Chapter 1021: Stealing from One's Own Guard?

Lu Chuan left the room and followed the corridor to the upper floors, checking each room on every floor and observing the situation in each room.

Except for the finance office and the room where the incident occurred, the other rooms didn’t have anti-theft bars installed. In other words, if the suspect moved the money to other rooms, they could transfer it in large quantities.

But such transfers should have left some traces downstairs.

However, there was nothing downstairs.

So, how were these funds transferred away?

Could it have flown away with wings of its own?

Hmm?

Thinking about this, Lu Chuan suddenly froze.

Yes!

Could the money really have flown away with wings?

Lu Chuan quickly reached the 5th floor.

This office building has a staircase on the west side leading directly to the rooftop, and Lu Chuan headed over to the west-side stairs.

“Are there any traces?”

The stairway showed obvious signs of frequent movement, but it’s uncertain if the suspect used it to take the money away.

Up the stairs, there’s a fire door.

Lu Chuan pushed it, and the fire door wasn’t locked; outside lay the rooftop of the entire office building.

Contrary to what Lu Chuan imagined, the rooftop was clean, with no piles of debris.

After looking around the rooftop thoroughly, he didn’t find much; there were no traces of lamp installation or device installation on the edges.

In the center stood two tables with some teacups on them.

Chen Jiang followed behind Lu Chuan.

“Yesterday, we already checked this rooftop thoroughly and didn’t find anything significant. These tables and teacups have been here for a while; they occasionally come up to have some tea, arranged by the Boss himself.”

Lu Chuan frowned.

In the other floors’ rooms, Lu Chuan had already checked each one and found no trace of large amounts of funds being transferred.

Originally, he thought the suspect might have taken the cash out from the rooftop, given the vast space above.

The key point is the building isn’t very tall, allowing the suspect to use some method to get the money down safely from the rooftop.

“Did anyone check if this office building has a basement?”

Chen Jiang nodded.

“There is a Level -1; it’s filled with some random items, but no other findings. It seems to have been unused for quite a long time. It’s not a fully connected basement but a small area.”

Chen Jiang replied.

Lu Chuan thought for a moment and decided to check downstairs.

“Let’s go down and take a look.”

“Okay.”

Chen Jiang knew Lu Chuan trusted the investigation results but, being a Crime Scene Investigation detective, his attention to detail was likely better.

This building’s basement isn’t fully connected and is relatively small. You can access it from the staircase opposite the crime scene on the 1st floor.

After passing two spiral staircases, there was a damp smell in the air.

“The basement has three large rooms; we examined each one and found nothing special. The floors were clean; although some items were piled up, they weren’t disturbed. On our descent, we found no evidence of frequent visitors.”

Chen Jiang followed Lu Chuan, explaining their discoveries.

Lu Chuan carefully observed the surroundings.

Indeed.

Compared to the stairway up, the basement stairs had a layer of dust on the handrails without any signs of wiping, indicating few people visited.

Opening the three basement doors, various items including computers lay covered in dust as evidence they had been left untouched for a long time.

No clues.

No clues whatsoever.

After leaving the basement, Lu Chuan re-entered the crime scene room.

Unbelievable!

This is unbelievable.

After such thorough investigation, the police hadn’t found any valuable clues.

Not only did they fail to find any valuable clues, they couldn’t figure out how the suspect transferred the money.

The entire building is just this small; the front entrance has 24-hour surveillance proving the suspect neither entered nor exited on the day of the incident.

Lu Chuan also examined the building closely and found no traces of large-scale fund transfer inside.

Though there are many rooms, apart from the finance room with bars and the cash-holding room, other rooms were theoretically capable of holding the stolen funds, but Lu Chuan couldn’t locate such a room.

With his sharp investigation skills, not finding it implies that such a possibility doesn’t exist.

There’s also the rooftop and basement.

Lu Chuan had thoroughly examined the rooftop edges; there were no signs of human tampering, and only natural weathering was visible.

If the suspect had transferred the funds from the rooftop, there would definitely be signs at the edges.

Given the length of time and exposure to elements, these rooftop edges turned to powder once touched, indicating that if the suspect acted there, they’d have disturbed this brittle concrete and left traces. However, the rooftop showed no such signs.

Then there’s the basement; since the suspect didn’t use the known routes, is it possible they hid the money within the building after the theft?

The basement was thoroughly searched, consisting of three rooms with a total area of over 100 square meters, making it difficult to hide the money.

So, how did the suspect manage to take the money away?

In the yard, Lu Chuan and Song Jiang sat under the shade, discussing the matter.

“For two days, our team of over ten people thoroughly examined the building inside and out, and couldn’t find a place to hide money; we searched each room, corner, and area.”

Chen Jiang’s team conducted a meticulous survey, despite simpler responsibilities relative to the chaos; over these days, even after examining the building repeatedly, the suspect’s method of transporting the money remains unclear.

“Any ideas?”

Lu Chuan couldn’t figure it out either.

Over the years, Lu Chuan dealt with various cases, experiencing countless situations. Yet, this perplexing theft case, where no clues were found, was unprecedented.

Chen Jiang paused and looked at Lu Chuan: “Captain Lu, I only have one theory: self-theft!”