Chapter 1521: New Clues
In the operations team meeting room, Ye Fan, Zhang Lu, and Li Tong were discussing the case.
Li Tong led a team to capture Wu Dayong, but they arrived only to find the place abandoned, not even a trace of Wu Dayong.
Thus, Li Tong felt quite unwilling to accept this.
"Stop thinking about Wu Dayong; we already guessed that it would be impossible to catch him," Zhang Lu comforted and reassured her.
"Why?" Li Tong asked urgently.
"The informant," Zhang Lu explained, "because of the informant’s presence, Wu Dayong received the news in advance. He would have retreated at the first opportunity, not allowing you to capture him."
"Is this so?" After contemplating quickly, Li Tong understood and asked, "So, does this mean you already have evidence regarding the informant?"
"As soon as you left the operations team, someone in the team immediately contacted the outside," Zhang Lu said.
"Shen Yaqing and the others have already started working? And they’ve achieved some success?" How could Li Tong not understand? It was obviously the efforts of Shen Yaqing, Qiu Wen, Zhang Kui, and others who were working separately from the operations team that had made significant breakthroughs and gains.
She eagerly said, "So, you never expected me to be able to capture Wu Dayong but used this opportunity to force the informant to contact the outside?"
"Yes," Zhang Lu nodded.
"Was it his idea?" Li Tong looked at Ye Fan with a somewhat peculiar expression.
"That’s right," Zhang Lu nodded again.
"But isn’t the cost a bit too high? After finally pinning down Wu Dayong, letting him go so easily is too regrettable," Li Tong was quite frustrated.
"You must be willing to sacrifice to catch the wolf; necessary sacrifices must be made," Zhang Lu said confidently. "Besides, compared to capturing Wu Dayong, a mole within the operations team is more dangerous."
"I understand," Li Tong could only accept this result and asked, "Do you have any suspects?"
"Not yet. The next step is to conduct a covert investigation into the informant within the operations team," Ye Fan chimed in, saying, "Everything is a tangled mess; we can only take it one step at a time. Identifying the informant’s identity will require some effort."
"Do you already have a plan?" Li Tong looked at Ye Fan. She knew that since Ye Fan said so, it meant he already had a feasible and confident plan.
"We’ll need your cooperation then," Ye Fan calmly stated.
"No problem," Li Tong agreed resolutely.
"Tell us about the investigation results on Wu Dayong," Ye Fan said.
"Wu Dayong had been disguising himself as a porter for nearly two years. According to those at the moving company, Wu Dayong rarely communicated with others and had no familiar people, almost entirely solitary. From the moving company to where he lived, we’ve sent people to investigate thoroughly; it’s clean, and no valuable clues were found," Li Tong briefly explained what they had learned about Wu Dayong.
"That fits the basic traits of a spy: working cleanly and efficiently, leaving no traces, handling aftermath meticulously, all to prevent us from finding him," Ye Fan remarked with a hint of admiration.
At that moment, Li Tong’s phone rang. Seeing it was a call from Hao Min, she answered it.
After listening to Hao Min, Li Tong looked at Ye Fan and Zhang Lu and said, "Hao Min wants to meet me. She says she has clues to give us."
"Let’s go meet her," Ye Fan and Li Tong headed out.
At a café, Ye Fan and Li Tong arrived as agreed; Hao Min was already waiting.
After the three sat down, Hao Min took out a piece of paper. It was a supermarket receipt. "I’m not sure what’s useful to you. This is a supermarket receipt I found in Liu Anping’s pocket while tidying his clothes. Maybe it’s useful to you."
She remembered Li Tong’s instructions from the last time she visited the operations team, to provide any clue, no matter how insignificant, as this could help find Liu Anping’s murderer. Hao Min kept this in mind, paying special attention.
"Thank you very much. This small receipt might just be the key to solving the case," Li Tong took the receipt, carefully keeping it on her person.
"And there’s also this," Hao Min hesitated briefly before handing over a property ownership certificate with both Liu Anping’s and Hao Min’s names on it.
After looking it over, Li Tong showed it to Ye Fan.
"The destination of the money Liu Anping had is known," Ye Fan thought to himself.
It must be that Liu Anping took the money he got from Cheng Mu to buy the house. The whereabouts of Liu Anping’s money was no longer a mystery.
"You’ve already helped us a lot; we’re truly grateful. Liu Anping’s death is not your fault; he was murdered. You need not blame yourself," Li Tong comforted.
"I just hope to do my part and help you with the case solving. I don’t want Liu Anping’s death to be in vain; seeking justice for him is all I can do," Hao Min said sincerely.
"We will definitely catch the murderer, rest assured," Li Tong encouraged.
"Miss Hao, may I ask you a few questions?" Ye Fan, having accompanied Li Tong to meet Hao Min, clearly had questions for her to answer.
"Ask away, I’ll speak frankly on anything I know," Hao Min readily replied.
"Before Liu Anping’s incident, when you went to see him, did you notice anything unusual, no matter what it was, or anything you noticed, please tell us," Ye Fan’s query stemmed from the fact that the murderer, a woman in a red dress, was already in Liu Anping’s room before Hao Min arrived.
"No," Hao Min thought carefully before responding.
"Let me put it this way, when you went to see Liu Anping, the murderer was likely in his room, and it was a woman. Think again," Ye Fan seemed casual, but every word was critical.
Prompted by Ye Fan, Hao Min’s expression changed immediately. She never would have guessed that the murderer was present when she was breaking up with Liu Anping?
Quickly reacting to the term "woman," she said, "I didn’t see any woman, but I smelled perfume. Liu Anping doesn’t wear perfume, so it must belong to someone else. At the time, I thought another woman must have been in Liu Anping’s room."
"That’s right, everything fits perfectly, and the timing matches," Ye Fan muttered to himself.