Chapter 65: A possible suspect.

Day two of investigating the death of the wealthy heiress started off painfully for Liwu. She had a headache, the kind which one got after a night of restless sleep. By the time she made it downstairs, Weijun was gone. But, he left her a note on the lunch box that his mother had sent over faithfully. It read: Discretion and speed. The City needs closure.

Liwu crumpled it and muttered, “The city needs a new master. And also, its mayor, not master. People have got to stop using that word.”

At the precinct, Linlin was waiting with a claw bear, a coffee and a grin. “Guess what? The press is already making a list of suspects. They have a picture of her in the club with her two boyfriends blasted everywhere and they claim we are looking into the ex boyfriends as suspects.”

Liwu groaned. “That explains my husband’s note. By the time all this is over, the Dou family is going to sue each and everyone of them.”

“Where should we begin?” Linlin asked her.

Liwu gave the coffee to Linlin and waved her hand. “Move back. Let me see where my bad luck will send us.”

Linlin stepped back, giving Liwu a very wide berth. Xuanji chuckled and decided to record the moment. Liwu laid out the list of all the places and people she wanted to look into.

“System activate a minor misfortune that helps me solve the case.” Liwu requested.

[-200 points.]

Suddenly, a bee flew into the room and stung Liwu on the neck before falling on the files of the charities that Yahui had been involved with. The one on top was her organization that rehabilitated addicts. Below was one on the sponsored scholarships for underprivileged students. The third concerned the shelters she donated to. There were more with soup kitchens, church groups, women’s shelters, environmental initiatives, animals rescue foundations.

She was involved with healthcare access programs, disaster relief groups, arts and culture organizations. She even donated to the police.

The victim had a charity empire that revealed how she had clawed her way back from scandal by the force of goodwill alone.

“Charity it is.” She shouted.

Xuanji shook his head. “No way. Is a bee really going to decide which direction the investigation follows?”

“Yes.” Linlin replied. “But we can divide and conquer. We will take charity and you can investigate her past relationships.”

So they settled in the office, looking for any links across the organizations. Four new officers to the SOB joined them, looking into finances and possibilities of embezzlement.

One name kept surfacing: Pei Wu, a troubled young man Yahui had helped rehabilitate successfully. He stopped using drugs at nineteen and she sponsored his education. He volunteered at the soup kitchens on the same day as Yahui.

He was currently working at a dog shelter sponsored by her. When Liwu made a call, looking for him, she discovered that he had not been there for two weeks. According to the woman who picked up, he had vanished following rumors of relapse and missing medicine.

She relayed all this to Linlin.

Linlin looked up Pei Wu’s history. “He has a history of violence but it ended when he got clean. However, he seems to be in a lot of the same places as Yahui, on the same days.”

“He could be stalking her.” Officer Cuihua, suggested. She was the one that had been flirting with Reed last night. On her neck was a suspicious mark that looked like a hickey.

Liwu nodded. “Maybe he was obsessed with her and showing up wherever she was. It could explain why she was no longer eager to go out doing charity.”

Linlin gasped. “Dawei said she was bored of the charity work. But, look at this stack and her schedule. Charity work was her whole life, there is no way she was about to give it up.”

“Not unless she was forced to.” Liwu muttered.

Linlin stood up with eagerness. In her eyes was a spark of hope. Most cases took weeks to solve and some took days. With Liwu’s bad luck, it took hours. “We have to go and talk to the family. If she was being stalked, maybe she mentioned it to someone.”

Liwu pointed to Officer Cuihua, “Go and talk to the fiance, maybe he noticed something.”

“He is at the Dou mansion.” She replied. “Reporters took a picture of him entering the estate ab hour ago and he had not yet left.”

With that confirmation, Liwu and Linlin drove to the estate. Reporters were camped outside the gates, taking pictures and screaming questions to anyone that went in and out. The place itself was crowded, dozens of flashy vehicles going in. It was undoubted that they were on their way to offer the family their condolences.

Liwu saw a lot of somber faces on the grounds of the mansion. Many people were dressed in black. Inside the house, there was a lot of whispering. It did not surprise her to see her husband there again.

It did shock her to see Manman! She was standing with a group of other women, discussing the tragedy that had befallen the family.

“We are about to have a death at a funeral.” Linlin whispered.

Liwu shook her head. “He knows better than to be near her in public. Look around, his men are flanking him, keeping watch. I don’t know why he is here again, however.”

But, she was about to find out because Weijun walked towards her with determination. To keep their conversation private, he slipped an arm around her waist and leaned down. “Are you here to pay your condolences?” He whispered to her.

She whispered in response, “You can do that for both of us. I need to ask the family some more questions. Be a doll and round them up in an isolated corner.”

Weijun almost tripped as he stumbled back a little. “A doll!”

Liwu shrugged.

Even though he did not like being called a doll, Weijun went off to do as requested. He thought it would be better for the family to be questioned away from the prying eyes of others.

Manman watched the interaction while clenching her fists. She lost track of what was being said. All she wanted to was rush over and scratch Liwu’s eyes. What gave that bitch the right to seduce her man in public?

She was so shameless and she had not respect.

“How many CEO’s have you counted here?” Linlin asked Liwu.

Liwu looked around as they made their way out of the grand hall. “Too many to count. Too many politicians too.” She found it ironic that the same families that had shunned the victim had come over to pay their respects now that she was dead.

They were calling her death a loss and saying nice things about her. “Bunch of hypocrites.” she muttered.

This time, they met the family in the patriarch’s study. The atmosphere was tense, like a dinner party where everyone secretly hated each other.

“Tread lightly,” Weijun whispered to her.

Mr. Dou tapped his cane impatiently. “Have you found the person responsible for the death of my daughter? If you haven’t get out of my house before I have you thrown out.”

He did not even summon bodyguards, but the door opened and they rushed inside, six of them!

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