Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 263: The Prince and the Pauper

Haotai Hotel, eleventh floor, Room 1108.

This is a suite; upon entering, there’s a living room, and the bedroom is inside the living room.

"Let’s begin."

Liu Guodong and Lu Chuan started from the doorway, putting on masks, shoe covers, and gloves, and began their investigation.

On the sofa in the living room, there was a black backpack with an open zipper.

"Inside are some clothes for changing."

Liu Guodong took out the items inside and recorded them one by one.

"There are also some toiletries in the bathroom."

Having taken photos, Lu Chuan analyzed the items in the room with Liu Guodong.

"According to the information provided by Xu Zhe, Liu Bai had dinner at the hotel after getting off the plane yesterday, and then went straight to the concert venue for a sound check."

"He came back around nine o’clock."

"Not all the clothes in the backpack were taken out, and there are signs of the toiletries in the bathroom having been used..."

Liu Guodong frowned, looking at the toothbrush in the bathroom’s cup, along with an opened toothpaste tube.

"So, Liu Bai had already washed up when he left the room?"

Being fully washed up implies Liu Bai might have been preparing to sleep.

This essentially rules out the possibility that Liu Bai wanted to ditch his manager and go out alone.

Moreover, Liu Bai is not a newcomer; having gained fame across the country more than a decade ago, he has experienced both highs and the lows of a performance career.

After so many years, he is no longer that naive rookie. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The manager couldn’t have stopped Liu Bai if he wanted to go out.

So, analyzing the room’s items, it’s highly likely that something is wrong with Liu Bai’s disappearance.

Besides a backpack, there was nothing else in the living room.

The two made a simple record and walked into the bedroom.

The phone was placed on the bedside table, and it was connected to a charger.

A book was on the pillow; Lu Chuan picked it up and saw the title, "Silent Journey."

A bookmark was tucked in the middle of the book.

"With the book on the pillow, he was reading?"

"Seems like it, Master, and over here."

Lu Chuan bent down and found a sock by the side of the bed.

"Only one sock."

Just one?

Liu Guodong walked over to take a look: "Left in a hurry and only put on one?"

Opening the wardrobe on the left, it was empty, with nothing inside.

"Now we’ve got something to do."

Liu Guodong’s sentiment was shared by Lu Chuan.

Liu Bai’s disappearance, judging by the room’s situation, should not be voluntary.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have only worn one sock, left without his phone, or left a half-read book on the pillow.

"Let me scan the place first, see if I can find any hair or skin flakes left by the other party."

"Alright, I’ll call Captain Qin to report the situation."

Lu Chuan took out a UV light and began scanning.

The room was carpeted, so looking for footprints was pointless, the key was to see if any biological material was left by the other party.

If the other party was not so careful, they might have left fingerprints.

But this was, after all, a hotel room, with many past occupants, it was impossible for the cleaners to erase every trace of previous residents.

Thus, Lu Chuan was destined for a lot of work.

Indeed, just as Liu Guodong turned to leave, Lu Chuan had already found two hairs.

Outside the room.

"Captain Qin, Liu Bai had already washed up when he disappeared, from the room’s arrangement, the other party should have been reading in bed, the phone was charging... "

Whether Liu Bai disappeared voluntarily or due to other factors, Qin Yong had his suspicions but no solid evidence.

Liu Guodong’s investigation results on Liu Bai’s room helped define the nature of the case.

Inside a hotel conference room.

Qin Yong was reporting to Song Jiangguo over the phone.

"We suspect Liu Bai’s disappearance is a premeditated kidnapping for ransom."

"We haven’t received any ransom demand yet... yes... that’s right!"

"Rest assured, sir! We’ll do our utmost!"

Hanging up the phone, Qin Yong took a deep breath.

Kidnappings for ransom are rare; over the years, Qin Yong had only encountered three cases.

The first was early in his career.

A local thug kidnapped the village chief’s five-year-old son.

Fortunately, timely handling and the thug’s disinterest in harming the child, led to a successful rescue.

The second case was twelve years ago, at a construction site, where a migrant worker took the developer’s secretary hostage.

That case was more severe, initiated by the developer not paying wages to the workers.

The laborer’s mother was critically ill and needed money urgently, and he had mental issues.

The case was dangerous, the secretary had her arm cut and was slightly injured.

But fortunately, the result was positive.

However, not all cases end well.

Six years ago, Qin Yong was not yet a division captain when a criminal investigation team reported an incident, and Qin Yong was in charge of support.

In the end, the ransom was paid, the kidnappers fled, and the hostage was killed.

The case remains unsolved.

Liu Bai’s disappearance became the fourth kidnapping case Qin Yong encountered.

Monitoring room.

"How is it?"

Ren Qiang personally led Zhang Hui and others to check the surveillance.

"There’s a problem."

"In the surveillance video, Liu Bai entered the room at 8:49 PM last night; this is the footage from the time."

Qin Yong stepped forward to watch and could clearly see Liu Bai in a black top and gray pants, coming out of the elevator corner and walking to Room 1108’s door to enter.

"We checked the elevator footage; it seamlessly connects with the hallway video, Liu Bai’s return footage to the hotel is fine."

"However, the footage after 10:30 PM..."

Ren Qiang played a segment of footage after 10:30 PM.

It showed a cleaner pushing a cart past the hallway.

"Captain Qin, please look at the video on this computer."

Qin Yong turned his head, and Zhang Hui started the playback.

The footage showed another cleaner pushing a cart past.

"Identical footage?"

"Yes, it is identical footage, but the video Zhang Hui played is from the night before last after 10:30 PM."

"Someone replaced last night’s footage after 10:30 PM with the footage from the night before at the same time!"

Replaced?

"We checked, and the other party used the footage from the night before, from 10:30 to 11 PM, to replace the footage from the same timeframe last night."

A sleight of hand?

Qin Yong handled many cases; this scenario... it was his first encounter.

No wonder Xu Zhe and others found nothing from the surveillance footage after Liu Bai’s disappearance.

However, replacing the footage isn’t simple, right?

Just then, Qin Yong’s phone rang.

It was Sun Jun.

"Captain Qin! Come to Room 902!"

"The kidnappers called!"