The couple was taken away by officers led by Xu Mo and Han Fei.
They couldn’t be sure whether the couple was armed, so to avoid any bloodshed, they had to subdue them by surprise.
Fearing a commotion, they didn’t interrogate or search the couple on the spot. Instead, they immediately took them away to a quieter location to handle the situation.
After all, there were quite a few people at the restaurant entrance at the time. If a gun had been found on the couple in front of everyone, it would undoubtedly have caused panic.
Moreover, the fact that an officer’s gun had gone missing was something that absolutely couldn’t be known by the public, as it would also cause widespread alarm.
“Brother, brother… I really know I was wrong. I’ll return the thousand yuan to you, I don’t want it anymore!” the man being taken away kept apologizing.
He never expected that something like this would lead to him being “kidnapped”!
The officers had no idea what the man was saying, so they simply ignored him.
They brought the couple to a secluded area, pressed their faces to the ground, and began searching them.
Of course, when searching the woman, they didn’t use their hands directly. Instead, they used a phone to poke around her waist, finding nothing hard. They also checked her bag but still found nothing. The gun wasn’t on her.
“Nothing found,” the two officers responsible for the search reported to Han Fei and Xu Mo, shaking their heads.
“Do you remember him?” Xu Mo pointed to one of the officers.
“No, I don’t,” the man shook his head.
However, his wife recognized the officer.
“You’re… the officer who came to our house today?”
Even though the officer was in plain clothes instead of the uniform he’d worn earlier, she still recognized him.
“Yes, my colleague lost something, and we’re wondering if it’s now in your possession,” the officer probed cautiously.
Hearing this, the man took a closer look at the officer in front of him.
He let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, it’s you… You’re a cop? You should’ve said so earlier, you scared me!”
After a pause, he added, “Lost something? What did you lose? Did you leave it at our place? You could’ve just told me, and I’d have taken you to look for it. Was all this really necessary?”
The officers noticed a hint of confusion in the man’s expression.
It seemed he genuinely had no idea what they were talking about.
“You really don’t know what we’re looking for?” Xu Mo stepped forward and asked.
The man shook his head again.
“No idea. Losing something isn’t a big deal. You could’ve just said something, and I’d have taken you home to look for it. But this… I thought you were up to something!”
“What did you lose? I’ll take you back to look for it.”
“A gun.”
The couple: “???”
“A gun?!”
Now they finally understood why the officers had been so rough in taking them away.
The officer who had come to their house earlier to mediate a dispute had lost a gun, and they were the suspects.
“You don’t think this has anything to do with me, do you? I didn’t steal it! I wouldn’t dare, even if you gave me three extra lives!” the man exclaimed, clearly agitated.
Seeing this, Xu Mo turned to the woman, who had been quiet most of the time. “What about you?”
The woman also shook her head vigorously. “I didn’t steal it either. I wouldn’t even dare to take it if you offered it to me!”
Xu Mo, who was well-versed in psychology, could tell at a glance that the two weren’t lying.
Han Fei, with his years of experience, felt the same way.
The two exchanged a glance, both puzzled.
From their expressions, the couple didn’t seem to be lying, and the search had confirmed that the gun wasn’t on them.
“Could Hao Qi have accidentally dropped the gun at their place?” Han Fei suggested.
“Hard to say…” Xu Mo wasn’t sure either. “Let’s go take a look.”
With that, he turned to the couple and apologized for the earlier rough treatment.
“Sorry, but this is a serious matter. We had to be cautious.”
“No matter how serious it is, you can’t just pin me to the ground like that. Don’t I have any dignity?” The man was about to lose his temper, but considering the number of officers and their authority, he swallowed the curses on the tip of his tongue. “You… you could’ve been gentler. That hurt!”
“Our apologies, that was indeed our mistake… Could you two take us to your place so we can have a look?” Han Fei asked.
“Sure.”
…
On the way, the couple chatted and laughed, not at all like they’d been on the verge of divorce that morning.
“Weren’t you two arguing about divorce this morning? How come…” Wang Dachuan couldn’t help but ask.
The couple just smiled.
“Couples have their ups and downs. You fight at the head of the bed and make up at the foot.”
The shopping mall wasn’t far from Yixin Village.
The group soon arrived at Yixin Village.
After reaching the couple’s home, the officers thoroughly searched the place several times but found no trace of the missing gun.
After apologizing to the couple once more, the officers left.
The couple and the other residents of the neighborhood were cleared of suspicion.
This meant that the person who stole the gun was still within the police station…
“It seems your initial assumption was correct. The gun was indeed stolen by one of our own,” Han Fei said to Xu Mo.
The remaining suspects were the officers who hadn’t been questioned yet. As for who it was, they’d find out once they returned and asked.
The two weren’t worried that the culprit would flee.
After all, Director Gao had already issued an order: until the case was resolved, no officer was allowed to leave the station, except for the three who had already been cleared of suspicion.
Before long, the group returned to the station.
“Well? Did you find it?” Director Gao asked as Han Fei and the others walked in.
Han Fei shook his head. “The couple didn’t steal the gun.”
Hearing this, Director Gao fell silent.
It was clear now that the thief had to be someone within the police force…
Having such a person in the station was naturally something he, as the director, couldn’t be happy about.