"Xiaozhi, are you interested in going with me to investigate an old case?" A week before I was going to take my annual leave, Li Jing asked me.

"Ugh." I was a little hesitant, to be honest, I haven't planned my vacation yet, and I may end up sleeping at home. But when I went to investigate the case, it seemed that I would be more tired, and I was entangled in my heart and wanted to refuse.

Li Jing didn't wait for me to refuse, so he said on his own: "I guess you haven't arranged it either, so let's use the free time of the past few days to investigate a previous case." ”

Knowing that this would be the case, I lay on the table: "But what kind of case is this time, Team Xiao asked you to investigate?" ”

"No, it's not." Li Jing waved his hand, "It's a case that hasn't been solved for 20 years." ”

"20 years?" He still has something on his mind that he can't let go, so I asked Li Jing with interest, "What kind of case is it?" ”

Li Jing looked at it funny: "You're too gossipy!" However, speaking of which, this case has also troubled a senior for 20 years. Twenty years ago, when Mr. Lu was sent to the United States for further study, one of his colleagues encountered a case. The suspect went to the police station and confessed to her crime, but the colleague always felt that something was wrong. He questioned whether he had caught the wrong suspect, but the suspect insisted that he had done it himself, and provided proof of his crime. His colleagues increasingly felt that the suspect was hiding something, but no matter how he asked, the suspect said that he had done it himself, and that he had no other evidence to support him, so he had to take the suspect into custody. The suspect was already terminally ill at the time, so he was released on medical parole after the trial came out, and died in the hospital half a year later. So in the psychology of his colleagues, this case has not been solved, and over time it has become a heart disease. The suspect had a 10-year-old child at the time, and two days ago the child approached the colleague who was investigating the case and insisted that his mother was innocent. This provided an opportunity for Mr. Lu's colleague to re-investigate the case, and he turned over the case file and looked at it, but found no suspicious points. He heard that our teacher Lu is now engaged in criminal behavior analysis at the police station, so this time he wants to ask Teacher Lu to help retry the case. ”

"But." I hesitated, but decided to speak, "But twenty years have passed, and the evidence of that year should have disappeared." ”

"That being said. But you have forgotten that 'those who pass through will leave traces', and if you look carefully, you will surely find other evidence. ”

On the first day of annual leave, he was dragged out by Li Jing to investigate the case, but he was still unhappy.

"I really want to eat flower buns." I pointed to the white porridge and poached eggs in front of me.

"Is that different from steamed buns?" Li Jing sat across from me and had breakfast with me.

"The appearance is relatively high." I thought for a moment and replied.

Li Jing rolled his eyes speechlessly.

After breakfast, I went to Mr. Lu's house to gather, because it was not a formal retrial, and a small-scale investigation could only start at Mr. Lu's house. I curiously walked around Mr. Lu's house.

Teacher Lu looked at me strangely: "It's not the first time you've come to my house, what's so curious?" ”

"Didn't your friend come?" I remembered that Li Jing said that this case was originally in the hands of Mr. Lu's friend, but the person concerned did not appear here.

Teacher Lu's face darkened after hearing this, and I realized that I might have touched Teacher Lu's sadness. Sure enough, Mr. Lu told me with a solemn face that his friend passed away due to illness 1 month ago, because he still couldn't worry about this case, so he entrusted the investigation of the case to Mr. Lu before he died.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lu, I don't know......" I apologized alumsily.

Teacher Lu suddenly woke up from his grief and hurriedly comforted me: "It's okay, I took this case and wanted to find out what happened back then, so that he could rest in peace under Jiuquan." So this time we have to work together. ”

After the atmosphere eased a bit, we focused on the case from 20 years ago.

If you only look at the file, it is actually a very simple case. Unable to stand the harassment of her neighbors, the single mother killed her neighbors in anger. There are no traces of alteration in the confession, both fatal and non-fatal injuries have been proved by the forensic doctor to be committed by one person, the place where the body was found is the same as the place the suspect said, the only doubt is that the time when the suspect surrendered and the time of death of the body was 6 hours apart, but the suspect explained that after the killing, he was delayed for 6 hours because of panic, and finally decided to call the police and surrender, and the reason given is reasonable. At first, Mr. Lu's colleagues suspected that the suspect was taking the blame for his son, but the suspect's son was in class at the time of the victim's death, and both the teacher and his classmates can prove this. I also checked the suspect's social relationship, and it was very simple, the suspect and her ex-husband raised their children alone after their divorce, and the income was mainly from the wages of the garment factory. The suspect's son is an ordinary child at school, not excellent but very honest, and the teachers are very sympathetic to what happened to this child. Neither the suspect nor her children have complex social relationships, so we have no other evidence for the time being.

"Teacher Lu, did the suspect's child tell you why he firmly believed that his mother did not kill anyone?" After reading the information in his hand, Li Jing raised his head and asked Teacher Lu.

"The reason is that the victim died that day when his mother was working in a garment factory." Teacher Lu recalled.

"How does he know?" I was shocked, wasn't he in school at the time, how did he know where his mother was?

Mr. Lu obviously knew the question in my heart, and quickly explained: "I asked him this question. He said that he remembered very well that day, the school charged lunch, and he forgot about it, so he called the garment factory where her mother worked and hoped that his mother could help him bring it when she picked him up from school. It was about 9 a.m., and six hours later, at 2 p.m., his mother went to the police station to turn herself in. He was on the phone at 9 a.m. with his mother, who worked in a garment factory an hour away from their home. His mother's employer has a rule that if you go to work, you are not allowed to take leave to go out except for special matters, so his mother has no chance to walk out of the factory gate, let alone go to the neighbor's house to kill people. ”

"The police did not accept the testimony of the suspect's son?" Li Jing and I share the same suspicions.

"The police have checked and there is no call log. But the suspect's son was convinced that he had indeed broadcast the phone to his mother, and the supervisor answered the phone to his mother. Later, when I asked the supervisor again, the supervisor said that he did receive a call from the suspect's son, but the time was at 10 o'clock in the morning, and the supervisor said that his mother was an hour late for work that day, and suddenly said in the afternoon that if something happened, she would leave the factory in advance, but no one expected that it was such a big thing as killing someone. Teacher Lu took out another piece of information and read.

"Then the police checked the supervisor's testimony?"

Teacher Lu nodded: "I have checked it and confirmed that what the supervisor said is true." Therefore, the investigator believes that there are two possibilities, one is that the child remembers the wrong time; It's that the child can't accept the fact that his mother killed someone for a while, and subconsciously makes up excuses to help his mother escape the crime. The investigators were more inclined to the latter at the time. ”

"Does Teacher Lu also think that this kid is lying?" I asked.

Teacher Lu looked embarrassed: "This." I don't think this child is lying, because observing the child's expression, tone, and language characteristics, I can't find the slightest flaw. ”

"I've been deceived a hundred times by a lie, and even I will believe it." Li Jing sneered on the side.

Teacher Lu sighed helplessly: "You kid." Of course, I was only aware of this possibility, and in fact the evidence found from the telephone bureau also showed that the child was talking to his mother at 10 o'clock instead of 9 o'clock as the child said. ”

"But if the child had been 20 years old at the time, I still think he could have done it to protect his mother. But he was only 10 years old at the time, and there was no one to teach him words, and he couldn't have been smart enough to make up lies to prove his mother's innocence. Around 9 o'clock, it should be the time to do recess exercises after the first class, and children will not be mistaken. And I read the record, and the child should not have known that his mother had killed someone when he recorded the confession. So it is impossible for him to lie. ”

"I considered that possibility, but the Telephone Bureau's records refute this view." Mr. Lu showed me the call records of the telephone bureau.

"I read that it was written in the case file that the suspect refused to see his child, so even when he was released on medical parole until he died, the suspect did not meet his child again." Li Jing changed the topic and successfully detached Mr. Lu from the debate just now.

Teacher Lu put down the printer paper in his hand: "This is where Lao Wan (the old police officer in charge of this case) suspects, he remembers that this suspect has been begging him not to let his children have contact with him, and even on the day of the trial, she refused to see her own children." They also refuse to allow their children to appear in court or to sit in court. Lao Wan only thought it was because the suspect didn't want the child to be affected because of himself, but later he always doubted his judgment of the suspect at that time. She always wondered if the suspect had refused to allow the child to meet with her for some other reason, but in the end he couldn't come up with a reason. ”

"So the first thing we need to solve now is to find the reason why we are annoyed and unwilling to see our son, so that the possibility of difference in call time will be supported by theory." Li Jing made a final summary.

"That's why oh asked you two to come back and help me. I hope you can help me find the people who had a relationship with the mother and son back then, and if possible, I must ask more about the mother and son, and what these people think of the mother and son. In this way, you can also understand the reasons for the divorce between the suspect and her ex-husband. The case is indeed not as simple as it seems. ”