Ghost Breath - C29
Zhang Nan shook his head, crestfallen, and said: “I mean, after she started to tell you the story of the Demon Man, did I still not tell you about her husband, do you really understand? And the head of the homicide squad, what’s in your head? ”
“Nonsense, who can understand your elementary school student’s ability to express himself!” Wang Zili said stubbornly, and then slowly recalled. After a moment of silence, he said, “No, not a word. I remember it very clearly. But what does this mean? Why are you mentioning her husband?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Fuck, will laozi’s memory be that bad?”
“Well, it’s the same thing she told me. Ever since that man appeared in her story, she stopped mentioning her husband.”
“Quick, give me a conclusion!” Wang Zili urged.
“I feel like when she met that man, her husband disappeared.”
“Disappeared? Do you mean that her husband didn’t disappear more than two weeks ago? But don’t you think that’s not convincing enough? ”
“Indeed, that’s why I’m only speculating now. Let’s talk about it after meeting Old Gu tomorrow.”
Wang Zili nodded, and the two of them slowly walked down the bridge.
In the afternoon of the next day, Wang Zili brought Zhang Nan to the police station. Old Gu was already waiting in his office.
Old Gu was very curious when he heard that Wang Zili, whose reputation had resounded throughout the police force, had a mysterious friend backing him. Therefore, the moment Zhang Nan entered the door, he sized him up from head to toe.
Zhang Nan was still dressed in his signature suit and sunglasses. After taking a glance at Old Gu, he sat down with Wang Zili.
“Old Gu, show him that.” Wang Zili instructed.
Then, Old Gu brought over a laptop and turned the screen towards Zhang Nan. He thought to himself, So I could see things, I thought he was blind.
“What are you looking at?” Zhang Nan asked.
“The previous few times when that woman came to report the case, I had Old Gu copy a video. Quickly go in and see if there’s anything out of the ordinary.”
“Alright.” Zhang Nanxin thought: Energetic or capable, I thought very carefully.
Zhang Nan went closer to the computer and used the played software to quickly browse the video. Old Gu added:
“That woman, I think she came to our police station about seven or eight times. Every time she came because her husband beat her up, she called the police. But there were times when it was really serious. Her husband beat her black and blue, as if she had been in the hospital. ”
“Domestic violence, right? “And the reason?” Wang Zili asked.
“There are all kinds of things, but most of them are because her husband suspects that she’s looking for a man. The most outrageous thing is that her alarm clock was switched on early and her husband fell asleep, so she was hit.”
“What shift does she work for?”
“He’s from a cosmetics company, but he seems to have resigned.”
“Is this her husband?” As Wang Zili and Old Gu were talking, Zhang Nan suddenly asked as he pointed to the computer screen.
In the video, a man appeared in the surveillance camera, pulling and tugging at Chai Hong. He even slapped Chai Hong, but was finally persuaded away by a few policemen.
“Yes, that was also the case the other day. The woman came to call the police first, and then the man chased her to the police station. The two of them were actually making a ruckus in our police station.”
Zhang Nan listened to Old Gu’s explanation as he watched the video carefully again. Soon after, he nodded his head as if he had found some clues.
“Well, what’s the problem?” Wang Zili asked.
“Her husband is tall and strong, and he has a good figure.” Zhang Nan said casually.
“You motherf * cking gay, going back just to look at her husband’s figure?” Wang Zili retorted.
“No, I mean that woman’s body is too thin compared to her husband’s.”
“Oh, it’s like this …” Wang Zili nodded, after thinking for a while, he quickly shouted again: “Wait! I still don’t get what you’re talking about. What’s this got to do with the case? ”
“Old Gu, this should be the latest video, right?” Zhang Nan ignored Wang Zili and asked Old Gu.
“Yes!”
“Where does the woman live?” Zhang Nan continued to ask.
“Putuo District, near the inner ring. Wait, I have her address.” With that, Old Gu opened his notebook, took out a note, and wrote down the address for Zhang Nan.
Zhang Nan put the note back in his pocket and said to Wang Zili: “That’s enough, let’s go.”
“Where to?” Wang Zili followed behind Zhang Nan and asked.
Zhang Nan did not answer. When they were out of the police station, he said to Wang Zili: “I’m hungry, let’s go eat first.”
Thus, the two randomly found a fast food restaurant, ordered a good meal, and chose a corner where there were few people to sit down.
“Kid, you like pretending with me. You must have found out about it right?” The moment he sat down, Wang Zili pointed at Zhang Nan and said with a smile.
“It’s still some speculation. There’s no actual evidence. Do you want to hear it?”
“Nonsense, quickly tell us.” Wang Zili did not even eat his food, and directly looked at Zhang Nan.
“First of all, I’d like to define that woman. She’s very smart and she does things very carefully, but right now, her mental condition isn’t very normal. Do you agree?”
“Yes, indeed.” Wang Zili nodded.
“As for how abnormal it is, I feel that she has some illusions.”
“Fantasy?”
“I don’t believe her story about that devil man. What about you?”
“Hey, big brother, you are psychic and I am a police officer. Normally, you would believe this kind of story even more than I do, but why are you acting like an atheist now?”
“I’m just talking about the matter. Of course, I have a little logical reasoning in there as well.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Sometimes, if there is a loophole in the whole thing, one should question its authenticity. Do you remember that I told you yesterday that her husband seemed to have disappeared after that devil man appeared out of that woman’s story? ”
“I remember, but your so-called disappearance was in that woman’s story. Actually, it doesn’t mean anything, it could be that the woman felt there was no need to mention her husband, or that she hated him to the bone and didn’t want to mention him anymore.”
“Well said, hate to the bones.” Zhang Nan nodded his head, and habitually rapped the table with his fingers, “Do you know, almost all of the problems are caused by this deep hatred?”
“You have a damn bad habit of not wanting to finish the whole thing in one go.” Wang Zili was very anxious.
“Let me ask you, when that woman told you her story, did she complain about her husband, and tell you how he treated her so viciously?”
Wang Zili thought for a moment, then replied, “I don’t have any impression of him. I only remember her saying that their relationship was not good. ”
Same here.” Zhang Nan drank a mouthful of water to moisten his throat, “That woman only said that her husband was not very good to her, and she lacked happiness. However, he lightly mentioned the matter of her husband beating her up, and even said that marrying a chicken will always follow a chicken, and dogs will always follow a dog.
“What’s the problem?”
“Don’t you find it strange? “A woman who was repeatedly abused by her husband to go to the police station and call the police, in the end, when she told us about it, she didn’t complain much about her husband and was instead worried about his disappearance, is that not unreasonable?”
“Mm …” Wang Zili finally understood the meaning behind his words.
“Just like you said, she hates her husband to the bone and has cheated on him. But from her words, I don’t feel much hatred towards her husband.”
“Neither did I.”
“Thus, I feel that her words are false. She is lying. As for which words are true and which ones are false, we need to further consider them.”
“Psychologically speaking, lying is a mechanism of self-preservation. “As for criminals, there are three main reasons for lying: disguise, concealment, and disguise.” Wang Zili said.
“I just said, I don’t believe her story about that devil man, especially when that devil man appeared. Her husband seemed to have disappeared, and I have a wild guess about that.”
“What?”
“Her husband might very well be that devil.”
“Ah?” How could this be? ” Wang Zili frowned, he was in disbelief.
“Think about it, after that devil man appeared, her husband had disappeared. At this time, her mental state has already reached a critical point and illusions started appearing. Starting from the good impression she had of her husband when she first met him, his image in her heart slowly became worse and worse, more and more terrifying, until he became a demon. The whole story is about her husband’s transformation in her heart. ”
Wang Zili nodded his head lightly, and said: “Then why does she have to spend so much effort to make up such a story, and tell us directly how evil her husband is to her, is it not simpler for him?”
“I don’t think she made it up on purpose, but she thinks so herself. I told you before, there was something wrong with the woman’s mental condition. She must have suffered too much stimulation, which caused her to drift from fantasy to reality for a long time. That’s why she thought of her husband as a demon. ”
“Makes sense. Then according to what you’re saying, her husband disappeared a long time ago?”
“I think so, and it should have been in the story she told, when the demon man appeared.”
“In other words, three months ago?” Wang Zili blinked his eyes hard.
“Right, I also paid special attention to the last recorded surveillance video. It’s been about four months since today. They didn’t come to the police station for more than three months until she reported her husband missing. ”
“Then why did she wait so long to report it?”
“I don’t know. I guess it had something to do with what she was trying to hide. And I’ll tell you the details. I don’t know if you noticed. It was she who mentioned that after her second magical pregnancy, she would go to the gym every night to relieve her stress and try to miscarry. However, if her husband was still around, with his temper, would he allow her to go out every night? Don’t forget, the main reason why her husband mistreated her was because he was worried that she would be fooling around with other men. ”
“Mm …” Old Gu also told me last time that her husband often locked her in her house to prevent her from going out. There did seem to be a problem. “But how do you know it’s true? What if she made it up?”
“One reason is intuition. She was very specific when she told me about the gym, and she didn’t feel a bit out of place when she described the demon man. For another reason, I noticed that her calf muscles were more developed, and it looked like she had been exercising at the gym. ”
“Oh …” Wang Zili nodded his head, secretly impressed by Zhang Nanxin.
“I’m not sure I can tell if she’s pregnant or not, do you think?”
“That’s right. If the story of the demonic man is fake, then her pregnancy is no longer valid. Otherwise, whose baby would she be carrying?”
“In theory, yes, but… I just don’t think it’s that simple. ”
“That’s easy to do. She said that she’s at a hospital near her home that tests the flow of people and pregnancy. I’m familiar with the hospital’s president, so I made a phone call and asked him to help me check it out.” Wang Zili then quickly made a call, and explained everything over quickly. The Principal was also willing to cooperate, and immediately called him back when he found out.
“So the only question left is, where is her husband? I think we need to go to her house. When do you think it’s appropriate? ”
“Now, what are we waiting for?” With that, Wang Zili stood up.
“You don’t need to prepare?”
“What the heck are you preparing? Let’s go! Hurry up!”
Zhang Nan had to follow along.
Actually, Zhang Nan understood Wang Zili quite well, and knew that this was his usual style. In terms of shrewdness, there were plenty of people in the police force who were smarter than Wang Zili, but Wang Zili was able to climb to this position because of his swift and fierce handling of cases and his passionate working attitude.
After exiting the subway, the two of them were close to Chai Hong’s home. Zhang Nan then took out the note Old Gu had left for him to confirm once more, before reciting the name of the area where Chai Hong lived: “Honolulu Garden.”
“I know that place. I’ve been there before. Just follow me.” Wang Zili said.
Not long after, the two of them turned into a small road from the noisy road. The road was filled with traffic and there were very few pedestrians.
“Nan, you said that we analyzed the whole thing thoroughly, and the result is only speculation. Is that true?” Wang Zili suddenly asked.
“I know, you want some dry goods, or you won’t feel well. But gathering evidence is what you cops do. ”
“I’m not insisting on having the evidence, but I still feel that there’s something wrong with it. Don’t you think so?”
Zhang Nan laughed and said, “I have something to tell you. It should be able to get rid of that lump. ”
Wang Zili suddenly stopped in his tracks, and scolded loudly. “Your mother, there’s actually something you’re hiding from me, quickly tell me!”
“I found an inconclusive piece of evidence in that woman.”
“Evidence that is not evidence?” What the hell is that? ”
“It means evidence to me, not to you cops, because legal persuasion isn’t enough.”
“Cut the crap!”
“Did you notice …” Zhang Nan leaned in and said, “That woman is wearing a wedding ring.”
Wang Zili was startled, he was silent for a long time, then erupted again: “Are you speaking human language ah?, I don’t fucking understand you! They’re married, isn’t it normal to wear a wedding ring? Besides, it’s got nothing to do with whether you wear a ring or not! ”
“Your observation was not accurate.” Zhang Nan said straightforwardly, “When that woman came to find us, she was wearing a wedding ring. But the problem is, in the surveillance footage Old Gu showed us, that woman didn’t wear a ring at all, which means she doesn’t have the habit of wearing one at all.
Wang Zili was silent again, but then he suddenly realised: “I understand, I understand, she wants to create an illusion for us and tell us that her relationship with her husband is not bad, not that bad.”
“Yes, and I noticed that when she talked to me, she often used her hand to get the ring, which meant that she had just put it on and was not used to it. She was smart enough to think that she could use such a small trick to confuse our vision, but she didn’t expect us to watch the surveillance footage and find out what was going on, which would show that she was guilty. ”
“Yes, yes, yes. This woman really has a heart full of schemes. Her husband most likely died in her hands.”
“I think so too. Do you remember when I reread the last part of the surveillance camera, I said she was too thin compared to her husband. ”
“Yeah, what does that mean?”
“I was wondering what she was going to do with her husband’s body. Because with her figure, dealing with a body that is so much heavier than hers is very difficult, and adding to that the fact that she lives downtown is even more difficult. ”
“Maybe she took care of her husband outside?”
“I know you would say that, but in fact, living in a big city like this, it’s not really practical to try to do anything outside of the city, and they already have a rule of life, so the chances of it happening are very small. “No, no, no, if I were her, I would definitely choose to make my move at home. There really is no place more convenient than home, and there are even more opportunities. With her shrewdness, it’s impossible for her to not think of this.”
“Mm …” “It looks like we’ll have to be careful when we confront her later.”
“Indeed, observation first.”
While they were conversing, the two of them had already walked into the sandalwood garden area and quickly found the building that Chai Hong lived in.
Before going up the stairs, Wang Zili suddenly smiled and said to Zhang Nan: “I was thinking that when I asked you to help me solve this case, it was because there was something special about it. In the end, it turned out to be a man-made incident, and you actually gave me a proper analysis as well.
Regarding Wang Zili’s teasing, Zhang Nan did not even look at him, and only replied indifferently: Let’s not talk too early, how do you know there’s nothing strange about this matter?