Chapter 60: Chapter 58: A Handprint on the Heavenly Spirit Cover! (Part 1)
Chapter 58: A Palm Print on the Crown of the Head!
Small Qianmen Police Station, Interrogation Room.
An elderly police officer was sitting behind the desk with an interrogation record in his hand. Not far in front of him, Lin Beichen was seated in a leather-backed chair.
The interrogation record was already filled with a lot of information, such as Lin Beichen’s name, age, and school, as well as the details of the officer who recorded the information.
At this moment, the elderly officer asked gently, "Lin Beichen, can you describe the process of catching the human trafficker?"
"Sure."
Lin Beichen nodded and said, "Actually, I can’t really say I caught the human trafficker. I was waiting for my friend in a public restroom in the park when I saw the human trafficker first try to lure a child with candy unsuccessfully, then directly use a drug to knock the child out and run off with him. At that moment, I saw there was no one around, and I didn’t have the means to stop him, so I chased after him. By the time I caught up, the human trafficker was already on the ground, looking that way."
Before sharing his location with Zhou Ya, he found it unreasonable to explain the scene, so he just planned to distance himself from the incident as much as possible.
Moreover...
He had carefully observed the surroundings, and there weren’t even any streetlights, let alone surveillance equipment.
It was because of this remote location that the human trafficker saw an opportunity.
And now that the human trafficker was dead, dead men tell no tales. How he explained it was all up to him.
The elderly officer noted this down. He had seen the human trafficker’s condition at the scene but had no doubts about Lin Beichen’s response. He merely asked, "Did you see anyone else at the scene where you caught the human trafficker?"
"No."
Lin Beichen shook his head.
The elderly officer nodded, then asked a few more questions before finishing the record, politely escorting him out of the interrogation room.
Upon exiting the law enforcement area, Lin Beichen immediately saw Zhou Ya, who had completed her record earlier and was sitting in the lobby.
At this moment, there was a man and a woman beside her.
Both the man and the woman were not very old, around thirty-five or thirty-six years old, with reddened eyes, indicating they had just been crying.
Seeing Lin Beichen, Zhou Ya waved at him and then got up, walking over with the man and woman.
"Thank you, thank you so much!"
"Lin Beichen, we wouldn’t know what to do without you!"
"..."
Tearfully, the man and woman rushed up to Lin Beichen, grabbing both his hands and bowing repeatedly in gratitude.
At this moment, Zhou Ya’s voice chimed in.
"Lin Beichen, these are the parents of the child you saved from the human trafficker."
Actually, Lin Beichen had already figured that out without Zhou Ya’s explanation.
Lin Beichen quickly helped the still-bowing parents up and said, "It’s nothing, really. I just did what I should. You don’t need to thank me so much."
"Lin Beichen, we have no idea how to thank you enough."
The child’s father tightly gripped Lin Beichen’s right hand, his emotions evident.
Then the child’s mother, as if realizing something, said, "We must write a thank you letter and deliver it to your school personally!"
"Thank you, but there’s no need to trouble yourselves."
Lin Beichen understood the parents’ feelings, but he really didn’t want them to go to great lengths to thank him.
After expressing his stance several times,
he saw it was getting late and said goodbye to the parents.
Initially, he planned to take a taxi back to school with Zhou Ya, but the child’s parents insisted on driving them back. They accepted the offer and left the police station in the parents’ car.
On their way back...
At the police station,
In the captain’s office of the Criminal Investigation Team,
There were three records on the desk, belonging to Lin Beichen, Zhou Ya, and the abducted child.
Lin Beichen and Zhou Ya made their records at the police station, while the abducted child’s record was orally given at the hospital, organized by an officer.
Zhang Zheng looked at the three records, frowning more and more, murmuring to himself, "So, how did this human trafficker die?"
"Knock, knock, knock—"
At this moment, there was a knock on the door. Zhang Zheng called for the person to enter. Wang Kai, the head of the investigation team, walked in.
"You’re back."
"Yes."
"How’s the situation?"
"The identity of the human trafficker has been confirmed. His name is Li Youquan, 57 years old, an unemployed vagrant who had been arrested twice for theft before."
After speaking, Wang Kai’s face turned grim and said, "But we didn’t catch Li Youquan’s accomplices."
"You didn’t catch them?"
Zhang Zheng was aware of Wang Kai’s capabilities. Frowning, he asked, "What’s going on?"
"Li Youquan’s accomplices numbered six. Our team was discovered as soon as we got there. They scattered and fled before we had a chance to seal off the area. Our guys couldn’t catch up and they melted into the crowd."
"Oh?"
Zhang Zheng frowned even more and said in a deep voice, "It seems these human traffickers are not only skilled but also very observant and well-trained. This gang... is not simple."
"Captain Zhang, that’s not all."
"Not all? What else?" 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"Their counter-surveillance skills are also exceptional!"
Saying this, Wang Kai put a USB drive on the desk, his expression serious. "After cracking Li Youquan’s phone, we tracked his last phone call, but the number had already been deactivated. Through the park’s surveillance footage, we discovered that Li Youquan had been driven to the park in a van every day for the past week. We’ve checked the van; it was using a fake license plate. No one else ever got in or out of the van when he did. The van appeared at a different location out of surveillance range each day, making it difficult to trace its activity."
"Did that van appear near the park today?"
"No."
"You’re right, this gang has remarkable counter-surveillance awareness and capabilities. They’ve considered every move the police might make and taken precautions."
Zhang Zheng looked extremely tense, realizing the human trafficker gang behind Li Youquan was extraordinary.
If Li Youquan hadn’t died, they might have made significant gains by following the clues.
But unfortunately, he was dead.
Still, the big question remained...
How did he die?
"Did the park surveillance footage capture what happened at the scene of Li Youquan’s death? What did the hospital say?"
"The entrances of Xiao Qianmen Park have surveillance, showing the human trafficker entering and leaving, but there’s no surveillance at the crime scene. That’s likely why Li Youquan chose this spot for his target. And because it rained, the scene was muddied, providing no useful clues to reconstruct the incident."
Wang Kai shook his head helplessly. "I’m still waiting for the hospital’s call. No update yet."
As if in response to his complaint, his phone rang. It was a forensic specialist at the hospital.
He put the call on speakerphone and answered it.
"Hey, Brother Wang, what’s the update?"
"It seems he was electrocuted."
"Electrocuted??"
Zhang Zheng and Wang Kai exchanged glances.
Despite the horrific state of Li Youquan’s body, they hadn’t considered electrocution since there were no sources of electricity at the scene.
On the other end, Wang the forensic doctor stood by the human trafficker’s corpse, examining it intently while reporting calmly, "Yes, electrocuted. It seems electricity entered through the head, completely charring the hair and severely burning the scalp. Parts of the skull have melted into bone pearls, and the body exhibits severe rigidity with reddish-brown branching burn marks. There’s also extensive hemorrhaging of the heart and lung membranes, all consistent with electrocution. But..."
"But what?"
The forensic doctor didn’t answer immediately. He leaned closer to the top of the corpse’s head, examining it meticulously. The more he looked, the stranger his expression became. Finally, he spoke, "After a closer examination, the outline of the electrocution wound on the head... resembles a palm."