WWY Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Interrogating Maohu Li – Daring to Commit Murder and Silence a Witness in Front of the Public Security Bureau…

Almost two months had passed, and the robbery at the Zijinghua Villa finally had a major breakthrough. The entire Criminal Investigation Brigade felt invigorated, but Tuxi Ling was not so optimistic.

Although Maohu Li admitted that he did everything, he still insisted on his idea, feeling that there was someone else behind him. With this knot in his heart, he discussed with Yaojin Ke that he wanted to participate in the interrogation.

Yaojin Ke, carrying a black leather notebook, was about to enter the interrogation room when he was stopped. He tilted his mouth and said, “You can’t steal the credit, Captain Ling. Our First Brigade has been following this case from beginning to end!”

“I’m not stealing credit, it’s all yours!” Tuxi Ling knew he was joking, but he really didn’t care about that, “I just have some questions, I want to interrogate him myself.”

Tuxi Ling did not steal Yaojin Ke’s position as the chief interrogator, but took the initiative to sit in the chair next to him, scrutinizing Maohu Li’s expression.

He was handcuffed to the iron chair, looking like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, but his tightly curled fingers showed that he was actually very nervous.

Seeing him nervous, Tuxi Ling felt relieved.

Yaojin Ke’s stern face was a bit intimidating. He opened his notebook, took out a stack of documents from the file bag beside him, spread them out, and tapped on the table.

“Name!”

“Maohu Li.”

“Age?”

“Fifty-two.”

“Occupation?”

“Boatman.”

“What kind of boat? Where do you sail to? Be specific!”

“Just one boat, the one you impounded. I sail everywhere, mainly depending on the needs of the client.”

“What kind of clients are they? Who introduced them to you?”

“Generally, it’s Xiaotian An who contacts me. Didn’t you arrest her? Didn’t she expose me?”

“Let’s not talk about smuggling for now, let me ask you something else!” After completing the basic information, Yaojin Ke asked about the most concerning robbery case, “You said the robbery and murder case at Zijinghua Villa was done by you, describe the process yourself.”

“That day…”

“Which day? Specific date!”

“I really can’t remember!”

“Let me remind you, September!”

“September… it seems like, September 13th? Yes, it should be. That day I was idle, so I wandered to that whatchamacallit Villa, dreaming that one day I could buy a house there, bring Wenshan Wang in, and have a big fat son. Then I found that the family seemed to be away. There was a small window open in the backyard, so I thought since I came all the way, I might as well go in and steal something.”

“How are you so sure the family wasn’t home?”

“The window glass, other people’s are so clean, his was so dirty. In my opinion, people who live in villas, it’s not difficult to hire a cleaning service regularly, right? How could they not clean it? Isn’t that like going out without washing your face?”

That made some sense.

Yaojin Ke asked, “Then what? Continue.”

“Then…” Maohu Li lowered his eyes and thought for a long time, then suddenly smiled slyly, “Miscalculated, the family was home, a man, about my age, looked sickly, and was startled by me. The key is, I was also startled, so what do you say I should do? I came all the way, and he saw my face, right? So I killed him and took his money and antiques.”

Yaojin Ke pressed, “Where did you get the antiques?”

“Safe.”

“How did you open it? Was the safe unlocked?”

Maohu Li was stunned, thought for a while, and said, “Oh, I asked him, and he told me.”

“You asked him and he told you? He’s really obedient.”

“Ah, no, of course I had to use force, right!”

“Force?” Yaojin Ke sneered, “Did you hit him?”

“Yes, I hit him!”

“How did you hit him?”

Maohu Li stared at his hand: “With my fist, um, I think I used something else too, I can’t remember.”

“Where did you hit him?”

“When my temper flares up, I hit wherever I can, who remembers that? Back on the ship…”

Yaojin Ke interrupted him, “Since you got the valuable stuff, why did you kill him?”

“Officer, what are you saying!” Maohu Li rolled his eyes without hiding anything, “He saw my face! If he called the police, and the police caught me, it wouldn’t be as simple as burglary. I’m not ignorant of the law, organizing smuggling and burglary together is almost enough for life imprisonment. Do I care about killing one more person?”

“How did you kill him in the end? Where’s the murder weapon?”

Maohu Li gritted his teeth, stared at Yaojin Ke for a few seconds: “Gunshot.”

Yaojin Ke was not affected by him at all, still maintaining the rhythm: “What gun? Where did you shoot him?”

“Pistol, I fired a shot and left, I don’t know where I hit him.”

“What type of bullet?”

“Type? That, I don’t really understand, I just use what people give me.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“Bought it abroad, for people like us, isn’t it easy to get a gun when we go out?”

“Where’s the murder weapon now?”

“Threw it into the sea after the crime.”

“You broke in, why aren’t there any fingerprints in the house?”

“I saw a pair of yellow rubber gloves on his windowsill, so I put them on. When I left, I threw them in the community trash can.”

“So, you entered the house through the first-floor bathroom window, then put on rubber gloves, intending to steal. As a result, you discovered the homeowner, that is, the deceased, subdued him, obtained the safe password through beatings and torture, and shot him to death after taking the money.”

“Yes… ah, no!” Maohu Li looked at Yaojin Ke angrily, “Officer, are you trapping me? I put on the gloves first, then entered the house!”

Not catching him once, Yaojin Ke casually switched to the next question, “Where did the conflict between you and the deceased take place? First floor or second floor? You shouldn’t forget this, right?”

“Location?” Maohu Li’s arrogance disappeared immediately. He looked around for a while, and said, “We were tearing at each other all the time, from the first floor to the second floor. Anyway, it was quite chaotic at the time!”

Yaojin Ke glanced at him, curled the corners of his mouth, as if he had caught a huge loophole. Just as he was about to say something, his thigh was bumped by Tuxi Ling’s knee.

He glanced at Tuxi Ling and shut his mouth.

Tuxi Ling stared into Maohu Li’s eyes and asked, “Maohu Li, who hit your face?”

“Ah?” Maohu Li lowered his head and touched his face, “No one hit me, I fell.”

Tuxi Ling chuckled: “Fell? You fell in a pretty peculiar way, didn’t you?”

Maohu Li didn’t answer, and laughed “hehehe.”

“Maohu Li, why did you abandon the boat?” Tuxi Ling was worried that he would quibble, and directly blocked his way, “Don’t say things like the boat was stolen. The surveillance at the dock shows that you were the only one who sailed the boat away.”

Maohu Li scratched his head, “Oh, I was supposed to go to work, but my wife called and said she fell at home. She’s pregnant, and I was worried something would happen, so I took the speedboat back. The speedboat is faster. I wanted to take her to the hospital and come back, but I didn’t expect you to impound the boat first!”

“Which hospital? We will check the hospital records.”

“No, no, no, we didn’t go to the hospital. She said she was fine when I got home, so we didn’t bother in the middle of the night!”

Tuxi Ling didn’t expect this rough guy to be so cunning, his confession was watertight, so he had to be twelve points more careful.

“That day there were antiques on the boat, and you just left like that?”

“Antiques? Where are the antiques?” Maohu Li waved his hand, the handcuff chain rattled, “No, no, don’t wrong people! I was hauling dead fish, to be sent to the south to process fish balls!”

Yaojin Ke interjected: “You’re a big smuggling boss, do you still care about the little money you make selling dead fish?”

“Every little bit helps! Smuggling, you can only go out once or twice a year, after deducting the round-trip expenses, you can’t earn much!”

Tuxi Ling continued: “There were a small amount of antique fragments under the dead fish. After investigation and restoration, we determined that they belonged to the deceased at the Zijinghua Villa. Can you say it wasn’t you?”

“Really not, just dead fish!”

“Then what about the blood on the boat?”

“Blood? I don’t know, there was nothing when I left!”

“What about the antiques?” Tuxi Ling asked with a cold face, “There were a total of six antiques in the deceased’s home, and you only have two. Where did the other four go?”

“Six? Where are six antiques!” Maohu Li’s eyes turned, “I said officer, you can’t put all the blame on me! Although I’m going to die sooner or later, you can’t put all the shit on my head!”

Tuxi Ling was stunned for a moment, then slammed the table hard: “Maohu Li, what nonsense are you talking about!”

“Officer, think about it, if there were antiques on the boat, would I dare to just leave the boat there?” Maohu Li looked wronged, “Really not, just dead fish!”

Yaojin Ke was amused by his anger: “Maohu Li, regarding the robbery and murder case at the Zijinghua Villa, your confession doesn’t match the crime scene investigation at all. You don’t know many details, it’s obvious that you weren’t there. Tell the truth, who are you protecting? Who is your accomplice? What benefits did he give you?”

Maohu Li’s face changed suddenly.

“Did you think you got away with it just now? Let me tell you, the current criminal investigation methods are not like twenty years ago, especially in terms of crime scene reconstruction. Don’t dream that you can fool us with just a few words! Six antiques, you only have two in your hand, are the other four with your accomplices? No, maybe three or two, one was smashed by you on the boat, are you trying to cheat and keep it all for yourself? Perhaps, the person who called you that day wasn’t Wenshan Wang, but your accomplice, right? Did he threaten you with Wenshan Wang, asking you to go back?”

Maohu Li was stunned, and shouted, “No!”

Tuxi Ling shook his head: “It’s that no one asked you to go back at all, you deliberately created the illusion of the smuggling boat being robbed. That’s how you planned to report to your accomplices, keeping the two antiques for yourself, right?”

Maohu Li’s face turned red to the roots of his neck. With Tuxi Ling’s many years of experience in reading people, he knew that he had guessed correctly.

“Are you very afraid of your accomplices? Who are they?”

“No, I, I, I don’t have accomplices!” Maohu Li’s forehead was sweating, but his tone was not so firm.

This iron plate finally loosened. Tuxi Ling and Yaojin Ke exchanged a confirming look. Yaojin Ke said, “Maohu Li, have they gotten a hold of your weakness? Do you think that if you take the blame for them, they will let you go? They are all desperadoes, is there any credibility? Think about it!”

“You didn’t kill anyone, right? Just organizing smuggling won’t get you many years. Isn’t Wenshan Wang pregnant? Maybe you can get out before the child is old enough to understand.”

“And your wife, it’s so difficult for her to live with her daughter alone. As a man, even if you have no feelings for her, shouldn’t you take some responsibility?”

…

No matter what they said, Maohu Li always drooped his head, impervious to reason.

After several fruitless rounds, Tuxi Ling and Yaojin Ke went out and walked into the next room. Liuchao, the deputy director in charge of criminal investigation, was staring at Maohu Li in the next room in front of the one-way glass.

Yaojin Ke drank some water: “Director Liu, can’t crack him!”

Liuchao sighed: “He is obviously not the perpetrator of the Zijinghua Villa case, but he refuses to confess the whereabouts of his accomplices. We can only investigate from his network of relationships to see if we can follow the clues. Of course, winning him over is still the most important thing!”

“Trace back the surveillance from the route he appeared on last night to see where he went before. I think the wound on his face was inflicted by his accomplices.” Tuxi Ling thought for a while, “Also, pay attention to the whereabouts of the other antiques, auction houses, pawnshops, and flea markets, keep an eye on them.”

Yaojin Ke habitually retorted: “That’s too much work!”

Tuxi Ling glared at him and said nothing.

Director Liu finalized it: “Let’s interrogate him here today, send the person to the detention center for detention, and do some work on his family to see if we can find any other clues.”

Maohu Li was escorted out of the interrogation room, and Tuxi Ling personally followed him.

He persuaded him unwillingly: “Maohu Li, think carefully, is the Public Security Bureau trustworthy, or are desperadoes trustworthy?”

“Okay, officer, your surname is Ling, right?” Maohu Li squinted in the sunlight and said with a smile, “If I remember anything, I will report to you as soon as possible!”

Saying it was a report, Tuxi Ling could hear that there was still a lot of perfunctory meaning in his words, but he still smiled at him friendly: “Always at your service!”

Suddenly, his right eye was shaken from the side by something very bright. He instinctively tilted his head in the opposite direction, and it was too late when he realized what it was.

“Be careful—” His heart turned cold, and he raised his hand to try to protect Maohu Li.

Almost at the same time, warm liquid splattered on his face, and a hole was blown open in Maohu Li’s temple with a “poof,” and blood gurgled out.

His huge body swayed, slowly fell to the ground, his eyes staring unwillingly at the sky, gradually losing focus.

Tuxi Ling suddenly turned his head to look in the direction the bullet came from, and immediately captured a rapidly disappearing figure on the roof of a residential building across the street.

That was…

He bit his teeth hard and ran wildly out of the gate amidst the shouts of the surrounding police officers.

He couldn’t be wrong, it was the suspect in the Qin Man case, that Middle Eastern mercenary! He also has a connection with Maohu Li?

Too arrogant! Daring to commit murder and silence a witness in front of the Public Security Bureau!