Chapter 505: Suspect Zhang Jinlei

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

Hearing that there was a mandatory subpoena that needed to be applied for, Lin Qiupu came over from his office and found Chen Shi. At the time, he and Lin Dongxue were sitting in the conference room and drinking grass jelly while chatting.

"There’s progress in the case?" Lin Qiupu couldn't believe it.

"Ah!" Chen Shi responded.

"Ah? What do you mean by ‘Ah’? Do you have evidence?"

"There’s no direct evidence, so they have to be summoned."

"Messing around again? Remember the last time when you summoned the suspect and then had no choice but to let them go?"

"The investigation progress is almost complete. If you want a breakthrough in the case, you have to attack directly. Rest assured, I know what I’m doing."

Lin Qiupu glanced at his watch, "The bank gets off work at 6:00. It’s 3:00 right now.”

"Do you need to go and withdraw money?"

"No, his father will definitely bring a lawyer in after 6:00. If you want to attack directly, you need to do it as soon as possible!"

Chen Shi smiled. "Relax, Zhang Jinlei won’t call his parents. This person is very stubborn and strong-minded. If we agitate him, he might confess everything himself."

"Hope this isn’t just your daydream!”

There was a siren sound outside, and Chen Shi said to Lin Dongxue, "You go and interrogate Xiao Ran. I’ll deal with Zhang Jinlei. Captain Lin, please help to boost my morale!"

Lin Qiupu agreed helplessly.

Chen Shi and Lin Qiupu were waiting in the interrogation room. Zhang Jinlei was immediately brought in. He glanced at them gloomily and Chen Shi said, "Mr. Zhang, we met again."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"To ask a few questions."

"Haven’t I already said everything?"

"Don't be nervous. This is just a summon. It’s not an arrest. You’re not handcuffed.”

Zhang Jinlei frowned. "Ask!"

"Six years ago, at about 8:00 PM on August 13th, you and Yan Qilin agreed to meet near Wuyi Road. Did she invite you or did you invite her?”

"She asked me to meet her saying she had something to say to me."

"Did the two of you meet before that?"

"We hadn’t seen each other for a while because of the hot weather. We just kept in touch with one another over the phone."

"We investigated Yan Qilin's communication records that year and found that you called her very frequently from the end of July to the beginning of August, and she hardly ever took the initiative to call you. Did you feel that she was deliberately distancing herself from you at that time?"

Zhang Jinlei's eyes widened. "Her English was poor and she wanted to take advantage of the holiday to improve it, so she rarely called.”

"Yan Qilin was the first victim. The police had checked what she did prior to her death very carefully that year. She didn't go to a cram school, and she didn't have English tutoring books in her belongings."

"She lied to me?! That must mean that something had happened in her family."

"I’ll tell you the truth. In fact, she was with Yue Chao during that time."

Zhang Jinlei suddenly jumped up. "You’re lying! How could she be with that little hooligan?! Did she distance herself from me because... Because she had started to like someone else...?"

"It's true. Yue Chao has photos taken of them together when they were out on dates."

Zhang Jinlei looked as though he had been struck by lightning. He widened his eyes in shock, but then shook his head desperately. "I don't believe it! Let me see them!"

"Why are you talking about these things?" Lin Qiupu asked quietly.

Chen Shi gestured for him not to intervene with his eyes. He had said these to test whether Zhang Jinlei knew about it. Judging from his various reactions, he shouldn’t have known.

When Yan Qilin died, Zhang Jinlei had still believed that she loved him and didn’t know about the shady business his parents had engaged in to break up the two of them.

"I didn't save the photos because they aren’t important."

"Why are they not important!" Zhang Jinlei looked like an angry lion. "She actually deceived me with that little hooligan... You’re lying to me, right? Why are you lying to me? You police all have bad intentions."

"Can you calm down?"

"I'm going to find Yue Chao now to clarify things!" Zhang Jinlei stood up and was ready to leave, but when he opened the door, he found that there were policemen outside. He roared, "Step aside!"

Lin Qiupu said, "Handcuff him!"

The police forced Zhang Jinlei back into the interrogation chair and handcuffed him. He shouted in agitation, "What right do you have? I want to sue you! Let me call that damn guy. Hurry up!"

"The police have the right to use harsher means if the citizen doesn’t cooperate with the investigation after getting summoned.” Lin Qiupu explained.

"Correct!" Chen Shi said. "There is a second question. Where were you on the evening of August 7th this year?"

"I was drinking at the bar."

"You did drink in the bar from 9:00 to 12:00. You ordered a whole bottle of Red Label whiskey and drank it all. What I want to ask is where you were before 9:00?"

Zhang Jinlei vaguely realized something, suddenly calmed down and answered, "I was at home."

"Can anyone prove it? Was Xiao Ran home at the time?"

"She... She went out and no one can prove that I had worked for a day and was resting at home."

"Then you don’t have an alibi?"

"I was at home. How can there be an alibi at home?!” Zhang Jinlei said angrily. "And what alibi is this for anyway?"

"At 10:00 PM on August 6th, where were you?"

"I went out for a walk."

This was the time when a suspicious person had adjusted the security camera’s angle near the second abandoned corpse. Chen Shi said, "Is there anyone who can substantiate it?"

"No."

"Where did you go?"

"From..." Zhang Jinlei was so nervous that his forehead was covered in sweat. "Is this important?"

"It can decide whether you can leave this place. Would you say that’s important?"

"That’s crazy. Are you saying that I have to have evidence of everywhere that I normally go and everything that I normally do? You can't solve the case, so you’re just blaming it all on me? The police are really bastards. Bastards!"

Lin Qiupu knocked on the table with his knuckles to remind him to pay attention to what he was saying. Chen Shi said, "Arguing tediously and vexatiously is useless here. Answer the question. At 10:00 PM on August 6th, where did you go?"

"I was at... At home!"

"Didn't you just say that you went for a walk?"

"I said that I was at home. Are you deaf?!"

Chen Shi sneered. Lin Qiupu picked up the intercom and asked Lin Dongxue to ask Xiao Ran in the other interrogation room. After hanging up, Lin Qiupu said, "Your roommate testified that you weren’t at home. Where did you go?"

Zhang Jinlei was sweating heavily. He lowered his head. "After leaving the housing district, I went to a nearby shopping mall...”

"You need to think clearly. We can contact the local police now to investigate the surveillance footage." Chen Shi said coldly.

"I passed by in front of the mall, I didn't go in. I... I walked around Jianshe road."

"OK, we will go and check it now."

"No, no, I went... I went..."

"You can’t make things up anymore?" Chen Shi picked up a piece of paper that was printed with a scene that had been captured in the surveillance footage. "Let me say it then. You went to Lin'an Road at that time. You quietly moved the security camera at the entrance of a supermarket in preparation for abandoning the corpse the next day.”

Hearing the words "abandoning the corpse", Zhang Jinlei gulped with his eyes wide.