Chapter Thirty-Nine: Door to Door!

If there was still someone in this room, that would mean Tang Jingjing had spent the entire night alone with the killer. Why hadn’t the killer made a move? What was their purpose? Was it merely to frighten Tang Jingjing?

No one could say for sure.

I inhaled sharply, inching my way along the wall so I could observe most of the room from my vantage point.

Li Hong whistled at me and jerked his chin toward the corner. I looked that way and saw a wardrobe, its door ajar, darkness yawning inside—nothing visible.

Li Hong suspected someone might be hiding in the wardrobe.

Without hesitation, I took the gun from Tang Jingjing’s hand and aimed at the wardrobe. Li Hong crept forward, tying a thin cord to the door handle. When I nodded three times, he yanked the door open with a sudden jerk.

Nothing but gloom inside, not a sound. I approached slowly as Li Hong carefully pulled the wardrobe fully open, letting the light spill in.

There was no one, only a few of Tang Jingjing’s clothes.

Tang Youyou let out a sigh of relief.

But immediately, Li Hong’s eyes shifted to the bathroom door.

This time, his face tightened with tension, and he signaled to me, pointing at the bottom of the bathroom door.

I looked quickly and, to my horror, saw a pair of black leather shoes beneath the door’s gap.

Black leather shoes—men’s shoes.

Tang Jingjing had spotted them too. Her face turned ashen, nearly on the verge of tears as she shook her head desperately. I understood; she was telling us those shoes didn’t belong to her family.

If they weren’t hers, they must belong to a stranger.

Damn, to brazenly hide in a young woman’s bathroom—what kind of shameless person dared do that?

I released the safety on my gun, aimed at the bathroom door, and with my dagger in hand, crept forward before kicking the door open with force.

But the doorway was empty, except for the shoes, sitting quietly. The bathroom was deserted.

Li Hong crouched down, picked up the shoes, and examined them closely, his face draining of color. “These shoes look so familiar…”

“Familiar? Where have you seen them?” I scrutinized the shoes but couldn’t place them.

Tang Jingjing pressed urgently, “Li Hong, you must know whose shoes those are. Stop keeping us in suspense!”

Li Hong shook his head. “I can’t be sure, but the owner of the SUV we found yesterday… I think he was wearing shoes like these.”

I had to admire Li Hong’s sharp observation. I hadn’t paid the slightest attention to what the other man was wearing—could barely remember his face, in fact. This was my greatest shortcoming—I never learned everything from my father.

“So that guy’s been here?” Tang Jingjing’s voice trembled with fear. “I knew there was something sleazy about him, the way he looked at me was unsettling.”

I said that was impossible—if someone had come in with her last night, wouldn’t she have noticed?

Tang Jingjing insisted she hadn’t noticed anyone suspicious at all.

After she spoke, she stepped forward, pinched the shoe, and brought it close to her nose for a cautious sniff.

Ah, how could I forget Tang Jingjing’s “special ability.”

After a moment, her face turned ghastly pale. “It smells like the deceased, Liu Juncheng.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Li Xingchen leapt to his feet. “Let’s catch him, interrogate him, beat it out of him! He’ll talk eventually!”

“Let’s go find him,” I said. “We still have the authority to detain people. If it comes to it, Li Hong can just kidnap him.”

Li Hong nodded enthusiastically. “Kidnapping is my specialty.”

We all looked at Li Hong in bewilderment.

He quickly clarified, “Back in the special forces, my specialty was abduction.”

Good grief—who’d have thought such a twisted specialty existed?

We hurried to the home of the SUV owner—his name was Chen Da. According to the information Li Xingchen provided, Chen Da was in the sand-digging business, not making much—about the same as a migrant worker.

For someone with so little income, owning an SUV was suspicious in itself.

An elderly woman, stooped and leaning on a cane, opened the door—she must have been in her seventies or eighties. When she spoke with us, she had to tilt her head back to see us, and she was somewhat hard of hearing—it took me several tries before she understood what I was asking.

I inquired about Chen Da’s whereabouts. She said she didn’t know; he’d gone out the previous night and hadn’t returned since.

“He went out last night?” I was surprised. “He hasn’t come back at all?”

She replied, “No, and if you see him, tell him to come home. My daughter-in-law hasn’t been back for two days either. I keep cooking, but every meal goes uneaten.”

Tang Jingjing was indignant. She asked if the old woman was still cooking for the two of them, and the old woman nodded with difficulty, a trace of sadness on her wizened face.

Judging by Tang Jingjing’s furious expression, I guessed she was about to get involved. I had to pull her aside and remind her this wasn’t the time for such matters.

After a brief discussion, we decided on two courses of action: first, to find Chen Da as quickly as possible; second, to have Li Xingchen investigate his wife’s situation.

If Chen Da was involved, he’d most likely send someone close to him to do his dirty work. Since his wife had been absent for some time, it seemed likely she was the one driving the SUV.

Li Xingchen nodded and hurried off.

We couldn’t take the old woman’s word as gospel, but barging in openly would have stirred up the villagers—without police credentials, or even with them, they’d probably never believe us.

I asked Li Hong if he could sneak inside without alerting the old woman.

Li Hong nodded, “Absolutely.” Without another word, he slipped around the back of the house.

“What about us?” Tang Jingjing asked me.

“We keep looking,” I said. “It’s the middle of the night—Chen Da’s probably holed up at a neighbor’s playing mahjong.”

“Hmph!” Tang Jingjing huffed. “I’m the captain of the criminal investigation team, and I’ve been reduced to knocking on doors looking for gamblers. What a wretched job.”

I managed an awkward smile. “No way around it. You can’t blame society for bad luck, nor the government for a hard life. Let’s get on with it.”

We prepared to go door to door. The first neighbor to answer was a man in his fifties. He regarded us warily, seeming suspicious of outsiders.

I asked, “Uncle, do you know who Chen Da’s close friends are in the village?”

He answered curtly, “No, I’m not familiar with him,” and closed the door.

Three or four more houses yielded similar results—no one knew, or claimed Chen Da had no friends.

I wondered just how poor his reputation must be…

At the next house, a middle-aged woman opened the door, radiating warmth.

Finally, someone friendly—I quickly asked about Chen Da.

At the mention of his name, her expression changed. She told us how unfilial he was, that his own father had died from the stress of his son’s behavior. A grown man who still had his mother wash his underwear and cook for him—where else could you find such an ungrateful son?

I thought better of lingering—if I sat and chatted with this auntie, she’d likely go on for two days straight without repeating herself. We took our leave in a hurry.

Li Hong soon returned to report he’d sneaked inside and found neither Chen Da nor his wife—only the elderly woman was home.

So Chen Da truly wasn’t there.

“Let’s go,” I said, disappointed. It seemed we’d learned nothing new today.

Tang Jingjing declared, “Next time you need someone to do useless legwork, don’t call me.”

I protested, “How could I not? You’re a member of the Major Crimes Unit.”

She smirked. “You’re only my little assistant. If you bring me along for things you’re not sure of, aren’t you just wasting your superior’s time? I’d be better off at home doing a spa or a facial mask.”

I was speechless. Wasn’t it enough for Chief Wang to casually call me an “assistant”? She was getting addicted to the title! No, when we got back, I’d have to get Chief Wang to take away that label, or she’d never let me live it down.

But as we reached the edge of the village, Tang Jingjing suddenly stopped in her tracks.

I hurried to her side, “What’s wrong?”

Tang Jingjing gazed at me with uncharacteristic seriousness. “Is there an abattoir nearby?”

Her abrupt change in demeanor startled me. I quickly asked what had happened…