Chapter 157: They Are All Millionaires
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"What do you mean?" Qu Ping asked.
"This kidnapping case has not been solved after so many years." Zhao Yu played with the marker in his hand and said seriously, "Could it be the same situation as the Lost Hand Case. Perhaps it’s the investigation direction of us police that has deviated somewhere?"
"Deviated?" Qu Ping crossed her arms and carefully thought about Zhao Yu’s words.
"Look" Zhao Yu found the van on the board. The picture of the van had been obtained from the Vehicle Administrative Office that year and was very old. "Mmm…" Zhao Yu pointed at the van and said, "For example, the police had thought that the kidnappers made careful preparations in advance to kidnap the children, which was why the kidnaping went smoothly! But what if...that was not the case? What if the kidnaping was only an accident!?"
"What!? Accident!?" Qu Ping looked at Zhao Yu, unable to figure him out.
"It’s possible! Really!" Zhao Yu explained, "You’ve never kidnapped a person, there are some details which might be overlooked!"
"I’ve never kidnapped a person? You have?" Qu Ping was puzzled.
"Erm...no...what I meant was…" Zhao Yu quickly tried to cover up his lie. "I’ve read many files on kidnapping. For example...like this one here! It was stated that the kidnappers only called three days after they had taken the children. There’s something here that doesn’t make sense!"
"Three days? What doesn’t make sense?" Qu Ping still did not understand what Zhao Yu meant.
"Don’t you know, a blackmail call is not made after such a long time!" Zhao Yu said. "You can go check if you don’t believe me. The longer the hostage is in one’s hands, the higher the risk! If they had already planned everything beforehand, it wouldn’t be possible that they waited until three days later to call the hostages’ families! Think about this, the kidnappers definitely wouldn’t want the hostages’ families to call the police, so the sooner they made the phone call, the lower the chance of the families calling the police! On the contrary, if you wait for three days, wouldn’t the families already be very worried and have called the police?"
"Hmm…" Qu Ping looked straight at Zhao Yu. She was unable to deny that Zhao Yu’s peculiar way of thinking also had a certain level of persuasiveness, and it had widened her thoughts in a short span of time.
"There’s more!" Zhao Yu used the marker to point at the van again. "The van also disappeared. This is also rare among professional kidnappers! They kidnap people, but not along with the vehicles!"
"Professional kidnappers?" Qu Ping was unfamiliar with this term.
"Look, there are different hierarchy levels among prisoners right?" Zhao Yu passed on his criminal knowledge to Qu Ping like a teacher. "At the top, the one with the highest status, are usually fraudsters. Second place would be kidnappers. Robbers and murderers could only be ranked third! You know why? Because kidnapping is really a technical skill, and it requires great technical knowledge! You can check this, a kidnapper would always have his own vehicle, and they seldom kidnap their victim’s vehicle too! Firstly, the vehicle that you took would be easily discovered; secondly, you wouldn’t know if the vehicle had any problems or how much gas it had left. If the vehicle broke down halfway, wouldn’t it be terrible? Thirdly, the van already had six people in it. Wouldn’t it be tight if the kidnappers all got in?"
"Hmm...you mean," Qu Ping guessed, "the kidnappers had another vehicle?"
"No!" Zhao Yu answered firmly. "What I mean is that those kidnappers did not have a plan at all. They did not know that there were so many people in the van! Or they had only wanted to take the van, or only wanted to rob them! This Mianling Kidnapping Case could have just been an accident!!!"
"I...I don’t get it!" Qu Ping was more puzzled. "Such a meticulous kidnapping plan, and you say that...it’s an accident?"
"Yes!" Zhao Yu admitted. "Anyway this is how I feel about it! Just that I don’t know what happened in the van then?"
"If it is like what you said," Qu Ping turned toward the whiteboard, "those kidnappers had not planned beforehand, and they were not professional kidnappers at all. But they made the blackmail call and obtained the ransom money perfectly. How could that not be called professional?"
"I haven’t figured that out yet," Zhao Yu said frankly. "But...none of the professional kidnappers that I know could do it to such perfection! It’s precisely because the Mianling Case kidnappers had done it too seamlessly that I felt that they were not professionals! They could have thought of the idea at a spur of the moment!"
"Kidnappers that you know? You even know kidnappers?" Qu Ping was shocked.
"Oh, I...I was referring to the kidnappers that I saw on the data files," Zhao Yu faked an explanation and continued, "Oh yes! Actually, I agree with the viewpoint that you expressed during the meeting. I feel that there might’ve been a police officer or someone who was once a police office among the kidnappers! It was because of this person that the kidnapping was done so seamlessly!"
Qu Ping took in a deep breath and thought over Zhao Yu’s words. Was the truth really like what he said? Could it be...the police had been looking in the wrong direction for the past twenty-six years?
"Then…" Qu Ping pondered. "If it’s like what you said, the driver, Niu Weiguang, would be innocent?"
"That’s hard to say!" Zhao Yu shook his head. "But nothing has been found to be wrong with him after so many years of investigation. I guess there shouldn’t be any problem with him. I remember the data file stated that his family background was not too bad, and that he was from the same village as those children, and some of them were his relatives. There would be no reason for him to take part in the kidnapping."
"But, even if this was the case," Qu Ping looked at the wordy whiteboard, "we’re still unable to solve it. Who was the real culprit?"
"I’m not sure who it was, but there’s one thing that I’m certain of" Zhao Yu seriously. "If the kidnappers are still alive, they would definitely be millionaires now!"
"Oh? Why?" Qu Ping was surprised.
"This is simple" Zhao Yu explained. "Other than the bodies, there was also a bag of money in the collapsed mine pit. Only the real culprits knew this secret! The notes in the bag are worth a million. If they were poor now, wouldn’t they be tempted to go back to dig for it? So, if they are not dead yet, they are definitely millionaires who have no need for the money!"
"Oh…" Qu Ping nodded. "I’ve thought of that too! If that’s the case, we could start investigating from here and see if any of the related parties that year are wealthy now."
"Although we can do that, but," Zhao Yu said uneasily, "the scope is too wide and it’s not gonna be easy!"
"Don’t worry!" Qu Ping said with determination. "It doesn’t matter how difficult it’s gonna be! As long as we put our hearts into it, we will see results!" With this, Qu Ping looked at the whiteboard again and said, "I hope those criminals are still alive! Only then can we put them to trial! One needs to pay for the evil crimes that he committed!"
Hearing this from Captain Qu Ping, Zhao Yu felt very touched and encouraged. This had further strengthened his will to solve Qinshan’s Number One Cold Case! Zhao Yu knew that even though he had the help of a powerful miracle system, if he did not put his best into solve the case, it would be useless. If he was unable to find any clues and target the suspect, he would not know if the real culprit was standing right in front of him. Therefore, Zhao Yu was determined to put in everything to solve the case, and put those inhumane criminals to justice! Of course, there was also a reward of more than ten million RMB! This was equally as important! If he could really solve this case, he would be rich!