S.C.I.谜案集 (Special Criminal Investigation) Book 2

Case 3. Password Killer: Chapter 03. Reasoning

After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to SCI, Ma Han gave them information on Xu Zhong and the man who jumped from the building. The man who jumped from the building was Wu Qianliang, an office worker who was originally in charge of marketing at an international company. Recently, he was laid off because he was too old. Due to his honest personality, his life hadn't been great lately. Today, he broke into the company where he used to work, then rushed to the window and jumped down without a word.

"He went to the window and jumped straight down?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Yes." Wang Chao nodded. "We asked the employees. They said he directly jumped."

"Has his cell phone been found?" Zhan Zhao asked suddenly.

"Yes, but it broke into pieces." Zhang Long took out an evidence bag. Inside the bag, only parts of the phone remained.

Zhan Zhao took the bag and looked at it. Then, he asked, "Was the phone in his pocket or did it drop out?"

"It was found outside." Zhao Hu smiled and said, "I asked his colleagues. Apparently, it was in his hand."

"Clever." Bai Yutang nodded to him and then turned to look at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao stared at the phone for a long time before saying to Jiang Ping, "Check when the last call was made or received, and what it was about."

"Okay." Jiang Ping began typing on the keyboard. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found a sofa to sit down. As soon as they sat down, Bai Chi handed over two cups of specially made milkshakes. The two looked at each other, and seeing that Bai Chi was staring at them, they knew that he had questions. So, they asked him, "What is it?"

Bai Chi stared at Zhan Zhao's eyes and asked, "How did you know it was kidnapping?"

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, "Huh?"

"How did you know it was kidnapping through Xu Zhong and the suicide? Also, how did you know that the child would be killed?"

"I'm curious as well." Luo Tian also found a stool to sit down next to them as he said with great interest.

Zhan Zhao looked at everyone and said, "Well... It wasn't that complicated." With that, he raised his arm and elbowed Bai Yutang while saying, "Go on, tell them that famous quote from your idol."

Bai Yutang blinked, "What quote? My idol has a lot of famous ones."

"The one from <Little Dancer>." Zhan Zhao said.

"Oh..." Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said, "It's not difficult to make a series of deductions. Each deduction is based on the result of the previous one. Also, each deduction itself is very simple. If you omit the deductions in the middle and only tell people a beginning and a conclusion, we can get an amazing result."

"I know that." Bai Chi nodded. "It's a quote from Sherlock Holmes."

Everyone looked at each other, waiting for Zhan Zhao to explain in detail.

Zhan Zhao smiled and said, "Actually, apart from deductions, there was also what Xu Zhong told me."

The others all moved their stools and sat down, listening to Zhan Zhao explain in more detail.

"When I first saw Xu Zhong, I noticed that he looked like a low-class office worker. He was sweaty, nervous, and had a very expensive and large bag in his hand. This isn't normal, right?"

Everyone nodded, "Yes."

"When we were asking him questions, he seemed to have been in a hurry to leave... Normally, an ordinary passer-by wouldn't act that way." Zhan Zhao smiled. "There's a saying that those who survive a catastrophe is bound to have good fortune later. Usually, a person who had encountered such a situation would be very happy to tell everyone how lucky they were. If he had been one step behind, or one step quicker, he would have died... Moreover, he looked like an educated person, so he must have known that he would need to cooperate with the police."

Everyone nodded and listened to Zhan Zhao continue, "Of course, I could not rule out that he might have been in a hurry to work or to go somewhere else. However, what he kept on emphasizing made me realise that this wasn't the case."

Bai Chi thought about it and said, "Oh... You're right. Normally, a person in a hurry would repeatedly say that they are in a hurry and to let them go first. However, he kept saying that he had told you guys everything already, and that the dead person had nothing to do with him. He seemed to be afraid of communicating with the police."