At this moment, all the mysteries have been solved by me. I only need one last key step, which is evidence. But in order to get the evidence, I must go to the monitoring room on the first floor. At this time, I was extremely anxious and had no time to explain to Zhang Qishan. I immediately pressed the elevator button and prepared to go downstairs.
What I hate most is waiting. The elevator just stopped at the first floor. Watching the elevator slowly rising, I always felt like I was wasting time. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time, but I actually ran directly to the stairs and rushed all the way down the stairs to the first floor. When I reached the first floor, I saw Zhang Qishan standing at the elevator entrance with a look of contempt waiting for me.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Isn't this just a waste of time?"
I blushed when Zhang Qishan said that. Fortunately, Pan An had come out. I immediately stepped forward and asked, "Pan An, can you operate the computer and call up the previous surveillance video?"
Pan An was stunned at first when he saw how anxious I was, then he nodded and said, "It should be possible, this is not difficult."
"Well, hurry up, I need your help now, and there is not much time left!"
Time passed by minute by minute. About half an hour later, Director Li, who was investigating on the rooftop, brought everyone to the first floor. It was not because their investigation was over, but because there was another group of police officers waiting on the first floor. The leader of this group of police officers was the mysterious Director Ouyang.
Seeing Director Li coming down and finding what I needed, I took Zhang Qishan and Pan An out of the monitoring room and came to the lobby on the first floor. Director Li looked at me first, as if he thought I hadn't found anything. He sighed slightly and said to Director Ouyang: "Director, I have done what I should do. Over there is the backup for this investigation. The rest is up to you."
Director Ouyang first looked at me smugly, then nodded and said, "Okay, you all worked hard this time, I will definitely give you credit later. The rest of you should immediately disperse all the guests and waiters in the hotel, and then completely seal off the hotel. Don't let this kind of news get out."
Before Director Ouyang could finish his words, I stepped forward and said with a smile, "I guess we don't need to go through so much trouble, do we?"
Director Ouyang still looked at me with an unfathomable expression and said, "Ji Wen, didn't you say yesterday that you could find the murderer? Now that another life has been lost, this case can no longer be interfered with by irrelevant people like you. You should go back to Zhongwei City first. I will talk to Bai Qi about the rest."
I shook my head and said, "What I mean is that I already know who the murderer is, and I have also cracked the murderer's modus operandi, so there is no need to seal off the hotel."
After hearing what I said, everyone present turned their eyes to me. Even Director Li, who had always believed in me, showed an incredulous smile. Perhaps he did not expect that I would actually do what I said when I said I would solve the case before Director Ouyang arrived.
Director Ouyang's eyes also flashed with surprise, and then turned into that unfathomable smile again. He nodded and said, "Okay, I want to see whether you have really solved the case or are just pretending to be mysterious. I hope you don't waste our time."
I ignored Director Ouyang's sarcastic remarks, turned around and looked at everyone and said, "I believe everyone has a general understanding of this case. Pan An, tell me what you think about this case."
Pan An obviously didn't expect me to ask him this out of the blue. He pointed at himself with a surprised look on his face. Seeing that I was not joking, he cleared his throat and said, "I'm just an ordinary person and I don't know how to put it. In short, in my opinion, this case is very much like a 'ghost' killing. There is even an 80% chance that it is human. If it is really man-made, then this person is really amazing. It is rare to be able to do such a perfect murderer, even in the years I have been in the special case team, I have rarely seen such a perfect murderer."
Pan An's answer seemed useless on the surface, but it had the effect I needed. I nodded and said, "Yes, it's probably not just Pan An. Even among you, there are many people who think that this may be a 'ghost' murder. Some people even believe it. But think about it carefully. What is the reason that makes us think that this homicide case is a 'ghost' murder case?"
Director Ouyang kept looking at me with a sneer, and the people he brought with him naturally didn't dare to speak easily. In the end, Director Li sighed and said, "Of course it's those surveillance videos. I have never seen such weird surveillance videos in all the years I have been on duty. Ji Wen, what do you want to say?"
I snapped my fingers at Director Li and said, "That's right! This is the key point I want to make! Think about it, if this surveillance video is removed, will this case still be so strange? On the other hand, it is precisely because we are too convinced by the content of the surveillance video that this small surveillance video has become the ironclad evidence that this Jincheng Hotel is haunted!"
When I said this, Director Li seemed to understand what I meant. He was a little surprised and asked, "Are you saying that someone faked that surveillance video? The people in it were photoshopped in later?"
Director Ouyang, who had been silent the whole time, sneered and said, "Do you think we didn't think of this? We have already found someone to verify the surveillance video. The content captured in it is completely true. There is no false content. Do you think there is no one smarter than you?"
I wasn't angry either. I smiled and said, "Director, you're joking. I don't have that idea, and I didn't say that the surveillance video was fake."
"So what exactly do you want to express after all this time?"
"I just want to say that the content recorded in the surveillance video is completely true, but the murderer tampered with the timing, so we thought that the deceased appeared on the eighth floor again after his death to continue killing people!"
What I don't understand most about the whole case is why the so-called "ghost" of the deceased appeared in the surveillance video? However, when Zhang Qishan was recording the video just now, she told me that she wanted to save this video and show it to our future children. It made me completely understand that all of us thought too much about the murderer. In fact, he just used a simple method to not only hide his murder behavior, but also perfectly turned this case into a "ghost murder" incident!
According to my guess, the 'ghost' of the deceased that we saw in the surveillance video after the death of the deceased was actually some clips recorded by the surveillance camera during the deceased's lifetime. The murderer only needed to carefully preserve these clips and then perfectly graft them into the time period of death of other deceased persons. In this way, the illusion was created that the 'ghost' of the previous deceased killed the next deceased person!
The seven cameras on the eighth floor had fixed angles and they all filmed the same place. So even if some of the footage was deleted and then spliced in, no clues would be revealed without a check by the technical department. The murderer took advantage of this and replaced all the footage of himself killing people and transporting the bodies to the roof with footage of 'ghosts' appearing!
After I said this, Director Li's eyes widened. He was speechless for a long time, and finally stammered, "If this is really the case, then everything can be explained! It turns out that it is such a simple truth, but it has fooled us! Xiao Fan, immediately have someone check whether the time points of the surveillance video are consistent. No matter what they find, come back and report to me immediately!"
The young man named Xiao Fan, who was wearing high-degree glasses behind Director Li, immediately stood at attention and saluted, then led his men to the monitoring room to begin the investigation.
I glanced at Director Ouyang out of the corner of my eye and found that the expression on his face was no longer calm. Director Ouyang is also a smart man. He must understand that my inference is the only fact.
Director Li's smile became more and more intense. He stepped forward, patted my shoulder and said, "You are amazing. You actually discovered such a covert method. By the way, how did you discover it?"
I chuckled and said, "In fact, in addition to thanking Xiaoshan for her tip, I also have to thank the accident that happened on the day I arrived at the hotel for this discovery."
I remember very clearly that when I first arrived at my room on the eighth floor of the hotel, I was about to enter the door, but I dropped my suitcase on the ground because of softness, and hit the fake plant at the door of our room. Then I picked up the fake plant, but I didn't look carefully at the arrangement of these fake plants in the entire corridor at that time, so I didn't really put the fake plant back in its place.
Although these fake plants appear to be placed randomly, if you look closely, you will find that these fake plants look exactly the same and are all placed in the same direction. I did not place the fake plants in the correct direction, but accidentally provided the most direct evidence for this case!
The first three cases happened before I came, so everything in the surveillance video did not arouse my suspicion. But the fourth case happened on the night after I came. At that time, the fake plants at my door had been placed incorrectly, but in the surveillance video, the plants at my door were placed correctly as before. So I was sure that this surveillance video must have been tampered with!
After hearing this, Director Li sighed and said, "You young people are really careful. You can notice such small details. Now that you know who the murderer is, identify him quickly."
I smiled and said, "In fact, if I only follow these evidences, I can't figure out who the murderer is. But the murderer is too careful. It is precisely because he is too careful that he reveals a fatal flaw!"