Evil and punishment [criminal investigation]

The night has no end in sight, and it is longer than the journey of life.

Nie Cheng struggled to open his eyelids, the headache after the nightmare tore his nerves, his blurred vision slowly focused on the unfamiliar ceiling, and the smell of disinfectant came from the tip of his nose.

Since he was a police officer, he has experienced two times where he didn't know where he was.One time, he was hit in the back of the head with a stick by a gangster. After waking up, the scuffle continued. His face was covered with gravel, and in front of him was the face of his colleagues who had died. Blood flowed from the bullet hole in his forehead to his ears.The other time was because of revenge from drug dealers. After the rape effect, he woke up screaming in extreme fear, was hung in mid-air, and witnessed the mob raped his sister.

Not once was a good thing.

Where is it this time?

Nie Cheng sat up abruptly, breathing desperately like a rescued person from drowning. The hospital gown soaked in cold sweat was tightly wrapped around his body, and his skin was pale and cold.The tingling pain on the back of the hand spread to the brain, and the infusion needle was already soaked with blood.

The infusion bottle hanging by the bed had bottomed out, and he was alone in the ward, the clock on the wall pointed to ten o'clock, the wind was howling outside the window, and the sun was warm.

The nurse opened the door and came in to check the fluid, pulled out the needle without any surprise, and said to Nie Cheng who was in a daze, "I'm awake, the doctor will be here in a while. How is your condition today, is it difficult to breathe?"

Nie Cheng glanced at the words "City Anding Hospital" embroidered on the chest of the nurse's clothes, and shook his head silently.

He was a little surprised, but not so surprised.He does need psychological treatment to rule out the possibility of being sent in with ill intentions.

Since the case of his younger sister Guo Ying happened two years ago, he had a physical rejection of the crime scene where there was a female deceased. At the same time, he experienced insomnia, repeated nightmares, and a strong startle reaction. He was diagnosed with PTSD, that is, post-traumatic Stress disorder, severe enough to require treatment.As a result, work was transferred, from the captain of the criminal investigation detachment of the district bureau to the grassroots police station, and it took two years.

In the past two years, his condition has gradually stabilized. The last time he got sick was a year ago, because he broke into the suspect's house and witnessed the scene of the female victim's body being dismembered. Frozen, legs are weak, and it's just a cold sweat.

What about this time?

Nie Cheng stared at the inexplicably bruised finger marks on his left wrist, and felt a strong uneasiness in his heart. He couldn't even remember what happened yesterday, which had never happened before.

The door of the ward was pushed open again, and a middle-aged female doctor walked in.

Nie Cheng straightened up and greeted her familiarly, "Doctor Ma."

Dr. Ma is a chief physician with more than [-] years of experience, and also a psychologist who has been Nie Cheng since his illness two years ago.Her hair was gray, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes when she smiled reminded Nie Cheng of her grandmother who had passed away for many years.

"Are you feeling better? You were in a bad enough situation yesterday. You had a panic attack. Where are your colleagues? Did you come here by yourself after the police at night?" Dr. Ma sat beside him and touched his palm. , "Hands are still so cold."

"Yesterday... I don't remember very well." Nie Cheng frowned, and recalled carefully again, his memory was still blank.

Doctor Ma said with understanding: "You still need to recover. You don't need to infuse any more fluids. You have been in good condition for more than a year, and you are now stable. You don't need to be hospitalized and you can go home. I've prepared a leave of absence. The leader asked for two days off."

Nie Cheng thanked him, changed his clothes and left the hospital, stood at the door of the hospital and let the cold wind blow, his thinking became clearer again.

Yesterday was Sunday, December 12st, and it was a day off.He is single and has no special hobbies. On his rest day, he usually sleeps hard for a day, then reads and works out.Yesterday should be no exception. After the night shift, I slept until 1:05 in the afternoon, cooked some noodles casually, and read a book for a while.I happened to hear an old man downstairs walking around after dinner and listening to the news broadcast. It was exactly seven o'clock.Then, it seems to fall asleep again?Can't remember.

Doctor Ma said that he stumbled into the hospital alone in the early hours of the morning and lost consciousness after struggling to fill out the registration form.

What happened in the five hours from seven in the afternoon to the early morning?

Nie Cheng tore up the fake slip, threw it into the trash can at the door, and took a taxi to the Rongguangli Police Station.

Other than memory loss and a bruise on his wrist that was a little painful to the touch, he was the same as ever, and it was Monday and he had to go to work.

The taxi stopped at the entrance of the police station. As soon as he got out of the car, he saw two young police officers came back from the police station and greeted him: "Brother Cheng, you didn't take half a day off, you came so early."

When did he take half a day off?

Nie Cheng thought to himself, without revealing anything, he smiled and nodded towards them.

After entering the office, his colleagues were not at all curious about his late arrival, and they all advised him to ask for leave, so that he should take a rest before taking the opportunity.

Nie Cheng became more and more confused. He even wondered if Dr. Ma asked for leave for him.But this is impossible, firstly, Dr. Ma never directly interferes with his work and life, and secondly, since Yue Zuo asked for leave on his behalf, there is no need to issue a leave note.

Who asked for leave for him?

As usual, Nie Cheng must have asked directly, but five hours of blank memory and inexplicable panic attacks made him afraid to reveal his situation easily.The vigilance he used to be a criminal policeman quietly revived in his heart. When dealing with disputes in the afternoon, he couldn't help speaking with the indifference when facing criminal suspects in criminal cases. momentum.

Before leaving get off work, Director Chai met him and kindly asked him about his physical condition, and said that next time he wanted to ask for leave, he did not need to call so late. If it was a half-day leave, just say hello to the instructor.

Nie Cheng thanked the leader for his concern, and only then did he realize that the person asking for leave was himself.

In the phone call log, there was indeed a call to Director Chai at 10:53 p.m.

Being able to arrange a vacation calmly proved that his emotions were not too broken at the time.Nie Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, reassuring himself that maybe he just couldn't remember, and nothing major happened.

"It's time to order takeaway. I'm eating chicken drumstick rice today. The sauce is very tasty. Who will you order?" Tang Jingyun, a clerk, stood up and asked the police officers on duty. She walked up to Nie Cheng and asked in surprise: "Nie Cheng , if you don't leave, it will be too late."

Nie Cheng was taken aback, checked the duty list again, and pointed it out to her, "Sister Tang, I work night shift."

"Hey, hasn't that one already changed with you? Hurry up and change clothes. It's very good to introduce this girl to you this time." Tang Jingyun said anxiously.

Nie Cheng was dumbfounded, "What girl?"

"What girl!" Tang Jingyun raised her eyebrows, "Your promise was good yesterday, and now you're sick of playing with me? Don't you say that this time it's okay, see you first?"

I said?Nie Cheng was at a loss for a moment, and suddenly became alert. This may be the same as the leave request, and it was his arrangement last night.

Tang Jingyun drove him to change clothes, watched him get into the taxi, helped him report the name of the restaurant to the driver, and told him not to forget that it was table 18, then waved to him reassuringly, and pointed out her thumb Good luck to him.

The warm air in the taxi made him drowsy, and his brain kept thinking about this inexplicable day.

It is understandable to ask for leave in advance when he realizes that he has symptoms of illness, but Nie Cheng can't figure out how to agree to a blind date.

No matter in the criminal investigation team or the police station, he has always tactfully refused the matchmaking of various leaders and colleagues, and the reasons are a bit complicated.

His father, who was also a policeman, died in the line of duty. When the body bid farewell, he secretly swore in the heartbroken weeping of his relatives that he would become a policeman when he grew up and uphold justice.

Later, his mother lay on the hospital bed, grabbed his hand, and asked him to swear that he would never be a policeman in the future.She had worried enough about his father for the first half of her life, otherwise she would not have divorced, so she would never allow her son to go on this path again. 15-year-old Nie Cheng stiffened his neck, gritted his teeth and refused to spit out.It was not until his mother was about to die that he said in a hissed voice, "If you don't swear, I will die with peace." Nie Cheng promised with tears that he would never become a policeman.

However, when he majored in university newspapers and entered social work, he did not hesitate to follow in his father's footsteps and become a people's policeman.

He felt ashamed in his heart, but he also kept a trace of luck.As the saying goes, the evil does not overpower the good, he will overcome obstacles and find out the criminals, and he will never follow in his father's footsteps.With this strength, he became the captain of the district criminal police detachment all the way.

It wasn't until his younger sister Guo Ying was implicated by him and suffered atrocities that he realized his mother's painstaking efforts and deeply realized how dangerous this profession is.

He is still not sure whether the drug dealers who killed his father and his sister were the same gang. If there are inextricable connections, he may have been targeted.Since then, he has received the signal that "if he reaches out to drug dealers, he or those around him will be retaliated".

Well, don't drag other people down.

What's more, he already had...

"Sir, we're here." The driver stopped and waited for a long time, but there was no movement, and reminded him aloud.

Nie Cheng woke up like a dream, and hurriedly paid and got out of the car.

In front of him was the agreed western restaurant, and Nie Cheng stared at the neon light that was bent into the name of the restaurant for a while, making up his mind to only explore the truth and not let the woman misunderstand, before stepping into it.

The door mirror reflected his worried expression, which contrasted sharply with the smiling face of the waiter.Not wanting to be rude, he straightened his windbreaker, announced the table number, and followed the guide to a corner of the hall with flickering candles.

An intellectual lady with a simple hairstyle and a long skirt sat at the small dining table. When she saw someone approaching, she consciously sat up straight with a full business attitude.When the candlelight clearly outlined Nie Cheng's appearance, she recalled the past in a trance, and then smiled, "So it's really you, I thought it was the same name."

There have been many unexpected things today, but Nie Cheng still didn't expect that the blind date turned out to be Hu Xiaofei, a high school classmate whom he hadn't seen for more than ten years.

Nie Cheng showed the joy of reunion after a long absence, and smiled formulaically: "Long time no see, how have you been these few years?"

The anxiety in my heart is getting heavier and heavier. Asking for leave, going on a blind date, meeting a classmate, who arranged these things, if it was him, why did he do it?

Could it be to cover up the five blank hours, and what happened in those five hours?

Hu Xiaofei was Nie Cheng's classmate in high school. Her parents divorced when she was young, her mother went out of town and never came back.She was excluded by the classmates around her, and Nie Cheng helped her.At that time, the Internet was underdeveloped, and we had little contact after graduation.

She was married once before and divorced again. Her ex-husband gave her a large sum of money, and she made a clean break. Now she is raising her three-year-old son alone.Ordinarily, she was divorced and had a child, and the conditions were not good, but she was beautiful, tall, and had a decent job, so there was no shortage of suitors.Only then did Tang Jingyun introduce her to Nie Cheng, and after Nie Cheng agreed, the two added WeChat.

By the way, WeChat.There are many things to do, and the friends I often contact are people like the police station. If there is no need to contact, Nie Cheng will not deliberately look through the information, so he is negligent.

What did he say to Hu Xiaofei on WeChat?

Nie Cheng calmly took out his mobile phone. Hu Xiaofei was talking. Seeing that he was busy with other things suddenly, he frowned slightly, and heard Nie Cheng ask: "Why do you block me from your circle of friends? You still want to see your son."

A smile immediately appeared on Hu Xiaofei's face, and while picking up the phone to open the permissions, she said: "Yesterday you didn't say much, and you didn't answer when I asked you if you were from a high school. I thought I had identified the wrong person."

"I was a little tired yesterday." Nie Cheng kept a polite smile on his lips, and his eyes quickly scanned the chat records with Hu Xiaofei and Tang Jingyun without any emotion.

Tang Jingyun sent him Hu Xiaofei's WeChat business card at 7:28 p.m. on Sunday, and her signature simply stated her occupation—psychiatrist.

He wasn't sure when he sent the friend request. At 10:36 p.m., Hu Xiaofei accepted his request and greeted him.As Hu Xiaofei said, he only agreed on a time and place to meet with her, and didn't say anything else.

After confirming it, he told Tang Jingyun about today's arrangement, so Tang Jingyun promptly urged him to come to the appointment and reminded him of the agreed restaurant and table number.

From this point of view, the previous "being asked for leave" is not difficult to understand. If he was late for half a day without reason, he would inevitably have to explain the reason in public. He, who was not too vigilant at that time, would definitely answer truthfully.After Tang Jingyun heard about it, whether she felt that his condition was not good or that he had serious psychological problems, as an introducer, she would probably cancel the meeting with Hu Xiaofei for him.

So, all the arrangements are for him to go to the appointment smoothly?

He subconsciously looked at the men and women in the hall, but found no clues.

There are three possibilities. First, someone forged a phone card and stole his WeChat ID for manipulation. Then the other party needs to imitate his voice to make a call with Chai Ju, and make sure that the WeChat chat records still appear on his mobile phone. Very unlikely.Second, someone directly used his mobile phone, imitated his voice to make calls and send messages, and put it back to him after use.Third, he designed everything himself.

"...I'm also too kind. When you go back, don't forget to have a business with Miss Tang. Let's say that she's not suitable. Nie Cheng, are you done?" Hu Xiaofei said.

"Ah, okay, I'm not good at rejecting Miss Tang."

The two parted at the entrance of the restaurant, and seemed to have said some polite words that they would often contact in the future.Nie Cheng seemed to answer in an orderly and polite manner, but in fact he was always distracted and didn't quite remember what he said.But this kind of not remembering is completely different from the five hours that seemed to disappear.

The uneasiness in his heart gradually turned into worry, as if a pair of invisible hands were slowly approaching him.

There is a bus stop around the corner, just one way to his door.After the evening rush hour, there were only a few passengers in the car, and he occupied a row of double seats, still thinking.

If this was his own design, then why did he spend so much time creating puzzles for himself? If he had the time, he could directly write down the ins and outs of the matter or record it clearly, and save it in his mobile phone or hide it at home.

If it's someone else... no need.In the cases he has been involved with, except for a very small number of criminals with anti-social personality or high IQ who will make such a bad move, there are almost no such devious modus operandi.No matter what they want from him, since they can get his mobile phone, why not tie him back directly, even if they are worried about scaring the snake, they don't have the leisure to design game-like delicate steps.

He already has a tendency to judge, but still doesn't understand the reason behind it.

The night wind in December is very chilly, much colder than in November. I thought this year would be a warm winter, but I didn't expect the temperature to drop suddenly on the 1st and 2nd, and the entire Jinhe River was frozen.It can be seen that the temperature cannot match the alternation of the seasons themselves, and what should come will always come.

Nie Cheng looked at his apartment downstairs, and suddenly his heart moved, wondering if there were other arrangements in the future.

Unscrew the door lock, the hot air blows in your face, turn on the lights, and the messy scene in the living room is clear at a glance.

It wasn't really a mess, but several drawers were completely pulled out and thrown on the floor, sofa cushions were turned over, chairs fell to the floor, and the water glasses on the coffee table were also broken.

Nie Cheng narrowed his eyes, closed the curtains without seeing it, and went to check the bedroom.The bedroom was worse than the living room, with everything in every drawer turned out, documents related to the Guo Ying case shredded, books scattered all over the floor, and his computer was gone.

The computer, all USB hard drives, and obsolete mobile phones are gone.

Nie Cheng pursed his lips, lowered his eyebrows, and tensed his body.

But at this time, he can at least be sure that this "arrangement" is definitely not his intention, and he will not deliberately arrange a search time for the other party.

The other party probably sneaked in last night with a clear purpose, first searched the bedroom, and then messed up the living room in order to look like a burglary.

Fortunately, he has the habit of cleaning up documents. There are no confidential documents in the computer and storage devices. The important electronic data and the original documents of the Guo Ying case are all in the bureau.

This time, he had only property damage and the need to expend energy to re-organize the house.

Nie Cheng sighed, he had roughly guessed what happened in the past two days.

He must have inadvertently grasped or obtained something, which aroused the vigilance of the other party and caused the other party to come to search, but the other party may not be sure yet, so they did not attack him directly.And the arrangement he made was either to prevent himself from getting involved in trouble, or he predicted that he would not be able to keep the tangible information around him, so he left clues for himself.

He sighed again, and started to tidy up his things. He made room for sleeping first. After tidying up the bedroom, he didn't bother to take care of the living room. He prepared hot water for a bath.

He is very tired today.

There are also traces of rummaging in the bathroom, but I think electronic products will not be placed in a humid place, and the things in the cabinet have not been touched. This is just a symbolic "meaning".

Nie Cheng gathered the torn roll paper and the drawn roll paper core together, stepped on the lid of the trash can, and was about to throw it in when he suddenly stopped.

The trash can has not been rummaged, and there is a discarded white sweater in it, which is the one he usually wears when he goes running.

Nie Cheng threw down the paper in his hand, immediately pulled out the sweater, and found a glaring bloodstain on the cuff.