Chapter 23

Based on the three key pieces of evidence, namely the text message Liu Huaixin sent to Zhang Liangwei, Liu Huaixin's whereabouts in search of the truth before his death, and Gao Jichang's clear face in the video, Chen Pu immediately applied for a search warrant and sent people to take Gao Jichang away from the school.

At the same time, Chen Pu also applied for an investigation into all communication, bank, and investment account information and assets under the names of Gao Jichang and his wife.

Gao Jichang was quickly taken into the interrogation room.

He still had the demeanor of a famous teacher, sitting upright, like a piece of hard stone, standing there, unmoved.

Zhou Yangxin asked Chen Pu: "Do you want to have a trial?"

Chen Pu stared at Gao Jichang and shook his head: "He is very determined. Let's leave him alone for now and try to collect as much evidence as possible. We must strike the snake at its most vulnerable part."

Under Ding Guoqiang's instructions, the second team began to roll rapidly like a wheel moving forward.

The first place they searched was Gao Jichang's apartment in the family building. The house was on the fifth floor, diagonally opposite Liu Huaixin's upstairs, and was a three-bedroom apartment.

Chen Pu led Zhou Yangxin, Li Qingyao and two criminal police officers into the house through the main gate, followed by the evidence investigators. At a glance, everything in the house was normal, and it was obviously the residence of a single male teacher. The overall decoration style was new Chinese style, simple and formal. There were three rooms, one of which was a study room, with mahogany bookcases filled with teaching and research materials and world classics, and the desk was full of work materials. One was a bedroom, and the other was a sports audio-visual room, equipped with a projector and a treadmill in the corner.

Everyone split up to search. Chen Pu went into the study, Zhou Yangxin went into the bedroom, and the other two detectives were on the balcony and in the sports and audio-visual room. Li Qingyao thought about it and decided to search the living room first.

The evidence investigator recorded aloud: "Camera No. 1, Camera No. 2, Camera No. 3..."

Li Qingyao looked up and saw that there was also a camera installed on the ceiling of the living room opposite the kitchen. There were cameras in every room, covering almost every corner.

"It shows how suspicious Gao is." Zhou Yangxin said to Chen Pu.

After collecting the memory cards of the six cameras, Chen Pu asked someone to send them back to the Physical Evidence Department as soon as possible.

Everyone continued to work in silence for about ten minutes, but still achieved nothing.

They wanted to find the key evidence collected by Liu Huaixin and taken away by Gao Jichang from the scene. Because that evidence appeared at the death scene, it was very likely to have Liu Huaixin's fingerprints and blood on it. This would be considered ironclad evidence that Gao Jichang killed Liu Huaixin.

After searching the living room, Li Qingyao found nothing, so she went to the kitchen. She looked around, opened every cabinet door and drawer, and even turned over the oven to check.

There was a small balcony outside the kitchen. Li Qingyao walked out and saw a washing machine in the corner. She was stunned for a moment because there was a very narrow glass door behind the washing machine, and various equipment were placed outside the door. She twisted the glass door and found that it could not be opened. There was a keyhole at the bottom, and it was locked.

Li Qingyao perked up - who would lock the equipment room for no reason as a single man? She looked through the glass door and saw a small wooden cabinet on the wall behind the air conditioner, with a lock on the door.

Li Qingyao was about to call for help when a voice came from behind him: "What did you find? You're peeking around."

Chen Pu came out from inside.

Li Qingyao's finger tapped the glass door, and Chen Pu also saw the locked small wooden cabinet. He turned the glass door but it didn't open. He looked at Li Qingyao and waved to call for the evidence officer.

The evidence officer pried open the glass door in a few moves and used pliers to cut off the lock of the small wooden cabinet. The wooden cabinet was about 2 meters high on the wall. After the evidence officer took photos, Chen Pu reached out to take the things inside. Li Qingyao couldn't see because he was standing on tiptoe, so he put his hand on his shoulder and jumped up. Chen Pu's shoulder didn't move at all, and he was as steady as if nailed to the spot, letting her use his strength. After the things were taken down and she landed on the ground, he moved his shoulder and quickly shook off her hand, saying, "Why are you jumping around? Are you born in the Year of the Monkey?"

Li Qingyao ignored what he said and leaned over to look at his hand. It was a kraft paper envelope. Chen Pu tapped the envelope with two fingers, smiled, and gently poured the contents into his hand. There were five or six photos, and a small red USB flash drive slid out. They had seen the contents of the photos before - they should have been taken from those surveillance videos, and Gao Jichang's face was in every one of them. The USB flash drive also looked familiar. According to the testimony of the security guard of that hotel, Liu Huaixin took such a red USB flash drive that day and copied the video away.

The evidence officer carefully placed these items into evidence bags and sent them back to the bureau for fingerprint comparison.

After obtaining such important evidence, everyone's face was relieved. After a while, Zhou Yangxin found a pair of half-worn plastic gloves from some corner of the bedroom, but they were already washed very clean. After Chen Pu took them, he looked at him again, and the two old detectives smiled with understanding.

Li Qingyao watched silently from the side, reached out to take the gloves, looked up and smiled happily at Chen Pu, which made Chen Pu's face turn as dark as earth.

-

By the time their team returned to the bureau, the surveillance memory card in Gao Jichang's home had already been read. This was both unexpected and reasonable - all the surveillance records on the day of the incident and before had been deleted manually.

However, this does not pose a problem for the police.

Chen Pu asked: "Can it be restored?"

The young man from the technical department smiled and showed his white teeth: "Yes."

"How long do you need?"

"No more than 24 hours."

This is related to whether Gao Jichang has an alibi.

"Okay." Chen Pu nodded and patted the young man's shoulder. However, the young man's eyes drifted to Li Qingyao at the next table, absent-minded.

Chen Pu patted his head and said, "Go and do it quickly!" The young man said "Oh" and ran away quickly.

Chen Pu glanced at Li Qingyao who was working with his head down. He put his hands on his hips and sighed softly.

The identification results on the kraft paper envelope, photos and USB flash drive came out quickly.

Fingerprints of Liu Huaixin and Gao Jichang were found on it, and even the fingerprints of the hotel security guard were also found on the USB flash drive, but no bloodstains were found.

As for the pair of plastic gloves, since the material is more complicated and they have been worn and damaged to a considerable extent, it will take time to compare them.

At this point, Yan Yong also asked Chen Pu again: "Do you want to interrogate him?"

Gao Jichang had already drunk seven or eight cups of tea in the interrogation room. Several hours had passed, but the old fox was still calm and unhurried. He even got angry and asked the police why they detained him for no reason.

Chen Pu replied, "It's not time yet." He walked to the center of the office, clapped his hands loudly, and said loudly, "Stay up all night tonight and finish the investigation in one go."

"Oh!" "Okay!" "Huh..." The responses from the crowd rose and fell.