SFTD -Chapter 99 Man in the Wall (Part 9)

Shao Guohui thought for a moment and made a phone call.

“Send me all of Sofia’s construction drawings immediately to my email!”

Just as Shao Guohui stood up to get his laptop, two soft chimes came from the computer—an email had already been delivered.

He put on his glasses and quickly opened the CAD files, locating the floor plan of the sixth floor.

“Dr. Forensic, tell me the exact location of this wall.”

Zhou Hai leaned over, identified the direction, and quickly pinpointed the exact position.

He clicked it open and found that the drawing showed a normal shear wall structure. The spacing and quantity of reinforcement bars, concrete strength grade, and required steel diameters were all clearly marked.

There was nothing wrong with the design drawings. It seemed to be a construction issue. Shao Guohui thought for a moment.

“The drawings are fine. If, during on-site construction, someone cut one side of the reinforcement after formwork installation, and then used steel beams above to reconnect it, rebuilding the shear wall’s reinforcement skeleton, it’s not impossible. But what would be the point of doing that?”

“The killer wanted to hide a body! And this method is indeed very effective. If not for the fire extinguisher smashing through the wall, no one would have known there was a corpse inside. We need to figure out the relevant construction process, and identify everyone who had access to it.”

Shao Guohui nodded and pointed at the shear wall drawing.

“It can only be done secretly after the formwork is set up. There are only two or three days between completing the formwork and pouring concrete. Find the specific construction team responsible for the sixth floor, and verify with the site managers on duty that day. It’s impossible to have only daytime workers—just check the night shift personnel.”

Chu Menghan’s eyes lit up as she glanced at Zhou Hai. As much as she disliked him, his analytical ability was truly impressive. This significantly narrowed the scope of the investigation.

Shao Guohui opened his work notebook and began making phone calls.

Chu Menghan glanced over and noticed that the project manager of the Sofia Hotel turned out to be someone she had met yesterday—Cao Ming. Her brows immediately furrowed.

Liu Da raised an eyebrow at her reaction. She pointed at the name “Cao Ming.”

She took out her notebook and handed it to Liu Da. It showed that the first East Construction employee she had encountered yesterday was this same Cao Ming. Next to his name, there was a big red circle with the note: “one hour late.”

Liu Da felt a headache coming on and shot her a glare, lowering his voice.

“Aren’t you supposed to have your so-called ‘dog-headed strategist’? Now you know to bring reinforcements—why didn’t you ask for help yesterday?”

Chu Menghan erased the red circle with her pen.

“I met Cao Ming yesterday. He gave me a 100-page supplier list. At the time I just thought I was disturbing his holiday and he was a bit irritable. Now that I think about it… maybe there was more to it. How could a project manager not know suppliers were missing?”

Zhou Hai said quietly without looking up:

“Settlement payments, supply chains, schedules, meetings…”

Liu Da slapped his thigh, stood up, and walked over to Shao Guohui, interrupting his call.

“Cao Ming is the project manager for this project?”

“Yes.”

“Have you contacted him?”

“I just called once. He didn’t answer. I’ll try again later.”

“No answer?”

Chu Menghan also became alert, her eyes flickering.

“It seems Cao Ming has some kind of ambiguous relationship with the front desk girl downstairs. Could she have tipped him off that we’re here?”

“Control her!”

Chu Menghan immediately called the officers waiting in the car.

“Go to the lobby of the East Construction Group office building. Find a front desk woman with her hair tied up wearing a red suit, and bring her to the eighth floor.”

Shortly after, two police officers and Xiao Liang quickly brought the front desk woman upstairs. Seeing a room full of police, her legs trembled and her lips shook uncontrollably.

Chu Menghan walked up beside her, stared into her eyes, and said slowly word by word:

“We’ve met before. Let me reintroduce myself—I’m not a community officer, I’m a criminal investigator. Criminal investigators are responsible for organizing, coordinating, and solving ordinary, major, and serious criminal cases. Now tell me—did you just call Cao Ming?”

The woman collapsed into a chair, shaking her head and waving her hands desperately.

“I know nothing… Mr. Cao said if the police come again, I should notify him.”

“Let me see your phone!”

The woman was already panicking. It took her a moment to understand Chu Menghan was asking for her phone. She hurriedly handed it over.

Sure enough, fifteen minutes ago there had been a call to a number labeled “Mr. Cao.”

Chu Menghan checked the call log—there were many entries. She scrolled through and found nearly thirty calls, the longest lasting over thirty minutes, all within the past one or two months.

“You’re new here?”

The woman nodded quickly. Chu Menghan understood—she didn’t know much and was just being used, a typical foolish woman trying to catch a rich man.

Zhou Hai walked over to Shao Guohui.

“Mr. Shao, Cao Ming is fully responsible for the Sofia project, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then please check whether there’s a list of personnel who could have accessed the sixth-floor formwork and concrete pouring process. We need a roster for investigation. Either Cao Ming knows about this, or he is the mastermind. Either way, he’s deeply involved as the responsible party.”

Just then, Zhou Hai’s phone rang. Seeing that it was Xu Biao calling, he quickly stepped out of the office to answer.

“What did you find?”

“Zhou Hai, come take a look! It’s hard to explain in a few words. I’ve sent you the location. We think we’ve found the primary crime scene.”

He hung up.

Liu Da followed him out.

“Is it Xu Biao and the others who found something?”

Zhou Hai nodded and glanced back into the room.

“I need to go take a look. Cao Ming and this place…”

“You go. I’ll have Chu Menghan go after Cao Ming. Airports, train stations, and exit points will all be issued a joint investigation notice—he’s a responsible party, so it’s justified. As for the personnel tracing here, I’ll handle it.”

“Alright. Keep in touch.”

Thirty minutes later—south coast beach of Maidao.

Zhou Hai stepped out of the car holding his phone. The location should be here—but where was it?

The sound of waves crashing against the rocks was loud. Zhou Hai walked up to the reef and only then realized this wasn’t the real shoreline. Beneath the scattered rocks there was a platform, where several police figures were moving.

He found a narrow path between the rocks and climbed down. From this angle, the rocks looked like a natural sculpture.

Xu Biao jogged over.

“Can you tell what animal it is?”

Zhou Hai narrowed his eyes and examined it carefully. The overall layout showed no obvious carving marks, but there were signs that some rocks had been artificially cleared. Combined with its north-facing position…

“Dragon Nine Emerging from the Sea?”

Xu Biao instantly lost his excitement, his face falling.

“You’ve been here before?”

“No. Tell me what you found.”

“Alright. Starting with this group of rocks—this is the southern end of the golf course. To the east is the extending lawn area. These rocks form a natural bridge, and below is a beach. It’s the most unique scenery on the island. But do you know who owns this place?”

Seeing Zhou Hai shake his head, Xu Biao smiled and said meaningfully:

“The golf course land is owned by Kaihua Real Estate under China Railway 14th Bureau. It’s the same company tied to the first bathtub murder case we handled last year—the company of the victim Peng Yuhua. Interestingly, they gifted one-sixth of the land on the south side of Maidao to Cao Ming of Dongjian Group. Pretty interesting connection, right?”

Zhou Hai froze and slowly turned to look at Xu Biao.

“A gift?”