Card Room (Rebirth)

Xiao Lou used the last few seconds while he was being kidnapped to leave the drone behind. The clues seen from shooting from high above were very important. Thanks to having the license plate number, Yu Hanjiang could quickly track the location of the van.

After hanging up, Yu Hanjiang immediately headed to the public security bureau of Qingshui Town. He went to the local criminal investigations police to help him obtain the surveillance video to track down the van.

The young police officer looked at his police officer’s card with wide eyes. “You are Group Leader Yu of the city bureau? Come in!”

Yu Hanjiang followed the young man through the door of the bureau.

A meeting was taking place in the office. There were bloody photos of various crime scenes on the PPT. A man with a beard was explaining the case with a laser pointer. He saw Yu Hanjiang entering the room and raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “You are?”

The young police officer who brought Yu Hanjiang into the room said, “Boss, this is Group Leader Yu from the city bureau.”

The man immediately came over with a smile and held out his hand. “Hello Group Leader Yu, I am Liu Haoming from the Qingshui Town bureau. I just called the city bureau and didn’t think you would come so soon.”

The distance between the city and Qingshui Town was far. After receiving the phone call, it required at least three hours of driving. So Yu Hanjiang appearing at this moment shouldn’t be because of the call. Liu Haoming thought of this and hit his forehead. “Were you… originally in Qingshui Town?”

“Yes, I am investigating a case.” Yu Hanjiang shook hands with him and asked, “Why did you call the city bureau?” His phone broke while chasing the killer so he hadn’t received any calls from his colleagues in the city bureau.

“It’s like this.” Liu Haoming opened the PPT and spoke in a low voice while showing a series of photos. “I have a serial murder case and I wanted to ask an expert from the city bureau to come and investigate it.” He changed to the photo of the birthday banquet at the hotel at noon. “The first deceased is Zhong Yongqiang. He was holding his 60th birthday party at Hua’an Hotel at noon and was poisoned to death in front of everyone there. We carried out the evidence at the scene. After testing and analysis, we found the highly toxic potassium cyanide in the wine glass but the person responsible for the poisoning hasn’t been found yet.”

“Did someone else die?” Uncle Zhong’s matter was very clear to Yu Hanjiang. He was at the scene. The thing that puzzled him was the ‘serial murder’ that Group Leader Liu referred to.

“The second deceased is He Rong, Zhong Yongqiang’s nephew.” Liu Haoming pressed the remote to change to the next photo. He Rong was lying on the driver’s seat of a private car, eyes staring into the air and a bright line across his neck. “At 1:30 pm., He Rong came to the police station to give his statement. Since he had no motive for murder and was never in contact with the wine glass, I let him go. I didn’t think that later in the afternoon, around 4 p.m., I would receive a report that he died in his car.”

“……” Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly while looking at photos of the scene.

It was obvious why He Rong was killed. The people from the mysterious organization were always one step ahead of the police in reaching the witnesses of the police investigation. Cheng Shaofeng, Zhong Yongqiang and He Rong died one by one.

Who was so divine that they could actually grasp the trend of the police investigation?

“The two deceased people are important witnesses in the case I am investigating. The murder in Qingshui Town will be investigated in conjunction with the January 25th dismembered body case of the city bureau. Group Leader Liu, please send me the information of the two deceased.”

“Yes!” Group Leader Liu was anxious to give away this hot potato. He hurriedly had his subordinates give the file to Yu Hanjiang.

“Help me check the information of the car Bin A-78964. In addition, immediately bring up the surveillance video of the south side of Wencheng Road between 2-2:30 to track the car.” Yu Hanjiang moved to a chair and sat down, his expression extremely serious. He didn’t say why he was investigating the car but meeting his cold eyes, Group Leader Liu immediately waved a hand and ordered his subordinates. “Quickly check it!”

“Yes!” His subordinates hurriedly moved.

“Group Leader Liu, the car Bin A-78964 is a black van that belongs to He Rong.” A female police officer quickly reported the result.

“He Rong’s car?” Yu Hanjiang raised an eyebrow in surprise.

At that time, Xiao Lou had come out of the coffee shop, walked around the corner and was kidnapped when he came to Wenchang Road. He Rong should’ve been taken back by the police to give a statement. Based on the drone surveillance video, it wasn’t He Rong who abducted Xiao Lou. Obviously, the other party deliberately drove He Rong’s car to kidnap people. Then they killed He Rong so there would be no evidence.

“What about the surveillance?” Yu Hanjiang asked in a deep voice.

“I’ve brought it up, Group Leader Yu.” A young police officer answered.

Yu Hanjiang got up and followed the other person to the surveillance room. The surveillance cameras basically covered all the main roads in Qingshui Town and the surveillance for the Wencheng Road area was brought up for Yu Hanjiang to see. At 2:15 in the afternoon, Xiao Lou appeared at the corner. It wasn’t known who attacked him but he suddenly fell down. A black van drove over immediately and he was carried inside.

“A kidnapping?” Group Leader Liu was stunned.

Yu Hanjiang didn’t explain and instructed with a calm face, “Track the car.”

At 2:18 p.m., the black van appeared at the end of Wencheng Road and turned right into Dingxiang Avenue. At 2:20 p.m., the car encountered a red light and stayed at the intersection for one minute. Then it turned right into Haihu Road…

The surveillance screen continued to switch and the car’s path was locked onto by Yu Hanjiang.

However, after tracking it, he found that the car actually circled the main roads of the town three or four times!

The police officers repeatedly adjusting the surveillance were dizzy while the expression on Yu Hanjiang’s face became colder. This group deliberately drove back and forth through town to increase the difficulty of the investigation. It wasn’t until 4:30 p.m. that the black van turned a corner and entered an underground garage. It didn’t come out again.

Yu Hanjiang stood up and stared at the entrance with narrowed eyes. “Which community is this?”

Group Leader Liu hurriedly answered, “It should be Jinxiu Villa. By the way, He Rong’s body was also found in the underground garage of Jinxiu Villa. Group Leader Yu, do you want to go see the scene?”

Jinxiu Villa was the place where He Rong bought three apartments and renovated them into a luxury home for his uncle. The van that contained the kidnapped Xiao Lou drove into Jinxiu Villa and He Rong was killed in the garage. The things that happened in the underground garage would be critical.

Yu Hanjiang immediately turned around. “Go to the underground garage!”

Two police cars drove into the underground garage of Jinxiu Villa. It was 6 o’clock in the evening and a full four hours had passed since Xiao Lou disappeared. Yu Hanjiang clenched his fists to keep himself as calm as possible. He had to calm down to find and analyze clues. This was the only way Xiao Lou could be rescued.

The underground garage of Jinxiu Villa had two floors. They were led by the security guard into the garage and soon found the black van with the license plate Bin A-78964.

Yu Hanjiang’s heart thumped violently when he saw the car quietly parked in the private parking space. He was really afraid to open the door and see Xiao Lou lying in a pool of blood. He couldn’t accept such a picture!

Group Leader Liu didn’t know the situation. He waved to have his subordinates open the door.

The door was locked. Two policemen used a lot of effort to open the doors. Yu Hanjiang looked in. The car was empty and no blood was seen. This made him feel slightly relieved.

Yu Hanjiang got into the car and used the fingerprint detector handed over by Group Leader Liu to search the car carefully, not missing any corner. To his disappointment, no fingerprints were found in the car, not even on the steering wheel.

Group Leader Liu said, “These kidnappers must’ve worn gloves while driving? Their anti-investigation ability is quite professional!”

Yu Hanjiang let out a low hum of agreement and carefully searched the car.

Group Leader Liu wondered, “Who was kidnapped?”

Yu Hanjiang simply answered, “Some colleagues who followed me to Qingshui Town to investigate the case.”

“Fuck!” Group Leader Liu sucked in a breath. “These people are too damn daring!”

Yu Hanjiang kept his face calm and said nothing as he continued to search the car.

No useful clues were found in the compartments of the car. He got out and went to the back seat. He picked up the flashlight and searched every inch, not even missing under the seat. Suddenly, he saw a card lying quietly in a hidden corner under the back seat.

Yu Hanjiang lay down, reached under the seat and grabbed the card. During the time when the other policemen weren’t paying attention, he quickly opened his palm and looked at the card. It was the Bug card. This was Ye Qi’s card.

The kidnappers probably used this car when they kidnapped Ye Qi and Old Mo as well. Ye Qi might not have lost consciousness yet when he was brought into the car. He probably placed a bug on these people and left the card under the seat. In this way, Yu Hanjiang just needed to find the card and he could activate the bug to hear the movements of the kidnappers.

Ye Qi’s reaction was quick enough at the critical moment. Yu Hanjiang placed the card in his pocket and spoke calmly. “Take me to the scene where He Rong was killed.”

Group Leader Liu took Yu Hanjiang forward and pointed to a red sedan car ahead of them. “He Rong died in this car and the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. The time of death was around 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon. After our analysis of the scene, it is likely that someone was hiding in the back of his car for a long time. After he got into the car, he was suddenly strangled from behind with a rope.”

“What was the result of the on-site evidence collection?”

“No evidence such as fingerprints, hair, etc. were found. The murder weapon also wasn’t found and the modus operandi was very clean.”

“Has the garage surveillance been looked at?”

“The surveillance on the second underground floor is all fucking broken!” Group Leader Liu was angry. “The murderer should be very familiar with the community and the surveillance was probably destroyed by him!”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. This was also what he expected. The surveillance of the second floor garage had been destroyed and there were no clues about kidnapping or killing. He Rong died in his car while Xiao Lou, Ye Qi and Old Mo must’ve been transferred after the van drove to the second underground floor.

All vehicles leaving the community were suspicious. Yet in this way, the scope of the investigation was too wide and it was difficult to narrow down the target in a short time.

Yu Hanjiang thought for a moment. “Group Leader Liu, please ask the property manager of the community to get the monitoring after 3:30 p.m. All the cars leaving the community have to be checked. In addition, from the second underground floor to the first underground floor, all suspicious people who took the elevator upstairs should be investigated.”

Group Leader Liu nodded. “Understood!”

Seeing him turn to leave, Group Leader Liu was stunned. “Group Leader Yu, where are you going?”

Yu Hanjiang told him, “I have other clues to be investigated. Please feel free to contact me if you make any progress. By the way… my phone broke. Can you lend me a mobile phone?”

Group Leader Liu arranged for a subordinate to give a new mobile phone to Yu Hanjiang. Yu Hanjiang took out the sim card from his broken phone and placed it in the new mobile phone so the number was the same. Then he thanked them and quickly left Jinxiu Villa.

He found his own car and carefully observed that there were no abnormalities in the car before getting in. Then he activated the bug card left by Ye Qi.

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality