Chapter 450: All Villains

"Hand it over."

Lu Zhongxin had one of his team members bring over an evidence bag, opened it, and said to the man:

"This handbag of yours is evidence and needs to be held by us for the time being. The money and ID can be taken out."

The moment the man heard he had to hand over the bag, he immediately came to his senses.

But at this point he had no choice but to comply. He could only take out the money and his ID card, then placed the bag into the evidence bag.

"Wait for our call."

Lu Zhongxin said as he sealed the evidence bag, then told the man:

"We'll need your cooperation for the follow-up investigation. We'll contact you when the time comes."

For experienced criminal investigators, a case like this posed no real difficulty.

The hotel's corridors and lobby were all equipped with surveillance cameras.

Lu Zhongxin's team quickly captured images of the three suspects and transmitted them back to the technical division of the branch bureau via the internet.

At the same time, colleagues in the technical division were tracking the suspects' chat accounts.

Just one day later, the suspects logged into their chat accounts again, and the technical division colleagues immediately locked down their location.

In the end, Lu Zhongxin and his team of four caught all three suspects at an internet cafe.

Yu Dazhang might not be much of a runner, but he could still block a door.

During the arrest, he simply stood at the only exit, and without much effort at all, took down a suspect who tried to flee.

He had originally wanted to follow up with a Mount Tai press, but seeing that the guy was on the thin and small side, with a terrified look on his face, he abandoned the idea.

As everyone knew, Yu Dazhang's greatest weakness was his soft heart.

After bringing the suspects back to the branch bureau, the First Brigade pulled in extra personnel and interrogated all three suspects simultaneously.

Two men and one woman — they didn't last even ten minutes before spilling everything.

When the relationship between the three became clear, even Yu Dazhang found it rather bizarre.

They were neither husband and wife, nor relatives, nor even friends, really.

The three of them had actually met by chance while running street stalls, and they all came from out of town.

Because business was bad in winter, and none of them wanted to go back home, they came up with this rotten scheme.

To make sure nothing could go wrong, they planned for over a month — only to be wiped out on their very first job.

However, their statements differed greatly from the victim's written account.

The three confessed that after entering the room, they had merely threatened the victim, saying they'd tell his family if he didn't pay compensation.

They had never used violence from start to finish.

And the extorted money wasn't something they had snatched — the victim had taken it out of his own bag and handed it to them.

They had asked for a total of 1,800 yuan, picking a lucky number.

That amount was something they had researched through the relevant laws, and after discussion, finally settled on.

In other words, no matter how much money the victim had, they would only take 1,800 yuan on this job.

Gutless and greedy… Yu Dazhang mentally tagged the two men and one woman.

A case of extortion only gets filed once the amount reaches 2,000 yuan.

They had clearly done their homework — even 1,900 felt unsafe, so they settled on the figure of 1,800.

Probably also for the convenience of splitting the loot — exactly 600 yuan each.

So the question is, why did the victim claim he'd been robbed of twelve thousand?

Yu Dazhang and the others had already figured it out when taking the statement.

The man wanted to use this to extort a sum of money in return.

A counter-scheme!

No, it should be called a counter-extortion scheme.

He actually wanted to use the same method to scam those three suspects.

Inside a conference room.

"Dazhang, what do you think?"

Lu Zhongxin had now gotten used to consulting his apprentice whenever something came up.

"This situation really is rare." Yu Dazhang was also wearing a troubled expression:

"Every single one of them is rotten — this is just absurd."

Words like these, he only dared say to his master.

The case wasn't even over yet, and here they were jumping to conclusions about the victim — if word got out, it would inevitably bring unnecessary trouble.

"Yeah." Lu Zhongxin was also scratching his head:

"How about we push this case off to the detachment? We took it on as a robbery case back then, and extortion isn't one of the eight categories of cases."

Actually, he was just venting.

They were all part of the same branch bureau — since the First Brigade had taken it, there was no logic in pushing it out. "If it were up to me…"

Yu Dazhang looked around, confirmed there was no one else in the conference room, then lowered his voice and said:

"We've already given him a chance. He didn't cherish it himself, so we can't be blamed."

"And even if we go stop him now, it won't do any good — we might even get bitten back."

In real life, things like this happen all the time.

Police go to dissuade someone from committing a crime, only to be accused by the other party of abusing the law and deliberately playing favorites.

"But we can't just sit and watch him jump into a pit."

Lu Zhongxin was still a bit torn. He thought it over from every angle, then finally gritted his teeth:

"I'll go talk to him again — maybe he'll see the light and turn back."

Seeing him insist, Yu Dazhang didn't press the matter further.

Police, knowing the outcome in advance, would of course try to prevent the crime however they could.

Still, Yu Dazhang knew perfectly well there was a certain type of person who felt miserable all over unless they grabbed some small advantage.

And if you let them have the moral high ground, it would be even worse — they'd twist white into black.

"Win the argument and never let up" — that's the kind of person being described.

Little did he know, grabbing small advantages leads to big losses.

That afternoon, Lu Zhongxin contacted the victim and had him come to the sub-bureau to assist with the investigation.

"We've caught the suspects. Please come in for an identification."

Lu Zhongxin said, pulling out a stack of photos, shuffling them, and laying them out for the man across from him:

"Pick out the three people who robbed you."

The man nodded, studied the faces in the photos carefully, and within a short while identified all three suspects.

After completing this step, Lu Zhongxin gathered up the photos and said to the man across from him:

"The other side says they didn't use violence against you, and the extortion amount doesn't match what you told us, so I want to confirm with you one more time."

His meaning was already crystal clear — he might as well have told the man straight out: don't try anything underhanded.

But the man's attitude was firm:

"What I said before is the truth."

Lu Zhongxin opened his mouth, intending to try persuading him once more, but suddenly recalled what his apprentice had said earlier, and could only sigh helplessly in the end.

Next came the question of whether to file a case.

If they went by the amount the victim claimed, it would certainly meet the standard for filing.

But there was still one more step they could take.

Reconciliation.

Both sides were willing.

The victim said that as long as the twelve thousand was returned, he would agree to reconcile and drop the matter.

In the end, after negotiation, the three suspects agreed to pay up, and the case was temporarily wrapped up.

But on the third day after the money was handed to the victim, the situation took a turn.

Those three suspects filed a report, claiming they had been extorted of ten thousand yuan, and turned the victim in.

Lies cannot withstand scrutiny.

The man's original statement had been full of holes from the start; on top of that, there were no fingerprints from the other party on the bag he was carrying, and he himself bore no external injuries.

That twelve-thousand-yuan extortion amount was something he had made up out of thin air.

Lu Zhongxin and the others had already known exactly what was going on, so the investigation was naturally effortless.

When that man sat down in the interrogation room and saw Lu Zhongxin in his police uniform across from him, he was finally afraid.

"Officer, I — I admit I lied before. I was blinded by greed."

The man said in a tearful voice:

"I'll refund the money right away and pay the fine. Please give me one more chance."

He saw it clearly now too — the police had warned him more than once.

But before, he'd been so sure he had the moral high ground that he hadn't taken it seriously. Now, at this point, he realized it was too late for regrets.

Lu Zhongxin looked at the man across from him and shook his head helplessly.

His apprentice had foreseen this outcome long ago.

By Yu Dazhang's reasoning, since those three suspects had researched the relevant laws, they would certainly agree to the reconciliation amount.

Let alone twelve thousand — even if it were doubled, they would still pay.

(End of chapter)