Chapter Fifty-Eight: Fingerprint Identification!

“It was a gift from a friend,” the little boy said.

“Which friend?”

“Huang Miaomiao,” the boy replied.

The chief immediately coughed, his tone annoyed. “Don’t talk nonsense. Be careful, or we’ll lock you up.”

The little boy stubbornly insisted, “It was Huang Miaomiao who gave them to me!”

Old Lin quickly interjected, “Who is Huang Miaomiao?”

The chief hesitated, then answered, “That’s my son. But my son isn’t really close to this kid.”

Old Lin frowned slightly. “Could you call your son here? We’d like to ask him a couple of questions.”

The chief nodded. “I’ll get that rascal here right now.”

Worried that the chief might influence his son on the way, Old Lin suggested it would be easier to call him directly and avoid unnecessary trouble.

The chief had no choice but to agree. He called Huang Miaomiao, urging him to take a cab over immediately.

Old Lin turned to the little boy again, “Do you know where Huang Miaomiao got the shoes?”

“He told me his grandma bought them for him. But he already had a pair of Adidas at home, so he gave these to me. I promised to do his homework for a month.”

Old Lin nodded thoughtfully.

I asked the boy if he’d worn the shoes. He shook his head.

Then I asked why he hadn’t admitted to having the Adidas shoes at first.

He replied, “I thought they might have been stolen by Huang Miaomiao. I was even thinking of returning them to him.”

I said it was good he hadn’t worn them.

What I needed to do now was make sure no one but the deceased had ever worn the shoes. I removed the insoles and handed them to the medical team, hoping they could quickly extract any toe prints.

Huang Miaomiao soon arrived—a chubby child with a face that radiated smugness and self-importance. As soon as he saw the little boy, he scoffed, “What are you doing here? Did you get yourself into trouble? And what are you looking at me for? We’re not even close. Don’t think my old man will get you off the hook.”

This young master played the official’s son to perfection.

The chief looked embarrassed and scolded sternly, “Shut your mouth! When this gentleman asks you something, answer honestly. Don’t you dare lie, understand?”

Huang Miaomiao nodded at once, “I know—honesty brings leniency, resistance brings severity.”

The chief was so angry he looked ready to strike his son. If he’d been an adult, that line alone would have made him a suspect.

Old Lin’s smile remained gentle. “Huang Miaomiao, I’m a friend of your father’s. You can call me Grandpa Lin. I’m taking your father out for KFC later—would you like to join us?”

Huang Miaomiao waved dismissively. “KFC? I’m sick of it.”

The chief looked even more embarrassed.

Old Lin smiled, “Then what would you like to eat?”

“I want seafood,” Huang Miaomiao said. “There’s a new seafood restaurant on Huangpu Road.”

“Very well,” Old Lin said, “I’ll take you all there later. Tell me, did you give these shoes to him?”

Huang Miaomiao nodded. “Yeah. All my shoes cost over a thousand. These were just a few hundred—cheap junk, I don’t care for them.”

“Who bought them for you?” Old Lin pressed.

“Someone else gave them to me,” Huang Miaomiao replied.

“Who?”

“Wang Dalong’s grandmother,” he answered. “Their house is about to be demolished. She asked Wang Dalong to give me a pair of shoes and let me put in a good word with my dad. But is my dad that kind of person?”

The chief immediately relaxed, radiating righteousness.

But then Huang Miaomiao continued, “Trying to settle it with a few hundred yuan? That’s insulting. I didn’t even take them.”

The chief’s face fell again, and a few officers couldn’t help but laugh. The chief scolded them for it.

Old Lin was puzzled. “If you didn’t take them, how did the shoes end up with you?”

“After Wang Dalong died, his grandmother brought them to me again. I didn’t want anything that belonged to the dead, so I just threw them to this kid.”

“Then why did you say your grandma bought them?” Old Lin asked.

“If I’d said they were from that dead kid Wang Dalong, would he have wanted them? And besides, he owes me a week of homework help now.” Huang Miaomiao grinned slyly.

Old Lin asked, “Did Wang Dalong’s grandmother give them to you herself?”

Huang Miaomiao said no. He’d been doing homework in his room when he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it, the shoes were there. If it wasn’t Wang Dalong’s grandmother, who else could it have been?

I was shocked. “Didn’t she go into the hospital after she found out Wang Dalong had died? With a brain hemorrhage?”

Huang Miaomiao scratched his head. “If it wasn’t her, then who? Doing good deeds anonymously?”

I asked, “Other than you, him, Wang Dalong, me, and Xiao Li the driver, has anyone else touched these shoes?”

Both Huang Miaomiao and the little boy shook their heads.

I took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m going to run a fingerprint test now. In the meantime, I’d like everyone to stay put. If anyone else has touched the shoes, I hope you’ll be able to explain. Of course, I don’t suspect any of you—I just want to rule out possibilities.”

The chief patted his holstered gun. “Don’t worry. I’m here. Who’d dare try anything?”

Fingerprint identification was quick—they had the equipment in the car. Using special chemicals, they preserved and categorized all fingerprints, finding a total of five.

Comparison revealed the prints belonged to Huang Miaomiao, the first little boy, Wang Dalong, myself, and Xiao Li.

There was no trace of Wang Dalong’s grandmother’s fingerprints, which meant she hadn’t delivered the shoes.

But we were puzzled—surely the store clerk must have touched the shoes when they were sold. Why weren’t there any store fingerprints? We were baffled; I even began to suspect the origin of the shoes was suspicious.

Old Lin realized this as well. He said that to get to the truth, we might have to ask the little boy’s grandmother.

I nodded; it was the quickest way.

We went to see the little boy’s grandmother immediately, but her answer took us by surprise.

She insisted she had never bought shoes for Wang Dalong.

This deepened the mystery. If she hadn’t bought them, where did Wang Dalong get the money?

We asked if Wang Dalong had ever asked her for several hundred yuan. She said no—he never asked for money. Why were we asking?

A cloud of suspicion gathered. How had Wang Dalong, just a child, come by so much cash?

Suddenly, a possibility struck me. I hurriedly asked Old Lin, “Is there a chance these shoes were stolen? Otherwise, why didn’t we find any store fingerprints?”

Old Lin nodded. “It’s very likely. How about we split up and check the nearby shoe stores, see if we can find any clues?”

But the chief said, “No need. This kind of shoe is only sold in the provincial capital. Nowhere in town sells such expensive shoes.”

We asked Wang Dalong’s grandmother if he had ever visited the county seat.

She shook her head again. “Never—he always came straight home after school. He was a good, obedient boy. Why are you asking? Have you caught Lai San yet? He’s the one who killed my grandson—I’ll beat him with my cane myself.”

I replied, “Ma’am, we have Lai San under control and are interrogating him. If the evidence is clear, he will be punished by the law. By the way, please think carefully—did Dalong have any grudges with anyone before he died? Adults, men or women?”

What remains is silence, as the page ends.