“What?You’re looking for Xie Tongguo?” The man in the middle of the bed covered himself with the quilt and said, “He is my nephew! He sold this house to me! Why are you asking about him? Um… Also, were you just taking a pistol?”
“We are the police, and we are here working on a case!” Cui Lizhu said with pride.
The man on the bed asked in surprise, “What does my son or I have to do with your case? Why are you in my home?”
Zhao Yu roared in reply, “This is not your home! Your name is not on the property certificate or household registration!”
“Xie Tongguo! That little a*shole!” After hearing this, the man swore. He was clearly frustrated.
He then begged Zhao Yu, “Police officer, I promise I am not lying. He really sold me this house! When Xie Tongguo’s father was ill, he borrowed a lot of money from me. Now that his father is dead and he has no money to pay me back, he gave me a deal on the house as repayment of sorts!”
“Oh… I see…” Zhao Yu frowned.
“Yes, we even signed a contract!” the man said excitedly. “The only reason that he didn’t transfer the ownership to my name is because the property certificate has his father’s name on it. After his father died, he couldn’t transfer this house into my name legally! Besides, if I had an additional property under my name, my wife would have to know about it … Oh… No…”
Suddenly, the man realized that he shouldn’t be sharing all of his thoughts. So, he quickly changed the subject of the conversation. “I am good to my nephew. I bought the house based on the present market price. I didn’t even ask him to make up the difference for the money he owed me. I just gave him 150,000 yuan for the house instead, which is a great deal for him!”
“Then… Where is Xie Tongguo now?” Miao Ying asked.
The man said, “Um… I don’t know. After I gave him the money, I never saw him again! Who knows where he went. Maybe he left the Golden City…”
“When did Xie Tongguo’s father die? When did he sell the house to you exactly?” Zhao Yu asked.
“Um… It was about half a year ago,” the man answered honestly.
Half a year ago! Zhao Yu and Miao Ying looked at each other in astonishment, while thinking the same thing.
It was exactly six months ago that Xie Tongguo had been dismissed from the real estate agency! Then, his father had died and he had sold this house to get out of debt! All of this might have caused Xie Tongguo to kill, due to his rage and indignation!
From this point of view, Han Kuan’s book might only have played a part of the role in this murder plot, as Xie Tongguo’s miserable life experiences were the real instigators!
The man covered in the quilt pointed to the two women next to him and asked, “Officer, if you are going to ask me many more questions, which will clearly take a long time, shall we relocate to a more proper place? At least let me put on some clothes, okay?”
“Okay…” Cui Lizhu said.
She then laughed wickedly as she rushed to the bed and grabbed the quilt. “At least let me pull the quilt away first! Our boss might be interested…”
Zhao Yu was speechless at her immature actions. His face looked gloomy, and so did Miao Ying’s.
“Ah…” the two women exclaimed.
“Don’t… Don’t…” The man was shocked and he urged them, “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, but please don’t let my wife know anything about this!”
“Where is Xie Tongguo?” Miao Ying asked again.
“I really don’t know!” The man was trembling as he pointed to his clothes and said, “I have his number, but he must have changed it, as I’ve called many times, yet failed to get through!”
Cui Lizhu heard this and immediately took out the man’s mobile phone from his pocket.
“Think about it carefully. Where else would Xie Tongguo be likely to go?” Zhao Yu asked.
“I really don’t know!” the man said. “There’s something wrong with him! He really doesn’t talk too much to anyone. Also, it’s impossible that he would come to me.”
“You just said that you gave him 150,000 yuan…” Zhao Yu said. “Was that payment in cash or via debit or credit? In other words, does he have a bank card?”
“I paid in cash!” the man answered quickly. “He insisted on it being cash. I guess that he owes somebody else money besides me. I vaguely heard him mention it. The sum is probably around 40,000 to 50,000 yuan!”
“Okay, so, assuming he paid of that debt, then Xie Tongguo still has at least 100,000 yuan in cash, right?” Zhao Yu looked at Miao Ying, then said, “Well… Now we know that he didn’t need to look for a job right away!”
What Zhao Yu was implying was that since Xie Tongguo did not have to worry about money, he could devote himself solely to carrying out the murders!
“Boss, what should I do?” Cui Lizhu approached Zhao Yu and asked in a low voice.
“Um… Say you’re policemen…” At this time, a woman, who was in the bed, asked weakly, “Where are your badges?”
Another woman then added, “Even if you show us your badges, you can’t break into someone’s house!”
“Nonsense!” The man was so anxious that he stared at the two women and shouted, “Didn’t you see their gun? Shut up!”
Zhao Yu shook his head and sighed. He really didn’t want to cause any trouble, so he said, “Okay, here… I’ll show you my badge.”
Miao Ying sneered at them and immediately picked up her cell phone and called Zeng Ke. When he answered she said, “Zeng Ke, send a group of our men here right away! Xie Tongguo has sold his house! However, there may still be some important clues that he left here, so we must carry out a comprehensive search!”
Upon hearing this, the man looked embarrassed, and he urged her and Zhao Yu, “Officers, conduct your search as you will. I don’t need this house for the time being, but please just don’t let my wife know about all of this…”
Completely ignoring the man, Miao Ying said to Zeng Ke over the phone, “Also inform the Golden City Police Station that we seem to have caught a sex trafficker. Ask them to come and investigate this matter carefully.”
The man turned to the two women and scolded them, “Look at what you’ve done!”
As she came out of the bedroom, Miao Ying grabbed Zhao Yu and said, “Zhao Yu, considering the current situation, I don’t think that a citywide search is a good idea!”
Zhao Yu nodded his head and agreed with her. “At the moment, Xie Tongguo doesn’t know that we suspect him. Also, he has money. If he gets startled and discovers that we are after him, he will definitely run away!”
Miao Ying nodded and said, “His running away is not the worst case scenario! I’m afraid that he will just continue this crazy killing spree, as I’m afraid that it will be hard for him to stop! As such, we must think of a perfect way to catch him soon!”
Miao Ying had just finished voicing her concern, when Zeng Ke chimed in from over the phone, “Leader Miao, our people are on their way. They’ll get there in two minutes. I just checked Xie Tongguo’s personal information, and his ID card shows that he has not registered at any hotel in the vicinity.”
He took a breath, then added, “It also appears that he has only one bank card with no transaction history in the last half a year, which means that it must be his bank card from his previous employer. That explains why he hasn’t used it since his dismissal!”
Miao Ying shook her head and said, “Xie Tongguo seems to know how to avoid exposing himself! Zeng Ke, although the Golden City doesn’t have many surveillance cameras, you can still use our software to see if you can find any traces of Xie Tongguo.”
“Okay, no problem!” Zeng Ke said before he hung up the phone.
Zhao Yu then waved to Cui Lizhu and said, “Go get the key to the basement from that man, then go and check it out!”
“The basement?” Cui Lizhu frowned.
“Since Han Kuan’s manuscripts went missing from the basement, it is very likely that Xie Tongguo stole them! So, you need to go down there and see if you can find any clues,” Zhao Yu explained.
Cui Lizhu seemed reluctant. “It’s dirty and dark down there. Isn’t there a search team that can do that? Why make me do it? I’m a senior policeman!”
Zhao Yu rolled his eyes and asked, “When you went into the sewer, why didn’t you say that you are a senior person? Why didn’t you think it was too dirty then? Hurry up! Don’t annoy me any longer! Maybe you can find some important clues there. I’m giving you a chance to make a contribution to this case. Can’t you see that?”
“Hmph! Your fine words don’t mean that much to me!” Cui Lizhu gave Zhao Yu a fierce glare, but did as he asked her anyway.
As Cui Lizhu took the key to the basement, she heard a siren outside the building…
