Chapter 193: Lin Qiupu’s Way

“Who are you cursing, Captain Lin?” a voice suddenly asked.

Lin Qiupu looked up to see Lin Dongxue had returned. He smiled, “Nothing, just a case I’m working on.”

“Are you short on staff? Need me to send a few from the task force?”

“No need. You focus on the fugitive. I can handle this case myself.”

“Alright, I’m off then!”

Watching his sister, now a capable police officer, made Lin Qiupu smile with pride. He then entered the interrogation room.

Lu Yicai had been left waiting for a long time and looked increasingly nervous as Lin Qiupu walked in. Instead of speaking immediately, Lin Qiupu methodically organized his files, adjusted the recording device, and sipped his tea. This deliberate delay was a tactic to apply psychological pressure. Lin Qiupu watched Lu Yicai from the corner of his eye and could tell he was hiding something.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lin Qiupu finally spoke, “You’ve had frequent calls with the deceased Zhou Taiyang recently. What were you talking about?”

“My mentor missed me.”

“He seems to like you a lot… If you don’t talk, we can investigate. Once we find something, you’ll be in a difficult position. Right now, you have the chance to come clean.”

“Come clean? What do you mean, Officer? I didn’t kill anyone! Don’t look at me like I’m a murderer.”

“If you didn’t kill anyone, then why not talk?”

“…”

Lin Qiupu slammed the table, making Lu Yicai jump. “Not talking? Fine, we can wait.”

Clearly, Lu Yicai’s psychological resilience was weak. He trembled, “I’ll talk, but please don’t lock me up.”

Lin Qiupu folded his hands and stared at him intently.

“Years ago at the factory, there was a problem with a batch of goods. The boss investigated, and my mentor framed me as the scapegoat, causing me to lose my job. I thought, if he’s unkind, I’ll be unjust. I had dirt on him and needed money, so I blackmailed him.”

“What dirt?”

“In 2002, his wife didn’t die naturally. Zhou poisoned her. I knew because one night, Zhou snuck into the workshop, claiming he forgot his phone. I noticed a chemical container had been tampered with—highly toxic stuff. A month later, his wife died, and he had her cremated immediately without informing any relatives. Suspicious, right? I once hinted I knew about it when I was drunk, and he remembered. Later, he set me up to lose my job. I was furious. If he wouldn’t let me be, I’d make him suffer, so I blackmailed him. That’s not extortion, is it?”

“How much did you get?”

“Two or three… three or four… over forty or fifty thousand!”

“Give me a precise number.”

Sweating profusely, Lu Yicai finally admitted, “Over a hundred thousand!”

“Did you have any evidence to make him comply?”

“No, he was just paranoid… No evidence means it’s not extortion, right?”

Now that Zhou Taiyang was dead, no one could charge him with extortion, but Lin Qiupu didn’t reveal that to him.

“What else?”

“I think he wanted to kill me!”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I kept asking him for money, our relationship was strained. He often posted cryptic messages online about ‘troublemakers’ affecting him. Lately, he kept inviting me to dinner, seven times! I always declined. I wasn’t going to a potential death trap where he could poison me. The guy had a history.”

“Did you feel relieved when Zhou Taiyang died?” Lin Qiupu asked, leading him.

“Yes! … But I didn’t kill him, I swear. He must have pissed off someone else. Bad people meet their match.”

“What’s your alibi for the night of the Lantern Festival?”

“I was at my girlfriend’s place.”

“Do you have her contact info?”

Lin Qiupu took the details, planning to verify them later, and released Lu Yicai with a warning not to leave Long’an City.

Peng Siyue summoned Lin Qiupu to the tech team, where the evidence collectors had returned. “Any new discoveries?” Lin Qiupu asked.

Peng Siyue handed him a photo. “We found a hidden compartment under the dresser during evidence collection.”

Lin Qiupu glanced at it. The compartment contained a small bottle. “Where’s the item?”

“Here! This amber bottle smells strongly of cyanide. There’s enough to kill everyone in a building; a rubber dropper; and a bank card. I called the bank. This card was just opened on the 22nd with a deposit of…” Peng Siyue held up his hand dramatically, “five million yuan!”

“That much money? Zhou couldn’t have had that much. Who’s the account holder?”

“A man named Wang Shengli.”

Lin Qiupu thought back. “That night, a wealthy man visited Zhou. Could this card be from him? But why give Zhou money?”

“Maybe it’s a hired hit, and Zhou was supposed to poison someone?”

“No, the kid from the interrogation confirmed the poison was meant for him. This card might not be related.” Lin Qiupu asked the team, “What else? Any fingerprints or shoe prints?”

“We found five sets of fingerprints and are still analyzing them… The shoe prints are too messy to piece together.” A tech member said awkwardly.

“Keep collecting! Incomplete prints are better than none.”

“But the floor is really dirty…”

“That’s an order!” Lin Qiupu insisted, “I’ll join you.”

The tech team looked to Peng Siyue for help, but he buried his head in his files. Reluctantly, they returned to the crime scene.

Lin Qiupu combed the area around the building, checking every trash bin, attracting puzzled looks from the strolling elderly. Despite spending the whole afternoon searching, he found nothing and felt dizzy from exhaustion.

Unfazed, Lin Qiupu believed in meticulous investigation over sudden epiphanies.

Resting on a bench with a cigarette, a woman walking her dog approached. “Young man, did you lose something valuable? You’ve been rummaging all afternoon.”

Lin Qiupu smiled, keeping the murder case confidential.

A call from the station informed him, “Captain Lin, we found a photo of the mysterious visitor.”