Chapter 397: She's Just an Accomplice

"You're lying!"

As a police officer, judging whether a suspect is lying by their expression is a required course.

Chen Ke, a veteran officer, naturally knows this well; especially, the signs of this woman lying are extremely obvious.

Not only her facial expressions, every movement of her body indicates she is lying.

After Chen Ke exposed her in one sentence, the woman became even more panicked, her lips drained of color, trembling uncontrollably: "No, no, I didn't lie."

"Your son didn't commit suicide, did he?" Chen Ke said while observing the woman's expression.

Upon hearing Chen Ke say that, the woman's pupils involuntarily dilated for a moment.

It was precisely this detail that made Chen Ke suspect her even more; the victim's death must be related to her, beyond doubt.

"How could it not be suicide?... He just committed suicide..." the woman said weakly, not daring to meet Chen Ke's gaze.

Chen Ke narrowed his eyes, gestured to the officers behind him: "Take her away; if she won't confess honestly, we'll talk at the station."

The latter half of that sentence was directed at the woman.

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Dachuan stepped forward, produced the handcuffs he carried, cuffed the woman, and prepared to take her back to the station for interrogation.

Before leaving, they also took many photos to record everything in the house for later investigation, contacted the coroner, left an officer ready to guide the arriving coroner, and meanwhile brought the body back to the station for a full autopsy.

The group left the house and arrived at the parking lot below the residential complex, preparing to drive the suspect back to the station, when they happened to meet Han Fei and Xu Mo, who had rushed over.

Xu Mo and Han Fei opened the car doors, got out, and the two sides met face to face.

"Han Team, Team Leader Xu, how did you come?" Chen Ke asked instinctively.

"We just happened to be free and came to take a look," Xu Mo said, looking at the handcuffed woman: "Is she the suspect?"

He noticed the woman's reddened eyes from crying.

Any case involving homicide is a major case; naturally, the severity of an ordinary suicide cannot compare to that of a homicide.

It makes sense for them to go in person.

Han Fei beside them didn't speak, but his thoughts were unusually rich.

All I saw was him sizing up Chen Ke from head to toe, thinking to himself, "I knew it, Chen Ke is truly a jinx! Whenever a murder case occurs, he's there..."

Chen Ke's expression was a little unnatural; he didn't know why Han Team was staring at him like that, so he simply didn't think about it and answered Xu Mo's question, pointing at the handcuffed woman.

"She is the reporter, the victim's mother; based on preliminary judgment, we suspect she is the murderer and are preparing to take her in for questioning."

As soon as he finished speaking, Han Fei pointed to the old residential building ahead: "Lead the way, let's go check the crime scene."

Chen Ke was first startled, then nodded: "Okay."

Ta Ying Xiao Qu Building 3, Room 202.

After entering, Xu Mo roughly surveyed the house.

It's a two-bedroom, one-living-room layout; the house isn't large, stuffed full with various daily items, making the whole place look somewhat messy.

But even though it's messy, the house is spotless, unnaturally clean; obviously, it has been meticulously cleaned.

By the door, the shoe rack holds only a few pairs of men's shoes, styled youthfully; it's easy to tell they all belong to the same person.

Xu Mo turned to the woman: "Is your husband not here?"

"He's been gone a long time," the woman answered truthfully: "Officer, have you got the wrong person? How could I... kill my son?"

Xu Mo ignored her and continued to examine the house.

Judging by the furnishings, in this two-bedroom, one-living-room house, the master bedroom belongs to the deceased, while the secondary bedroom is where the woman lives.

Xu Mo found a cigarette butt from a men's brand on the floor beside the corner of the secondary bedroom's bed.

"Do you have a smoking habit?" Xu Mo picked up the cigarette butt, and while asking, he deliberately looked at the woman's index and middle fingers.

The woman instinctively shook her head, but quickly nodded: "Occasionally, I smoke a bit when I'm under pressure."

Perhaps noticing the woman was a little nervous, Xu Mo smiled: "Don't be nervous, it's just routine questioning; answer truthfully."

The woman nodded anxiously.

Xu Mo looked around the room again and made another discovery: a few coarse, short hairs on the secondary bedroom's bedsheet.

"Does this house only have you and your son living in it? No one else?"

"No! Just the two of us live here, no one else," the woman said firmly.

"Hmm..." Xu Mo nodded, then left the secondary bedroom, pushed open the door to the master bedroom and took a look around, focused his gaze on the deceased's hands for a moment, then went straight to the kitchen.

The kitchen isn't large, only about six to eight square meters; turning around inside basically covers it.

However, Xu Mo lingered in the kitchen for a long time; most of the time he was carefully smelling the various items in the kitchen, and a smaller portion of the time he was observing everything in the kitchen.

Although the air in the kitchen no longer smelled, some items inside still retained the scent of natural gas.

Xu Mo noticed a thick layer of ingrained grease on the kitchen's sliding glass door that couldn't be wiped off, and on that grease there was a faint handprint.

"Collect this palm print," Xu Mo pointed to the handprint on the sliding glass door, and while speaking, his gaze swept over the deceased's hand again.

"Yes!"

"We've seen enough at the scene, let's go back." As he left the kitchen, Xu Mo took a rag from inside, handed it to Chen Ke, and said: "Pack it up."

He already had a rough judgment in his mind.

"What did you find?" Han Fei asked.

Xu Mo glanced at the woman, didn't immediately voice his conclusion, shook his head, and said: "We'll talk back at the station."

……

On the way.

Just as on the way there, Han Fei and Xu Mo rode in the same vehicle.

Han Fei couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked a question.

"What exactly did you see?"

He also knew that Xu Mo hadn't spoken his findings earlier because the woman was present, making it inconvenient for him to say.

"That woman is one of the killers; she's just an accomplice. There's also a mastermind. If I'm not mistaken, the mastermind is her lover, but her son dislikes that man intensely, and the conflict between them has reached an irreconcilable point." Xu Mo turned his head to look at Han Fei and answered.

Han Fei narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment: "Because of that cigarette butt?"

"Didn't the suspect say she occasionally smokes? Although fewer women smoke than men, some do; that's normal, right?"

Xu Mo shook his head.

"You haven't noticed that the room is overly clean? It's clearly been cleaned meticulously; cleaning it so thoroughly leaves only two possibilities: either the person has obsessive-compulsive disorder and can't stand dirt, or they're trying to hide something by cleaning..."