Silent Reading by Priest - Book 1

Chapter 13: Julien XII

"Around ten past nine, He Zhongyi got on the Number 34 bus at the East Nanping Road stop. When the Number 34 arrived at the Wenchang Intersection stop twenty-some minutes later, He Zhongyi got off. A security camera near Wenchang Intersection caught his back. Several minutes later he walked out of range of the security cameras. He didn't show up again."

Luo Wenzhou had grown up in Yan City. When he heard the names, he understood the approximate location.

Wenchang Street was to the southeast of the Flower Market District commercial center-in other words, after leaving Chengguang Mansion, the victim had not only not gone home, he had gone even further in the opposite direction.

"I'm at Wenchang Intersection now," Tao Ran said over the phone amid the noisy din of traffic. "So at any rate He Zhongyi wasn't in the West District between nine and nine-thirty. The argument the people living around there heard at the time wasn't related to the homicide. Ma Xiaowei was wronged. What was Wang Hongliang doing snatching him up in such a hurry? If I didn't know better, I'd think the police had killed He Zhongyi and wanted to find someone to take the blame."

"Captain Luo." Just then, a criminal policeman ran over and passed Luo Wenzhou a stack of materials. "The medical examiners have sent over their report. They've deduced that the victim He Zhongyi's approximate time of death was between 9 PM and 10 PM on the night of May 20th."

"Between 9 PM and 10 PM." Luo Wenzhou took the report and flipped through it. He didn't respond to Tao Ran's suspicions. "According to this conclusion, there's a great likelihood that He Zhongyi was murdered not long after getting off the bus."

Tao Ran must have found a quiet place. The noise coming over the phone decreased significantly. "Around nine, Chengguang Mansion's dinner party was just ending. Zhang Donglai went outside; the security cameras in the courtyard caught his face for the first time. He stayed in the courtyard for a while, then went back indoors. At 9:45, the cameras in the courtyard caught him again. He spoke to a girl for a bit, and then they went into the woods holding hands."

Luo Wenzhou sighed. "I see Young Master Zhang's itinerary was really crowded. He must have been so busy he didn't have time to spare to kill anyone."

"If he doesn't have an identical twin, Zhang Donglai is cleared of suspicion. Should we release him?"

Luo Wenzhou declined to comment. He asked, "What else did you turn up?"

"There's also a cell phone record," said Tao Ran. "Let me tell you, this is a strange thing.-Didn't the victim get a phone call while he was waiting outside Chengguang Mansion? I got his number from his roommate and went to investigate his phone records. On the night of the twentieth, He Zhongyi called an unregistered number several times."

"Oh?" Luo Wenzhou raised his brows. "What's strange about that? Hadn't we already determined that the victim must have known the killer?"

Tao Ran said, "The strange thing isn't the phone calls.-That night around 9:50, He Zhongyi's phone received a text message from another untraceable number. The contents are: 'Location of settling accounts changed to Golden Triangle Lot, May 20.'-What do you think that means? Settling accounts? Settling what accounts? Settling them with whom? What is the 'Golden Triangle' Lot? I feel like that name sounds a little..."

Luo Wenzhou suddenly opened his mouth to interrupt him. "Don't worry about that for now. Wenchang Street is at the heart of the old city sector. There are a lot of people, and past nine isn't very late. Take some guys to go ask around, see if there's anyone who may have seen him."

Tao Ran froze. Before he could say anything, Luo Wenzhou had already hurriedly hung up the phone. He couldn't resist frowning at his cell phone.-Before, Tao Ran had thought that Wang Hongliang only got up to simple tricks like shifting responsibility, enjoying the benefits of his position without doing any of the work. Therefore, in order to prevent him from obstructing the course of the investigation with his lax methods, they would have to find a pretext to bring him down.