Animal Detective

They walked out of Zhang Hancheng’s office.

Yang Zeran nudged Shen Xin with his elbow and whispered, "What do you think? You should’ve gotten what Zhang Zhi was implying."

His expression was grim.

Shen Xin understood.

Back then, Zhang Hancheng and his team hadn’t dared to definitively conclude that Guo Jinhua was the killer.

So what about now? Was it going to be any easier?

If you announce that Guo Jinhua is the killer without concrete evidence...

The average person might not care. It has nothing to do with them, and it’s been almost three years.

But what about his family?

Take Guo Jinhua’s parents, for instance.

They believed their son was a victim.

Guo Jinhua’s serious illness had already dragged the family into such a state.

If you tell them now that their son is the killer, they might not accept it even if you slap the evidence right down in front of them.

They can’t accept it.

If they did, what would their friends and other relatives think? What about the in-laws?

The old couple could show up at the municipal bureau’s entrance with a banner, making a huge scene, threatening to kill themselves. That would be quite a spectacle.

In the age of social media, if someone posted that online, there’s no telling what kind of firestorm it would ignite.

Shen Xin shot back, "What, are you scared?"

’Afraid of a little difficulty? Ready to back down? Scared to fight for justice?’

"Who’s scared!" Yang Zeran glared. "I’m just a damn beat cop, what the hell have I got to be afraid of? It’s you I’m worried about."

He pointed at Shen Xin.

"You’re the one in charge."

Shen Xin rolled his eyes at him. "Well, thanks for that."

Yang Zeran let out a soft sigh. "Seriously, I think I underestimated how difficult these cold cases are."

They’re not just difficult, they’re a huge hassle.

"Your run-of-the-mill murder cases are so much easier. This one... my head hurts just thinking about it."

We brainstormed and came up with the idea that Guo Jinhua might be the real killer.

But even with that theory, it’s useless. It’s like we’re just at the beginning of the case.

Forget the fact that it’s been almost three years—even if this poisoning had just happened, a case like this would be incredibly difficult to investigate and collect evidence for.

With a typical homicide these days, you get the call in the morning, and the killer might be in custody by the afternoon, already being processed.

Shen Xin gave him a tug. "Enough complaining. Let’s get to work."

Back in the office, Shen Xin had already organized his thoughts.

Zhang Hancheng’s thinking was on the right track. They needed to approach this from two angles: motive and the source of the poison.

"Yuwei, you and Brother Xing, figure out a way to reinvestigate Guo Meijing."

"I think Zhang Zhi was right. Guo Meijing passed away in August 2014, and less than a year later, Guo Jinhua started the poisonings. There has to be a connection."

"Go to the hospital and interview the doctors and nurses from that time. Also, try to find out which patients they were on good terms with, both in their room and in the general ward."

"Interview them. Find out if anything unusual happened during her hospitalization."

In Shen Xin’s mind, they had once been a happy and perfect family.

If something had soured between them, it must have happened after Guo Meijing’s unexpected illness and death.

When a child is seriously, terminally ill, the parents are under immense pressure. It’s easy for negative emotions to fester in that kind of situation.

"Oh, right. Didn’t Guo Meijing take a trip to Qiong Province before she died? She passed away right after she got back. First, look into how they traveled and their specific itinerary."

"I’ll handle the request for investigative assistance."

"Also, for the hospital investigation, the two of you aren’t enough. I’ll have a word with Captain Sun and Captain Liu and get you two more people. Do a thorough job."

Tingyang will definitely need to be investigated.

Later on, Guo Meijing was at Renmin Hospital, which is in the New District. We’ll have to ask Liu Baoqing for help with that.

The good thing was, Shen Xin was well-connected. He had contacts everywhere and favors he could call in.

Ding Yuwei nodded, her expression complex.

Yang Zeran cut in, "So what’s the plan for the poison source?"

A few people might be enough to investigate the motive.

But tracking down the source of the poison... that’s not something a small team can manage.

Shen Xin had already thought about that. He smiled and said, "What else can we do? Call in the cavalry."

Shen Xin got up and walked over to the whiteboard.

"Look," he began. "When they first investigated the source of the poison, they assumed the killer was a local. So the search for the rat poison’s origin was confined to Nanjiang."

Nanjiang alone, with its four districts and two counties, is huge. They sent out dozens of officers and still couldn’t claim to have done a thorough search.

"But if the killer is Guo Jinhua, think about it. How would he have bought the rat poison?"

"Just pop out, turn left, and buy a couple of packets at the market entrance?" Shen Xin asked rhetorically.

Zhao Tianxing immediately replied, "He’s not that stupid."

Shen Xin nodded. "Exactly. So I’m thinking, what if Guo Jinhua went to another city to buy the rat poison to cover his tracks?"

"Specifically, Pingyu, Yanling, or Linshui."

To the north is the great river. To the east is Pingyu, to the west is Yanling, and south, across Li Lake, is Linshui.

We’re surrounded by those three cities. Any farther than that, Shen Xin thought, would be unlikely.

Yang Zeran nodded in agreement, but then added, "Shen Xin, this is no simple task. You can send out a request for assistance, but that doesn’t mean they’ll even give you the time of day."

Nobody’s sitting around twiddling their thumbs. They’ve all got their own cases; they’re busy.

And they’re not necessarily going to put much effort into a time-consuming task for someone else."

"I know."

Shen Xin nodded. "That’s why I said we’re calling in the cavalry. We have to use favors."

"And as it happens, your esteemed leader here," Shen Xin said, pointing to himself, "has a little bit of pull."

In Pingyu, there’s Liu Jie, the deputy chief of their Criminal Investigation Division. Shen Xin knew him well; Liu Jie owed him a favor from the Han Xiaolong case.

Over in Yanling, there’s another deputy chief of a Criminal Investigation Division, Xiong Yongjian. Shen Xin knew him, too.

That was from the pet case, which later blew up into a nationwide investigation. The case value was significant, there were many victims, and it turned into a major case.

If he asked Xiong Yongjian for a favor, the man would be hard-pressed to refuse.

Then there was the Han Xiaolong case again.

During that investigation, Shen Xin had gotten to know Wei Wenbin, the captain of the Criminal Investigation Division at the Linshui Nanlin Branch.

He had helped them crack a cold case, so didn’t that mean he had a favor to call in there, too?

"And if he went even farther, to Ningshan or Songpu, that’s even better. The people I know there are higher up the ladder."

In Ningshan and Songpu, Shen Xin had connections all the way up to the provincial department level.

Yang Zeran sucked in a sharp breath and gave Shen Xin a thumbs-up. "Say no more. You’re a badass."

A network like that wasn’t something your average cop could dream of having.

"But Shen Xin," Yang Zeran added, "once you use up a favor, it’s gone. Are you sure you want to cash in your chips for a cold case that might not even pan out?"

He was becoming more and more convinced that even if they got to the bottom of this case, it might not lead to a real conclusion.

You can’t exactly put Guo Jinhua on death row when he’s already hemiplegic and suffering from uremia, can you?

Shen Xin said, "Don’t worry. With my skills, you think I’m going to run out of favors to call in?"

’People owed me favors in the past. They’ll owe me more in the future.’

’After all, I’m on the path to becoming a criminal investigation expert.’

After a moment’s thought, Shen Xin called Chen Chao to ask if he had investigated outside the city after he began to suspect Guo Jinhua was the killer.

Sure enough, just as Zhang Hancheng had suggested, Chen Chao had not only investigated within the city but had also attempted to look into other cities.

His thinking was the same as Shen Xin’s: he believed Guo Jinhua would have gone to another city to buy the rat poison to hide its origin.

He had tried to track Guo Jinhua’s movements during those months, but he couldn’t be sure when the poison was purchased. By the time he started investigating, more than five months had already passed since that June.

With just a few men, it was an incredibly difficult task to get to the bottom of.

Chen Chao wasn’t the least bit surprised that Shen Xin had reached the same conclusion he had.

In fact, he would have found it strange if Shen Xin *hadn’t* been able to figure it out.

"Shen Xin, so much more time has passed. It’s not going to be easy to investigate. What’s your plan? Got any bright ideas?" Chen Chao asked.

Shen Xin replied, "Captain Chen, I don’t have any bright ideas. All I can do is use the brute-force method: throw manpower at it."

He then explained his plan to request help from the three surrounding cities.

After hearing him out, Chen Chao went silent. After a long moment, he said, "Damn. I’m just now realizing that you’re way more connected than I am, kid."

After that one exclamation, Chen Chao didn’t say much else.

The brute-force method was, in reality, the best method they had.

"If you need anything, just ask," he said, and then hung up.

Putting down his phone, Shen Xin saw the other three still staring at him. He stood up. "All right, time to work. Lao Yang, you’re with me. We’re going to go ask for some favors."

Asking for favors wasn’t something you could do over the phone. You had to make the trip in person.