Chapter 128: The Key to the Rose Shop Unmasking Case and the Opportunity for Murder Brought by Special Holidays

The time spent on the national road was considerably longer than taking the highway, but since Liangxi City was not far from Gusu City, Su Ming and the others, who had set off early from Modu City, arrived at Gusu City in the afternoon around 3 p.m., despite some delays for other arrangements.

Upon arrival at the Criminal Investigation Team in Liangxi City, they found that the team here was not as well-prepared as the one in Xiangcheng. It was unclear whether it was due to rushed notification or because Lin Tian had specifically instructed for things to be kept low-key. The head of the Criminal Investigation Team, Gao Chao, arrived alone at the parking lot.

Unlike Liu Yang, who was skilled in the ways of officialdom, Gao Chao was a no-nonsense, stern, and dedicated detective, focused purely on solving cases. After meeting the group in the parking lot, he didn’t say much, simply nodding and leading them to the specially arranged work area.

Similar to the arrangement at Xiangcheng Criminal Investigation Team, Gao Chao also chose a rarely used meeting room for this investigation.

Once inside the meeting room, Gao Chao led the way, pointing at a pile of files and several USB drives on the desk. With a serious expression, he gestured towards them and said, “Director Lin, I’ve organized the files and relevant surveillance footage for the Rose Shop Unmasking Case from five years ago. Everything is here, so you can take a look. If you need anything else, I’ll do my best to find it.”

He paused and turned to Su Ming, still with his usual stern expression, and asked, “Are you Su Ming? Deputy Team Leader Su?”

Before Su Ming could respond, Gao Chao continued, “Deputy Team Leader Su, I’ll leave this Rose Shop Unmasking Case to you. Since you managed to uncover the murderer of the twenty-year-old Modu University dismemberment case, this five-year-old case shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“I’ve truly tried every method and investigative technique possible to uncover the truth of this case and bring justice, although delayed, to the victim’s family. But unfortunately, every time the victim’s family inquires about the case, all I can say is that there has been no breakthrough and that we are still working on it. I can’t deceive them, because giving them hope would only bring more pain and despair if it turns out to be false.”

He clenched his fist tightly, his lips trembling, showing visible signs of emotional strain. As a pure and dedicated detective, Gao Chao’s greatest fear was not knowing how to answer when the victim’s family asked for updates, and not wanting to extinguish their hopes.

“Please, Deputy Team Leader Su,” Gao Chao continued, his voice shaky but firm. “I hope that, in a while, I can proudly tell the victim’s family that we, the Dragon Kingdom police, we, the Criminal Investigation Team, I, Gao Chao, have not let them down. The justice that was five years late has finally come.”

Seeing Gao Chao’s sincerity and determination, Su Ming nodded confidently and replied, “Don’t worry, Director Gao. Within three days, we will definitely get to the bottom of this. Our goal isn’t just to uncover the Rose Shop Unmasking Case but to take this opportunity to completely dismantle the entire drug trafficking organization.”

Gao Chao, after locking eyes with Su Ming, walked confidently into the meeting room and opened the whiteboard.

“Director Lin, Deputy Team Leader Su, and all the team members,” he began, “After receiving Director Lin’s call, I’ve quickly organized the case details to give you an overview of the case so that we can get up to speed quickly. You can refer to the files for more specific details.”

Without hesitation, Su Ming, Lin Tian, and the others walked into the meeting room to focus on the whiteboard.

Case Overview:

On February 14, 2018, at 10 a.m., an urgent report was received about a murder at the Rose Flower Shop on Linjiang Street.

Fifteen minutes after the report, the Criminal Investigation Team arrived at the scene to conduct the first examination.

The victim was the female owner of the Rose Flower Shop, aged 28, 163 cm tall, and weighing approximately 43 kg.

No obvious signs of struggle were found at the scene, but a flower-cutting scissor was lodged in the victim’s back, piercing her heart. The only fingerprints on the scissors were those of the victim.

The victim’s face had been cut off and taped to the shop’s glass door by the killer.

Based on the level of rigor mortis, the development of postmortem lividity, and the degree of blood coagulation, the estimated time of death was around 1 a.m. that morning.

The cause of death was severe bleeding from a heart rupture caused by the scissors.

The tool used to disfigure the victim’s face was a paper cutter, commonly found in flower shops, and no fingerprints were found on it either.

After reviewing the case outline, Xu Changsheng, recalling the case file he had briefly looked at earlier, felt a deepened sense of confusion. He immediately raised a question.

“Director Gao, I’m puzzled about one thing, and it feels a bit strange. Why was the victim still in the flower shop around 1 a.m.?”

“Normally,” he continued, “flower shops usually close by 9 or 10 p.m., right? Maybe a few may stay open until 10 p.m. But the fact that the victim was still in the shop at 1 a.m. seems odd.”

Before Gao Chao could answer, Guo Ping, with a healthy tan and excellent physique, looked at Xu Changsheng with a somewhat helpless expression and shook his head.

“Captain Xu, looks like you don’t have a partner. February 14th is Valentine’s Day. Young people need to buy flowers, don’t they? Flower shops make money on holidays like this.”

“Squad Leader Guo, I know it’s Valentine’s Day,” Xu Changsheng quickly rebutted, then furrowed his brows and continued in a more confused tone, “But even on Valentine’s Day, an experienced shop owner would have prepared their stock well in advance and wouldn’t have stayed busy this late.”

“Because, as Squad Leader Guo said, these shopkeepers know that to make big money, they have to prepare before Valentine’s Day.”

“So, given that preparation was made in advance, would they really still be busy this late? Or, to put it another way…”

“Knowing the workload was going to be so heavy, wouldn’t they have hired extra help?”

Xu Changsheng’s comments left Guo Ping somewhat at a loss for words. He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out.

Blue-jinged, short-haired Liu Jing, adjusting her black-framed glasses, voiced her opinion, “Could it be that the flower shop was newly opened?”

“Maybe the deceased lacked experience, which led to this unfortunate situation of working so late?”

Upon hearing their doubts, Su Ming frowned, thought for two seconds, and a very specific moment suddenly flashed in his mind. He then spoke slowly, “The deceased might not have had much experience, but I think the more important reason is that February 14, 2018, was such a special date.”

“You can check the calendar. Not only was it Valentine’s Day, but it was also the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve in our Dragon Kingdom.”

“This undoubtedly led many flower shop owners in Liangxi City who were from other places to choose not to work that day, but instead head home to reunite with their families.”

“Because for many people, money can be earned again, but family reunion shouldn’t be delayed.”

“This would have caused a surge in orders. If the deceased still prepared for Valentine’s Day on the usual scale, she would have likely been overwhelmed.”

“Moreover, flower shops are usually one-person operations, and it’s rare for them to hire extra staff.”

“So if I’m not mistaken, the deceased’s family was either too busy or didn’t support her running the flower shop, right?”

“Otherwise,” he added, “if the orders were so many, why didn’t anyone come to help? That would be really strange.”

“As for whether the deceased didn’t mention that she’d be busy for so long and didn’t get help, I think the probability is low.”

“After all, if she didn’t come home so late, her family would normally call to check in, rather than remaining indifferent.”

“Valentine’s Day, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve, no staff to help, and no family to assist… These special circumstances probably all piled up and led to the tragic outcome.”

Having said that, Su Ming turned to Gao Chao, who was standing by the whiteboard, and gave him a confident, gentle smile.

“Director Gao, do you think… I’m right?”