shadow of crime

Cheng Ye turned on all the lights in the living room. He narrowed his eyes uncomfortably, and tried to turn them off, but when he thought that Jiang Bei liked bright lights, he raised his hand and put it down again.

The dog was barking, barking incessantly.

Cheng Ye put the cut boiled meat in the bowl, picked up the dog and threw them into the storage room.

The world is finally quiet.

Exquisite dishes are placed on the dining table, and the owner has put a lot of thought into the presentation of the dishes.The living room is full of the smell of food, soup is still boiling on the stove, and warm steam is gurgling, enveloping the whole room.

Cheng Ye was wearing a cartoon pajamas, with his sleeves rolled up a little, standing in front of the stove, holding a white porcelain bowl to taste some soup, his thick black eyelashes were also stained with the steam from the pot.

Downstairs, Jiang Bei parked his car, put a Type 95 revolver on his waist, and hurried upstairs.

There was a pair of cotton slippers at the door of Room 2304. Jiang Bei glanced at them, and then moved his eyes to the sneakers beside them. Vegetable leaves from the vegetable market were still stuck to the edges of the shoes.

As soon as Cheng Ye had set the tableware, the doorbell rang. When he opened the door, he saw Jiang Bei standing outside the door wrapped in the air-conditioning outside. The ice shards all over his body fell straight down, and the air pressure in the corridor dropped to the lowest level.

"What about things?"

"You're here," Cheng Ye turned a deaf ear, "Come in, let's eat."

He stretched out his hand, and at the same time Jiang Bei hid his hand back, so Cheng Ye could only pull up Jiang Bei's clothes and lead him into the house. "You came just in time. The rice was just cooked and it was still hot. It's cold outside, do you want a bowl of soup first?"

Cheng Ye pulled out the dining chair for Jiang Bei, like a refined gentleman, and waited for Jiang Bei to sit down before going around to sit across the table.

The meal exudes a strong fragrance, and there is a small dish of fruit and a cup of black tea on the side.Jiang Bei didn't move his chopsticks, didn't even look at it, he just said coldly, "Give me the things."

Cheng Ye didn't answer, he held the porcelain spoon with his slender fingers, and scooped out a spoonful of tender and smooth egg custard.

The clock on the wall was ticking, and every second that passed meant that number 27 was getting closer.Jiang Bei couldn't afford it, so he didn't say any more, he quickly drew his gun and loaded it, and put the muzzle of the gun against Cheng Ye's eyebrow.

"I asked you to give me something."

He squeezed the trigger with his index finger, and a voice in his heart screamed frantically—kill him.Shame and anger overwhelmed reason, Jiang Bei's eyes turned red, and his hands tightened unconsciously.

But Cheng Ye was as calm as an exquisite porcelain doll, his bare skin glowed with luster under the light, and his whole person looked soft and peaceful.He raised his head under the muzzle of the gun, with full eyes, and brought the cooled egg custard to Jiang Bei's mouth.

Looking at each other silently, the air seemed to be frozen, and the two kept their movements still, silently competing.

Cheng Ye's expression changed from anticipation to grayness, the porcelain doll had cracks and was about to shatter.

He withdrew his hand, swallowed the cold egg custard in one gulp, and said, "Ten minutes, I'll give you the file after dinner."

Something in his mouth made his voice muffled.

In fact, within 10 minutes, Cheng Ye finished the whole bowl of rice, leaving only leftovers on the table.He wiped his mouth, got up and went back to the room to get his things, and said, "Is there any clue? I read the document, that woman jumped into the river with her son, and everyone died for more than ten years. The murder case The murderer couldn't have been one of them, could it?"

He leaned against the door of the room, holding the file bag in his hand, and stopped moving forward: "Or, do you doubt that they are still alive? But what reason do they have to kill people?"

Jiang Bei thought of that reason, and regret flashed across his eyes.He strode forward, snatched the file bag, and left as if fleeing.

The sudden departure made Cheng Ye panic, he chased after him chaotically and shouted: "Aren't you really going to stay for a meal? If you don't accompany Cheng Ye, you can accompany Xiaoqi."

His back disappeared around the corner, and Cheng Ye stood in the empty corridor facing the cold and closed elevator door, as if he had been abandoned.

-

In the parking lot downstairs, in the car.

Jiang Bei opened the file bag, and a yellowed photo fell out. The woman's body was swollen and white, her eyes were closed, and she was lying peacefully by the Funan River.She ended her painful life, but some people lost their lives because of it, and her son, like his mother, wanted to drag more people to hell.

There wasn't much useful information in the case file, and there was still a body throwing case to be dealt with at the time, so the case was closed after confirming that the woman was not a homicide.The only thing that has some reference value is the transcripts of the villagers in the same village.

——The woman is sick, crazy, and insane. I don’t know when she came to the village, and she brought a kid with her. That kid is also very gloomy, and runs away when she sees people, like a ghost.and so on.

The person who said this was the women's director of the village at the time. He had seen women several times during the visit, and he didn't leave a good impression, let alone the ghost-like child.Since the female director is the person who has the most contact with women, the police asked her to make a statement.

Jiang Bei read the thin page word by word, and the face of the child appeared in front of his eyes again.It rained heavily that night, and the rain curtain was like a layer of frosted glass, blurring the whole world.In addition, the child had been soaked in the water for too long, his face was swollen, and the hair that had not been treated for a long time was also clinging to his face, so that it was impossible to see what the child looked like.

Jiang Bei rubbed his face, regained consciousness, and took out the cigarette case in his pocket, but found that there was no cigarette left, and he threw the last one at the door of the bank.

At this time the phone rang, it was Lin An.

"Brother Jiang, I'm at the bank now, and the staff here are adjusting the monitoring, do you want to come over?"

"I won't come here for a while, I have something to do."

"Where are you always going? You won't go to Cheng Ye again, right?" Lin An has always asked the bottom line, especially for his boss, he was very caring, chatted a lot, and swore Cheng Ye committed the crime below.

Jiang Bei frowned and explained: "I'll go to the bureau and check the address. By the way, where is Wu Zichuan? Have you contacted his family?"

As soon as he heard that Jiang Bei was not going to Cheng Ye, Lin An felt relieved: "Oh, I got in touch. His mother is really addicted to playing mahjong. It took more than a dozen calls to answer. But you guessed it right, Auntie did I knew the priest from before, and I followed after watching the surveillance, but I don’t know if I can find him at such a late hour.”

"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Jiang Bei breathed a sigh of relief, "Keep in touch at any time, call me if you need anything."

"No problem!" After Lin An reported his work, he was still worried about his boss, asking all kinds of things like a woman, from what he had for dinner to how many clothes he wore, is it cold?

He followed Jiang Bei when he was still a young boy. Although Jiang Bei didn't talk much, he was a warm person in his heart.At that time, he was young and frivolous, and he made a lot of mistakes. Jiang Bei did it for him, and he didn't say anything when he was done. He just taught him how to do things over and over again.So far, Lin An has regarded Jiang Bei as his own brother, and he will be anxious to anyone in the bureau who speaks ill of Jiang Bei, and he has to check on any policewoman who takes a fancy to Jiang Bei, although, his boss is still a bachelor. .

Jiang Bei got dizzy when he heard that, and said impatiently: "Why don't you go to the logistics."

"Qucai is my brother. Alright, I'm going to get busy. Damn, I want to see the year of the monkey and the moon of the monkey in so many days of surveillance video!"

Jiang Bei hung up the phone, started the engine, and drove towards the Municipal Bureau.

The city bureau building was still lit, and the staff on duty had just finished a bucket of beef noodles with pickled peppers. When they saw someone coming in, they quickly wiped their mouths: "Captain Jiang, why are you here? Haven't you received the case file yet?"

"Received." Jiang Bei didn't eat dinner, and bought two boxes of rice bowls when passing by a convenience store, which were still hot.He handed a box to the young man, and sat across from him to eat.

Xiaonian was flattered. Although they are all beef, there is an essential difference between rice with potatoes and beef and beef noodles with pickled peppers.In such a cold day, in such a lonely late night, can you die a happy death if you can eat a hot meal?

The young man took a deep look at Jiang Bei, and decided not to tell Jiang Bei that he had a bad temper and that he was an old bachelor. "That ginger team..."

"Huh?" Jiang Bei has been particularly disgusted with that kind of watery eyes recently, and at this moment, the young man is looking at him with this kind of eyes.He looked away, frowned and said, "Just talk about it."

"It's nothing serious," the young man wanted to chat with someone, the duty was really boring!

He said: "Why didn't the intern in your group join Team Jiang today? I think he's quite serious. He searched for the case files by himself for a long time."

Jiang Bei tasted the delicious beef rice bowl like chewing wax. He didn't want to eat it, so he put down his chopsticks: "And then?"

The little young man was still in the final stage of growing up, he finished the lunch box like a storm, wiped his mouth, and said: "He also asked about that case, about the son of the drowned woman, he asked why he didn't issue a death certificate. "

After the woman died, the body was not claimed. The bureau sent people to help with the issuance of the certificate and the cancellation of the account. However, the local police station did not find out that the woman had a son under the household registration, so it was unable to issue a death certificate.It means that the child is a black family, and whether it was born by a woman remains to be verified.In fact, this kind of thing was not uncommon in that era. Many families who violated family planning laws and regulations chose not to apply for or postpone the application for household registration after giving birth to a second child in order not to pay high social maintenance fees.

As for the reason why the child did not apply for a hukou, it was impossible to find out after many years.There is no definite proof that the child has been in this world, but he is really alive, wandering in the vast sea of ​​people, or beside Jiang Bei.

Before that, everyone thought the child was Jiang Bei's hallucination.

The young man didn't notice Jiang Bei's dull expression, and said to himself: "I don't know what you said, when the case happened, I was still in junior high school, and then the intern took the file to ask Director Wang .”

"Old Wang?" Jiang Bei raised his eyes, "Did he ask Old Wang?"

Why didn't Wang Zhipeng mention it to him?And Cheng Ye didn't seem like someone who would care about such things.Suspicions arose in Jiang Bei's heart, and those messy guesses popped up again.

"Yes, it's Lao Wang...Director Wang," the young man said for a moment, almost biting his tongue, "I don't know what Director Wang said to the interns, the expression on his face when he came out, tsk, I don't know he was smiling Still crying."

Jiang Bei pondered for a moment, and was about to call Lao Wang to ask about the situation, when the young man on the opposite side stood up straight, and respectfully shouted towards the door: "Captain Xu."

Jiang Bei's heart skipped a beat, and following the sound, he saw Xu Zhengyuan, the captain of the criminal police detachment and Jiang Bei's immediate superior, standing at the door wearing a worn-out old jacket, holding a thermos cup, his head full of silver and deep The ravines on his face couldn't conceal the heroic spirit emanating from his bones.

The young man didn't dare to sit down, he wondered what day it was today, the brigade and deputy team had all arrived in the middle of the night.

Xu Zhengyuan raised his hand to signal him to sit down, his eyes slid past Jiang Bei: "Little Jiang, come to my office."

Xu Zhengyuan was transferred to the Municipal Bureau 12 years ago, and now he is nearing retirement. During his tenure, he was often injured in various tasks. When he was young, he was not obvious, but when he was old, all his problems were reversed.He walks very slowly, his left leg is still a little lame, but his back is never bent, and he often runs to the hospital, so Jiang Bei has all the work in the team.For Xu Zhengyuan's arrival, Jiang Bei was actually very surprised.

The heating was turned on in the office, and Xu Zhengyuan changed to a new tea, sitting on a chair and blowing tea.The tea was too hot to drink, so he simply put it aside to dry, and then picked up the report submitted by Jiang Bei to read, his brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

"That's all?"

Jiang Bei responded lightly.

"Lie!" A thick stack of papers slammed into Jiang Bei's face, Xu Zhengyuan coughed twice, his face dyed, "Do you think I'm going to retire, you're going to be the top leader, and some things just don't matter. Don't you need to tell me? Or do you think I'm old, have a bad heart, and can't bear it?"

Jiang Bei was silent.

Xu Zhengyuan calmed down, his cloudy eyes were still full of light: "If Lao Wang hadn't called me today to tell me about the situation, I wouldn't have known that you had investigated the murder case 13 years ago. Why didn't the report Write, do you still have my captain in your eyes?!"

All the old men in the bureau came here in a pair of trousers. Jiang Bei could probably guess where Xu Zhengyuan's news came from. First, it was the first-line criminal. Lin An, the policeman, told Lao Wang about it, and Lao Wang then told Xu Zhengyuan.Based on their mouths, it is estimated that what they said is more exciting than the dog blood series.

"Little Jiang," Xu Zhengyuan softened his tone and said earnestly, "I understand why you don't want to tell me, but it's been so many years, and it's time to let it go. Tell me, what clues do you have now? Those who hide and hide should go down and start from the grassroots, and learn the rules again."

Jiang Bei met Xu Zhengyuan's scorching gaze, knowing that he couldn't avoid it, so he simply turned out the things in his pockets and put them on the table.Oil paintings, lanterns folded into blocks, paper strips, guns, surveillance memory cards.When Xu Zhengyuan saw it, his breath was not smooth, and he raised his hand to hit him.Jiang Bei didn't hide, and Xu Zhengyuan didn't dare to make a real move, so he had no choice but to let go.

"Why didn't these things be handed over to the property management department? And what's the matter with this gun, has it been registered?" Xu Zhengyuan opened the magazine and confirmed that there was no shortage of bullets before he was relieved, "You are really getting worse and worse. It's a rule, I haven't retired yet!"

"The Trace Inspection Division has already checked the oil painting, but found nothing," Jiang Bei said honestly, "As for the lantern and the note, they haven't been turned in yet, and the murderer didn't leave any traces, so even if they turn them in, nothing will be found."

"What do you mean by 'even if'?" Xu Zhengyuan felt that Jiang Bei was very grumpy, and his words could irritate people to death, but his expression was unshakeable and indifferent, and it seemed inappropriate to teach him a lesson or not to teach him a lesson.

He didn't want to say more, he had already heard about the general situation from Lao Wang.Excluding the useless nonsense, he was able to piece together a general idea based on decades of work experience. He directly took the note and looked at it. His wrinkled hands shook, and his face covered with age spots showed his old age for the first time.

"So... that little doll is still alive?"

"Yes," Jiang Bei scratched at his nails, "The five victims all came out of the Sun Welfare Institute. I asked the dean, but there was no clue. The breakthrough was in that oil painting, which was painted more than ten years ago. The south bank of the former Funan River."

Jiang Bei paused, glanced at Xu Zhengyuan's tired side face, and then continued: "The note was found in Wangjiang Park. The murderer put the things in the lantern. It is estimated that it was between December 12 last year and January this year. It was put in during the 30nd. However, the surveillance video of the park can only be stored for 1 days, and no suspicious person was found. Lin An is leading people to check the surveillance of the bank at the entrance of the park. In addition, the murderer likes to put the corpse into a prayer after killing someone He may be a theist, but we have found a priest who worked in the area of ​​Funanjiang."

Xu Zhengyuan listened, took off his presbyopic glasses, rubbed his sore eyes: "It's fate, some people drowned after several years of training, but a little doll survived. Have you ever seen that doll, do you want to know?" What does he look like?"

Jiang Bei shook his head: "But I think she may know." He put the drowning case file on the table, "At that time, the police made a record of the women's director in the village, and then found O. Nitrogen and Pingping's nerve stabilizer in the deceased's home. class of drugs, confirming what the Women's Director said."

"The murderer once rented a house in the community where the crime occurred, but the identity information he left was false. This means that the police cannot track the murderer's location through information positioning. From the current point of view, they can only find witnesses and monitor."

Xu Zhengyuan understood what he meant, put away his overflowing emotions, tore off a piece of calendar paper, wrote a serial password and handed it to Jiang Bei: "Intranet password, I am old, and I can't do many things. You young people, go do it, and I will tell the superiors. If I don’t come today, how do you plan to investigate, secretly use other people’s passwords, and then you will be happy to punish them one by one?”

Jiang Bei didn't answer, and acquiesced.

Xu Zhengyuan hated Jiang Bei's appearance the most, as if he had made a big mistake, and felt sorry for Xu Zhengyuan.

"Let's go, go do your business," Xu Zhengyuan waved his hand, and said again, "By the way, don't send Barbie sets to my house anymore, my granddaughter will be 13 soon, and she won't play with those things long ago. There are a lot of dolls in the house, and her mother can't clean them up, so if you want to give them away, you can give them practice questions, the little girl followed her father, and she was out on the field every day, and her grades were so bad."

Jiang Bei pulled out a smile: "Okay."

"Go." Xu Zhengyuan sank back into the seat, looking tired, with reflective glasses covering his wet eyes.He watched Jiang Bei walk to the door, and suddenly stopped him:

"Little Ginger..."

Jiang Bei stopped immediately, only to hear Xu Zhengyuan behind him say:

"To be honest, I never believed that the doll you mentioned was real. After all, only you have seen it. Now I believe it. This time, you must catch him."