National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 708 - 651: Rooftop

Chapter 708: Chapter 651: Rooftop

The detectives from the Zhengguang Sub-bureau had been waiting for nearly another hour, but the identification work inside the Rui Cheng Company was still not completed.

Information kept coming in, but not much of it was decisive.

"The employee who disappeared from the company, Wang Xin, a woman, 36 years old this year, single, living alone, without a boyfriend, and no cohabiting partner. Based on the inquiries we’ve made so far, there’s no premeditated enemy wanting her dead," Liu Cheng summarized the information from the front and reported to Tao Lu.

Tao Lu’s expression was serious, yet his mood was good, calmly saying, "No hurry, as long as we can confirm the victim, this case won’t slip away."

The biggest pain point of this case was the inability to find the victim or the body, which, if resolved, would make it just another ordinary murder case for the detectives.

Jiang Yuan had just reviewed several interrogation records when he came over and asked, "The victim has been missing for nearly 10 days, hasn’t anyone from the company reported it?"

"On the day she disappeared, the victim sent a message to her superior through WeChat, which read: I’m going to the West Refuge, please give me a week’s leave," Liu Cheng glanced at the tablet and continued, "Her superior replied: A trip taken on a whim? I’m jealous. Have a good time then."

Liu Cheng paused and added, "The victim sent two smiling faces. That was the last message sent from that phone, no messages since then."

Jiang Yuan nodded slowly, "Knowing to ask for annual leave, it’s very likely a colleague from the company."

"Best friends, other friends, and relatives might also be aware of the company’s annual leave policy if they’re close," said Liu Cheng. "Rui Cheng’s benefits are relatively good within the industry, and the victim was often willing to discuss this topic with others. She also boasted about it on her phone’s social media."

"That means the range hasn’t narrowed down," remarked the deputy squad leader standing beside, holding a notebook full of interrogation records, single-sided 80g paper that felt comfortable to the touch.

Liu Cheng nodded and said, "The victim also had little contact with her immediate family, friends, and relatives, meeting up occasionally. During the disappearance, everyone thought she was too happy playing outside to get in touch. When people couldn’t reach her, they didn’t take it seriously."

"Colleagues failing to get in touch is one thing, but the parents not being worried when unable to contact her?"

"Her parents are divorced, both have remarried, and their contact was already sparse. Moreover, the victim has a history of not answering her parents’ calls or replying to messages, so..." Liu Cheng spread his hands. To a detective, Wang Xin wouldn’t even count as a fringe person; after all, she had family, friends, work, colleagues, and was integrated into mainstream society.

It was just that within each of her social circles, she was always on the periphery.

"Knowing the victim’s company annual leave system, knowing who the victim’s direct superior is, and likely also knowing the victim’s daily habits and phone password, the killer’s relationship with the victim must be quite close," Tao Lu summarized.

Jiang Yuan agreed, adding, "The pollen and blood found on the clothes indicate the killer went to the company where the victim worked on the day of the incident. There is a high probability it was a colleague."

Tao Lu hummed in agreement, "This is important, Liu, can you check with the building management and the company’s reception to see if they had any visitors? On top of that, list the colleagues who were close to the victim and her friends as well. Also, see if the victim had a new boyfriend or a secret one."

"Yes," Liu Cheng noted in his book and turned to convey the instructions.

The investigative approach Tao Lu suggested wasn’t anything special, a standard procedure for solving cases. Common people dealing with common cases would fall just from these few basic approaches.

Many killers plan well beforehand, thinking of how they will act a certain way, and use methods that could lessen suspicion.

What they don’t realize is that to a detective, even looking at a dog might arouse suspicion. The most common method used is elimination, opting for multiple choices rather than a single one.

This is like ordinary people planning a fight, possibly with some tricks up their sleeve, but once they face an opponent using the erratic ’turtle fist’ style, most will be overwhelmed.

The only issue was that Rui Cheng had quite a few employees, more than a hundred, and the building was in a public office block in the city center. Bringing everyone back for questioning would look too conspicuous. If it were a smaller location, it might even be necessary to bring everyone back to the detective team for a thorough interrogation.

Of course, the situation now was akin to a thorough interrogation, only happening within Rui Cheng and appearing more visually appealing and humane.

"I’m going to Rui Cheng to take a look," said Jiang Yuan who, still somewhat unconvinced, wanted to double-check.

What he mainly wanted to confirm was the location of the as-yet-unfound flowers.

Where there’s pollen, there must be flowers. Vegetables like cucumbers and peppers weren’t present in the company or on the company’s balcony, so there had to be a source somewhere.

The evening rush hour was almost over; Jiang Yuan secured a van and took five people with him to Rui Cheng.

In the evening, at the crime scene, with the suspect still at large, it was unsafe to just bring Mu Zhiyang along; Jiang Yuan felt it wasn’t secure.

Arriving slightly earlier than Jiang Yuan and his team were two police dogs.

They sniffed around inside Rui Cheng Company, wandering and sniffing on every floor, yet showed no sign of detection.

Since Jiang Yuan had free time, he often went to the police dog squadron for a stroll. Seeing that one instructor was having their dog smell the missing person’s items and the other the blood-stained clothing, he said to Wang Chuanxing, "Go buy some cucumbers, chilis, eggplants, and the like, exactly those things listed in the plant chart."

Wang Chuanxing understood immediately and ran off to do so.

Shortly after, a small basket of vegetables was brought into the building.

Jiang Yuan handed it to Liu Cheng to give to the dog trainers, who skeptically let their dogs take a sniff. The seemingly docile black-back dog, after making several rounds in the corridor, suddenly let out a low bark and headed towards the fire escape.

The police dog handler’s face lit up with joy, hurrying after the dog.

A few detectives followed behind, and soon, there was new information.

"They found a vegetable garden on the rooftop." Wang Chuanxing, who took the call, paused before adding, "It was hidden in a corner, covered with a black gauze cloth. If not for the police dog sniffing it out, ordinary people might not have found it."

"Could the property management not know about this?" Jiang Yuan was surprised as he spoke and headed towards the elevator.

"The two security guards and the janitor from the property management who patrol the rooftop are also growing vegetables there." Wang Chuanxing’s mouth twitched as he spoke, "Citing the high cost of living in Beijing, they were caught red-handed. When the police dog arrived, the janitor was busy picking vegetables."

"Let’s go take a look." Jiang Yuan took the elevator to the top floor and then climbed two more flights of stairs to reach the rooftop.

"The rooftop door is usually locked. A few people from the property management sneaked up here to plant vegetables," reported a detective who had arrived earlier.

Jiang Yuan walked over, turning corners, and indeed saw a vegetable garden laid out with PVC pipes.

White plastic pipes thick as a calf were installed with bowl-sized holes in intervals, filled with soil for planting vegetables. The pipes themselves were rigid, so they were arranged in suspended rows, which gave off a slightly cyberpunk feel amidst the steel jungle of the city.

And regarding the types of vegetables, neat rows of cucumbers, eggplants, chili peppers, and the like matched the list exactly.

Jiang Yuan’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. When he first heard about the vegetable plot, he thought of a burial site, but obviously, these sewer pipe-thickness plastic pipes couldn’t fit a whole body. Even if the body were dismembered, it would be hard to cut it up so finely without heavy machinery like cutting equipment.

"Do you know Wang Xin?" Liu Cheng took advantage of the janitor’s flustered moment when she was caught to directly ask her.

The janitor’s hands trembled as she whispered, "I know her."

At that, all eyes from Jiang Yuan and his team focused on her.

Realizing the situation was not good, the janitor quickly added, "Not well, just planting vegetables together. I only knew her name because of her work ID."

"What do you mean ’planting vegetables together’?"

"That time she came up, the door to the rooftop wasn’t closed properly. She was wandering around and saw our vegetable patch. She wanted to plant some vegetables too, so we let her have a row. Sometimes she wanted more vegetables, so she would buy them with money; it was quite nice," the janitor spoke softly, then began to plead, "We were just trying to save some money. The vegetables in the market here cost several yuan per jin. People still have to eat vegetables, don’t they..."

But Liu Cheng wasn’t in the mood for sympathy. He deliberately interrupted her, cutting to the chase, "Wang Xin is missing, didn’t you know that?"

"I... I..." This time, the janitor’s lips quivered.

"If you don’t want to talk, then come back to the police station with us and we can discuss it slowly," Liu Cheng said impatiently with a bureaucratic air.

"I’ll talk, I’ll talk!" The janitor encountered the most trouble with people who spoke to her in this tone and hastily complied, then hesitated again.

Liu Cheng’s face darkened, and he let out a light snort through his nose.

The janitor didn’t dare hesitate again and whispered, "A few days ago, Liu, that is, Liu Huimin, had a fight with Wang Xin. He accused her of coming up here to stealthily pick vegetables without paying and both of them were cursing bitterly. Later... after Wang Xin disappeared, Liu Huimin resigned. We didn’t think much of it, with you mentioning it, I would have thought the young lady had resigned to change jobs too, since you know, the young people nowadays change jobs often..."