Pandora’s Box

Sixuan had been intently listening. After Criminal Police Officer Zheng finished, he thought for a minute, and then said, "When was the last time his neighbor saw Jing Haozhi?"

"It was in the afternoon on the day before he was killed. The neighbor said she finished her bottled drinking water and ordered a water-delivery at that time, and she happened to see Jing Haozhi when the water-delivery man pushed the doorbell and she opened the door. She thought maybe he had ordered the service, too."

Sixuan looked at the photos of the murder scene as he listened. Suddenly he stared at one of them and frowned, lost in thought.

After several dozen seconds, Sixuan came to his mind and said, "Have you guys figured out who is the owner of the footprint on the window?"

"Yes." Officer Zheng nodded and said, "We have investigated some people who have connections to him and we found it was Jing Haozhi's cousin, a girl whose name is Zhang Xuejian. She is a blood cancer patient and she is now in the hospital. According to the nurse's words, Jing Haozhi occasionally visited Zhang Xuejian. And the patient who was in the same room with Zhang Xuejian said that she once mentioned that she liked her cousin, she was so into him since she was a kid. In fact, Zhang Xuejian also said that she had a crush on her cousin in our interview."

"Does she have proof of absence, an alibi?" Sixuan asked suddenly.

"No," Officer Zheng said in a serious tone. "She was not in the hospital when Jing Haozhi was killed, which made her our first suspect. Now she is under twenty-four-hour surveillance."

Sixuan stretched his neck, looked at the sky, and said, "She indeed had gone to the scene, but she is not the murderer."

"What?" Officer Zheng was a little stunned and asked, "Do you already know who it is?"

"The process of the case is an elephant in the room." Sixuan looked at Officer Zheng when he said this point. He licked the thumb of his left hand and slowly said, "Now let me uncover the mystery for you. First of all, I want you to know about the murderer."

"Who?" Officer Zheng could not help but ask.

"Jing Haozhi himself." Sixuan came straight to the point.

"Jing Haozhi himself?" Officer Zheng screamed, "You mean it was a suicide? No way. . . I just mentioned before that with further appraisal, it was confirmed that the first shot hit his temple, and the second shot hit his heart. He would die immediately after the shot to his temple and there was no way to make another shot to his heart. In addition, the gun was discovered in the grass. . ."

Sixuan slowly replied, "Let's go back to the beginning. All that I am about to say comes out of guessing, of course, based on a certain amount of evidence. I can only say it is very close to the truth, not a hundred percent of the truth."

Officer Zheng had calmed down now, and he nodded and said, "Go ahead."

"For some unknown reason, Lin Jing'er had the motivation to kill Jing Haozhi. Maybe she knew Jing Haozhi had invested a huge amount of insurance on her and wanted to get the insurance money. Or she was jealous about Jing Haozhi having the relationship with his cousin Zhang Xuejian. Since Jing Haozhi had invested a huge amount of insurance on Lin Jing'er, they might be lovers."

Officer Zheng interrupted, saying, "Zhang Xuejian had said that before the night that Jing Haozhi was killed, she had confessed to him again. Nevertheless, Jing Haozhi said he had a crush on somebody else. Zhang Xuejian said she had cancer and would die soon and she would die without regret if he hugged her and kissed her. At last, Jing Haozhi made her dream come true. Maybe she was too excited and could not hide the joy in her heart that she even talked about it to a stranger, me. "

Sixuan nodded and said faintly, "In this way, Lin Jing'er's motivation must be the second possibility that she had seen him hug and kiss her."

Sixuan paused for a moment as he said it. He licked his lips and continued. "Anyway, Lin Jing'er wanted to kill Jing Haozhi. She found some poison and put it in the bottled drinking water; nonetheless, it was all inadvertently seen by Jing Haozhi."  

Officer Zheng asked, "How do you know about all this?"

"You just mentioned that there was new bottled drinking water in the home the day before Jing Haozhi was killed. Take a look at the photo, the bottled drinking water was on it." Sixuan passed the photo to Officer Zheng as he spoke.

"Emm. . ." Officer Zheng figured it out, too. "It is impossible that the whole bottled drinking water was run out in a day."

"Correct." Sixuan moved the corner of his lip and showed a rare smile on his face. "That is the reason that I deduced that Jing Haozhi had found Lin Jing'er wanted to kill him. He intended to protect the one he loved, who is Lin Jing'er, so he poured out the water and cleaned the bottled, so that the police could never know what she had done."

"How could he know there would be police involved?" Officer Zheng asked.

"Because he was going to commit suicide," Sixuan answered.