Pan An and Zhang Qishan seemed to have guessed something, and followed me to the rooftop. When we arrived at the door on the rooftop, I immediately checked the big lock hanging on the door and found that there was no sign of damage to the big lock, as if this door had never been opened.
"Ji Wen, could it be that..."
Zhang Qishan grabbed my arm with some worry. Before she finished speaking, I said, "We don't know yet. Let's see it in person first."
About five minutes later, the elevator door on the eighth floor opened again. Security guards Zhang Wei and Huang Xu came over with keys and opened the door. I immediately asked them to get a ladder, and then stood in front of the huge water tank waiting.
After Huang Xu brought the ladder, we put it in place, and then I climbed up first and opened the lid of the water tank. I immediately saw the owner of Jincheng Hotel, whose body and head were separated, floating inside the water tank!
After notifying Director Li by phone, Director Li quickly brought his men to the scene. With him were four foreign policemen who seemed to have just woken up. Director Li ignored the foreign policemen and immediately came over to ask me what happened and asked his men to perform an autopsy immediately.
I didn't know how to tell Director Li. I couldn't just say that I had a nightmare last night and that the owner of the hotel would die today. So I had to make up a random excuse to get away with it.
Director Li must have known that what I said was not true, but he did not ask any more questions. He just sighed and directed the scene. We originally wanted to go down and check the surveillance video first, but Director Li said that we should go together after he finished his work, so we had to wait boredly on the side.
The worst off was Pan An. He already had a bad cold, and when he brushed his teeth in the morning, he used water from the faucet. When he learned that there was another corpse in the water tank, he felt very sick. He squatted on the ground in a daze without saying a word. It seemed as if there was a dark cloud hanging over his head.
Now I just feel that all this happened by coincidence. I just had a nightmare last night, dreaming that the hotel owner was killed, and he really died the next day. Could it be that those ghosts really killed people? And those ghosts said that I would be the next one, would I also be in danger
I shook my head vigorously, throwing this ridiculous idea out of my mind. Taking advantage of the fact that I had nothing to do, I quietly pulled Director Li aside and asked, "Are the autopsy results out?"
Director Li looked very haggard and sighed, "The preliminary results are out. The deceased died at around 3 o'clock last night. The cause of death was that his head was cut off by a sharp weapon. According to what you said before, there is not much blood in the water tank now. It seems that the first scene of the deceased's death should be in his own room, which is the office you mentioned. I have asked someone to check it out, and there should be results soon."
I nodded and said, "It seems that the way and time of death of this victim is exactly the same as the first two victims. The only difference is the third victim, Wu Qian. In any case, I think Wu Qian is a very important breakthrough in this case. I will ask other people about Wu Qian later."
Director Li gave me a meaningful look and said, "If you want to continue investigating, please hurry up. I'm afraid we don't have much time left."
I wondered, "Time is running out? What do you mean?"
"Today's case has resulted in the fourth death. This type of murder can already be classified as a major serial murder case. The higher-ups require that the scene be sealed off today and all residents and staff of Jincheng Hotel be cleared out. The death rate must be reduced to a minimum before the investigation can continue. However, by then, we will have nothing to do. Director Ouyang and those foreign police will take full control. Even if we want to intervene, we will be powerless."
Judging from the tone of Director Li's words, he clearly had something else in mind. He seemed to be telling me that I had offended Director Ouyang, and it was no longer my turn to take care of things here.
I didn't expect that Chief Ouyang would make things difficult for me so soon. He is really a vicious and petty person. However, I didn't care much about it. I just said to Chief Li confidently: "Don't worry, I will catch the murderer before you seal off the scene!"
I don’t know why, but when Director Li heard what I said, it was as if a huge stone in his heart had been lifted. He immediately smiled and said, “Okay! Do whatever you want to do. I believe in you!”
I said goodbye to Director Li and returned to Pan An and Zhang Qishan. I turned around and looked carefully at the people around me, and finally fixed my eyes on the foreign policemen who were mumbling something at the scene.
If we say that there have been people in this hotel since the first death until now except for the staff and some residents on the eighth floor, then these foreign policemen are also included in them. Although I was very disgusted with the implicit proposal made by Director Ouyang at that time, I have to say that these foreign policemen are also suspects.
I really wanted to ask those foreign policemen what they were doing last night, but suddenly I remembered that I couldn't understand what they were saying at all, so I went to ask Director Li for help.
Soon, the person sent by Director Li to negotiate came back. He told me that these foreign policemen had been staying in their respective rooms last night and had not come out. Their rooms were also on the eighth floor, and they had not heard any strange movements.
I also found out that these four foreign policemen had been living in the same room since the moment they arrived at the hotel, so either the four of them committed the crime together, or the murderer could not be just one of them.
After ruling out the suspicion of the foreign police, I still think that the hotel staff is the real murderer. Security guard Huang Xu told me before that the owner of this hotel does not usually live in the hotel, but he died at 3 o'clock last night. Why would the owner of this hotel stay in the hotel at 3 o'clock in the middle of the night? I guess he must have made an appointment with someone to discuss some shameful things, and that person is the real murderer of this case!
The scene was already in chaos at this point, and Director Li seemed unable to get away for the time being. Zhang Qishan, Pan An and I were bored waiting, so we decided to go down and take a look at the surveillance footage from last night. After all, as Director Li said, we didn't have much time left, so this was a chance to race against time.
We went downstairs again and saw Zhang Wei and Huang Xu sitting in the security room, chatting and laughing. It seemed that the owner of this hotel was usually unpopular, and no one felt sad for him even after his death.
When they saw us coming down, they hurried out and asked, "Did you find anything?"
I shook my head and said, "Not yet, but I found out the time your boss died last night. I want to check the surveillance footage from that time period. Can you help me adjust it?"
After hearing this, Zhang Wei and Huang Xu immediately took us to the monitoring room and started to call up the surveillance video from around three o'clock last night.
While they were busy, I got bored and asked, "You only have two security guards now, don't you usually take a break?"
Zhang Wei smiled and said, "Of course we need to rest, but now we are short of manpower, so we have to be on duty every day, just taking turns to work the night shift. Now the boss is dead, and when we get our wages, we will go home and find other things to do."
Hearing this, I was about to ask in detail, but I heard Huang Xu in front of the computer suddenly say: "Ji Wen, it's out, come and take a look."
We immediately gathered around the computer screen, staring at the lifeless picture, watching it back bit by bit, afraid of missing any details.
Time passed by minute by minute, and when the footage reached 3:17 yesterday morning, a mysterious figure finally appeared on the screen walking in the corridor. When we saw that mysterious figure, we all couldn't help but gasp!
Because the mysterious figure was not Curry or Wang Qiang, but Wu Qian herself who had died before we came yesterday!
According to my previous idea, the deceased Curry Gege and Wang Qiang we saw in the surveillance video should have been impersonated by the murderer to deliberately create panic, and I also inferred that the murderer might be two people, but now seeing Wu Qian appear in the surveillance video, my idea was immediately overturned!
Even if the murderer could impersonate two male victims, Wu Qian is a female. No matter how she pretends, some physical features cannot be imitated. I immediately asked Huang Xu to play the surveillance content facing Wu Qian from the front. The camera was given to Wu Qian's face. Zhang Wei and Huang Xu both widened their eyes at the same time, because they both recognized that the person who appeared in the corridor on the eighth floor in the middle of the night and walked towards the hotel owner's room was the third victim, Wu Qian herself!
Seeing their reactions, all the information that I had already formed in my mind collapsed once again. Could it be that there are three murderers in total, two men and one woman