Guan Qingyun weighed Zhao Lin’s tone. Could the security chief truly have nothing to do with this?
But without help from someone familiar with the building, no outsider could possibly have discovered every concealed corner of such a large shopping center.
At that moment, Zhou Bin shoved the door open so violently that Guan Qingyun turned in alarm.
“We’ve just found a trace of the security chief,” he said.
Zhao Lin cut in with a smile. “Officers, the clock is ticking. You should spend your time thinking about how to find evidence against me.”
Zhou Bin nearly stepped forward to hit him. If Guan Qingyun had not been there, no one would have stopped him.
“That temper of yours really will never change!”
“Let’s deal with the case first.”
As she spoke, Guan Qingyun caught Zhou Bin by the hem of his jacket and pulled him out of the interrogation room. Then she gave clear instructions to the officer stationed at the door.
“Don’t give him anything he asks for except his three meals. Remember that.”
The officer nodded. “Captain Guan, what if he insists?”
“He knows so much about police procedure that he must have been here plenty of times.” Zhou Bin had calmed down. He flipped through Zhao Lin’s file, then exclaimed, “Well, I’ll be damned. Not even once.”
Guan Qingyun explained that Zhao Lin had probably learned it all from television dramas. If he demanded anything, they could simply ignore him.
“Understood.” The officer nodded quickly.
***
All the officers were waiting in the conference room.
One man stood out in particular. Wearing a grave expression, he leafed through the documents in his hands and occasionally looked up at the officers crowded together in front of him.
“How is the surveillance review going?” he asked. “And what about the structure of the explosive device I asked you to investigate?”
An officer emerged from the cluster and sat beside him. “Captain Xiu, we examined the footage frame by frame. We found nothing unusual—not even one suspicious person.”
Xiu Yu gave a cold laugh. “What, can our culprit fly through the heavens and burrow through the earth?”
“Anyone who enters a place leaves traces behind.”
The officer pursed his lips, unsure how to explain. Everyone knew Xiu Yu’s temperament. Once he threw himself into a problem, no one could hold him back. But the officer genuinely had no idea what had happened.
Xiu Yu asked again, “Do we have all the internal surveillance footage?”
The officer answered promptly. “The manager said everything is here. We asked several times and received the same answer every time.”
“Did Captain Zhou ask him personally?”
“No.”
Xiu Yu seemed to have expected that. He sighed, rose, and walked toward the officers. Everyone remained fixed on the monitors, afraid of overlooking the smallest detail.
No one knew how much time passed. Just as the officer reviewing the footage was about to take a break, a slender hand extended from the crowd and pointed at the screen. A sharp voice followed.
“At fifteen minutes and fifty seconds, upper-left corner. Enlarge that figure. I want a closer look.”
Xiu Yu turned. Guan Qingyun had appeared behind them without him noticing.
“Captain Guan, who is that shadow?”
“It resembles the man we just arrested. From a distance, the build looked almost identical.” Guan Qingyun’s voice remained even, without the slightest urgency. “Zhou Bin is still questioning Zhao Lin. If Consultant Xiu isn’t busy, you can take over the interrogation. Otherwise, keep checking the footage for anything else.”
“You and Zhou Bin were both rather famous at the police academy. An interrogation like this shouldn’t trouble you.”
Xiu Yu sighed. “At the scene, I found different patterns in the shattered glass. I don’t think the device used high-grade explosives.”
Guan Qingyun continued, “There was a smell like spoiled chemicals at the scene. Could the culprit have used a Molotov cocktail?”
“No. Impossible,” Xiu Yu answered decisively.
He quickly approached the table behind him, pulled on white gloves, and selected a shard from a pile of broken glass.
“Shopping centers generally use fire-resistant tempered glass. A Molotov cocktail cannot produce enough force and heat to blast it apart.”
“Then a large explosive?”
“We checked every entrance and exit. There are no relevant traces.”
Xiu Yu offered another thought. “We still don’t know why this person did not intend to kill anyone. But an explosive with that much power would most likely come from a factory that manufactures gunpowder.”
It was an excellent lead.
Guan Qingyun thought of Zhao Lin. Before going to prison, he had worked at a chemical plant. He possessed both the access and the practical knowledge.
“Captain Guan, Captain Xiu—we found this figure in footage from several of the past few days. The person changed clothes every time.”
Guan Qingyun moved closer. “When did he appear?”
“Five days ago at 2:25 p.m., he turned a corner on the third floor and entered a restroom. Half an hour later he reappeared on camera wearing a cleaner’s uniform. An hour after that, he entered the restroom on the fourth floor…” The officer at the front continued, “There are no cameras inside the restrooms, and no one else was present at the time, so we don’t know exactly what happened.”
“That makes no sense,” Officer Wang said. “Two in the afternoon is one of the busiest periods, even on a weekday. How could no one have been there?”
He was right. Why had the restroom been empty at that hour?
Guan Qingyun found it equally strange.
She tapped the table and was about to speak when Zhou Bin rushed through the door. He seized a cup from the table and drained it in one swallow.
“Zhao Lin still refuses to say anything, and he’s arrogant as hell.”
Guan Qingyun approached and whispered several sentences to him. Thoughtful, Zhou Bin quickly left to follow her instructions.
Just as she had expected, Zhao Lin’s expression soon changed dramatically. Yet he revealed nothing about the fire. Instead, he confessed that he had stolen chemical materials from his factory.
He was only an ordinary factory worker and did not truly understand those chemicals. He stole them because he could sell them.
“He says he was supposed to meet someone at the shopping center today to sell the materials,” Zhou Bin explained after sitting down. “Then the incident happened. He thought we were arresting him for trafficking the chemicals, so he attacked us.”
Xiu Yu turned toward him. “Old Zhou, did he identify the buyer?”
“He said he spoke online with someone using the name ‘Destroy the World.’ Yesterday was the first time they arranged to meet.”
“I sent the technical team to trace the account’s location. Sites require real-name verification now, so it should be easy.” Zhou Bin smiled, thinking they might finally solve the problem.
But the technical team reported that the location was virtual and pointed to a foreign country.
Zhou Bin’s expression darkened. “What about the real-name registration?”
Officer Wang shook his head. “Fake. The identity number belongs to an elderly person who has already died.”
Guan Qingyun said, “Then this must be an illegal website.”
They had begun with one criminal investigation and unexpectedly uncovered a platform like this. There was no telling how many people it had already poisoned.