Chapter 319

"If I report and expose an accomplice, can it count as a major meritorious service?" Wang Kedian spoke again, and the first sentence was shocking.

Meng Chengbiao couldn't help but change his expression, then smoothly switched to laughter: "You're quite knowledgeable? The standard for major meritorious service is very high."

"When I was inside, someone had a major meritorious service and had their sentence reduced by several years. Is that right?" Wang Kedian pressed.

Meng Chengbiao laughed twice and said: "You have to report and expose a crime of life imprisonment or above to have a possibility of being recognized as a major meritorious service."

What he said wasn't particularly complete, but as the police officer in charge of the interrogation, Meng Chengbiao indeed had no responsibility to say it completely and make him understand.

After all, this isn't a class; if you don't understand, do I have to give you an exam to prove it?

Wang Kedian hesitated slightly. He hadn't read many books, but he knew that some police officers would indeed lie.

Meng Chengbiao looked at Wang Kedian's expression, and couldn't help but have a guess in his heart, so he said: "I can help you report it upward. If it is indeed a major clue that can solve a case, the probability of it being recognized as a major meritorious service is relatively high. Moreover, let's be honest, if you can't clear yourself in this case, you'll be stuck inside for the rest of your life."

Wang Kedian's thinking time was shorter this time, and he quickly said: "On November 2nd, I was indeed called by someone to pick a lock."

"And then?"

"And then... I just opened it." Wang Kedian sighed as he spoke: "After I went back, I watched TV and saw that the warehouse had been burned down, and I heard that a corpse was found. I thought to myself, it's over..."

"Which warehouse?"

"8178 Kesilu." Wang Kedian clearly remembered it quite clearly.

"Continue."

"And then... just when I was thinking about what to do, someone threw a bag of money into my courtyard, 100,000 yuan, and a train ticket to Kunming. As soon as I thought about it, I packed my things and left."

Wang Kedian's answer made Meng Chengbiao fall silent.

This was completely different from the route he had envisioned.

At the beginning, what Meng Chengbiao envisioned, or rather, what the special task force envisioned, was a single criminal who took on the lock-picking, murder, and arson all by himself, belonging to the type of person who completes tasks alone, just like Jiang Yuan.

Later, when Wang Kedian said he wanted to perform meritorious service, Meng Chengbiao thought he had an accomplice. However, Meng Chengbiao still thought of a traditional accomplice: one main person for murder and arson, and one main person for lock-picking, part-time lookout, and driving.

Meng Chengbiao never expected that Wang Kedian could distance himself so cleanly. Yet, what he fabricated had quite a bit of logic and reason.

Having obtained this answer, Meng Chengbiao looked at Wang Kedian again and instead felt that he didn't look like a murderer and arsonist.

Based on Meng Chengbiao's twenty-plus years of experience as a criminal police officer, Wang Kedian's movements and temperament fit the image of a middle-aged petty thief; calling him an old thief would be a compliment.

"Who told you to pick the lock?" Meng Chengbiao had a belly full of questions and doubts, but he didn't investigate these; he just kept asking who the murderer was. This is the main purpose of interrogation. Even if Wang Kedian is making up a story, he must first see the ending of the story before looking back to weigh the truth of the story.

"Zhang Xiang. People who know him call him Zhang Big Head; back then we called him Brother Zhang." Wang Kedian said.

The police officer beside him asked: "Which two characters are Zhang Xiang?"

Wang Kedian said: "Zhang as in 'open', Xiang as in 'project'."

"Is Zhang Xiang his real name?" Meng Chengbiao also had to pursue the name issue, because this might very well be the most important answer of the whole event.

Wang Kedian answered "Yes."

"What does he do?"

"He is a parking lot security guard at Jianyuan Pharmaceutical," Wang Kedian said.

"A security guard, how could he get mixed up with you guys and even call each other brothers?"

"He used to be in the underworld too." Wang Kedian opened up and said: "The parking lot security guards at Jianyuan Pharmaceutical are different from ordinary security guards. They have several small parking lots, collecting cash; the QR code for scanning payment also belongs to the security team itself. Jianyuan Company doesn't care. Brother Zhang, Zhang Xiang, told me before that when he was doing well, he could split twenty or thirty thousand a month."

Meng Chengbiao frowned: "Jianyuan Pharmaceutical is such a large enterprise, didn't they discover it?"

"They pretend not to know. This security team is just doing dirty work for Jianyuan. Every month, besides their normal salary, they split the parking fees. How much they collect is all split by that small team of people; Jianyuan Company doesn't care at all."

Meng Chengbiao originally wanted to ask what dirty work, but then he thought better of it and decided not to look for trouble for himself. So, he pulled the topic back and said: "Zhang Xiang told you to pick the lock, so you picked the lock? You didn't follow him in?"

"He said at the time that the key he had cut couldn't be used, and he fiddled with the keyhole for a bit." Wang Kedian shook his head, the flesh on his fat face shaking, and said: "I actually asked a question at the time, I said why not knock on the door, is there any problem with my lock-picking... He said there was a dispute, and told me not to meddle in other people's business. So I... sigh..."

"Finish your sentence, we're taking a statement." Meng Chengbiao pointed to the side.

Wang Kedian: "So I just opened the door. I was actually quite slow at the time, it took ten minutes, and there was no sound inside. After the door opened, Brother Zhang told me to go back, so I went back."

"The train ticket, did you keep it?" Meng Chengbiao asked another core question in a calm tone.

If Wang Kedian was telling the truth, he would definitely have kept the train ticket for that day. This is a very important physical evidence.

To this day, this train ticket has considerable probative value.

Because, if Wang Kedian really had that day's train ticket, as a petty thief who had been hit by the people's democratic dictatorship twice, his first choice and correct choice would be to run away directly.

However, if he bought the ticket himself, Wang Kedian's more likely action would be to discard the train ticket. Because that ticket proved that he left Changyang City after the incident and had suspicion of committing the crime.

But the "but," if the ticket was sent by someone else, then in order to prove this matter, and also to prove his own innocence, Wang Kedian should have kept the ticket to prove this story. And this story is not suitable for being fabricated since 8 years ago.

Wang Kedian himself perhaps hadn't thought through the logical relationship here, but he said without hesitation: "The ticket is in my hands, I hid it. In the pocket of an old piece of clothing."

Meng Chengbiao's expression suddenly became serious.

Wang Kedian didn't even hide his lock-picking tools, yet he had the cunning to hide the train ticket in a very appropriate place.

Having an old train ticket in the pocket of an old piece of clothing is simply perfect; it's neither easy to lose nor easy to arouse suspicion.

Meng Chengbiao didn't think Wang Kedian was making it up; if he were, it would be too complicated. Moreover, he provided physical evidence and witnesses, all of which can be investigated.

Inside the office of Jiang Yuan's cold case special task force, Jiang Yuan's expression also gradually became serious.

"It seems that Zhang Xiang has major suspicion." Jiang Yuan gradually got used to the role of commander. He first called Yu Wenshu to report the case, then pointed out several people's names separately, letting them go to investigate and inquire.

Yu Wenshu quickly ran over, his face full of joy.

From his perspective, a cold homicide case progressing to this step is already extremely exciting.

If it were in the past, he would have already started considering how to praise Jiang Yuan so that it wouldn't seem so repetitive.

Of course, he still needs to praise him now, but it can be delayed a little. Because Jiang Yuan is now the person in charge of the cold case special task force, theoretically, he has to solve the case to be considered to have completely finished the task. It's not like before, where fixing the evidence and completing the pursuit of evidence was considered finishing the task.

However, this also makes Jiang Yuan's value rise again. If a criminal police officer can successfully solve a cold homicide case, then in the criminal police team, he is a true veteran police officer.