Animal Detective

Chapter 324 - 265: Back to the Old Trade

Hongmei Police Station.

Shen Xin and the other two sat and listened as community police officer Lao Gao briefed them on Fan Lei’s situation.

As he finished, he tried to summarize, "How should I put it... about Old Fan... Chen Suo should know him well, too. He’s rather..."

Lao Gao pursed his lips, searching for the right words. "Back in the day, you’d have called him loyal and righteous. To be honest, I really don’t think Chen Erming was all that good to him."

"But he was always unwaveringly loyal. Did whatever he was told. You look at guys like Zou Jun and Liu Haoyi—they followed Chen Erming and ended up as bosses."

"But him? He got nothing out of it. The money Chen Erming gave him was just enough to buy a small house for his mom, and later his older brother took it over."

"If you look at him now, you’d just say the guy’s a bit of a blockhead."

In the past, being honest and hardworking without complaint was a virtue. Nowadays, it’s called being a blockhead, being a fool.

"What year was that... I remember going to do a community fire safety inspection, and the two of them were crammed into a little rental. I even told him, ’That house you bought for your mom back then... it might not have been big, but it was in a good school district. It’s worth a bit of money.’"

"’Even if your mom said the house was for your older brother, the problem is, it was your brother who said that. Plus, you’re the one who paid for it. You should have at least half a claim to it, right? You should find a way to get it back.’"

"And you know what he said? He said he was in prison for so many years, and his brother was the one who took care of their mom. His brother had it tough, too, so he’d just consider the house a gift to him."

"He’s real generous, alright, but the problem is his brother doesn’t even appreciate it."

"He was inside for all those years, and his wife was raising their kid alone—like a widow with an orphan—but you never saw his brother helping them out."

"And look at the state of his family now. His son is in his twenties or thirties and is still just fooling around aimlessly."

Lao Gao sighed, apparently feeling it was all a great injustice to Fan Lei.

Seeing the atmosphere grow heavy, Chen Ju, who was beside him, gave Lao Gao a nudge. "Alright, that’s enough. We’re asking you for official business, and here you are getting all sentimental."

He then asked Shen Xin if he had any other questions.

Shen Xin looked at Geng Ke, then at Ding Yuwei, before shaking his head. He stood up and thanked them.

After leaving the station, Shen Xin didn’t rush to the car. He stopped the other two and asked for their thoughts.

Ding Yuwei was the first to speak. "He’s somewhat suspicious. After all, the construction site where he works is near the crime scene. And he’s having a tough time financially, so he has a motive to kill for money."

Geng Ke had the same thought.

The main point was that the construction site where Fan Lei currently worked was very close to the crime scene.

That point was particularly concerning.

Shen Xin nodded in agreement. After a moment of thought, he said, "In any case, this is a lead. I’ll report the situation to Zhang Zhi first."

They had been investigating the professional hitman angle and were already on their ninth person. This was the first time they had found anything remotely substantial, so it definitely needed to be verified.

Right away, Shen Xin called Zhang Hancheng and explained the situation.

"Zhang Zhi, Fan Lei’s wife is working as a general laborer in landscaping, and Fan Lei is a laborer on a construction site. Both of their incomes are limited."

"And their son, Fan Shunxi, is good-for-nothing and has a prior record for drug use. That means Fan Lei should have a strong enough motive to kill for money."

From what Lao Gao had said, Fan Lei’s family situation was truly dire.

The place they were living in now, Hui’an New Village, was also a rental.

It was mainly their son—always getting into fights and causing trouble—that wore them out.

In such dire straits, it was possible that Fan Lei had returned to his old profession.

Of course, the motive was a bit of a stretch.

However, the fact that his construction site was near the crime scene was extremely suspicious.

On the other end of the line, Zhang Hancheng thought for a moment before saying, "Regardless, it’s a lead. Go to his construction site and find him directly. Odin can make an identification, can’t it? Make contact, get a feel for the situation, and report back immediately if anything comes up."

After giving his instructions, he hung up abruptly.

’He must be busy over there, too,’ Shen Xin thought.

They had a three-day deadline, and a third of that time was already gone.

He hadn’t mentioned sending backup, but Shen Xin didn’t think he had forgotten.

Zhang Hancheng was a meticulous thinker. The reason he hadn’t arranged for backup was probably because of Geng Ke.

Shen Xin glanced at Geng Ke. From the moment they met, he’d had a feeling that this man was very capable.

The three of them set off immediately.

On the way, Shen Xin used his handheld PDA to look up basic information on Fan Lei and his family.

The Fan Lei in the photo had an ordinary face.

The picture was taken after his release from prison when he renewed his ID card.

That would have been in 2014, when he was 47 years old.

He still had the shaved head common in prison, but he already looked old. His forehead wrinkles were deep, his lips were thick—he was just a very plain-looking man.

His wife, Yao Qian, on the other hand, had striking features. You could tell she must have been quite beautiful when she was younger.

That made sense. Back in the day, Fan Lei had been a big shot.

Some women love a bad boy, which is why Yao Qian had so devotedly raised their child and waited ten years for him.

As for Fan Shunxi...

The son took after his mother; he was quite handsome.

But below that was a long rap sheet, mostly for things like fighting and assault.

In the task force’s group chat, Shen Xin started a private message with someone. He was about to send him the information on Fan Lei’s family of three but typed a few words and then stopped.

This person was from the criminal investigation detachment and was assigned to the task force specifically to liaise with the banks.

If they found a suspect and needed to check their bank accounts, he was the one they could go through to get authorization as quickly as possible and then coordinate the search with the banks.

Shen Xin was thinking they could check if there had been any large deposits into the bank accounts of Fan Lei’s family.

The hitman’s payment, that is.

But then he reconsidered. Right now, Fan Lei was only slightly suspicious; there was no direct evidence proving he was the killer.

Under these circumstances, they didn’t really have the authority to check his bank accounts.

Let alone the related accounts belonging to Yao Qian and Fan Shunxi.

Bank account information was sensitive personal data, and they couldn’t afford any procedural missteps.

More than half an hour later, the trio arrived at the construction project called Fengyu Mountain and River.

The car had barely come to a stop when Shen Xin suddenly realized something. ’I’ve been to this place before!’

Ding Yuwei, sitting in the back, quickly tapped Shen Xin on the shoulder. "Shen Xin, isn’t this the same construction site we passed the first time we were tracking the suspect?"

She had been there at the time, so she remembered it.

Shen Xin quickly signaled for Geng Ke to stop the car, then got out and looked around.

That’s right. This was the place.

’Well, this is quite a coincidence.’

"No, wait. We’ve already passed the construction site."

Shen Xin looked back.

He remembered that Odin had been tracking the scent, passed the entrance to this construction site, and continued for about another hundred meters before losing the trail.

’Does that mean the suspect didn’t enter the construction site?’

’Not necessarily.’

Then it suddenly occurred to Shen Xin: the construction site was one thing, but the workers didn’t necessarily live on-site.

They usually lived in the dormitories at the nearby project headquarters.

Shen Xin hurried over to the construction site, flashed his police ID, and asked the security guard at the gate where the workers’ dormitories were.

Seeing that they were police, the guard got a little nervous. He quickly came outside, pointed ahead and to the right, and said, "Go straight, cross the road, and on the other side, take the fork that goes up the mountain. The project headquarters isn’t far from there."

The workers’ dorms were there, too.

"FUCK!"

Shen Xin couldn’t help but curse out loud.

’I think I just hit the jackpot!’

Ding Yuwei, who had been part of the original pursuit, quickly pieced it together but then immediately shook her head. "That’s not right, Shen Xin. I remember we expanded the search area back then and even checked across the road, but we didn’t find anything."

Although they hadn’t gone up the mountain fork, they had crossed to the other side of the road from where they lost the scent.

At the time, they had considered the possibility that the suspect had doubled back from across the road to evade them.

Shen Xin said, "It doesn’t work like that. First of all, here at the site entrance, trucks are constantly coming and going. Their tires are washed down, so the ground is all wet. That would have seriously affected the scent."

"Then there’s the road itself, with cars passing back and forth and all the exhaust fumes. That would also have a huge impact on the tracking."

They had already tracked him so far, past the garbage station and the wet ground at the construction site entrance. The scent was already very faint by then.

After crossing a busy road, it’s very likely this is where the trail went cold.

"And think about it—the suspect was riding an electric scooter, which has a limited range. Zhang Zhi and the others already discussed this, and they suspected the killer was within a few kilometers of the crime scene."

If he was on an e-scooter, his range was definitely limited.

Living at the construction site across the road... the distance is just right.

Ding Yuwei nodded thoughtfully.

Geng Ke wasted no time and waved the other two back into the car.

Shen Xin didn’t hesitate either, immediately contacting Zhang Hancheng to update him.

"Xiaoshen, wait for me. I’m bringing a team over right now."

After hearing him out, Zhang Hancheng said that one line and immediately hung up.

The trio turned the car around, and a short distance later, they turned onto the fork on the opposite side.

They drove up the mountain on a concrete road for just over a hundred meters and arrived at the construction project headquarters.

Behind the headquarters, built into the mountainside, were numerous scattered prefabricated buildings—the workers’ dormitories.

Geng Ke parked the car diagonally across from the dormitory entrance.

The three of them didn’t rush in. If Fan Lei was the killer, even if they were confident they could take down a 51-year-old man, they still had to wait for their superior to arrive and make a proper plan.

While they waited, Shen Xin took out his phone and looked at a map.

"Look here. The area across from us is also part of Shitang Mountain."

Shen Xin pointed at the mountain in front of them and continued, "And look, the straight-line distance from the reservoir to here is 1,100 meters."

Shen Xin had used the map’s tool to measure the distance between the two points.

"So, after killing Xu Rulin, the killer chose to escape through the mountains. It’s highly likely he came straight back to the dorms here over the mountain."

The first time he used an e-scooter; the second time, he just walked over the mountain.

A mountain path just over a kilometer long isn’t that far.

And that route would definitely be very safe.

Geng Ke nodded in agreement, his expression inevitably growing excited.

In other words, the suspicion on Fan Lei had just increased.

Just then, Ding Yuwei suddenly said, "Shen Xin, if Fan Lei is the killer, then the nature of the entire case is murder-for-hire."

The reason they were investigating Fan Lei and his cohort was because they were following the murder-for-hire angle.

Shen Xin nodded, suddenly understanding what Ding Yuwei meant. "You’re saying, if Hu Yueqin hired Fan Lei to kill Huang Weili initially..."

"...then why would she later hire him to kill Xu Rulin?"

Hu Yueqin probably doesn’t even know Xu Rulin.

Since she doesn’t know him, why kill him? And just a week after the first murder, while the police were still investigating?

Logically, it didn’t quite add up.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Xin couldn’t come up with an answer either. "Let’s not worry about that for now. If it is Fan Lei, we’ll catch him and ask. Then we’ll know."