“What?”
After hearing Zhao Yu’s speech, the investigators were all surprised and disbelieving.
“Senior, you must be confused, what are you talking about?” Li Beini asked. “Scarf and hostage, and… Lan Shuping’s home… How are they all related?”
“No!” Zhao Yu did feel a little confused. He pinched his temple, as he said, “I… I do remember that I saw this scarf in Lan Shuping’s house. Gosh! I went there today, but… But how can I not remember?”
“Xiao Zhao, are you trying to say…” Zhang Jingfeng looked at the projection screen and said, “You trying to say that the person who kidnapped the little girl is Lan Shuping’s wife? And, that this is a reality show put on by the whole family?”
Zhang Jingfeng’s guess made everyone stunned, their eyes wide open…
“No!” Zhao Yu shook his head and said, “Don’t speak. Let me think… Think about it…”
Zhao Yu held on to his head, trying hard to recall. This felt really strange. He clearly remembered that he had seen this scarf from Lan Shuping’s house, but why couldn’t he remember the specific circumstances?
The detectives were curious, but were not rash. They waited patiently for Zhao Yu to recall.
“Oh…”
Finally, after a few minutes of thinking hard, Zhao Yu finally recalled what this was all about!
“Right! Right! Yes, right!” Zhao Yu clenched his fist and said excitedly, “I remember, in Lan Shuping’s daughter’s bedroom, yes! This scarf is not a real scarf, but a… painting!”
What!
A painting?
The detectives were in confusion again, wondering what Zhao Yu was trying to say.
“Wrong… Can’t be wrong!” Zhao Yu said affirmatively. “At… Erm… Lan Shuping’s daughter likes painting! There were many paintings on the walls of her bedroom, all of which were painted by her, and I praised her drawings when I saw them! And then… One of the paintings seemed to have this sunflower scarf!”
After hearing what Zhao Yu just said, the whole office went quiet.
After five seconds, Li Beini was the first to ask, “Senior, are you sure? But… Is it a scarf?”
“Wait a moment…” Suddenly, Zhao Yu remembered that, in his own device bar, there was a device called “memory replay device”.
After using this device, you can retrieve a past memory and present it. Since he has five such devices, he wanted to try one, to test the effect of this device.
So, Zhao Yu immediately activated the device. As with previous memory replay devices, he must input the exact time frame that he wished to retrieve the memory from, and it can only retrieve up to 10 minutes of memory.
Fortunately, Zhao Yu clearly remembered the time he had arrived at Lan Shuping’s home. After the input of the time, a display screen appeared in the brain, and Zhao Yu recalled the memory of this morning.
On the display screen, Zhao Yu quickly saw the scene that he had witnessed in Lan Shuping’s daughter’s bedroom, with the visual angle from his point of view, all of which he had seen this morning. With the movement of the angle, he finally saw the paintings on the wall. Truly… Among the many artworks, Zhao Yu saw the painting with the sunflower scarf.
Lan Shuping’s daughter was, indeed, really talented in painting. Although the picture was full of the innocence of childhood, it was skillfully drawn, and so lifelike! Zhao Yu could tell immediately that the sunflower scarf on the painting, and the scarf carried by the woman on the WeChat video, were one and the same!
That is to say…
“Senior… Senior… Are you all right?”
Hearing Li Beini’s question, Zhao Yu jumped out of his memory mode. When he looked up again, he saw himself squatting on the ground, like a toad, and if his right leg rose a little more, he looked like a dog trying to pee.
Gosh!
Zhao Yu hurried up from the ground, then swept off the dust on his body and said, “I am fine, I am fine, I was thinking of the case! Cough… Cough…”
Zhao Yu had a few dry coughs, then hurried to call Zhang Yaohui.
At this moment, Zhang Yaohui was still stationed at Lan Shuping’s house. As instructed by Zhao Yu, he quickly sent over a picture of the painting with the sunflower scarf, using his mobile phone. When everyone saw the picture, they finally believed Zhao Yu’s words.
“Oh my God, this is too amazing!” Li Beini said. “If it is the case, wouldn’t it be that… could it be…”
“Right!” Zhao Yu shouted, as he pointed his finger at the anonymous woman on the screen, saying, “This woman is probably the kidnapper!”
“Wow!”
Although all of them were mentally prepared, they still could not avoid a uproar.
“We had imagined this before,” Zhao Yu said quickly. “For the kidnapper to kidnap a little girl out of that environment so easily, it means that the kidnapper had done the legwork ahead of time, and had been in contact with the little girl! Hence, the little girl had lowered her guard towards the kidnapper!”
Zhao Yu pointed to the picture on his mobile phone as he spoke. He said, “The little girl could even draw the woman’s scarf on her painting. This is enough to show that she had not only been in contact with the kidnapper for a long time, but also was a good friend of the kidnapper! This must be why she drew the picture, and also why the kidnapping was so successfully carried out!”
“Then…” Liang Huan shook his head and said, “In this case, we must hurry up to inform Zhang Yaohui about this, and ask Lan Shuping’s wife to have a good look at the painting, to see if she knows how this painting came about. Also, to find out whether the little girl had said anything in particular that could be helpful in the case.”
“Hmm…” Zhao Yu nodded, and Liang Huan immediately went to make the call.
“But…” Zhang Jingfeng frowned. “I don’t understand. Isn’t the kidnapper Feng Kuo? But… Why has it become a woman? This woman… Where did she come from?”
“Could it be… Someone cross-dressing?” Da Fei guessed.
“Stop joking!” Zhang Jingfeng said. “It is obvious that this woman had been in touch with the little girl for a long time, and Feng Kuo had just escaped from the prison. Where would he find the resources to cross-dress?”
Cross-dressing?
Zhao Yu pondered for a while, as he thought of a possibility. Could it be Xiao Zhen? In order to get close to the little girl, Xiao Zhen was disguised as a woman?
But… Then he took a closer look at the screen. The woman’s body was so slender and slim. How could she be in disguise?
In this… What exactly happened?
Who is this woman with the sunflower scarf?
The emergence of this woman messed up Zhao Yu’s previous speculation. However, since this rare clue was found, everyone would surely investigate further.
Zhao Yu ordered the investigators to re-watch all the surveillance videos, to see where the woman came from, and to find out more about what she looked like. As soon as Zhao Yu had finished giving his instructions, Li Beini had a discovery. She enlarged the screen several times, and pointed at the picture, then said to everyone, “All of you, take a look, what does this woman’s right hand pose look like?” Li Beini pointed out, “And, there is a shadow on the ground. What do you think the shadow looks like?”
“Car!” Zhao Yu looked very carefully, then gave the answer on the spot. “Car! Her pose… Was to close the car door! Oh… Holy sh*t! This was how they kidnapped the little girl! I dare say that Lan Shuping’s daughter was in her car!”