Chapter 109: The Small Hotel Murder Incident (2)

The door was pushed open once again.

Two police officers walked in.

A man and a woman.

The man was middle-aged, while the woman was younger. The female officer was bleeding, her breathing weak and shallow.

Seeing that the female officer did not have a gun at her waist, the Old Man hurried forward to help. Together with the middle-aged officer, he settled her into Room 208 on the second floor.

Returning to the first floor.

The middle-aged officer scanned the crowd, took a seat on the sofa, and began his account.

"On our way here, our police cruiser collided with a white car. We crashed into a tree trunk while the white car fled the scene. As you just saw, my partner was severely injured."

"Out here in the wilderness, the heavy rain cut off all signal. I originally planned to take her back to the city for medical treatment, but our path was blocked by a landslide."

The middle-aged officer cast a cold gaze over everyone present, observing every subtle shift in their expressions.

"This is the one and only building in the vicinity. So... who was it?"

The group exchanged glances before their eyes ultimately settled on Chen Ran and Lin Jiabei.

Chen Ran rolled his eyes at the officer, having no intention of defending himself. Lin Jiabei, on the other hand, shivered and spoke up in a panic. "I-I drove here, but I ran into a patch of deep mud on the way. My car could not get through, so I got out and walked the rest of the way. But my car is not white. It-it-it is light red."

The middle-aged officer nodded. "That is correct. Parked near the white car was indeed a red car."

With Lin Jiabei cleared of suspicion, everyone's attention shifted back to Chen Ran.

Chen Ran sneered. "Are you implying that I am the one who committed the hit-and-run?"

He sized the officer up and down. "Can you not figure this out by looking at the timeline?"

"Sigh. Looking at you, it is obvious you are just an old slacker coasting through your police career. Let me teach you how to properly deduce things."

"First question. Approximately how many minutes ago were you hit?"

The middle-aged officer thought for a moment. "It should have been about half an hour ago."

"Second question." Chen Ran turned his head to look at the Old Man. "When I entered the small hotel, how long did you tell me it would take for the water heater to be ready?"

"Thirty minutes."

"Exactly. I arrived here and booked a room thirty minutes ago, and you were hit thirty minutes ago. If I was the one who did it, do you think that timeline makes any sense?"

"Third question." Chen Ran looked at the original four people sitting on the sofa. "How long have you all been at this small hotel?"

"Two and a half hours."

"Probably three hours."

"Four hours."

Aside from the Old Man, the other three thought briefly before answering. Chen Ran then asked, "Fourth question. Did any of you leave midway?"

The three of them shook their heads.

Brimming with confidence, Chen Ran spread his hands toward the middle-aged officer. "The answer is already quite clear. Out of six suspects, five can be cleared of suspicion. So, who do you think is the person who fled?"

"No, no, no!" Lin Jiabei quickly waved her hands, appearing entirely flustered. "I was not the one who hit you!"

This kind of panic did not seem like the nervousness of someone telling a lie. Rather, it felt like a sort of...

Unfamiliarity... the kind only shown when those engaged in infighting try to defend themselves against an accusation.

The middle-aged officer pondered for a moment.

'The Youth can be cleared of suspicion. Those three arrived at the small hotel hours ago and have not left since, so they can be ruled out.'

'The Old Man is the owner of the small hotel, so he can also be cleared. Out of the six people, five can be ruled out. The driver who fled is...'

He pointed at Chen Ran and looked at the tongue-tied Lin Jiabei. "Did you arrive at the small hotel before or after him?"

"After..."

Receiving a definitive answer and seeing that she was wearing pajamas, the middle-aged officer pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

"Cuff yourself."

Only then did Lin Jiabei realize that she had left her gun in the bathroom while taking a shower earlier.

Chen Ran also realized that he had left his gun in his room when he was showering.

However, he was not worried.

'This bunch of muggles all look like they have low IQs. I do not need a gun at all.'

'I can play them to death on my own!'

The middle-aged officer handcuffed Lin Jiabei to the handrail on the first floor, intending to escort her back to the police station once the rain stopped tomorrow.

With such an incident occurring, the group lost all mood for idle chatter and returned to their respective rooms.

The Old Man figured no one else would be checking in tonight. After briefly tidying up, he returned to the room behind the counter to sleep.

In the middle of the night.

The half-asleep Old Man faintly heard someone talking on the first floor.

"You lied."

"You lied."

Bang! A gunshot jolted everyone awake from their deep slumber. The middle-aged officer, not even fully dressed, was the first to rush downstairs to investigate.

Immediately after.

The Old Man emerged from the inner room on the first floor and flicked on the lights.

Next, a muscular young man and the Little Girl hurried down the stairs, followed last by a bleary-eyed, heavy-set geek.

However, when the heavy-set geek saw the corpse on the first floor, he collapsed onto the ground in terror.

By the handrail on the first floor, Chen Ran's body lay in a pool of blood. His forehead...

Had been pierced by a bullet!

Lin Jiabei, who had been handcuffed there earlier, was gone.

'As expected...'

'Arrogance is the true obstacle to survival.'

The group of people coincidentally shared the same thought. In truth, before going to sleep, they had all realized to some extent that Chen Ran might not live much longer.

"Nobody move!"

The middle-aged officer shouted, stopping the crowd from stepping forward to check the body. His gaze swept across everyone's faces before he asked the Old Man, "You sleep on the first floor. Did you hear anything just now?"

The Old Man recalled, "Just a moment ago, while I was half-asleep, I heard two people talking. They both said: 'You lied.'"

"Then I heard the gunshot. You all know what happened next."

The middle-aged officer seized on the crucial detail. "Did you hear clearly whether the two people speaking were men or women?"

The Old Man shook his head. "The rain is too loud. Besides, it sounded like they were deliberately keeping their voices low. I could not tell if they were men or women."

The middle-aged officer furrowed his brows.

'The woman was handcuffed on the first floor.'

'Just now, before going to bed, I checked her room. The gun was indeed in the bathroom.'

'Which means, if the two people talking were the woman and the victim, how did the woman kill the victim without a gun?'

'Two possibilities:'

'One: The woman broke free from the handcuffs first, went back to her room, retrieved the pistol, and then returned to the first floor to wait for the person coming to kill her.'

'Two: The woman broke free from the handcuffs and fled the small hotel. In the pitch darkness, someone quietly came down to the first floor, disguised themselves as the handcuffed woman, and silently waited for the victim to come and kill them.'

At this thought.

The middle-aged officer immediately ran to Lin Jiabei's room on the second floor and opened the door.

Inside, he saw the room's window wide open. There was rainwater on the floor, trailing all the way into the bathroom. The pistol in the bathroom was missing.

Seeing this.

The middle-aged officer found the answer in his heart.

'The woman broke free from the handcuffs first. Then she climbed through the window from outside the small hotel back into her room, took the pistol from the bathroom, and hid.'

'The first possibility is ruled out!'

'After all, if the woman had freed herself from the handcuffs and went back to her room to get the gun, she could have just taken the stairs. There would be no need to climb through the window.'

'There is only one possibility. Two groups of people came downstairs. When the woman noticed the first person coming down, she immediately broke free from the handcuffs and hid outside.'

'The first person disguised themselves as the woman handcuffed to the handrail. The second person to come downstairs was the victim.'

'When the gunshot rang out, the woman outside knew we had been woken up and would come down to check, so she climbed through the window back into her room to get the pistol.'

'The rainwater on the floor is the best proof of this. In that case...'

'Who was the first person to come downstairs?'