539: Mastermind

Yan Qing nodded and looked at Zhong Qi again. "Zhong Qi, I waited for over two hours at the hospital that day. They say the doctors there were absolutely amazed by you... What did you do?"

Su Yue said casually, "It was nothing. My hands are steady, and Team Leader Tang's physical condition is good."

Cui Jia said proudly, "Of course. Zhong Qi's hands are so steady that even I admire them. You could say they're like a precision machine."

Then he changed the subject. "Oh right, how is Xiao Xiao?"

Just as he was speaking, A Qi's phone rang, interrupting Yan Qing, who was about to speak.

A Qi took his phone and walked out of the office to take the call outside.

Only then did Yan Qing continue, "She's recovering well. And I heard from Xiao Xiao's father that those doctors keep asking for Zhong Qi's contact information, even wanting to give him money... But Xiao Xiao's father is incredibly upright; he didn't take a single cent and absolutely refused to provide Zhong Qi's contact info. Zhong Qi, you're really popular."

Zhong Qi smiled sheepishly. "I was just trying to save a life; I performed beyond my usual level."

Yan Qing continued, "In about seven or eight days, we should have results. Once we catch Su Yue this time, we can return to Qingzhou. You can stay at Cui Jia's place for a while; his house is huge, a duplex, it'll be perfect for you."

With a creak, A Qi pushed open the door, interrupting the conversation.

He looked at everyone present and said, "We have work again. Jin Ge has made some progress, but the informant is dead. The death was discovered this morning; the specific circumstances are still unknown. However, they did talk on the phone at least last night. The only clue now is to see if we can find any traces on the body."

Hearing this, the office suddenly fell silent, and everyone looked up at A Qi.

Cui Jia stood up and said, "It seems it's time for Zhong Qi and me to show what we can do."

A Qi nodded, then looked at Su Yue and nodded as well, saying, "Let's not delay, let's go. You can discuss the specific details with Jin Ge in the car."

Su Yue stood up and walked out with them, his mind already starting to ponder.

Drug dealers... Then was the middle-aged man who died from electric shock not a simple accidental death? After all, he was in the fiber optic cable business and dealt with electricity regularly. Although he used drugs, his family clearly had no debt. So where exactly was the problem? And would the current situation... be of any help to his plan?

Members of the Special Task Force arrived at the crime scene with Su Yue and found Xiang Haitian and Jin Tianqin already there, both holding cans of instant coffee and looking quite tired.

The long hours of surveillance had left them with particularly noticeable dark circles under their eyes and a terrible complexion.

The crime scene was at the victim's home, a regular apartment located in a residential building.

The interior decoration wasn't luxurious, giving a feeling of simplicity.

Seeing their colleagues from the Special Task Force arrive, Xiang Haitian and Jin Tianqin straightened up from leaning against the wall.

Jin Tianqin asked in a hoarse voice, "You're here?"

A Qi joked, "What's wrong, Jin Ge? Is your voice starting to sound like Old Xiang's?"

However, Jin Tianqin wasn't in the mood for jokes. She was both tired and heavy-hearted due to the sudden death of the informant.

She waved her hand and asked, "Where are Cui Jia and Zhong Qi?"

A Qi explained, "They said if it was murder, the culprit wouldn't choose the elevator as the entry/exit route because there's surveillance in the elevator. So they decided to take the stairs."

After waiting for a while, Su Yue and Cui Jia finally arrived, out of breath.

They wiped off sweat, clearly exhausted from climbing the stairs.

Su Yue chose to take the stairs because he had some suspicions about the case and worried it might be a trap.

By taking the stairs, he would have room to maneuver if something happened.

However, they climbed all the way to the twelfth floor but found nothing unusual.

The stairwell clearly hadn't been cleaned in a long time; dust was everywhere, and there were no fresh footprints.

A Qi asked, "Did you find anything coming up the stairs?"

Cui Jia and Su Yue shook their heads together. "Nothing."

Xiao Ting interjected from the side, "If you wanted to check the stairwell, why didn't you take the elevator up and then walk down the stairs?"

Cui Jia's body visibly stiffened for a moment, but he still stubbornly said, "Because this way, you can better spot clues on the steps."

Then he changed the subject and asked, "Where's the body?"

Jin Tianqin pointed inside the room and said, "It's in there."

Everyone walked towards that room together.

The body was lying on the bedroom floor, and the room was filled with a sour, foul smell.

There was some vomit on the floor, which was clearly the source of the sour smell.

After exchanging a look with Zhong Qi, Cui Jia put on a mask and gloves and squatted down beside the body to begin his examination.

After asking about the photo evidence and physical evidence collection, he began to carefully examine the body.

He found that rigor mortis had spread throughout the body, indicating a time of death of at least six hours.

He then lifted the victim's clothing and checked the back and the right rib area in contact with the floor, finding no lividity, suggesting the time of death was within eight hours.

He also noted that there were no traces of other people in this room, including the elevator and stairs.

Xiang Haitian replied that the elevator surveillance had been checked and it hadn't stopped on the twelfth floor.

Cui Jia nodded, frowned in thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "If I said he committed suicide, would you believe it?"

Hearing this, everyone's expressions were a little off.

But Cui Jia didn't seem to be genuinely asking for others' opinions; he quickly continued, "However, the time of death is indeed problematic. It's too coincidental. Based on the information that the victim was our informant, it's highly likely that his identity as an informant was exposed, and the normal logic is that someone came to his door and killed him."

He stood up and walked around to the front of the body, continuing to think and saying, "No blood means no external injuries? Would the victim, a witness informant in a drug trafficking case, commit suicide under these circumstances?" He looked up at Jin Tianqin and asked.

Xiang Haitian replied, "He didn't have many family members, he lived alone, previously worked in a bar, and now lives by himself."

Cui Jia pursed his lips and said with some difficulty, "No family? Based on the current vomiting, death posture, and time of death, the cause of death is most likely sudden cardiac arrest due to heart compression. It really doesn't look like there are any signs of homicide. The specific results will have to be confirmed through laboratory tests and autopsy at the hospital... Zhong Qi, what do you think?"

He asked this calmly, but no one answered him for a long time.

He turned his head to look at Zhong Qi's location and asked strangely, "Zhong Qi? Where is he?"

Yan Qing also said doubtfully, "He was just here... How did he suddenly disappear?"

Friendly reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading History" in time (screenshot saving is recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience caused!

Everyone's attention had been focused on the body just now, and no one noticed where Su Yue went.

Gao Xiang said, "He probably went to the restroom."

Then he suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Perhaps it really was an accidental death?"

Xiang Haitian rubbed his temples and asked, "How so?"

Gao Xiang didn't answer for the moment but picked up the list of exhibits and started looking at it.

After a long look, he said, "Indeed... it should be an accidental death..."

The certainty in Gao Xiang's words at this moment caused subtle changes in the expressions of everyone else present.

Cui Jia temporarily stopped thinking about Zhong Qi's whereabouts and questioned, "Although on the surface it does look like an accidental death, at this point in time, it still feels a bit off."

The time Cui Jia was referring to was not the time of death, but the timeline of when the victim's identity as an informant was exposed.

From this perspective, his death happening exactly at this time does indeed raise suspicions.

Even if the scene looked like an accidental death, they had reason to suspect it was a murder.

Gao Xiang nodded in agreement. "That's true. But based on the scene, the clues here aren't enough to support the view of homicide. According to the exhibit list, a syringe and drugs are clearly marked. From his posture when he fell, it looks like he was preparing to lie down, but his heart failed before he did, and he died suddenly."

Hearing Gao Xiang's words, Cui Jia immediately rolled up the victim's sleeve and saw numerous needle marks on the veins in his elbow.

Xiang Haitian also frowned and asked doubtfully, "It really looks like sudden cardiac arrest? Was it an accidental death?"

Cui Jia's expression was a bit grim. He said, "Injecting drugs can indeed lead to heart problems and sudden cardiac arrest."

Jin Tianqin rubbed her face, looking somewhat helpless.

She sighed and said, "All the leads are gone this time."

However, Cui Jia shook his head, indicating that wasn't necessarily the case.

He said, "We might find other clues during the autopsy back at the station. As for the current situation, there really doesn't seem to be anything else."

Jin Tianqin sighed. If this lead was cut off, the subsequent work would be very difficult to carry out.

Especially if it really was a murder case, the culprit might have already escaped during the investigation process.

One person escaping doesn't matter, but if the mastermind behind it realized something, the time consumed by this process would be enough for the drug lord to prepare.

A Qi said at this moment, "Then let's not waste any more time here.

Let's get the autopsy done as soon as possible so we can implement the arrest once we find clues."

However, just then, Zhong Qi's voice suddenly came through, "No, this wasn't an accidental death."

Hearing this voice, everyone present was startled.

Not an accidental death?

Could it be that Zhong Qi found some evidence? He wasn't here just now, did he go to look for evidence?

Jin Tianqin immediately turned to look at Zhong Qi and asked, "Did you find something?"

Zhong Qi shook his head, indicating he hadn't found any concrete evidence, but he firmly believed it was a murder case.

Gao Xiang asked somewhat puzzledly, "Brother Zhong, you came up the stairs. If it was murder, and there's no clue of him reaching the 12th floor in the elevator footage, then he must have used the stairwell. But there are no clues in the stairwell either. If that's the case, there's no reason to say it's murder. You can't say the killer can fly, can you?"

Zhong Qi nodded, indicating that he had thought so before as well.

But he continued, "Actually, everyone's thinking is limited. Since there are no traces from the first floor to the twelfth floor, what about between the twelfth floor and the twenty-second floor?"

Hearing Zhong Qi's words, everyone present was stunned.

Zhong Qi continued to explain, "Think about the killer's motive. The reason he wanted to kill this person, especially at this point in time, must be because the news of him being an informant was leaked. However, since the goal was to silence him, this person must have acted after some planning. Furthermore, since his goal was to silence him, it would be best for his own actions to go undetected. Thinking this way, he definitely wouldn't simply come up the stairs or take the elevator to the 12th floor."

Hearing Zhong Qi's words, Gao Xiang looked at the ground, took over the conversation, and said, "So that's it. You mean the killer took the elevator to a floor above the 12th floor and then walked down the stairs, avoiding leaving footprints from the 1st to the 12th floor?"

Expressions of sudden realization also appeared on everyone's faces.

Zhong Qi nodded, indicating that this was the killer's method.

He also added that based on the situation inside the house, the killer should also know the victim.

Because there were no signs of struggle inside the house, and the victim was even in the bedroom when he died.

However, Cui Jia shook his head and expressed doubt. "That's not right, Zhong Qi. If it was murder, what was the method? This is clearly sudden cardiac arrest caused by a heart problem. And there are no external injuries on him, so how was the heart problem induced?"

Zhong Qi hummed in agreement, indicating that it was indeed sudden cardiac arrest caused by a heart problem.

As for how it was induced, it's actually very simple: air injection.

Hearing Zhong Qi's words, Cui Jia's eyes immediately widened.

Of course he knew what air injection meant – injecting air into a person's vein.

If it exceeds a certain limit, it will cause death.

All the doubts in his mind were explained!

"So it was air injection..." Cui Jia muttered to himself. "Indeed, if it was air injection, it would create an air embolus around the heart, obstructing the heartbeat and creating the illusion of sudden cardiac arrest. And the needle marks on his arm can also be explained! With so many needle marks, the fact that air was injected can also be concealed! I see! Zhong Qi, you really are a genius!"

Listening to Cui Jia's words, everyone looked at Zhong Qi with eyes full of admiration!

They actually found such a possibility!

Yan Qing gave Zhong Qi a thumbs-up, showing her appreciation.

Jin Tianqin also let out a long breath, indicating that although there were no results yet, they finally had a direction.

If they could use this to find the killer, then the broken lead would be reconnected.

She thanked Zhong Qi, saying he had been a great help.

Zhong Qi waved his hand, indicating it was nothing. He also added that they could actually already narrow down the killer.

Hearing Zhong Qi's words, the slightly relaxed expression on Jin Tianqin's face immediately froze.

Friendly reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading History" in time (screenshot saving is recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience caused!