Chapter 1005: On-Site Investigation

The place where Zhang Chao’s family lives is an old small community, but the housing prices here are not cheap.

Because it has the best educational resources in Haizhou City; it’s more convenient to live here and attend school.

For this reason, there are more elderly people living nearby, making neighbors more familiar with each other.

After listening to Huang Jianmin’s report in the morning, Lu Chuan arranged personnel to the scene to verify relevant circumstances.

Ravioli Hall.

"A few days ago I ate kumquats grown by Zhang Chao. The kumquats he gave are especially good, made into juice, they are soothing. Many of us have tried them, he’s quite nice."

Boss of the Chaos Shop has a deep impression of Zhang Chao’s kumquats.

Wang Zhaokai then continued to ask several other shops, some didn’t know, but some had strong impressions.

The description on the dossier is correct, Huaguang Street police station’s investigation results match what Wang Chaokai found.

However, as the investigation deepened, Wang Zhaokai discovered a problem.

Although people recently ate Zhang Cheng’s kumquats, they seem to have not seen him for a long time.

Wang Zhaokai even adjusted several supermarket and wonton shop monitors, but did not find Zhang Chao nearby the dates mentioned.

On the other side, Chen Jiang began investigating some nearby courier points.

They pulled out all the waybills signed by Zhang Chao and verified the details with the couriers.

Meanwhile, at Zhang Chao’s home, Lu Chuan was discussing relevant situations with Zhang Chao’s wife Wang Meili.

Zhang Chao’s home is not large, consisting of two bedrooms and a living room.

"Is this the kumquat tree your husband grew?"

What stands out is a well-growing kumquat tree on the balcony, with many small kumquats, looking lovely.

Wang Meili nodded.

"My husband likes growing kumquats. When we married, he brought this kumquat tree. Usually, this tree bears many kumquats; we can’t finish them, so we share with our neighbors."

Though the living room is not big, the balcony is smaller, with this kumquat tree occupying about two-thirds of the balcony space.

Lu Chuan nodded, this is a key reason many neighbors feel Zhang Chao is around because they’ve had his kumquats often.

While chatting, a tall girl entered from outside.

"This is... your daughter?"

The girl looked about sixteen or seventeen, resembling Wang Meili, with a round face and fair skin.

Wang Meili is slender with a doll-like face, and she speaks softly.

"This is my daughter, she’s in senior high grade three now."

Talking about her daughter brings a visibly happy smile to Wang Meili’s face.

However, her daughter seemed quite shy, not staying in the living room for long upon seeing Lu Chuan, and promptly entered her room.

"Today is Sunday; her school is on break."

Lu Chuan thought for a moment: "Your daughter attends Haizhou City Third Middle School, right?"

Haizhou City Third Middle School is among the best high schools in Haizhou City, with a high university admission rate; most of its students can go to undergraduate schools. About 20% of students are admitted to prominent universities or above.

Speaking about her daughter’s school relaxed Wang Meili more, sharing with Lu Chuan about their family situation.

It turns out, Zhang Chao and Wang Meili were both remarried. She remarried Zhang Chao when her child was 8.

Their married life has always been pleasant, and Zhang Chao treats mother and daughter well; he worked hard, bought this house in this old small community some years ago, ensuring his daughter attended Haizhou City’s best school.

"Does Zhang Chao provoke anyone at work?"

Lu Chuan asked.

"Um..."

Wang Meili shook her head: "I don’t ask much about Old Zhang’s work, and he travels often, but his personality is good, so he’s likely amicable with colleagues without offending anyone."

Regarding Zhang Chao’s colleagues, Sun Biao has already led a team to investigate at Zhang Chao’s company.

Lu Chuan continued inquiring about other matters.

Gradually, he formed some understanding of Zhang Chao.

Wang Meili mentioned Zhang Chao is kind-hearted, eager to help, getting along well with those around; this is evident from his relationships with neighbors.

Moreover, Wang Meili and Zhang Chao haven’t remarried since their earlier marriages; Zhang Chao’s previous marriage didn’t involve children.

They’ve been married for nearly ten years now.

An afternoon of investigation swiftly concluded; Lu Chuan summoned everyone back to the Criminal Investigation Team for a meeting to summarize findings.

"I’ll start."

Wang Zhaokai raised his hand to discuss his investigation first.

"I examined Zhang Chao’s neighbors, learned about his character through them."

Wang Zhaokai continued: "According to neighbors, Zhang Chao is good-natured and loves helping others; neighbors approach him for assistance and he obliges."

Then Wang Zhaokai picked up Huaguang Street police station’s dossier.

"As stated in the dossier, Zhang Chao likes sharing his homegrown kumquats with neighbors, which they recall vividly. But the problem lies there."

"I conversed with neighbors and realized the recent kumquats were Wang Meili’s handouts. Upon recall, they haven’t seen Zhang Chao for quite some time; I’ve verified through surveillance and noticed the kumquats were indeed delivered recently by Wang Meili herself."

"However, Wang Meili would emphasize the kumquats were grown by her husband Zhang Cheng, giving an impression that Zhang Chao is always around."

Lu Chuan listened and looked at his counterpart: "You’re indicating Zhang Chao is actually missing, but Wang Meili maintains an illusion that he hasn’t disappeared?"

Wang Zhaokai nodded affirmatively: "Indeed, that’s the only explanation."

"Let me share my observation too."

Chen Jiang took out some waybills.

"Huagong Street police station’s investigation wasn’t deep enough; I inspected nearby courier points representing various courier companies serving Zhang Chao’s area."

Chen Jiang displayed the retrieved waybills to everyone.

"Upon checking all of Zhang Chao’s waybills in courier companies, I discovered two issues."