Chapter 304: Suspect

How exactly did the murderer manage to evade surveillance and kill?

This is the biggest doubt in the case, and also something Han Fei still hasn't figured out.

It's not just him; the other officers also haven't figured it out.

You should know that the stairways leading to the rooftop at all three crime scenes have cameras.

In the narrow stairwell, the surveillance has no blind spots; anyone who passes through will inevitably be recorded.

Without tampering with the cameras, to avoid a blind‑spot‑free surveillance and guarantee not being recorded, there's only one way—becoming invisible!

But who the hell can turn invisible? A gourd baby?

That murderer can't possibly be a gourd baby!

It's not that Han Fei and the others don't believe such a thing as a gourd baby exists in this world.

Even Xu Mo, who has already accepted that he possesses a system, doesn't believe it!

How could there possibly be a gourd baby in this world?

Regarding how the murderer evaded the cameras, Xu Mo also had no clue at this moment.

But he raised a fourth question.

Xu Mo looked at Han Fei and then pointed at the whiteboard.

"And a fourth question: how did the murderer manage to commit the crimes consecutively in such a short time? I've examined the bodies; the interval between the first and second victims is at most less than an hour and a half."

Xu Mo had carefully examined the bodies of the three victims and knew the approximate time of death for each.

Among them, the death times of the first and second victims are very close, no more than an hour and a half apart.

But the distance between the two crime scenes is not short.

Even a two‑hour window is barely enough to get from one scene to the other, let alone an hour and a half.

Moreover, there is severe traffic congestion on the road between the two sites.

If you add traffic jams into the mix, the travel time between the sites is at least about two and a half hours.

Time‑wise, the murderer lacks the ability to commit two consecutive crimes.

Han Fei nodded after hearing that, thought briefly and considered it a point worth pondering, then took a pen and added another line beneath the three questions on the whiteboard.

4: How did the murderer manage to commit the crimes consecutively in a short time?

This question is obviously much easier to explain.

So, right after Han Fei finished writing this question on the whiteboard, he immediately wrote the answer behind it.

"Even without traffic, the drive between the two scenes takes at least two hours; with traffic, about two and a half. Looking at it this way, if the murderer were a single person, he clearly couldn't kill two people within an hour and a half, so... the murderer must be more than one. Since the three victims died in exactly the same manner, I suspect this is a gang operation; the killers are the same group."

But after solving this issue, the officers again stared blankly at the third question.

How on earth did this murderer evade the blind‑spot‑free surveillance?

After discussing and speculating for over an hour, they still couldn't think of an answer.

To avoid wasting time, they temporarily set the question aside.

They continued to look for clues about the murderer.

From the earlier discussion, their current guesses and conclusions are as follows:

First, the murder motive might be Qiu Fu, since the only common factor among the three victims is that they had relatively good economic conditions.

Second, the murderer is more than one person; this is a gang crime.

The officers proceeded with the investigation based on these two points.

Earlier, when they investigated the first two suicide cases, they fell into a mental bias, subconsciously assuming the murderer was a single individual.

Thus, in searching for the murderer, they looked for the person who held hostility toward both the first and second victims.

They found that the two victims' social circles didn't overlap at all.

There is simply no one who knows both victims and bears a grudge against both!

However, because of the question Xu Mo just raised, the police discovered their mental bias.

They immediately changed direction, no longer deliberately seeking someone who knows all victims and holds grudges against them.

After half an hour, the officers locked onto the first suspect.

They set off immediately to Tech University and brought him to the police station.

The first suspect they brought in was a freshman at Tech University, Gou Hao.

He was a classmate of the victim Lu Yu.

He is suspected because the police found that during school he was constantly bullied by Lu Yu.

It's entirely plausible that someone who suffers prolonged school bullying might, one day, snap and impulsively think of killing; there are actually many similar cases.

Interrogation Room.

Gou Hao, seated in the interrogation chair, was clearly nervous; he kept his head down, avoided looking around, and continuously fidgeted with the edge of his clothing.

Thin, timid, autistic, sensitive, and extremely insecure—that was Han Fei's first impression of Gou Hao.

Usually, people with these traits are more likely to become targets of school bullying than others.

Because to bullies, they're a soft, easy target.

Moreover, Gou Hao's surname is rather unusual.

Needless to say, his surname has probably earned him many nicknames since childhood... If he were tougher, people might not dare to nickname him, let alone bully him.

But against someone like Gou Hao, others only become more aggressive.

"Gou Hao, right? Do you know that Lu Yu is dead?" Han Fei examined Gou Hao.

He looked up at Han Fei briefly, then quickly lowered his head again: "I know; the news has already spread among the classmates."

"I heard you had a conflict with him," Han Fei probed further.

Upon hearing that, Gou Hao seemed to recall something, showing a fearful expression, with a faint trace of resentment that most people couldn't detect.

He lowered his head, his face dim, and said: "There's no conflict; he's always bullying me and even gave me random nicknames."

Ordinary people couldn't notice such a subtle expression, but Han Fei and Xu Mo were clearly not ordinary people.

Han Fei was a veteran criminal investigator, while Xu Mo was well-versed in psychology.

Noticing the resentment in Gou Hao's expression when mentioning Lu Yu, Han Fei and Xu Mo exchanged a glance.

He harbored resentment, but buried it deep…… Once such deep-seated resentment erupts, killing becomes a natural consequence.

"He gave you random nicknames and bullied you—have you never thought of taking revenge on him?" Han Fei asked Gou Hao.

"Of course I have." Gou Hao admitted frankly: "But I don't dare."

Hearing that, Han Fei couldn't help but frown; Gou Hao's answer was completely unexpected to him.

How could he even admit it?

At a time like this, shouldn't he be denying everything?

Otherwise, wouldn't that directly confirm he had a murder motive? That would only increase his suspicion!