SFTD -Chapter 327 Missing Memory (Part 19)

Sister Zeng looked confused and raised her head to glance at Zhou Hai, who had his eyes slightly narrowed.

“What does ‘being rich enough to go offshore fishing’ mean?”

“It refers to someone wealthy—rich enough to go out fishing at sea with full professional gear. These gloves are something he would carry with him at all times. This suggests he must have recently been out at sea.”

Sister Zeng followed Zhou Hai’s reasoning and thought for a moment before nodding firmly.

“That does make sense. These gloves are scratched like this, yet only a layer of rubber was worn off. That shows the quality is excellent. Also, we found sea salt residue on the fibers of the gloves, and even on the scabbed wounds of Wang Xuchao. Your analysis is likely correct.”

“But then why would someone like that personally kill Wang Shouxin and Yu Xiuhong?” she asked.

Zhou Hai set down the evidence box.

“That depends on who Wang Shouxin offended. Everything ultimately comes down to profit. The specifics will have to be investigated by Director Huang’s team.”

Sister Zeng didn’t look relaxed. She glanced at all the evidence boxes and sighed softly.

“But are you really going to merge the cases based only on those video screenshots? Will Chu Menghan agree to that?”

Zhou Hai thought of Chu Menghan’s attitude that morning and nodded slightly.

“Although there are only a few screenshots, the conditions for case consolidation are still met. Yu Xiuhong had been actively searching for evidence of Wang Shouxin’s death—rewards, investigations, advertisements. That’s an established fact. Also, Wang Xuchao had been continuously investigating the case. From this perspective, the 7.22 case is essentially a two-birds-with-one-stone move by the killer—stopping Yu Xiuhong’s investigation while also blocking Wang Xuchao’s pursuit.”

Sister Zeng nodded. Zhou Hai’s explanation made sense.

“I participated in the forensic examination of the 4.14 case,” she said. “You’ve probably read Wang Shouxin’s autopsy report. The case was originally handled by Group One at the scene, but they found nothing of value. At least the evidence sent to me for testing didn’t exceed twenty items.”

Zhou Hai nodded. He knew this already, which was exactly why he found the 4.14 case suspicious. Even for a victim, it was unusual to have so little trace evidence extracted.

“I saw that too,” Zhou Hai said. “That’s why I came today—to ask you to retrieve all reports from before the 4.14 case. I want to compare trace elements from the scene materials and analyze from that angle.”

Sister Zeng immediately stood up, called a staff member over, and had all the electronic archives from the 4.14 case retrieved.

She then compared seven samples taken from Wang Shouxin’s body in the 4.14 case with the samples from the 7.22 case. The computer processed the comparison rapidly.

In just two to three minutes, the results were generated and the printer began humming.

Zhou Hai walked over, picked up the report that looked like an ECG chart, and studied it carefully. When he turned to the second page, his finger suddenly paused.

“Sister Zeng, look at this. What is this indicator? Why is it so similar?”

Sister Zeng quickly turned back, put on her glasses, and took the report. The red and blue wave lines almost perfectly overlapped.

She was also stunned. Following the lines downward, she found that the comparison results were nearly identical. When she checked the source of the data, her expression turned understanding.

“It really is similar. Your analysis is correct. Sea salt residue was also detected on Wang Shouxin’s clothing. Although there are slight differences in trace amounts, it is indeed sea salt.”

Zhou Hai put away the report and quickly left after greeting her. This information needed to be presented at the task force meeting.

The car started and sped off.

At 8:20, Zhou Hai arrived at the Dongcheng District Criminal Police Team. There was still some time before the task force meeting. Before he even got out of the car, his phone rang—it was Xiao Hu. Thinking of last night’s arrangement, Zhou Hai quickly answered.

“Xiao Hu, have you cracked Yu Xiuhong’s email?”

Xiao Hu coughed twice on the other end.

“I say, Deputy Director Zhou, you’re even more demanding than Huang Shiyen. I already replied to you early this morning.”

“The email has been found, and I’ve also recovered the deleted messages. Strangely enough, the person who deleted Yu Xiuhong’s emails was very skilled. It’s impressive that they could break such a difficult password.”

“Deleted emails? Cracked password? Are you saying Yu Xiuhong’s email was tampered with?” Zhou Hai asked.

“Yes. The deletion happened around midnight on July 22. It was accessed directly using the password. There was only one failed login attempt before the second attempt succeeded.”

“All emails were completely wiped, even historical traces. Among ordinary people, this is top-tier expert-level work.”

Zhou Hai nearly laughed. Was that a roundabout way of praising him?

“Mm, Xiao Hu’s ability is excellent. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had to contact you late at night. Alright, get to the point—what did you find?”

Xiao Hu pursed his lips. Zhou Hai clearly knew what he meant but still insisted on saying it that way. Was that really necessary?

“I really can’t talk to leadership,” he muttered. “Alright, I’ve already sent you the emails from her inbox. The last one contains some photos. The sender left no contact number—only this email address.”

Zhou Hai tightened his grip on the phone.

“You tracked him through the email?”

“Chief, I’m not omnipotent. I can only trace the login location of the email. The rest is up to you. I think the killer is also looking for this person. Now it depends on who moves faster.”

“Got it.”

After hanging up, Zhou Hai grabbed his things and rushed out of the car. Before he even entered the building, he heard sudden braking and car doors opening behind him.

He turned around—it was Chu Menghan and Director Liu arriving.

They had driven separately. Chu Menghan was used to acting alone, while Director Liu was as down-to-earth as ever.

Zhou Hai paused and waited for them.

Director Liu came up and patted Zhou Hai on the shoulder.

“Stop staying up all night. Your dark circles are so bad you’re almost unfit for ID photos!”

Zhou Hai was speechless.

His dark circles weren’t from idle living—it was because of the case.

He was working himself to exhaustion just to clear one of their subordinates, and this was what he got?

A panda-eyed joke?

A bit too much.

But… he was still the boss. He endured it.

Director Liu bumped him with his shoulder.

“What, stayed up too late and went dumb? Come on, let’s go in.”

“Chu Menghan said you weren’t attending the task force meeting today. I was wondering what was going on. Now it’s good—you can explain your ideas properly later…”

Behind them, Chu Menghan looked at Zhou Hai several times.

During the morning call, he had said he wouldn’t attend the meeting, but now he showed up anyway. It seemed she and Zhou Hai really clashed—everything they did seemed to oppose each other.

On his first day in office, he staged a full-on refusal to comply. Now he was going back on his word again.

She decided she needed to talk to him.

She turned and tugged at Wang Xuchao behind her. With a sudden pull, he almost stumbled.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Walk in front,” Chu Menghan said, chin raised.

Wang Xuchao sighed helplessly. Of everyone involved, he was the most innocent one—just attended a promotion banquet hosted by Director Liu, went to sing once, ran into an acquaintance, and suddenly everything changed. His friend was dead, he was under suspicion, and now that things were finally clearing up, even his own leader was giving him cold looks.

He sighed and muttered under his breath:

“Ah… women really do need to get married at a certain age. Otherwise things get emotionally unbalanced. If they can’t chase a man, they take it out on me… what did I even do wrong?”