Diary of a Criminal Investigator

According to Li Chuan, it’s all robbery anyway, whether it’s one million or eight million, it’s still robbery, so it’s obvious to wait for more money before making a move.

The few of them have been running this transport route for about two years, so they are well aware of the approximate amount transported each time.

And if a client makes a large deposit, their proceeds could potentially double.

Chen Tianbao actually only knew about the robbery; he was aware that a coal mining company deposited money at the bank that day, but he didn’t know that another coal mining company had also deposited money at a different bank.

So the three of them robbed over eight million, which was somewhat unexpected.

They originally thought six or seven million would already be quite good.

With Chen Zheng and Zhang Xiaohu both apprehended, this armed robbery case had seen significant progress.

The money hidden in the town over there had all been recovered.

Most of Zhang Xiaohu’s money was buried in a gully at North Mountain Park in Binzhou City.

Now, they were returning to Binzhou with a team to retrieve the remaining stolen cash on-site.

The turn of events occurred just as Li Donglin and others entered the vicinity of Binzhou City.

Gao Xiang’s subordinate called in; there had been an exciting discovery in the investigation concerning Wang Qiang.

Although Wang Qiang was not from Binzhou City, he had been working there ever since he left the security company two years ago.

Coincidentally, Wang Qiang currently lives in a self-built house area near the bank where the incident occurred.

To be more precise, the house Wang Qiang rents is directly along the escape route of Li Chuan.

Upon receiving this information, the exhausted group decided to head immediately to the self-built house area near the crime scene bank.

The major crime unit split into two once again.

Song Mingguang headed straight to North Mountain Park with Zhang Xiaohu to dig up the cash.

Li Donglin and Lu Chuan headed directly to the self-built house area.

An hour later.

Gao Xiang and his team were already waiting at the self-built house area.

"Director Li, this Wang Qiang is renting in a self-built house here; we already checked his residence on the day of the incident, no issues found."

In fact, all the self-built houses around here had been searched by Gao Xiang’s team three times.

But nothing was found.

"Let’s take a look anyway."

Li Donglin wasn’t too hopeful, honestly.

But no matter what, Li Chuan’s whereabouts were unknown, and the coincidence of Wang Qiang renting a house on his escape route was unusual.

Besides, the day of the investigation was at night.

If they couldn’t find anyone then, a person could still flee later.

Whether Wang Qiang provided any assistance was uncertain.

Wang Qiang’s rented house was close to the roadside for easy access.

When Li Donglin and others arrived, Wang Qiang was already waiting in the room.

"Officers, haven’t you been here already?"

"I took leave to come back; could you hurry up?"

Wang Qiang had tanned skin, wore a yellow food delivery uniform, with a pair of bunny ears on his head—he was a delivery rider.

"Wang Qiang, do you know Li Chuan?"

Li Donglin asked.

"Li Chuan? Of course, we used to work in a security company, same group."

"Any idea where he might be?"

"That I don’t know, we haven’t been in contact for a long time."

Not been in contact for a long time?

Li Donglin glanced at him, didn’t speak.

Lu Chuan was checking out the room.

Wang Qiang’s rented house wasn’t large, roughly about 40 square meters or so.

It consisted of a bedroom, a small living room outside, and a simple kitchen.

But the room wasn’t messy; it was quite clean.

The layout was simple; you could see everything at a glance, no place to hide anyone in such a small house.

Honestly, there wasn’t much to see.

Wang Qiang seemed to realize this too: "Under the bed, that’s all my luggage and miscellaneous stuff."

"And there’s the bathroom over here..."

The layout of these self-built rented houses was generally similar, with comparable room sizes.

Lu Chuan took a quick look around and shook his head, ready to leave.

Li Chuan didn’t seem likely to be hiding here; if he was here on the day of the incident, the police would have found him for sure.

It seemed this lead wasn’t going anywhere.

Additionally, Wang Qiang’s demeanor was calm all along.

Plus, he had indeed been out doing deliveries.

The smell of sweat was heavy on him.

Having found nothing, Lu Chuan and others prepared to leave.

It seemed that the overlap of Wang Qiang’s rented place with Li Chuan’s escape path might merely be a coincidence.

But just as Lu Chuan walked past the adjacent rented room, he suddenly stopped.

"Is the landlord here?"

"Yeah, here."

From among the group, an old man stepped forward.

"How big are the rooms you’re renting out?"

"This place is just waiting for demolition, so I don’t live here myself. When I built these houses, they were all the same size, 45 square meters."

square meters?

Lu Chuan pointed to the room beside him: "So this room and the one Wang Qiang rents are the same size, right?"

The old man nodded: "All the same size."

After confirming this, Lu Chuan turned on his heel to head back.

Following behind, Wang Qiang looked surprised when Lu Chuan returned.

"Officer, anything else? If not, I have to go to work; I’ve already lost several delivery orders because of this."

Lu Chuan looked at him: "No problem, I’ll be quick; if worst comes to worst, I’ll personally cover the cost of your delayed orders."

After asking Wang Qiang to open the door, Lu Chuan’s gaze landed on the floor.

Li Donglin followed back in: "Lu Chuan, what’s the deal? Is there a problem?"

Donglin noticed Lu Chuan was continually observing the floor, frowning: "Underground?"

Wang Qiang’s rented house was on the ground floor, so it was indeed possible to dig a hidden space underground.

But Lu Chuan shook his head.

"The landlord just said each room was the same size, yet when I walked past the other, I felt something was off."

"Director Li, look at the tiles beneath us; each is 80 centimeters square, total of 5 and a half along one direction, and 11 along the other...

Calculating this, the area comes to about 40 square meters..."

"But the landlord said his rooms are all 45 square meters; where’s the missing space in this room?"

Having said this, Lu Chuan walked over to the wall for a closer look.

It appeared to be an ordinary wall, no different from the surrounding ones.

However, seeing Lu Chuan examining the wall, Wang Hu couldn’t help but purse his lips nervously.

"Officer, you’ve checked my house several times already. I’ve really got things to do; I’m losing..."

Lu Chuan turned to glance at him but paid no attention.

He extended his hand, knocking on the wall.

Bang, bang, bang.

The sound was muffled, suggesting solid walls.

No issues?

If there were no problems, why was Wang Qiang tense?

Moving past the small living area, he continued knocking until he reached the bedroom.

Thump, thump, thump!

The dull echoes suddenly turned hollow.

Looking back at Wang Qiang, Lu Chuan noted the sweat dripping profusely from his forehead.

"Wang Qiang, why so tense?"

"Huh? Am I tense?"

"Not tense? Your forehead’s all sweaty."

"Oh, oh... maybe it’s too hot."

Hot?

"Someone, break down this wall for me!"