Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Rooftop

The evidence of a break-in at the crime scene is crystal clear, and there are indeed signs that valuables inside the house were stolen," said Huo Yan, who had remained silent until now. "Assuming the dead man is the habitual thief Li Wei, then the person who took the valuables to create the illusion of a burglary must be Chang Jun-chao.

This way, it is entirely possible for him to secure a certain amount of food and water without needing to touch the meager savings left in his own bank account.

In order to avoid being spotted by us while we were staking him out, and conversely to spy on our movements, he likely occupied a vantage point.

Assuming that the person disguised as a delivery worker who was startled by the downstairs neighbor earlier was indeed Chang Jun-chao, his original intention should have been to continue heading up to the rooftop.

After being alarmed by the neighbor, he did not return to that building, but the residential buildings in that neighborhood share the same architectural layout, and that building is not the only rooftop where one could find shelter."

Ning Shuyi nodded in agreement: "He is up high, and we are on the ground. This way, we cannot see his comings and goings, but he can look down from above and take in everything—where we park our cars, the shift change timings, and all other details.

As long as our people are present, he does not show himself.

If he had already stocked up on some food and drink before startling the neighbor, rationing it would be enough for him to play hide-and-seek with us for these past few days."

"Then let's split into several groups and search the rooftops building by building!" Luo Wei suggested.

His suggestion was quickly dismissed by the other colleagues: "That won't be easy. That residential area is densely packed, and the distance between buildings is small. Within a reasonable line of sight around the crime scene, there are at least six to eight buildings.

Each building has five units; where would we get enough manpower to simultaneously ascend every single unit?

The rooftops over there are open spaces. If our pace varies even slightly and we alert the person hiding up there, the moment you go up from one side, he will slip away from the other!"

"That's right," Zhao Dabao also expressed some concern, "and what if the suspect panics and jumps to his death directly? While the killer in this case would technically be identified, closing the case wouldn't look very good.

Furthermore, we must also consider the issue of social impact; we cannot cause excessive disturbance and panic among the nearby residents."

Dong Weifeng frowned and thought for a moment: "You all continue with the plan as scheduled over the next few days. I will arrange and coordinate the drones."

To maintain sufficient covertness, the drones deployed by the bureau were scheduled to execute aerial photography missions at night. After flying repeatedly around the buildings surrounding the crime scene, no traces of any suspicious persons were found on the rooftops of any of these buildings.

The team members, who had expected to catch Chang Jun-chao in his hiding place, could not help feeling somewhat annoyed and discouraged.

Ning Shuyi, however, showed no emotional fluctuations; she still appeared full of confidence and seemingly held victory in her grasp.

Even after the drone flight, when more people than before feared her judgment might have been mistaken, she showed no sign of worry or anxiety.

"You have a very strong mental fortitude." Having held back for two days without asking, Huo Yan finally couldn't help himself during the night shift stakeout and spoke to Ning Shuyi.

"Huh?" Since Huo Yan was a partner of few words, Ning Shuyi had been lost in her own thoughts. Suddenly hearing him speak to her, she snapped back to reality. Realizing what he had said, she smiled, "Well, thank you for the compliment!

Whether it was his previous disguise as a delivery worker or his handling of fingerprints and traces at the crime scene, it's clear that Chang Jun-chao is an extremely meticulous person. Combined with his years of life experience alongside Deng Qingrong, we also know this man has incredible endurance!

How could a suspect who is cautious, meticulous, and capable of such endurance casually wander around on a rooftop?

That's why I'm confident and not particularly surprised by this result.

Besides, calculating the time, it's been three or four days now. I refuse to believe he could stockpile that many days' worth of food and water all at once. So, enduring until now, he is actually reaching his breaking point. We won't even need to push him into a corner before he shows himself."

"He probably won't dare to disguise himself as a delivery worker to go out and buy supplies again," Huo Yan thought aloud. "After being spotted by the elderly neighbor while pretending to be a delivery worker, and now with stakeouts downstairs both day and night, he won't be that careless."

"Indeed, it's inconvenient for him to disguise himself as a food delivery personnel to go in and out, but he can still use real delivery workers to bring things to him!" Ning Shuyi said to Huo Yan. "Not everyone chooses to have meals and goods delivered right to their front door.

For safety reasons, some people living alone choose to have deliveries left at their doorway, downstairs, in the elevator, or even go down to the ground floor to pick them up themselves. Therefore, delivery workers generally think nothing of it and aren't particularly suspicious of various delivery requests.

Chang Jun-chao can easily order food and goods, specify an address on any random floor of the building where he is hiding, and leave a note to contact him by phone. This way, when the delivery person arrives, he can pick it up right in the hallway without having to show his face.

And the delivery person has no way of knowing they are dealing with someone who has basically vanished, so naturally, they won't suspect a thing."

"Although his own mobile phone and SIM card were not found at the scene, it was previously confirmed that no traces of them being used have been tracked," Huo Yan reminded Ning Shuyi.

"I know," Ning Shuyi nodded. "He doesn't have his own SIM card, but what about Li Wei's?"

"Li Wei?" Huo Yan frowned. They had been investigating the whereabouts of this habitual thief all along, so they naturally couldn't have missed such an important channel as a mobile phone. However, it had similarly been in a powered-off state without any trace of ever being used, making localization impossible.

"As a habitual thief who has always made a living through theft, like a rat in a sewer, he is accustomed to living in the shadows and definitely wouldn't want to run out in the sunshine."

Ning Shuyi said to Huo Yan: "So the contact information we could find for him was most likely used to register with the local police station after his release from prison—a number exclusively for dealing with the police.

The number he actually uses frequently might not be under his own name.

As a habitual thief in today's environment, it's impossible for him to keep all the proceeds of his thefts in cash.

Yet, as an ex-con, if he regularly deposited money into his bank account, he would find it hard to explain the suspicious origin of the funds to the local police officers.

Therefore, he would need a mobile phone card and a bank card obtained through unofficial channels.

Now, Li Wei is most likely dead, and we didn't find his phone or SIM card at the scene either. By all accounts, they have fallen into Chang Jun-chao's hands.

During our briefing last time, I brought this up with Squad Leader Dong as well. Zheng Chuan's sneaky behavior snooping around the crime scene before he was caught by Luo Wei and the others happens to be a breakthrough.

As someone closely connected to Li Wei, Zheng Chuan surely knows what hidden contact methods and bank accounts Li Wei had that weren't public knowledge.

So this matter must be pried out of his mouth. Once we get that number, we can make it a primary target for monitoring. After holding out for another two or three days, all things considered, things should start moving very soon!"