The weapon by the pillow

Chapter 76 A Brass Key!

"I don't doubt anyone, I only believe in evidence," Cheng Jing interrupted him.

"I think we're in trouble!" Chen Ming wiped his face again. "Cheng Tan's act is coming to an end; he's in danger!"

"What's meant to happen can't be avoided! Everything has to go back to last night's case, back to Cheng Tan's dream!" Cheng Jing nodded. "But now, we need to reassess everything. This woman's appearance, this 'film set,' and the ambush just now... they might be connected, or they might be completely independent forces. But one thing is certain..."

She glanced at the body on the ground. "Someone doesn't want us to know what she wants to say."

More sirens wailed outside the tunnel; reinforcements from the station had arrived.

Also arriving were representatives from the film production company, the insurance company, and media reporters who had rushed to the scene upon hearing the news.

The tunnel entrance was completely surrounded by people, and flashbulbs were constantly going off.

Cheng Jing directed the setting up of a cordon to protect the scene, evacuate unrelated personnel, and coordinate with traffic police to divert vehicles.

She had to handle two things at the same time:

A real murder case!

An accident during filming that was unexpectedly involved.

In the chaos, her phone vibrated.

It was an anonymous text message:

"The game has been upgraded. Be careful of the people around you. Liu Li isn't in 402 or 403. She's in an unexpected place. You must find... the key."

Cheng Jing suddenly looked up and glanced around. Among the onlookers were curious citizens, anxious film crew members, busy police colleagues, and reporters with cameras. Every face could be a disguise, and every pair of eyes could hide a secret.

She knelt down again beside the woman in black's body, this time examining it more carefully.

She lifted the woman's shirt, examined the inside of the belt, and felt through the linings of all the pockets. Finally, inside the elastic band of the woman's sweatpants waistband, she felt a hard object—a thin metal sheet held in place with transparent tape.

A key.

The old-fashioned brass key has slightly worn teeth, and there is a blurry number on the handle: 217.

We found the key... was it the one on the deceased's body?

Cheng Jing calmly took the key off and held it in her palm.

"Captain Cheng," the forensic investigators at the scene reported, "Our preliminary assessment is that the deceased was shot at close range. The bullet entered from below the occipital bone at the back of the head, at a slightly upward angle, indicating it was fired from about three meters to the side and rear. The shooter's height is approximately between 1.75 and 1.8 meters, which roughly matches Officer Zhao's height. Ballistic analysis and smoke reaction tests need to be conducted in the lab for further confirmation."

Cheng Jing nodded. All the evidence pointed to Special Police Officer Zhao's "accidental discharge."

But what was the motive? And why was it such a coincidence?

She walked up to Zhao, the special police officer who was being questioned.

Xiao Zhang's statement has been almost completed.

"Captain Cheng, Officer Zhao insists that he saw the deceased reach for something and fired in a moment of panic, which was a misjudgment under emergency conditions," Xiao Zhang reported.

"Taking something out?" Cheng Jing looked at Officer Zhao. "What was she taking out? Where was she taking it out from?"

"I...I didn't see clearly. I just saw her reach into her clothes very quickly. I thought she was going to pull out a weapon..." Officer Zhao's eyes flickered.

"What's in her arms?" Cheng Jing pressed.

"I have no idea……"

"You didn't know what she was pulling out, yet you judged that she was going to use a weapon? And this was after she had already been arrested?" Cheng Jing's voice remained calm.

Cold sweat beaded on Special Police Officer Zhao's forehead: "Captain Cheng, the situation was too chaotic at the time. I... I was too nervous, and my judgment may have been flawed. I'm willing to accept the punishment..."

"It's not about punishment," Cheng Jing stared into his eyes, "it's about a life. Your shot killed a witness who might have held crucial information. Do you know what that means?"

Special Police Officer Zhao lowered his head and stopped speaking.

Cheng Jing knew that asking any further questions would not yield any results.

If Officer Zhao truly has a problem, his current behavior is already sufficiently cautious; if he has no problem, then his nervousness and mistakes are understandable. In such chaotic circumstances, even a well-trained special police officer can make a misjudgment.

Her intuition told her that things weren't that simple.

"Xiao Zhang, take Officer Zhao back to the station and handle the matter according to procedure," Cheng Jing instructed. "The firearms will be temporarily impounded until he has completed his detailed report."

"Yes."

Cheng Jing turned and walked towards her car. Chen Ming followed.

"Captain Cheng, what do we do now? We still don't know where Cheng Tan is, and another one of them has died here..."

Cheng Jing got into the driver's seat, closed the car door, and then opened her palm. "Do you think the deceased wanted to tell you about this key?"

Chen Ming was taken aback; the brass key gleamed dimly in the yellowish light.

"Found it!" he asked urgently. "Then let's go find the lock now!"

After he finished speaking, he realized it was all nonsense. If he had known where the lock was, the feisty policewoman would have already taken him there!

"217," she whispered, "where do you think it is?"

Chen Ming frowned: "Room number? Locker? Safe? That's too broad. And if it's a room number, which hotel's room 217? Or which neighborhood's room 217? There are countless places in the city with room number 217."

"The key is very old, the teeth are badly worn, which means it's been used frequently." Cheng Jing examined the key carefully. "The numbers on the handle are engraved, not stickers, and the engravings are also worn. This must be a key that has been used for many years and belongs to a fixed place."

"Shall I investigate now?" Chen Ming asked.

"No," Cheng Jing shook her head, "Now, investigating anything could be monitored. We need to change our approach." She started the car and slowly drove away from the chaotic tunnel entrance.

As the car merged into the traffic, Cheng Jing drove while sorting through her thoughts.

Starting this morning, a series of events unfolded like dominoes, one after another. Cheng Tan's trap, the trap he set himself, the ambush downstairs, the attack during the escort, the chaos on the film set, the appearance and death of the woman in black... There seems to be a faint thread connecting these events.

The starting point of this line is Cheng Tan, the only person found after Building 7 in Anpingli last night.

What's the end result? Is it the current shooting on the film set? Or a much larger conspiracy?

The woman in black was clearly not Liu Li.

But she seemed different from the group that robbed and killed Cheng Tan at the apartment entrance!

She took a huge risk trying to "rescue" Cheng Tan, which means she needed Cheng Tan alive. She was worried that something might happen to Cheng Tan at the police station. Her last words were "key..."

Is it this key I'm holding?

"Captain Cheng, where are we going?" Chen Ming asked, looking at the increasingly unfamiliar street scene outside the window.

"Let's go somewhere," Cheng Jing said. "I roughly know where Cheng Tan is."