Chapter 41: There's Another Direction
Around 4:40 AM, Su Tianyu, Bai Hongbo, Zhang Hao, and others drove to the third-floor warehouse. The heavy rain outside hadn't stopped yet, and there were still several police officers collecting evidence inside and outside the warehouse.
In the car, Su Tianyu took out his phone and dialed Yu Mingyuan's number: "Hello, we've arrived, but I see there are still police officers in the warehouse."
"Don't go in yet. They'll finish processing the scene and put up seals soon. Wait until they leave before you handle things. Don't touch the other equipment inside, just clean up the speedboats and such in the backyard," Yu Mingyuan was quite annoyed, feeling he had gotten into unnecessary trouble, but he still controlled his emotions as he instructed Su Tianyu and the others to wrap things up.
"Alright, I understand," Su Tianyu nodded.
The two chatted for a while before ending the call.
"This Tang Baiqing really has too much time on his hands. How can playing with women lead to someone's death? Couldn't he just love properly?" Bai Hongbo really couldn't understand why a beautiful relationship between a man and woman would end up as a bloody incident. He was also very troubled: "Do you think this will affect our business?"
"It shouldn't," Su Tianyu nodded. "These are two separate matters."
"Sigh, we're supposed to receive new goods tomorrow, but tonight someone fucking died," Bai Hongbo lit a cigarette. "It's so annoying."
Su Tianyu hadn't thought that far earlier, but hearing Bai Hongbo's words, he suddenly realized: "Damn! Tang Baiqing caused trouble in the warehouse, then... what about Daxiong?"
Everyone was stunned upon hearing this.
"He lives here, so he was probably taken away as an eyewitness," Bai Hongbo tentatively replied.
......
Normally, Tang Baiqing's case would have been directly handled by the Police Bureau, and he and Daxiong should have been taken back to the bureau for questioning. But Deputy Director Old Yang hadn't arranged it that way. Instead, he had the officers below take the people back to the Criminal Cases office building in Zha'nan District.
The heavy rain was still falling outside. Tang's father's business van was parked across from the Criminal Cases office building in Zha'nan District, engine running, lights off, full of people inside.
"Old Tang, make some calls, find some connections!" Tang's mother urged anxiously. "We can't just wait like this."
"Is your brain not working?" Tang's father frowned and retorted. "Old Yang hasn't given us any signal yet. What's the use of finding connections now? What should I say? That your son killed someone?!"
"Then what should we do?"
"Wait. If Old Yang doesn't give us a signal, don't create extra trouble," Tang's father waved his hand in reply.
Tang's mother sobbed, not daring to argue.
It was just dawn, and the people at the Police Department hadn't started work yet. The Criminal Cases office building was very empty.
After Tang Baiqing was brought back, he had been staying in the police office on the third floor. No one had questioned him or taken any restrictive measures against him. Instead, Daxiong had been questioned twice, just about the basic situation of the case.
In the Criminal Cases office area on the third floor, Old Yang sat in a chair by the window, looking down at the victim's information, as well as Tang Baiqing and Daxiong's files.
"Tang Baiqing said that woman was pregnant. Is that true?" Old Yang asked, flipping through the files.
"It's not true. The medical examiner checked, she wasn't pregnant. Probably just trying to scare Tang Baiqing," the police officer beside him replied, drinking tea. "But her drug use has been confirmed, which is favorable for Tang Baiqing."
"That's good then," Old Yang nodded, squinting as he looked at Daxiong's personal information from the questioning. "This Wu Shixiong lives on Tufang Street, and he has two brothers?"
"Yes, he filled out the form himself," the officer agreed. "I mentioned this kid, he seems to be a bit mentally deficient, stutters when he speaks."
"Ah?" Old Yang looked up. "He has intellectual disabilities?"
"That's what it sounded like when he spoke," the officer reminded softly. "Chief! If this kid really has intellectual disabilities, that could be troublesome! If we go with the direction that the woman was on drugs and attacked first, and Tang Baiqing acted in self-defense, if Wu Shixiong is determined to have intellectual disabilities, the prosecution will hardly be able to accept his testimony. But without a third witness, relying solely on Tang Baiqing's confession and the evidence details we come up with... it'll be hard to get past the prosecution and court."
Old Yang had been a police officer here since the third year after the Dragon City Police Bureau was established. Although his rank wasn't particularly high, he had very rich experience in handling criminal cases. Just glancing at the materials, he already had a general idea about this matter in his mind.
"Let's go see this Wu Shixiong," Old Yang stood up.
"You're going to question him? Is there any use?" The officer also stood up.
Old Yang didn't respond, just walked out of the office.
Five minutes later, in the interrogation room, when Wu Shixiong saw Old Yang come in, he immediately stood up: "G-good morning, officer!"
"Hehe, it's alright, sit down, sit down," Old Yang smiled and waved his hand. "Do you smoke?"
"No," Daxiong shook his head.
"I've read your statement. This matter has nothing to do with you," Old Yang sat at the interrogation table, speaking very amiably. "When we return to the Police Bureau in the morning, you can sign and leave after you sign."
"Ah, th-thank you for your trouble," Daxiong nodded.
"I saw in your statement that you have two brothers at home?"
"Y-yes, I have two older brothers."
"Are they all working? Oh, did your family also come over from Summer Island back then?" Old Yang didn't ask any serious questions, instead chatting casually with Daxiong.
It went on until about 6:30 in the morning when Old Yang finally walked out of the interrogation room: "It's almost time for work. Wrap things up, we'll return to the Police Bureau at eight."
"Alright," the officer nodded.
"I'm going out for a bit," Old Yang grabbed a jacket and quickly left the office building. Braving the light rain, he got into Tang's father's car: "Don't stop here, drive forward a bit."
The driver did as told.
"How is it, Old Yang?" Tang's father immediately asked.
"Old Tang, this matter is complex if you say it's complex, but simple if you say it's simple," Old Yang replied with some conflict, rubbing his palms as he narrated: "Both Baiqing and that woman were on drugs, but we can work with this, we can change it. However, following our previous line of thought, the eyewitness at the scene is a bit tricky... he has intellectual disabilities. We haven't tested to see exactly how severe it is yet, but if he has serious intellectual disabilities, then his testimony won't carry much weight with the prosecution."
"Ah, go on."
"I've been thinking, this case could actually be taken in another direction," Old Yang leaned close to Tang's father's ear and softly explained his idea.
......
Just past 7 AM, in a breakfast shop near the port in Zha'nan District, Wei Xiangzuo was eating soy milk and fried dough sticks with a great appetite.
"Sitting Hall, have you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Seems like Tang Baiqing from the Maritime Police got into trouble last night," a young man said in a low voice.
"What kind of trouble?" Wei Xiangzuo asked.
"Seems like someone died, at that warehouse in Haiyan Pit," the young man sneered and cursed. "Our gang was looking for him yesterday, didn't expect we won't even be able to see him today."
"What did you want to find him for?"
"What else? The business Tang Baiqing and the dirty gang are running has made everyone unhappy. At first, there wasn't much volume, so we let it slide out of courtesy. But now they're getting bigger and bigger, and the higher-ups aren't happy," the young man asked in return. "Sitting Hall, what do you think about this?"
Wei Xiangzuo drank his soy milk without saying a word.
At the same time, after dealing with the loose ends at the third-floor warehouse, Su Tianyu immediately drove with Bai Hongbo and Zhang Hao to the entrance of the Zha'nan Police Department.