The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1191 The Deceased's Cashier Zhang Juan

The team members were still diligently checking surveillance footage and base station data, the sounds of keyboard clicks and monitor humming filling the duty room. Looking at the blurry vehicle silhouettes on the screen, Xiao Wang silently resolved: no matter how well the suspects hid, they would use these two suspicious vehicles to uncover the truth of the case and give the deceased justice. As night deepened, the lights in the cement factory gradually went out, but the surveillance screen in the duty room remained brightly lit, illuminating the path to justice.

The office building of the East Suburb Cement Plant was filled with a faint smell of cement dust. When Xiao Zhou and his team entered the finance department, only two of the three desks were occupied. The workstation by the window was empty, and the calculator on the desk was still stuck on an unfinished accounting page. The pink fountain pen in the pen holder was crooked to the side. This was the workstation of Zhang Juan, the cashier of the finance department. No one had seen her since the morning of August 15.

"What time does Zhang Juan usually arrive at work?" Xiao Zhou's fingers lightly brushed the edge of the desk; there was no obvious dust, indicating that someone had used it yesterday. Li Mei, the head of the finance department, put down the ledger in her hand, her brows furrowed: "She arrives half an hour early every day to organize the expense reports for the day, but when I came this morning, her workstation was empty, and I couldn't reach her by phone or reply to her WeChat messages. I thought she had taken leave due to a family emergency, so I didn't think much of it."

The accountant Wang Fang suddenly interjected, "Actually, I felt something was wrong with her yesterday afternoon." She lowered her voice, her eyes filled with worry. "Around 3 p.m. yesterday, I saw her arguing with the factory manager's nephew, Zhao Lei, in the corridor. Zhao Lei pointed at her nose and said, 'If you dare to report this, I'll make you regret it.' Zhang Juan was so angry that her face turned white. She even secretly wiped away tears after returning to her workstation."

This detail startled Xiao Zhou, and he immediately asked, "Why did Zhao Lei and Zhang Juan argue? What conflict exists between them?" Li Mei sighed, "Zhao Lei is in charge of raw material procurement for the cement plant. Last month, when Zhang Juan was checking the purchase orders, she found that several large expenditures did not have corresponding invoices. She asked Zhao Lei for them, but he kept delaying and even said that Zhang Juan was 'meddling.' The two of them argued about this several times."

Xiao Zhou followed Li Mei to the factory director's office. Factory director Liu Jianguo was looking through production reports. When he heard the news of Zhang Juan's disappearance, he paused for a moment: "Zhang Juan is a long-time employee of the factory. She has always been very hardworking. How could she suddenly disappear?" When asked about the conflict between Zhao Lei and Zhang Juan, Liu Jianguo's eyes darted around: "It's normal for young people to have friction at work. Zhao Lei is young and impetuous and spoke a bit harshly. It shouldn't be anything serious."

"Where is Zhao Lei now? We need to get information from him." Xiao Zhou's tone was firm and unwavering. Liu Jianguo took out his phone to call Zhao Lei, but the message said "the other party's phone is switched off." He shook his head helplessly: "That kid, always so unreliable, I wonder where he's run off to again."

To learn more about Zhang Juan's situation, Xiao Zhou visited several departments at the cement plant. Warehouse manager Lao Chen mentioned that around 4 p.m. on August 14, he saw Zhang Juan carrying a black folder as she walked out of the office building, looking unwell. "She usually greets me when she leaves work, but yesterday she didn't say anything and went straight to the factory gate. I thought she was leaving early, but now that I think about it, something might have happened then."

An auntie who works in the cafeteria recalled that Zhang Juan was sitting alone in a corner at lunchtime on the 14th, looking depressed. "I asked her what was wrong, and she only said 'a little tired,' and 'I wish I could leave here sooner.' I comforted her and told her not to think too much, but I never expected..." The auntie's voice choked up.

Xiao Zhou also discovered an unlocked financial audit record in Zhang Juan's desk drawer. It detailed anomalies in Zhao Lei's purchase orders: from June to July 2024, there were five purchase expenditures totaling 800,000 yuan, all with only internal approval forms, lacking supplier invoices and delivery notes, with the remarks column stating "signed by Zhao Lei on behalf of Zhao Lei." "These unusual expenditures are likely the root of the conflict between Zhang Juan and Zhao Lei," Xiao Zhou said, carefully putting the audit record away. "Zhang Juan may have discovered evidence of Zhao Lei embezzling public funds and was preparing to report it, resulting in retaliation."

To confirm whether Zhang Juan was the deceased found in the pile of materials, Xiao Zhou asked Li Mei, Wang Fang, and other colleagues who were familiar with Zhang Juan to go to the scene for identification. When the group arrived at the pile of materials and saw the body covered with a white sheet, Li Mei's body trembled instantly: "This...this dress belongs to Zhang Juan. She wore this light pink dress to work last Friday. I remember there was a small hole in the hem of the dress, which was torn by a drawer when she was organizing documents last week."

Wang Fang stepped forward, lifted a corner of the white cloth, and saw the white fibers tightly clutched in the corpse's right hand. She suddenly burst into tears: "This is Zhang Juan's bracelet! She always wore a silver bracelet with a small heart-shaped pendant. I saw her touching the pendant yesterday and saying, 'This is a birthday present from my daughter.' Now the pendant is gone, and the bracelet must have been torn. The fibers are from the bracelet!"

More importantly, the circular ligature mark on the corpse's ankle matched the characteristics of a red rope that Xiao Zhou found under Zhang Juan's desk. "This rope was used by Zhang Juan to tie up documents," Li Mei pointed to the rope. "She would tie it up with this red rope every time she finished organizing the documents. The material and thickness of the rope perfectly match the shape of the ligature mark on the corpse's ankle."

To further confirm the diagnosis, Xiao Zhou had technicians extract fingerprints and DNA samples from Zhang Juan's desk drawer and compare them with biological samples collected at the scene. Simultaneously, he arranged for his team to locate Zhang Juan's family to verify her physical characteristics. That afternoon, Zhang Juan's husband arrived at the cement factory and, upon seeing the light pink dress and silver earring (found at the scene) on the body, broke down in tears: "This is my wife! The earring she was wearing was a gift for our tenth wedding anniversary; she wore it every day and never took it off!"

Based on all the clues and identification results, Xiao Zhou determined that the deceased in the material pile of the cement plant in the eastern suburbs was Zhang Juan, the missing cashier from the finance department. "Zhang Juan's death is very likely related to the financial irregularities she discovered," Xiao Zhou reported to Li Ming over the walkie-talkie. "Zhao Lei is a prime suspect. He not only had a conflict with Zhang Juan, but also turned off his phone and went missing after Zhang Juan disappeared. We need to immediately launch a manhunt for him."

As the sun set, Xiao Zhou returned to the Criminal Investigation Division with the confirmed identity of the deceased. Sitting in his office, looking at Zhang Juan's financial records and crime scene photos, he knew that confirming the deceased's identity was only the first step in solving the case. Next, he needed to find Zhao Lei, investigate his relationship to Zhang Juan's death, and uncover the truth behind the 80 yuan in unusual expenditures.