After a period of preparation, Gong Yingxian not only restored all the video evidence from that year, but even built a perspective model of the house based on the design drawings, photos and memories.
And Ren Yi also brought all the information he found from the fire brigade.
Qiu Yan circled around the model on the table: "It's similar to what I remember, and it's very well restored."
Gong Yingxian lowered his head, quietly staring at the model of the three-story villa, without speaking.
Ren Yi looked at Gong Yingxian across the table, and the conversation between the two not long ago was still echoing in his mind.
He is calmer now than before, but the calmer he is, the sadder he is. Every time he had a glimmer of hope, thinking that the two of them could at least rebuild their friendship, Gong Yingxian would always tell him with words and actions that it was a delusion.
He couldn't imagine what kind of person he had become in Gong Yingxian's eyes after that night.
At this time, Gong Yingxian is really like a ignorant boy in his teens who, under the influence of hormones, begins to become interested in the secrets of adults. He wants to explore but hesitates, and he happens to be a suitable object of exploration. Exclusion, no disclosure, no responsibility.
Yes, he had fantasized about intimate contact with Gong Yingxian countless times, but none of them would be under such a premise, which made him...
"Captain Ren, Captain Ren?"
Ren Yi woke up suddenly, staring blankly at Qiu Yan who was calling him: "Sorry, I might..."
"are you sleepy?"
Gong Yingxian looked at Ren Yi thoughtfully, but Ren Yi avoided his gaze.
Qiu Yan looked at the two of them, feeling helpless.
"It's okay." Ren Yi stepped aside, took a sip of coffee in a concealed manner, "It's okay, let's get started."
Qiu Yan first talked about the timeline: "The time when Ying Xian saw the masked man was around 2 o'clock. When he got up to go to the bathroom at night, he saw a man wearing a bird mask moving in the yard. He felt scared and hid Into the quilt. Ying Xian's mother called the fire alarm at 2:36. You have all heard the content of the alarm. It did not indicate that an outsider set the fire, nor did she point any words at her husband. The first fire squadron arrived The time was 2:44, and the rescue time was 2:48, 3 minutes before 3:00, Ying Xian was rescued, and at 3:38, the fire was extinguished."
The description of the line in a short period of time summarizes the last time of a family of four, the last time struggling in fear and pain.
Gong Yingxian stood beside him motionless, with a frozen expression on his face. In order to pursue the truth, he has already familiarized himself with these contents thousands of times, including his mother's desperate cry for help. He was already numb, and behind the numbness was a malfunctioning pain-sensing nerve covered in bruises.
Qiu Yan looked at Ren Yi and continued: "The fire squadron that arrived at the scene immediately was the Fifth Squadron of Hongwu District. Ying Xian told me that the first firefighter who entered the fire and rescued him was the captain of the Fifth Squadron. That is your father."
Ren Yi nodded: "The Fifth Squadron is the predecessor of the Phoenix Squadron. Later, after adjusting the organizational structure, several squadrons were added, and the jurisdiction area was re-planned. The original site of the Gong family is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Phoenix Squadron."
"Such a coincidence..." Qiu Yan paused, a trace of incomprehensible emotion appeared on his face.
"how?"
"It's nothing, it's just a coincidence." Qiu Yan said, "There really is a fate between you."
In the past, Ren Yi would joke a few words, but now he just smiles perfunctorily.
Gong Yingxian took over the conversation: "This model is restored in equal proportions. The villa has four floors in total, three floors above ground and one floor underground. The basement is the garage and storage room. There are no guest rooms on the first floor, which are all functional areas. The one on the side is the master bedroom of my parents, and these two are the guest room and the study." He pointed at each of the areas he mentioned in turn with a laser pointer, "My sister and I live on the third floor, and the two rooms on the south side are side by side. The murderer sprinkled the accelerant on the first and second floors. The fire started from the first floor and spread rapidly upwards. Since the way down the stairs from the torches was completely blocked, and my sister and I were upstairs, my parents must have Will go upstairs. When they go upstairs and find us, our whole family is trapped on the third floor, with security nets on every window."
Ren Yi sighed.
At that time, every household was equipped with anti-theft nets. It was not until the last ten years, because of the increasing number of tragedies that anti-theft nets hindered escape, that anti-theft nets were gradually installed with escape doors.
"In the end, we hid in the bathroom of my room." Gong Yingxian's voice became deeper and deeper, "My memory of this period is very vague. When the psychiatrist guided me to recall, my consciousness was also very resistant. That masked man On the contrary, it is relatively clear.”
Ren Yi said, "What did you tell the police? Did you mention the masked man?"
Gong Yingxian shook his head: "After the incident, I refused to speak for nearly half a year. The treatment in China was not smooth, so my grandfather sent me to the United States. By the time I can remember something, the case has been closed for several years. gone."
"So, you gave no testimony to the police."
"Even if there is, the testimony of a six-year-old child is invalid in court." Qiu Yan said, "In the end, it will be judged as committing suicide because there is not enough evidence to prove that others set the fire."
Ren Yi walked around the model, then picked up the materials and compared them carefully, and inserted a tag next to the sofa in the living room: "According to the report, this is where the fire started, but the gas tank exploded in the kitchen, leaving behind Clear signs of detonation and deep burning."
Qiu Yan pointed to the charred object beside him: "This is the wreckage of the sofa at that time, and there are traces of alcohol on it."
"Are you sure the sofa was placed here? By the window?"
"right."
"If the sofa is the starting point of the fire, the combustion accelerant will spread all the way along the sofa to the door, kitchen, stairway, and stairs, and the fire will spread on the first floor and go upstairs..." Ren Yi thought, "It is feasible, but I always feel that there is something wrong with it." Question." He continued to rummage through the photos.
"Look at this." Gong Yingxian handed him a photo of the scene, "The curtains didn't suffer much damage in such a big fire, is it normal?"
"Although the curtains are highly combustible, compared with the accelerant, the latter must be more attractive to fire." Ren Yi frowned, "However, even if the fire spread along the accelerant, the curtain is so close to the sofa, it is logical It should be burnt out, only half burned..." A thought flashed in his mind, "Wind."
"Wind?" Qiu Yan said, "You mean, the direction of the wind?"
"Yes, the direction of the wind is very important in a fire. It can completely control the direction of fire spread. Assuming that there is a wind that attracts the fire in the opposite direction of the curtain, it can explain why the curtain can survive half of the time. Then the direction of the wind is..." Ren Yi looked at the model of the villa, "East, the kitchen window?"
Qiu Yan was surprised: "The murderer opened the kitchen window? It was late autumn, no one would have forgotten to close the window."
Gong Yingxian found a photo of the kitchen. After the explosion, the damage was serious, and only the wooden framed windows were indeed open, but it was impossible to determine whether it was man-made or caused by the explosion shock wave.
"There is a problem." Ren Yi frowned deeply, "I can understand why the murderer directed the fire to the kitchen, because the kitchen has a lot of electrical appliances and gas, but according to the traces of the accelerant, that is, the traces of him pouring gasoline , the fire is going east, he lit a fire in the living room, you look at the structure of the first floor, didn't he trap himself in the fire by doing this?"
The two looked at the model: "Yes, the door is on the way from the living room to the kitchen, how did he escape by himself?"
"He can only go upstairs." The red dot of the laser pointer in Gong Yingxian's hand stayed on the stairs.
"It's not realistic. There is also a combustion accelerant on the stairs. He ignited the accelerant in the living room and then ran upstairs? Impossible, he can't escape the speed of the fire. If he poured the accelerant after lighting the living room, Adding fuel to the fire could lead to a fire. No arsonist with a little common sense would dare to do this. Even if he didn't get burned after doing this, what if he went upstairs? The windows were sealed, and he would trap himself in the Field of fire."
"Isn't this a paradox? Isn't the living room where the fire started?"
"Even if the fire started in the kitchen, he still couldn't get out."
The three fell into deep thought, as if there was something on the verge of coming out, but they just couldn't think of it.
After a long time, Gong Yingxian finally opened his mouth and said: "We have preconceived it, what if the murderer didn't light the fire inside the house."
Ren Yi's eyes lit up: "Yes, he can definitely leave the villa after pouring gasoline, and light the fire from the kitchen window!"
Qiu Yan flipped through the photos of the kitchen and the living room: "But in this way, how to explain the V-shaped burn marks in the living room, the burnt pits on the floor, aren't these all the evidence of the fire?"
Ren Yi's heart sank, hesitantly said: "I have a guess, but..."
Gong Yingxian said decisively: "No need, just say it directly."
"Imagine that I am a murderer. I know fire very well, and I also know the methods of fire investigation. I want to fake a case where the male owner committed suicide by arson. What should I do first? I want to erase the traces of my existence in this house. Make everything look like the people in the room did it. To put it simply, it’s a fire in a secret room, what should I do?”
The two looked at him solemnly.
"First, I poured gasoline on the kitchen, hallway, stairs, all the way to the second floor, and opened the kitchen window. Then I left the house and threw the fire through the kitchen window. The fire would spread from the kitchen to the second floor in an instant." Ren Yi narrowed his eyes, his eyes were cold, "Then, I went back to the house, poured gasoline on the sofa in the living room, and lit the sofa."
Qiu Yan widened his eyes and said, "Two fire points!"
"This is the most reasonable explanation I can think of. First of all, after the gas explosion in the kitchen, a lot of evidence was destroyed, such as whether the windows were open or not, and traces of the fire. If there is an obvious, more definite point of fire, investigators will be biased towards the living room, and they will not think of two fire points."
"You're right." Gong Yingxian said in a deep voice, "However, although the kitchen window is destroyed, the living room door is basically intact. According to the report, its lock was forcibly broken by firefighters during rescue. The integrity of the lock before the firefighters broke it, so there's no way to prove trespassing."
Qiu Yan sat down in the chair slowly with some exhaustion, and murmured: "Except for the suspicious curtains, everything else makes sense. If the kitchen exploded, it would be impossible to prove that the windows were opened and the door was destroyed by rescuers. There is no way to prove illegal entry. Whether it is a fire in the living room or in the kitchen, once the fire starts, the arsonist has no other way out except to run upstairs, which can point to the fact that the arsonist is the person in the house, that is, deeply involved in production accidents, legal , debts, pressure from public opinion, and a male protagonist with sufficient motives to commit suicide!"
The more they analyzed, the more they felt chills all over their bodies. Assuming that Ren Yi's guess is correct, then the murderer set up a trap with no obvious flaws and disguised a murder as a suicide. With a suicidal motive, it seems almost seamless.