Following the clues provided by Officer Lin, Zhou Zhongping first came to the window at the back of the building.
The back of the small building is 1.5 meters away from the fence, and the height of the courtyard wall is 2 meters. The courtyard is paved with cement floor. After some fire-fighting operations, the ground was full of water and the window sills were washed clean.
The courtyard wall is made of blue bricks, with a cement skin on the wall. Some glass pieces are sparsely inserted at the top of the wall to prevent climbing. In the middle of the back wall, a glass piece about one meter wide was damaged, and the fragments fell
It fell inside the wall. The careful Captain Zhou found a piece of fabric fiber on the remaining glass piece on the top of the wall. The fabric fiber was black and about 0.5 mm in diameter.
After temporarily ending the investigation, Zhou Zhongping called Xu Wen and his third uncle Xu Zhijun into the courtyard and told them:
"At present, it has been initially confirmed that there are obvious signs of man-made arson. We are conducting further investigations. Can you provide us with some clues?"
"That must have been done by the Wang family." Third uncle Xu Zhijun opened his mouth and said.
"The Wang family just stopped a car on the road to provoke and suffered a loss. Now they come to the house to set fire to retaliate. It is reasonable and reasonable." Xu Wen replied.
"We will investigate these clues. Apart from the Wang family, have you offended anyone else?" Zhou Zhongping asked.
Xu Wen looked at his third uncle, Xu Zhijun shook his head and said:
"All the enemies of our Xu family are named Wang. It is impossible for anyone else to come to our house and set fire to it."
"At this juncture, is it too obvious for the Wang family to take revenge?" Zhou Zhongping asked.
"That's how they do things. They are simple-minded and don't think about the consequences. I have been fighting with them for decades and know them very well." The third uncle said confidently, patting his chest.
"Well, in that case we will start investigating from the Wang family first."
In the village committee office of Wangxu Village, Zhou Zhongping and two other investigators were sitting at the conference table. Opposite them sat Wang Mao, the village chief of Wangxu Village. Around the conference table were many people from Wangxu Village.
Villagers surnamed Wang packed the conference room to capacity.
"Captain Zhou, you have to explain to us clearly why you doubt us?" Wang Mao asked arrogantly with a cigarette in his mouth.
"Yes! Why do you doubt us?" the surrounding villagers echoed in unison.
"We are not doubting you, but we are doing necessary investigations according to the case handling process." Zhou Zhongping tried to explain to them.
"Then why didn't you investigate the person named Xu? Why did you come to investigate our person named Wang?" Wang Mao then asked.
"Yes! Why don't you investigate the person named Xu?" the surrounding villagers agreed.
"We first went to the village committee to understand the situation. We are not targeting anyone?" Zhou Zhongping raised his voice angrily.
"Everyone in our village committee is named Wang, so you are specifically targeting us!" Wang Mao said.
"Yes! You are specifically targeting us!" the villagers echoed.
"Pa!" Zhou Zhongping slapped the table, stood up and said:
"Now I want to find the village chief of Wangxu Village to understand the situation. All other irrelevant personnel should go out."
"This is our territory, why should we be asked to leave?" the villagers shouted before the village chief could speak.
"Okay! Since you won't cooperate, it's easy to handle. Let's go back and apply for the summons, call the relevant personnel to the bureau for questioning, and let's go." Zhou Zhongping called two investigators and walked out.
When Wang Mao saw that Zhou Zhongping was really angry, he felt that the performance was almost over, so he quickly stood up and grabbed Zhou Zhongping and said:
"Hey, Captain Zhou, don't be angry. These villagers have a low level of education and don't understand the law. Don't argue with them. You sit down first and I'll kick them out."
After pulling Zhou Zhongping to sit down again, Wang Mao turned to some villagers and cursed:
"Go, go, get out, don't delay the police's handling of the case."
When the villagers saw what the village chief had said, they all slipped out of the door obediently. Only the deputy village chief named Wang Zhiqiang stayed behind to accompany Wang Mao.
"Captain Zhou, that's all right now. If you have anything to say, just ask." Wang Mao said, lighting a cigarette.
"After our investigation, the fire at Xu Wen's house early this morning was caused by arson. We want to confirm the whereabouts of several key personnel from last night to early this morning."
"No problem, Captain Zhou, let alone key personnel, if you want the whereabouts of all the young and old members of our Wang family, I can give them to you."
"What do you mean by this?" Zhou Zhongping asked puzzledly.
"Hey, I mean." Wang Mao paused pretending to be mysterious and then said:
"From last night until the fire broke out in the Xu family, all the men of the Wang family were worshiping their ancestors in our Wang family ancestral hall."
"Ancestor worship? All men?"
"Yes, including newborn babies, as long as they are men, they are all in the ancestral hall. If you don't believe it, you can go to the village and ask casually, including those of the Xu family, they also know our custom of worshiping ancestors."
"Yesterday was not a festival, so how could we worship ancestors?" asked an investigator next to Zhou Zhongping.
"Haha, young man, you don't understand. Yesterday was the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, also known as the Shangsi Festival. Our Wang family moved from the southwest and naturally retained the customs of our ancestors. On the Shangsi Festival
Pay homage to our ancestors on this day." Wang Mao explained with pride on his face.
"When did your ancestor worship activities start and when did they end?" Zhou Zhongping asked.
"It started at 10 o'clock last night. After all our men gathered together, they began to kneel down and kowtow to our ancestors, and then we started praying. At that time, all our men were gathered in the ancestral hall, and no one went out. The prayers continued until about one o'clock in the morning.
At that time, we discovered a fire in the village, and after we sent people to check and found out that it was the Xu family, we continued to pray until it ended at 2 a.m."
"Didn't you go put out the fire?" the young investigator asked again.
"Young man, considering the relationship between our Wang and Xu families, it's good that we didn't go and applaud and watch." Wang Mao said with a serious face.
After listening to Wang Mao's words, Zhou Zhongping fell into deep thought. The Wang family was worshiping their ancestors and the Xu family was on fire. Is this a coincidence or a deliberate arrangement to provide a perfect alibi?
Men of the Wang family have no chance of arson, so who would set the fire? From what the Xu family said, they only have enemies of the Wang family, so besides the Wang family, who else would set the fire? Could it be that the Wang family hired others? Or
Why would they set a fire in an empty house? What was their purpose of setting the fire?
After coming out of the village committee, Zhou Zhongping and others immediately visited some villagers named Wang and Xu. They all confirmed that the Wang family worshiped their ancestors yesterday, and also proved that the Wang family had the custom of worshiping their ancestors during the Shangsi Festival every year.
In addition to visiting the villagers, the police also retrieved surveillance videos in Wangxu Village and nearby roads to search for people who entered and left Wangxu Village before and after the arson last night, but found nothing.