164: Missing girl, corrupt police?

Huo Chunli was found in front of an unfinished building. The information showed that the environment at the scene was too chaotic to distinguish any useful clues, so it was classified as a suicide.

However, Ye Lin did see a familiar name in the case file: Chen Bin.

This was the name of the police officer handling Huo Chunli's case, the same name as the Chief of Chengguan Village Police Station.

Ye Lin looked closely; this was a case from last year. At that time, Chen Bin's position was Deputy Chief of Hongxing Police Station.

"Team Leader Yu, is this Chen Bin the Chief of Chengguan Village Police Station?" Ye Lin pointed to the case file.

Yu Haifeng picked up the case file and said, "Yes, Chen Bin used to be with Hongxing Police Station. I think it was last year; he was transferred to Chengguan Village to be the Chief."

"Do you think there's a problem?" Yu Haifeng asked.

"I don't know, I just happened to see a familiar name," Ye Lin said.

"However, the suicide classification of Huo Chunli's case was actually a bit hasty. The motive for going to the unfinished building is unclear, why she committed suicide is unclear, and the clues at the scene were just casually written off as having no useful information. It feels a bit perfunctory," Ye Lin still voiced his doubts.

"Old Zhao, what do you think? You came up from the grassroots and have rich experience." Yu Haifeng looked at Zhao Jianfeng.

Zhao Jianfeng scratched his head and said awkwardly, "Team Leader Yu, this is really hard to say. You also know that a Police Station usually only has one or two people doing criminal investigations, and they lack experience and have a lot of work, so many cases are just handled 'good enough.'"

"If there are no major suspicious points, I think classifying it as suicide is reasonable."

Zhao Jianfeng was stating a fact about grassroots work, so it would be wrong to say Chen Bin had a problem based on this, because everyone operates this way.

Ye Lin nodded and stopped delving into this.

"Are there any other clues?" Ye Lin asked. The current clues still felt useless.

"Yes, we also found that in the first year the dance troupe was established, a girl once reported to the police that she had been assaulted. Later, the police couldn't contact the complainant, so it was treated as a false report," Zhao Jianfeng said.

Ye Lin's eyes lit up; his intuition told him there was something fishy here.

"What's the girl's name?" Ye Lin pressed.

"The girl's name is Zheng Xiao. She reported to the police on September 20th of the year before last. The police officers at the Police Station made a record at the time, but when the police tried to contact her again, she couldn't be reached, so this case could only be treated as a false report," Zhao Jianfeng explained.

"Also, from the reporting system, we also found that a month later, on October 15th, Zheng Xiao's parents rushed from their hometown to Yuezhou to report that their daughter had been missing for a month."

Ye Lin took two files from Zhao Jianfeng's hand; he wanted to go through them carefully again.

Zheng Xiao was from Yue Province, a student at Yuezhou Electronic Vocational College. This was a vocational college, and although it couldn't compare to the fame of Yuezhou University, it was still considered a university.

The first was the file for the assault case. The clues Zheng Xiao provided when she reported to the police were very vague. For example, Zheng Xiao came to report that she had been assaulted, but the police report record didn't even have the time, place, or person involved. It just simply wrote a few sentences: The complainant claimed to have been assaulted and requested the police to arrest the perpetrator, to be investigated.

The way this record was made was truly bewildering. There was no information at all, and it was unclear whether the police officer involved was perfunctory or deliberate.

This perfunctory record made Ye LinCan't help it look to see who made it, and there, prominently on the police report record, were those two big characters: Chen Bin.

Police Officer Chen Bin of Hongxing Police Station.

Ye Lin was shocked. Chen Bin, the year before last, was an ordinary police officer at Hongxing Police Station, then promoted to Deputy Chief of Hongxing Police Station last year, and by this year, he was already the Chief of Chengguan Police Station.

Ye Lin pointed to Chen Bin's name for Yu Haifeng to see. Yu Haifeng gave a self-deprecating smile, "Chief Chen has connections, so he gets promoted quickly."

He thought Ye Lin was talking to him about Chen Bin's rapid promotion.

"No, Team Leader Yu, look. The year before last, Chen Bin, as a police officer, took Zheng Xiao's case, and then it came to nothing; after that, he was promoted to Deputy Chief, then handled An Qian's jumping case, and then promoted to Chief, transferred to Chengguan Police Station to handle demolitions."

"Don't you think it's like he's been arranged?"

Ye Lin quietly voiced his suspicion.

Yu Haifeng's pupils contracted sharply, and he understood instantly.

"Alright, everyone, take a break outside first. Old Zhao, you stay." Yu Haifeng instructed.

Everyone present looked puzzled. Taking a break right at the start? Something was up.

After everyone had left, Yu Haifeng looked at Ye Lin with a serious expression, "Lin Zi, did you mean just now that Chen Bin is a corrupt cop?"

"Corrupt cop?" Zhao Jianfeng was also startled.

As someone within the system, he understood what that term represented: a major incident.

It was precisely because the matter was quite serious that Yu Haifeng had asked everyone else to leave first. Regardless of whether it was true or false, such a thing would be a blow to everyone's morale, and if there were accomplices, it was highly likely that information would be leaked.

Ye Lin said with uncertainty, "Two consecutive cases are related to him, and he was promoted afterwards. Unless it's really a coincidence."

"But looking at his age, he should be around 40. He wasn't promoted for over 30 years before, and then he got two promotions in three years. That's not normal."

Cadre promotions are the same everywhere; both ability and connections are necessary. Being an ordinary police officer in his 30s already indicated his ability, so for such a person to be promoted two levels in a row, it could only be due to connections.

Either he suddenly latched onto a powerful backer, or he betrayed his uniform.

Yu Haifeng fell silent. It was indeed abnormal.

He glanced at Old Zhao, who nodded, also finding it unusual.

"Lin Zi, what's your opinion then?" Ultimately, Yu Haifeng decided to hear Ye Lin's thoughts.

"It's highly likely related to him," Ye Lin said directly.

"Why? You can't just say that. Chief Chen is our colleague, after all," Yu Haifeng said cautiously.

"Okay, then let's sort this out," Ye Lin said.

"First, among the four deceased girls and one missing girl we currently know of, three explicitly stated they had been assaulted and revealed that the perpetrator was someone powerful and influential."

"We don't know which powerful and influential person targeted the dance troupe, but ever since these things started happening with the dance troupe, Chen Bin has been getting promoted."

"Also, with Gu Teng's matter, we just arrested him, and he was silenced inside."

"I think this is a big net, and many people are already caught in it, including Chen Bin and Qiang Teng Group."