244: Chapter 244 The maze I set up for them has trapped them.

The three of them chatted as they walked forward. After passing a long downhill stretch, Huang Yong led the two to a level section of the road.

This was the bend of a three-way intersection, considerably wider than other parts of the road.

Huang Yong pointed to the ground.

"Right here. When I came back, I saw his car parked here. He Mingwei had the hood open and was checking it. He said the oil temperature was too high and the car's alarm was going off."

Lei Zhen asked, "And then?"

"I even asked if he needed help, but he said no. He said he'd wait for the oil temperature to drop and then drive it to a repair shop himself. So, I drove off. It wasn't until I got home that I heard Sister Pang had drunk pesticide."

Lei Zhen didn't ask anything else; instead, he directly activated the Code Tracing Technique.

The Code Tracing Technique could reveal footprints and tire tracks; the only difference was that no 3D images would appear.

Because it was a tar-and-gravel road and over ten days had passed, even with the Code Tracing Technique activated, the traces he could see were very faint.

However, Lei Zhen confirmed Huang Yong's statement; there were indeed tire tracks left here.

But he also discovered another narrower set of patterns that looked like they were left by a motorcycle.

Lei Zhen turned his head to look at Huang Yong. "At that time, there was only He Mingwei's SUV. Did you see a motorcycle parked nearby?"

"A motorcycle? I don't think so?" Huang Yong thought for a moment.

Lei Zhen squatted down again to observe closely and found that the motorcycle tracks were on the outer side of the car. Given the height of an SUV, it could easily have blocked it from view; it was normal that Huang Yong hadn't seen it.

"Alright, thank you for providing me with so much information."

The three of them then returned the way they came.

Lei Zhen paid another visit to He Mingwei's house and carefully inspected the tires of that SUV.

On the way back to Qinghe, Lei Zhen told Gu Qingcheng about his discovery.

"You're saying that when Huang Yong saw He Mingwei, besides that Haval SUV, there was also a motorcycle parked next to it?"

Lei Zhen said, "When I went to He Mingwei's house just now, I confirmed it. It was indeed He Mingwei's vehicle."

Gu Qingcheng was a bit confused. "Then our previous hypothesis is even more problematic."

She leaned toward Lei Zhen as she spoke. "Assuming He Mingwei left the restroom and drove the family motorcycle back to the village to kill someone, then drove back—at that time, his SUV could only have been parked behind the mahjong parlor.

When he left, he drove away in the SUV. It's impossible to just take a motorcycle that large with him. So why, when Huang Yong met him on the road, did that motorcycle suddenly appear beside the SUV? Could the vehicle have teleported?"

"So?" Lei Zhen asked.

"So, I think the motorcycle has nothing to do with He Mingwei. Someone else just happened to park there, or perhaps those tracks were left by He Mingwei when he was practicing before."

Lei Zhen really couldn't refute Gu Qingcheng's words.

Indeed, it seemed impossible for the motorcycle to be there.

Could it really be a coincidence?

Lei Zhen suddenly felt that this case was becoming more and more complex.

Li Hongyan and He Mingwei must have used a method he didn't know about to create this seemingly 'impossible' murder.

Could this be what's called a perfect crime?

Indeed, even though Lei Zhen had the Eye of Sin and could see that He Mingwei was the killer, he still had no way to deal with him.

Subsequent events proved that there was indeed no other outsider involved in this case.

Zheng Honglin found that Li Hongyan and He Mingwei's accounts were very clean, with no large transfers. The two did have call records with each other, but there were no traces of frequent communication with anyone else.

The only strange thing was that two months ago, He Mingwei had actually received a transfer of twenty thousand yuan from the deceased, Ou Mingquan.

"The deceased transferred money to He Mingwei?" Gu Qingcheng was shocked to hear this. "Why would he transfer money to He Mingwei?"

Indeed, according to the previous analysis, Ou Mingquan held leverage over Li Hongyan and He Mingwei; he should have been the one threatening others!

No one could figure it out; it was indeed too strange.

"Should we ask He Mingwei?" Zhu Xiaojun suggested.

"Asking him would be pointless," Lei Zhen said. "Do you think He Mingwei would tell the truth? He'd just make up an excuse, like saying he once lent Ou Mingquan twenty thousand yuan and the man was just paying him back."

The others thought about it and agreed.

"Could our analysis be wrong?"

Even Tan Lin was starting to waver. "Could it be that Ou Mingquan was having an affair with his daughter-in-law, He Mingwei found out, and He Mingwei was the one threatening them?"

This fresh idea made everyone look over in surprise.

It had to be said, this was a very wild imaginative leap.

"The father-in-law getting involved with the daughter-in-law, only for it to be discovered by the daughter-in-law's ex-boyfriend, who then extorts the old man? This... this plot is a bit of a moral train wreck!!" Liao Anqian murmured.

"Otherwise, why would Ou Mingquan transfer money to He Mingwei? Did He Mingwei borrow money from him? And then He Mingwei couldn't pay it back, so he killed him, while Li Hongyan had no part in it at all?"

Gu Qingcheng said, "Impossible. The Ou Family has been drained of seventy or eighty thousand yuan by Sister Pang over the past year or so; they wouldn't have money to lend He Mingwei. Besides, He Mingwei and Ou Xiaochun are childhood friends; if he were to borrow money, he'd ask him!"

There was much discussion, but no definitive conclusion was reached.

Lei Zhen interrupted the group and asked, "By the way, what about the list of people who visited the Ou house? Is it ready yet?"

Tan Lin then hurriedly took out a stack of documents. "Team Leader, it's all here. A total of 136 people, including over a dozen children, all with photos."

Lei Zhen took them and began checking the documents one by one.

In the end, these 136 people matched perfectly with the 136 different sets of footprints he had found at the scene.

"The next task is to investigate these people one by one to confirm their alibis for the 6:00 PM time slot on the 19th, including the children over ten years old."

At this stage, the case could only be solved by peeling back the layers; there was no other way.

Although Lei Zhen still focused his primary suspicion on He Mingwei and Li Hongyan, only by ruling out everyone else could he make a better judgment.

After three consecutive days of investigation, all 136 people were found to have alibis.

But the alibis of the two biggest suspects, He Mingwei and Li Hongyan, were also solid.

By now, the date had reached October 6th, nearly half a month since the incident.

While others were on vacation for National Day, the entire Qinghe Special Task Force was exhausted to the point of barely looking human.

Most crucially, the case had begun to stall.

There were no new suspects, and no evidence of a crime could be found for the two main suspects.

Finally, even Wan Qiang couldn't stand it anymore and directly called Lei Zhen to the Municipal Bureau.

——————————

"Lei Zhen, is the case running into difficulties?" Wan Qiang was asking something he already knew the answer to.

Indeed, the previous cases Lei Zhen had solved, including the drug trafficking case before, had been relatively smooth. This time, Lei Zhen seemed to have encountered a truly tough nut to crack.

Lei Zhen said, "I did think of this case too simply. The killer used some unknown method to create a perfect setup, and I'm currently in the maze they built, unable to find the exit for the time being."

"Don't worry. Sit down and give me a detailed report?" Wan Qiang said as he began to brew tea.

Lei Zhen then informed Wan Qiang of all the information currently at his disposal.

After listening, Wan Qiang also sighed.

"I didn't expect this case to be so complex. If it's a random crime, then it'll be trouble."

Anyone with a bit of criminal investigation knowledge knows that the most difficult cases aren't those where the criminal is exceptionally smart, but rather random crimes—where the killer and the deceased have no grievances, are complete strangers, and the killing is a spur-of-the-moment act, followed by the removal of scene evidence and escape.

The investigative difficulty of such cases can be called Level 5A.

Because you don't even know who to start investigating.

"I don't think so," Lei Zhen said. "If the case has nothing to do with Li Hongyan, that would mean she mistakenly thought Ou Mingquan was already dead, and after she took Sister Pang to the hospital, someone entered the Ou house and strangled him to death.

But according to Auntie Gong, after the 120 ambulance arrived, Li Hongyan locked the house. The Ou house is newly built; it only has a front door and no back door, and all the windows have security bars installed. No one could have gotten in. Moreover, before Li Hongyan left, she entrusted the child to Auntie Gong's care. Auntie Gong stayed by the door with the child the whole time and never left for a single step until around 9:00 PM when Sister Pang and her son returned from the hospital and Auntie Gong returned the child to them."

Wan Qiang also fell silent. "You still lean toward it being a joint crime committed by Li Hongyan and He Mingwei?"

Lei Zhen said, "I maintain that view. Although I've walked into a dead end now, I firmly believe I've just been led into a 'ghost wall' by the opponent using some method. I will definitely find the exit."