Wu Fang, who was calm on the surface but angry in his heart, did not listen to the doctor's dissuasion at all, and ventured to the source of the incident, the small town of Meng, which is close to the border. In desperation, the 'doctor' reported the situation while waiting for the arrival of Xu Wen and others.

Mengqi Town is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the middle canyon area is only more than ten miles in radius, and there are hundreds of families living in it according to the uneven terrain.

But it was this inconspicuous border town that a homicide occurred just after the Spring Festival. The deceased was an old carpenter fifty miles away, surnamed Fan, who usually lived in widowhood and basically had no relatives close to him in the town, so it did not cause much turmoil.

The accidental death of a single old man is not big news, but it is by no means a trivial matter, and Zhang Lianfa, a police officer at the town office, preliminarily determined that he killed him after inspecting the scene.

This was tense, and people were panicked for a while, because the town was not big, quiet and peaceful, and there had been no vicious public order cases in the past one or two decades. Moreover, most of the residents are related to each other, and outsiders can recognize them at a glance.

But after the Spring Festival, there were almost no outsiders, but many young people left their hometowns to work. The only hotel in the town has also extended its closure due to the fact that the door is a bird, so could it be said that the murderer will hide among the villagers?

Knowing this, I don't know why, after Zhang Lianfa got the autopsy results, he repeatedly inspected the scene, and finally made a difficulty. There was a shortage of clues, and there were contradictions, and the technical conditions of the town office were limited, so they had to ask for support from their superiors.

Soon, the township police station sent down two police officers to investigate the case. One is named Li Zhong, a member of the Achang ethnic group, and the other is Hao Kecheng, a Han nationality, who is older and belongs to the kind of experienced old policeman.

The three of them joined forces to reorganize the case, and first determined Zhang Lianfa's initial judgment on the nature of his killing. With the meticulous and in-depth investigation, some inconspicuous clues were discovered, although it is not possible to analyze the relevance, but judging from Hao Kecheng's experience, this case seems simple, but the background is complex.

The deceased, Lao Fan, was withdrawn and was an outsider, fifteen years ago, he was introduced to Zhang Jinlian's house in this town. Zhang is a widow who has no blood relatives in the town except for a daughter, so she is quite satisfied with her son-in-law, who has carpenter's skills.

Five years later, Zhang's died of illness, and while the neighbors regretted it, no one thought that only a year later, Zhang's daughter, that is, Lao Fan's daughter-in-law, died in childbirth.

When the poor daughter-in-law left, she didn't even keep a child, and the successive changes made the Fan carpenter at that time depressed and his personality became eccentric. People thought that Carpenter Fan, who had nothing to worry about from now on, would leave Mengqi and return to his hometown, but on the contrary, this unfortunate foreigner stayed unexpectedly and stayed for nearly ten years until he died unexpectedly.

Through autopsy and scene restoration, the murder process of Fan Carpenter was extremely simple, the murderer took advantage of his unspare fist-thick four-lined wooden stick to violently hit the back of Lao Fan's head, and the skull was opened, and the scene at that time was very miserable. Zhang Lianfa's reaction was quite fast, and he blocked the scene as soon as possible, otherwise there would be some chaos when there were many onlookers.

The murderer had no idea of destroying the murder weapon, and the four-lined wooden stick stained with blood and * was lying quietly less than two meters away from the front of the side of Lao Fan's corpse, which easily reminded people of the scene where the stick was discarded by the murderer after a crazy blow, which made people shudder.

But the problem is, there are only Lao Fan's own fingerprints on the wooden stick. Due to the extremely rough cut surface of the wooden stick, it is difficult to extract relevant traces, and even the fingerprints of the deceased themselves are vague, and they are only confirmed after repeated verification.

Of course, it is not impossible to assume that the murderer deliberately covered up and destroyed the traces, but it is also difficult to cut the rough surface of the stick.

Could it be that Lao Fan died of self-inflicted mutilation? This suspicion once became the focus of controversy among the case-handling personnel, and the murderer had no intention of hiding or destroying the murder weapon, but he cleaned up the rest of the traces cleanly, and this was the first major contradiction in the results of the on-site investigation.

The fingerprint is at the root of one end of the stick, this position indicates that the person holding the stick is holding the stick with one hand, if it is the deceased's self-harm, then the difficulty of the hitting action is unimaginable, even if it is barely completed, it cannot exert force, and even the force can crack the skull?

The two policemen sent by the township wore steel helmets and held wooden sticks of the same weight, repeatedly deducing the striking action, and finally had to agree with Zhang Lianfa's determination that he was killed.

Even if there is agreement on the characterization of the case, the strangeness of the case is beyond imagination, and the clues that are constantly unearthed are full of contradictions. After several days and nights of meticulous investigation, on the day of the crime and the next morning, except for the deceased Carpenter Fan himself, there were only the footprints of the person who reported the crime and the next-door neighbor Mrs. Xiang, and no third party ever appeared.

"What the hell, did the murderer fly in?" Hao Kecheng cursed, obviously unacceptable to this unbelievable result. He has been a police officer for more than 20 years, and he has seen a lot of suspects with anti-reconnaissance capabilities, but it is the first time he has encountered such a perfect cleanup of the traces at the scene, which directly led to the old criminal policeman's suspicion of his murder again, although subconsciously he can't accept that he is so vacillating.

Carpenter Van was killed at dinner time, and the autopsy showed that the food debris in his stomach matched the rest of the food on the dishes at the scene. The strange thing is that there are two sets of cutlery on the dinner table, which is undoubtedly a treat for the victim who has been widowed, but the person invited is a mystery, and it is likely to be the murderer, or it may be an insider.

The results of the extraction of the traces of the two sets of cutlery were once again shocking, one pair of dishes and chopsticks, including wine glasses, had the victim's saliva, fingerprints and lip lines, but the other was clean and nothing could be extracted. It seems to indicate that the guest has not made an appointment, never been to the scene, and it is also possible that the murderer carefully cleaned up the traces.

"I think the latter is likely, but obviously self-defeating. Li Zhong analyzed sullenly, "Even if the guest fails to make an appointment, how much the other tableware should have the fingerprints of Carpenter Fan himself, right?

Hao Kecheng and Zhang Lianfa nodded their heads again and again, agreeing with Li Zhong's analysis, but such an obvious omission was obviously intentional, and what was the purpose of the case? It seems that the key to this case is to find out who was the guest invited on the night of the crime? Did he actually go to the scene?

With the direction, everyone's spirit is also lifted, the three of them immediately divided labor, Zhang Lianfa as a local, has self-evident convenience, he needs to find out the social relationship of Fan carpenter as soon as possible, there is no focus, since he entered the town, all the relationships must be carefully investigated.

Hao Kecheng went to Carpenter Fan's hometown, Mangshi, the capital of Dehong Prefecture, to investigate his social relations there, while Li Zhong verified everyone's analysis opinions one by one based on the results of the on-site inquest and autopsy, and found commonalities in the contradictory clues and clarified their ideas.

A few days passed, wandering around the city, Hao Kecheng, who had little gain, unexpectedly received a call from Li Zhong that Zhang Lianfa had a car accident on the road outside the town, and his life was in danger.

Taken aback, Hao Kecheng hurried back, but heard further bad news on the way, Zhang Lianfa died in the county hospital.

"Is the perpetrator under control?" said Hao Kecheng was furious on the phone.

"Ran, under arrest. Li Zhong was quite helpless and very sad.

"Bastard!"

Hao Kecheng, who hung up the phone, suddenly had a strong feeling that the car accident was so coincidental, Zhang Lianfa must have discovered something. Without further ado, he immediately dialed Li Zhong's mobile phone again, "Hey, Xiao Li." Zhang Lianfa's relics were all sealed, and no one was allowed to touch them without my consent. Also, Xiao Zhang's residence will be blocked immediately, and I will immediately make up for the necessary procedures. ”

"I have sealed the relics I have with me, and I am asking for instructions about sealing off Xiao Zhang's residence. Li Zhong's unhurried answer reassured Hao Kecheng a little, but then frowned and said, "Don't ask for instructions, you rush over first, I still have more than an hour to arrive." ”

"Okay, I'll go right away!" Li Zhong was decisive and calm.

When Hao Kecheng rushed to Zhang Lianfa's residence in Mengqi Town, he was greeted by Li Zhong's face full of frustration, he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, and then looked at the crack in the door, and his heart suddenly sank, "How is the situation?"

"We were a step late, and the house was already in a mess. Li Zhong was unwilling, and his words were full of self-blame.

Hao Kecheng nodded gloomily and strode into the door. Although he was mentally prepared, he was still angry by the scene in front of him. Zhang Lianfa's house seemed to have been ransacked by robbers, the small space was turned upside down, all kinds of daily utensils were thrown all over the ground, even the heavy wooden single bed was turned over, and there was hardly a place to stand in the house.

"Did you find anything?" Hao Kecheng tried to control his emotions.

"No, he hasn't been here in two days. ”

"Two days?"

"Yes, he's been with me for the past two days. Li Zhong nodded, "I've been sorting out and analyzing information in the guest house arranged in the town. ”

"So, you also have a copy of the case information collected by Xiao Zhang?" Hao Kecheng's face softened a lot.

"That's right, and the most primitive. Li Zhong's answer was unusually affirmative, and finally made Hao Kecheng's heart settle down.

Next, the two rushed to the county hospital, looked at Zhang Lianfa's body, and communicated with the forensic doctor about the situation. Then he went to the township police station to report the case non-stop to learn about the progress of the arrest of the perpetrator, and finally returned to the guest house in Mengqi Town exhausted.

On the one hand, continue to investigate the case, and on the other hand, wait for the instructions of the superiors, after all, the murder case happened again after a short time, and the relationship between it cannot be ruled out, and the stakes are very high, and the criminal investigation of the county bureau will inevitably intervene in the investigation.