Chapter 103
In the afternoon, we planned to go to the real estate agency and gather some information about the mansion owner. When we arrived, a salesperson warmly greeted us and asked if we were looking to buy or rent. Xiaotao showed him her police badge and answered, “Neither. But we’d like to ask you some questions!”
The salesperson invited us into an office. After explaining our intentions, the salesperson pulled out a thick hard-cover book and flipped through it.
“I’m sorry, officers, but the mansion you’re inquiring after is no longer under our management.”
A few days ago, the owner suddenly called and requested to decrease the price of the mansion from the original three million to one million. By doing that, the company would receive fewer commissions, so naturally they were unwilling to grant the owner’s request. To their surprise, the owner paid the company twenty thousand yuan in cash on the spot to terminate the contract.
Xiaotao asked, “Do you have the mansion owner’s contact information?”
“Yes. Please give me a second.” The salesperson pulled out another book and flipped through it.
The name of the owner was Jin Baoshan. It was exactly the same name that Lao Yao had found.
We went to his company directly. On the way, Dali remarked, “Only one million yuan for a two-story mansion! What a great bargain!”
“Yeah,” I replied. “There must be a reason behind Jin Baoshan’s sudden change of heart.”
We arrived at Jin Baoshan’s company and was greeted by the man himself. He was a mild-mannered middle-aged man who remained calm even after he knew that we were with the police. He smiled and asked, “How may I help you, officers?”
“Are you the owner of the property at No. 81, Xinjian Road?” Xiaotao asked.
“I used to, but I sold it two days ago,” Jin Baoshan replied.
“For how much did you buy the property, and how much did you sell it for?”
Jin Baoshan frowned. “Excuse me, officers. But isn’t that my personal business?”
“We just need your help to make sense of a certain situation. We hope you can cooperate!” Xiaotao urged firmly.
Jin Baoshan said he bought it at the price of two million yuan and sold it for three million yuan. This lie was so easy to see through that I didn’t even need Cave Vision.
Xiaotao told him that we had already been to the real estate agency. Jin Baoshan calmly replied, “Well, I admit that I made a deal that cost me some money. But it’s my fault because I wanted to try my hand at real estate investment even when I should’ve known that I’m not business savvy enough. I admit that I’ve been unlucky. But isn’t that my personal business?”
Xiaotao sneered, “The police have nothing to do with how much people pay for a house or how much they sell their house for, but when dead bodies are found inside the house, then it becomes our business!”
Jin Baoshan was shocked. “What? Dead bodies? Officer, you must be joking!”
I discreetly observed him with my Cave Vision. That surprise was absolutely fake, but he was a little nervous.
Jin Baoshan kept trying to ask about the dead bodies, but we naturally did not disclose any further information.
“Mr. Jin, I’d like to know why you suddenly decreased the price so drastically.”
“For no particular reason,” he answered. “I have a hunch that the property bubble in China will soon burst, so I had to sell the house at least for some money before it crumbled into dust in my possession.”
It was obviously a made-up answer, but no matter how Xiaotao questioned him, he kept leading us in a circle. I noticed that the man was quite sly. An idea popped up in my mind and I gave Xiaotao a look, signaling that I wanted to ask a question.
“Mr. Jin, what is your shoe size?” I asked bluntly.
Jin Baoshan was visibly unnerved. “My shoe size? What does that have anything to do with the sale of my property, Officer?”
He kept refusing to answer. I looked under the table and hazarded a guess. “It’s 39, right?”
Jin Baoshan hid his feet immediately. I deliberately asked Xiaotao, “Didn’t we find a size 39 shoeprint at the crime scene?”
Xiaotao froze for a moment then replied, “Yes!”
It was just a tactic to scare him, of course. There were more than a dozen shoe prints at the crime scene, and we weren’t able to a.n.a.lyze them all yet. I stared into Jin Baoshan’s eyes and asked again, “Have you been to the crime scene, Mr. Jin?”
He broke out in cold sweat. “I’ve been swamped with work lately. There’s no reason why I should waste my time going there!”
He was really stubborn. Xiaotao threatened him, “If that’s the case, then please come back with us to the police station.”
“No, I can’t go,” he refused. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Then explain to us why there is a size 39 shoeprint at the crime scene.”
Jin Baoshan suddenly stood up. “Why should I explain it? There’s a h.o.a.rd of people in the streets who wear size 39 shoes! Why should I be the one explaining it to you! Those two corpses just somehow ended up in my house, but they have nothing to do with me!”
I smiled. “If you haven’t been to the mansion, then how did you know we found two dead bodies there?”
Jin Baoshan widened his eyes and realized that he said something he shouldn’t have. He admitted that he’d gone to the mansion two days ago and found two dead bodies discarded in his house. He thought if this matter was exposed, not only would his house be devalued, but he might land in hot water with the police too! So he quickly decreased the price and quickly sold it off.
What he said was reasonable, but I found that he was still lying. Thus, I warned him, “Stop covering the truth. Tell us everything, or else you’ll be spending the night in the jail…”
Jin Baoshan bitterly argued, “Everything I said was true, Officer!”
“Then why are your legs shaking? Why are your hands constantly rubbing your knees?”
People who tried to hide the fact that they were lying generally focused on their facial expressions and ignored other body parts, like their hands and feet. This meant that these parts of their body often revealed their guilty conscience.
Jin Baoshan finally relented and told us the truth.
As I expected, he knew the two victims. In the beginning, he bought this mansion due to the last owner’s scam without realizing that it had a bad reputation. The moment he stepped into the house, he quickly understood that it was a haunted house.
He didn’t dare to live in it, yet no one would rent it from him either, so he was in a bind.
Ever since then, this mansion had become a thorn in his flesh. Recently, he found an uncle and nephew who called themselves Haunted House Busters. They claimed that they had dealt with countless haunted houses and were always able to ‘cleanse’ them from evil spirits, making them habitable again!
Although a mansion was considered valuable property, if you owned one that no one would buy, then it was no different from worthless garbage. He decided to give it one last try and paid a hefty fee to the self-proclaimed Haunted House Busters to ‘cleanse’ the house.
Besides, they seemed reliable since they talked about feng shui, magnetic fields, spiritual energy, and all those things. In the end, they offered to stay at the mansion for a few nights.
The first few nights were fine, but on the fourth morning, the two men did not call Jin Baoshan as usual. He went to the mansion to check on them, but all he saw was the same thing we witnessed that night—two charred bodies.
He went into panic for a while, but once he calmed down, he decided that their deaths must not be reported to the police. The minute this case was leaked to the public, his mansion was finished. He lowered the price to a third of the original, and in no time at all, he found a buyer.
Everything he said was true, but I felt like something was still missing.
“Who is the buyer?” I asked.
“His name is Ren Facai, a Wenzhou native. He intends to settle down in Nanjiang City permanently.” Jin Baoshan replied without thinking.
“What does he look like?”
“He’s a fat man with white skin,” Jin Baoshan described. “He’s got a scar on his face.”
“Do you have his photo?”
“No.” Jin Baoshan shook his head.
“What about the contract?” I asked.
“The contract is locked in a safe at my house. If you want to see it, you’ll have to wait for me to go home after work.” Jin Baoshan glanced at his watch.
“But didn’t the buyer ever go see the mansion after he buying it? He’d be in for a surprise if he found the ‘freebies’ you left for him inside!” I sneered.
Jin Baoshan scratched his head and said that Ren Facai had long taken a fancy to his house, but he claimed that it was a haunted house, so he tried to cut the price very low. Jin Baoshan disagreed at first, and they never contacted each other again. Bizarrely, after his discovery of the two dead bodies, Ren Facai contacted him again and asked about the mansion. Because he was desperate, Jin Baoshan agreed to sell it at the criminally low price of 500,000 yuan.
“Half a million?” I exclaimed. If I wasn’t mistaken, Jin Baoshan even paid 20,000 yuan to the real estate agency! It was an all-round terrible deal for the man!
Jin Baoshan awkwardly added, “I lied to you earlier to save my ego! Who would ever sell a two-story mansion for half a million yuan? It’s crazy, but I was desperate…”
My suspicions fell squarely on this shady buyer. He might just be the one who caused the deaths of the two Haunted House Busters!