Chapter 144: The Suspect Bird

Song Changfeng didn’t notice the turmoil hidden beneath Zhang Chen’s conflicted expression. After sharing his own thoughts, he began reporting yesterday’s findings.

“…After receiving the report from Building Five, Aofeng and I rushed to the scene. These are photos from the site. As you can see, the door lock is just like those in the previous cases, with no signs of forced entry. The window was slightly ajar, but the gap wasn’t wide enough for a person to get through. Of course, the thief could have opened the window, exited, and then made it look like no one had come in. But based on the traces left at the scene, there was no sign of anyone entering or leaving. So, how exactly did the perpetrator carry out the theft?”

Song Changfeng connected his laptop to the projector and displayed several photos taken at the scene. The images were clear, but they only deepened everyone’s confusion. There had never been a case like this one—completely baffling, with no leads to follow.

“I initially suspected high-tech methods, like using drones or robotic arms to commit the thefts, but that possibility was quickly ruled out. I’ve been racking my brain over this, but nothing adds up.”

“Until yesterday, when Aofeng found this.” Song Changfeng held up the item they’d discovered—a single feather sealed in a transparent plastic evidence bag. Every branching strand on the feather was clearly visible.

“What’s the deal with that? Is it a clue left by the suspect? A chicken feather? Is he raising chickens?” someone asked, full of questions.

“That’s not a chicken feather. It’s a bird feather,” Song Changfeng said. “Aofeng was visibly agitated when he found it, and I have reason to believe this feather is deeply connected to the case.”

The legendary police dog Aofeng was well-known far beyond Anyang City, so naturally, the Municipal Public Security Bureau was no stranger to his abilities. Hearing Song Changfeng speak with such certainty, everyone’s interest was immediately piqued, and they began speculating.

“Could the feather have been left on purpose by the suspect? I’ve heard some criminals, full of themselves, deliberately leave clues to taunt the police—trying to make a name for themselves in the criminal underworld,” a young officer, recently hired, said with a hint of excitement.

“No, I think the thief probably left it by accident. We didn’t find any similar feathers at the other crime scenes,” another officer said, shaking his head. He didn’t believe such a random discovery would be much help in solving the case.

After everyone had spoken, Song Changfeng finally said, “This feather wasn’t accidentally dropped by the thief. It grew on the thief.”

The room erupted in disbelief. Everyone understood what Song Changfeng was implying, but the idea was just too absurd. The thief was a bird? How could that be possible?

Sure, there had been cases involving animals stealing things. There was one where a woman discovered several necklaces missing from her jewelry store’s storage room. She called the police, and when they reviewed the surveillance footage, they found the culprit was a rat. The rat had hidden the necklaces in a secret spot, and when the police searched the area, they found over a dozen necklaces. The story had made the rounds, and people found it amusing—who knew rats would steal gold, not just food?

But that case involved an animal acting without intent. It wasn’t premeditated. This serial theft case, on the other hand, involved someone deliberately avoiding homes with surveillance and successfully committing dozens of thefts in just a few days, targeting a wide variety of items. If it turned out the suspect was a bird, not only would the police find it ridiculous, but the residents would never accept it either.

“Wait a minute, Comrade Song Changfeng, didn’t you just say earlier that Chen Kang was a suspect? And now you’re saying the thief is a bird?” Zhang Chen immediately pointed out the contradiction.

“But who says there can only be one thief?” Song Changfeng replied. “I suspect this is a group operation. Someone is using trained birds to carry out the thefts, creating panic among the residents so they’ll go to their store to buy surveillance equipment.”

“…Do you have any evidence?”

“After Aofeng found the feather yesterday, he went straight to the back of the building. He sniffed around for a bit, then started barking up at the birds in the trees. When the birds flew away, he looked frustrated. Aofeng never acts without reason. I believe he was trying to tell me that these cases are definitely linked to birds.”

Song Changfeng clicked on a video file on his desktop and said, “Everyone, please watch this. It’s a compilation of footage pulled from the Technical Department’s archive of surveillance around the neighborhood. I edited several clips together. The answer is in this video. I think we’ve all fallen into a trap—assuming from the start that the suspect must be human. That’s why we believed the surveillance didn’t catch anything.”

He pressed play, and the video started rolling. The camera was aimed at the rear window of an apartment on the fifth floor. The window was half open, and a few birds were perched on the windowsill, pecking at something. Before long, a pitch-black bird flew in, startling the others into flight. It claimed the food on the sill for itself. After eating, it flew into the apartment. Not long after, a dark blur flashed across the screen—it was the same black bird, flying back out.

Even though everyone watched closely, the bird moved so fast that it was impossible to tell whether it had taken anything. Fortunately, the next second, the video showed a slow-motion replay of the bird flying out, with a zoomed-in view of the key area. Now, everyone could clearly see that as the black bird flew away, something golden seemed to be hooked onto its foot, tucked beneath its belly.

“A gold ring!” Zhang Chen said with certainty. He recognized the apartment through the window—it was the site of the first theft in the community. The woman who reported it had said the gold ring from the top layer of her jewelry box had gone missing. Who would’ve thought it was stolen by this bird?

Song Changfeng nodded, and the video continued. In nearly every window captured by the surveillance footage, this same bird had appeared. Some shots were clear, others blurry and tucked into corners. But without exception, once slowed down and zoomed in, the footage showed the bird carrying something in its beak or claws.

The few minutes of footage ended quickly, but by the time it did, everyone’s worldview had been shattered. The thief really was a bird! How were they supposed to catch that? Who would ever think to focus on a bird? And this one was incredibly sneaky—after stealing something, it flew off faster than a Boeing 747. If Song Changfeng hadn’t slowed and zoomed in on the footage, who would’ve noticed the bird had taken anything?

“It must’ve been tough to find all this among so much surveillance footage, huh?” Lei Liming said with some admiration. The short video had taken Song Changfeng over ten hours of reviewing to uncover. The others looked at him with respect. They had divided up the footage among themselves and no one had paid attention to a bird, so they had all concluded there was nothing unusual. But Song Changfeng had watched it twice on his own.

“Not too bad. Looking with a purpose is a lot easier than going in blind.” The first time, he had only checked for drones. The second time, he noticed the bird appearing in the footage. He hadn’t needed to go frame by frame.

“Good thing we had you. If you hadn’t been so observant, this case might’ve stayed unsolved for a year or more.” Lei Liming clapped him on the shoulder. No wonder he valued Song Changfeng so much. If others had this kind of sharp intuition, he’d give them more attention too.

Song Changfeng shook his head. “Credit goes to Aofeng. If it hadn’t alerted me, I probably wouldn’t have thought in that direction. Actually, even the first time, Aofeng had sensed something. It must’ve picked up the scent, but since it wasn’t from a human, it got confused when I asked.”

“Aofeng’s impressive—and so are you. No need to be modest. Now that we’ve identified the suspect—well, suspect bird—our next step is to find its location. Once we catch it, everything else will fall into place.”

Just as Song Changfeng had said earlier, there had to be one or more human accomplices behind the bird. He suspected there was an insider within the Mingyang Community.

“This needs to be handled quietly. We can’t risk the real culprits killing the bird and destroying the evidence. If the bird disappears, we’ll be back to square one. Also, send two people to investigate Chen Kang’s social connections. See if he has any acquaintances in the Mingyang Community,” Lei Liming instructed.

Everyone responded loudly and sprang into action.