Chapter Thirty-Four: Is There a Traitor?

I hesitated for a moment before saying, “We can only say that someone used some method to create a supernatural illusion for us, right? Just like the ghost baby incident at the Mountain God Temple last time.”

Director Wang’s expression eased a little as he nodded.

“And also, from the wounds on the three fingers of the corpse I analyzed earlier, it’s very likely the person wanted to take something from under the car seat, or perhaps put something there.”

Director Wang nodded again. “Alright, you two can go and investigate. Leave the coordination work to me.”

I said, “Director Wang, aren’t we unable to conduct a public investigation? If we act openly, we’ll alert the culprit.”

Director Wang sighed. “I have an old comrade working in logistics at that bus company. I’ll get in touch with him. You two will temporarily pose as canteen chefs, and look for a chance to sneak in and see if you can find any valuable clues.”

I quickly nodded in agreement.

Director Wang continued, “We can’t send too many people. Here’s what we’ll do: Li Hong and Xiao Yang will go. Jingjing, you’re in charge of keeping Old Lin and Mouse safe for now.”

Although Tang Jingjing had her objections, seeing Director Wang’s stern face, she dared not argue and could only agree in the end.

Coordination would take some time, so Director Wang told us to wait there for news and then left.

I went with Tang Jingjing and Li Hong to visit Old Lin in his hospital room.

Old Lin had already been brought out of surgery, but his face was terribly pale. Upon seeing us, he managed a bitter smile.

I asked the doctor if Old Lin would be alright. The doctor replied that his blood pressure was a bit high and he was quite agitated, advising an MRI scan another day.

I nodded and thanked the doctor for his trouble.

After the doctor left, I asked Old Lin what he thought about the white shadow.

Old Lin gave a bitter laugh. “Could there really be ghosts in this world?”

Tang Jingjing smiled and teased, “Old Lin, did you hit your head too hard?”

Old Lin laughed heartily, saying he did feel a bit dizzy.

Seeing that Old Lin was exhausted, I urged him to rest and pulled everyone else out of the room.

Afterward, we went to check on Mouse.

Mouse had suffered the most serious injuries this time since his chest had struck the steering wheel. A CT scan showed signs of cracked ribs, but fortunately, it wasn’t too severe and wouldn’t affect his future life much.

When Mouse saw us, he looked guilty and apologized repeatedly, saying he’d remember his mistake for the rest of his life.

I quickly reassured him, telling him not to blame himself at all. I also asked if he believed that white shadow was really a ghost.

Mouse was convinced it was, describing the girl as all white, especially her face, which was so pale it was terrifying. She had even smiled at him and waved repeatedly.

This reminded me of the ghost story Master Bai had told me.

I told Mouse to focus on recovering and not to worry about anything else for now.

After leaving the hospital, I hailed a taxi straight to the bureau. On the way, I called Xia Feng, instructing him to tell the comrades towing the car back to the bureau not to touch it, to avoid destroying valuable evidence.

After hanging up, Li Hong asked if I’d discovered something wrong with the car or had some idea.

I immediately said, “Don’t you find it strange that when we tried to call Old Lin and Mouse, their phones were switched off? Old Lin and Mouse also tried calling me before, but there was no signal.”

Li Hong suddenly realized, “You suspect there was a signal jammer in the car?”

I nodded. “Yes, and the car’s airbags and seatbelts were tampered with. Think about it—who’s most likely to have access to our police car?”

Tang Jingjing exclaimed, “You’re not suggesting there’s a traitor in our police force, are you? Outsiders wouldn’t even get near the car, let alone tamper with it.”

I smiled mysteriously. “I can’t be sure if there’s a traitor, but I’m certain the culprit planned all of this in advance. Just like how you nearly hit the bulldozer, got lured down that side road, and had a signal jammer installed in the car.”

Tang Jingjing nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right. If it hadn’t been planned beforehand, there’s no way we would’ve been tricked so easily.”

When we arrived at the police bureau, the car had been left in a secluded corner. Xia Feng was sitting by the car playing with his phone. As soon as he saw us, he stood up at once and said no one had touched the car since it was brought back.

I thanked him and told him he could go back to his work.

Xia Feng nodded and left.

There was a problem with the car’s central control system, so I simply had Li Hong pry open the car door. We began searching the interior.

We found nothing in the glove compartment or the trunk. Next, we checked under the driver’s and passenger’s seats—still nothing.

In the end, we even took the seats out, but didn’t find anything suspicious.

That left only the engine compartment as the most likely place.

Opening it up, we saw that the space inside was cramped and searching for a small object would be complicated. With modern technology, signal jammers aren’t as big as old tape recorders anymore—they can be as small as a fingertip chip.

But even so, we found nothing, which left me disappointed. Had I been mistaken?

Finally, we had no choice but to call in colleagues from the forensics department for assistance.

The forensics team didn’t know we were investigating this case and joked with us, asking what we were up to now.

I’d gotten to know the deputy head of forensics quite well recently, so I joked, “I’ve been busy helping local residents catch dog thieves these days. It’s wearing me out.”

He didn’t believe me, of course, knowing our work was confidential, and just laughed it off.

He brought out a device similar to a mine detector and searched the car. At last, he found a tiny object inside the radio, something like a cellphone memory card.

“So it was this little thing messing with us?” Tang Jingjing clearly didn’t believe something so small could interfere with phone signals.

The deputy head replied seriously, “What do you know, kid? Don’t be fooled by its size—once it’s connected to the radio, the whole thing becomes a signal transmitter. Whose signal do you think it would interfere with if not yours?”

“Hey, who are you calling ‘kid’? Go back to your OB department and take care of the women there.”

The deputy was used to bickering with Tang Jingjing and didn’t get mad, just laughed and left.

I called a mechanic from a nearby repair shop to check the airbags and seatbelts.

The mechanic quickly found the problem—the airbags and seatbelts had indeed been tampered with.

I then had him check the brake system. The mechanic got into the car and stomped hard on the brakes, snapping the brake strap at once. When he climbed under the car to take a look, he found a section had already been cut by something sharp.

It was clear—the culprit had truly intended to kill Old Lin and the others.