Chapter 51 Preparing to Arrest
It was already the next afternoon when Wang Zheng rushed back to the Minjiang Municipal Bureau. As soon as he entered the task force's office, he felt four eyes looking at him from different directions.
"I think I have figured out the murderer's modus operandi." Wang Zheng said straight to the point.
"Tell us about it!" He didn't even have time to ask Wang Zheng if he was tired from the journey. He pulled a chair over for Wang Zheng to sit down, and quickly asked, "Are there any signs of modification on the train?"
"It was man-made." Wang Zheng was silent for a while, then he told everyone what he had seen on the road, and then continued: "The smoke detector was damaged by human beings, causing the system to malfunction. I tried standing in the toilet for a few minutes, and without an alarm, the sprinkler system was automatically activated."
"Oh?" Gu Xia was also shocked. It was indeed unexpected that someone could tamper with such details.
"This is indeed a mistake. I asked the conductor on the train. He happened to be the one on duty that day who came into contact with the deceased. According to his recollection, when he arrived, the deceased had already been burned to charcoal. The place where she was standing happened to be the connection point of the carriage. I guess there might be a slight leakage of high voltage electricity somewhere along the way, so he was hit." Wang Zheng said.
"First, destroy the smoke detector, and then find a way to make the deceased stand at the location he designated. He only needs to hide in the dark and pass by that place to kill people without being seen..." Gu Xia suddenly grasped the key point, patted Wang Zheng and said, "Good job, it seems that our case can go one step further."
Wang Zheng shook his head, was silent for a while and then said, "It's hard to say now. You can move back and forth between the soft sleepers on the train. I can't be sure that they are in the same car. I think this is..."
"Random crime!" The two said in unison, then looked at each other and suddenly laughed. They were thinking the same thing.
"Just a few hours after you left, the murderer committed another crime." Gu Xia was silent for a while, then said, "The victim this time was a traveler with a clean background. Like the previous two victims, they had no connection with each other. I really can't find a motive for the crime."
Wang Zheng shook his head and said, "There is no motive for a case like this."
"It seems that we can't use the old way of handling cases." Gu Xia sighed. Since the establishment of the special task force, only two cases have motives. For other cases, whether it is trace detection or case analysis, it seems meaningless.
"What is the result of the on-site investigation?" Wang Zheng suddenly asked after a slight pause. For some reason, he suddenly became interested in the traces of the on-site investigation at this moment.
"According to our judgment, the murderer entered through the main entrance. Since we did not collect fingerprints at the scene, we suspect that the murderer was wearing gloves at the time." At this point, Gu Xia was suddenly stunned and quickly asked, "What did you think of?"
"I was thinking, if I were the murderer, what kind of cover identity would I need to have in order to enter a hotel and get the suspect to open the door for me?" Wang Zheng kept his eyes on the photo of the deceased. After a long silence, he said, "I think we may have overlooked something. I want to go back to the scene to take a look."
"Will it be useful?" Gao Feng suddenly asked. It had been a day since the case was committed, and the body of the deceased had been taken back to the police station. It was probably meaningless to go back to the crime scene at this time.
Wang Zheng smiled and didn't answer.
Returning to the scene of the crime again, Gu Xia and his companions took Wang Zheng to the room where the incident occurred with ease.
It was obvious at first glance that the room seemed to have been cleaned by the waiter. Every corner was clean and even the unpleasant smell had disappeared without a trace.
"I really don't know what's so good about this." Gao Feng said helplessly as he sat on the mattress.
Gu Xia and the other two looked at Wang Zheng in confusion, wondering why he suddenly proposed to go to the crime scene which had already been cleaned up.
"The deceased's posture after death indicates that his limbs should have been fixed to the bed, but no tools needed for fixation were found at the scene, right?" Wang Zheng suddenly asked Gao Feng.
Gao Feng nodded, carefully recalled the details he saw at the time, and asked, "Do you know what the deceased's posture was?"
"I have a rough guess." Wang Zheng was silent for a while, then said, "That posture is actually a common arch bridge posture, which can be performed by ordinary acrobats or gymnasts. But a person who is about to be burned to death still does this posture. It is very likely because there was no source of fire in his limbs at the time."
"What!" Gu Xia was startled.
Wang Zheng waved his hand, walked to the foot of the bed and pointed at the mattress, "If the flames suddenly burst out from the crotch of a person, what would be the person's first reaction?"
"Sit up and move back!"
"Turn over and run!"
Gao Feng and Bai Ling said this in unison, but as soon as they finished speaking, they fell silent again.
"Do you feel something is wrong?" Wang Zheng said with a smile, "Because the flames suddenly burst out, it is difficult for you to make other movements. The simplest and most effective movement is actually the arch bridge. As long as the waist strength is good enough, people can escape in an instant."
Gao Feng was somewhat unconvinced and immediately lay down on the bed, imagining the moment his crotch was on fire. First, he did what Bai Ling said and sat up and moved.
"Three seconds!" Wang Zheng waved his hand. Obviously, if the flames suddenly jumped up, three seconds would be enough to engulf a person, so this action was not qualified.
Gao Feng, who didn't believe in evil, gritted his teeth and lay down again. But as soon as he turned over, he stood up and said thoughtfully: "I remember that the deceased was electrocuted."
Yes, how could a person who had been electrocuted be able to turn over and run away?
"That's the problem." Wang Zheng said with a smile, "And I think the murderer didn't even think that the deceased was sleeping upside down. If the deceased slept in a normal direction like us, he probably wouldn't have died in this posture."
"But..." Gao Feng was puzzled, "The last deceased also received clicks, why didn't this happen? "
"Ah!" Before Wang Zheng could explain, Bai Ling exclaimed and said quickly: "That's right! The deceased was not electrocuted in the same place, but in the feet. That's right, the fire should have come from the feet!"
"The position of the deceased's feet is actually the position of a normal human head." Gu Xia seemed to understand it, and a smile appeared on his face at this moment.
"This was the first mistake the murderer made." Wang Zheng said with a smile.
"So you mean the murderer has made other mistakes?" Gao Feng raised his eyebrows and said unkindly, "You are looking at a cleaned scene."
Wang Zheng ignored Gao Feng's words and said with a smile : "The second mistake is actually very simple. The hotel has hidden switches. The murderer is probably not familiar with the hotel environment, so he would waste a lot of time looking for the switch box and then conducting electricity. But the tenant didn't drive him away for such a long time. Don't you think it's a bit wrong?"
"Huh? Why didn't I think of that?" Gao Feng scratched his head and suddenly realized something.
"If I were handling the case, I would only need an identity that would make the internal employees and tenants unable to resist me. I might come in person, or they might invite me. In short, no one would disturb me while I was working, and no one would even rush me." Wang Zheng said mysteriously.
"Ah! I remembered it!" Gao Feng slapped his forehead and said quickly: "I interrogated the boss here yesterday, and he provided a piece of information. On the night of the incident, several rooms in the hotel had a power outage. He called an electrician to come and check it out. But when I called to ask about it, the phone prompt said it was turned off. I didn't think much about it at the time, but after hearing what you said, I think it's a bit strange."
"It's a virtual number, modified using software. This person matches the murderer's characteristics. Not only is he an electrician, but he also has certain computer skills. That's right! It's him!" Wang Zheng said.
"Gao Feng, take the boss to the police station now to solve a puzzle. Once you have a result, lead the team to arrest the man immediately!" Gu Xia rubbed his hands excitedly. After several sleepless days and nights, the case was finally solved!
