Chapter Twenty-One Again

  Although the fire was fierce, it did not harm anyone. Wu Hui couldn't understand what that person meant by designing this big fire. Was it just a warning or a threat?

  At this time, Wang Siting's phone rang, it was Guo Yining who called. Wang Siting walked out of the ward and answered the phone, saying a few words before hanging up.

  Wang Si Ting came over to Wu Hui's side and whispered: "Again."

  Wu Hui was afraid that Qin Min would worry, so he made an excuse to leave the ward and rushed to the fire scene with Wang Si Min.

  This fire occurred in an old video hall, located in a relatively remote urban village. Such places are now rare, but this video hall has continued to exist because its manager, Li Qingwei, is fond of the feeling he had when watching videos in his younger years. A few years ago, he rented out this location and converted it into a video hall with small private rooms, which some couples still find appealing.

  The fire broke out at more than 3 o'clock yesterday morning, and it was just treated as an ordinary fire without linking it to Angel Home. Later, Guo Yining felt that the two fires occurred too close in time, so he went to the scene to ask about it, and indeed found the same card.

  An hour before the fire, a staff member on duty at the bar counter did see a card with "Happy New Year" written on it and signed off with a red hair tie in the shape of a bow. At first, the staff member thought it was left behind by a customer and didn't pay much attention to it, casually putting it on the counter. It wasn't until Guo Yining asked about it that he remembered the card, but by then it had already been burned up in the big fire.

  Guo Yining obtained the architectural drawings of the recording studio from the manager and handed them over to Wu Hui, so that he could quickly understand the layout of the recording studio.

  Then they brought back a report on the scene investigation from the fire brigade, and several people quickly gathered in the conference room to discuss it.

  This video hall was transformed from an old house. It is a single-story brick and wood structure, 48.85 meters long from south to north, 13.35 meters wide, with a building area of 652 square meters, divided into three parts: the main hall, the projection hall, and the private room area, with 16 private rooms in the private room area.

  Among them, 169 square meters were transformed into a video projection hall, and 173 square meters were transformed into 16 video projection booths. The renovation was not reviewed or accepted by the fire department, and no application for fire safety inspection was made before opening, and it was opened without authorization, leaving huge hidden dangers.

  The south side of the hall is the projection room, and the boxes adjacent to the projection room are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 from south to north. Then, across a corridor, the corresponding boxes from south to north are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. The two extra boxes face the hall directly, with box 15 adjacent to box 13 and box 16 adjacent to box 15.

  That night, the screening hall was showing several illegal video products with **content. This kind of movie is shown here every night. At this time, the doors of the video hall were all locked, fearing that someone would report it.

  At 3 am, Zhang Dabao in room 13 found smoke seeping from the wall crack of adjacent room 15. He went to take a look and discovered that room 15 was on fire. He immediately returned to his own room, told the woman with him to leave quickly, and they ran out without telling the staff member who was making a phone call nearby, thinking he would discover it soon and report it to the police.

  Later, when asked why Zhang Dabao didn't call the police at the time, it turned out that the woman with him was a young widow from the same village. She was usually a very promiscuous woman. That night, Zhang Dabao had a bit of wine and got into an argument with his wife. He was kicked out of the house by his wife and had nowhere to go. Just then, he ran into the young widow who was still wandering around outside at midnight.

  This young widow's husband had disappeared when she was young, and she didn't remarry, but stayed there. However, she wasn't a docile woman. Zhao Dabao's wife often gossiped about her behind her back. The young widow had been thinking of getting revenge on Zhao Dabao's wife. At this time, she met Zhao Dabao and suddenly thought of a good idea.

  During the day, I heard that rascal next door talking about it on her bed, saying that the video hall would show some good videos tonight. When he said this, he had a sly look on his face. The young widow knew what kind of videos were being shown at the video hall, as she often went to watch them with different men and was indeed addicted. So the young widow invited Zhao Dabao to watch the videos, and when Zhao saw the young widow's lonely and unbearable expression, he felt a strong urge in his heart. The two then went to the video hall, and under the influence of erotic and romantic videos, they ended up having an improper relationship.

  At that time, Zhang Dabao saw the fire in room 15 and was afraid that if he called the police, his wife would find out when the police asked him questions. If his wife asked him who he was with at the time, she would definitely not let him off easily. Thinking of his wife's appearance, Zhao Dabao became a softie, so he decided not to call the police and sneak away quietly.

  At that time, the night shift employee Qi Tai was making a phone call at the hall bar and discovered the fire. He didn't know what to do, so he woke up Manager Li Qingwei. Li Qingwei saw the fire, quickly gathered his things, and ran out of the video hall. The fire was already very large, but Li Qingwei knew that this video hall did not have a business license and was operating illegally. Afraid of being punished, he hesitated and didn't dare to call the police, delaying the time.

  Due to the failure to report and put out the fire in time, coupled with the low level of fire resistance of the building, insufficient safety exit evacuation channels, no evacuation signs and lighting, as well as firefighting equipment, the fire spread rapidly after ignition, producing a large amount of carbon monoxide. As a result, six people died from poisoning, many were trampled and injured, and several were burned by the big fire. These people are still being rescued in hospital, and several have not yet escaped life danger.

  Overall, the private room area was more severely burned than the main hall, and the main hall was more severely burned than the video hall. The door frames between the main hall and the private room area, as well as the horizontal beams on the upper part of the hall, had cement wall skin falling off. The east wall skin of rooms 13, 15, and 16 had fallen off severely, and all the wooden horizontal beams on the roof had collapsed, while other private rooms were intact. Overall, room 15 was the most severely burned.

  The No. 13 compartment's wooden beam was severely carbonized on the north side and lightly on the south side, while the No. 16 compartment's bathroom wooden beam was severely carbonized on the south side and lightly on the north side, thus determining that the No. 15 compartment was the origin of the fire.

  The door frame of Room 14 was less damaged than those of Rooms 13, 15 and 16. The partition between Rooms 15 and 13 had been burnt down, the partition between Rooms 15 and 16 had also been burnt down, and the partition between Room 15 and the corridor had been burnt down.

  The wallpaper in room 15 has fallen off severely, with a "V"-shaped mark on the wallpaper. A quartz tube electric heater was found at a location 1.26 meters east of the east wall and 0.4 meters north of the north wall in room 15, and it is determined that the fire started near the flammable materials close to the electric heater.

  Extracted the electrical wire scorch marks, carbonized materials, wall smoke stains, sofa fabric and polyurethane foam plastic from Room 15 for identification. No gasoline or other flammable liquids were detected. The sofa fabric and polyurethane foam plastic are both combustible materials. No signs of short circuit or electrical fault that caused the scorch marks were found.

  After selecting and simulating the same type of electric heater and combustible materials under completely similar on-site conditions, it is proved that the quartz tube electric heater can ignite its nearby flammable materials, and the ignition time is basically consistent with the actual time.

  Through investigation, the possibility of arson, electrical wiring faults and spontaneous combustion causing the fire has been ruled out. The fire was caused by a stone pipe electric heater in compartment 15 being powered on for an extended period. Heat radiation ignited flammable materials, leading to the fire.

  However, according to the manager and the staff member on duty, Qi Tai, there was no one in room 15 that day. They did have an electric heater here. Because some people would feel cold when watching videos at night, they would rent it out. If rented, a deposit had to be paid. After use, the fee would be deducted from the deposit and the remaining money would be returned to them.

  That night, many people rented electric heaters, all of which were registered in the case. Those who escaped from the fire scene all said that when they left, the electric heaters in the house were still there and no one had borrowed them before.

  Through the fire scene investigation, according to the registration of the lease. They were indeed all on site, however, one electric heater was missing from the counter. The duty staff member Qi Tai said he really didn't know that an electric heater was missing, and during the day he had checked again, at that time it was indeed not missing. As for why it would be missing in the evening, he didn't know.

  After being questioned by the police several times, the duty staff member handed over and locked the main gate at night. Seeing no one coming, he went to watch a few videos in Room 1 at the end of the corridor, around 2 o'clock. Influenced by the video, Qi Tai thought of calling his girlfriend, and kept calling until he discovered the fire.

  Later, Zhao Dabao in room 14 and the young widow also testified that when they discovered the fire, there was indeed an electric heater with power on in suite 15, which was facing the sofa at the time.

  It can be inferred from the experiment that when the electric heater appeared in Room 15, it should have been around midnight, which is also the time when the duty staff member Qi Tai left his post and entered Room 1. At that time, someone took the electric heater from the bar counter, entered the empty Room 15, plugged in the electric heater and then left the room.

  After 2 o'clock, Qitai came out of Hall No. 1 and returned to the bar counter, nothing unusual was found, and he kept making phone calls.

  It wasn't until after 3 am that Zhao Dabao discovered smoke in room 15, at which point the room was already on fire. However, Zhao didn't tell anyone and instead left with Xiaoshu. At the time, Qi Tai was still at the bar making a phone call and saw Zhao and Xiaoshu leave.

  Within minutes of their departure, Chi Tai discovered that suite 15 was on fire and informed the manager, but it was too late.

  After reading the on-site survey report, Guo Yining continued: "According to Qi Tai's recollection, all those who came to their video hall were familiar faces, often coming to watch videos. In his impression, there was no stranger at that time. An investigation was also conducted on the people in the video hall at that time, and it was found that they were all in their own private rooms and had never gone out. Therefore, the arsonist is not among these people, but should be someone who entered the video hall later. During Qi Tai's shift, no one was found entering the video hall, which means that this person may have sneaked into the video hall after Qi Tai entered room 1, and stole the electric heater."

  Fang You thought Guo Yining's analysis made sense, but there was one point that couldn't be explained. "He didn't do it, yet the surveillance room door was locked from the inside. How did he get in? Did he have some kind of wall-penetrating skill?"

  "Look, this place." Wang Si-ting pointed to one of the photos. On the wall of the recording hall, there was a section that was about half a meter shorter than other places. If someone added a run-up and climbed, they could also climb over the wall and jump inside from the top of the wall. It wasn't impossible to enter the hall.

  Kuo saw that the wall in the photo had been burned black and shouldn't have any traces left, "You mean to say that at the time, the arsonist entered the video hall from this place?"

  Wang Si-ting nodded in agreement, "It's very likely, unfortunately the fire was too big and we couldn't retrieve any clues, so it's just a guess."

  Wu Hui analyzed the arsonist from a psychological perspective, "From the time and location, it can be inferred that at the time of the fire, the person who set the fire should have been in Tian Shi Jia Yuan after setting the fire, and then came to the video hall to set another fire. In one night, he set two fires, and should be a revelatory type of arsonist."

  Yang Rong didn't understand, were there many types of arsonists? "Revelatory-type arsonist?"

  Wu Hui didn't explain much, now the most important thing is to find this person as soon as possible, otherwise Lincheng will be filled with the sound of fire trucks' sirens all night. "Thrill-seeking arsonists and dense arsonists, from these two cases of arson, it can be seen that the arsonist belongs to the thrill-seeking type. This type of arsonist is always in a state of excitement during the arson, and he will quickly choose the next ignition point when in this state, so we must find this person immediately."

  Guo Yining knew the severity of the situation and the urgency of time, "Wang Hua, I asked you to investigate if there are any clues."

  "With the help of the police station and on-site monitoring, it was indeed found that one person was very suspicious. This is his information." Wang Hua handed the tablet to Fang You, letting him connect to the conference room's large screen.

  On the big screen is a person named Wen Peng, 18 years old this year. He has committed countless minor crimes, including multiple arson cases, but they were all small cases and did not cause any losses.

  At that time, the Angel Home fire scene, he was on the scene and helped to put out the fire. At that time, Wu Hui felt that he looked a bit familiar. Now it seems that he knows who this person is. He was the one who led the group of little hooligans who harassed Zhou Linlin before she died.

  Wen Peng now lives in a residential area not far from the recording studio, which is why he chose the recording studio.

  When the police entered Wen Peng's home, Wen Peng was sleeping and was awakened by the sound of the police breaking in. He had a nonchalant expression on his face.

  This house was left by Wenpeng's grandmother, and Wenpeng has been living with his grandmother since he was a child. His parents worked outside and gradually became wealthy, opening a company, buying a house, and having a younger brother. As for Wenpeng, except for sending him money on time every month, they basically didn't care about him.

  He had no feelings for his parents, and after his grandmother passed away, his parents asked him if he wanted to go with them, but Wenpeng chose to stay behind, and his parents didn't object.