"Of course I can come with you..." the young boy seemed somewhat hesitant. "Can you keep it confidential? I don't want others to know about my relationship with her."
Xu Mo nodded noncommittally.
"Certainly, we keep all case-related matters confidential."
At this point, he had largely dispelled his suspicions about the boy, believing he was likely not the killer.
Because this boy was the deceased's lover, her kept man.
What kept man would kill his own benefactor?
That would be foolish!
However, even though he had dismissed some of his suspicions, Xu Mo still planned to bring the boy back to the police station for questioning.
He wanted to learn some information about the deceased from him, to see if any clues to solve the case could be found.
At the same time, he would further assess during questioning whether the boy had any motive for murder.
After briefly chatting with the forensics and crime scene investigation team, Han Fei came to Xu Mo's side.
Looking at the fair-skinned boy standing opposite Xu Mo and talking to him, Han Fei asked curiously, "What's going on, Xu Mo? Who is this...?"
Remembering his earlier promise to the boy, Xu Mo chose to quietly tell Han Fei the boy's identity.
Xu Mo leaned close to Han Fei and said in a low voice:
"This person knew the deceased. He was her... boyfriend. I want to bring him back to the station to assist with our investigation. As her intimate partner, he may know things outsiders don't."
Upon hearing this, Han Fei looked at the boy with surprise.
However, his expression quickly softened.
After all, as a police officer, he had heard of and seen many outrageous things.
"Then let's bring him along when we leave, to assist with our investigation," Han Fei said. Then he looked at the boy: "Thank you for your understanding and cooperation."
...
At the police station.
Since the boy was brought back only to assist the investigation and was not a major suspect, it was just questioning, not an interrogation.
Xu Mo didn't take him to the interrogation room at all.
Instead, he brought him directly to his own workstation and began asking questions casually.
"Do you know if the deceased had any enemies?"
"Enemies? I'm not sure if she had any, but as far as I know, she hardly had her own social circle, didn't like going out much, and had very few friends. Enemies... it's unlikely."
No enemies? Xu Mo fiddled with the lighter in his hand. If she had no enemies, then the killing probably wasn't motivated by revenge.
Was it driven by profit? Perhaps the deceased had encroached on someone's territory, leading to her murder?
This could be an angle to investigate.
With this in mind, Xu Mo asked again:
"What did the deceased do for a living? Did she ever talk to you about business matters, like any competitors she might have had?"
"Competitors? Definitely not!" the boy said firmly. "She wasn't in business at all, so how could she have competitors?"
Seeing the confusion still on Xu Mo's face, the boy hurried to explain.
"Don't assume she was in business or a rich second generation just because she lived in a villa. She wasn't. She had money because she married a rich old man when she was young. After the old man passed away, all his assets became hers."
Well, well, so that's how it was? Xu Mo suddenly understood.
However, upon learning this, Xu Mo felt lost.
He suddenly felt a sense of helplessness.
For a moment, he didn't even know where to start with this case.
The possibilities of revenge killing and profit dispute had both been ruled out.
It's worth noting that for all murder cases, the motives are generally limited to these two points.
Either the victim offended someone and was killed, or they were killed due to a conflict of interest.
But now, both of these possibilities had been eliminated.
So why did the killer commit murder?
Was the deceased killed for infidelity?
But that doesn't make sense either - her husband was already dead, so there's no question of infidelity.
Just then, Han Fei walked over with a file.
Placing the file on Xu Mo's desk, Han Fei spoke:
"We've done a quick review of the deceased's social relationships. The deceased, Guan Yiliu, 55 years old, worked in the entertainment industry when she was young, then came to Ram City. She gave up her previous high-profile work and married a wealthy businessman in Ram City. We checked, and she didn't have many friends in Ram City, let alone enemies, so it's not a revenge killing."
"Oh, and we also checked the surveillance footage from the villa complex. The footage shows that from last night to this morning, no one entered or left the villa where the deceased lived."
After finishing, Han Fei looked at Xu Mo: "Have you gotten any useful information from your questioning?"
Xu Mo shook his head.
"No, the information I got is similar to what you found. I did learn one more thing though - the deceased had no business dealings with others, so preliminarily, it doesn't seem to be a killing due to business conflicts."
"Also, the deceased's husband passed away long ago, so it's not likely to be due to family disputes either," Xu Mo added after a pause.
When investigating murder cases, the most common angles and directions for police investigation are revenge and profit disputes.
And in practice, killers often murder either because they have a grudge against the victim or because the victim touched something they shouldn't have.
Cases like this, where it's neither revenge nor profit-driven, are quite rare.
They're very tricky to investigate.
Add to that the fact that the surveillance footage didn't provide any useful clues, and Han Fei felt somewhat overwhelmed.
He wanted to investigate thoroughly.
But the problem was, up to now, they hadn't found a single breakthrough point!
There was no way to apply their efforts effectively.
Without a single usable lead, could it really be suicide? By now, Han Fei's brow was furrowed into a deep frown.
...
Soon, the lab results for the fingerprints and hair collected at the scene came back.
"Captain Han, the analysis shows that the fingerprints and hair we collected from the deceased's home all came from the same person. This is consistent with our earlier assumptions, but the owner of these biological traces is not in our police database."
The fact that the biological traces were not in the police database meant that their owner had no prior criminal record.
But that wasn't important.
What was important was whose biological traces these were.
Han Fei wanted to find this person as quickly as possible and investigate to see if the deceased's death had any connection to them.
This might be the only breakthrough in the case so far.
Originally, Han Fei had thought about checking the surveillance footage to see who frequently visited the deceased's home.
However, just as he thought about checking the footage, he suddenly looked at the boy sitting opposite Xu Mo and decided not to check the surveillance first: "Did you often go to the deceased's home?"
The latter nodded, indicating that he went there frequently.
Could those biological traces be his? Han Fei wondered.
Surely not. This kid doesn't seem suspicious at all. If those traces were his, wouldn't that mean the breakthrough they just found would disappear again?
To confirm, Han Fei decided to have an officer do a test.
"Could I borrow a few strands of your hair?" Han Fei asked the boy.
"Of course!" As soon as he finished speaking, the boy immediately plucked a few hairs from his head and handed them to Han Fei.
Han Fei passed the hair to a nearby officer: "Go test this, quickly."
Until the test results came back, the boy couldn't leave.
Han Fei casually pulled up a chair and sat down opposite the boy, ready to chat and try to get some information.
"Don't be nervous, it's just a test. As long as this case has nothing to do with you, you can leave soon. I'm going to ask you a few questions now, and you need to answer truthfully."