The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 42: The Murder of her Husband in Wanping County [Part 2]

Zhang Dalong hurried out of the gate. He had imagined that he would catch Li red-handed like the last time. Unexpectedly, he looked up and saw that there were 60 or 70 people crowded in the dark at the bottom of the alley. However, from Zhang Erhu's house next door to his house, it was empty and no one could be seen!

Zhang Dalong was confused and stared at the neighbors in the opposite neighborhood. He didn't know what to do for a long time.

"Behind you!"

Finally, his wife couldn't help reminding him.

Zhang Dalong hurriedly looked back at the speech, but he saw Li stumbling and running. She was already near the alley!

"Well, bring Li back!"

Sun Shaozong gave a gesture and signaled the Yamen guards at the entrance of the alley to bring Li back to the bottom of the alley.

He then spread his hands at Zhang Dalong, who was at a loss and said, "Li is injured now, and the speed may be slower than before, but when you got out, she already escaped nearly thirty feet. Thus, your testimony itself has proved that Li is not the one who broke the gate open and escaped."

At this time, Zhang Dalong also noticed something wrong, but for a while, he was embarrassed, so he hesitated and said, "That knife... That kitchen knife is what she often uses!"

"Well…"

Sun Shaozong looked back and pointed to Zhang Erhu's yard saying, "There is a sharpening stone under the old locust tree, which I have just seen. The friction marks on it are quite obvious. It should be that it has just been used. It is estimated that Zhang Erhu was sharpening his knife in the yard when he suddenly had a conflict with someone else, and the murderer grabbed the kitchen knife and stabbed him to death."

At this time, Li had also been brought back by the Yamen guard.

Sun Shaozong ignored Zhang Dalong and asked Li to go back to Zhang Erhu's yard. He also told her to wait in the inner room according to the testimony. After hearing someone scream outside, they demonstrated the original situation again.

When Li was ordered to return to the house, Sun Shaozong selected one of the several Yamen guards who was the most skillful and responsible for playing the murderer.

"Action!"

When everything was ready, the Yamen guard stood in front of the body, stabbed forward with a branch in his hand, and then screamed sadly and shrilly, left the branch, and ran away!

Bang!

Almost at the moment when the Yamen guard had just disappeared outside the door, Li had rushed out of the room shouting, “husband”. She first jumped on the body and pushed it twice, then jumped up and chased out of the door.

"Cut!"

As soon as Li had crossed the threshold, Sun Shaozong immediately shouted. Li subconsciously stopped. The Yamen guard who played the murderer failed to break for a moment and ran seven or eight steps forward. He then stopped at the door of a family, about thirty feet away from the entrance of the alley.

"Done!"

Sun Shaozong snapped his fingers and said with a proud smile, "It's exactly what I thought! The total length of the alley is about 260 meters. Zhang Erhu's gate is about 45 meters to the East, at least 215 meters away from the exit. It's less than 20 seconds from the time the murderer rushed out of the courtyard to Li's chase. If the murderer wants to run out of the alley in such a short time, it's impossible even if Bolt is here!"

"But Li and Zhang Dalong didn't see the murderer at all." Ruan Rong suddenly said, "So either Li or Zhang Dalong lied, or the murderer ran out of the door and immediately hid in the neighbor's house!"

"That's right!"

Pointing to the crowded neighbors at the bottom of the alley, Sun Shaozong said, "That's why I insisted on bringing them back together at the beginning. If there’s no surprise, the murderer should be among these people!"

According to the testimony of Li and Zhang Dalong, he deduced many clues and even locked the suspect in advance. Ruan Rong's eyes were full of worship and pride, but she said coldly, "By the way, what do 260 meters mean? And, who is that Bolt?"

"Hmm..."

Sun Shaozong found that he was a little complacent just now and hurriedly covered up, and said, "These are not important. At present, we should quickly identify the suspects and their families separately, so as not to collide with each other!"

As he said this, he ordered the Yamen guards to temporarily separate the two families at the bottom of the alley and the six families on the west side of Zhang Erhu's house according to men, women, old, and young, including Zhang Dalong's family.

Although the probability was relatively low, it couldn't be excluded that Zhang Dalong pretended to be innocent after he committed the crime.

As for the process of interrogation, it was simple. He just asked the Yamen guards to ask the suspects and their families what they were doing at that time.

The suspects with obvious alibis shall be eliminated first, and then continue to ask in detail. For example, if they were resting at home, they would ask the suspects and their families whether they were lying or sitting, where they were resting, and what posture they used.

Finally, after investigating each suspect one by one, two suspects gradually surfaced. Liu Jinbao, who lives at the bottom of the alley, and Xu Gensheng, who lives next door to Zhang Dalong's house.

One of the two claimed that he was squatting in the toilet when the crime was committed, and the other one said that at the time of the crime, he was tidying up the fence of the vegetable field in the yard. But their family could not provide circumstantial evidence for them.

However, it was difficult to tell who was the real murderer.

Therefore, the Yamen guards took them to Zhang Erhu's yard as instructed by Sun Shaozong.