sjar Chapter 977 Tracking the Security Guard
Chapter 977 Tracking the Security Guard
Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Wang had already pulled up the latest traffic surveillance footage: "Look at this! Three days ago, in the early morning, a truck drove out of the logistics park, its cargo bed filled with several large suitcases, and the license plate number..." His pupils suddenly contracted, "It belonged to the contractor of Shengshi Huafu."
Li Ming drew a heavy arrow on the whiteboard, connecting the photos of the contractor and the missing security guard: "Now we have two directions. First, continue tracing the truck's whereabouts and find the suitcases; second, search for the security guard with all our might. He likely possesses crucial evidence, enough to dismantle the entire chain of interests." He looked at the tired but determined faces in the meeting room, "No matter how powerful the forces behind it are, we must uncover the truth."
The downpour temporarily subsided, leaving a damp, earthy smell in the air. When Li Ming led his team to the unfinished "Shengshi Huafu" building, the dilapidated scaffolding creaked in the wind, its rusty steel bars resembling the withered hands of a dying man. The once-impressive sales office had all its windows shattered, and the faded promotional posters bearing the words "Prime Location" and "Luxury Residence" were blurred by the rain.
"The contractor, Hongda Construction, was deregistered five years ago." Zhang Hui flipped through the business registration files; the papers were damp and soft. "The legal representative, Chen Yongqiang, disappeared after the bankruptcy; the shareholders went their separate ways; the financial director emigrated abroad; even the construction team's workers changed several times." He pointed to the overgrown construction site in the distance, "But we still managed to sift through old records from the labor market and find 12 workers from back then."
In a shabby rented room on the outskirts of the city, Li Fuhai, an old bricklayer with a wrinkled face, tremblingly sipped a strong cup of tea. "A batch of gold leaf did indeed arrive years ago, supposedly to be pasted on the dome of the main hall," he gestured with his calloused hands, "but not long after, the boss ran off with the money, without even paying the workers." When Xiao Wang showed the old man a photo of the missing security guard, his cloudy eyes suddenly lit up: "This lad! He was brought by the security captain, supposedly a relative, and despite his limp, he always goes to the warehouse."
Similar testimonies came from different workers. Carpenter Zhang Jianguo scratched the back of his head: "One night I went to the construction site to get my tools and saw several people suspiciously loading boxes onto a truck, with a security guard limping nearby keeping watch." Steelworker Zhao Dazhu lowered his voice: "I heard that this batch of gold wasn't even recorded in the accounts; it was dirty money from a private deal between the boss and the developer." But when asked about the truck and the missing security guard, everyone shook their heads.
After seven days and seven nights of investigation, traffic surveillance footage showed that the suspicious truck disappeared on the old national highway in the west of the city. As Xiao Wang and his officers searched the deserted parking lot, the setting sun painted the rusty metal truck a dark red. The seal on the rear door of the truck was broken, and it creaked loudly when opened—inside were six neatly stacked black suitcases, each secured with a combination lock.
"The technical department is on their way!" Zhang Hui took photos while cautiously observing his surroundings. Just then, a rustling sound came from the bushes in the corner of the parking lot. A hunched figure darted out; the middle-aged man's pale face was filled with terror, and his limping right leg made a dull thud on the gravel. "Grab him!" Xiao Wang was the first to give chase, his trousers splattered with mud. The man, in his panic, tripped over a protruding rock, his forehead hitting the truck tire hard, and blood immediately gushed out.
The one-way glass of the interrogation room was fogged up, and Zhou Defa's fingernails scratched harshly on the iron table. "He stole the gold bars and the ledger! Three whole gold bars!" The man's neck veins bulged. "Chen Yongqiang said we can't leave him alive, and told me to do it in the logistics park..." Before he finished speaking, Li Ming threw the autopsy photos on the table; the sunken wound on Zhang Chunli's skull looked bluish-white under the bright light.
The truth from three months ago was pieced together in the confession. On a stormy night, Zhang Chunli, delivering food, mistakenly entered an underground warehouse and witnessed Zhou Defa throwing gold nuggets into a furnace. In his panicked escape, an account book fell from a cardboard box he kicked over; the words "Gold to offset construction costs" on the yellowed pages were glaringly obvious. The next day, gold bars wrapped in oilcloth appeared under the seat of Zhang Chunli's electric scooter; the coolness of the metal seeped into his palm through the fabric.
Zhou Defa's Adam's apple bobbed up and down at the collar of his prison uniform, his nails digging deeply into the old scars on his palms. "That night, at 10:17, when his phone rang, the background noise was mixed with the blaring of electric scooter alarms." The man's voice suddenly trembled, "He said, 'I only want two hundred thousand, I'll return the ledger and the gold to you,'" His breathing on the other end of the line was heavy, like a bellows, probably coming from some hidden corner.
The overhead light in the interrogation room cast a bluish-gray shadow on Zhou Defa's face. He suddenly grabbed a paper cup from the table and gulped down the ice water, which dripped down his chin and onto his chest. "Chen Yongqiang was brewing Pu'er tea at the mahogany tea table when the purple clay teapot 'bang!' slammed against the chicken-wing wood tabletop, splashing tea all over the walls. 'Let this kid know that a poor wretch like him isn't worthy to negotiate with me!' he said through gritted teeth, his eyes gleaming with malice..." Zhou Defa shuddered, the paper cup crumpling into a grimacing crease in his palm.
Next, Zhou Defa recounted some of the methods they used to deal with Zhang Chunli.
For the next two weeks, nightmares clung to Zhang Chunli like a persistent ailment. Clothes drying on the rooftop were splattered with asphalt, and rusty nails were stuck into the bedding that was out to dry. Takeout containers left at the door would mysteriously disappear, replaced by rotting dead rats. One morning, he even opened the door to find the wall covered in red paint with the words "Pay back the money" sprayed all over it, the mottled paint dripping down the cracks in the wall and pooling into small pools of blood on the bluestone slabs.
However, Chen Yongqiang disappeared.
The air seemed to freeze in the Criminal Investigation Division's meeting room. Chen Yongqiang's photo on the whiteboard was heavily circled in red, surrounded by his social network, call records, and spending history. Li Ming traced the dense clues with a laser pointer: "Chen Yongqiang took all the cash before fleeing, and his vehicles and properties have all been transferred. He has extremely strong counter-surveillance awareness. But he couldn't have vanished into thin air; the focus should be on investigating his family relationships."
Zhang Hui opened the thick investigation report: "Chen Yongqiang's parents died early, leaving him with one older brother and two older sisters. His eldest brother died in a car accident three years ago, and his eldest sister lives abroad. Currently, only his second sister, Chen Yulan, remains in the area, running a flower greenhouse." He pulled up a satellite map; "Her greenhouse is located in the suburbs, three kilometers from the main road, surrounded by farmland—it certainly provides suitable hiding places."
Xiao Wang pointed to the bank statements and questioned, "Chen Yulan's account has been normal for the past six months, with no unusual financial transactions. Moreover, according to our investigation, she has difficulty walking and rarely leaves the greenhouse." Before he finished speaking, Xiao Sun rushed into the meeting room with new surveillance footage: "The facial recognition system at the highway exit has captured suspicious footage! Three days ago, in the early morning, a man wearing a fisherman's hat got out of his car 500 meters from the greenhouse; his build and gait were highly similar to Chen Yongqiang's."