Chapter Seven In-Depth Investigation

  "He committed suicide, five years ago at home."

  "Excuse me, may I ask what's the reason for the suicide?"

  "Depression, it's all my fault. I was too busy with business and didn't care enough about her. By the time I realized her condition, it was already too late. Although I took good care of her afterwards, she still committed suicide during one of my meetings." Talking about his wife's suicide still brings great pain to Liu Jianjun.

  Guo Yining looked at Liu Jianjun with some sympathy, "A person can't come back to life after they're dead, you shouldn't blame yourself too much."

  Maybe feeling too out of place in front of outsiders, Liu Jianjun quickly regained his composure, "Thank you, I'm fine."

  As for Liu Jianjun's emotional management, Wu Hui thought to himself that he was indeed a man who had experienced great storms and managed his emotions well. "Right, Mr. Liu, take another look at this photo. The person in the photo is called Yang Liu. You really haven't seen her before?"

  "No!" Liu Jianjun picked up Yang Liu's photo, took a close look, clasped his hands over his chest and gave a definite answer.

  Wu Hui carefully observed Liu Jianjun's facial expressions and body movements, "But someone saw her get into Mr. Liu's car in the parking lot of Xihewan Bar."

  "It's impossible, absolutely impossible. If she and I had any relationship, I shouldn't have forgotten. I still have confidence in my own memory." Although Liu Jianjun spoke with certainty, his hands, which were clasped together, slowly relaxed, and Wu Hui knew he had made a mistake.

  Wu Hui had thought that the person in the Xihé Bar parking lot was Liu Jianjun, but after seeing Liu Jianjun's physical changes, he knew that the person in the parking lot was absolutely not Liu Jianjun. Who could that person be?

  "Alright, thank you for your cooperation. If there's anything else, we'll come find Mr. Liu anytime." Wu Hui walked out of Liu Jianjun's villa with Guo Yining.

  "What do you think of Liu Jianjun?" Guo Yining saw Wu Hui's furrowed brow and knew he might have discovered something.

  "You just saw that when I asked Liu Jianjun about Yang Liu, his body language changed? After he finished looking at the photos, he put both hands on his chest, which is a sign of self-enclosure and refusal to communicate. However, when I mentioned the Xihé Bar parking lot incident, he put down his hands and his limbs were no longer as stiff as before. It seems that Liu Jianjun was absolutely not the one who picked up Yang Liu at Xihé Bar." Wu Hui told Guo Yining about his observations in Liu Jianjun's home.

  "Your meaning is that Liu Jianjun knows Yang Liu? Then why did he lie?" Guo Yining felt some reason in Wu Hui's words.

  "Either Yang Liu was indeed killed by Liu Jianjun, and he denied knowing her to avoid suspicion, or he didn't want outsiders to know about his relationship with Yang Liu." Wu Hui turned back to look at Liu Jianjun's villa, thinking that he would likely visit this place more than once.

  "But he has a perfect alibi, and at the time of each of the four murders, he was not in Lincheng. There are witnesses and evidence to prove it. However, for someone as wealthy as him, it's definitely possible that he knows many people on both sides of the law. If he wanted to hire someone to commit murder, it shouldn't be a problem."

  "It won't work, from the killer's method of killing the victim, it can be seen that it is absolutely not a hired murder."

  "Also true, but now where should we start looking?"

  Walking into the security room, Wu Hui took a look and said, "Let's go ask the security guard and find out what's going on with Liu Jianjun."

  Two people came to the security room, and inside was the security guard who had just let them in. Seeing Wu Hui and the other person approaching, the security guard hastily stood up, "Police control, have you finished investigating?"

  "There are still some things I want to ask you." Wu Hui walked into the security room and asked the security guard to sit down, telling him not to be nervous.

  When questioned by the police, the security guard was still a bit nervous, "Please go ahead and ask, if there's anything I know, I'll definitely say it."

  "We just want to ask, how many cars does Liu Jianjun's family have? You should be very clear about this, right?" Guo Yining took out her notebook to take notes.

  "There were two cars, one was a red sports car. I didn't know what kind of car it was, but a colleague of mine knew, he's an expert on cars. He said it was a Ferrari, very expensive too. He said we wouldn't be able to afford it in our lifetime. And that's true, I'm just a small security guard, my salary is barely enough for me to get by, how could I possibly afford a car, let alone such an expensive one? It's really... things are compared to things and lose, people are compared to people and die..."

  "Wait, security guard," Guo Yining hastily interrupted him, "what about the other one?"

  "Huh? What?" The security guard was still muttering to himself when he heard Guo Yining's words, and before he could react, "Oh, another one, it's a black sedan, I know this one, there are many people in this neighborhood who drive Mercedes-Benz."

  "Is there no other car? Such as Audi?"

  "It's the one with four rings on it, right? No, I've seen their car when they're patrolling around. When their garage door is open, there are only two cars inside, no other people."

  "Does Mr. Liu always drive himself?"

  "No, there's a driver. Every day, the driver drives that Mercedes to pick up and drop off Mr. Liu. However, sometimes Mr. Liu also drives back himself, but that's rare."

  "What about Mr. Liu's son?"

  "He's just a kid, what can he possibly have going on? Every day is just school and then back home, doesn't even greet people."

  "Does he have any friends?"

  "I've never seen him bring any friends back, I've been working as a security guard here for almost five years, and I've never seen that kid go out, every time he comes home from school, he just stays at home. It's rare to see such a well-behaved kid." Thinking of the other kids in the villa, the security guard shook his head helplessly, they're too much trouble. "He doesn't like to talk and doesn't greet others, he should be in high school this year, his mother passed away when he was just in junior high, around 12 or 13 years old, it must have been hard for him to accept, that's why he's so introverted."

  "What's their father-son relationship like?" Wu Hui recalled Liu Jianjun saying his wife had committed suicide due to depression, and wondered if this incident had any impact on the father-son relationship.

  "I didn't notice this myself, but you can go ask Auntie Zhong, she knows the most about every household's affairs and is willing to talk about these things when she has nothing better to do."

  "Who is Auntie Zhong?"

  "It's just our property's Auntie Zhong, oh, speak of the devil, Auntie Zhong, come over here for a moment, the police officer has some things to ask you." Just as they were talking about Auntie Zhong, the security guard happened to see her walking back from outside, probably after going out to dance in the square.

  "Police? What's the matter?" Auntie Zhong and several other elderly people, when they had nothing to do, liked to dance in the square after dinner. Although they often received complaints from homeowners, since they turned down the volume, no one has complained anymore. Why are the police coming to their door again?

  Seeing Zhong Aunt being somewhat guarded, Guo Yining walked forward and said: "Aunt Zhong, you don't have to be tense, I'm asking about Liu Jianjun's family matters."

  It was said that the police were not looking for her because of the square dance, and Aunt Zhong immediately relaxed. "Oh, their family? What happened to them?"

  "There's nothing, just some things I want to investigate, and I hope you can cooperate."

  "Go ahead and ask!" Guo Yining didn't say anything, and Zhong Auntie didn't ask either. She knew that the police were disciplined.

  "Do you recognize the woman in this photo? Have you seen her around the neighborhood?" Guo Yining showed Yang Liu's photo to the security guard and Clock Auntie.

  "I've never seen her before, I didn't see her when I was on duty." The security guard looked at the woman in the photo and shook his head.

  "I usually stay in the neighborhood when I have nothing to do, such a beautiful girl, if I saw her, I would definitely remember, she has never appeared in our neighborhood." Aunt Zhong put on her reading glasses and took a closer look at the photo, confirming that she had never seen this girl before.

  "What does Aunt Zhong know about Liu Jianjun's family?" Wu Hui saw that neither of them knew Yang Liu, and thought that Liu Jianjun would not bring Yang Liu back to his own home.

  "They are a family of two, father and son. Liu Laoban is also considered to be clean and self-disciplined, all these years, never saw him bring any woman back home. However, Liu Jianjun is not often at home, only his son Liu Hao is at home. The relationship between Liu Hao and his dad is very tense, often hear Liu Jianjun scolding his son, his son also doesn't talk back." Zhong Ayi will tell Wu Hui and others the news she heard from other sisters.

  "How come there was no quarrel? One time, probably around 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, I patrolled to Liu Jianjun's house and heard the sound of a cup being smashed inside. Liu Jianjun scolded his son for being heartless, and his son also shouted back at Liu Jianjun, saying that if it weren't for Liu Jianjun's reason, his mother wouldn't have died either. When Liu Jianjun heard Liu Hao's words, he didn't say a word and just quieted down." The security guard told Wu Hui about what had happened when he patrolled earlier.

  "Really? I didn't know that. What do you mean by saying Liu Huan said his dad killed his mom? Is it really possible that his dad killed his mom? Officer, can you tell me if there's such a possibility?" Auntie Zhong heard that Liu Huan said his dad harmed his mom, and if this is true, then she would be the first to know among her sisters.

  Guo Yining was most worried about people like Zhong Ayi who liked to spread rumors for no reason. "If there really is such a thing, we will definitely investigate clearly. Now it's just Liu Hao speaking angrily, so it's better not to believe it rashly."

  "By the way, today we also met someone at Liu Jianjun's home, that is Wu Ma, has she been working at Liu Jianjun's home all along?"

  "Wu's mother is not talkative, when Liu Jianjun moved into this neighborhood, Wu's mother came with him, and Liu Jianjun was very satisfied with her. Once Wu's mother got sick, Liu Jianjun asked me to help him find a part-time worker, but she was fired after just one day of work. Liu Jianjun and Liu Hua were both very good to Wu's mother, especially Liu Hua had a particularly close relationship with Wu's mother, liked talking to her, and sometimes even accompanied her to buy groceries. When Wu's mother was sick for those few days, Liu Hua stayed by her side the whole time, if not because of Wu's mother's old age, we would have suspected that Wu's mother was actually Liu Hua's real mother."