latelenovela Chapter 1438 Conflicts Among Colleagues in the Company
Chapter 1438 Conflicts Among Colleagues in the Company
The team members carefully reviewed the project bidding documents and recent company meeting minutes, discovering some disagreements between Zhang Baocang and Zhao Peng, another project manager. Zhao Peng's other project conflicted with Zhang Baocang's bidding project in terms of resource allocation, and the two had argued at a company meeting. "What kind of person is Zhao Peng? What's his relationship with Zhang Baocang like?" Old Chen asked. Wang Haitao hesitated for a moment before saying, "They're quite competitive at work and don't interact much outside of work. Zhao Peng has a strong personality and sometimes gets into conflicts with colleagues over work, but he shouldn't do anything illegal."
The team members immediately questioned Zhao Peng. Zhao Peng admitted to having disagreements with Zhang Baocang at work, but denied having any vengeful intentions. "Work-related conflicts are normal. We were both working for the company's benefit. Although we had disagreements, we forgot about them afterwards," Zhao Peng said. Regarding his whereabouts during the time of the incident, Zhao Peng stated that he was resting at home at the time, and that his family could testify to this. The team members subsequently verified with his family members, confirming that his statement was true.
During the investigation, the team members also learned that there was an employee named Qin Kailai in Zhang Baocang's project department who had worked with Zhang Baocang for many years and had a close relationship with him, but had resigned six months ago. "Why did Qin Kailai resign? What was his relationship with Zhang Baocang like?" Old Chen keenly grasped this information and immediately inquired with the company staff. "Qin Kailai said he resigned for personal reasons, but we don't know the specifics. He and Zhang Baocang used to be very good partners, working together on several projects and cooperating very well," the staff member replied. Old Chen immediately asked the staff to retrieve Qin Kailai's employee file, obtaining his basic information, contact information, and address, and then reported this information to Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhou.
Led by Xiao Li, the fourth team contacted the bank and retrieved Zhang Baocang's personal bank account statements. After careful review, they discovered frequent financial transactions between Zhang Baocang's account and an account named "Qin Kailai" over the past three years. In the past year alone, the total amount transferred between the two exceeded 10 yuan. This included funds transferred from Zhang Baocang to Qin Kailai and vice versa, but overall, Zhang Baocang transferred more to Qin Kailai, with a cumulative difference of approximately 8 yuan. The long timeframe of these transactions, coupled with the use of terms like "loan," "repayment," and "working capital" in the transfer notes, indicated a long-term lending relationship between the two.
"Qin Kailai? That name sounds familiar!" Seeing the name on the account statement, Xiao Li suddenly remembered the information the third group had just reported: Zhang Baocang's former colleague was also named Qin Kailai. He immediately verified this with the third group, confirming that they were the same person. This discovery excited the fourth group members. As Zhang Baocang's former colleague, Qin Kailai had long-term financial dealings with him and there was a discrepancy in the funds, making him a prime suspect. Xiao Li immediately reported this crucial clue to Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhou.
After receiving the tip, Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhou immediately convened an emergency meeting to analyze Qin Kailai's background. "Qin Kailai had worked with Zhang Baocang for many years, had a close relationship, and engaged in long-term financial dealings. There was also an outstanding balance of 8 yuan, which is very likely the motive," Xiao Zhou said. "Furthermore, Qin Kailai resigned six months ago for unknown reasons, but it's possible that it was due to a financial dispute with Zhang Baocang. We need to immediately launch a comprehensive investigation into Qin Kailai, verifying his identity, recent activities, any prior criminal record, and his whereabouts during the time of the incident."
Xiao Wang added, "We immediately split into two groups. One group, led by me, went to Qin Kailai's registered residence and current residence to visit him, learn about his social relationships and recent activities; the other group, led by Xiao Zhou, connected to the public security intranet system to check Qin Kailai's criminal records, and at the same time retrieved his bank account statements and communication records to sort out the details of his economic dealings with Zhang Baocang and his recent contact."
After the deployment was completed, the two immediately led their team to carry out the operation. Xiao Wang led his team to Qin Kailai's current residence—an old residential area in the western part of the city. Through interviews with the property management and neighbors, they learned that Qin Kailai was 43 years old, divorced, lived alone, and had been unemployed for six months. He rarely went out, often at night, and his whereabouts were rather suspicious. "This person doesn't seem very respectable. Sometimes strangers come to see him, and at night you can hear them arguing inside, seemingly about money," a neighbor told Xiao Wang.
Meanwhile, Xiao Zhou and his team discovered through the police intranet system that Qin Kailai had a prior gambling conviction. Five years prior, Qin Kailai had been administratively detained for 15 days and fined 5000 yuan for gambling. "A gambling conviction makes it even more likely!" Xiao Zhou analyzed. "Gambling easily leads to financial hardship. The 80,000 yuan difference between Qin Kailai and Zhang Baocang likely stemmed from Qin Kailai losing money gambling, borrowing money from Zhang Baocang, being unable to repay it, and being pressured by Zhang Baocang for repayment, leading to a desire for revenge and the murder of Zhang Baocang."
Subsequently, the team retrieved Qin Kailai's communication records and discovered that he had several phone calls with Zhang Baocang in the week leading up to the incident. The last call was at 9:30 PM the night before the incident and lasted approximately 15 minutes. This call time was very close to the time of death estimated by the forensic doctor as between 10 PM the day before the incident and midnight on the day of the incident, further increasing the suspicion that Qin Kailai was the perpetrator.
To verify Qin Kailai's whereabouts during the time of the incident, the team retrieved surveillance footage from the area surrounding Qin Kailai's residence, as well as from the areas surrounding Zhang Baocang's disappearance and the location where the body was dumped. Through meticulous investigation, they discovered that Qin Kailai left his residence in a black Volkswagen Magotan sedan around 22 PM the night before the incident. The model of this car matched that of a suspicious vehicle previously identified by Xiao Wang's team in the surveillance footage! The surveillance footage showed Qin Kailai driving along Xingfu Road, then turning onto Hubin Road, and arriving at a parking lot near Nanhu Square around 23:30 PM.
More importantly, the team members spotted Qin Kailai in the surveillance footage from the west entrance of Nanhu Square. Although he was wearing a black down jacket, a mask, and a hat, concealing his identity quite well, his physical characteristics and walking posture matched Qin Kailai's usual appearance very closely.