Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Zhou Dequan, have you thought it over carefully?”
Bai Muchuan’s voice sounded very calm.
Yesterday night, they already “crossed swords” once with Zhou Dequan at the detention center. They had a certain degree of understanding of each other psychologically.
Zhou Dequan gave a snort. “Think over what?”
Bai Muchuan said coldly, “Still unwilling to talk?”
“Talk about what?” Zhou Dequan insisted, “It’s just me and my wife having a fight at home, is there a need for such treatment? Detective comrade, is it because the crime rate is too low in our city that the police have nothing better to do?”
It was evident that he refused to talk.
Bai Muchuan looked at him unhurriedly. “You don’t want to talk, right? Fine, think about it a little more and let me know when you figured it out.”
There was an iron railing between the detectives and the suspect in the interrogation room.
Bai Muchuan looked relaxed while Zhou Dequan eyeballed him calmly but did not say a word.
As time ticked by, Zhou Dequan started to fidget. It was clear that he looked rather uncomfortable.
The chair in the interrogation room for the suspect was different from the usual ones.
Inside the empty interrogation room for the suspect, there was only a chair which was made of metal. The four legs of the chair were fixed to the ground and could not be moved. There were two circular fetters on the legs of the chair around the ankle area. Zhou Dequan was bound to the chair by the ankles, and there was also a police rope that restrained his upper body at the back of the chair. Due to all this, he was unable to move, it was especially painful and tormenting to be sitting there, especially for someone of his size… The longer he sat there, the more uncomfortable he would be.
Having stayed up all night, Zhou Dequan was already not in good spirits. The deadlock with Bai Muchuan frustrated him further.
“I want to meet my lawyer.”
“No hurry,” replied Bai Muchuan indifferently, “relax, we’ll follow the legal procedures. You’ll be able to meet with your lawyer, but you will need to cooperate with us for the interrogation. You can’t run away from this!”
“Is there a problem with you or something?” Zhou Dequan retorted fiercely, “I’ve said everything I need to. What else do you want to know?”
Zhou Dequan had lost his composure and stared angrily at Bai Muchuan as he spat out those words. He used his usual imposing stance—his two eyebrows slanted upward whenever he lost temper with his subordinates.
“So you’re going to torture me into confessing something that I did not do? Fine! You write down what you want, hold my hand, and stamp my fingerprint on it. Why do you want to make it so troublesome!”
“Don’t give me that sh*t!” Bai Muchuan banged on the table and pointed at him. “Be honest and come clean with us!”
When dealing with wicked people, one had to be fierce enough as well.
The moment Bai Muchuan looked stern, Zhou Dequan calmed down.
“I really have nothing to talk about.”
Beads of perspiration started to appear in Zhou Dequan’s forehead. He seemed perturbed and fidgety.
“I know all of you wanted to force me to admit to my crimes. It’s impossible! I have never killed anyone by the name of Mao Guigui or Zhang Guigui. What Jia An did has nothing to do with me. I don’t even know what he did… As for the conflict between me and Ma Suying, it’s our own private matter. I can negotiate with her in private…”
“Hah!” Bai Muchuan sneered, “Did you think that if you don’t talk, no one else will talk as well?”
Zhou Dequan looked at Bai Muchuan’s eyes and started to have some doubts. Of course, he was not that naive to think that everyone would stick with him right to the end.
“Well, I’m not able to control other people’s mouths… I will never admit to crimes that I didn’t commit.”
“You’re still trying to deny?” Bai Muchuan looked at him coldly and laughed. “The redevelopment project at Bo Luo Village, you let your men burn down Liu Xinbing’s house during the middle of the night just because he refused to move, causing his pregnant wife to die in that incident.
“The redevelopment project at the south of the city that involved 13 villages, you let your men use a sickle and hacked an old man in his seventies to death. You paid a sum of 500,000 yuan to settle the matter with the old man’s son to seal his lips. As for the old man, his corpse was cremated…
“Zhao Guineng, the supplier of your building materials, as well as your creditor whom you owed close to 10 million yuan. He looked you up to get you to pay up your debt and died of a sudden heart attack when you treated him to dinner…
“There’s more…”
Case after case, Bai Muchuan was able to recite it to him.
As Zhou Dequan listened, the initial calmness he displayed slowly disintegrated. He started to look uneasy and disturbed. He remained quiet until Bai Muchuan finished talking when he sniggered.
“Detective, you need evidence to prove what you’ve said. You can’t just dictate and take things as it is…”
“Of course, I have evidence.”
Zhou Dequan squinted his puffy eyes and stared at Bai Muchuan. He wanted to look into his eyes to find out how did Bai Muchuan get to know all these things…
However, Zhou Dequan looked away after a moment as he figured it all out by himself. Besides Ma Suying, no one else would know so much and so detailed. She was once the person whom Zhou Dequan thought that would never betray him.
What Ma Suying said was true. In terms of business and finance matters, Zhou Dequan had never hide from her what he had done.
Although he was fooling around with women outside, it was more of a physiological need, not an emotional need. He had all along thought he could only trust one person, and that was Ma Suying.
He had never expected that… she would betray him without hesitation. He was now in his hardest period as he got stabbed in the back.
Firstly, she worked with the police which got him caught and sent to the detention center. Next, she gave a full account of his past crimes and placed him into a precarious situation.
… If he had known, he wished he could have directly twisted her neck.
Zhou Dequan stared at the ground and stayed quiet.
By now, he was very clear that the most important thing was not about admitting the crime, but his backer… If Bai Muchuan laid his hands on that person…
No matter what, if he wanted to make a comeback, he must not reveal anything.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Zhou Dequan took a deep breath and bawled like a dying beast. “This is a false accusation! Totally an accusation! I want to see my lawyer! I want to sue all of you!”
This was exactly where being rich was an advantage.
As long as the police were unable to find sufficient evidence to nail him down, he would come back to exact revenge on them.
Bai Muchuan looked on quietly at Zhou Dequan’s “performance”. When Zhou Dequan finally finished saying his piece, he was gasping for breath.
“You still have a chance. The time is still early. We’re not in a hurry…”
He was not in a hurry, but Zhou Dequan was. He was even thinking that it would be more comfortable sitting on the floor than on this metal chair.
He decided to create a fuss. He bawled and yelled, and his eyes looked protruding and wide-opened as though he wanted to eat someone.
“This is violent law enforcement! You’re torturing me to extort confession! I want to sue you! Sue you group of bandits!”
“Hah,” smiled Bai Muchuan, “it is my right to handle cases according to law. You have the right to sue me if you want to. Just go ahead!”
“I will sue you, just you wait. When I see my lawyer, I’ll sue you right away!” Zhou Dequan stared at Bai Muchuan, a cold glint flashing past his eyes. “Don’t think that I don’t know about your background, young man! Don’t be so arrogant and think too much of yourself just because you have several backings!”
“Eh?” Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand.”
“I know everything about you.” Zhou Dequan looked at him coldly. “Just wait and see! If I get into trouble, you won’t have it easy too.”
“You’re threatening me?” Bai Muchuan’s gaze was chilly, a contemptuous smile on his face. “You think I’m just anyone else whom you can threaten with a few sentences and make me jump off from a building?”
“Of course, you’re not afraid.” Zhou Dequan put on a wicked grin which revealed his set of yellowish teeth from heavy smoking. “But the people behind you might not be like you!”
Xiang Wan and Tang Yuanchu could not understand these few sentences. Yet Bai Muchuan was obviously able to communicate with him.
After hearing this, he simply gave Zhou Dequan a casual glance.
“You think too much! My only backing is the law. When I handle cases, no one else can interfere with it! Therefore…” He gave the table a few knocks and stared at Zhou Dequan directly. “I’ll make sure you have no chance to make a comeback. No matter who comes, nobody can bail you out!”
Zhou Dequan’s face went pale.
Making eye contact with Bai Muchuan required courage. When he opened his mouth, he talked mercilessly, and when he was quiet, he was really cold.
This scene lasted for a while before Zhou Dequan finally withdrew his sight and closed his eyes.
“Give a dog a bad name and hang him! I’ll wait and see how you’re going to pin crimes on me. If you want to force me to admit those crimes that I did not do, I’m not going to cooperate!”
“Very well!” Bai Muchuan laughed and moved to sit on a chair on the side. “Tang Yuanchu, you’ll continue to interrogate him. I’ll take a break.”
Tang Yuanchu had been doing the written statement when the interrogation started.
As Bai Muchuan moved away, Tang Yuanchu changed seat and continued the interrogation. Whether Zhou Dequan answered the questions or not, the interrogation had to go on.
As Xiang Wan looked on, she was worried for the 100 over kilograms of fat on Zhou Dequan…
Would he be able to handle this?
He was not young anymore. If something were to happen, that might spell trouble.
In the end, she had been worried for nothing.
It was not Zhou Dequan’s condition that terminated the interrogation, but a call made to Bai Muchuan’s phone.
The interrogation went on for more than 40 minutes when he received a call from the Municipal Bureau. Commissioner Wang told him that there was an urgent meeting that he had to rush over to attend now.
Hence, they had to stop the interrogation.
Before Zhou Dequan was taken away by the prison guards, he snorted loudly and looked smug as he glared at Bai Muchuan.
“I’ll wait for your good news, Detective Bai!”
It could be said that he behaved in a brazen manner. Bai Muchuan looked grim, but he was very calm about it.
When they came out of the interrogation room, he paused for a while before talking softly to Xiang Wan. “We’re unable to see Huang He today.”
Xiang Wan nodded her head to express her understanding. “Actually, there’s nothing we can do even if we met him. I just feel that this matter… should not be like this.”
“Hm.” Bai Muchuan’s eyes looked determined. “Everything will come to light!”