kvmb Chapter 963 Discussion at the Case Analysis Meeting
Chapter 963 Discussion at the Case Analysis Meeting
Chapter 963 Discussion at the Case Analysis Meeting "Even if it's cancelled, it might still leave traces. And the West City Wharf, the surveillance footage from back then, even if it's blurry, show it to me frame by frame!" His voice echoed in the conference room. It had started raining outside the window, the raindrops tapping on the glass, as if sighing at the clueless investigation.
As night fell, the Criminal Investigation Division's office remained brightly lit. Xiao Wang rubbed his sore eyes and dialed Lao Zhou's number for the third time, only to hear the familiar "phone switched off" tone. Looking out at the rainy night, he suddenly remembered Lao Zhou's trembling hands when he drank, and his hesitant gaze—this driver must know something.
Although three years have passed since Li Qingmin's death, the surveillance footage from that time is no longer available. Fortunately, when Li Qingmin disappeared, the police investigated the relevant circumstances. After a month of investigation, they didn't find much, and he was classified as a missing person. However, some surveillance footage from that time has been unearthed, and all the relevant clues and evidence have been revisited, hoping to find some leads.
The on-site investigation did not yield many findings. The autopsy only confirmed some relevant information about the deceased, as well as the cause and time of death.
During the investigation, although there were some suspicious circumstances and questions surrounding Li Qingmin's disappearance, there are still no substantial leads.
After three days of investigation, Li Ming decided to hold a case analysis meeting.
The incandescent lights in the conference room hummed. Lu Chuan pointed a laser pointer at the intricate web of clues on the whiteboard, with Li Qingmin's photo circled in red in the center, like a bleeding wound. More than twenty police officers sat around the conference table, their notebooks filled with detailed records of their visits. The air was thick with the smell of strong tea mixed with cigarette smoke.
“Let’s start by analyzing the motive.” Lu Chuan pressed the remote control, and Li Qingmin’s bank statements for the last three months of his life popped up on the screen. “After the company’s cash flow dried up, he not only didn’t file for bankruptcy, but also transferred eight million yuan out in different places. The whereabouts of this money are unknown, and it could very well be the fatal trigger.” His pen slammed heavily on the “West City Wharf” sign. “The unusual behavior mentioned by driver Lao Zhou suggests that he was engaged in some kind of secret transaction before his death. Could he have been killed because of a dispute over the division of the spoils?”
Zhang Lin twirled the scalpel model, the forensic doctor's white coat still stained with adipocere: "Judging from the method of strangulation, the murderer was strong and had extremely high psychological qualities. If it was for money, why not just rob him directly? The body was hidden in the cellar for three years, which means the murderer had enough time to deal with the scene, but choosing such an extreme method seems more like an attempt to completely cover up the truth."
"Could it be a crime of passion?" Xiao Wang suddenly asked, spreading a stack of photos across the table. The photos showed Li Qingmin behaving intimately with different women at drinking parties, spanning the year before his disappearance. "We found these in a hidden compartment in his office, along with several ledgers recording large 'special expenditures.' Six months before his disappearance, he transferred two million yuan to a woman named Lin Xiaomei."
Xiao Sun typed on the keyboard, and the projector switched to Lin Xiaomei's information: "This person immigrated to Australia three months later and canceled all contact information. But I found out that she used to be the top hostess at a KTV in Haizhou City, and frequently visited high-end clubs during her relationship with Li Qingmin." He pulled up a screenshot of the surveillance footage, in which Lin Xiaomei, wearing sunglasses, got into a black sedan with the license plate covered by mud. "This car matches the characteristics of the suspicious vehicle witnessed by the villagers of Beihong Village."
As the discussion grew increasingly heated, Xiao Zhou suddenly raised his hand: "When I visited Li Qingmin's creditors, someone mentioned a detail. Before his company went bankrupt, he refused to cooperate with the largest building materials supplier in the area, who threatened to 'make it impossible for him to survive in Haizhou.' This building materials supplier has a complicated background and is constantly rumored to be involved in organized crime." He pushed a yellowed contract to the center of the table, with "Haizhou Hongyuan Group" prominently printed on the signature side of the contract.
Lu Chuan unconsciously stroked his chin: "The possibility of itinerant crime is basically ruled out; the way the body was disposed of was too professional. But if it was a revenge killing, what was the motive?" He suddenly pulled up Li Qingmin's medical report. "Zhang Lin, can you determine what kind of external force caused the old bone fracture found during the autopsy?"
"Judging from the fracture pattern, it was caused by repeated blows from a blunt object like a club." Zhang Lin flipped through the autopsy record. "The healing time of more than five years indicates that he had experienced violence in his early years." His gaze swept over everyone. "Could it be that the murderer and he had a grudge from a long time ago, and the broken funding chain was just the trigger for the attack?"
The meeting continued until 3 a.m., and three new branches were added to the whiteboard: "Homicide of Passion," "Homicide of Revenge," and "Dispute of Interest," each branch branching into a dense web of clues. Lu Chuan wiped the sweat from his brow and pressed several thumbtacks heavily onto the map: "Tomorrow, we'll split into four groups for the investigation. The first group will delve into Lin Xiaomei's network of connections; the second group will thoroughly investigate the financial loopholes in Hongyuan Group; the third group will reconstruct the surveillance footage from three years ago at the West City Wharf; and the fourth group will revisit Li Qingmin's hometown, focusing on whether he had any enemies in his early years."
As he gave the order, four teams of officers shot into every corner of the city like arrows, only to be met with one impasse after another.
The first group of officers led by Xiao Wang focused their attention on Lin Xiaomei. They visited the KTV where Lin Xiaomei had worked. The madam, with brightly colored nail polish, looked at the uninvited guests warily: "Lin Xiaomei? We haven't been in touch for a long time. She climbed up the social ladder and left. I heard she went abroad to enjoy a good life." The officers searched through the KTV's old files but only found a few blurry photos of her on the job and an emergency contact number that had long been deactivated.
They found Lin Xiaomei's former friends. In a dilapidated rented room, amidst the smoky atmosphere, a woman with dyed blonde hair took a drag of her cigarette and said helplessly, "Xiaomei was a very mysterious person. She never revealed her private affairs. All we knew was that she hooked up with a rich boss and then suddenly left. We didn't even have a chance to say goodbye properly." When the police officers showed them a photo of Li Qingmin and Lin Xiaomei together, they all shook their heads in response.
An investigation of Lin Xiaomei's entry and exit records revealed that she did indeed fly to Australia three months after Li Qingmin's disappearance. However, when contacting the Australian police for assistance, it was discovered that she vanished shortly after entering Australia, with no further spending records or residency information. Tracing her bank accounts in China revealed that the funds transferred out of the country flowed through multiple overseas accounts before disappearing into the vast sea of financial data, as if they had sunk without a trace.