I shook the cigarette case at Mr. Wu and motioned for him to smoke. Mr. Wu clasped his hands together and shook his head. So I put the cigarette case and lighter on the coffee table in front of me and said, "What's your full name?" ”

Mr. Wu said: "Wu Shitu. ”

"What's your wife's name?"

"Tao Cunfang."

"How long have you been married?"

Wu Shitu thought for a while and said, "It's been more than thirty years. ”

I took a puff of my cigarette, nodded, and said, "How are you feeling?" ”

Wu Shitu turned sideways, with a helpless expression on his face, his hands crossed and clasped together, hesitated for a moment and said, "It's not very good." ”

I looked at Lao Lu, who was standing on the side, and Lao Lu tilted his head slightly and motioned for me to continue.

I looked at Wu Shitu and said, "Do you and your wife sleep in separate rooms?" ”

Wu Shitu nodded and said, "Yes, we have been separated for many years. ”

"What do you do?"

"I'm in charge of taking care of the mahjong parlor downstairs at night."

I frowned and asked, "Is the mahjong parlor downstairs opened by your husband and wife?" ”

Wu Shitu looked at us, still helplessly said: "That's what we said to the outside world, but in fact, the mahjong parlor and commissary downstairs are all paid by my wife." Because I used to work in other places, I had an accident, and I lost all the money I earned, and I still owed a lot of debt. It was Cunfang who paid off the debt for me and arranged for me to take care of the mahjong parlor. In my opinion, it is ten years. ”

I thought in my heart, it seems that Tao Cunfang separated from him because he looked down on himself as a man, but as for why the two did not divorce, I don't know. I'm here to understand the case, and I'll ignore these emotional gossips for the time being, because of these circumstances, I believe that the police will investigate and sort it out.

I extinguished the cigarette butt in the ashtray and began to ask some crucial questions.

I looked into Wu Shitu's eyes and said, "Where is the room where you are resting?" ”

Wu Shitu said: "On the fourth floor, above Cunfang's room, is my room. ”

I asked again, "Didn't you hear anything downstairs last night?" ”

Wu Shitu shook his head and said, "I didn't hear it, because I was already in the mahjong parlor downstairs at that time." It was when I arrived at the mahjong parlor that Cun Fang went back to the house to get ready for bed. ”

His explanation is very reasonable.

I continued, "Does your wife wear a lot of gold and silver jewelry?" ”

Wu Shitu said: "It's not gold and silver jewelry, it's all gold jewelry. I remember that she had four gold rings on her hands, a gold bracelet on each wrist, a gold necklace around her neck, and a pair of gold earrings on her ears. ”

Lao Lu hurriedly interjected and asked, "Why is she wearing so much gold jewelry on her body?" ”

Wu Shitu said: "I also felt puzzled before, and there are often guests who play mahjong who say that Cunfang is cheesy. I once took the opportunity to ask, and she said that there used to be a fortune teller who said that she wore gold jewelry to bring her fortune. At that time, I saw that the business of mahjong parlors was very good, so I believed it. ”

I thought to myself, this fortune may have brought it, but at the same time it brought bad luck.

I asked, "Does your wife usually fall asleep that late?" ”

Wu Shitu nodded and said, "I usually go to bed around 1 to 2 o'clock in the morning. ”

I picked up the cigarette case and lighter on the table, took out two cigarettes from them, threw one to Lao Lu, and lit it myself slowly. Then he asked, "Who else knows that your wife lives in that room besides you?" ”

Wu Shitu thought for a while and said, "It should be a few sisters who often dance square dances with her." ”

"Did they come to play mahjong yesterday?"

"Nope."

I thought for a moment and asked, "Does your wife have a financial dispute with anyone?" For example, a mahjong player has borrowed money from her and so on. ”

"Yes. I know of a man named Peng Caoqing who often borrows money from Cunfang. Wu Shitu said affirmatively.

"How much did you borrow? How many are still unpaid? ”

"I don't know about this, Cunfang didn't tell me."

"When did you find out that your wife was dead? What was the situation then? Did you carry her to the bed? ”

"I found it when I went back to my room to rest around nine o'clock this morning. At this time before, Cun Fang had already gotten up, but not today. So I knocked on the door, but no one answered. So I tried twisting the doorknob and it wasn't locked. After opening the door, he saw Cunfang lying motionless on the ground, his face covered with blood. I thought she had fallen, so I carried her to the bed, but found that she was cold and breathless. So I went downstairs and called Dr. Zhang from the clinic in front, and Dr. Zhang said that she was dead, and Dr. Zhang said that she had bruises on her neck, not like she fell and knocked her head to death, as if she was strangled to death, and told me to call the police immediately. ”

I frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "Okay, thank you for your cooperation." ”

I stood up, walked up to Wu Shitu, and stretched out my right hand.

Wu Shitu also hurriedly stood up, wiped his right hand on his clothes, and held my right hand.

His palms were cold, and when I shook hands, I could feel that his hands were very strong, and I don't know if he deliberately didn't use his strength, or if he didn't have much strength. From how weak he looked, I deduced that he probably didn't have much strength.

After Wu Shitu left, I said to Lao Lu: "It can basically be ruled out that Wu Shitu killed Tao Cunfang." ”

Lao Lu took a puff of cigarette and said, "How can you see it? ”

I said: "According to Wu Shitu, when Tao Cunfang died, he was in the mahjong parlor downstairs. Then there will be many people who can testify for Wu Shitu. This is easy to investigate. And Wu Shitu has no motive for committing the crime, he is a person who is content with the status quo, although this kind of life is not decent, but it is very stable. He will not break this status quo easily. ”

Lao Lu said: "But his wife was killed, but he didn't have the slightest sadness, which is a bit abnormal." ”

I said: "The relationship between him and Tao Cunfang has long been gone. The feeling now is more of an employer-employee relationship. As for why they didn't get divorced, maybe because of the children, maybe because of the division of property, in short, this is not a question that we need to care about in this case. In fact, I can be sure that Wu Shitu will not only not be sad about Tao Cunfang's death, but will be happy. Because Tao Cunfang's death can allow Wu Shitu to regain the dignity of a man. ”

Lao Lu frowned and said: "Ouyang, what you said is very contradictory, can't this be used as Wu Shitu's motive for committing the crime?" ”

I laughed and said, "Are you so convinced that Wu Shitu killed Tao Cunfang's wife?" I want to say something, if the two of them fight, maybe who will win? Wu Shitu's weak body made it difficult to subdue the healthy Tao Cunfang empty-handed. I judge that the person who killed Tao Cunfang must be a strong man. ”

Lao Lu spat out a puff of green smoke and nodded in agreement.

I continued: "Judging from the current situation, it is very likely that an acquaintance committed the crime, because the murderer knew when Tao Cunfang was resting. This acquaintance I define as a frequent visitor to the mahjong parlor and a person who lives in the building, and of course other people cannot be excluded. First of all, I think we need to know who else lives in this building. For example, the service staff and passengers of the hotel on the second floor; The three locked rooms on the third floor, who lived in them; In addition to Wu Shitu on the fourth floor, there are no other people living and so on. ”

Lao Lu said: "Well, I will take someone to understand this as soon as possible." ”

"It's easy to investigate the residents in the building," I said. However, the guests of the mahjong parlor are relatively difficult to investigate. ”

Lao Lu said confidently: "You don't have to worry about this, we have our own way." ”

In fact, I know Lao Lu's method, that is, to work overtime all night to check everyone in and out of the mahjong parlor, and identify suspicious characters from them. Therefore, the detection of a case is not as stated in the detection novel, which can be solved by just a detective who is unpredictable and unpredictable, and it also requires a large number of police forces to be solved in the process of hard investigation.

I added, "The killer must have been the one who stayed in the building last night." Because there is only one entrance and exit and stairs up and down the stairs of this building, after the murderer kills Tao Cunfang, he either returns to the accommodation in the building, or he has to return to the mahjong parlor to continue to pretend to play mahjong or leave. Unfortunately, there are no cameras installed in the mahjong hall, which brings a certain degree of difficulty to the investigation. ”

Lao Lu said: "I investigated this building before, whether it is a mahjong parlor, a hotel or a accommodation area, there is no monitoring equipment. It's a real headache. ”

I smiled: "Comrade Lao Lu, because of the emergence of surveillance equipment, many of our cases have to rely on video data to solve them. If you go back to a few decades ago, when there was no monitoring equipment, wouldn't the crime be solved? We have a lot of other technical means. ”

Lao Lu glared at me and said, "Okay, you Ouyang, you still taught me a lesson." ”

I laughed and said, "Don't dare, I just have one thing to say." Although there is no surveillance equipment in this building, there must be one on the street outside, and maybe the murderer's appearance can be found in the surveillance video outside. ”

Lao Lu said: "You are like human words. This building is not far from the fork in the road, and there is surveillance on the fork in the road right opposite this building, and I have sent someone to call up the outside surveillance. ”

I took a puff of cigarette and said, "Another point, after the murderer killed Tao Cunfang, he seized the gold ornaments on his body. From Wu Shitu's mouth, I know that Tao Cunfang wears a lot of gold jewelry. So was the murderer's seizure of Tao Cunfang's gold jewelry premeditated? Or is it a temporary desire to make money? ”

Lao Lu said: "You can talk about your views on both aspects, and let's analyze and analyze them together." ”

I nodded and said, "I'm more inclined to premeditate. I guess the murderer hid in Tao Cunfang's room before, and then waited for Tao Cunfang to fall asleep and then steal. If he had burglarized other property, the drawers and cabinets in the room would have been turned over, but there was none. I think the murderer's original purpose was the gold jewelry. It must be uncomfortable to fall asleep wearing so many gold jewelry, the murderer is waiting for Tao Cunfang to sleep, and then steal the gold jewelry after taking it off. But judging from the situation at the scene, Tao Cunfang did not fall asleep, and I guessed that the murderer hiding in the house was discovered by Tao Cunfang. ”

Lao Lu frowned and said, "That room is so big, it seems that there is no place to hide, right?" ”

I stood up and said, "Come, come with me." ”

We came to Tao Cunfang's house. As I entered the room, I pointed to the square table next to the wall and said, "It's very likely that the murderer is hiding under this table." ”

Lao Lu looked sideways and said, "It's too easy to be found down here." ”

I said, "Yes, but there's really nowhere else to hide but here." Under the bed is a style with drawers, and people can't get in at all. There is no large wardrobe in the house, and this is the place where people can be hidden. ”

As I spoke, I turned on my phone's flashlight and looked under the desk.

The underside of the table is generally cleaned less, so there is more dust than in other locations. The light shone obliquely on the ground, and my face was also close to the ground, and I could clearly see that some of the dust had wiped marks, which was obviously the traces left by people bending down and moving slowly. However, this kind of mark cannot be used as a footprint to identify criminals, because it is a wipe mark and has no features to speak of.

I put the wooden chairs around the table under the table and said, "After the murderer hid under the table, he also moved the chair under the table to block the view from the outside, hoping to get away with Tao Cunfang, but obviously failed." The moment the killer was discovered, he quickly rushed out from under the table. Because he came out so quickly, his back must have rested under the table, causing the table to vibrate, knocking the vase on the table and shifting the position of the table. ”

Lao Lu said: "After that, the murderer and the deceased had an argument, and in the process of arguing and pushing, the deceased fell to the ground and injured his forehead, and the murderer took advantage of the situation to strangle him to death. ”

I nodded and said, "That's pretty much it." ”

Lao Lu called the investigation team to look for possible fingerprints on those chairs, but found nothing, it seems that the murderer came prepared, wearing gloves.

After that, Lao Lu asked me another question: "How did the murderer enter the room?" ”

I walked to the door, twisted the handle and said, "This kind of door has to be locked with a key on the outside, which is more troublesome." Maybe the deceased had just closed the door before, and there was no lock at all, so the murderer twisted the handle and entered the house. ”

Lao Lu frowned and said, "It's possible." ”

I continued: "Since the murderer has seized the deceased's gold jewelry, the murderer will definitely sell the stolen goods, and if you look at the gold shops in the area, you may find something. ”

Lao Lu said: "I have also thought of this, and I have instructed my brothers to pay attention to the gold trading market in the whole region." ”

After a day's investigation, the building's residents, tenants and hotel guests have been clarified.

The fourth floor is the room of Wu Shitu and Tao Cunfang's daughter and son, Wu Shitu's own room, a living room and a kitchen. Their children are all working in other places, so now only Wu Shitu lives on the fourth floor.

As for why Tao Cunfang lives on the third floor, it is also because Mr. Feng Shui said that this room on the third floor is prosperous for her wealth.

Fortune is prosperous, but fate is gone.

The situation is more complicated on the third floor, as there are 4 tenants on the third floor, including a husband and wife. This self-built building did not number the houses, so I numbered them myself.

The number I gave to Tao Cunfang's room is 3A, and the number of the living room is 3B, so the remaining three rooms are 3C, 3D, and 3E.

Among them, 3C rented a young man, surnamed Liang, who worked as a late-night network administrator at a nearby Internet café, so he was not at home at the time of the incident. This was ruled out through an investigation of the Internet café.

The 3D room is rented by a husband and wife who also happen to work late at night, mainly selling homemade braised vegetables and snacks in front of entertainment venues. The husband and wife are both from Baiyang Town, Wanzhou District, and they run a braised vegetable business in the city all the year round, living a life of day and night, and their lives are very hard.

During the investigation of the two husbands and wives, it was learned that the two were selling braised vegetables outside a KTV at the time of the crime, and the security guard of the KTV and the surveillance video outside the KTV sent them a suspect.

Finally, there is the tenant of 3E, a 19-year-old girl surnamed Ye who works as a salesperson in a private supermarket in Dazhou Town, Wanzhou District.

The girl was thin, only about 155 centimeters tall, almost a head shorter than the deceased. Judging from her figure alone, it is clear that the possibility of her criminal suspicion is very small.

Room 3E is the farthest away from Room 3A, but it was also the only room occupied on the night of the crime. So I asked the girl surnamed Ye if she heard any unusual noises that night, or found anything unusual.

It's a pity that this girl surnamed Ye didn't notice anything, and she was already asleep at that time.

The suspicions of tenants on the third floor were all discharged.

Then it's the guests and staff of the 'Fortune Hotel' on the second floor.

According to the investigation, the second floor was rented by an elderly couple and used exclusively as a hotel. The inn was small, so there were no employees, so the couple ran it together. Her husband's name is Zhang Shanwei, 56 years old. His wife's name is Chen Xinli, 50 years old.

There are no single rooms in this hotel, all of them are double rooms, and the facilities are relatively simple, but the room number is still numbered.

Room 201, which corresponds to 3A upstairs, happened to be occupied in the room at the time of the crime, but the room was occupied.

From the register at the front desk of the hotel, we found these two men.

Both are middle-aged men in their 40s, both from Lichuan, Hubei Province, who went to work at a construction site in Wanzhou. They played mahjong downstairs that night, and the two of them bought instant noodles and ham sausages from Wu Shitu at about half past one in the evening. At that time, it was also the time for Wu Shitu to go downstairs and change shifts with Tao Cunfang, which was proved by Wu Shitu.

And it was confirmed that the two played mahjong from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. before going upstairs, so the suspicion was ruled out.

Rooms 202, 203, and 204 were not occupied on the night of the incident.

Room 205 was occupied by a young man and a woman around two o'clock in the morning. It is understood that the man and woman drank a lot of alcohol that night, and they themselves said that they were in a relationship. Of course, the police did not investigate this deeply.

Judging from the time when the two people stayed in, it was staggered with the time of the crime, so it is impossible for these two people to be the suspects in the crime.

In the end, there were only two husbands and wives, Zhang Shanwei and Chen Xinli.

Although Zhang Shanwei is over half a hundred years old, he is tall, close to 180 cm, and he looks red at a glance, and his voice is like a bell when he speaks. It is known that he is a retired soldier.

However, Zhang Shanwei was the only one at the front desk of the hotel on the second floor between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning. The only person who has seen him is Wu Shitu, who went downstairs to take over.

And according to Wu Shitu, Zhang Shanwei and Tao Cunfang have some contradictions, mainly because of the problem of house rent.

Because at that time, Zhang Shanwei and Tao Cunfang signed an eight-year rental contract, and the rent was fixed every month, and there was no increase or decrease according to the year.

Now, four years later, of course, due to the rapid development of the economy, the current rent is no longer the same as in previous years. However, because of the restrictions of the contract, Tao Cunfang was unable to increase the rent, and he regretted and was very annoyed.

Tao Cunfang and Wu Shitu negotiated with Zhang Shanwei many times about raising rents, and Zhang Shanwei must have resolutely disagreed. This matter is easy to understand, who will break the contract and increase their rent?

Because of this matter, Tao Cunfang also consulted with a lawyer, but the lawyer's response was that the only way to solve this matter was to wait for the end of the eight-year lease term.

Therefore, Tao Cunfang has always been angry with Zhang Shanwei in his heart, and often embarrassed Zhang Shanwei in water and electricity, which made Zhang Shanwei and Chen Xinli very angry. Chen Xinli also had a big quarrel with Tao Cunfang because of these things.

Later, we learned that in fact, when signing the eight-year fixed monthly rental contract, the monthly rent given by Zhang Shanwei was higher than the average at that time. It was this that lured Tao Cunfang to sign this fixed monthly rental contract.

Will this kind of long-term grudge cause Zhang Shanwei's murderous intentions?

My inference is negative.

Because of this resentment, Tao Cunfang existed against Zhang Shanwei, and Zhang Shanwei fought back because of Tao Cunfang's difficulties.

If the deceased is Zhang Shanwei, then it is very likely that the murderer is Tao Cunfang.

It's just that now Zhang Shanwei has no witnesses to exonerate the suspect, and there is a grudge between him and the deceased, so he is under suspicion.

When I learned about the situation at the Fortune Hotel, I found that there was a computer at the front desk of the hotel, so I asked Zhang Shanwei: "What were you doing between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning on the night of the crime?" ”

Zhang Shanwei was already speaking loudly, and he was suspected of killing someone, so he was angry, so he said even louder: "I've been playing cards." ”

Lao Lu's temper was already hot, and when he heard the suspect answer the question so loudly, he also shouted loudly: "If you ask you, you can answer it lively, and don't pretend." If you don't look at your own hotel, what cards do you play? ”

Zhang Shanwei glared at Lao Lu, how could Lao Lu be willing to show weakness, and also glared back, seeing that the taste was getting stronger and stronger, I hurriedly said: "He said that playing cards must be playing cards on the computer." Comrade Zhang, did I mean that? ”

Zhang Shanwei looked at me, there was not so much resistance in his eyes, he suppressed his voice, and responded in a low voice: "Yes." ”

I walked to the back of the front desk and said, "You open the game software you're playing with." ”

Zhang Shanwei was not ambiguous, and entered the game screen by entering the account password. Then he said, "Go in, what to do?" ”

I said, "Did you know that this game can view history?" ”

Zhang Shanwei said: "I don't know. This game was installed for me by my son, and I only know how to fight the landlord. ”

I said, "Let me see." ”

Zhang Shanwei hummed, stood up very consciously, and glared at Lao Lu when he got up, and made a 'hum' sound in his mouth.

Soon, I found the game record, and sure enough, from one to two o'clock in the morning of the crime, there was a continuous fight against the landlord, indicating that Zhang Shanwei was sitting next to the computer and operating the game. This point can well rule out Zhang Shanwei's suspicion.

Of course, for the sake of insurance, Lao Lu called a computer expert from the technical department to check whether the computer had any hacking software that could automatically play games. The result, of course, does not exist.