Chapter 217: Mysteries Unsolved
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“In the underground garage of this building?”
Sheng Ke and Yu Fei were stunned by this news.
After painstakingly searching for the watch-stealing thieves, as it turned out, the thieves were in this building, living right under their noses. A series of thefts happened in several office buildings in this area, so Sheng Ke had just brought Zhang Zian to this building with a faint hope of finding out the truth. Lucky for him, the case had been solved today.
But Yu Fei, who was not informed about the whole truth, was thinking about completely different things. He worried that whether it was an insider job committed by some employees in this building with their partners outside. If that was true, the impact might be severe.
Without making too much explanation, Zhang Zian led them through the emergency exit passageways and entered the underground garage. He opened the door of the storage warehouse in front of them, “The stolen items are all here. Captain Sheng, if you have a list of all the reportedly stolen items, you can compare and see whether anything else is missing.”
Yu Fei was curious and was about to go inside, but was stopped by Sheng Ke, “Don’t spoil the scene!”
Sheng Ke looked at the warehouse, and his eyes fell on a few ordinary cats, “Where are the suspects? Did you catch them?”
Zhang Zian was a bit nervous. He knew that was the most critical issue, and he replied with his prepared answer, “The suspects might have gone already. When my cats brought me here, there was no one. These cats are probably trained by the suspects to steal things.”
He came up with a suggestion, “Captain Sheng, you can have some of your people guard here. Maybe the suspects will come back again to take these stolen items.”
Sheng Ke was also thinking about that possibility. He stood at the door, and looked at the stolen items scattered on the ground, comparing them with the reportedly stolen items on his list. He recognized some items that had obvious features, like the missing TAG Heuer watch of Liu Miao. He was not sure about the rest of the items, so he needed to observe closely to identify them. But right now, the most important thing was to protect the scene and extract footprints and fingerprints, and that’s why he stopped Yu Fei from entering the room.
Although the stolen items had been found, there were so many unsolved mysteries of this case. Where were the suspects? Did they escape in advance because they knew about the impending danger? Those watches, handbags and jewelry could be sold out very easily, so why didn’t the suspects carry these items with them or sell them?
This series of cases were very unusual from the beginning. Though Sheng Ke had rich experience in handling cases, he couldn’t figure out the pattern of this one.
Zhang Zian felt sorry for Sheng Ke. He secretly glanced at Sheng Ke, the leader of the criminal investigation team, who was frowning and had all kinds of expressions on his face. He knew that Sheng Ke was trying hard to figure out all the puzzles in this case. Zhang Zian was very sympathetic to Captain Sheng. This case involved an elfin, which could not be explained or thought about in common sense. If Captain Sheng insisted on applying his previous experience in this case, he would be led into wrong directions and would not be able to find out the truth.
He didn’t worry about if Captain Sheng would doubt him, because he had never gone inside the warehouse. He just stood at the door for a while, so none of his fingerprints or footprints were left on the scene.
“Captain,” he said.
“Yes, Mr. Zhang. Do you have any advice?” Sheng Ke was brought back to reality from his pondering.
“In my opinion, if you have been waiting here for a few days, and the suspects never return, perhaps you could close the case.” Zhang Zian said sincerely. Sheng Ke was a very responsible police officer and even worked on weekend to solve the case. Zhang Zian felt really sorry if Captain Sheng and his team would waste their time guarding here because of what he said.
“Captain Sheng, think about that. The suspects know how to use cats to steal things, so maybe they are also using cats to detect the environment. Right now, they probably have known that we have found the scene, and if they are not idiots, they have fled far away. Even if you do guard and patrol here, you might not be able to bring them to justice.”
Sheng Ke did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked at Fina as if he had thought of something, “Mr. Zhang, can I…”
Zhang Zian quickly refused: “No.”
Sheng Ke laughed, “Mr. Zhang, you have not even heard my question.”
“I know what you want. You either want to borrow my cat, or you want me to take my cat to chase the suspects. I regret to tell you that I can’t say yes to your request. My cat does not listen to people’s commands. Plus, I know nothing about tracking suspects.” Zhang Zian thought about what Sheng Ke would ask in advance and prepared his answers well.
Zhang Zian was right. Sheng Ke was thinking about having police guard the warehouse, and at the same time, let Zhang Zian track suspects in secret. But since Zhang Zian had explicitly refused the proposal, Sheng Ke had to give up the idea. Fortunately, the lost items had been found. But how should he write the police report to his superiors when the suspects were still at large? What a pain in the neck!
“Mr. Zhang, let’s go upstairs. Xiao Yu, please guard here for a while,” said Sheng Ke.
The case had come to an end for now, and there was no need to to stay there. Since there was no signal in the underground garage, Sheng Ke went upstairs to call for backup. He told Yu Fei to guard the door and not to leave or let anybody go inside, and wait for the arrival of police officers.
Yu Fei followed the order obediently, and the way he looked at Zhang Zian became totally different. He couldn’t imagine that this young man, who was at the same age as him, possessed such impressive powers. He settled this case, which had been bothering the police for a long time, in just an hour. Although he did not catch the suspects, finding the lost items was a fulfillment of police duties.
Sheng Ke left the underground garage and returned to the lobby on the first floor of the Yuanhua Building. Zhang Zian followed him, and Fina and the invisible Old Time Tea were behind Zian’s back.
“Here, Mr. Zhang, your round-trip taxi fares.” Sheng Ke pulled out 100 Yuan from his pocket and gave it to Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian pretended to decline, “That would be unnecessary, Captain Sheng, the honor is mine to help you today. I was just joking about the reimbursement.”
Sheng Ke thought, “You did not sound like it on the phone.”
He insisted that Zhang Zian accept the money, “Just take it. Our police station has promised to be responsible for your taxi fares back and forth. And no worries, though today I use my money to cover your costs, I will also be reimbursed from the police station.”
Zhang Zian was ready to take the money. But suddenly, a cat claw appeared and patted down the money from Sheng Ke’s hand. They looked down and found that it was Fina. Fina was tired of Zhang Zian’s etiquette and politeness, so it leaped up to grab the money and put in in its claws, as if declaring that the banknote belonged to it now.
Sheng Ke was speechless. Like owner, like pet!
Zhang Zian was quite embarrassed and tried to explain, “My cat usually doesn’t do that…”
“Mr. Zhang, I am very grateful for your help today.” Sheng Ke looked at his watch, “I need to wait for my colleagues. If you are busy, you might leave now. I will visit you to extend the police station’s gratitude in a few days.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m just fulfilling my obligation as a law-abiding citizen.”
Zhang Zian squatted down to take his money back from Fina’s paws and put it into his wallet. He had to pull several times before he finally succeeded.
“Well, see you next time.” He waved and said goodbye to Sheng Ke. He took a taxi with Fina and Old Time Tea and headed back to the pet shop.
