Chapter 560

Regarding the case of Jiao Lina's death, the Zhang family members were all tight-lipped.

But after carefully analyzing the case, the members of the cold case task force discovered that the only ones qualified to keep their mouths shut were Zhang Enfan's third aunt, Zhang Xiu Lan's family. This included Zhang Xiu Lan and her husband, their son and daughter, and this little nephew, Zhang Haobin.

Others had no idea about the specific situation; all information came from Zhang Xiu Lan and the others.

On the day Jiao Lina died, only Zhang Haobin was by her side.

Zhang Haobin called Zhang Xiu Lan—he was raised by his grandmother; Zhang Haobin's parents worked away from home all year round and only returned after Zhang Enfan "succeeded in his career."

Zhang Xiu Lan did not notify others with great fanfare, but only called her husband, son, and daughter; she didn't even call her daughter-in-law or her daughter's boyfriend. Just her own family dragged Jiao Lina back to the small restaurant, which was also a temporary gambling den.

The reason for not dragging her back to the village but returning to the small restaurant was sufficient.

First, they were closer to the small restaurant at the time, and it was more remote and easier to control. For the Zhang family, they could go straight into the backyard without anyone seeing them.

Second, Jiao Lina was carrying hundreds of thousands in cash; even for a small gambling den, this was not a small amount. If they encountered gamblers who had lost their minds, they could really fight to the death for this money.

Even among the Zhang family members, there were plenty of good-for-nothings. Even those helping with the gambling den's business only made ten or twenty thousand a month; what if they saw hundreds of thousands in cash and got greedy? Most importantly, what if the accounts were unclear and they caused trouble for Zhang Haobin or Zhang Xiu Lan?

Therefore, Zhang Xiu Lan first brought Jiao Lina back to the small gambling den, and the first thing she did was re-check the accounts and lock the money back in the safe.

From the Zhang family's perspective, this step was not only beyond reproach but could be called a timely response.

It was just that in doing so, the scene of Jiao Lina's death was lost, and after the heavy rain, not a trace was left—of course, the scene was also pointed out by Zhang Haobin; if one were to discuss his suspicion, the scene itself was not credible.

Similarly, the first 24 hours of Jiao Lina's death were also wasted.

The small gambling den didn't have any professional financial system. There was only one accountant, a relative of a relative tricked from outside, who was paid a high salary every month to do work similar to that of a mentally disabled person.

This cashier died, and hundreds of thousands in accounts had to be re-verified, plus new income and expenses; adding it all up, he was made to work overtime all night that day.

Naturally, this relative of a relative was not qualified to see the body; at the beginning, he didn't even know what had happened, only that he was asked to check the accounts.

Zhang Xiu Lan didn't inform the family until she finished checking the accounts, and at her suggestion, everyone decided to bury her first and then notify Zhang Enfan.

Because Zhang Enfan had gone out to discuss business, and as one of his girlfriends, since she was already dead, a delay of ten or twenty hours didn't matter that much.

Even the burial couldn't be public. Before Zhang Xiu Lan discussed it with family members, her daughter had already helped wash Jiao Lina, changed her clothes, wrapped her in a body bag, and hid her in a corner of the courtyard.

At this time, more than 30 hours had passed since Jiao Lina's death, and rigor mortis had already ended.

In fact, in the hot weather after the rain, not only did rigor mortis end earlier than 24 hours, but the rate of decomposition was also faster than normal.

Wrapped in a body bag and not placed in a cold storage, it would only decompose faster.

By the time Zhang Enfan received the news and returned to Litang Township, more than 48 hours had passed since Jiao Lina's death, and she was decomposing to the point of being unapproachable, requiring a large amount of chemicals to mask the stench.

In order not to alert the police, Zhang Enfan and the others could only bury Jiao Lina hastily on the edge of the Zhang family's ancestral grave.

Until Jiang Yuan re-examined the body, Zhang Enfan had never specifically thought about this matter.

The concept provided to him by his third aunt's family was that it was an unfortunate accident.

Zhang Enfan was a little sad, but not completely unable to accept it; he even had to thank his third aunt's family for their help. Not every relative would help you dispose of a body.

Until Meng Chengbiao's interrogation revealed a completely unacceptable truth to Zhang Enfan.

His girlfriend, one of his public lovers at the time, might have been raped to death by his nephew Zhang Haobin, and when he, Zhang Enfan, knew all this, he was still struggling in the interrogation, keeping silent for the sake of the Zhang family's interests.

Zhang Enfan wanted Zhang Haobin to die.

On this point, his interests were consistent with the police's.

Meng Chengbiao also discovered this and decisively utilized it.

Originally, Zhang Enfan was only willing to disclose clues related to Zhang Haobin.

But soon, the appearance of various evidence made Zhang Enfan start providing various clues about his third aunt Zhang Xiu Lan's family.

And Zhang Xiu Lan was one of the people in charge of the most important of the three gambling dens. As the accusations she faced increased, and clearly came after Zhang Enfan's, Zhang Xiu Lan also had to start fighting back.

Unfortunately, Meng Chengbiao didn't bring her counterattack back to Zhang Enfan at all.

Using the Prisoner's Dilemma to make prisoners expose each other so that interrogators benefit both ways is the most basic interrogation method; in the interrogation strategies used by the police, it might have a higher proportion than the good cop/bad cop routine.

But this time, Meng Chengbiao had to take notes specifically, deliberately creating a one-way transparent scenario.

Because he had to prevent Zhang Xiu Lan from passing messages to Zhang Enfan by releasing clues.

After all, Zhang Xiu Lan knew many things about Zhang Enfan; if she spoke without restraint, Zhang Enfan would also end up in a miserable state.

Therefore, the answers Zhang Xiu Lan gave were likely to be of a warning nature, or information only they understood.

Regardless of whether Zhang Xiu Lan's level could reach this stage, out of a preventive mindset, Meng Chengbiao instinctively abandoned the Prisoner's Dilemma approach.

Anyway, the information provided by Zhang Xiu Lan and Zhang Enfan was increasing and becoming more substantial, so why use the Prisoner's Dilemma to release fear?

In the interrogation room, the interrogating police officers were already in a dominant position.

Meng Chengbiao had an LV1.8 interrogation skill; after Zhang Enfan's silence ended, the Zhang family members, even when squeezed together, were no match for him.

Meng Chengbiao's professional ability was quite good. Sifting through the Qinghe City Bureau, one couldn't find many interrogation talents with Meng Chengbiao's level.

Of course, Meng Chengbiao originally belonged to a larger pool, Changyang City, but he could be considered a backbone of the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment.

For an interrogation officer of his level, Zhang Enfan was a hard bone, but now that the bone had a crack, the other Zhang family members were no match at all.

As clues were collected and information gained, Meng Chengbiao began to re-interrogate Zhang Xiu Lan's husband, daughter, son, and grandson Zhang Haobin.

The defenses of several people were also gradually collapsing.

In the conference room of Jiang Yuan's cold case task force, everyone's smiles were also increasing day by day.

Jiang Yuan started pondering new cases again, Wu Junhao started training team members again, and Huang Qiangmin's smile gradually grew...

Just as the last criminals in Litang Township were about to encounter a fatal blow and face disaster, Meng Chengbiao's hurried footsteps pressed the pause button again.

"Team Jiang, I have two pieces of news, one good and one bad." Meng Chengbiao knocked on the door and entered; he wasn't really playing the good news/bad news game, and immediately said: "The good news is that Zhang Haobin has basically confessed; it was he who raped and subsequently strangled Jiao Lina."

Jiang Yuan frowned upon hearing this: "There's bad news?"

"The bad news is that Zhang Haobin and his parents all stated that three years and two months ago, Zhang Haobin was not yet 16." Meng Chengbiao's expression was solemn: "The birth certificate has been lost, but calculating from the age on the household register and ID card, it is indeed so."

A criminal suspect under 16 still has to bear criminal responsibility, but the punishment will be reduced.

In other words, the death penalty is out of reach.

"Birth certificate lost?" Jiang Yuan repeated, then asked: "How much difference?"

"Two months short of 16."

Meng Chengbiao also felt slightly regretful; such a rough teenager, not even 20 yet—if he were let out into society, who knows how many more people he would harm.

Better to send him to his death.