You had your chance and you blew it

“What do you have to say about this?”

Xu Mo was staring at the man in front of him.

The man was initially stunned, thinking to himself, *I’ve been sold out?* In that moment, he felt a surge of panic.

But soon, he figured it out.

This was a bluff!

He remembered overhearing a conversation between two police officers before being brought into the interrogation room. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, even feeling like his situation was hopeless. However, now that he thought about it carefully, it was clear that the two officers had been acting in concert, trying to trick him.

And the goal? Most likely to get him to confess!

With this realization, the man’s panicked expression disappeared, replaced by a feigned look of confusion.

“Officer, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Still putting up a front…” Xu Mo sighed and shook his head. “Killing someone is already a serious crime, but coercing and threatening others to help you commit murder is even worse.”

As he spoke, Xu Mo tapped the confession document on the table. “Ren Qin has already confessed to everything. I advise you to come clean as well. We already know about the crimes you and Ren Qin committed. Refusing to cooperate will only result in a heavier sentence.”

Xu Mo wasn’t bluffing.

This wasn’t something he had orchestrated in advance.

Xu Mo had only discussed with Han Fei the idea of staging a scene in front of the man before the interrogation, to make him believe that his accomplice had been caught and was extremely unstable, likely to confess at any moment. The hope was that this would break the man’s psychological defenses, prompting him to confess in order to receive a lighter sentence.

However, the man hadn’t confessed yet, and Ren Qin, who had been left alone in the other interrogation room, couldn’t hold out any longer.

She had been in the interrogation room for a long time without any police officers coming to question her. She sensed something was off and assumed the police might already have solid evidence of her crime. The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became. After careful consideration, she decided to confess before the police could present concrete evidence.

She immediately started yelling and screaming in the interrogation room, attracting the attention of a police officer. Before the officer could ask her anything, she spilled everything.

Cooperating with the investigation could lead to a reduced sentence.

The officer had just brought Xu Mo Ren Qin’s confession, which she had signed.

In her confession, Ren Qin claimed she had been coerced. She didn’t want to kill her son, but her life was threatened, and she had no choice but to comply.

In her statement, Ren Qin portrayed herself as a victim of coercion, merely an accomplice who had been forced to participate in the murder. She tried her best to distance herself from the crime.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man insisted, still refusing to budge.

He was convinced that Xu Mo was bluffing.

*I can’t say anything. If I do, it’s over!*

The next moment, Xu Mo shrugged.

“Fine, if you don’t want to talk, that’s your choice. We already have a confession, and combined with the physical evidence and clues we’ve gathered, we can still prosecute you.”

Without solid evidence, the police could only rely on the suspects’ confessions to solve a case. If a suspect remained silent, the police might know they were the culprit but couldn’t do much about it.

However, when there is concrete evidence proving a suspect’s guilt, their confession becomes less important.

Ren Qin’s confession was the strongest piece of evidence.

Of course, the police wouldn’t simply take Ren Qin’s word at face value. The evidence they had gathered aligned perfectly with her confession, particularly regarding the method and timing of the crime.

The victim had indeed been locked in a sealed kitchen and killed by poisoning, only to have their wrist slit afterward to make it look like a suicide.

The fingerprints on the sliding glass door, the cloth in the kitchen soaked with the smell of natural gas, and the autopsy report all corroborated this.

Although the man was the murderer, Xu Mo still wanted to give him a chance to turn himself in and start over. However, the man showed no gratitude and refused to confess.

*You’re as stubborn as a rock in a filthy pit,* Xu Mo thought.

Giving someone a chance and having them not use it… Xu Mo slowly stood up and walked out of the interrogation room.

After a short while, he returned, carrying several evidence bags and an autopsy report.

In front of the man, Xu Mo reconstructed the events of that morning.

“You and Ren Qin were lovers, but her son—the victim—disliked you intensely. Last night, you took advantage of the victim’s business trip to stay at Ren Qin’s house. Unexpectedly, the victim returned home early this morning and caught you there.”

“You two got into an argument and started fighting. Ren Qin intervened and separated you. The victim then went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and threatened to kill you. Ren Qin tried to stop him again, and that’s when you entered the kitchen, turned on the gas valve, and, while the victim wasn’t paying attention, pressed his face down onto the gas stove…”

By this point, the man’s face was ashen, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

Everything Xu Mo described was exactly what had happened that morning… It seemed he hadn’t been bluffing earlier. Ren Qin had truly confessed to everything.

The police now had a complete understanding of how he had killed the victim.

Xu Mo didn’t look at the man as he continued.

“After you pressed the victim’s face onto the gas stove, he inhaled a large amount of carbon monoxide, causing him to move slowly and become weak. You then locked him in the sealed kitchen and left, allowing him to pass out and die. Later, to cover up your crime, you slit the victim’s wrist to make it look like a suicide and threatened Ren Qin not to reveal anything.”

The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears, and weakness in the limbs.

The victim, who had inhaled a large amount of carbon monoxide in a short time, didn’t even have the strength to break the glass door and escape from the kitchen. The faint fingerprint on the sliding glass door was his last desperate attempt to call for help.

Unfortunately, his plea for help went unanswered.

As soon as Xu Mo finished speaking, the man erupted.

“I didn’t threaten her! She’s lying! It was her idea to slit the wrist and fake a suicide!”

Earlier, he had remained silent because he believed Xu Mo was bluffing and didn’t want to fall for it.

But now, Xu Mo had recounted the events of that morning in detail, which meant Ren Qin had indeed confessed. Even if he didn’t admit his guilt, the police had enough to convict him.

He had accidentally killed the victim, but the idea of faking a suicide and threatening Ren Qin wasn’t his. If those charges stuck, it would mean a harsher sentence.

The man wasn’t stupid. He knew that if he didn’t speak up now, he would never have another chance to clear his name.

“I only committed manslaughter! I didn’t do anything else!”