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

Chapter 1120 Discusses the Case

Furthermore, based on the extent of muscle fiber rupture, the struggle lasted at least 5 minutes, which matches the level of chaos in the living room—the coffee table was overturned, and shards of water glasses were scattered over a distance of 2 meters.

In Xiao Wang's notebook, Zhao Xiao's testimony was underlined with a wavy line in red pen. "The person she saw moving the cabinet on July 1st was about 175cm tall and walked with his toes pointing outwards," he outlined the figure on a piece of white paper with a pencil, "which perfectly matches the characteristics deduced from the size 42 serrated shoe print at the scene. But there's a contradiction," he suddenly raised his voice, "the low cabinet disappeared on July 1st, while Zhang Lei's time of death was July 3rd. Why did the murderer move the furniture two days earlier?"

These words were like a pebble thrown into a calm discussion, instantly igniting a commotion in the meeting room. Veteran detective Zhou Jianguo, puffing on his cigarette, smoke rings floating in the projector beam, asked, "Could it be a two-step operation? First, moving cabinets to familiarize themselves with the environment, then returning to commit the murder?" His pen tapped rapidly on the table. "I've handled similar cases before. When the killer scouted the location beforehand, they would deliberately move furniture to test the residents' reactions."

Xiao Yang immediately shook his head, pointing the laser pointer at the door lock in the model: "The door lock has no signs of being pried open, which means it was an inside job, or the murderer had the key. If moving the cabinet two days in advance was just a reconnaissance mission, there would be no need to take such a big risk—the hallway surveillance cameras were still working on July 1st, so it would be easy to capture them." He pulled up a screenshot from the hallway surveillance camera. At 4:17 pm on July 1st, the figure of the person moving the cabinet flashed across the edge of the frame. The baseball cap was pulled low, but there was a heart-shaped birthmark on the exposed wrist.

Zhang Lin suddenly remembered something and flipped through the autopsy report: "The deceased had a 2x3cm scratch on his left forearm," he pointed to the scratch in the photo, "The edges are jagged, which doesn't match the shape of a normal person's fingernails. It looks more like it was caused by wearing a ring or bracelet. Combined with what Zhao Xiao said about 'pigeon-toed,' could it be someone who does manual labor? Like a decorator or a mover. These kinds of people exert force for a long time, and cement or rust usually gets stuck in their fingernails."

“I’ve checked Zhang Lei’s social connections,” Xiao Wang said, flipping open another notebook filled with photocopies of call logs. “Among his most frequent contacts in the last six months, there’s a building materials merchant named Liu Bin, who is 176cm tall, walks with his toes pointed outwards, and—” He paused, then pulled out a photocopy of Liu Bin’s ID card, “He has a heart-shaped birthmark on his left wrist, which perfectly matches the surveillance footage!”

The air in the meeting room froze instantly, and Li Ming's enamel mug slammed against the corner of the table. "What grudge did Liu Bin and Zhang Lei have?" he pressed. Xiao Wang had already pulled up the bank statements; a remittance slip for 50,000 yuan transferred by Zhang Lei to Liu Bin on July 2nd was displayed on the projector, with the note "for steel." "But Liu Bin's company has no record of any shipments," Xiao Wang's laser pointer moved to another bank statement. "Zhang Lei called Liu Bin six times on the morning of July 3rd, but none of the calls went through. This could very well be the motive for the murder."

Xiao Yang suddenly questioned, "Zhang Lei was still alive when the cabinet was moved on July 1st. Why would he allow Liu Bin to move the cabinet from his house?" He zoomed in on the position of the low cabinet in the model, and the scratches on the floor showed that it was being moved towards the door. "This seems more like a voluntary move, unless..." His eyes suddenly lit up, "There was something hidden in the low cabinet! Liu Bin came to move it two days in advance in order to take something hidden in the cabinet."

Following this line of thought, Zhang Lin continued, "Could it be stolen goods?" He pulled out the test report of the deceased's stomach contents. "The beef cubes in the stomach contained trace amounts of chromium, at a concentration of 0.3 mg/kg, which is a common component of industrial steel. Zhang Lei was in the building materials business, and it's very likely that he partnered with Liu Bin to resell substandard steel. The ledgers or samples hidden in the cabinet were probably the evidence."

Zhou Jianguo shook his head, cigarette ash falling into the police badge number on his retirement certificate: "I don't think it's that simple," he said slowly. "If Liu Bin just wanted to retrieve something, there was no need for him to wait until July 3rd to kill someone. Moreover, according to the time of death, Zhang Lei was killed around 11 p.m., which is a very strange time—usually, transaction disputes are not resolved late at night unless someone is lured home."

"Who lured them?" Li Ming pressed, and Xiao Wang suddenly recalled another testimony from Zhao Xiao: "She mentioned that when Liu Bin was moving the cabinets on July 1st, there was a woman with him, wearing a beige trench coat, standing in the hallway as a lookout." He pulled up an enhanced screenshot of the hallway surveillance footage. At 4:20 PM on July 1st, the woman in the trench coat flashed past the corner of the stairs, carrying a black briefcase. "This woman doesn't appear in any resident information; she's very likely Liu Bin's accomplice."

Xiao Yang immediately pulled up the gait analysis of the woman in the trench coat: "Stride length 52cm, stride width 15cm, estimated height 160±3cm, matches another set of blurry footprints on the balcony railing—the forefoot pressure of this set of footprints is evenly distributed, which should be left by a woman." He asked the technicians to compare the footprints with the database, "In the call records with Zhang Lei, there is a number ending in 6789, the owner information shows that it belongs to a woman named Chen Mei, who called Zhang Lei at 10:15 pm on July 3, and the call lasted for 1 minute and 23 seconds."

Zhang Lin's forensic report suddenly came in handy: "The last cell tower location of the deceased's mobile phone was at 10:30 pm on July 3, at the convenience store at the entrance of the community," he pointed to the cell tower distribution map attached to the report, "This shows that he went out after receiving a phone call and was then lured back home. The convenience store's surveillance footage shows that he bought two cans of beer at that time, which is not the habit of someone living alone, and it is very likely that they were prepared for visitors."

A brief silence fell over the discussion as the morning light shifted two inches across the screen. Li Ming suddenly snapped to attention: "There are three directions we need to investigate now," he said, counting on his fingers, causing ripples to spread across the teacup in his enamel mug. "First, Liu Bin's whereabouts on July 3rd, especially his alibi from 10 PM to 2 AM; second, Chen Mei's relationship with Liu Bin, her call records and bank statements must be thoroughly investigated; third, what exactly was hidden in the missing cabinet, with a focus on investigating Liu Bin's warehouse and scrap metal recycling station."

Xiao Yang added, "I suggest using a metal detector to search the area around the community. The hardware of the oak cabinet has a high iron content, so it should be able to detect it." He pulled up Liu Bin's vehicle trajectory. At 5 pm on July 1, his white truck appeared at a scrap metal recycling station in the suburbs. "This is the most likely location. The recycling station's surveillance has a blind spot on July 1, which is exactly 20 minutes after he left."

Zhang Lin flipped through the autopsy photos and noticed a blurry mark at the edge of the hematoma on the right temporal region of the deceased: "The shape of this contusion is very special, like it was caused by a blunt instrument with a pattern." He measured the curvature of the mark with a ruler. "It is about 8 cm in diameter and has a serrated pattern on the edge. It may be a wrench that Liu Bin always carried with him - building material suppliers usually carry this kind of tool."