Chapter 460: A Poisonous Cake

Verifying the people in the surveillance footage was a tedious task. The police had to ask around the neighborhood constantly. Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue were having no luck either. Chen Shi pressed against the neighborhood’s fence, carefully inspecting the grass and occasionally trying to pry the fence open.

The most time-consuming part of investigating was dealing with all the interruptions. Residents kept asking the police what was happening as they walked around the neighborhood. By noon, they had made no progress. Chen Shi sent a group message, “Let’s take a break and grab lunch at the small restaurant outside the neighborhood.”

The hot weather had everyone cooling off with iced drinks. Lin Dongxue fanned herself with her hand, saying, “No need to worry about gaining weight these days. Just sweating has made me lose a few pounds.”

“That’s a good thing!” Chen Shi said.

“Good, my foot! My hands are getting tanned,” Lin Dongxue retorted.

Lao Zhang reported, “I found the old man walking his dog from the surveillance footage. He’s a neighborhood resident and doesn’t seem suspicious.”

Another officer said, “I also found the woman in the green shirt. She’s clear too.”

“And the food delivery guy has been found and cleared,” another officer added.

Chen Shi looked at his notebook, “Progress is good. Now we only have one person left, the man in the black clothes.”

Lin Dongxue suggested, “I think ‘he’ is likely the culprit.”

Lao Zhang said, “The box he carried might have contained his disguise. After committing the murder, he ditched the box and walked out empty-handed.”

“Lao Zhang, do you know what that means?” Chen Shi asked.

Lao Zhang paused, then chuckled, “It means we’ll be digging through trash bins this afternoon!”

Everyone groaned. Chen Shi said, “We don’t need to dig through trash bins. The neighborhood’s garbage is collected every morning, so the trash from the day of the crime is probably long gone. But I noticed some scavengers around. If the box had a complete set of women’s clothes, a handbag, and high heels, a scavenger might have taken it. Let’s give it a shot!”

After lunch, everyone staked out different garbage dumps in the neighborhood, asking scavengers if they had seen a large box. They all said no. Chen Shi asked Xu Xiaodong to send a screenshot of the video. He studied it on his phone, “Look, it’s a large, white, square box. What could it contain?”

“A wedding dress?” Lin Dongxue guessed.

“If I were the killer and needed to disguise myself as a woman, would I put everything in such a conspicuous box? Maybe it contained something else. It was a square box, and it was the victim’s birthday that day…”

“A birthday cake!”

“Exactly!”

Just then, an officer called, saying a resident mentioned that a scavenger nearby had been hospitalized for food poisoning yesterday and hadn’t recovered yet.

“Where does he live?”

“At the recycling station just outside the neighborhood.”

Chen Shi said to Lin Dongxue, “Let’s go check it out.”

They arrived at the recycling station, where a woman was crushing cans. Lin Dongxue showed her badge and asked, “We heard someone here had food poisoning yesterday. Do you know anything about it?”

The woman replied, “Oh, you’re the police. Yes, my husband and son were poisoned. I told them not to eat something of unknown origin, but my husband insisted it was fine. They both got poisoned. I cried all night!”

“A cake? Was it a birthday cake?” Chen Shi asked.

“I don’t know. The writing was smudged, but it was a large cake, chocolate-flavored… Look, here’s the box.”

The woman pulled out a crushed wax paper box from a pile. It bore the logo of a well-known bakery and still had some cream and chocolate crumbs inside. Chen Shi asked, “What happened to the cake?”

“I threw it away. I always tell them not to eat scavenged food, but they don’t listen,” she said.

“Look, there’s some writing on the box,” Lin Dongxue pointed out. “This character means ‘birthday,’ and this one means ‘happy’… Happy birthday. There are two more characters we can’t make out!”

“The victim’s name had three characters. The other two are likely a term of endearment,” Chen Shi suggested.

“Could it be ‘Yuwen’?” Lin Dongxue asked.

“The characters don’t match… These look like repeating characters with simple strokes,” Chen Shi said, tracing the fruit patterns on the box with his finger. Suddenly, he laughed, “I get it. It says ‘Happy birthday, big brother!'”

Lin Dongxue traced the characters on her hand and said, “That fits!”

Chen Shi asked the woman, “Were there candles in the cake?”

“Yes, there were number candles, a zero and a three. My son played with them until they broke.”

“Thank you!”

They immediately knew who to look for. As they were about to leave, Chen Shi returned to ask, “By the way, what symptoms did your husband and son have?”

“They had constant diarrhea, to the point of exhaustion.”

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue drove to the victim’s parents’ house. The father was busy arranging the funeral, while the mother was still overcome with grief. Seeing Chen Shi, the father asked with concern, “Any progress on the case?”

“We’re investigating. We need to ask some questions.”

“I also have a favor to ask… We’re preparing for the funeral…” Hearing this, the mother started wailing again. The father, affected by her grief, continued tearfully, “There’s no greater sorrow than a parent burying their child. We hope Yuwen can be laid to rest soon. Could his… could his body be released to us?”

“Autopsy is complete. I’ll inform the station to send him to the funeral home,” Chen Shi assured.

“Thank you… What do you need to know?”

“Is Yuqiang home?”

“He’s in his room. He hasn’t eaten since hearing about his brother… Ask us anything you need to know.”

“No, there are things only peers might understand better. Can you call him out?”

Song Yuqiang came out. He was thinner and taller than his brother, but the resemblance was clear. Seeing the police, his eyes showed a hint of wariness. Chen Shi immediately knew this kid was hiding something.

“Let’s have a chat. Can we go outside?” Chen Shi suggested.

“Can’t we talk here?” Song Yuqiang frowned.

“Your parents are here. I don’t want to upset them by talking about your brother.”

Reluctantly, Song Yuqiang agreed. They went downstairs, and Chen Shi stopped, staring into his eyes. “Just one question: why did you visit your brother that night? What did you do?”

Song Yuqiang was startled, “What? You suspect me? That’s why you called me out alone. I’m going to tell my dad and get a lawyer.”

“Show some respect. If we wanted to, we could summon you to the station. But seeing your parents so heartbroken, if they saw you taken away by the police, wouldn’t that kill them too?”

Song Yuqiang glanced upstairs, biting his lip, “Don’t accuse me. I was home playing games all night. I didn’t go out!”

“Really? Should we confirm that with your parents?” Chen Shi asked.

Panic flashed in Song Yuqiang’s eyes. Lin Dongxue said, “We don’t suspect you. We’re just trying to investigate. You might be the last person who saw your brother.”

“I… I wasn’t the last one to see him… Actually, I was the first one to see his body.”