.

Lu Hui listened and shot a glance at his whiteboard: “Who gave you all permission to write on my whiteboard?”

Rao Feifei and Yang Jie looked at each other in dismay. Rao Feifei nervously asked: “We were analyzing the details of the case…”

“Something this simple to infer needs analysis? Are your heads only there to hold water?” Lu Hui barely restrained his harsher words. His Adam’s apple bobbed once, then he stretched out a hand, “Give it.”

Rao Feifei passed Lu Hui the whiteboard. Lu Hui propped up the whiteboard on the tree and pulled a napkin out of his pocket to clean the whiteboard. In the center, he wrote —【Li Weiguo】, 【Li Yun】.

Underneath 【Li Weiguo】, he wrote 【Wife and deceased sleeping together】, and below 【Li Yun】, he wrote 【Mother and deceased sleeping together】.

Once he finished, Lu Hui patted the whiteboard: “Want to write on here? Form your own team.”

Rao Feifei nodded. Yang Jie’s expression turned serious, and they both said: “Understood.”

From that moment onward, order within the squad was established, and the divider between Lu Hui and the two female officers weakened. Lu Hui respected women, and he tried to restrain his excessive words to the best of his ability, but his patience had its limits. Once women crossed the ‘stranger’ barrier, Lu Hui treated them only the slightest bit softer than he did men, only removing the most bitter of his sarcasm.

Ji Fanyang walked back over once he finished his call. Lu Hui saw that his squad had assembled and started analyzing the information currently available to them: “Does Li Weiguo have an alibi?”

“According to Li Weiguo’s wife, Li Weiguo drinks until ten each night, then returns home.” Yang Jie said, “Furthermore, he basically drinks by himself. He thinks everyone in the village looks down on him, so he doesn’t look for drinking buddies.”

“Where does he go to drink?” Ji Fanyang asked.

“This is really not known. From what work friends of Li Weiguo say, they’ve called Li Weiguo many times, but Li Weiguo never goes out drinking with them.” Rao Feifei said.

Lu Hui pointed at Rao Feifei: “Call Li Weiguo. Have him come in tomorrow to give a statement.”

“Uh…Li Weiguo hasn’t gone with his previous workmates. He went out to find work by himself.” Rao Feifei said.

“I don’t care where he is. Give him a call. If that doesn’t work, go find Dong Shan from the cyber police[2] and have him find his position.” Lu Hui said, “There’s one final question. If it was Li Weiguo, how did he kill Li Peng?”

A moment of silence.

Ji Fanyang, Rao Feifei, and Yang Jie all looked at each other, then collectively shook their heads: “Don’t know.”

Lu Hui wrote 【Slip?】on the whiteboard in large letters. He frowned and wrote on the whiteboard: pond, pathway, the footprint’s position, and the location where the deceased’s bicycle was discovered. He drew a line connecting the footprint’s and bicycle’s position, then raised his head and said: “If the footprint was left by Li Weiguo, what was he doing standing over there?”

“Even with a weapon that’s thirty feet long…” Ji Fanyang made a wild guess, then smiled wryly, “Alright, it’s definitely not that.”

“Could Li Weiguo have waited for Li Peng to ride by on his bike, then gone over and pushed him into the lake, and the rain washed away the impressions?” Yang Jie said.

“There’s no evidence of a struggle.” Lu Hui passed the coroner’s report to Yang Jie, “Look it over carefully. Next?”

“Li Peng offended so many people. The simple means of slipping and falling into water is sufficient to cover up his crimes, but Li Ying insisted on us looking into the case. If it wasn’t out of hatred for his younger brother, then it’s possible that he had reason to believe that Li Peng had an enemy in the village.” Ji Fanyang said, “And this enemy has a handle on the village chief, airing all of Li Peng’s sordid affairs to get rid of him.”

Lu Hui nodded in praise, then added 【Enemy】to the whiteboard. He clapped his hands: “Rao Feifei and Sister Yang, go look for Li Weiguo while Ji Fanyang and I go to Luowan County’s police precinct. We’ll meet back up at the pond for dinner.”

“Understood.” Ji Fanyang, Rao Feifei, and Yang Jie replied.

Footnotes