Chapter 270: Murder in a Locked Room

Genius Detective

Lin Dongxue's face turned red to the tips of her ears and she covered her face with her hands. Chen Shi pulled the car door open from the other side. Lin Dongxue saw a bag of things in his hand as Chen Shi said, “I bought breakfast for you.”

Lin Dongxue still refused to take her hands away from her face. He was just so close to me just then. He must have heard it. He definitely heard it.

She felt very embarrassed that her true thoughts were revealed.

“Would you like to have some preserved egg and lean pork congee?” Chen Shi opened a box.

“...”

Chen Shi spooned some of the food up and reached out to her mouth. “Open your mouth.”

Lin Dongxue opened her mouth and swallowed.

Chen Shi fed spoonful after spoonful of preserved egg and lean pork congee to her and then wiped a little bit off the corner of her mouth with his thumb. Lin Dongxue saw him suck his thumb between the fingers that still covered her face.

“Do you look like a policeman right now?”

“That’s none of your business!” Lin Dongxue opened the hands covering her face like a door and closed them again.

“Who owns this coat? It’s a uniform as well?”

Lin Dongxue dropped her hands down but her face was still burning hot. She said, “There was a local policeman with me yesterday. No, it was me with him actually.”

“It looks like this guy cares about you.” Chen Shi noticed the leftover fast food packaging in the car.

“I... I don’t care about that...”

“Would you like to get out of the car and walk after staying in here the whole night?”

Lin Dongxue nodded silently.

After getting out of the car, Chen Shi accompanied Lin Dongxue to walk around the unit building. Lin Dongxue roughly briefed him on the case and Chen Shi nodded while listening. “A murder in a locked room!”

“Yeah, do you think it's possible?”

“Every locked room murder is either a suicide or a fake locked room.”

“Then do you think you can solve it?”

“The weirder a case is, the easier it is to solve. On the contrary, the cleanest cases are the trickiest. I see no problem with this.”

“Shall we go to the scene to take a look?”

“Wait for Old Peng to come!” Chen Shi stopped outside the window of the crime scene and looked up.

Lin Dongxue thought, Did he not hear the phrase “I miss you” just now? Maybe he heard it, but is pretending to be stupid?

The uncle was indeed a crafty creature. When she thought of that, she got a bit angry and reached out to prepare to punch Chen Shi.

Chen Shi suddenly turned around and Lin Dongxue immediately pulled her fist behind her back. Chen Shi said, “Don't be so stupid in the future, staying up all night and watching the scene alone. What if the killer was nearby? Could you handle them by yourself? Remember to call me next time.”

“I think... You're not a policeman and don't need to suffer this hardship.”

“You think, you think. You didn’t even tell me about it and guessed my thoughts out of thin air? Maybe I’d be willing to keep you company!”

“Why would you keep me company?”

“Who told you to be born so beautiful!”

“Tch, how superficial.” Lin Dongxue pretended to be angry.

Chen Shi went to check the bathroom windows. Because the apartment was on the first floor, the bathroom was equipped with stainless steel rails on the window. Chen Shi observed the dust on the bathroom rails and said, “The dust on the bathroom rails has been removed.”

“Did the murderer come in from here? Impossible. A bunch of people stood there at the time!” Lin Dongxue pointed behind him.

“Were the reporters really noisy?”

“Not only were they noisy, but their spotlights were particularly bright...” Lin Dongxue suddenly thought of a possibility. “Did the killer break into the house while we weren’t paying attention?”

“If that's the case, the killer must be tall and strong.”

“This group of reporters is really annoying. If they didn't come here for an interview, maybe the matter would have been resolved already. There wouldn’t have been a homicide.”

“When it comes to the reporters, who exactly called them over?”

“Didn’t they come by themselves?”

“I think someone provided a tip for them to come. Two CTV station reporters appeared at the same time. I don't think it was just a coincidence. I'm afraid they were led here by the murderer. Did anything else happen during this period of time?”

“The machine on the TV interview vehicle was splashed with water and a short circuit occurred. They suspected that it was done by their competitor and almost got into a fight. It took a full two hours to resolve... So it seems that this was also set up by the murderer?”

Sure enough, after Chen Shi's analysis, it became clear immediately. Lin Dongxue suddenly felt that the sudden appearance of the reporters were deliberately arranged by the murderer to stall for time.

“The victim should have been killed around 12:00. When we saw the post on Weibo, the murderer might have still been on the scene.”

“It seems you don't use Weibo very much. Doesn't Weibo have a timed-sending function?”

“Does it?”

“If the killer ran away after finishing sending Weibo, it would be too bold and technically challenging. I think the probability is that the post was delayed.”

“When the door was opened, a large group of reporters rushed in. The scene was particularly chaotic. Did the murderer escape during that time?”

“We’ll talk about this when we get into the crime scene later.”

At 7:00, several police cars drove into the community. Xu Xiaodong jumped out of the car and said, “Brother Chen really stayed here all night? Fuck, that’s love!”

“No, I just came.” Chen Shi corrected.

“Huh? Dongxue, did you stay here all night by yourself?”

“What's the big deal? Hurry up and handle the case!” Lin Dongxue said. After staying overnight, she did feel a little tired, but she could tolerate it for a while.

Several people went into the crime scene with Peng Sijue and the forensics team. They scattered around to collect evidence. The footprints left by reporters yesterday caused a major inconvenience and the entrance to the living room was almost all covered in footprints.

Chen Shi glanced at the place where the corpse was found and said, “This blood ejection volume seems to indicate that he was killed with a blunt instrument... A hammer or the like. Old Peng, I suspect the murderer came through the bathroom after pulling open the rails. Come and take a look.”

Peng Sijue said, “Mm” and then went into the bathroom with Chen Shi. Chen Shi felt that he was not in a good mood today.

Below the window was the toilet. Of course, there were curtains on the window. Chen Shi looked at the toilet and the toilet box from all angles and said, “There are no footprints but the dust has been wiped away, which is a bit strange.”

“If someone stands up, there will be footprints.”

Peng Sijue grabbed an ultraviolet lamp, but it turned out that there were no footprints. However, traces of blood were found on the tiles in the bathroom with lines on them, which seemed to be blood footprints left by the murderer.

Peng Sijue yelled for people to pry the tiles away and take them back for tests.

Chen Shi came to the living room, looked around, and said, “This is a master. The murder was really clean!”

“Can it be solved?” Lin Dongxue said worriedly.

“Don't worry, let’s investigate slowly. Hey Xiaodong, you can contact the Weibo officials to see if the account timed the post and delayed the sending. When did it happen? There is still another problem. Can the sending address be modified?”

“Okay, I'll call them now!”

“By the way, what about the deceased's cell phone?” Chen Shi asked.

After a circle of questions, the forensics team all said that they had not found it. It wasn’t on the victim either, so the murderer might have taken it away.

The three left the scene and waited for Peng Sijue to finish up before heading back together. Lin Dongxue said, “Do you feel like something’s wrong with Captain Peng?”

“Did he not rest much?” Chen Shi guessed.

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