Animal Detective-Chapter 84: The Taxi

Shen Xin nodded.

Then he sat down and asked about the details of what happened back then.

Guo Chunping gathered his thoughts and said, "About the surveillance system upgrade, I told that officer from your department—I think his last name was Qin, right?—all about it, many times."

"One of our building’s transformers happened to fail. It was pretty old, you know? The voltage was unstable, and the wiring was aging. It nearly started a fire."

"The fire department told us to fix it, so after some consideration, the property management decided to just go ahead and upgrade all the wiring."

"As for the specific company that won the bid, that had nothing to do with me. The higher-ups handled it."

"At the time, I proposed that since our building was old and in disrepair, many of the security cameras were broken, the coverage was insufficient, and the camera quality was poor."

"We also had homeless people breaking in and stealing things. The companies upstairs had reported it to the police, so I filed a report suggesting we take this opportunity to replace the whole system."

"The old mainframe was ancient, so we didn’t think much of it and just sold it for scrap."

"That’s pretty much what happened."

His account matched the one in the case file.

Shen Xin then asked if he had noticed anything unusual on the day of the incident.

Guo Chunping said, "Officer, I’ve really been over this so many times. The night before, I just left work as usual after scheduling the patrols. But to be honest, even though we require them to clock in at checkpoints, the security guards downstairs just go through the motions."

"Their pay isn’t great, so you can’t expect too much from them."

"Besides, every company upstairs has its own door, and they’re kept locked, so it’s not a huge problem."

"So, I really don’t know what happened that night. It wasn’t until I came to work in the morning that I heard there’d been an incident on the 14th floor—that someone had been killed. Then you officers showed up and took over the investigation."

Shen Xin nodded.

This also matched the case file.

"If it’s convenient, could you take us to the 14th floor to have a look?" Shen Xin added.

Guo Chunping stood up and said, "It’s convenient enough, but that space was rented out a long time ago. It’s changed hands a few times, and I think the layout has been altered too."

Shen Xin said, "That’s fine. We just want to take a look."

According to the case file, Qin Chuanwang and his team had deduced a possible route that bypassed the security cameras. Shen Xin wanted to walk it himself.

They took the elevator to the 14th floor.

Unit 1402 was now a trading company, which had also rented the adjacent Unit 1403 and knocked down the wall between them.

Shen Xin identified himself and went inside to look around.

The company’s owner, a slightly paunchy middle-aged man, was even alerted. He came over and immediately assured them that his business was legitimate.

Shen Xin didn’t mention the murder case, but he could see that the office layout had indeed changed.

At the time of the crime, the office had been in the northeast corner. That area had now been torn down and turned into an open-plan workspace.

Shen Xin asked him who had changed the layout.

As soon as he was asked, the owner brought up Liu Laibin’s case himself. He said he’d heard about it and that the rent was cheaper because of it.

However, fearing it was bad luck, he had demolished the original office where the man had died.

So the scene had been completely altered, with not a trace of the original crime left.

Although this was a murder, it wasn’t like a death in a private home where the crime scene could potentially be sealed indefinitely.

Liu Laibin’s office was a rental with a lease agreement.

The case file recorded that the crime occurred on September 7th, and the on-site investigation lasted until the end of January of the following year.

Which was exactly when the lease for that year expired.

Qin Chuanwang and his team had spent months combing through the scene for every possible piece of evidence. Only after confirming nothing was missed did they release the scene.

Sealing it forever was unrealistic.

All related physical evidence was kept in the evidence room. Since it was a homicide case, the evidence would be preserved permanently.

So, Shen Xin had only come to see the environment of the scene and to walk the escape route that Qin Chuanwang had theorized.

Outside the door of Unit 1402, down the corridor, near the public restrooms, was the floor’s low-voltage electrical room.

He’d asked about it. Because the power supply was unstable and the circuit breaker often tripped, the door to the electrical room was always left open for easy access to reset it.

The hallway had cameras now, but it didn’t back then.

The floor’s cameras were over by the elevator bank.

The stairwell had them too.

But since this floor was mostly offices, employees often went to the stairwell to smoke or slack off. To avoid getting caught, they would often turn the camera lenses away so they couldn’t be seen.

The cameras on several floors were also broken, creating a huge security gap.

Guo Chunping said he had reported it for repairs, but the property management didn’t want to pay. They argued that the tenants had damaged it and should be the ones to foot the bill.

But with so many tenants, it was impossible to find out who had broken them.

After a lot of back and forth, the cameras ultimately became useless.

By taking the stairs all the way down to the first floor, one could access the service elevator corridor and leave through Exit 3.

This exit led to Tiancheng Lane behind the building.

Shen Xin stopped and looked around.

The lane wasn’t long. It was much the same as before, lined with small restaurants. Back then, there were also street vendors at night.

It was a chaotic scene. There were cameras, but only at the entrance and exit of the lane. Small side alleys branched off in every direction. It would have been easy for Sun Kai to escape by wearing a baseball cap and avoiding the cameras.

Besides, Qin Chuanwang had already investigated this and found nothing.

"Manager Guo, thank you. We’ll contact you if we have any more questions." Shen Xin sighed inwardly and took his leave.

’Looks like the only option left is to find a way through this parrot, Broo.’

Qin Chuanwang and his team had surely exhausted all the normal lines of investigation.

If he wanted to make a breakthrough, he had to take an unconventional approach.

He drove back to the station and clocked out for the day.

Shen Xin then drove straight to the zoo.

On the way, Shen Xin stopped at a snack shop to buy some nuts.

’Food is still the best way to increase favorability.’

The macadamia nuts were quite expensive.

It was already 6:40 PM by the time he reached the zoo.

The parking lot outside the zoo was empty.

Shen Xin parked his car, got out, and was about to walk toward the zoo when he suddenly felt something and turned his head.

Across the greenbelt on Ronghu Road, right in front of the zoo’s main entrance, Shen Xin saw a taxi slow down at the entrance to the zoo parking lot.

But it didn’t stop. It accelerated again and drove away normally.

The light on top of the taxi was red, indicating it had a passenger.

In that brief glance, he didn’t get a clear look at the license plate.

It was just that momentary deceleration that had caught Shen Xin’s attention. When it drove off, he frowned slightly, then looked away and continued toward the zoo.

The zoo closed at 6:00 PM.

But the animals still had to be brought in and the enclosures cleaned, so the staff usually didn’t leave until after 7:00 PM.

Director Hong was quite surprised to learn that Shen Xin had come again.

"I’d like to see that parrot again. Look, I even brought a gift," Shen Xin said, shaking the bag of nuts in his hand.

Director Hong looked curious and couldn’t help but ask what was going on.

Of course, Shen Xin wouldn’t explain. He just asked Director Hong to help him out and cooperate.

Baffled, he had no choice but to take Shen Xin to the aviary.

Li Xiaobing hadn’t left work yet. He had already moved the King Kong Parrots back to the cage area.

The park had security patrols. Shen Xin planned to spend some time with Broo, so he told the others to go about their business and leave when their shift was over. He could just let himself out when he was done.

This made the two of them even more curious.

But they figured a police officer like Shen Xin wouldn’t be up to no good. Director Hong was in a hurry to get off work, so he left first.

Li Xiaobing opened the door, and Shen Xin walked in.

It was a small glass enclosure.

There was a perch, and above it, a suspended, hidden nesting box.

Broo wasn’t resting. It was standing on the wooden perch, and after Shen Xin entered, it tilted its head and studied him curiously.

Li Xiaobing followed behind, ready to intervene in case the parrot attacked Shen Xin.

King Kong Parrots have a strong territorial instinct and might attack strangers.

A scratch from its talons would be no small matter.

Shen Xin grabbed a handful of macadamia nuts, approached slowly, and then tried calling out, "Broo."

That was the name Liu Yuting had given it.

Behind him, Li Xiaobing froze for a moment. Then, he noticed with astonishment that Broo had started hopping around cheerfully on its perch, letting out a loud squawk.

This sound, this movement—it was a reaction of extreme happiness.

And the next moment, the parrot actually spoke again. "Tingting, I like Tingting."

Shen Xin’s eyes lit up.

’Just as I thought. Broo still remembers Liu Yuting.’

And immediately, Shen Xin noticed a favorability icon appear above Broo’s head.