Chapter 657: Redirected Focus

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

"Dong Xiao is already dead?" Lin Qiupu looked suspicious of this. "Don't forget that he went with a gun, and Lu Qi's blood was found on Secretary Li who escaped. How do you explain this?"

"The blood may be left behind by a wound of Lu Qi’s. The two had a fight. After that, Lu Qi killed Dong Xiao. He and Su Chan disposed of the corpse and burned the evidence. Why did Secretary Li go crazy? He might have gone crazy when he saw Dong Xiao being killed. Secretary Li has been with Dong Xiao for a long time and knew the dirty things he did. If he saw Dong Xiao killing people, he wouldn’t go crazy."

"Secretary Li went crazy because he was trapped in the fire and finally escaped after lots of struggle. He would have gotten some trauma."

"Then why was he the only one who escaped? There were so many strong bodyguards at the scene. Why didn't they escape, but were instead trapped inside and burned to death? Some of them were trapped on the first floor, one step away from the front door. I think the deaths of these people were a bit strange. What happened in the villa may be far more complicated than what we think."

The two held their own opinions and neither of them could convince the other.

At this moment, Peng Sijue called them over. The autopsy room was now full of burnt corpses. There were so many that even the ground was full. Lin Qiupu asked, "Captain Peng, have you found anything?"

"I found that all the corpses had more or less signs of fractures and cracks. During the first autopsy, I didn't care too much because there were a lot of broken bricks falling down at the fire site, and the deceased would definitely have varying degrees of injuries. However, I just checked again. Look at this..." Peng Sijue pointed to a bone marked ‘3’ and said, "His fracture was in the elbow joint."

"Deceased Number 5 had a fracture in the neck. Number 6 had a fracture in the leg. Number 8 had a fracture at the bottom of the spine..." Peng Sijue pointed to them one by one.

Chen Shi muttered, "The fractures in these parts don't look as though they were hit by something, but rather a fight before their deaths. Their opponent maimed them but didn't kill them... Who could be so tough?"

"Could it be Lu Qi?" Lin Qiupu asked in shock.

Lin Qiupu immediately asked his subordinates to check Lu Qi's background. It was unexpectedly discovered that Lu Qi had been practicing grappling and fighting ever since he was a teenager. This set of fighting skills he had cultivated could correspond to the fractures that the deceased had suffered.

Chen Shi said, "Do you remember how these people were trapped in a small room and burned to death? At first, we thought they were hiding in the rooms to avoid the fire. It seems that we might be wrong. It was Lu Qi that beat them until they couldn’t move. Then, he dragged them into each small room before setting the house on fire. After the fire passed, it was what we saw before us."

Lin Qiupu was stunned for a moment. "Why did he kill these people? He and Su Chan had an affair and almost all of these people would have already been bribed so that they wouldn't tell Dong Xiao."

"People can become inhumane after they kill people!" Chen Shi sighed. "Lu Qi killed Dong Xiao first, and then began to madly beat the people in the house. Secretary Li went crazy when he saw this scene in front of him."

"The blood on Secretary Li's body was in a splatter form. Could he be the one who shot the gun?" Peng Sijue proposed a hypothesis.

The three of them sent Secretary Li's bloodied clothes to the physical evidence center to conduct a gun residue test. Sure enough, gun residue was found on it. It could only be left after a shot was made in close proximity.

Chen Shi's mind had already sketched the whole picture of the incident that took place in Fengyi Court on the afternoon of January 20th. Lu Qi and Su Chan had an affair. Dong Xiao drove there and had a dispute with Lu Qi. Lu Qi killed him in anger. Secretary Li picked up the gun and ran away.

On the way to look for Secretary Li, Lu Qi decided to settle the matter completely. He crippled all the people in the house and locked them into small rooms before he found Secretary Li.

Secretary Li shot the gun in panic, wounding Lu Qi, and he was able to save his own life.

Lu Qi started to set fire to the house and fled with Su Chan with Dong Xiao's body.

"But why didn't Lu Qi throw Dong Xiao at the scene and let him be burned as well?" Lin Qiupu raised a doubt.

"No matter how much a body is burned, DNA identification technology can be used to confirm the identity of the body. If Dong Xiao's body was found at the scene, the police would turn their attention to Lu Qi and guess that he committed murder. Old Peng, based on the current evidence, is it impossible to accuse Lu Qi?"

"Yes. The direct cause of death of these people was suffocation caused by inhalation of toxic gas. They died in the fire. We cannot prove that the injuries on their bodies came from a specific person... Actually, I think you’re overthinking this. Maybe there’s evidence on Dong Xiao's body that cannot be burned, so Lu Qi must take the body away."

"Evidence that the fire can't burn?" Lin Qiupu and Chen Shi asked in unison.

"I’ve once dealt with a case in which the deceased was incinerated extremely thoroughly, but the suspect’s DNA was detected on the deceased’s teeth. He bit the murderer when he was fighting with the murderer. Of course, this is only based on my technical opinion."

"That makes sense!" Chen Shi nodded.

"I’ll inform everyone at the meeting that the focus of our work now is to find Lu Qi!" Lin Qiupu said.

After the meeting, the focus of the second team’s work changed from searching for Dong Xiao to searching for Lu Qi, but it was very difficult to find Lu Qi. There were no surveillance cameras at the scene. Peng Sijue noticed a detail during the re-investigation. Several vehicles were burned at the scene, but there was no sign of Dong Xiao’s car. However, Lu Qi’s car was burned. According to their inference, it seemed as though Lu Qi drove Dong Xiao's car away to deliberately create the illusion that Dong Xiao was missing.

The next day, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to Lu Qi's house. Although they knew that it was impossible to find him there, there was nowhere else to investigate at the moment. Perhaps some hints would appear!

Lu Qi was now the suspect in this case, so Chen Shi wasn’t polite with him. They went to his apartment and he pried open the door.

This was a duplex apartment. When you entered the door, you could see a spacious sofa, a mounted TV, and a dazzling array of wine racks. There was also a small bar table in the living room. Chen Shi sighed. "It’s indeed a wealthy person’s residence."

There were many books on the shelf in the study room, but when they took them down, they found that they were all brand new. The plastic film on the outside hadn’t even been removed. It seemed that this guy didn't read books at all.

There was a book placed in an inconspicuous position that actually looked a bit old. After taking it down and having a look, Chen Shi was dumbfounded. Lin Dongxue curiously leaned over. "What are you looking at? This is-"

The book was full of nude photos of women, but it wasn’t a professional photo book. Based on the quality of the photos, they were taken by amateurs. Chen Shi guessed that this was a book of Lu Qi’s beauty-hunting "mementos". This person was truly a debauchee.

"Disgusting man!" Lin Dongxue had a look of contempt. "Don't look."

"Okay, I won't look at it." Chen Shi put the "commemorative book" back on the shelf. There was a photo on the shelf where Lu Qi was shirtless, wearing boxing gloves, and sweating. It seemed that he had just practiced in the gym and was photographed after boxing.

Chen Shi checked the toilet, kitchen, and refrigerator, and said with certainty, "No one has been in this house in recent days."

"Do you think Su Chan is in a hostage situation right now? Seeing Lu Qi kill so many people with her own eyes, can she still follow him comfortably?"

Chen Shi shook his head. "I don't know what she thinks, but I’m guessing that when we find her in the future, she will definitely say that she was a hostage."

At this moment, there was a knock on the door outside and the two became alert...