S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 74

Countdown from the Murderer 04 – Coincidence

---

Reporter Zhou Ping gave Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao a clue about the suspicious "bathrobe man", however, when Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at room 2507, they found that something else was going on. What was originally thought to be a murder investigation turned into an adultery investigation...

Misleading the police during an investigation is a serious offence, not to mention that it was intentional.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang naturally couldn't let go of Zhou Ping, and at the same time, both of them also looked at the lobby manager in puzzlement – Didn't they say that 2507 was empty?

The lobby manager also looked confused.

However, there was no time to pursue the matter, as the clues from Jiang Ping's side had already arrived, and the identity of the deceased was confirmed.

The name of the deceased was indeed Li Feng, and the identity he used to register with the hotel was his real identity.

The occupation of the deceased was – a private detective.

In room 2603, Zhao Hu and Ma Han were checking the deceased's belongings.

There were laptop computers and photographic equipment on the bed, however... the two did not find roses in the room.

This was something Zhao Hu found quite strange.

Hu Zi rummaged through everything but didn't find even a single rose petal.

"Xiao Ma Ge," Zhao Hu went over and asked Ma Han, who was looking at the pictures in the camera, "was Old Fan the one who came in with roses every day?"

Ma Han looked at him.

"The receptionist only said she saw a bearded man who comes in with roses every day, but she didn't say she saw Mark Fan." Zhao Hu brainstormed on the side, "Do you think this deceased could have been killed by Mark Fan?"

As he was talking, Ma Xin secretly came up behind him, "Perhaps!"

Zhao Hu was startled by her and looked back, "Have you determined the time of death?"

Ma Xin said, "Six or seven in the morning."

"Hou, it's possible that Mark Fan killed someone and then went back to the clinic to die, right?" Zhao Hu continued to ask, "Could it be a love killing?"

Ma Xin pointed at the head of the deceased who was put into a body bag with some disgust, "It doesn't look like he has a charming face, but he might have a charismatic personality..."

Ma Han somewhat speechless looked at the two gossipers, then took the camera, indicating for the two of them to have a look, "He took a bunch of photos, all of which were secretly taken of a man and a woman. It feels like there is no relationship at all with what Mark Fan!"

Ma Xin and Zhao Hu both looked at the photos with curiosity.

"Ah!"

Ma Xin suddenly shouted. Zhao Hu and Ma Han were startled by her, and from the forensic examination area, Gongsun poked his head out to take a look.

Ma Xin snatched the camera and quickly pressed one, "My god! Isn't this Wang Meiyun!"

Zhao Hu and Ma Han were puzzled, "What Wang Meiyun? Someone you know?"

"Wow! I didn't believe Sister Jiayi when she said she was acting as a mistress, my god!" Ma Xin stomped her foot.

"Ahem." At the bathroom door, Gongsun coughed.

Ma Xin hurriedly suppressed her voice a bit and gossiped with Ma Han and Zhao Hu in a low voice, "Wang Meiyun! The big star, she acted in a film with Sister Jiayi before, and we also had tea together. People can be coquettish!"

Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked at the sky and shook their heads.

"Who is this man?" Zhao Hu was curious.

Ma Xin shrugged, "Who knows, he looks quite rich."

Hu Zi nodded in agreement.

Ma Han continued to rummage through Li Feng's belongings and found a kraft paper file bag in the compartment of his suitcase. When he opened it, it was a contract.

In Ma Han's headset, Jiang Ping was reporting on Li Feng's occupation, saying that he was a private detective who professionally helped catch cheating and that his reputation in the industry was number one.

"It was Qian Fu's wife who asked him to investigate..." Ma Han took a photo from the contract. Qian Fu was estimated to be the middle-aged man who was with Wang Meiyun.

"Hou!" Ma Xin felt that this was big gossip, so she wanted to gossip with Jiayi, Qi Le and the girls, but professional ethics required that she could not disclose the details of the case without permission, so she stifled herself and grunted.

"So..." Ma Han went through all of Li Feng's belongings and asked, "what's the relationship with Mark Fan?"

Everyone looked at each other – It seemed like there was no connection.

"Huh?"

Ma Xin's cell phone dinged, and when she took it out, she realised that it was a message from Chen Jiayi, asking if she'd discovered any big gossip.

Ma Xin blinked and looked at the crowd.

Ma Xin wondered how Chen Jiayi knew, so she sent her a question mark, only for Jiayi to send her a link to a hot search.

Ma Xin clicked on it and exclaimed, "Wa!"

Ma Han and Zhao Hu both looked at her somewhat speechlessly, why was this girl so startled?

Ma Xin held her cell phone with her mouth open and couldn't close it. She saw the hot search of all major social media platforms and the headlines from all over the Internet. The headline of this news was particularly shocking – A big star acting as a mistress cheating on a rich married woman, coincidentally met with SCI catching a murderous maniac and was caught in the bed...

Two photos were feverishly trending all over the net. They were the photos of Wang Meiyun and Qian Fu undressed on the bed, and the person who took the photos took them from behind Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu felt that this headline would be enough to make a film, as well as its sequel...

"A-a-ah what's this situation!" Ma Xin took off her gloves and ran out to the hallway to catch up on the news.

Downstairs, Zhan Zhao also received a message from Bao Sir.

Underneath the news link sent by Bao Sir was a voice message about three seconds long. Zhan Zhao froze after reading the news and didn't have the courage to click on that voice message.

Turning back, Zhan Zhao glared fiercely at Zhou Ping.

Zhou Ping was seriously scrolling through the data as well, naturally happy to see this buzz, but he still shivered when Zhan Zhao glared at him and hurriedly said, "That... I really saw the murderer!"

Bai Yutang also looked at him and indicated – I'll give you another chance! Say it!

Zhou Ping then said, "When I returned to my room, I saw the elevator door was about to close, and there was a man in the elevator, wearing a black jumper and a hat, sneaking around."

"At the same time?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Yes!" Zhou Ping nodded.

In the surveillance room, Jiang Ping had already pulled up the elevator surveillance, and sure enough... at almost the same time, the surveillance in the hallway captured a man walking into the elevator.

The man didn't seem too conscious about avoiding the camera, and his face was caught on camera.

Jiang Ping loaded the hotel's surveillance system with a face recognition software that he had developed himself, and after running the program, the system automatically identified all the video clips of this man, however...

"Head!" Jiang Ping's voice suddenly became excited, "This man entered the hotel this morning while the large tour group was leaving, then entered 2603, came out once, went back in again shortly after, and entered the elevator after coming out for the last time. After reaching the twenty-fifth floor, he wandered around the doorway of 2507, looked at his cell phone for a while, and took the stairs to the restaurant on the thirteenth floor. "

"And then?" Bai Yutang asked.

"And then there was nothing else!" Jiang Ping's voice was a few points higher.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other sharply.

On the other end of the connection, Zhao Hu and Ma Han had also heard this part of the conversation through their earpieces, and they asked in unison, "The murderer is still in the hotel?"

"Unless he jumped out of the building, he definitely didn't leave! None of the surveillance cameras at the front and back doors caught him going out!" Jiang Ping yelled, "The surveillance of the underground parking lot didn't capture him either, he has been in the restaurant the whole time!"

"The restaurant..." Bai Yutang looked at the manager.

The manager froze and said, "Er, on the thirteenth floor."

"Are there many people there now?"

"Right now there aren't many." The manager looked at his watch, "But it's almost time for the group guests to come back. They will probably be divided into two batches, each batch of about two hundred people, who will want to eat... Now, there should be a lot of staff preparing the meal..."

Bai Yutang asked Ma Han and Zhao Hu to both come down and asked the manager to prepare to evacuate the idle people on the thirteenth floor, and asked him how many doors the restaurant had in total.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping as he prepared to arrest the man, "Is there surveillance inside the restaurant?"

"The hallway at the entrance of the restaurant and the kitchen at the back are monitored, but not inside the restaurant." Jiang Ping replied, "But none of the places with surveillance have detected that person..."

As he spoke, it wasn't clear what Jiang Ping was busy with on his side, but his keyboard clacked, "Captain! That person's identity has come out! "

"Who?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Aiya, it's dog blood. It's Wang Meiyun's assistant, his name is Liu Tian."

"Liu Tian?"

Bai Yutang frowned.

In the room, Wang Meiyun, who had already dressed in a panic, also raised her head and looked over in surprise, "What happened?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, seemingly thinking about things, and asked Jiang Ping, "Is there a video of Mark Fan going in and out of the hotel?"

The sound of Jiang Ping's keyboard hadn't stopped, and he muttered, "What the hell, Mark Fan isn't there at all!"

"No?" Bai Yutang asked.

"That's right! The one who comes with roses every day is... Qian Fu! "

The crowd froze and all glanced at Qian Fu who was wilting and smoking while sitting on a sofa to the side.

Zhan Zhao also noticed a bunch of roses in a vase on the table.

Zhao Hu was baffled, "So there's actually nothing about Mark Fan here?"

Zhan Zhao also noticed a fake moustache on the table and asked Qian Fu, "You come in wearing a fake moustache every day?"

Qian Fu bristled.

"What room are you staying in?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"2613." Qian Fu said without any emotion.

"Across from 2603?"

Qian Fu shrugged – Probably, he hadn't noticed.

Bai Yutang couldn't figure out what the current situation was, but there was no mistaking the fact that the murder suspect who'd killed Li Feng was in the restaurant.

"Cat, I'll go and arrest them first." Bai Yutang signalled for Zhan Zhao to stay here.

Zhan Zhao nodded.

At this time, Ma Han and Zhao Hu came down from upstairs. Bai Yutang led the men to try to take the elevator, but because of the building's odd operation, they had to do a calculation problem before taking the elevator.

The three were also a bit speechless, so they simply took the stairs and went down to the thirteenth floor.

Almost at the same time, the walkie-talkie in the manager's hand also rang, and a somewhat anxious voice came from the front desk, "Manager! There are a lot of reporters at the entrance!"

Zhan Zhao entered the room and looked downstairs. He saw that at some point, several media vehicles had parked downstairs, the equipment for live broadcasting had been set up, and there were a large number of journalists and independent media, with all kinds of cell phones and cameras.

In the room, Wang Meiyun and Qian Fu were sad, and Wang Meiyun cried.

Zhan Zhao offered her a tissue and asked, "Do you two know a doctor named Mark Fan?"

Qian Fu shook his head, but Wang Meiyun raised her hand and said, "He's my psychologist and lives nearby."

"Your consultation time is every Tuesday and Thursday from three to four in the afternoon?"

Wang Meiyun looked up at Zhan Zhao and nodded, "Mhmm."

"Where is the appointment?"

"A coffee shop near here." Wang Meiyun replied.

"He'll bring you a bouquet of roses? "

Wang Meiyun nodded.

Qian Fu glanced at Wang Meiyun who immediately glared at him, "It's all because of you!"

Qian Fu sighed and turned his face away without saying anything.

Zhan Zhao thought about it, managed to sort out the whole story, and asked Wang Meiyun, "You found out that his wife sent a private detective to investigate you, so you asked Mark Fan to meet you at a cafe every week and asked him to bring you roses so that the detective would think that you were dating Mark Fan?"

Chagrined, Wang Meiyun crumpled the tissue in her hand and said through clenched teeth, "Did Liu Tian screw it up? It didn't work at all!"

Zhan Zhao thought again and asked, "That private detective called Li Feng photographed evidence of your date, so you sent Liu Tian to bribe that detective?"

Wang Meiyun was dissatisfied, "That detective received money and said he wouldn't expose the information, surprisingly..."

Zhan Zhao nodded, feeling that Wang Meiyun had wronged the deceased. The one who exposed the information was Zhou Ping and not Li Feng.

Looking around again, Zhan Zhao found a cell phone with a glittering diamond attached to it sitting on the bedside table.

Picking the phone up, he saw that it was switched off.

"Your phone?" Zhan Zhao asked Wang Meiyun.

Wang Meiyun nodded.

Zhan Zhao switched the phone on.

As soon as it was switched on, the phone started to vibrate like crazy, with three digits of missed calls, and several hundred unread messages.

Zhan Zhao opened the list of missed calls and saw that Liu Tian had called more than thirty times.

Opening WeChat, he found a bunch of messages from Liu Tian, which roughly read.

"Hurry up and call me back!"

"Something happened!"

"That person is dead!"

"Hurry and call me back!"

"I'll wait for you at the restaurant."

......

Zhan Zhao finished reading a bunch of messages, pressed the earpiece, and said to Bai Yutang who was already at the entrance of the restaurant, "Xiao Bai, Liu Tian is not the murderer. "

"Sure?"

Bai Yutang asked.

"Mhmm. He went to bribe Li Feng for Wang Meiyun, and he probably saw the body when he entered the door." Zhan Zhao said, "Go straight in and arrest him, he should be drinking at the bar and won't resist."

After Zhan Zhao finished speaking, he asked Jiang Ping to continue checking the surveillance to see who else had entered and exited Li Feng's room.

In fact, Jiang Ping had already been checking on his side. He fast-forwarded through it just now, and except for Liu Tian who came out and went in, no one else was captured.

Jiang Ping was afraid that he missed them, so he stared and played it again in fast forward two more times. Eventually, he called the security personnel in the surveillance room to watch it with him, but they didn't find anyone else going in or out of 2603.

"Evil!" Jiang Ping's hair was scratched into a chicken nest, "This... is a locked room murder case!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 8, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 20, 2024 by Angel