Chapter 840: Two Empty Cash Boxes
Of course, we also can’t rule out the possibility that the other party is an accomplice.
Logically speaking, the robber leaving from the rooftop of Old Li’s house could very likely directly enter their house, then leave through another alley.
However, this possibility is relatively small.
The incident happened not at night, but in the afternoon.
Old Li’s house is rented out, with a high traffic flow; Lu Chuan found many people inside the house when he entered.
Therefore, it would be difficult for them to leave without alerting anyone.
Lu Chuan followed the newly discovered traces and checked the surroundings.
Quickly, he found a clue at the southeast corner of the wall.
There were fresh tracks.
"Captain Lu, here!"
Two criminal police officers accompanying Lu Chuan also searched the area.
In several cardboard boxes at the northwest corner, they found a rope.
"This should be the rope used by the other party."
Lu Chuan glanced at it: "Take it back and see if we can find any biological information of the suspect."
The escape route was found, the rope used for escaping was also located, and the direction of escape was determined.
"Mr. Li, whose house is next door?"
"It’s the Cui Family, but they’re out of town."
Lu Chuan nodded, jumped through the gap, less than five centimeters wide, between the two houses.
From the rooftop perspective, the robbers could plan many escape routes.
Two criminal police officers from Binzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team followed Lu Chuan and jumped over.
The rooftop was rarely visited, so the traces left were relatively clear; Lu Chuan carefully observed and could find the trajectory of their actions.
"Did anyone check this house yesterday?"
Lu Chuan crouched by the wall, finding a place that seemed to have someone lying down.
"This house’s residents are out of town, but we’ve already contacted them; last night, we opened the door to check inside, and left after finding nothing."
The Binzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team’s work was quite meticulous, as they even checked the yard despite no one being home.
However, clearly, they hadn’t checked thoroughly.
"They didn’t check the rooftops, did they?"
The two officers exchanged a glance, confirming it was true.
Moreover, they saw the trace in front of Lu Chuan that seemed like someone had been lying down.
This led to a particularly unsettling thought.
Perhaps during the search, the suspect was lying on the rooftop, waiting for them to finish searching before leaving.
"Let’s go down and take a look."
Coming down from the top floor, Lu Chuan and the others had just turned around the stairs, when they discovered two important things in the hallway on the second floor.
"Cash boxes!"
Damn.
Two empty cash boxes!
Lu Chuan stepped forward to examine them, but didn’t touch directly; the lock on the cash boxes had been smashed, leaving behind the crime tool, an iron hammer.
Obviously, the officers’ speculations from the Binzhou Team had come true.
After the crime occurred yesterday afternoon, they arrived at the scene within minutes and immediately conducted a pursuit.
Then they rushed to conduct a raid on the self-built housing area.
Clearly, the suspect might’ve been hiding on the rooftop during the search, waiting to come down after they finished, enter the room, smash open the cash boxes with a hammer, and take the money inside.
Otherwise, they should’ve discovered those two empty cash boxes earlier.
Last night they were just a step away from the robber!
Lu Chuan put on gloves and briefly examined the cash boxes.
"Take the boxes and the hammer back first."
"Yes!"
The group went down the stairs to the front door, discovering it wasn’t locked.
Apparently, upon leaving, the robber opened the lock, and without a key, naturally couldn’t lock the door again.
They exited the yard and regrouped with Li Donglin’s team.
"Director Li, we’ve found two empty cash boxes at the staircase of a self-built house."
Li Donglin was surprised: "The Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team didn’t find that during their search yesterday?!"
Lu Chuan shook his head: "They probably climbed from the house we just inspected, through the wall to the rooftop, and stayed there until the police finished searching."
"They seem to be very familiar with the area; the house where they lingered belongs to the Cui Family, all of whom have been away from Binzhou City recently, which gave them the freedom at the house’s staircase to smash open the cash boxes and take the money."
"If that’s the case, the entire escape process, even the police search, was anticipated, meticulously planned."
Lu Chuan shared the sentiment: This gang of robbers isn’t simple.
They used fake guns to intimidate security personnel armed with real ones and then left calmly.
During the escape, they factored in the police’s pursuit, and once the clamor ceased, emerged again; playing within the shadows extremely well.
Didn’t they consider that if the police searched the rooftops, they’d be exposed?
Yet, the search didn’t include the rooftops this time.
"I’ve instructed the Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team’s officers to take the cash boxes and hammer back for analysis, hoping to find some traces."
"Alright, let’s move on to the next site."
The suspect, on the left, is temporarily designated as Robber No. 2.
Similar to Robber No. 1.
The other suspect ran about eight hundred meters, then turned into an alley and vanished.
"This alley is different from the previous one; the previous alley is a dead-end after two hundred meters, but this alley leads directly into the entire self-built housing area."
"Yesterday afternoon after work, the crowd was relatively large; many people saw him rush into the alley, but when we went to inquire, said they hadn’t seen him."
In that case...
The suspect was fully armed yesterday, with their face covered in a custom mask, and their eyes covered by tinted glass—such a distinctive look, impossible not to leave an impression if seen.
So, did he disappear again?
"Have the residents here been checked?"
Gao Xiang initially wanted to say the checks were done but recalled recent events: "Apart from not checking the rooftops, we’ve checked everything else; nothing significant was found last night."
This was a major oversight.
But... why wasn’t it thought of yesterday?
Lu Chuan surveyed the surroundings.
"Rooftops are unlikely; this alley is lined with shop fronts, unlike Robber No. 1’s side, where the walls in dead-end alleys are completely unnoticed."
The group walked through, and Lu Chuan suddenly stopped.
"Wait!"
Lu Chuan veered to the right towards a narrow passage between two buildings.
The passage was narrow, only slightly wider than a person.
Lu Chuan’s focus was entirely on a manhole cover in the middle of the passage.
This manhole cover... was improperly placed.