Officer Wang took off the walkie-talkie from his belt, pressed the call button and said: "I am Lao Wang from the Criminal Investigation Group Three of Furong Police Station. I am nearby. I will take someone over to take a look immediately. Over."
"receive……"
Seeing the abnormal behavior of several police officers, David asked Gu Chen in confusion: "Do you still want to work?"
"Yes, there is a police report on West Street and Min Lane." Gu Chen was also quite surprised. Isn't this the place where David, a foreigner, rents? It was too much of a coincidence.
"I happen to be going back, can I go with you?" David asked.
Gu Chen glanced at him and said, "If you want, whatever."
…
…
Half past nine in the evening.
The gentle breeze dissipated a lot of the heat of the night.
Officer Wang drove to the intersection of a narrow alley...
This is a one-way street, but some ignorant drivers often like to park their cars on the side of the road, so that when two cars run parallel to each other, it is easy to cause collisions.
The road is paved with blue bricks, so driving on the road feels very bumpy.
Wei Junzhi, who was originally from the Judicial Police College, had to return to the Furong Police Station with his old comrades after completing his mission.
However, due to the sudden incident, Officer Wang took his old partners Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei into the car directly, and Wei Junzhi had no choice but to follow Gu Chen and head towards Minxiang.
David, the blond foreigner, walked from the pedestrian street along the alley inside.
There are many narrow roads here, which are not suitable for driving. Sometimes driving is not necessarily faster than taking a shortcut.
When Officer Wang stopped his car in a small square in Minxiang, David also arrived from another direction.
There were many fashionably dressed foreigners in this place, and several tall blond women were also standing nearby.
Many people were not surprised when they saw the police car parked here, and they were all busy with what they were doing.
"Why are there so many foreigners in this place?" Lu Weiwei was also quite surprised after getting off the car.
"The rent here is not expensive and it is located in the commercial district. The most important thing is that the river runs through it and there are many ancient Jiangnan buildings, so it is very popular among foreigners. Many foreigners who come here for work and play will choose to live here.
Renting a house has, over time, formed a small gathering place for foreigners."
Gu Chen also informed Lu Weiwei based on some information he knew.
Officer Wang nodded and said: "Gu Chen is absolutely right. I have long heard that there are many foreigners living in this community. It is not surprising."
"Where is that place?" Lu Weiwei asked.
Officer Wang pointed to an ancient villa with a courtyard in front of him and said, "It's right there, Lane 19, No. 203."
Several people walked along the path, and a young blond woman wearing a white dress was standing at the door, waiting anxiously.
There were several foreigners and a few locals surrounding him.
Seeing four police officers approaching, the blond woman quickly walked out of the crowd.
"Who called the police?" Gu Chen turned on the law enforcement recorder and walked up to ask first.
"It's me, police officer." The blond woman with relatively standard Chinese pronunciation stepped forward and said.
Gu Chen took out his notebook and said, "What's going on? Tell me."
The blond woman covered her mouth and shed tears in frustration: "Officer, my husband is missing. He may...may have been kidnapped."
"Kidnapping?" Lu Weiwei and Officer Wang said in unison.
Several people looked at each other, quite surprised.
Seeing a large number of people gathering at the door, Gu Chen had no choice but to say, "Can you go in and talk."
The blond woman nodded, gave up her position and said, "Please."
Officer Wang and Lu Weiwei walked into the yard first, while Gu Chen stopped and said to Wei Junzhi: "You stay here, don't let anyone else come in."
"Don't worry, brother, I know." After following Gu Chen for a day, Wei Junzhi's confidence also improved to a certain extent, and he immediately nodded to express his understanding.
He knew that the task assigned to him by Gu Chen was to seal off the scene and prohibit irrelevant persons from entering the yard.
Originally, he came over to check on the situation, but now that he has been assigned a task by his senior brother, Wei Junzhi is also quite excited.
Arriving at the lobby on the first floor of the old villa, the blond woman took out several bottles of drinks from the refrigerator and placed them around several people.
"A drink, please, officer," the blond woman said.
"Thank you." Gu Chen thanked him and continued: "Let's get down to business. I'll ask and you answer. Do you understand?"
The woman nodded: "Understood."
"Your name."
"Linda."
"Country of Citizenship."
"China."
Gu Chen's pen paused briefly on the page and looked up at Linda: "Is your nationality Chinese?"
"Yes, officer." Linda nodded and said there was no problem: "I have lived with my parents on this land since I was a child, and I also like the culture here very much, so I followed my parents early and got a Chinese passport.
Green card, I am Chinese too.”
Hearing such an answer, Gu Chen, Officer Wang and Lu Weiwei were quite surprised.
"No wonder you speak Chinese so well." Lu Weiwei said.
Linda nodded: "Thank you."
"You said your husband was kidnapped, do you have any basis for it?" Gu Chen raised his head and asked.
"That's it, officer." Linda adjusted her mood and continued: "An hour ago, I received a strange phone call. The person inside told me that if I want my husband to survive, I need to prepare 500,000 in cash.
."
Gu Chen was silent for a few seconds and asked: "Is that a prank? Have you not contacted your husband recently?"
"No, comrade police, this is not a prank." Linda said with a tearful voice: "My husband has been unable to be contacted since last night. I thought his phone was out of battery, but I was wrong. That person is
Called from my husband’s phone.”
"Wait a minute." Lu Weiwei suddenly interjected: "Could this be the case, for example, if your husband's phone was lost, someone picked it up, and then called to defraud him?"
Linda shook her head again: "No, if my husband loses his phone, he will call me immediately and tell me. He did this six months ago, so I am sure that it is not the lost phone, but me.
My husband was kidnapped."
"Since your husband disappeared last night, weren't you at home?" Gu Chen turned around and continued to ask.
Linda looked frustrated and said helplessly: "I played mahjong with some neighbors last night. Mahjong was so fun. I played it all night long. I didn't find out until this morning that my husband didn't even call me last night."
I thought something was wrong at the time, and thought he was asleep, but he always calls me first, and he didn’t even call yesterday."
"Then what?" Gu Chen continued to ask.
"Then? Then just an hour ago, I received this phone call." Linda sobbed a few times and tears fell again: "I haven't seen my husband for a whole day. He will never disappear like this.
Yes, he must have been kidnapped. I’m sure I didn’t expect such a thing to happen. Oh my God, what should I do?”
"Don't get excited yet." Officer Wang, who had been listening silently, interrupted Linda: "Since someone called you to ask you to pay the ransom, didn't they tell you how to hand it over to him after you prepared the money?
Of?"
Linda shook her head: "No, they didn't tell me how to exchange cash for my husband. They just asked me to wait for the call. But I'm scared to be alone at home. I don't know who else I can find to help me here. I just
You can risk calling the police.”
"Oh my god, if it's true, wouldn't you have harmed your husband by calling the police like this?" Gu Chen also held his forehead, feeling that the woman was too reckless.
Logically speaking, the kidnapper must have told him not to call the police on the phone, but from Linda's dictation, there was no such thing.
Could it be that the kidnapper is too amateur?
The alarm report everyone received was that a woman named Linda said that her husband was in danger and needed help from the police. The alarm center was temporarily unable to identify the situation, so it asked police officers on duty nearby to go and understand the situation.
If it was really a kidnapping, Gu Chen, Officer Wang and others could choose to go there in casual clothes instead of wearing police uniforms.
When talking about this, Linda's mood seemed to fluctuate greatly, and she showed signs of collapse for a while, and she was extremely impatient.
Gu Chen quickly stepped forward and patted her shoulder: "Ms. Linda, please calm down first."
Without saying a word, Linda threw herself directly on Gu Chen, hugged Gu Chen and cried loudly: "Officer, I'm very scared, my husband may die, you must save him, please save him."
"Okay, but let go first." Gu Chen opened his hands with a notebook in his left hand and a signature pen in his right hand, looking at Lu Weiwei with his eyes.
Lu Weiwei understood instantly, and quickly stepped forward, pulling away Linda who was hugging Gu Chen tightly, and continued to hug Linda instead of Gu Chen: "Ms. Linda, don't worry, please believe that our police will definitely bring your husband to justice."
get back."
Seeing the two women hugging each other, Officer Wang and Gu Chen also had headaches.
Linda gave too few clues, and Linda's husband had lost contact since last night and only received a threatening phone call today.
If this is the case, then was Linda's husband kidnapped last night or early this morning.
Or being kidnapped after going out today, these situations are all possible.
"Ms. Linda, what is your husband's name? What does he do?" Officer Wang turned around and asked.
Linda adjusted her mood and then said: "My husband's name is James. He runs a trading company in Jiangnan City. He mainly exports shoes, clothing and bags to Europe, America, and some places in East Africa."
"Then you haven't asked any of the nearby neighbors if anyone had seen him today or last night?" Gu Chen asked.
Linda hesitated, then shook her head.
Officer Wang turned to Gu Chen and said, "Go and ask next door to see if anyone has met Ms. Linda's husband James between last night and now."
"No problem." Gu Chen nodded and quickly turned around and came to the yard.
Since the police car was parked in the square outside and four more police officers entered Linda's old villa, a lot of curious people gathered at the door.
There are foreigners and locals...
"Wei Junzhi." Gu Chen walked to the door.
Wei Junzhi still stood firmly in the yard, closed the iron gate, and did not let anyone else go in.
"Senior brother, do you have any orders?" Wei Junzhi turned around and asked. In fact, he was still very nervous.
After all, it was my first time to face the gazes of so many strangers, but my heart was still full of excitement when I thought that this was my first opportunity to go on a mission with the criminal investigation team of the police station.
"Not yet, let me make an enquiry." Gu Chen said and walked towards the door.
Wei Junzhi was stunned for two seconds before quickly following Gu Chen.
"Which of you is Linda's neighbor? Has anyone seen her husband James yesterday?" Gu Chen stood at the door and asked in Chinese and English.
For an instant, the onlookers looked at each other in confusion, each one looking at each other in confusion.
"I am Linda's neighbor." An old lady said, "But I didn't see her husband last night."
"I am also her neighbor next door, and I have never met James." Another middle-aged man also said.
Subsequently, several people admitted to being Linda's neighbors one after another, but without exception, no one had seen her husband James last night.
Just when Gu Chen thought there was no progress, a man speaking fluent English suddenly raised his hand from behind the crowd and waved to Gu Chen: "Officer, it's me, it's David."
David looked very excited. Gu Chen simply opened the iron door and walked through the crowd to come to him.
"David, are you Linda's neighbor?" Gu Chen asked him curiously.
"Yes." David admitted unabashedly: "I rented a room in the old villa next door to her house, so I can be considered her neighbor."
"Then you met her husband last night?" Gu Chen asked again.
David nodded: "Yes, I seemed to have seen it last night."
Gu Chen looked at the crowd on the left and right, and immediately pulled David and said: "David, come in with me."
Afterwards, Wei Junzhi closed the iron door again and stood guard near the door.
This time, he was obviously more confident than before...
On the other side, Gu Chen took David to the lobby on the first floor.
At this moment, Officer Wang and Lu Weiwei were still asking for other details.
Seeing Gu Chen leading the blond man he met at the intersection of West Street, Officer Wang couldn't help but ask: "Gu Chen, why did you bring him here?"
"Brother Wang, David is Linda's neighbor. He said he saw James yesterday." Gu Chen said.
When Linda saw this, her eyes suddenly lit up. She quickly walked up to David and asked in English: "David, are you telling the truth? Did you really see my husband James last night?"
"Yes, Ms. Linda, your husband will say hello to me every time he sees me when he goes out. We have also discussed travel plans together, so... we can be considered good friends."
When David talked about James, it was also quite topical.
But after thinking about it, David suddenly said: "Linda, your husband James..."
"He was kidnapped, just last night." Linda said this, also crying.
"what???"
David was suddenly startled: "Kidnapped? You mean your husband, James, was kidnapped last night?"
"Yes David, please tell me, what on earth did you see last night? Please." Linda was going crazy now.
Especially when I hear a little bit of information about my husband, I want to know it right away.
"I remember it was around nine o'clock. I was taking pictures of the stars, and I seemed to see a man wearing a black peaked cap walking to the door of your house."
When David said this, he also began to recall what he saw yesterday.
"What happened next?" Gu Chen asked.
"Later? Later, James, Linda's husband, came to the door, and then brought the man into the house."
"Wha...what? James brought this man into the room?" Lu Weiwei was quite surprised.
"Yes, that's right, I'm sure that's the case. It was the room that James brought the man into." David confirmed again.
Linda was completely stunned and didn't know how to speak for a moment.
"Then have you seen clearly what this person looks like?" Gu Chen asked.
David shook his head: "It was very dark at the time, and our area was full of old houses. The street lights were not very bright, and the brim of the man's hat was very low. But judging from his walking movements, he looked like a man in his thirties. He should be
He can’t be more than forty years old.”
David also made a simple analysis based on the basic situation he saw.
"That is to say, the person who came to the house last night should be an acquaintance of Mr. James." Gu Chen looked up at Officer Wang and Lu Weiwei: "If it was a stranger, James would not bring him in. It is obvious that this person knows
James.”
"I agree." Lu Weiwei also said: "We can eliminate the strangers first and start the investigation from the acquaintances James knows."
"But he knows a lot of people, and my husband knows a lot of acquaintances. Isn't it difficult?" Linda was also quite anxious.
Officer Wang looked outside the door and asked, "Don't you have any surveillance equipment around your house? Especially in an old house like yours, at least there should be surveillance equipment."
"No." Linda shook her head regretfully: "There used to be surveillance here, but after it was often hit by several children with stones, the neighbors have been very taboo, especially the parents of these children, who find it very difficult to speak.
, the compensation issue has been postponed again and again, and then no one has the idea of installing surveillance anymore."
"It's over." Lu Weiwei spread her hands and said, "If it weren't for these unlucky children, maybe we would be able to find your husband soon. I'm really afraid of what comes."
I used to think that even if there were no public cameras in such a place near the business district, there would be private civilian cameras, but who knew we would encounter such a situation?
Linda was also quite sad and said: "What should I do now? I can't find James. What should I do?"
"Ms. Linda, don't worry, these police officers are very good, they will definitely help find your husband, really." Seeing Linda covering her face and crying at a loss, David also took the initiative to comfort her.
Gu Chen put his hands on his hips, lowered his head and thought for a few seconds, then asked for advice: "Ms. Linda, no matter what, since things have happened, please don't be too sad. We will help you find James' whereabouts as soon as possible.
