Chapter 11 - Case 1: Dismemberment

This chapter is dedicated to Beverly. ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)

Chapter 11

At three o’clock in the afternoon, everyone in the South City Bureau was still busy. Fu Linjiang walked over from the outside, “Captain Song, Ma Minghui has been brought in.”

The case was at its most critical point, this was where the case comes to a climax. Sometimes it can be the end of the road, or it can be the light at the end of the tunnel.

The whole interrogation process was like a game, only with more information can they know whether the outcome was right or wrong. Unlike the previous questioning of Zhong Qing, Ma Minghui was brought in directly as a suspect. They no longer had to cover it up and got straight to the point.

♛♛♛

The interrogation room of the police station was covered with blue sound-proof walls. There were only tables, chairs, benches and a lamp in the entire room, which was clean and stifling. Ma Minghui had been taken into the interrogation room. Song Wen took Fu Linjiang and Lu Siyu into the observation room. The interrogation room and observation room was separated by a wall and there was a large one-sided glass through which the suspect’s movements and expressions could be seen, but the suspect cannot see the other room.

Zhu Xiao handed Song Wen the detailed information about Ma Minghui and the bank transfer records that he had just obtained. Song Wen took over and said, “Don’t give him any water, let him be thirsty for 20 minutes.” Then he turned and explained to Lu Siyu, “Nowadays, you can’t incorporate corporal punishments during interrogations. Nor is it legal to induce confessions by deceit, so we must pay more attention to psychological techniques. You can’t seduce him, but you can cheat him, so be sure to control the pace at all times. Keep yourself in the active position.”

With the passage of time, Ma Minghui, who was in the interrogation room, obviously became impatient. Because he was not yet charged of his crimes, they did not restrict his personal freedom but they simply took away all his personal belongings. Ma Minghui paced the room for a few minutes and knocked on the door.

Naturally, no one paid any attention to him.

Ma Minghui rubbed his hands in frustration and sat back down. Several detectives looked at him from the observation room. This man looked to be in his twenties, was about 1.8 meters tall, with brown hair, wheat complexion, and slightly long bangs. He was not very handsome, but was well-dressed and looked fairly clean.

Song Wen looked at the various documents intently, cross checked a few pieces of evidence, and pointed with his finger: “There is indeed a problem here.” Fu Linjiang heard him talking and came over, looking at several bank records.

In addition to the recent transfer of 100,000 yuan from the Zhong Qing, Lin Zhenghua also successively withdrew 200,000 yuan in cash. Nowadays, with there being all sorts of convenient payment methods, the victim did not buy a house or a car. This large amount of money was indeed questionable, and the last withdrawal turned out to be at 7:10 p.m in the evening, on the day of the murder. A one-time withdrawal of 100,000 yuan.

Song Wen looked at other evidence that Zhu Xiao found. It was an anonymous email that the victim received a month ago. There was an intimate photo of him and Ma Minghui at a bar. Then he looked through Ma Minghui’s recent records, which showed several large purchases and more bank deposits than usual. Going back even further, it seemed that every once in a while, more illegal money would be deposited into his account.

Fu Linjiang frowned, “Is this not…… a fairy jump?” The only difference was that in the past, fairy jumping was used more by women to extort men for money, but now this relationship seems to be a variation of the traditional fairy jumping.

(T/N: fairy jump: xiān rén tiào: A fraud scheme where a woman offers sexual services, and then her partner, usually a male will extort money from the victim)

Song Wen nodded his head and instructed Zhu Xiao: “Make a video and audio recording.”

This time, it was Song Wen and Fu Linjiang who were in charge of the interrogation. Ma Minghui was not alerted to the sudden arrival of people, and was startled by the sound of them opening the door, looking up in fear.

Song Wen took one look at him, sat opposite of him, and pulled the stool forward.

Only then did Ma Minghui wake up like a dream: “Officer, there must be some type of misunderstanding. I really didn’t know that Lin Zhenghua was dead, I really didn’t do anything……”

But Fu Linjiang ignored him, the good old man who had always been smiling frowned and asked, “Name”

“I…… I…… “Ma Minghui still wanted to say something.

Song Wen repeated: “Name.” His tone was much harsher than that of Fu Linjiang’s.

Only then did Ma Minghui shriveled and stammered, “Ma…… Ma Minghui.”

“Gender”

“Male”

“Age”

“24”

“Ethnicity”

“Chinese”

“Occupation”

“Bar bartender”

“Education”

“High School Graduate…….”

“What was the relationship between you and the victim?” Song Wen finally cut to the chase.

“I…… we just… occasionally got together.”

“Say it clearly.”

“We were living together, he paid to support me.” Ma Minghui said the last few words in a low voice, as soft as a mosquito humming.

“How long have you known each other? How did you know each other?”

“It’s been three months. We met at the bar where I work.”

“The night before last, did you see Lin Zhenghua?”

“Yes”

“When?”

“Seven o’clock……”

Song Wen raised his eyes: “Don’t fucking lie. At 6:50 p.m. the victim went directly to the bank to withdraw money, after punching out from work at 7:10 p.m. He appeared on the bank monitor. During this period, you did not meet him.”

There were several types of suspects. Some do not pry open their mouths without saying a word. Some can speak as fast as pouring beans into a bamboo barrel. Some talk nonsense and can’t speak any truths without asking them. A sentence of truth is mixed with a half of a lie. Song Wen has experience in dealing with such people, so he needs to find out the lies in their words as soon as possible, and he still has to catch them. The harder you hammer, the more frustrated the other party will be.

“I don’t remember…… Officer that day I took a leave., After dinner I drank with a few friends, and went back to sleep at 7 o’clock. Then I was woken up by Lin Zhenghua and had an argument with him. I later took my things, made a phone call to my friend, asking to stay there overnight.” The more Ma Minghui spoke, the more people thought there was a problem.

He wanted to blur the time, because he knew that Lin Zhenghua was killed after that, and the earlier it all happened, the less suspicious he was; but all it did was make him seem more and more suspicious.

“Did you have a violent fight?”

“Well…I was anxious, who remembers at a time like that….”

“When you are anxious…” Fu Linjiang said, “In other words, you had ample time to commit the crime.”

Ma Minghui was still crying out his grievance: “That night, it was over between me and him. Officer, I am telling the truth. I dare not kill, I’m not very courageous…..”

Song Wen snorted, “I don’t think you’re a coward at all. You got someone to take ambiguous pictures of yourself and Lin Zhenghua at the bar, and threatened to send those pictures to his company right?”

Although Lin Zhenghua was a high-profile figure in his circle, he had always been well hidden in his company due to his wife and son. The first reaction with blackmailing, was to use the money to eliminate the disaster.

They didn’t bring out this evidence at the beginning of questioning, but waited for the first flaw to appear and then used the facts to overwhelm Ming Hui.

“I didn’t, I don’t know.” Ma Minghui was still sticking to his guns.

Song Wen closed the file and looked at him, “Now even if you withdraw cash, the bank will have a record of the currency number. Should we take a gamble and see if the money in your wallet is exactly the same as the money Lin Zhenghua took out?”

Hearing these words, under the light, the color faded from Ma Minghui’s face and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

“Confess, we already have the evidence you extorting Lin Zhenghua.” Song Wen said pointing his finger to the desktop, “Extortion and blackmail. Since its a huge sum of money, you will be locked awawy for more than 10 years and now with this murder case, you are the most suspicious…… and……”

At this point, Song Wen looked at Ma Minghui. The look in his eyes caused a layer of cold sweat to appear on Ma Minghui’s back.

“You’re a repeat offender of the fairy jump, right? With your status as a bartender, you specifically select married men who go to gay bars. Once you have seduced someone, you intervene as a male mistress and then threaten the victim to expose the matter. After you get the money, you then make the excuse to break up……”

Ma Minghui didn’t expect the police to find out about those things so quickly, and he trembled, “Officers, I will confess. Extortion, this thing is done by my accomplice Guo Zai. That time…… he took a picture of me and Lin Zhenghua, then sent it to his mailbox…… He started to blackmail at 200,000 yuan, and Lin Zhenghua gave it. Later, Guo Zai said that since this guy gave the money so easily, he must have still money, so I asked for another 100,000 yuan; but the murder really has nothing to do with me.”

“What is Guo Zai’s actual name?”

“It’s called Guo Zai…… I don’t know how his parents gave him that name.”

(T/N: Song Wen was asking for Guo Zai’s full/actual name, since ‘Guo Zai’ might be just a nickname/false name)

In the observation room, Fu Linjiang raised his hand and gestured to Zhu Xiao outside, who immediately understood the gesture and returned to his office to look up information on Guo Zai.

“Lin Zhenghua found out that you and your accomplice were blackmailing him…… so he drove home that night and then went to the rented house to question you. Afterwards, you both got into a heated argument, then you grabbed the knife and killed him?” Fu Linjiang felt that by asking this question, he was getting closer and closer to the truth of the matter.

“At that time… I grabbed the knife, yes that is correct, but it was just to scare him. He scolded me a few times and asked me to pay back all the money he gave me, but I didn’t kill him……” As Ma Minghui spoke, his pupils shrank, “Right…… Guo Zai…… after I left there, maybe that kid couldn’t stand it and killed Lin Zhenghua……”

In order to clear his name, Ma Minghui had already begun to choose to betray his companions. In the observation room, Lu Siyu looked at everything in the interrogation room with his arms folded and biting his nails.

Song Wen stared at Ma Minghui. What about Guo Zai, did he kill someone? Just because they had already spent most of the 300,000, were they afraid that Lin Zhenghua would retaliate and ask them for money, so they simply killed Lin Zhenghua? He always felt that something was wrong.

In any case, these two men were extorting a large amount of money, and I’m afraid they will be locked away behind prison bars for a while. Ma Minghui began to explain the details. Old Jia knocked on the door of the observation room, where only Lu Siqing was present. Old Jia looked at him and curled his lips, without any intention of talking to him. He turned around and knocked on the door of the interrogation room again.

Before the statement was finished, Song Wen could not be pulled away. Fu Linjiang turned around and went out to the interrogation room with Old Jia.

Only then did Old Jia speak up, “Lieutenant, there is a woman outside. What was her name again, Zhong? Zhong Qing.”

“Zhong Qing? Wasn’t that the victim’s wife? What’s she doing here?” Fu Linjiang still had an impression of Zhong Qing’s name. When Lu Siqing heard Zhong Qing’s name, he also turned around and looked at Old Jia, who was not too surprised that the person he had just met this morning was here.

Old Jia looked at Ma Minghui in the interrogation room, who was crying and confessing, and spoke with some confusion: “She’s turning herself in. What’s going on?”

♛♛♛

Translating team shenanigans

Mochi : We treasure your comments, but we are afraid that replying will reduce our majestic and cool impression factor our readers all have on us . (◣_◢)

Usagi: Are you sure? Are you really sure, they think of us like that? (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)

Readers: