The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 946 I Did Not Kill Anyone

Furthermore, the diary entries left by Zhang Yingcai from that year, which recorded Zhou Dehai's theft or embezzlement of imported dyes, provided Zhou Dehai with a motive for killing Zhang Yuncai. Therefore, the police immediately interrogated Zhou Dehai.

The cold fluorescent lights in the interrogation room hummed. Zhou Dehai sat in an iron chair, his neck slightly slinged by restraints, his graying sideburns reflected in the one-way glass in front of him. Li Ming slammed a photocopy of the shipping manifest onto the table, the paper rattling against the metal surface: "On November 3, 2008, the imported dye transported by Zhang Yuncai disappeared. You were the signatory, and he vanished that very night. This coincidence is too outrageous!"

A pale halo of light shone down on Zhou Dehai's head. His fingers, adjusting his crooked gold-rimmed glasses, trembled slightly, the metal frames slipping in the cold sweat beading on his palms. His Adam's apple bobbed dryly, as if a piece of red-hot iron was stuck inside it. When Li Ming slammed the photocopy of the shipping document onto the table, the paper rattled, making the enamel mug on the table vibrate. Zhou Dehai instinctively shrank back, his lower back slamming against the cold chair back.

“I admit, a few boxes of dye were indeed missing from the factory at the time.” He tugged at the collar of his shirt, the rustling of the fabric particularly jarring in the quiet space. “But it has nothing to do with me!” His cloudy eyes suddenly widened, veins bulging in the bloodshot whites, as if trying to mask all his guilt with anger. His distorted features were reflected on the metal tabletop, creating an eerie contrast with the “Confess and you will be treated leniently” slogan on the wall behind him.

Li Ming leaned forward, the brass buttons on his police uniform almost touching the table: "Three tons of imported dye are missing, worth two million, and your signature on the delivery slip hasn't faded yet." The nib of his pen slammed heavily onto the paper. "And Zhang Yuncai's last phone call before he disappeared was to you."

"He's blackmailing me!" Zhou Dehai suddenly slammed his fist on the table, the metal handcuffs clanging. The restraints tightened abruptly, pulling him back into his seat, his head slamming against the chair back with a dull thud. He was panting heavily, his collar wide open, revealing loose skin. "After discovering the dye was missing, he came to my door with the inventory records, saying he was going to call the police! I... I had no choice!"

Xiao Zhang pushed the bank statement in front of him, the edge of the paper rustling as it scraped across the table: "At 10:00 AM on November 3, 2008, you withdrew 50,000 yuan in cash from your private account. At 3:00 PM that afternoon, the same amount appeared in Zhang Yuncai's passbook."

Zhou Dehai's Adam's apple bobbed violently. He reached for the enamel mug on the table, but the handcuffs prevented him from touching the rim with his fingertips. Water spilled onto his trousers, leaving dark stains. "Money and goods settled! I told him to leave Dongchuan immediately and never come back." He suddenly shouted in a shrill voice, the sound echoing in the small interrogation room. "I haven't seen him since! What does it matter to me whether he lives or dies!" Spit flew onto the interrogation record on the table, blurring the name "Zhang Yuncai."

Zhang Lin pushed the DNA comparison report in front of him: "Zhang Yuncai's remains were found in the basement of the textile factory. His skull had blunt force trauma, and the time of death matches the date of his disappearance." The forensic doctor's fingers under his gloves lightly touched the photo. "The shape of the wound matches the curvature of the rusty hammer in your house."

"Impossible!" Zhou Dehai suddenly coughed violently, spitting thick phlegm onto the table. "The hammer was for cracking walnuts! It happened fifteen years ago, who can prove I caused that wound?" His gaze swept over the surveillance camera in the corner of the interrogation room. "You're framing me!"

Li Ming suddenly pulled out a sealed bag containing a gold ring covered in mud: "Zhang Yuncai contacted you before he disappeared. How do you explain that?"

Zhou Dehai's pupils contracted sharply, his body leaning forward but then being restrained by the straps, letting out a painful groan. "After that incident, we settled everything. I gave him 5 yuan as hush money, and he promised not to talk about it anymore. He called me about it, but I don't remember some of the details clearly. Maybe it's just a coincidence."

Xiao Zhang glanced at Li Ming's match, then slammed a stack of call logs on the table. "From October to November 2008, you and Zhang Yuncai had as many as 37 phone calls. On November 3rd, the day before he disappeared, your call lasted 17 minutes. Is that also a coincidence?"

The interrogation room fell into a deathly silence, broken only by Zhou Dehai's heavy breathing. He suddenly threw his head back and laughed, his laughter tinged with sobs: "Fine, I admit to stealing and selling dye! But I didn't kill anyone! After giving him the money, I told him to leave Dongchuan immediately, but who knew what happened to him..."

Li Ming leaned closer, his gaze piercing like steel needles: "After Zhang Yuncai disappeared, you went to his house several times to test him. The neighbors saw you slip money to Li Xiulan, saying it was 'consolation money'—you're just crying 'stop thief' because you're afraid she'll continue to investigate, aren't you?"

"That's because I had something to hide!" Zhou Dehai suddenly broke down, covering his face with his hands. "I was afraid of being exposed, so I tried to bribe her to shut her up! But I really didn't kill her!" He raised his tear-streaked face. "You have no direct evidence! There were no fingerprints of mine on the murder weapon, no footprints of mine at the scene..."

Liu Dehai then said that after Zhang Yuntai disappeared, he was afraid that Zhang Yuncai had already told his wife about it, so he used various excuses to appease Li Xiulan, but Zhang Yuncai's disappearance really had nothing to do with him.

Indeed, due to the passage of time, the basement scene had long been demolished and destroyed, and the bloodstains on the hammer were undetectable due to rust. At the case analysis meeting, the projector beam swept across the dense clues on the whiteboard, and Li Ming circled the key information in red: "Zhou Dehai had a motive and the timeline matched, but there was a lack of decisive evidence."

“Could there be a third party?” Zhang Lin turned the scalpel model. “Zhang Yuncai took the money but didn’t leave. Maybe he was being watched by someone else. For example, the suppliers who were involved in the distribution of the spoils, or…” He suddenly stopped. “The textile factory’s senior management? That batch of dye was worth millions. Zhou Dehai wasn’t the only one who could have profited from it.”

Xiao Zhang pulled up the financial records: "Wang Defa, the deputy factory director in charge of procurement back then, suddenly resigned after Zhang Yuncai disappeared and went to the south. He and Zhou Dehai were from the same hometown, and..." He turned to a page, "Wang Defa's daughter is now Zhou Dehai's daughter-in-law."

A chorus of gasps filled the conference room. Li Ming pinned Wang Defa's photo to the whiteboard, connecting it to Zhou Dehai's photo with a red thread: "Let's assume Wang Defa was the mastermind, and Zhou Dehai was responsible for the specific operations. After Zhang Yuncai discovered this, the two of them joined forces to kill each other to cover their tracks..."

“But this is just speculation.” Zhang Lin shook his head. “Without physical evidence, a complete chain of evidence cannot be formed based solely on relationships and timelines.”