National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 643 - 587: Send Him to His Death

Chapter 643: Chapter 587: Send Him to His Death

Regarding the death of Jiao Lina, the Zhang Family were all tight-lipped.

However, after a detailed analysis of the case, the members of the Cold Case Squad realized that the only ones qualified to keep mum were Zhang Enfan’s maternal aunt, Zhang Xiulan, and her family. This included Zhang Xiulan and her husband, their son and daughter, and their little nephew Zhang Haobin.

The rest of the family didn’t know the details. All the information came from Zhang Xiulan and her people.

On the day of Jiao Lina’s death, only Zhang Haobin was by her side.

Zhang Haobin had called Zhang Xiulan—she was the one who raised him, as Zhang Haobin’s parents had been working out of town for years. They only returned after Zhang Enfan’s "career was successful".

Zhang Xiulan did not make a big fuss to notify others, instead, she just called her own husband, son, and daughter. She didn’t even call the son’s wife or the daughter’s boyfriend. Just by themselves, they dragged Jiao Lina back to the small restaurant, which was also the temporary gambling house.

The reason for not dragging her back to the village but instead to the small restaurant was very sufficient.

Firstly, they were closer to the small restaurant at the time. It was also more remote and easier to control. For the Zhang family, they could go directly into the backyard, invisible to anyone.

Secondly, Jiao Lina had tens of thousands of cash on her, which even for a small gambling house was not a small sum. For a gambler blinded by losing, that amount could lead to a fight to the death.

Even among the members of the Zhang family, there were many who were no-gooders. Even those who helped with the gambling business, earning only twenty to thirty thousand a month, could become envious at the sight of tens of thousands in cash. Most importantly, what if there were mistakes in the accounting and it caused trouble for fellow family member Zhang Haobin or Zhang Xiulan?

Therefore, the first thing Zhang Xiulan did after bringing Jiao Lina back to the gambling house was to recheck the accounts and lock the money back into the safe.

This step, from the perspective of the Zhang family, was not only blameless but could even be seen as a timely response.

However, due to this, the original crime scene where Jiao Lina died was effectively lost. After the heavy rain washed it away, no traces were left—of course, the crime scene was also directed by Zhang Haobin, so if we talk about his suspicion, the scene itself becomes unreliable.

Likewise, the first 24 hours after Jiao Lina’s death were wasted.

The small gambling house did not have any professional financial system. There was only one accountant, a relative of a relative who had been deceived from outside. He received a high salary every month to do a job akin to one that an idiot would do.

With this cashier dead, tens of thousands of yuan in the accounts had to be rechecked, along with the new incoming and outgoing accounts. There was so much to add up that the accountant had to work overtime all night.

The body, of course, was something this relative wouldn’t have the right to see. In the beginning, he didn’t even know what had happened; he was merely told to check the accounts.

It wasn’t until after the accounts had been checked that Zhang Xiulan informed the family about the situation, and under her suggestion, they decided to manage the body first and then notify Zhang Enfan.

Because Zhang Enfan was out discussing business, and since Jiao Lina, as one of his girlfriends, was already dead, a delay of a dozen hours more or less didn’t seem that important.

Even managing the body couldn’t be made public. They had to do it covertly. Before Zhang Xiulan had discussed it with the family members, her daughter had already helped to bathe Jiao Lina, change her clothes, roll her into a body bag, and hide her in a corner of the courtyard.

By then, over 30 hours had passed since Jiao Lina’s death, and rigor mortis had already ended.

In fact, after the rain in the sweltering weather, not only did rigor mortis end before 24 hours, but the decay process was also faster than usual.

Wrapped in the body bag, and without being placed in a cold storage, the decay would only accelerate.

By the time Zhang Enfan received the message and returned to Litang Township, over 48 hours had passed since Jiao Lina’s death. The decomposition was so advanced that it was difficult to approach, and they had to use a lot of chemicals to mask the smell.

To avoid alarming the police, Zhang Enfan and his people could only bury Jiao Lina’s body hastily at the edge of the Zhang family ancestral grave.

Not until Jiang Yuan re-examined the body did Zhang Enfan begin to give this matter serious thought.

The explanation provided by his aunt’s family was just an unfortunate accident.

Zhang Enfan was somewhat heartbroken but not completely unable to accept what had happened. He even had to thank his aunt’s family for their help. Not every relative would help deal with a body for you.

It was not until Meng Chengbiao’s interrogation that it presented to Zhang Enfan an utterly unacceptable truth.

One of his girlfriends, who had been a public lover of his, might have been killed by his nephew Zhang Haobin through sexual assault, and when Zhang Enfan became aware of this, he was still struggling to remain silent during the interrogation for the benefit of the Zhang family.

Zhang Enfan wanted Zhang Haobin dead.

On this point, his interests aligned with those of the police.

Meng Chengbiao had noticed this and decisively used it to his advantage.

Originally, Zhang Enfan was only willing to reveal clues related to Zhang Haobin.

But soon, the emergence of multiple pieces of evidence prompted Zhang Enfan to start providing various clues about the family of Aunt Zhang Xiulan, the main person in charge of one of the three gambling houses.

As the charges against her mounted, and it became evident that they were coming from Zhang Enfan, Zhang Xiulan had no choice but to start fighting back.

Unfortunately for her, Meng Chengbiao did not take her counterattacks back to Zhang Enfan.

Utilizing the prisoner’s dilemma to have the prisoners snitch on each other, allowing the interrogators to benefit from both ends, is one of the most fundamental strategies in interrogation methods, perhaps even more commonly applied than the "good cop, bad cop" technique.

This time, however, Meng Chengbiao made a point of taking notes, creating a one-way transparent scenario on purpose.

He did this to prevent Zhang Xiulan from using the release of information to communicate with Zhang Enfan.

After all, Zhang Xiulan knew many things about Zhang Enfan. If she spoke recklessly, Zhang Enfan would suffer greatly.

Therefore, the answers given by Zhang Xiulan could very likely be warning in nature or contain some sort of coded information that only they would understand.

Regardless of whether Zhang Xiulan’s skill level could reach such a stage, Meng Chengbiao instinctively discarded the prisoner’s dilemma approach, adopting a precautionary mindset.

After all, the more information Zhang Xiulan and Zhang Enfan provided, the heavier it weighed. So why needlessly employ the prisoner’s dilemma to instill fear?

In the interrogation room, the interrogating officers already have the upper hand.

Meng Chengbiao also has an LV1.8 interrogation skill. Once Zhang Enfan’s silence broke, the entire Zhang Family was no match for him.

Meng Chengbiao’s professional abilities were quite remarkable. Across Qinghe City Bureau, few interrogation talents could match Meng Chengbiao’s level.

Of course, Meng Chengbiao originally belonged to the larger pond of Changyang City, but he was also a backbone member of Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment.

For an interrogation officer of his level, Zhang Enfan was a tough nut to crack—now that the nut had cracked, the rest of the Zhang family was easily handled.

With the accumulation of collected clues and obtained information, Meng Chengbiao began to re-interrogate Zhang Xiulan’s husband, daughter, son, and grandson Zhang Haobin.

Their defenses, too, started to collapse step by step.

In the meeting room of Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team, smiles were increasingly seen on everyone’s faces.

Jiang Yuan began mulling over new cases, Wu Junhao started training the team members again, and Huang Qiangmin’s smile grew wider...

Just as the final criminals of Litang Township were about to face the fatal blow, on the brink of total annihilation, the hurried footsteps of Meng Chengbiao once again hit the pause button.

"Captain Jiang, I’ve got two pieces of news, one good and one bad," Meng Chengbiao said as he knocked on the door and entered, not really playing the good news, bad news game, and immediately added, "The good news is that Zhang Haobin has basically confessed. He’s the one who committed rape by force and then strangled Jiao Lina."

Jiang Yuan frowned, "What’s the bad news?"

"The bad news," Meng Chengbiao said with a serious expression, "is that Zhang Haobin and his parents claim that he was not yet 16 years old, three years and two months ago."

Suspects under 16 must still bear criminal responsibility but will receive lighter punishment.

In other words, he wouldn’t be eligible for the death penalty.

"The birth certificate was lost?" Jiang Yuan repeated the question and asked, "How much time was he under 16?"

"He was two months shy of 16."

Meng Chengbiao also seemed regretful. Such a crude teenager, not even 20, if he were let out in society, who knows how many more people he would harm.

Better to send him to his death.