Chapter 115: A Turn of Events

After arranging for detectives to go to the Gong family home to find the mobile phone used for one-way contact, Hu Jinquan applied to the bureau to have the city bureau's portrait artist draw a sketch of the suspect based on Gong Zheng's description.

Gong Zheng had seen the suspect twice in total. Although he claimed the suspect's appearance was different both times, it was difficult to make the voice and physical build completely different.

Based on Gong Zheng's description, the simulated portrait was quickly produced. How to find this person became an urgent matter for Hu Jinquan to solve.

According to the information provided by Gong Zheng, the police went to Jianshe Road, where the suspect first got into his car, and the vicinity of the residential compound where Gong Zheng's parents lived to check surveillance. Hard work pays off; after viewing a large amount of surveillance video, they finally discovered a highly similar figure in both places!

After showing the video screenshots to Gong Zheng for identification, it was confirmed that this was the mysterious person he had met twice! The members of the special investigation team were greatly encouraged! By following the trail like this, they would surely be able to track down the mysterious person's final destination, and then his identity would be clear immediately!

So, led by Hu Jinquan, the group analyzed the suspect's route and searched carefully, frame by frame, along every road!

However, the result left Hu Jinquan greatly disappointed!

The suspect's figure was never seen in the cameras again! It was as if he had appeared out of thin air at those two locations and then vanished from there!

Hu Jinquan felt a bit overwhelmed. He would rather charge into battle on the front lines of an arrest than play mind games with these cunning suspects! But this case, which was originally a simple accidental death, had turned into a complex murder case!

He collected his somewhat frustrated mood and, together with Criminal Police Officer Xiao Zhang, went to the old residential compound of the Public Transport Group where Gong Zheng's parents lived. The road here was a first-class road in Zizhen, and in recent years, many cameras had been installed on such main city thoroughfares. He wanted to come to the scene to see if there were any surveillance blind spots they hadn't noticed.

This look really helped him find a way to avoid surveillance. The old residential compound of the Public Transport Group was an old community built in the 1970s, with a row of camphor trees planted along the perimeter wall. These camphor trees, which had been growing for nearly thirty years, had dense branches, and under the pruning of the landscaping department, their crowns were huge. Hu Jinquan walked back and forth under the trees several times, and looking back through the surveillance, he found that the surveillance couldn't capture the scene under the trees at all.

Since the suspect had done his homework in advance, it was impossible for him not to notice this! Hu Jinquan was not discouraged and went to the place where Gong Zheng first picked up the suspect. He found that it was a naturally formed taxi pick-up and drop-off point!

In such a place, as an old driver, everyone knew it was a place that surveillance couldn't capture! In other words, it was very likely that the suspect had first taken another car and then got off there before hailing Gong Zheng's car!

But if that was the case, how did he know that Gong Zheng's car would definitely pass by there, and that it would definitely be empty?

Hu Jinquan suddenly thought of a question: if the suspect had an accomplice beforehand who had been following Gong Zheng's car, or if he had first boarded Gong Zheng's car and immediately informed the other party after getting on, then Gong Zheng's car's route would be completely under the other party's control!

Thinking of these two possibilities, Hu Jinquan immediately arranged for Xiao Zhang to retrieve the last surveillance footage of Gong Zheng before he reached this stop, to check if there were any suspicious vehicles following Gong Zheng. Then, he immediately rushed back to the bureau because he remembered that in Gong Zheng's confession, there was no mention of whether there were other passengers in his car before the suspect got on.

The results from both sides came out quickly. There were no suspicious vehicles found behind Gong Zheng's car, and on that day, before Gong Zheng picked up the suspect, there was a young man in his 20s sitting in his car. According to Gong Zheng's recollection, the place where this young man got on was near the Hongweida Furniture City on Jiefang Road!

"Hongweida?" Hu Jinquan muttered to himself.

The surveillance video near the furniture city was quickly retrieved. When Gong Zheng's car was seen, the young passenger also appeared in the police's line of sight.

Through questioning Gong Zheng again, he remembered that the destination of the young man who got on near the furniture city was Jianshe Road, and the place where the young man got off happened to be the place where the suspect got on!

"Heh heh!" Hu Jinquan laughed triumphantly. No matter how cunning you are, you can't escape the palm of your Grandpa Hu! At this moment, he changed from his previous frustration and returned to being the spirited little crime-solving expert!

Finding that young man was much simpler. Because there were high-definition photos, Hu Jinquan prepared to screen through the files of people with criminal records first. Unexpectedly, he was screened out immediately!

This was a kid who had been caught and locked up for a few years for causing minor injuries in a fight. Upon deeper investigation, Hu Jinquan discovered an interesting thing: this kid named Xu Yang was actually a prison mate of Hou Hongbo!

"Hahaha!" Hu Jinquan laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "It seems my good luck has arrived!" he said happily. What he didn't know was that his good luck had indeed arrived, to the point that he even promoted to the position of deputy captain a step earlier than Gu Changzheng!

However, at this time, he hadn't realized what this case he was handling would bring to the task force led by Deputy Director Huo!

After confirming that the person who took Gong Zheng's car before the suspect that day was Xu Yang, Hu Jinquan immediately led people to quietly "invite" Xu Yang, who was soaking his feet in Yuexiang, back to the "reception room" of the Criminal Investigation Division.

The thin and shriveled Xu Yang looked like a thug with very obvious characteristics at a glance. As a regular visitor to the police station, Xu Yang thought he hadn't committed any crimes, so although he was brought in, he wasn't panicked at all. Instead, he clamored at Hu Jinquan with a look of defiance!

Hu Jinquan had his own methods for dealing with such local thugs. He took Xu Yang directly to a "small dark room." When Xu Yang saw this posture, he was momentarily confused! This, this was too unconventional, right?

He was just about to make a scene on the grounds that Hu Jinquan was not following legal procedures, but after seeing the scene in the "small dark room," he stopped making noise and just said slickly, "Hey, hey, Officer, if there's anything you need from your brother, just say it. I understand!"

Hu Jinquan laughed "heh heh," revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and said, "You really understand! That's good. Then tell me, on the 3rd of this month, at 4:50 PM, you got into a taxi at Hongweida Furniture City. Where did you go later?"

After Xu Yang's small eyes rolled around a few times, he pretended not to remember and said, "Officer, I take a taxi basically every day. You're asking me this—I don't even remember if I took one, let alone where I went? I can't answer this for you, can I?"

"Heh heh! You kid, you don't see the coffin and don't shed tears! Fine! I'll show you something!"

After saying this, he took something out of his handbag. Xu Yang widened his eyes and looked at him with an expression of disbelief! ===== CHAPTER 116 =====