Chen Shi said, “You don't need to go yet. Just wait until you have clear evidence.”

“That's right. A complete fingerprint was extracted from this fake key. If you have a suspect, you can compare it with this.”

The next job was to watch the surveillance video of that night. Everyone who came in and out of the community around 12:00 had to be carefully identified. This work was time-consuming and laborious. By 5:30 in the evening, Chen Shi said, “I should go. I need to pick Yueyue up.”

Lin Dongxue rubbed her slightly swollen temples. “We have to work overtime. We’ll tell you the result at the case discussion tomorrow morning.”

“Remember to rest.”

They busied themselves until 8:00 and everyone who left the community after the incident was identified in the video. They created simple photos and stuck it on the whiteboard. Xu Xiaodong said foolishly, “Do we have to question all of these people?”

“Pretty much!” Lin Dongxue looked over each face. Little Gu wasn’t among them. Originally, she doubted Little Gu a little, but for right now, she seemed innocent.

However, a face caught Lin Dongxue's attention. It turned out that it was Miss Jiang, who shouldn’t have been on the scene. The video records showed that she left the community at 12:20.

At the project meeting the next morning, everyone presented the clues found and organized them. The TV station and the online news crew were carefully confirmed to have no one leave before or after the case.

However, as for those who called the TV station, the TV station said they would help the police investigate, but it seemed that they weren’t too concerned about it and never contacted the police.

On the online news side of things, the person who provided new clues was an anonymous number that contacted the editor’s cell phone and couldn’t be verified.

“It seems that the group of reporters is not within the scope of suspects.” Lin Dongxue concluded.

The police officers in charge of this angle were still reluctant to give up. “I think we should spend more manpower to verify their testimony.”

“Okay, but our team is quite small. Just hold off on the TV station for now. We have a lead. At 9:00 that night, Miss Jiang said she was unwell and went home to rest. However, in the surveillance video, she left at 12:20 again.”

There was a lot of discussion and some people speculated. “If you want to talk about the motive of the crime, Miss Jiang is full of motivation. You just said that the key she gave you was fake, indicating that the real key might still be in her hands. She also knows the environment better and possesses the conditions for committing the crime.”

“Call her today and ask!”

Chen Shi asked, “When did Miss Jiang enter the community?”

Lin Dongxue said, “I looked through the previous footage. She entered the community at half past eleven.”

Everyone was shocked. “It's completely within the crime committing time period!”

At this time, Xu Xiaodong was late and came in quietly from the back door. Lin Dongxue looked at him and reprimanded, “Xiaodong, you’re late!”

Xu Xiaodong said regretfully, “My cat was sick. I went to the vets early in the morning, sorry!”

Lin Dongxue didn't know how to reprimand others and just said, “Don’t let it happen again!”

Peng Sijue suddenly asked Xu Xiaodong, “What sickness was it?”

“Cat-scratch disease[1]...”

“What is cat-scratch disease?”

“It is a bacterial infectious disease. The doctor also asked me if I was scratched. I said no.”

“What happens when a person gets scratched?”

“You’ll get infected and it causes inflammation...”

Lin Dongxue was about to remind them not to speak at the meeting like that. Peng Sijue suddenly stood up and walked away. Lin Dongxue felt like she lost face and coughed. “Let's go find Miss Jiang!”

Around 10:00, Miss Jiang was invited to the interrogation room. Being suddenly brought here for questioning, she looked very panicked and said to Lin Dongxue as she entered the interrogation room, “Officer Lin, I'm not guilty of anything. Why did you arrest me?”

“We just need to ask you some questions.” Lin Dongxue sat down. “You don't have to be nervous. Do you want to drink water?”

At this time, everyone else was watching outside.

Miss Jiang said, “No need. If you have any questions, just go ahead. After this, I still have to go to work.”

“At 8:00 on April 16th , we had dinner together, and then at 9:00 you said you were feeling sick and went home, right?”

“Yes, you know all this.”

“And then?”

“What then?”

“Did you stay at home after that?”

“Yes, I was there the whole time!”

“The surveillance shows that you entered the community at 11:30 and left at 12:20. What do you want to say about that?”

Miss Jiang was startled. “You could only see me?”

Even if she wasn't good at interrogating, Lin Dongxue caught the meaning of this sentence. She asked, “You weren't alone at the time?”

“No, it was just me!”

Lin Dongxue put a key on the table, “You gave me this key to let me mediate the situation, remember?”

“I remember.”

“But the key is fake. The door can’t be opened with it.”

“That’s impossible!” Anxious, Miss Jiang tipped over the plastic cup filled with water.

Lin Dongxue rushed towards the single-mirror window and made a gesture. Immediately, someone came in to clean up the cup and mess. The cup was actually taken to forensics for testing.

The result came out quickly and the fingerprint identification showed that the strange fingerprint on the key did not belong to Miss Jiang. It appeared that it was another person.

Lin Dongxue learned of the result through an internal phone and said to Miss Jiang, “Your boyfriend Mr. Ma died around 12:00 that night. Do you know about this?”

“I do. I saw it all on Weibo.”

“You also have a motive for the crime...”

“No, no, I don’t. If I had the ability to kill, things would not have happened like that!” Miss Jiang desperately denied.

Lin Dongxue continued, “We think you have a motive for committing the crime and now the times you were at the crime scene are also a match. If you continue to deny things without saying anything, things will be bad for you.”

Miss Jiang kept twisting the handkerchief in her hand and biting her lip.

“Do you police have two faces?” She said. “You comforted me that night, but now you’re treating me just like the prisoner.”

Lin Dongxue replied, “I'm just doing my job. In fact, this is my first independent questioning. I thought that you wouldn’t feel too nervous if you were just talking to me alone.”

Miss Jiang glanced at the recorder and asked, “Can you turn that off?”

“No, but we’ll keep what you say a secret.”

After hesitating for a long time, Miss Jiang finally spoke. “First of all, I didn't kill anyone. Secondly, he didn't kill anyone either.”

“Who is ‘he’?”

“My ex-boyfriend! It was the guy I mentioned to you. The relationship that was broken up by my family... Actually, I lied to you. I did cheat. But it wasn’t as bad as Ma Jianjun thought. I just met my ex-boyfriend and we talked about my current situation and experiences. He still loves me very much. I promised to be his girlfriend again. Of course, this time we didn’t intend to let others know... Actually, the hotel thing was deliberate. I knew Ma Jianjun was very paranoid and suspicious. I did it on purpose to deliberately break his heart, thinking that he would let me go after that. Who knew that this obsessive man would do such a thing!”

“Miss Jiang, I won't condemn you. After all, this boy is your true love.” Lin Dongxue said knowing that if Lin Qiupu was on the scene, she must have been scolded there for saying something she shouldn't say during the interrogation.

“Thank you!” Miss Jiang wiped her tears. “My ex-boyfriend that day... No, my current boyfriend who knew about it said he was going to settle it with the obsessive freak. I was afraid he would do something extreme. Besides, reporters and police were at the scene, so I went to the community to stop him! It was at 11:30 as you’ve said.”

1. AKA Bartonella Hensellae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartonella_henselae