Identity 093

After lunch, Han Bin and the others returned to the office.

Han Bin poured himself a cup of tea and sat staring into space, sipping it absentmindedly.

Tian Li was the restless sort; after rinsing a rag, she began tidying up the room.

Li Hui kept his head down, playing on his phone and breaking out now and then into a foolish grin.

With a creak, the door opened.

Zhao Ming walked in carrying a bucket of instant noodles, along with ham and pickled greens.

"Zhao Ming, I know you've got money, but you don't have to show off every day," Li Hui said.

"Like I wanted to. I overslept—what was I supposed to do?" Zhao Ming yawned.

"Zhao Ming, start getting up half an hour earlier from now on. If you keep living on instant noodles, your body won't hold up," Zeng Ping said, reaching out to pat his shoulder.

"Thanks for the concern, Team Leader Zeng. I'll definitely change," Zhao Ming said with an embarrassed smile.

As a young man of the new age, Han Bin simply could not fall asleep without fiddling with his phone before bed. Once he started, time became unpredictable. If he had not set an alarm last night, he would have been late today for sure.

Clap, clap.

Zeng Ping clapped his hands. "Morning meeting."

"What did you find at the Grand Fortune Hotel last night?"

"We found two suspicious people. The first was Tang Yu's boyfriend, Xiang Hongbo. The second was Luo Xinghua," Han Bin said.

"What was wrong with Xiang Hongbo?" Zeng Ping asked at once.

"When he was making his statement, Xiang Hongbo seemed extremely nervous. Then I asked him a few more questions and found signs that he was lying."

Zeng Ping stroked his chin and thought for a moment. "Any evidence?"

"I asked who paid for He Shirui's room. Xiang Hongbo said he did. But when we checked with the front desk, we found that the person who paid was actually Luo Xinghua," Han Bin said.

"Who is this Luo Xinghua?"

"We have Luo Xinghua's phone number and ID information, but we haven't had time to check his address or details yet."

"Find out. We must get to the bottom of this Luo Xinghua. He was willing to pay such an expensive room fee, so his relationship with He Shirui must have been unusual," Zeng Ping said, pointing at Tian Li. "Pull Luo Xinghua's personal information from the system."

"Yes."

"Team Leader Zeng, I suggest pulling up Xiang Hongbo and Tang Yu's information as well. Xiang Hongbo deliberately shielded Luo Xinghua, which proves there was something unusual between them," Han Bin said.

"Do it that way."

Just as Tian Li left, forensic examiner Wu Xia came in.

"Having a meeting?"

"Dr. Wu, perfect timing. Please have a seat. I was just about to go looking for you," Zeng Ping said, rising to greet her.

"There's no need to be so polite, Team Leader Zeng. I came by to deliver the report," Wu Xia said, holding a file in her hand.

"Has the autopsy report come out?"

"It's all here." Wu Xia handed the document to Zeng Ping.

"Dr. Wu, could you just give us the gist? We won't be able to make sense of it all at once."

"The report has three main points. First, He Shirui was indeed drowned by seawater. Second, the debris found in the creases under her fingernails was some kind of coating material. Third, no traces of nail polish were detected on her nails."

"Was there sexual intercourse before He Shirui died?" Li Hui asked.

"No."

"The coating material you mentioned—is it automotive paint, or ordinary paint?" Han Bin pressed.

"Neither." Wu Xia shook her head and explained. "This coating contains a special chemical compound, FeSOCO3. It has strong anti-corrosion properties and is often used on ships and yachts. Automotive paint doesn't have such demanding requirements in this regard."

"In other words, He Shirui may not have drowned at the seashore. She may have fallen from a boat, or someone may have pushed her into the sea from one," Han Bin analyzed.

Wu Xia spread her hands. "That, I can't say."

"Thanks for your hard work, Dr. Wu," Zeng Ping said.

"It's nothing. I'll leave the autopsy report here. If you don't understand anything, come ask me." With that, Wu Xia got up and left.

"Dr. Wu really came through for us with a very important clue," Han Bin said with a smile.

"Since we've established that the woman who went to the bar the night before last wasn't He Shirui, that means someone was deliberately impersonating her. Can we file the case now?" Li Hui asked.

Zeng Ping fell silent for a moment. "Not yet."

"Team Leader, what are we waiting for?" Zhao Ming asked, confused.

"What evidence do you have that the woman who went to the bar was pretending to be He Shirui?" Zeng Ping countered.

"They were wearing the same clothes, and the timing of the bar visit matched," Li Hui said.

"There are plenty of identical clothes in the world, and there isn't only one bar in Qindao. That woman at the bar the night before last never once said her name was He Shirui. Everything we've said so far is only our inference. When filing a case, evidence is what matters. Understand?" Zeng Ping said.

"Then what evidence are we waiting for?" Zhao Ming still hadn't quite caught on.

"Wait for the message from WeChat. As long as we can confirm that He Shirui's phone was used for spending at the bar the night before last, but the person using the phone was not her, then along with the bartender's testimony, that will be enough to prove someone was impersonating He Shirui," Zeng Ping explained.

Clap, clap.

Han Bin clapped and gave a thumbs-up. "As expected, the older ginger is spicier."

"Flatterer," Li Hui snorted.

"Haha..." Zeng Ping laughed. If someone else had said that, it would have been plain flattery, but coming from Han Bin, he found it rather pleasing.

"Team Leader, what do we do now? We can't just sit around waiting," Zhao Ming said.

"Han Bin, what do you think?"

"Since we've already inferred that someone was impersonating He Shirui, what was that person's purpose?" Han Bin asked.

"To make it look as if He Shirui were still alive, and conceal her actual time of death," Li Hui said.

"In that case, if He Shirui had probably already died around ten o'clock the night before last, then her time of death would be between eight and ten that evening. The last people she saw were neither Jiang Anyang nor Mao Yiran. So our main line of investigation now should be to figure out whom she met and where she went during that period," Han Bin analyzed.

Zeng Ping nodded and pointed to Zhao Ming beside him. "Go to the telecom company and pull the communication records for Luo Xinghua, Xiang Hongbo, and Tang Yu."

"What about WeChat?"

"I'll handle the WeChat records," Zeng Ping said.

Han Bin drank a cup of tea, smoked a cigarette, and quietly waited for the evidence needed to file the case.

At the same time, he was pondering another matter. According to his reasoning, the person most likely to have impersonated He Shirui was Tang Yu. Yet after two statements, he had found no signs of Tang Yu lying, which left Han Bin somewhat puzzled.

Could it be that the level of micro-expression analysis was simply too low?

With a creak, he did not know how long later the office door opened, and Tian Li walked in.

"Have the information on the three of them come back?" Zeng Ping asked.

"It's all here." Tian Li turned on the projector and displayed Tang Yu's file.

Name: Tang Yu

Age: 25

Ethnicity: Han

Height: 165 cm

Native place: Gaolong City

Occupation: Stage actress

Phone number: 134624xxxxx

Address: 117 Xifeng Street, Shangbei District, Gaolong City