latelenovela Chapter 1368 The Final Suspect is Identified
Chapter 1368 The Final Suspect is Identified
Lijia Village is located next to the Qingling Lake Ring Road. Most of the more than one hundred households in the village make a living by fish farming and agriculture. Li Laosi's scrap metal collection station is located under an old locust tree at the entrance of the village. Outside the three dilapidated tile-roofed houses, there are piles of scrap iron and plastic bottles, and a pungent smell of rust and mold can be smelled from afar. It was 10:7 a.m. on July 13th, and the sun was blazing. The iron gate of the collection station was ajar, and there was no sound coming from inside.
"Xiao Zhang, Xiao Liu, guard the front and back gates of the purchasing station to prevent the suspect from escaping beforehand. Xiao Wang, come with me to visit the villages." Xiao Zhou assigned the tasks in a low voice. Years of investigation experience had instilled in him a cautious habit. He knew that Li Laosi had a prior theft conviction and a ruthless personality. Going directly to his door might alert him. Gathering information from the surrounding neighbors was the safest approach.
Across from the purchasing station lived an elderly man surnamed Wang. Grandpa Wang was chopping firewood in front of his door when he saw Xiao Zhou and his men in plainclothes. He stopped chopping and eyed them warily. "Hello, sir, we're from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Division. We'd like to inquire about Li Laosi next door," Xiao Zhou said, showing his police ID in a gentle tone. After recognizing the ID, Grandpa Wang's wariness faded, replaced by a hint of disdain: "You're here to investigate Li Laosi? Well, you've come to the right place. That guy has a terrible reputation in the village!"
Grandpa Wang put down his axe, brought over a few small stools for everyone to sit down, and started talking: "Li Laosi is 45 years old this year. He's been stealing chickens and dogs since he was a child. Twenty years ago, he was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing cattle from the village. After he got out, he didn't work properly. He opened a scrap yard at the entrance of the village, claiming to collect scrap, but actually he often went to steal farm machinery parts from farmers at night to sell for money. The year before last, Old Chen from the west end of the village lost a diesel engine, which was later found in his scrap yard. He still denied it to the death. In the end, Old Chen was afraid of retaliation and could only accept his bad luck."
"How are his relationships with his neighbors? Has he ever made enemies?" Xiao Zhou asked, while gesturing for Xiao Wang to take notes.
"He's got a lot of enemies!" Old Wang spat on the ground. "He's extremely petty. Last time, my grandson accidentally kicked over a scrap basket in front of his house, and he blocked my doorway and cursed me all afternoon. He even set my woodpile on fire. A couple of months ago, he got into an argument with Carpenter Li from the east end of the village over a piece of scrap wood. He even hit Carpenter Li's hand with a crowbar until it was swollen. In the end, the village secretary had to step in to mediate, and he only paid 200 yuan in compensation." Old Wang pointed in the direction of the recycling station. "Look at his yard. The walls are higher than anyone else's, and there's even a security camera at the entrance. To put it bluntly, he's got something to hide and is afraid of being held accountable."
To verify Grandpa Wang's statement, Xiao Zhou led his team to visit Li Changming, the village party secretary. Li Changming's office was located in the village committee compound, and the walls were covered with village rules and regulations. After seeing the police officer's ID, he sighed helplessly: "Li Laosi is indeed our village's biggest problem. We receive at least eight or ten complaints about him every year. It's either that he stole something from someone's house, or that he got into a fight with his neighbors. The police station has come several times, but every time he admits his mistakes and has a good attitude, he goes back to his old ways after a few days."
"Is he familiar with Zhang Jianguo? He's the farm machinery repairman who was murdered in the reed marshes of Qingling Lake." Xiao Zhou went straight to the point.
Li Changming paused for a moment, then nodded: "Of course I know him! They caused a scene here two months ago." He pulled out a mediation record from his drawer. "Look, on May 18th, Zhang Jianguo came to the village to ask Li Laosi for repair fees. He said Li Laosi asked him to repair his tricycle, but after the repair, he refused to pay. The two of them argued heatedly at the entrance of the scrap yard, almost coming to blows. I separated them and told Li Laosi to pay part of the money first, and the rest at the end of the month. I didn't expect him to still not pay."
This information cheered Xiao Zhou up, and he immediately asked, "Were they arguing fiercely at the time? Did Li Laosi say anything threatening to Zhang Jianguo?"
“He was incredibly fierce!” Li Changming recalled. “Zhang Jianguo said he was going to sue him in court, and Li Laosi pointed his finger at him and yelled, ‘If you dare to sue me, I’ll make sure you can’t stay in Qingling Lake.’ I even yelled at Li Laosi at the time, telling him to stop talking nonsense. Now that I think about it, those words are chilling.” He added, “Li Laosi has a red motorcycle, which he usually uses to haul scrap. It’s quite old, and I saw him repairing it a while ago. It looked like it had been repainted; the color was weird.”
A red motorcycle and a paint shop repair shop—these two pieces of information perfectly matched the previous clues. Xiao Zhou immediately had Xiao Wang write down Li Changming's words in detail, while asking, "On the night of July 10th, the day Zhang Jianguo was murdered, did you see Li Laosi? Or did you hear where he went?"
Li Changming frowned and thought for a moment: "July 10th was a Saturday. I was on duty at the village committee until 10 p.m. Around 9 p.m., I saw Li Laosi ride his red motorcycle out from the west end of the village. He was going very fast. He was wearing a helmet, so I couldn't see his face, but I was very familiar with the sound of that motorcycle. It was like a tractor. As for when he came back, I don't know."
To obtain more accurate information, Xiao Zhou led his team to visit Li Laosi's neighbors door-to-door. When they visited Zhang Cuihua's house, Li Laosi's western neighbor, they finally obtained a crucial clue. Zhang Cuihua is 56 years old and works as a cleaner in the village. She gets up at 4 a.m. every day to sweep the village roads and is particularly sensitive to any noise in her surroundings.
“Officer, I did see Li Laosi on the evening of July 10th,” Zhang Cuihua said while picking vegetables. “That day, my daughter went back to her parents’ home, and I cooked some ribs. Around 9 p.m., I heard Li Laosi’s motorcycle next door. I thought he was going out to steal again, so I peeked over the wall. He was wearing a black jacket and a helmet, and there seemed to be a black bag tied to the back of the motorcycle. Then he drove off towards Qingling Lake.”
"When did he come back? Was there anything unusual when he came back?" Xiao Zhou asked.
"He came back very late, around 1 a.m.," Zhang Cuihua said, putting down the vegetables in her hand. "I had just lain down when I was woken up by the sound of his motorcycle. I peeked over the wall and saw that he was covered in mud, and there were a lot of green things on his black jacket, like reed leaves. He almost fell when he got off the motorcycle, and he was limping. After pushing the motorcycle into the yard, he never came out again. The next morning, I saw him washing the motorcycle in the yard. He washed it clean and was even scrubbing under the seat with a brush, as if he was hiding something."