Animal Detective
Chapter 221: It Became a Homicide Case After All
Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei drove toward Pingyu.
Using traffic surveillance footage, they had locked onto the minivan.
It was a ride-sharing vehicle.
They used the license plate to pull up the owner’s information.
A Pingyu local.
They had already contacted him and arranged to meet at the hotel where Jiang Qi was dropped off.
As for Wang Xin’ning, Chen Chao had taken her in to cooperate with the investigation.
They still needed a detailed statement from her about the specifics of Jiang Qi’s departure.
Ding Yuwei sat in the passenger seat, a notebook spread open on her lap, scribbling and sketching.
She had taken a photo of the puzzle from the letter Jiang Qi left behind and was now copying it down.
"Why are you studying that?"
Shen Xin muttered while they waited at a red light.
The puzzle was a 10x10 grid of letters, 100 letters in total, all jumbled randomly with no discernible pattern.
Ding Yuwei had been scribbling at it for a while. "It might be a clue," she said.
"A clue?"
Shen Xin scoffed, pointing up and to the side. "That’s the real clue."
Ding Yuwei looked up and understood instantly.
Shen Xin was talking about the surveillance cameras.
They had already entered Pingyu’s jurisdiction, and the number of cameras at the intersections was insane. A single pole held at least eight of them.
Ding Yuwei glanced at Shen Xin. "You seem to be holding quite a grudge."
Shen Xin shot back, "Aren’t you?"
"If he had just been honest and reported his wife missing like a normal person, this would have all been over with. It’s not like we wouldn’t have helped him look for her."
"Doesn’t that show a lack of trust in us?"
Shen Xin held up one finger, then a second. "Then, thinking he was so clever, he faked a murder scene to throw off our investigation. Twenty people spent two days running around in circles because of him."
Criminal investigators, forensic technicians... twenty people was no exaggeration.
"Oh, and do you know what he said during yesterday’s interrogation? He said if Jiang Qi didn’t show up, he’d rather we arrest him and execute him so he could die with her."
"Honestly, I feel like people like him are just too selfish, completely self-centered."
To be honest, Shen Xin had a pretty good first impression of Bai Jifei when they met at the K-9 base.
But after seeing what the man was capable of, he felt he had finally seen his true colors.
To sum it up in one phrase: a sophisticated egoist.
"Look at the drama he’s staged for himself. He’s probably patting himself on the back right now, thinking, ’For my wife... look, I’m even willing to die.’"
"And Jiang Qi is the same way."
"She’s probably thinking, ’I’ll just disappear, find a deserted place to end it all, and not cause anyone any trouble.’ She sees herself as so noble she’s probably moved to tears, but deep down, isn’t that just as selfish? Only thinking of herself." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
"Forget her husband, what about her parents? How can she be so irresponsible? Just end it all and be done with it?"
"And look, she even leaves a puzzle. Isn’t that just being melodramatic?"
Ding Yuwei hadn’t expected Shen Xin to rant so intensely. "You must have seen all sorts of people back at the local station," she said. "Why are you having such a strong reaction this time?"
In a crowd of a hundred, you’ll find every sort of person.
Ding Yuwei had long heard that working a few years at a local station was like attending a grand spectacle of human oddities.
"I wasn’t there for long."
Only a year.
"Most importantly, that bastard killed a dog."
Shen Xin said viciously.
Being run ragged for two days by a faked crime scene was frustrating for Shen Xin, but it was bearable.
Just as Ding Yuwei had said, during his time at the local station, he’d been run ragged by all sorts of bizarre cases to the point where he was too tired to even complain.
So there was really no need to get worked up over Bai Jifei.
He just had to adjust his attitude and get back to work. The next case would surely be waiting.
The key issue was that the bastard had killed the dog they’d raised for years, just to fake the crime scene.
Shen Xin felt the unluckiest victim in this whole case was the dog named Pudding.
What did it ever do to anyone to get butchered like that?
According to Bai Jifei’s description, he first bled it out.
Then, to fake the tool marks of a murder weapon, he dismembered it with an axe and a hacksaw.
And finally, to cover up the fact that he’d killed the dog, he chose the most direct method.
After dismembering it, he was afraid that sending it for professional pet cremation would make people suspicious.
So he cooked the meat... and ate it!
He ate it himself.
He said it was a huge pot, way more than he could eat, so he ended up throwing the rest in the trash.
He’d even thought about feeding it to the other dogs.
The villa was full of dogs. He killed one of their own right in front of them, then cooked it.
The ridiculous part is, the other dogs wouldn’t eat it.
Because it was one of their own kind.
Shen Xin had initially thought that since the guy ran a kennel, he must be a dog lover.
In his initial statement, Bai Jifei had also said that Jiang Qi loved dogs and dreamed of opening her own kennel.
But in Bai Jifei’s mind, the kennel was probably just a business.
In any case, this point made Shen Xin deeply uncomfortable.
It also revealed Bai Jifei’s self-centeredness, apathy, and selfishness.
Ding Yuwei reached out and patted Shen Xin’s shoulder comfortingly, then went back to studying her puzzle.
"Stop wrestling with it. It obviously requires a key."
Shen Xin said offhandedly.
A 10x10 grid of letters is clearly a coordinate system. You use a key to pick out the corresponding letters and convey a message.
And that key is probably something only Jiang Qi and Bai Jifei would know.
Shen Xin added, "If you’re really that curious, just wait until we find Jiang Qi and ask her directly."
’What’s wrong with trying to figure it out myself?’ Ding Yuwei thought.
Still, Shen Xin’s words gave her an idea, and she started trying to apply their birthdays to it.
But by the time they reached the hotel, she still hadn’t found anything.
In the parking lot outside the hotel’s main entrance, Shen Xin saw the driver of the minivan.