"I can't be mistaken, that ship must be the ship of the pickle factory. If it was a fishing boat with a wire net, the other party would definitely greet me, and I wouldn't have to run as fast. When we go wire net in the river at night, we often come across some boats that are wire netting, and as long as we do, there is no one who does not say hello. ”

"There was a wooden frame at the front and back of the wooden boat, which was used to hold the rope when it was loaded. Only the pickle factory boat had such wooden shelves. ”

"Fan Dengbiao is right, on the entire river, only the wooden boat of the pickle factory has a wooden shelf." Director Xu further confirmed Fan Dengbiao's statement.

"You can go to the pickle factory and ask if they have any goods in the night, especially on the night of April 11th. Anyway, I still don't think something is right, even if the ship is carrying goods at night, the boat shouldn't be on the other side of the river! Van Dengbiao said.

The next day, that is, at 8:10 a.m. on August 19, Zhao Zimeng and his entourage went to the pickle factory under the guidance of Director Ma. Director Ma went directly to the factory director's office.

A man of almost sixty years old is making tea. He is the factory director Zhen Changhai.

"Director Ma, why are you here?"

"Director Zhen, let's come to you to learn a little about the situation, these are comrades from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and this is Captain Ouyang."

Director Zhen smiled and let everyone sit down on two long-backed chairs.

Director Zhen was busy making tea for everyone, and was dragged by Director Ma: "Director Zhen, don't be polite, you sit down, we can talk." ”

Director Zhen put down the tea canist, sat on the chair, and at the same time took out a pack of Hongtashan brand cigarettes from the drawer and hit a shuttle.

Director Ma took out a lighter and lit everyone's cigarettes one by one.

The cigarette was lit and the conversation began.

"Director Zhen, does your factory ship parked on the dock transport goods at night?" Director Ma asked.

"Our ships carry goods during the day and never at night. In the past six months, our factory has rarely used ships to transport goods, and with the increase in production, it is no longer possible to catch up with the ship alone, so we bought a car. ”

"Another reason why we rarely use boats to transport goods is that every summer, the river is so big that it is very unsafe to transport goods by boat, and we are not as good as the fishermen, who rely on the water for their food, and can row their boats to and fro on the river."

"Is your boat locked to the shore?"

"Yes, it's locked to a tree with two iron chains."

"How many locks are there?"

"A lock—a big lock."

"Who's in charge of the keys?"

"The key is hung on the wall of the guard's room, and when the goods are delivered, they go to the guard's room to get them, and when they are used, they are put back in their place."

"Is there a janitor?"

"Yes It's not so much a janitor as a shipwatchman."

"Boatwatchers?" Zhao Zimeng felt that this information was very important, "Have you sent someone to watch the ship?" ”

"Yes, the boat watcher is called Gao Defeng, this man has never been married in his life, because he has a disability - one leg is not good, and he is blind in one eye, so he takes care of him to watch the ship."

"What does the ship think? Isn't it locked? ”

"You can't lock it up! That thing can prevent the gentleman, can't prevent the villain, the people on this river will not steal, Qinnan River outside the Yangtze River, once the boat goes to the Yangtze River, it can no longer be found, our factory was stolen a boat before, so later sent Gao Defeng to watch the boat. Director Zhen didn't answer the point.

"What do you think of the ship?"

"It's mainly at night, and I get up and watch it once an hour."

Watching it once an hour means that the murderer can only have an hour's gap if he wants to use the pickle factory's ship to transport and sink the corpses. How far can the ship go in an hour? If you want to get the body as far as the north bank of the river, the straight line is the closest, and for the dock of the pickle factory, the place that the straight line refers to is the vegetable field of Ma Qiliang's house, that is, the place where the body was dumped.

The murderer must have known that Gao Defeng got up to see the ship once an hour, and could complete the work of transporting and sinking the corpse in an hour, and the first scene should be near the pickle factory, and the closest thing to the pickle factory in this area is Ma Po Po Nunnery. Standing on the second or third floor, the tallest building in Granny Ma'an, you should be able to see inside and outside the back door of the pickle factory. In the middle of the night, when the wind is so high that you get up to look at the ship, you must carry a lamp - or a flashlight!

Zhao Zimeng looked at Xiao Lao and Ling Hu Yunfei, and then said, "Director Zhen, where is the guard room?" ”

"Next to the back door."

"Director Zhen, can you take us to have a look? We also want to see the boat. ”

Zhao Zimeng wanted to get familiar with the environment, in addition to the pickle factory, Zhao Zimeng and Xiao Lao also wanted to go to Ma Po Nunnery to see, standing on the second floor of the tallest building in Ma Po Nunnery, or on the third floor, whether they could see the situation inside and outside the back door of the pickle factory, they had to go to the field to see for sure.

In addition, a few days ago, although everyone went to Ma Po Nunnery, because it was at night, they didn't see it really enough. Especially the pile of city wall bricks, if the city wall bricks used by the murderer to sink the corpse came from the pile of city wall bricks, there must have been traces of moving, and that night, the comrades went in a bit of a hurry, and because of the light, they did not pay special attention.

"Okay—go, I'll show you there."

Director Zhen led Zhao Zimeng and his entourage to the back door of the pickle factory. From Director Zhen's office to the back door of the pickle factory, there are three places, the first place is the pickle processing area, the second place is the brewing and drying area, and the third place is the finished product warehouse.

Whether it is the processing area, or the brewing area and the warehouse, the most prominent feature is that there are many large and small tanks, the diameter of the smallest sauce tank is at least about 80 centimeters, and the diameter of the largest sauce tank is at least about 1.5 meters.

Especially in the brewing and drying area, there are hundreds of large vats, all of which are covered with a large hat woven with bamboo strips, which is used to shield from rainwater, and the air is filled with a strong sauce fragrance, which is wafting out from the sauce tank.

On the north side of the drying area there is a large factory - that is, the storehouse, the architectural style of this warehouse is very special, in addition to the blue brick wall, small black tile roof, the most special thing is that the house is one floor, but the roof ridge is two floors, between the first layer of the ridge and the second layer of the ridge are glass windows, these windows are open - it is estimated that it is used for ventilation. Director Zhen said that the processed pickles should be stored here for a period of time before they can leave the factory.

The pickles were packed in jars of different shapes, large and small, so that in this storeroom there were layers of small jars of different shapes and sizes - at least half a man high.

The mouth of the small jar was sealed with lotus leaves. There are trademarks on the jar, such as "Jingxi tofu marinade", "spiced cucumber", and "spicy soybean paste", and so on. Jars of the same model are stacked together, and there is a passage about one meter wide between the jars of different models.

Seven or eight workers are transporting and stacking vegetable jars with trolleys.

Walking out of the back door of the warehouse, you can see a wall more than one person high, Zhao Zimeng visually measured it, the height of the wall is about one meter nine, it is made of green bricks, there is a small palace on the top of the wall, the corners of the wall are covered with moss, and there are some dead weeds on the top of the small palace. Just from the roof of the small hall on the wall, you can see the long history of the pickle factory.

To the east of the wall, near the Ma Po Nunnery, there are two old-fashioned wooden doors, on which are dozens of iron rivets nailed horizontally, the iron rivets are narrow at both ends and wide in the middle, and have long been rusted.

In the middle of the two wooden doors there is a circular copper plate with a diameter of about 50 centimeters, the circular copper plate is fixed on the wooden door, and an iron latch is welded on the copper plate, and a large lock is hung on the iron latch.

Zhao Zimeng looked up at the tallest building in Ma Po Nunnery, and could see the windows on the second and third floors of the small building. It is still uncertain whether you can see the back door of the pickle factory from the second and third floors of the small building, because there are more than a dozen old ginkgo trees and many trees that cannot be named by the east wall of the pickle factory.

On either side of the wooden door there is a brick house.

Director Zhen stopped in front of the brick house on the west side of the wooden door: "This is the gatehouse." ”

"Where's Master Gao?"

"At night, the wind is so high that it is here, but during the day, it is difficult to say. Wait a minute, I'll call him - he might be in the workshop to help." After Director Zhen finished speaking, he strode into the back door of the warehouse.

After about two minutes, Director Zhen ran out of the back door: "It's so high that the wind will be there in a while." I'll take you to the docks first. Director Zhen said as he put his hand into the window—there were two opposite windows to the south of the gatehouse—the windows were open—the only two windows in the gatehouse.

When Director Zhen's right hand retracted from the iron fence of the window, he held a bunch of keys in his hand. Obviously, the key was hanging next to the window - where the hand could reach it.

"Director Zhen, are these two windows usually open?"

"Yes, it's usually open, and even if it's off, it can be opened - the latch is never plugged, what's wrong?"

"Director Zhen, the information you provided is very important, on the night of April 11, when the fisherman Fan Dengbiao laid the wire net, he saw a boat on the other side of the river, and he said that the boat was the boat parked on the pier of your factory."

"How could our ship's ship end up on the other side of the river?" Director Zhen was very puzzled.

"According to the autopsy analysis, the time when the deceased in the '6.27' headless case was killed was around April 11, and we suspect that the ship used by the murderer to transport and sink the corpses was the ship of your factory."

"I finally got it a little bit like that. In this matter, we must ask the boat people to see how high the wind is. ”