Just when Ming Shu was about to rush to Qingyue Village again, the field team from the Luocheng Bureau sent a message back—
Hou Pao is not in the Los Angeles University dormitory, nor in the rental house he rents. According to Hou Pao's classmates, Hou Pao said at the beginning of July that he had picked up work outside and would not stay at school during the summer vacation. The last time he saw Hou Pao was more than ten days ago.
"More than ten days ago?" Mingshu said, "Then my suspicion is correct. When Hou Jianjun went to Luocheng to look for Hou Pao, Hou Pao didn't mean to see him, but there was no way to see him again. But why did Hou Pao disappear?"
"The disappearance of Hou Pao happened in Los Angeles, leave it to us to investigate." Hua Chong said, "The car is already waiting downstairs. I have arranged for two trace inspectors. You should go quickly."
Mingshu looked at Xiao Yuan.
Xiao Yu'an said, "Go."
The police car was speeding on the highway. Mingshu looked at the trees and fences that flashed past the window, and he felt a sudden tightness in his heart.
What kind of person is Hou Pao
Was the disappearance just a coincidence
Or is it related to Hou Jianjun
Or is it related to Hou Cheng
Mingshu's eyes suddenly lit up - Hou Pao's classmate said that the last time he saw Hou Pao was more than ten days ago, and during that time, Hou Cheng was also in Los Angeles.
Hou Cheng has never explained his whereabouts after arriving in Luocheng. And public surveillance can only prove that Hou Cheng stayed in Fukang District for a while.
But if Hou Pao's disappearance has something to do with Hou Cheng, is there any intersection between Hou Cheng and Hou Pao? What are Hou Cheng's motives
Hou Cheng had no friends in Qingyue Village, only Hou Jianjun and several other village officials would care about his life from time to time. Hou Pao was Hou Jianjun's son, and Hou Cheng had no reason to do anything to Hou Pao.
Mingshu shook his head, remembering Hua Chong's confession before departure, "Hou Pao will be handed over to us to check."
He slid down the window and breathed slowly.
As far as reason is concerned, Hou Pao should be handed over to the Los Angeles police for investigation. Judging from the current clues, the high probability of Hou Pao's disappearance has nothing to do with Hou Cheng, and it is very likely related to Hou Pao's social circle in Los Angeles.
The most important thing in front of him is to dig out the secrets of Hou Cheng's basement.
The hot wind was oncoming, making the scorching more intense. The police officer who was driving looked at the rearview mirror and said, "Captain Ming, the air conditioner is on. Close the window."
"Sorry." Mingshu responded and immediately slid the window up.
He was the one who said there were secrets in the basement, and he was the one who asked to search again, but he wasn't really sure what he could find.
Because he was there when he found the cash, he turned the whole basement upside down, even the dark room, there shouldn't be any omissions.
The rotten watermelons and vegetables are absolutely suspicious, and Hou Cheng must be hiding something.
When the police car arrived at Qingyue Village, Hou Jianjun was rushing back from the neighboring village.
As he ran, Hou Jianjun gasped violently, and when he saw the police car, it was like seeing a savior, "What happened to my son? Why did he suddenly say he was gone? My son won't disappear, he is studying hard at Luo University! "
Mingshu knew that it would be useless to ask more questions now, so he still asked: "The last time you went to Luocheng to find Hou Pao, when you called him, did he turn off the phone, or did he not answer?"
Hou Jianjun's lips trembled, "Yes, it's the shutdown!"
Ming Shu frowned.
"He is often turned off, he just doesn't like to answer my calls or see my useless dad." Hou Jianjun explained himself in vain, "He must be fine, I'll go to Los Angeles, my son will graduate next year. Now, he's a top student!"
Ming Shu sighed and comforted Hou Jianjun. The trace inspector who was with him shouted, "Team Ming, let's go to Hou Cheng's house first."
"I'll be right here." Mingshu turned back to Hou Jianjun after responding, "By the way, I have another question."
Hou Jianjun wiped the corners of his eyes covertly, "What?"
Mingshu asked, "Have Hou Pao and Hou Cheng had any relationship?"
"Hou Cheng?" Hou Jianjun was stunned for a few seconds, "No, no."
Mingshu asked, "You're not sure?"
Hou Jianjun sighed heavily, "Xiaopao looks down on me and the people in our village, and basically doesn't communicate with everyone."
Mingshu nodded, not intending to waste any more time, and was about to leave when he heard Hou Jianjun say: "But when Xiaopao was young, I went to Hou Cheng's house to deliver soup, rice and fruit with me."
A village cadre arrived in a car and urged Hou Jianjun to get in the car quickly. Hou Jianjun looked at Mingshu worriedly: "Is there anything wrong with Xiaopao? You will definitely find him, right?"
Ming Shu pursed his lips tightly, and suddenly did not know what to say to Shang Hou Jianjun's red and cloudy eyes.
Poor parents in the world. Even though he was thrown into the countryside by his son and looked down upon by his son, the old father was still proud of his son and hoped that his son would be safe and successful. He didn't know what happened to his son, so he could only ask the police, "Your son will be fine."
It seems that hearing this sentence, the son can really be safe and sound.
But Mingshu couldn't answer him.
The Los Angeles police will definitely find Hou Pao, but no one can guarantee whether Hou Pao is alive or dead.
The car took Hou Jianjun away, Mingshu stood there for a while, and walked quickly to Hou Cheng's house.
Searchlights illuminated the dark basement as if it were daylight, and everything was moved to the yard. Two hours later, nothing new was found.
The tracer turned off the searchlights and started doing luminol tests in the basement.
"How?" Mingshu asked.
"There is a large area of blood residue on the ground." The tracer said, "But it is still uncertain whether it is human blood."
"Large area?" Mingshu hugged his arm and thought for more than a minute, "I'll go down again."
Fang Yuanhang shouted from behind, "Master, there is nothing down there."
"I don't believe it." Mingshu said: "There must be, but we haven't been able to find it yet."
The trace inspectors looked at each other in dismay, and had to follow Mingshu into the basement again.
Mingshu avoided the Lumino reaction area, initially leaning against the wall to check inch by inch, and then almost fell on the dirty floor.
There were wooden boards on the walls of the basement earlier, but now the wooden boards have been removed, and there is a small gap between the wall and the ground in some places.
The gap is too narrow, and due to the limitation of the angle, it is actually difficult for the eyes to see into the gap.
Mingshu was clinging to the wall in a very awkward posture, and after walking around the basement for half a circle, he suddenly said loudly, "Let's see if this is bloodstains!"
The trace examiner came immediately, Mingshu stood up, moved his sore neck, and intuitively found the key evidence.
"Yes!" The trace inspector said excitedly, "I'll take it back for inspection right away!"
The process of waiting for the test results was very long. Ming Shu took a small bench and sat at the entrance of the basement, resting his forehead in his right hand, calmly sorting out clues.
Watermelons, vegetables, messy boxes, and household garbage are all obscure objects, and Hou Cheng is covering up what happened here.
There was a lot of blood on the floor that could not be seen by the eyes, indicating that Hou Cheng had washed the floor with water.
There was blood in the gap, which Hou Cheng could not find, and it was an important evidence left behind by the victim.
This is a murder scene where Hou Cheng killed a person.
Is it the young man who once lived in Hou Cheng's house
If so, where is his body
Hou Cheng was a very insecure person. He killed the tenant in his basement, but did not dispose of the body immediately, but temporarily stored the body in the basement. The home is Hou Cheng's safe area. Hou Cheng believes that as long as the body is taken out of the yard, no matter where it is placed, it may be found.
But when the odor of the corpse became more and more obvious, Hou Cheng realized that if the corpse was not moved out, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Hou Cheng was forced to move the corpse, only possible to move the corpse from one safe area to another.
Mingshu stood up, and the overgrown field appeared in his mind.
It was the only place outside of home that Hou Cheng could control.
There is another doubt.
Hou Cheng is a suspense writer and must know that water cannot completely wash away the blood.
Why are there so many bloodstains in the basement that can be detected by the luminol test
Those bloodstains are also blindfolds
Mingshu couldn't wait any longer, and rushed to the melon field with the detectives who came to assist.
July is the season when a large number of watermelons are on the market, and the melon fields in Qingyue Village are thriving.
Outside the melon field, a security belt was pulled up, and the policemen were searching the fields with their police dogs under the scorching sun.
The villagers stopped working and gathered outside the security belt, watching and talking curiously.
"I heard that Hou Cheng killed someone?"
"Impossible, Hou Cheng is a wooden man, how can he kill someone?"
"What are the police looking for?"
"Oh, don't you bury something in Tianli? It's scary, my Tianli is right next to it!"
"I'm still neighbors with Hou Cheng!"
"Hey, I just said that this year's harvest is not as good as in previous years. I dare to say that Hou Cheng did something bad!"
"You are superstitious..."
The search continued until evening, when two skeletons, wrapped in rotten cloth, appeared side by side in the center of the melon field.
"Fuck!" Fang Yuanhang exclaimed, "How come there are two?"
There was no forensic doctor at the scene, Mingshu squatted by the corpse pit, observed for a moment, and said, "No, this may not be the victim we are looking for. The two shrouds have been here for a long time, I estimate it is more than ten years. Also, the shape of these corpses does not seem to be buried here and decay naturally, but more like they were transferred to this place after they had become white bones."
Fang Yuanhang was horrified, "Then who are they? Why did they appear in Hou Cheng's field?"
The villagers onlookers couldn't see the situation in the fields and kept talking.
"Looks like something has been dug up?"
"I dare not watch it!"
"My child often goes to Hou Cheng's house to play, which scares me to death. I won't let him go if I kill him in the future!"
Mingshu stood for a long time and said, "They may be Hou Cheng's parents who have already passed away."
Fang Yuanhang said, "Master, are you kidding me? Hou Cheng buried his parents in the field? Or did he bury his parents in the field after they had turned into bones? The fields grow watermelon every year? Is he sick?"
"Look at the location where the bones were buried." Mingshu said, "It's in the center of the diagonal line. In some villages, the center of the diagonal line represents dignity, and it means praying for the blessings of the dead. Are they Hou Cheng's parents? Just look at the cemetery outside the village and you'll understand."
The comprehensive promotion of cremation in Qingyue Village has only happened in the last ten years. There are many private tombstones scattered on the hills outside the village, all of them buried in the past few decades.
The government called for cremation, but failed to remediate the burials of the past, so they were preserved as a place of mourning for generations to come.
The village cadre took Mingshu and his party to the tomb of Hou Cheng's parents, and persuaded: "The death of a person is great, and the death of a person is great. Don't you touch their tomb."
Fang Yuanhang asked, "Master, do we really want to open this tomb?"
Mingshu walked around the tomb twice and shook his head, "No need."
The village cadres breathed a sigh of relief.
Fang Yuanhang was puzzled, "Then how do you prove that the people in Hou Chengtian are his parents?"
"This tombstone is very old, surrounded by weeds, and it has not been repaired for at least five years." Mingshu stared at the blurred writing on the tombstone, "Hou Jiangfeng, Xu Hong. Their photos are all lost."
Fang Yuanhang turned his head and understood, "Hou Cheng is very filial. The room on the second floor where his parents lived has been kept spotlessly clean. It is impossible for a person like him not to love his parents' tombstones, and it is impossible to even lose the photos. No matter. There's only one reason tombstones are so shabby now—"
Mingshu nodded, "The bones of Hou Jiangfeng and Xu Hong are long gone."
The tracer squatted beside the tombstone, looked up and said, "There are traces of being opened."
At this moment, Mingshu received a call, and the results of the blood test were finally released. The invisible blood on the floor of Hou Cheng's basement was pig's blood, and the trace of blood in the crevice was human blood.
Mingshu was certain and asked, "Can DNA be extracted?"
The other end of the phone said, "Yes!"
Mingshu didn't rush back to Los Angeles immediately, but just had a phone call with Xiao Yu'an.
"If nothing else, the blood in the basement belongs to the young man who stayed at Hou Cheng's house. Hou Cheng spent a lot of time in the basement, cleaned it many times, used rotten vegetables and fruits to cover up the odor of the corpse, and even misled us with pig blood. After getting close, he didn't notice the old bloodstains in the cracks." Mingshu said, "This tenant is likely to have been killed, but I have no clue as to how Hou Cheng will deal with the body. I originally thought that Hou Cheng would bury the body in the Tianli, but only the bones of Hou Cheng's parents were found in the field."
Xiao Yuan interrupted, "The bones of Hou Cheng's parents?"
Mingshu told Xiao Yuan his analysis, and added, "Hou Cheng should have serious psychological problems. He has a deformed love for his parents."
Xiao Yu'an said, "However, Hou Pao is unwilling to perform even the most basic filial piety towards Hou Jianjun. From this perspective, they are completely opposite."
Mingshu asked: "Xiao Ju, why did you suddenly mention Hou Pao?"
"I just thought of it suddenly." Xiao Yu'an said: "The Los Angeles police investigated for a long time and found an important clue."
"what?"
"Hou Pao's so-called 'receiving job' is actually working as a waiter in a nightclub in Fukang District."
Mingshu was really surprised, and at the same time thought that Hou Cheng was being controlled by the security detachment in a nightclub in Fukang District.
"Let's not talk about Hou Pao, the investigation here is going well, and it is estimated that the truth will surface soon." Xiao Yuan's tone slowed down, "As long as the DNA can be extracted, we can do a nationwide comparison of missing persons. .Even if the body is not found for the time being, we have an additional key clue."
Hou Cheng was taken to the interrogation room, his attitude became more and more arrogant, "What do you want to ask me?"
"My team searched your basement." Xiao Yu'an said, "Guess what they found?"
The lines on Hou Cheng's forehead trembled slightly, "How many times have you searched my basement? You don't use it to deceive me. If you can find something, you won't ask me that now."
"You are really confident." Xiao Yuan smiled and put an identification sheet on the interrogation table, "There are bloodstains left in the basement."
Hou Cheng was not flustered, "Blood? Are you sure it's human blood?"
Xiao Yuan asked, "It's not human blood, what kind of blood would it be?"
Hou Cheng's gloomy gaze roamed Xiao Yuan's face, and Xiao Yuan looked at him unmoved.
Half a minute later, Hou Cheng smiled, "You have already found out, it's pig blood."
"You mean it's on the ground?" Xiao Yuan tapped on the identification table, "Yes, the ground is pig blood. But why is there pig blood in a basement? Or a large area of pig blood. You have killed pigs in the basement. ?No way?"
Hou Cheng's eyelids twitched violently, causing the wrinkles to fluctuate.
"I told you last time, the more you try to cover up your crimes, the easier it is to reveal your guilt." Xiao Yuan changed the subject, "but you suspense writers are used to setting up a reverse situation, you will do this, but it is not Strange. In the book, of course, it is interlocking, reversing and reversing, but in reality…”
Xiao Yu settled down, "The more complicated your situation is, the more clues I have to solve. Do you understand?"
Hou Cheng sneered, "If you find out, you won't be talking nonsense with me here now."
"Okay, no nonsense." Xiao Yu'an said: "Pig blood is a barrier you put on, but you didn't expect that you didn't clean up the blood left when you committed the crime at all. There is such a small piece that still remains in the in the gap between the floor and the wall."
Saying that, Xiao Yu'an stretched out his right hand and compared the size of the bloodstain, "You have installed wooden boards in the basement. If you don't remove these wooden boards, you will never see the bloodstain. Even if it is removed, you need to be careful and careful. To see. So you don't notice it, which is normal."
Hou Cheng opened his mouth and his eyes changed.
"Afraid?" Xiao Yuan got up and continued to look at him while pacing the table, "You should know that with the current criminal investigation technology, even old bloodstains can be extracted for DNA. Being hurt by you in the basement, Or who the killer was, I'll find out soon."
Hou Cheng said nothing, a fierce light shot out from under his slack eyelids.
"One more thing." Xiao Yuan suddenly stood still, with his hands on the edge of the table, "Because of this blood stain, my team members went to search your melon field."
Hou Cheng's pupils tightened, "You guys!"
"Isn't this very logical? Assuming the basement is the first scene, how would you deal with the victim?" Xiao Yu'an said, "You will bury him in your melon field, because that is your safe area."
Hou Cheng gritted his teeth.
Xiao Yu'an said, "It's a pity that we didn't find the victim. Instead, we found two pairs of bones in the diagonal center of the melon field."
Hou Cheng's mood changed greatly, and he suddenly shouted: "I killed you! I killed you!"
Xiao Yuan took a step back, "You are so excited because those are your parents, right?"
Hou Cheng bowed his back high, like a wild beast, "Why do you dig my fields! Why do my parents not rest in peace!"
"It's you who made your parents restless!" Xiao Yu'an snapped: "It's you who dug them out of their graves; it's you who committed crimes and exposed their bones to the world!"
Hou Cheng hugged his forehead, "You are talking nonsense! I just want to be filial!"
"Then your way of doing filial piety is really unique." Xiao Yuan was condescending, and his attitude suddenly became fierce, "I will not let go of every evil you have done."
That night, the DNA information in the old bloodstains was extracted, and after comparison, it was determined that it belonged to the young man from Lucheng, Yang Nanke, who disappeared three years ago.