Silent Testimony - Chapter 96

“I will go to the police station and turn myself in.”

Shen Ning’s final words before hanging up echoed in Qiu Wan’s mind. There hadn’t been a hint of hesitation; she sounded as though she had prepared for this moment long ago. Unable to fully grasp the woman’s motives and still pondering the identity of “Shen Zong,” Qiu Wan was interrupted by Xiao Zhou knocking on her door.

“Boss, Shen Ning is in the lobby downstairs. She asked specifically for you.”

“That fast?” Qiu Wan snapped back to reality. She exchanged a look with Wang Cen and hurried out the door.

After registration and security screening, Shen Ning was placed in Interrogation Room No. 1. Qiu Wan took the lead in the questioning while Wang Cen handled the recording. After a brief identification check, Shen Ning took the initiative to confess: she had killed Shen Zong on February 19, 2013; Tao Yang on July 8, 2013; and Du Guozhou on February 5, 2016.

Qiu Wan’s expression was grim. “What was the motive? Shen Ning, you understand the law, and many of your friends work in the judicial system. Why choose a path of no return?”

Shen Ning began her detailed account.

She came from an ordinary working-class family. Her father was a middle manager at a telecommunications company, and her mother was a chief reporter for a newspaper. Her younger brother, who was about to be discharged from the military, had been set up with a job in a middle school security section. Their happy life had shattered six years ago due to a sudden upheaval. Her parents divorced abruptly, and her mother, Chu Xiaoyi, left her job for the Puchen Evening News. Two weeks later, she died in a car accident.

Shen Ning’s eyes turned bloodshot, her fists clenched to suppress her emotions. “At the time, I didn’t understand why they divorced, nor did I understand why my mother left the provincial capital to move to Puchen.”

“It wasn’t until three years later, in February 2013, that a friend of my mother’s heard Shen Zong was getting remarried. Only then did they tell me the real reason for the divorce.”

A look of pure disgust crossed Shen Ning’s face. “Shen Zong had been arrested by the police multiple times for soliciting prostitutes. He was placed under administrative detention for ten days and fined 5,000 yuan. Everyone at my mother’s workplace knew about it. She couldn’t show her face there anymore, so she resigned and moved to Puchen.”

Processing the details, Qiu Wan asked, “So you believe he was indirectly responsible for Chu Xiaoyi’s death?”

“Isn’t he?” Recalling the image of her mother’s tragic death, Shen Ning’s shoulders shook visibly. The volcano in her heart finally erupted. She cried out with reddened eyes, “If he had just behaved himself, my mother would never have left Shujiang, and she wouldn’t have died!”

“They deserved it. They all deserved it! Including Tao Yang—obtaining his marriage certificate during the day only to linger in a massage parlor in the red-light district late at night. And Du Guozhou, dropping hints that he wanted to sleep with his students. He was a coward who didn’t dare use force, so he often spent money at high-end clubs to solicit prostitutes instead.”

Shen Ning’s chest heaved rapidly, her lips trembling. “As long as there are buyers, there will be sellers; it’s a tale as old as time.” A frantic light sparked in her eyes, as if she were being governed by some morbid obsession. She leaned forward, her voice rising into an uncontrolled roar. “Since the heavens won’t take this filth away, I will!”

This was a complete departure from the gentle, calm demeanor Shen Ning had displayed during previous statements. Realizing something was wrong, Qiu Wan cautioned, “Calm down.” She stepped out of the room, returned with a cup of water, and handed it to Shen Ning. “Drink some water. Take your time.”

Shen Ning lowered her head, taking small sips and biting the rim of the paper cup. Her heightened emotions slowly began to subside.

“Continue,” Qiu Wan said, noticing Shen Ning had set the cup aside. She hurried the interrogation along. “So, you killed Shen Zong, Tao Yang, and Du Guozhou all because they solicited prostitutes?”

“Yes.”

“Was it premeditated? Or a heat-of-the-moment impulse?”

Shen Ning looked up. Through her glasses, she stared straight at Qiu Wan and described the crimes. “The first two weren’t premeditated. After I learned the truth about the divorce, I went home and got into an argument with Shen Zong. He threw a picture frame at me. In a panic, I pushed him. The back of his head landed exactly on a nail used for hanging the frame. He died instantly.”

“Why didn’t you call the police? If your description is accurate, that’s self-defense and an accident.”

Tears finally spilled from Shen Ning’s eyes. “Call the police? I struggled with that. I considered it. But to this day, my mother’s death is still classified as a simple car accident. Her body only had crush injuries, no impact marks. Did she just lie down on the road to be run over by a wheel?”

Qiu Wan’s face hardened. She leaned over to whisper to Wang Cen, “Check the case files for Chu Xiaoyi.” She then sat up straight and asked, “What about Tao Yang?”

“On the night the dinner party ended, I was on my way home when I happened to see Tao Yang coming out of a massage parlor. I heard him cursing Li Hewei as he walked—his language was incredibly crude. How could someone who solicits prostitutes act so self-righteous?”

“And then?”

“I grabbed a wooden club from the side of the road and hit him. He fell, striking his head, which caused his death.”

Qiu Wan scanned the report Wang Cen showed her and countered, “That’s not right. The forensic report indicates he died from a knife wound, and there was no impact injury to the head.”

“That’s because after your forensic team identified the body, they didn’t bother to re-check the teeth.” Shen Ning stared into Qiu Wan’s eyes, emphasizing every word. “I swapped the skull in the refrigerator with a specimen. That wasn’t Tao Yang.”

Just as she finished speaking, a knock came from the corner. Tao Ling’s gentle voice filtered through the door. “Captain Qiu, a new discovery.”

Qiu Wan opened the door and took the report from Tao Ling, skimming it.

“Good work.” After Tao Ling left, Qiu Wan placed the paper report in front of Shen Ning. “The woman who just walked out is Tao Yang’s younger sister. She just returned to work after his funeral, and she found this detail today.” While autopsies require meticulousness, some forensic doctors skip certain steps based on experience to save time. Since Tao Yang’s identity had seemingly been confirmed, some colleagues hadn’t performed a dental analysis.

Shen Ning looked at the words in the report stating the teeth did not match. She let out a breath, her expression shifting until a smile curled her lips. “That’s good. If the forensic doctor responsible for my mother’s autopsy six years ago had been as responsible as her, perhaps my mother could have rested in peace long ago.”

Qiu Wan was puzzled. “You could have disposed of the skull separately. Why go through the trouble of leaving it at the scene?”

“To give the police evidence to catch me. Human specimens are all recorded in the inventory; the skull in the rental house was a specimen from our research institute.” Shen Ning’s eyes darkened as her smile deepened. “As for Li Hewei, I never intended to hurt her.”

“In September 2014, she was interviewed by Shujiang TV. She mentioned that as a graduate student, she was already doing composite sketches—drawing relatives who had been missing for years based on family descriptions, or drawing a twenty-year-old based on a photo from when they were four. She could even draw a mother’s likeness just by looking at the son.”

“My mother was conducting an undercover investigation back then. On the day of her ‘accident,’ she was supposed to go to the government affairs center with a passport-sized photo of my brother to handle some paperwork. But that photo was never found among her belongings.”

Qiu Wan surmised, “You believe Shen Hao’s photo was dropped at the scene of the undercover investigation and picked up by someone. That person then used Li Hewei to draw Chu Xiaoyi’s likeness to carry out a premeditated revenge?”

Shen Ning’s throat felt as though something was lodged in it. She squeezed out a single word: “Yes.”

“You never confronted her to confirm this?”

Shen Ning shook her head. “She was just a kind person doing a bad thing. She was used.”

“In the years since my mother passed, Li Hewei has been active in helping me look for evidence. So, while I am pained by it, I have never blamed her.”

Shen Ning emphasized, “Murdering Du Guozhou and framing her this time was just a plan to bait myself into the game. I wanted to make enough noise so the police would finally take notice.”

“However, my brother—Shen Hao—he is an unpredictable factor. Twice last year, he attacked Li Hewei without consulting me. And recently, he has been stalking her.”

Shen Hao. Qiu Wan bolted upright and lunged for the door, sprinting into the monitoring room next door. She scanned the room and asked, face flushed with urgency, “Where’s Old Xu?”

Xiao Liao stammered, “The… the restroom.”

Qiu Wan pulled out her phone and dialed Old Xu.

“Hello, Old Xu.”

“Captain Qiu, what is it?”

“I’ve already sent Xiao Zhou’s team to arrest Shen Hao. You’re responsible for the follow-up.” She hung up and immediately tried to contact Cheng Yingqiu, but the call was busy twice in a row.

Twenty minutes earlier, on Provincial Highway 207 heading from Puchen to Muyang Town, Li Hewei’s nerves were pulled taut. She watched the white sedan behind her through the rearview mirror. She intentionally made a left turn, performed a U-turn, and then a right turn. The sedan followed her moves exactly, maintaining a consistent distance.

Cheng Yingqiu noticed the navigation route had changed. “Sister, what are you doing?”

“We’re being followed.” Li Hewei frowned, calculating how to shake them. She warned the girl beside her, “Stop eating snacks for a moment. Put your things away and hold onto the handle.”

“Oh.” Cheng Yingqiu stuffed her spicy strips back into the bag, sat up straight, and grabbed the grab handle above the door. She swallowed hard, her mind blank as she processed the sudden news. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know.” Li Hewei was worried about involving Cheng Yingqiu. Despite her internal anxiety, she remained calm on the surface, turning the steering wheel steadily.

“Do you need me to do anything?”

“Not for now.” Li Hewei spotted a gas station ahead. She slowed down and pulled in. The white sedan stopped on the roadside, waiting.

She rolled down her window and called to the attendant, “Fill it up with 95.”

“Sure.” The attendant opened the fuel cap and hooked up the nozzle. “Cash or card?”

Li Hewei signaled to her. “Ma’am, come closer.”

“What’s wrong?” The attendant walked over.

“I am a police officer on a case. Do you see that white Buick sedan over there?”

The attendant looked into the distance, then pulled her gaze back, her lips pressed thin. “Yes.”

Li Hewei soothed her. “Don’t be nervous. Just do as I say.”

“Okay. Tell… tell me what to do.”

“Call the police. Say you’re being robbed…”

Before the words fully left her lips, Cheng Yingqiu clutched her stomach, her voice weak. “Sister, my… my stomach hurts.”

“Do you need the restroom?”

“Yes.” Cheng Yingqiu unbuckled her seatbelt, grabbed some tissues, and got out of the car.

Once the tank was full, Li Hewei moved the car to the side.

The attendant leaned in and whispered, “Officer, go inside the office. You can watch the outside through the surveillance monitors.”

Li Hewei nodded. “Thank you.” She followed the attendant inside, scanned a QR code as if paying, and kept her eyes glued to the monitor. As the minutes ticked by, a patrol car arrived early. The officers called her to assess the situation.

“How many robbers? Any weapons?”

Li Hewei responded, “One adult male. Weapons unknown. You can approach and knock on the window first.”

“A colleague?”

Li Hewei told the truth. “Yes. I work in the technical group of the Puchen Criminal Investigation Brigade. He was stalking me. It’s not a robbery.”

Given the urgency, the patrol officers didn’t wait for confirmation from their superiors. One officer crouched low and approached the white sedan from behind. The observer gauged the position and signaled: “Ready, move.”

The patrol officer suddenly stood up and rapped on the window.

Inside the car, the color drained from Shen Hao’s face.

“Driver’s license and ID.”

Shen Hao ignored them and started the engine, attempting to flee.

The patrol officer radioed his colleagues: “Block him!” Then he shouted a warning to Shen Hao, “There are two patrol cars waiting outside. Don’t make a useless struggle.”

The roar of the engine faded. Shen Hao’s eyes reddened. He looked toward Li Hewei standing at the gas station platform and slowly raised his hands.