"What did Qiu Nan say to you on the phone that night?" I continued to inquire.
Maybe he was surprised that I didn"t doubt his answer. This time he obviously hesitated for a few seconds, and then replied, "She asked if about her couriers."
"Qiu Nan called you at seven-fifty p.m. and you hung up the phone at six minutes after eight p.m. There were sixteen minutes during the period. Maybe you want to rethink it, besides asking if there were couriers, what else did she say?" I asked in a cold and low tone, still looking at him meaningfully.
Jiang Xiaoqiang"s expression changed at once, and cold sweat appeared on his forehead. "I . . . I really don"t know who killed her. I . . ."
Seeing that Jiang Xiaoqiang was incoherent and somewhat uneasy, Chu Haoran looked down and asked, "What is the relationship between you and Qiu Nan?"
At this moment, my mobile phone suddenly rang. After I put through the call, I heard Xiao Teng"s voice. He said, "They have contacted each other frequently and the call time is from a few minutes to a few hours. There are no WeChat and other SMS messages."
I said, "Okay," and hung up the phone. Then I looked at Jiang Xiaoqiang.
"Since you don"t want to say it out loud, what about I help you with it?" I said with confidence.
Jiang Xiaoqiang finally stopped shaking his head. He was not as nervous as before and he leaned back in the chair. He said, "We . . . We should be lovers!"
I had already guessed it before, so I was not surprised at this time. But what I didn"t expect was that Qiu Nan, who was so indifferent and arrogant, had a crush on a courier. Was it because Jiang Xiaoqiang was handsome and nice?
I felt earlier that Qiu Nan had money but no love. She could not have a boyfriend because she was covered by Su Dahai. It seemed that Jiang Xiaoqiang just filled an emotional gap for her, and the relationship between them should not be discovered.
Jiang Xiaoqiang had talked about the story of him and Qiu Nan intermittently when I lost my mind. He had seen Qiu Nan several times in the process of sending the couriers. Later, Qiu Nan somehow had couriers almost every day, and therefore he sent her couriers every day. These two people then became familiar and sometimes they chatted and joked with each other.
But in most cases, Qiu Nan took the initiative to talk to him. Jiang Xiaoqiang was kind of introverted and timid. And if Qiu Nan needed any help, she would also call Jiang Xiaoqiang, for example, when there was something wrong with the water pipe or the lamp.
Since Qiu Nan was beautiful and the two were very familiar, Jiang Xiaoqiang would certainly not refuse her. After a few times like this, Jiang Xiaoqiang had s.e.x with Qiu Nan once after she took a shower.
Because Su Dahai always kept an eye on Qiu Nan, they kept it secret and the relationship between them had not been discovered by anyone. Owing to the need for Su Dahai"s money, Qiu Nan had been very careful. . .
After knowing the procedure of the matter, Chu Haoran once again asked Jiang Xiaoqiang, "What were you talking about that night when Qiu Nan was killed?"
"I hadn"t gotten off work when she called me and said that she wanted me to come over. I was sending the last courier then and I chatted with her on the road. I said that after I got off work, I needed to go back to the store and then I would go to meet her. Then she said that there was a power outage at home, which scared her. I also doubted if it was owing to tripping. She said that it may be because there was something wrong with the circuit, and it had happened a few days ago, and it did not take so long before the power was back on. She then said she would find a candle first or the house would be too dark. She hung up after she said that she would call me later and for me to wait for her call." Jiang Xiaoqiang carefully recalled the situation that night and his tears filled with his eyes as he spoke.
"And hadn"t she contacted you since then?" I asked after I recorded Jiang Xiaoqiang"s words.
He nodded hard and said, "No! She told me many times beforehand that I should only wait for her calls and I was forbidden to call her. Because Su Da hai could show up at any time, she was afraid that my calls would make him doubt her. That night I didn"t call her after I got off work. This situation had happened before. It was because Su Dahai suddenly went back to her house. After careful consideration, I decided not to call her, but went back to the residence and waited for her call."
Sure enough, all of this was related to the power outage. The light that Aunt Zhao had mentioned was the sudden power outage. Nevertheless, Jiang Xiaoqiang said that there were sudden power outages in Qiu Nan"s house at other times, too.
"Did the tripping happen a lot in Qiu Nan"s house?" I thought there was something that had gone wrong.
Jiang Xiaoqiang shook his head and said, "I don"t know it too well. But there was a time that when I went to her house, I met an electrician on the second floor who was repairing the circuit. So, I guess there may be some problems with the circuit."
Electrician. . . Repair. . . Power outage. . . Something suddenly flashed in my mind, which was like lightning illuminating the night sky. Unfortunately, it disappeared too fast and I couldn"t help but rub my temple and try to recall it.
In the end, Chu Haoran inquired of Jiang Xiaoqiang if Qiu Nan had any enemies in this city or if there was anyone who wanted to harm her. Jiang Xiaoqiang shook his head without hesitation. He said that Qiu Nan did not go out a lot, except when she occasionally went out with Su Dahai; otherwise, she would always be at home. It seemed like she had few friends or even enemies.
It was still raining outside, which seemed to cover the city with a sly and mysterious veil. When Jiang Xiaoqiang left, it was about nine p.m. We sat down to discuss and hoped to clear up the current situation. Then we would propose our next plan, which was what we did every time when we solved cases. We needed to discuss and memorize the details frequently, and then find clues among them.
Xiao Teng looked at the door and said, "Can we believe Jiang Xiaoqiang"s words? What if he lied again?"
"He has proof of absence and no motivation for the crime. If he is the murderer, then why did he not run away after the investigation? It can be seen from the previous conversation that he is introverted and timid, so the murderer is not likely him, but we must continue to keep an eye on him." Chu Haoran believed that there was little chance of Jiang Xiaoqiang being the murderer.
"The night that Qiu Nan was killed, she wanted Jiang Xiaoqiang to come over and meet her, but why did she suddenly change her mind? Su Dahai said that he had not been to Qiu Nan"s home that night, and he did not call Qiu Nan, either. So I guess, is this all related to the sudden power outage?" I whispered and put forward my thoughts directly.
"Maybe the murder is a perverted madman who shut down Qiu Nan"s electrical switch and surprised her when she went out to check the circuit. Then the pervert entered the house and killed her, and he carved up her skin because of some kind of hatred he harbored. However, no one would ever kill Qiu Nan for simply no reason. We did not find the suspect after the investigation, which is strange." Xiao Teng overturned his own ideas.
"Tomorrow we will go to investigate the circuitry of Qiu Nan"s house, and also the one that services the whole community. After that, we will contact the electrician in the community, and we will re-examine the monitoring inside the community. Then we will continue to visit the neighbors; what Xiao Teng said was right, that Qiu Nan was not killed for no reason." Chu Haoran then ended our conversation.
On the way home, I watched the swaying wiper, and I thought that I had missed something, but I couldn"t recall it.
"You didn"t have dinner. Would you like something to eat?" Chu Haoran"s words suddenly sounded, breaking my searching thoughts.
I came to my senses, and when I looked out the window, I found that only the streetlights were on, and all of the restaurants were closed. I looked at my watch and found that it was already past eleven p.m. Maybe due to the rain, people had closed the restaurants very early. "I am afraid we can only go back and eat instant noodles," I said helplessly.