Transmigrating Back to 1994 (2)

The clothing store owner reacted instantly. He rushed to the window and cried out frantically, "Call the police, quickly call the police! This fire was set intentionally; someone wanted to ruin my family!"

The street below instantly fell silent.

The owner of the neighboring appliance store, who was gulping down water, didn't even have time to put down his cup before directly picking up the telephone.

As if realizing something, Shen Jianshe also rushed over: "No one leave! The culprit might still be at the scene."

Most criminals return to the scene after committing a crime.

For first-time offenders, the panic, sensitivity, and tension after the crime will urge them to return to the scene to observe the police's investigation progress.

As for premeditated criminals or repeat offenders, to satisfy their abnormal psychological needs—such as the satisfaction of successful revenge or the pleasure of a perfect crime—they will also return to the scene.

The clothing store owner's family also shouted: "No one leave, absolutely no one is allowed to leave..."

Fortunately, everyone sympathized with their situation. More importantly, they all lived nearby. If they hadn't helped put out the fire just now, the fire might have spread and burned down their own homes, so they also detested the arsonist.

At this moment, everyone stood in place, even helping the clothing store owner monitor others, especially unfamiliar faces.

But in truth, after Shen Jianshe finished speaking, he fell silent.

He suddenly realized that the entire fire scene was in ruins, so it would probably be very difficult to collect valuable evidence.

Moreover, kerosene was a very common household item in this era. Because of frequent power outages, every household bought some as a backup, so they couldn't trace its source.

In other words, even if the culprit was hiding in this crowd, it would be difficult for them to drag him out.

Lian Chi spoke up: "Let's give it a try."

He turned to look at the clothing store owner: "Do you have paper and a pen?"

Only then did the clothing store owner realize that Lian Chi and Shen Jianshe were police officers. He hurriedly took out a pencil and a notebook from his pocket: "Yes, yes, here."

The ignition point was opposite the window, so the culprit had clearly thrown the firebomb into the second floor through the window.

Lian Chi drew two parabolas on the paper, assuming coordinate C was the ignition point, and coordinates B1 and B2 were the peaks of the two parabolas—the highest and lowest points of the window—and then applied them to the parabola equation.

Very quickly, he calculated the approximate position where the culprit had thrown the firebomb.

He looked out the window again. Behind this street was a sewage ditch, which fell within the range of the position he had just calculated.

But it had been abandoned for a long time and was overgrown with weeds; the culprit certainly wouldn't have jumped down there to throw the firebomb.

So the position where the culprit stood to throw the firebomb could only be the area in front of the sewage ditch.

"Let's go."

Lian Chi rushed out.

Seeing this, the others hurriedly turned on their flashlights and followed.

When they arrived, sure enough, that area of less than three square meters was covered in the footprints of the firefighters.

In fact, the culprit's footprints might have already been obliterated by them.

Shen Jianshe couldn't help but sigh.

Lian Chi said, "First, select all the footprints facing toward the fire scene."

Shen Jianshe still stepped forward to help.

They placed a leaf next to each matching footprint.

In the end, they selected a total of twenty footprints.

Lian Chi said, "Continue to eliminate the footprints covered in ash."

These footprints were definitely left by the firefighters entering and leaving the scene.

Just like that, they eliminated another six footprints.

After that, they couldn't eliminate any more.

Currently, there were fourteen suspicious footprints left.

Among them, four overlapped, and three were only half-visible, though the pattern could be faintly recognized.

Shen Jianshe's brow furrowed even deeper.

Because he couldn't distinguish which footprint was different from the rest.

But right then, Lian Chi pointed directly at a footprint on the right and said decisively, "This is definitely the culprit's footprint."

Shen Jianshe: "What?"

He looked toward that footprint. Its pattern was the worst among all the footprints; not only was the back half erased by other footprints, but the front half was also extremely blurry.

Lian Chi said, "It's not blurry. Look here, the upper half of this footprint is almost equal in width, but human shoes are not rectangular. So the owner of this footprint likely took a step here, then took another small step forward, causing the two footprints to partially overlap."

"When a normal person walks, the distance between two steps is fifty-five centimeters. So under what circumstances would the next footprint overlap the previous one?"

Shen Jianshe suddenly understood, almost blunting out: "When the culprit jumped up to throw the firebomb."

Almost at the same time, Lian Chi stood up, looking toward the crowd being held back by Shen Jianshe in the distance.

So now, they only needed to compare the shoes of the people here with this footprint to know who the arsonist was.

Before everyone could react, as if suddenly thinking of something, Shen Jianshe pointed at seven or eight people: "You, you, you... and you too."

"You guys come over here to compare first."

"If I remember correctly, when the others were putting out the fire, you guys were just standing aside watching."

Lian Chi instinctively turned to look at Shen Jianshe.

It was clear that Shen Jianshe had his reasons for being able to enter the Chang City Police Department.

Everyone also turned to look at the people Shen Jianshe pointed at, and at that exact moment, a young man bolted.

Wasn't this a self-confession?

Shen Jianshe: "Quick, catch him—"

A woman standing nearby instinctively stuck her leg out, tripping the young man.

Only then did the others react, rushing forward to pin the young man down.

Very quickly, the young man was subdued by them.

"It's you?"

The clothing store owner couldn't believe it at first, then rushed forward, wanting to take off the young man's shoes.

The young man was still struggling. Seeing this, the appliance store owner raised his hand and slapped him.

"Behave yourself, or today I'll show you why flowers are red!"

Only then did the clothing store owner manage to take off the young man's shoe: "Officer, here it is."

Shen Jianshe turned the shoe over, placed it next to the footprint for comparison, and the pattern matched perfectly.

The crowd immediately erupted into a clamor.

This young man was actually an acquaintance of the clothing store owner?

The appliance store owner said angrily, "This beast is the son of one of our fellow villagers."

"Back then, his family was even poorer than mine. In the village, there was an old widow of a martyr, a distant relative of his family. She had no children and was advanced in age, so she approached his family, wanting them to care for her in her old age. In exchange, her savings and house would belong to them."

"They happily agreed. From then on, his family's fortune took off. The husband and wife first got jobs—one as a temporary worker at the wood factory, the other as a utility worker at the hospital. Later, when policies relaxed, they used the old lady's savings to open a restaurant. The restaurant's business was extremely prosperous, and in just a few years, they bought a house in the county."

"Logically speaking, once they settled in the county, they should have brought the old lady to live with them."

"But at that time, the old lady's health deteriorated significantly. She became incontinent, often wetting and soiling herself. They didn't want to care for her anymore. Mainly, during that time, prices soared, money depreciated, and they didn't care about the old lady's meager savings anymore. So after deducting her living expenses for those few years, they returned the remaining five hundred-odd yuan and sent her back to the countryside."

"Once, the old lady had a fever of forty degrees. The villagers made over a dozen phone calls to them, but they didn't return."

"Later, it was Old Gao who couldn't stand it anymore and took the old lady into his own home."

Old Gao was the clothing store owner.

"Guided by the old lady, Old Gao's family started a clothing business. Initially, they only used a tricycle, running to the markets in various communes to set up stalls. Later, after earning some capital, they rented a shop in the county. Over the past few years, business boomed, and in just a few years, they expanded their business to the city..."

"Compared to Old Gao's increasingly prosperous family, this beast's family went downhill. Not long after they sent the old lady back to the countryside, several new restaurants opened near theirs. The food at those new restaurants was much better than theirs, quickly stealing all their customers. They had no choice but to close the restaurant and open a hardware store."

"When the hardware store first opened, business was good. But because they always skimped on the repairmen's commissions, business gradually dwindled to nothing. The year the old lady passed away, their hardware store also closed. I heard that they later sold their house in the county to cover the losses..."

Hearing this, everyone shouted in unison: "Serves them right!"

"Serves those ungrateful wretches right! This is exactly how it should end."

"It seems the old lady was a lucky star. Whoever helped her, she would bless them. Previously, this beast's family cared for her, so they prospered. Later, Old Gao's family cared for her, so she blessed Old Gao's family."

But the young man clearly didn't think so. He said angrily, "Bullshit!"

"Clearly, we realized our mistake later and wanted to bring the old lady back to care for her properly. But it was you guys who instigated her to reject us! Otherwise, how could my family have fallen into this state?"

The scene fell silent for a moment.

In all their lives, they had never seen anyone so shameless.

"Realized your mistake? How could you people know any mistake? Clearly, you only care about money. When the old lady had money, you were happy to be filial children. When her money lost its value, you kicked her to the curb. Later, when you realized you only made so much money because of her blessing, you clung to her like leeches again."

"Did this even need Old Gao to instigate her? As long as the old lady wasn't a fool, she wouldn't choose to return to your family, understand?"

An old man looked around, then bent down to scoop up a handful of leaves and stuffed them into the young man's mouth: "Why waste words on him? It dirties our ears."

"Wait a minute."

The appliance store owner suddenly said, "If I remember correctly, isn't this guy supposed to go abroad tomorrow with his parents to find relatives?"

No wonder this brat dared to commit arson.

It turned out he knew that even if the police discovered something, they wouldn't be able to catch him.

But now, perhaps the clothing store owner could still recover most of his losses.

After all, although this beast's family had lost a lot over the years, a starved camel is still bigger than a fat horse.

Therefore—

In an instant, everyone turned to look at Lian Chi. No one knew who started clapping first, but then everyone raised their hands.

"Excellent!"

Almost at the same time, the sound of a police siren echoed from afar.

Not long after, a police car stopped in front of the clothing store.

Xu Zhengye got out of the car first.

He wore a blue shirt stained with quite a bit of blood.

But it wasn't human blood; it was fish blood.

Today was his daughter's tenth birthday, so he had invited her grandparents to celebrate.

As a result, he had just finished making the third dish when Xiao Chen from the squad found him, saying there was an arson case near the old bus station.

With no other choice, he had to leave his daughter and relatives behind to rush over.

After all, that was the responsibility of a people's police officer.

Xu Zhengye habitually looked at his watch.

Good, today they took less than twenty minutes to arrive at the crime scene.

Xu Zhengye suppressed the satisfaction in his eyes, then took out his badge and said, "Hello everyone, I am Xu Zhengye, Captain of the 3rd Squad of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Chang City Police Department..."

The appliance store owner looked at the police car behind him: "Captain Xu arrived just in time. We just caught the culprit."

Xu Zhengye was stunned: "You guys caught the culprit?"

The appliance store owner was delighted: "Yes, caught red-handed."

Xu Zhengye was astonished: "You guys caught him?"

Was the victim of this arson case really that lucky? One had to know that among the dozen arson cases they had received over the past few years, less than ten had been solved, and the investigation time for each was over two days.

The appliance store owner said gleefully, "No, it was Officer Lian and Officer Shen from your department who caught him."

Xu Zhengye couldn't believe it: "Who?"

There were three officers surnamed Shen in the department, but an officer surnamed Lian? Was there anyone surnamed Lian in the department?

At the same time, Lian Chi and Shen Jianshe, who were going to buy fast food, were pointed out by the clothing store owner.

The appliance store owner smiled: "It's them!"

Xu Zhengye looked in the direction his hand pointed.

When their eyes met, the expression on Xu Zhengye's face gradually faded.