Chapter 621: The Rooftop

After waiting for nearly another hour, the criminal police from the Zhengguang Branch still hadn't finished their screening work inside the Ruicheng Company.

Information was constantly being reported, but very little of it was truly decisive.

"The company's missing employee, Wang Xin, female, 36 years old, unmarried, lives alone, has no boyfriend, and no cohabitants. Based on current inquiries, there are also no enemies harboring deep-seated grudges who would want her dead." Liu Cheng summarized the information from the front and reported it to Tao Lu.

Tao Lu's expression was serious, but his mood was good. He said calmly, "No rush. As long as we can confirm the victim, this case won't get away."

The biggest pain point of this case was the inability to find the victim or the body. If this problem were solved, for the criminal police, it would be nothing more than an ordinary homicide case.

Jiang Yuan had also just finished reading a few interrogation records. He came over and asked, "The victim has been missing for nearly 10 days. Hasn't a single person from the company reported it?"

"On the day of the disappearance, the victim sent a message to her superior via WeChat. The original text was: 'I'm going to Xizang, please grant me a one-year leave.' Liu Cheng held his tablet, glanced at it, and continued: "Her superior replied: 'A spontaneous trip? I'm envious. Have a good time.'"

Liu Cheng paused and added, "The victim sent two smiley faces. The messages from that phone stopped there; no further messages have been sent since."

Jiang Yuan nodded slowly. "If she knew how to ask for annual leave, it's very likely she was a colleague from the company."

"Close friends, acquaintances, and relatives might also know the company's annual leave policy if they were close enough," Liu Cheng said. "Ruicheng Design's benefits are relatively good in the industry. The victim was usually willing to chat about this, and she would even show off on her WeChat Moments."

"The scope hasn't narrowed at all." The deputy detachment leader standing nearby had his hands behind his back. He was also holding a notebook of interrogation records—single-sided 80g printouts that looked and felt quite comfortable to read.

Liu Cheng nodded and added, "The victim had little contact with her parents and relatives, and her interactions with colleagues and friends were mostly limited to occasional gatherings. During her disappearance, everyone assumed she was having too much fun to return. When some couldn't reach her, they didn't take it seriously."

"It's one thing if colleagues couldn't reach her, but her parents couldn't reach her either—weren't they worried?"

"Her parents are divorced and have both remarried; they rarely had much contact to begin with. Besides, the victim had a history of not answering her parents' calls or replying to messages, so..." Liu Cheng spread his hands. From a criminal police perspective, Wang Xin couldn't even be considered a marginalized person; she had family, friends, a job, and colleagues—she was integrated into mainstream society.

It was just that in every one of her social circles, she occupied the most peripheral position.

"Knowing the company's annual leave system, knowing who her direct supervisor was, and very likely knowing her daily habits and phone password—the relationship between this killer and the victim should be quite close," Tao Lu summarized.

Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement and added, "The pollen and blood on the clothes indicate that the killer was at the victim's company that day. The probability of it being a colleague is very high."

Tao Lu said "Hmm" and ordered, "This is important. Old Liu, find the building's property management and the company's front desk to see if they have records of visitors or anything similar. Also, list the colleagues the victim was close to, as well as her friends. And look into whether the victim had a new boyfriend or a secret boyfriend."

"Yes." Liu Cheng noted it in his book and turned to relay the orders.

The investigation plan Tao Lu provided was nothing extraordinary; it was standard procedure. For an average case handled by average people, they wouldn't even be able to get past these three basic steps.

Many killers think things through beforehand: "I'll pretend to do this or that," or "I'll use this method to reduce suspicion."

Little do they know, when criminal police investigate a case, they find even a dog suspicious. The most commonly used method is elimination—it's a multiple-choice question, not a single-choice one.

It's like ordinary people fighting; they might have a plan or hidden moves, but if they encounter a fighter who just uses wild, flailing punches, nine times out of ten, they're going to get beaten up.

It was just that Ruicheng...

The company had quite a large number of employees—over a hundred people. Plus, being in a public office building in the city center, bringing everyone in would look too unsightly. If they were moved to a smaller place, they might have to be brought back to the criminal police team for individual questioning.

Of course, it was currently a "question everyone" situation, but by keeping the location at Ruicheng Company, it looked a bit more decent and humane.

"I'll go to Ruicheng to take a look." Jiang Yuan checked and still felt a bit uneasy.

Most importantly, he wanted to confirm the location of the flowers that hadn't been found.

If there was pollen, there had to be flowers. Vegetables like cucumbers or chili peppers weren't in the office, and the office balcony didn't have them either; there had to be a source.

By now, the evening rush hour was almost over. Jiang Yuan requested a business van and took five people with him to Ruicheng.

At night, at a crime scene where the suspect hadn't been found yet—in this kind of background and environment, Jiang Yuan felt that taking only Mu Zhiyang along wasn't safe enough. ===== CHAPTER 622 =====