CHAPTER 336: CHAPTER 209: THE INVESTIGATION EXPANDS

"However, I waited until 9:30, but I still didn’t see Chen Guang, and I couldn’t reach him by phone either."

"At the same time, I called his girlfriend’s phone, but it also didn’t go through. At that moment, I had a vague feeling something was wrong."

"I had been to his home before, so I was quite familiar with the location and unit number."

"But when I drove over to the Talent Apartments and knocked on the door for a long time, there was still no response."

"I was very worried then, so I immediately called a locksmith."

"When the locksmith opened the door, I found Chen Guang and his girlfriend lying in the bedroom, no longer breathing."

Mr. Li nodded after hearing this and said, "How did the locksmith open the lock at that time?"

"I remember he opened it through the peephole."

The man then nodded and continued, "The locksmith said the door wasn’t deadlocked, so he was able to open it just by gently pulling through the peephole."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Li squinted slightly and thought to himself that this information was very important. The living room door wasn’t deadlocked, which at least suggested that this wasn’t a completely sealed-off scene.

If someone had entered and then left, the door couldn’t have been deadlocked.

He then continued to ask, "When you entered the scene, was there anything unusual about the interior setting?"

"I didn’t particularly notice."

"I only noticed that the curtains were drawn, and it was very dark inside."

"What was the state of the windows?"

"I remember the living room window was open, but the bedroom window was closed."

Mr. Li nodded again and asked, "Did you notice the keys on the shoe cabinet when entering?"

The man across from him recalled the scene, his mind conjuring up images from that time.

A minute later, he nodded, "I seem to remember there were two sets of keys, both on the shoe cabinet."

"Did you smell anything when you went inside?"

"There wasn’t any noticeable smell, just that the lighting was a bit dim."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Li gently nodded.

"What happened next?"

"I then called 120, and the doctor came over to pronounce them dead."

"Finally, I called the police, and it wasn’t long before you officers arrived."

Mr. Li nodded and, after a moment of contemplation, asked, "Did they have any conflicts with others in their work or personal life?"

The man shook his head, "No, they were both quite easygoing, and I didn’t notice any conflicts with others in their work or life."

As soon as he finished speaking, the man across from him asked, "Why? Is there any doubt about this case?"

"Initially, wasn’t it said that they died accidentally from drinking?"

Mr. Li slightly opened his mouth, licked his lips, and hesitated before saying, "I’m sorry, that’s confidential. I can’t tell you for now, just answer my questions."

The young man nodded softly and didn’t continue to ask questions.

"Did you participate in their gathering the night before last?"

The man shook his head and said, "No, I had family matters to attend to that night."

"We originally planned to have a barbecue outing this weekend, so I didn’t attend the gathering last night."

"Barbecue?"

"Yeah, we planned it a few months ago."

"We kept postponing it because we couldn’t gather enough people, so we planned to have the barbecue at the Jiangcheng Bund this weekend."

In the end, he shook his head, "What a shame."

"Now that they’re both gone, we can’t go ahead with the barbecue."

Mr. Li nodded, "None of us wanted to see this outcome."

"But once it happens, we must face it bravely."

"I understand this. Thank you for investigating the truth of their deaths."

Li Jian nodded firmly and said in a deep voice, "It’s our duty."

After leaving the company, Mr. Li received a call from another deputy captain.

He said, "Mr. Li, we’ve just retrieved all the surveillance footage around the deceased’s residence and are examining it further."

Mr. Li nodded, "Thank you for your hard work."

"However, we’ve recently introduced new video capturing software. You should give it a try; it might improve the efficiency of video observation."

"Mr. Li, we’re using it now, and we expect to have results soon."

At 3 PM, the Criminal Investigation Unit’s meeting room was filled with smoke.

Everyone brought their notebooks into the meeting room.

Mr. Li organized the team for the second discussion on the case.

After everyone was seated, Mr. Li began, "Comrades, you should all be aware of the couple’s indoor death case from a few days ago."

"However, as we were about to close the case, unexpected findings emerged."

"It turns out the deceased didn’t die from alcohol poisoning but from carbon monoxide poisoning."

As soon as he spoke, everyone in the room murmured in disbelief.

"Carbon monoxide poisoning?"

"In this season, is it even possible?"

...

Mr. Li continued, "I know you might be surprised after hearing this, but it’s the truth."

"Now, this case isn’t just an accidental death; it’s a premeditated murder."

"Therefore, we all need to be vigilant and take this very seriously."

"Let’s discuss the latest progress here and determine the next steps in the investigation."

"First, Jiang An, please give us a brief overview of the condition of the bodies."

Jiang An cleared his throat and said, "Captain, I’ll first summarize the examination results of the bodies."

"Through our reexamination, we can preliminarily confirm there are no signs of external trauma on the two deceased, ruling out death from physical violence."

"However, we found a large amount of alcohol in their bodies."

"Although the alcohol level was near the fatal threshold for humans, investigations showed that the two deceased were heavy drinkers, regularly consuming over 250 ml of liquor each."

"Hence, for these two individuals, having alcohol levels close to the lethal limit wouldn’t have been fatal."

"During the reexamination, I found carboxyhemoglobin in the pectoral muscles of both deceased, and the content was extremely high."

"From a forensic perspective, it aligns with carbon monoxide poisoning."

"So, although we didn’t extract blood for carboxyhemoglobin testing during the reexamination because the blood had already dried up, making extraction impossible."

"The cause of death for both deceased has now been determined."

"Through our reinvestigation, we also found the device that generated the carbon monoxide, initially suspecting that the source could likely be charcoal."

"This morning, we sent a set of keys from the deceased’s home to the Jiangcheng Medical University Forensic Center for examination to see if it’s charcoal residue."

After finishing, he looked at Mr. Li, "Mr. Li, that’s all regarding the bodies."

Mr. Li nodded and then said, "Please also give us an overview of the scene."

Jiang An continued, "Today, we revisited the scene and made the following important discoveries."

"After on-site experiments, the concentration of carbon monoxide produced by the water heater was very low, insufficient to cause death, corroborating that the carbon monoxide originated from an external source, such as imported devices like charcoal.

"Moreover, during the scene investigation, we found that the door lock of the deceased’s home was not damaged, nor were there any signs of technical lock-picking, indicating the suspect entered peacefully rather than through force or technical means."