Chapter 272: The Plot Thickens
Chapter 272: The Plot Thickens
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Based on the investigator's analyses, the culprit's motive and methods were already revealed, becoming clearer by the minute. The case went something like this: before the robbers robbed the bank, they already registered one more different safety deposit boxes.
When they actually robbed the bank, they opened their own as well as seventeen other boxes. Actually, out of the seventeen security boxes, there was only one or two that contained their true target! In order to throw the police off track, after breaking into the boxes with the desired possessions, they also destroyed the contents of the other boxes, scattering them all around.
Then they put the item they planned on stealing into the safety box under their own name, then left the bank empty handed. A day later, they returned, and using the bank's confirmation method, took the item under their own name and left!
Only this theory this could explain why the robbers had opened so many safety deposit boxes, but did not touch any of the contents! All the investigators were stunned! No one could have imagined that the culprits would be so genius! They had completely used both loopholes in registering for a safety deposit box, as well as the flaw in the bank's method of returning items, to their advantage, and executed a nearly flawless crime!!
In the last ten hours or so, all members of the Key Case Investigation Unit had moved out and enacted another "fiasco"! First, the investigators found all the people who had taken items out of the security boxes with lightning speed. They were interrogated, then had their DNA compared to the DNA found on the masks.
Miao Ying's first thought was that if the culprit was really mixed in with the nine people who had retrieved their items, then after retrieving the items, they had probably already escaped. There was no way they would let themselves be caught. Thus, whoever ran would be the true culprit!
But Miao Ying was completely mistaken. All nine of the suspects were successfully taken to the police station. To make things worse, none of their DNA matched the DNA on the mask!
Oh no! Only now did Miao Ying and the others realize the situation was far more complicated! Even though the DNA was not a match, it did not necessarily mean the culprit was not one of the nine people brought in. If they sent a different person to retrieve the item, then obviously the DNA would not matter at all. If these people all used their real names to register, and they correctly described the items in the box, then the police would have no way of knowing if they were working with the culprit or not!
There was no time left, and the investigators were only left with one method, which was to check the items that were retrieved by these people and see if the items were under their name, and if anything was suspiciously valuable!
Indeed, the culprits had put in inhuman effort. There was no way they would steal anything less than a few hundred-thousand yuan. They surely wanted something extremely valuable and rare! Thus, when the investigators investigated in this direction, they quickly eliminated the majority of the suspects, leaving only three!
The remaining three not only retrieved items worth millions, but none of them could present proper identification for their items within the short notice either. The three of them were rather all influential people. Among them was an entrepreneur, a retired radio station owner, and a famous antique appraiser. Only after being detained for ten hours was the information regarding their valuables finally revealed.
The first, the entrepreneur's item, was a family heirloom. He did not want his wife to find out about it, and decided to save it in the safety deposit box. The second, was ten gold bars from the retired radio station owner. It was from when he and his wife sold a house and invested in gold. The reason they deposited it in the bank was so their children would not worry about it.
The third, the blue-and-white porcelain, was not even the antique appraiser's, but rather an auction item his association had been preparing for a long time. It was the focus of the auction. Now that it was revealed ahead of time, it would affect the auction greatly without a doubt.
Indeed, the suspicions regarding them were cleared; however, how could the three of them simply let it go? All three of them were famous and influential people, and they were being tossed around by the police. They were clearly embarrassed and frustrated. Soon, their lawyers arrived, and even their legal representatives all arrived! Some say they will sue the police, some wants a reason for the arrest, Tang Zhaolong was completely buried by the work!
Even though Tang Zhaolong was a leader at Rongyang Branch, he was constantly abused in these sorts of situation. He did not dare to touch the powerful investigators under him, nor offend the officials above him. Ever since his promotion, he was in a good situation. Thus, in a fit of frustration, he submitted his resignation letter, saying he would rather retire than continue his job, ready to leave!
With no options left, the bureau chief of the city bureau could only send out their best officers to help with the situation. Placating and appeasing people from all sides, they finally managed to ease the situation temporarily.
With such a fiasco from above, the pressure on Miao Ying's shoulders was also gigantic! If they still could not solve this case, then their situation would be even worse. Only now did Zhao Yu realize that it might not have been a bad thing that he had not ended up as the substitute Team Leader for Team A! Otherwise, all this pressure would be on his head instead!
But since all nine suspects were no longer believed to have been involved with the crime, Zhao Yu was just as surprised! Suddenly, he was almost suspecting himself. "Could I have robbed the bank while I was asleep" he wondered.
Tsk, tsk… Zhao Yu broke into a cold sweat. This was truly strange! "Did we really guess wrong? Did the culprit really not use any sort of deception? Or…did we miss something?" he thought to himself.
Zhao Yu's eyebrows were locked together, confused to the extreme. Just like everyone else, Zhao Yu had not put too much thought into this case at first. He figured with something as big as robbing a bank, such a bold move, with so many culprits, there should have been many evidence to be found and flaws made! Yet…why couldn't they find anything?
It was almost as if the five culprits vanished. Not only did they disappear completely, but nobody even knew what they took? Could it be, just like Zhang Jingfeng said, they took such a big risk, but had a different motive? Then…what could it be? Was it really the vacuum sealed bodies? The puzzle grew bigger and more complicated by the minute.
The entire Key Case Investigation Unit fell stagnant. All the investigators felt as if they were up against a huge wall, unable to proceed.
"Don't give up!" During this time, Miao Ying's leadership ability shone as she spoke without a hint of despair, "Right now, we still have two directions to investigate! One, no matter what, we have to figure out just what the culprits stole. As long as we know what they stole, we can investigate that line of evidence! Two, we still have the security footage from the old city area. After some analysis and fieldwork, we will definitely find some sort of evidence!"