Chapter 424: Investigation Direction

Since Hao Qi knows them both, the two of them don't need to introduce themselves; we can get straight to the point.

"Have you offended anyone at the police station?" Xu Mo asked.

He paused, then added, "Not only the officers of your police station, but any officers you know count as well. Think carefully—any officer you've had a grudge with, you should recall and tell me their name."

Han Fei beside him couldn't help but look at Xu Mo.

Before coming to question him, Xu Mo had never indicated he would ask in this way.

However, Han Fei was also a veteran detective; Xu Mo's question initially seemed puzzling, but after a moment's thought he understood.

You should know that losing a gun as an officer has serious consequences; even if it's merely a simple loss without serious fallout, one still faces dismissal and loss of livelihood.

As for cases where losing a service weapon poses a serious threat to society, one may also face imprisonment.

This is the regulation; even if the officer didn't lose the gun intentionally, they must still be punished according to it.

Such punishment can be said to be quite severe.

Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that someone might use this regulation to take revenge on those they have a grudge with.

After figuring it out, Han Fei also turned his gaze to Hao Qi, who was sitting in the interrogation chair.

All that could be seen was Hao Qi frowning, thinking about which officers he had a grudge with.

The two of them did not urge him, but waited silently.

A few minutes later, Hao Qi met their gaze and shook his head.

"I can't recall; I think my relations with everyone are pretty good, so I doubt anyone would deliberately target me."

Immediately afterwards, Hao Qi added, "Of course… that's just what I think; it's also possible someone secretly dislikes me."

Hao Qi couldn't think of any officer who bore him a grudge; that doesn't mean he has no enemies, and it's also possible he hasn't noticed that someone dislikes him.

After Hao Qi answered that question, Xu Mo switched to another.

"Tell me about the situation while you were on duty, in detail… starting from when you took your service weapon and left the police station."

"Okay."

The latter nodded, then began to recount while recalling.

"This morning, our police station received a report: the caller said her husband had gone mad, wielding a kitchen knife to slash her; she fled in fright to the bedroom and dared not come out, while her husband stood outside chopping the door with the knife, and she said the door was almost hacked to pieces, urging us to hurry and rescue her, or else there would be casualties."

"After receiving the report, I and a few colleagues headed out… since the caller also said her husband was armed with a knife, to prevent any mishap we took our service weapons."

"The layout of that residential complex is a bit winding; after arriving we couldn't easily locate the building where the caller lived, so we asked a few residents for directions, and with their guidance we finally found the building… Oh, by the way, on the way there many residents saw our guns at our waists and followed along, eager to watch the spectacle, and we couldn't shake them off."

"When we arrived at the caller's home, we found her husband was not insane at all, nor had he brandished a knife at her or the door; the bedroom door was fine, she was completely unharmed, not injured in the slightest—they were merely arguing. She filed the report because her husband wanted to move out and divorce her, which she couldn't stop on her own, so she fabricated the lie to get us to hurry over and restrain her husband, and also mediate the dispute."

"Handling domestic disputes is something we often do and are familiar with; having gone there, we just mediated, learned about the couple's conflict, finished mediation, and then returned— the round trip took less than two hours. When I got back to the police station preparing to hand over my service weapon, I discovered the gun was missing."

After finishing his account, Hao Qi stopped and looked at Han Fei and Xu Mo sitting opposite him.

At that moment, the two were thinking based on Hao Qi's words about when and where his lost gun might have been misplaced.

"Where does that caller who claimed her husband would knife her live?" Xu Mo suddenly asked.

Hao Qi only thought briefly before answering: "Yi He Xin Cun, Unit 1, Building 9, Room 802."

"After receiving the assignment, did you go straight to Yi He Xin Cun, and after completing the task return directly to the police station? Did you go anywhere else in between?"

"No, the situation was urgent; we set off for Yi He Xin Cun immediately after receiving the report, and after mediating we returned straight to the police station—we didn't go anywhere else, we stayed in the vehicle the whole time."

…

After the questioning ended, the two left the interrogation room, returned to the office, and began discussing the investigation direction.

Based on the earlier questioning, they have already identified some suspects.

Next, they need to investigate each one individually.

First, according to their earlier suspicion, the gun thief is likely an officer, so the several officers who accompanied him are definitely suspects, and with high suspicion.

They are familiar with holsters and firearms, capable of taking Hao Qi's lost gun without anyone noticing, and they also had the opportunity to commit the crime, since they know Hao Qi, set out together on the mission, and stayed together the whole way.

Second, the couple that Xu Mo and Han Fei find suspicious—the alleged marital conflict—is likely an act, intended to lure the officers over.

The false report that her husband was brandishing a knife to slash her was meant to get the officers to bring their service weapons, giving them a chance to steal the gun.

Lastly, likewise suspicious are the residents of the complex who guided the officers and came to watch; they got close to the officers during the duty and had a chance to act.

But whether it's that couple or those residents who guided and watched, their suspicion is actually low, after all they are ordinary people; it's unlikely they could stealthily steal the gun from Hao Qi's holster without him noticing.

"Let's split up; this will be more efficient. We need to find the lost gun as quickly as possible. I'll take Li Chen, Lao Zhou, and Xiao Zhang to Yi He Xin Cun to check on that couple and the complex's surveillance; Wang Dachuan and Chen Ke stay with you—you investigate the officers inside the police station." To speed things up as much as possible, Han Fei chose to divide forces into two routes.