Prisoner's Dilemma

"You didn't notice how unnaturally clean that house was, did you? It was clearly meticulously cleaned. Such thorough cleaning could only mean two things: either the person has obsessive-compulsive disorder and can't stand a dirty room, or they were trying to cover up something by cleaning so meticulously..."

At this point, Xu Mo changed the subject.

"If it were due to obsessive-compulsive disorder, there's no way a cigarette butt would be left behind. It would have been cleaned up as well. So, the house being that clean must have been an attempt to hide something."

"What was she trying to hide?" Han Fei asked.

"The fact that there was not only the mother and son living in the house, but also another man."

"There was another man living there... you mean the woman's lover? Do you suspect they worked together to kill the victim?"

"Yes."

"..."

Police Station.

Interrogation Room.

After being brought to the police station, the woman sat in the interrogation room without any officers coming to question her. She just sat there, waiting.

Sitting in the interrogation room for a long time, facing the several cameras and the eight bold characters on the wall that read "Confess and be lenient, resist and be severe," her state of mind began to shift.

As time passed, she grew increasingly nervous and her face showed signs of worry.

Every minute sitting in the interrogation chair felt excruciatingly long.

Meanwhile, the police had already conducted a round of investigations.

Following Xu Mo's lead, the officers looked into the woman's social connections and also interviewed the neighbors living across from her.

The results matched Xu Mo's prediction.

In Apartment 202 of Building 3 in Taye Residential Complex, there were indeed more than just the mother and son living there. A middle-aged man was also residing there, and he was a suspect as well.

Additionally, the coroner conducted an autopsy on the victim's body and found that the cause of death was not blood loss, but carbon monoxide poisoning.

A comparison revealed that the palm print on the sliding glass door in the kitchen matched the victim's, and the rag taken from the kitchen had a significant amount of natural gas residue.

Xu Mo became even more certain of his theory.

"Aren't you going to interrogate the woman we brought in?" Chen Ke asked during this time.

"Not yet," Xu Mo shook his head. "She won't say anything if we question her now. Let her stew for a while."

After a pause, Xu Mo continued, "Go bring in the middle-aged man living in the victim's house. I think he's the key to cracking this case."

"Yes, sir!"

From the start, Xu Mo had no intention of extracting information from the woman.

She had the audacity to report the case, which meant she must have prepared her story in advance. She would have anticipated the police's questions and would have her answers ready. Direct interrogation might not yield anything, especially since the police didn't yet have strong evidence to prove she was the murderer.

An hour later.

Chen Ke and two other officers returned to the station, bringing with them a middle-aged man.

"Xu Mo, we've brought him in," Chen Ke led the man to Xu Mo.

"Mmm," Xu Mo nodded, then stood up. "Leave him to me. I'll handle the questioning."

Xu Mo escorted the man out of the office.

The man looked confused. "Officer, the other officer said I'm suspected of murder and arrested me... I didn't kill anyone! Aren't you mistaken?"

Xu Mo didn't answer him, just led him out of the office.

As they stepped out, they ran into Han Fei, who had come looking for Xu Mo.

"Has Ren Qin confessed yet?"

"Not yet, but her emotions are very unstable. She won't hold out much longer." Han Fei glanced at the man Xu Mo was escorting.

Upon hearing this, the man's eye twitched, and his expression became unnatural.

Xu Mo noticed the man's reaction. Clearly, Han Fei's words had a significant impact on him.

This was a scene Xu Mo and Han Fei had planned in advance, designed to convey a message to the newly arrested man: your accomplice is on the verge of cracking under pressure.

In reality, Han Fei wasn't lying. The woman's emotions were indeed very unstable, and she couldn't hold out much longer.

But to the man, these words planted seeds of doubt in his mind.

When two people involved in a joint crime start to distrust each other, the case is close to being solved.

The prisoner's dilemma is unbreakable.

Xu Mo led the man to the interrogation room.

He turned on the overhead light, which shone directly on the man's face.

"Qin Guofu, what is your relationship with Ren Qin?"

"We're friends."

"Just friends?"

"Yes, just good friends."

"Where were you between 6 and 7 AM this morning?"

"At home."

"Can anyone vouch for you?"

"No, I live alone."

Qin Guofu answered these questions smoothly, without hesitation or any stalling.

However, the next question Xu Mo posed caught him off guard.

"Ren Qin's son died at home today. Did she mention this to you?"

Qin Guofu was caught off guard and hesitated for a long time before answering, so long that beads of sweat began to form on his forehead.

After some thought, he replied, "Y-yes, she mentioned it to me. It was a suicide, right?"

His tone was filled with uncertainty, as if he were testing the waters.

"She told you?" Xu Mo suddenly looked up at Qin Guofu, his gaze piercing.

Having already answered, it was too late to change his story, but Qin Guofu sensed something was off from Xu Mo's tone, so he tried to patch up his previous statement.

"I think she mentioned it... or maybe I heard it from someone else. I'm not sure. I'm getting old, my memory's not so good. Please forgive me, officer."

"Is that so? Ren Qin didn't tell us that. She said she never mentioned it to anyone. So, who did you hear it from?"

"I..." Qin Guofu swallowed hard, momentarily at a loss for words.

At that moment, the interrogation room door opened.

A police officer walked in, holding several sheets of A4 paper. "Xu Mo, here's Ren Qin's confession."

Xu Mo 'hmm'd and took the confession, flipping through it.

While reading, he occasionally glanced up at Qin Guofu with a peculiar look in his eyes.

This made Qin Guofu's heart race.

He had no idea what Ren Qin had confessed to.

"The victim was locked in the kitchen and poisoned by you... Additionally, you threatened Ren Qin to keep her from reporting this, didn't you?" Xu Mo laid the confession on the table after reading it. "What do you have to say about this?"