Chapter 84: A Suspicious Figure

Officer Tang drove at breakneck speed to Lü Chunqiu’s residence.

His clothes and hair were in disarray, clearly showing how rushed he had been to leave the house.

Upon seeing the door that had been violently forced open, Officer Tang’s expression grew grave.

“Who broke open the door?” he asked Mo Fei as he entered the apartment.

“I did,” Mo Fei answered truthfully. “When I got here, I heard a cellphone ringing inside, but no one answered the door. I was worried she might have had some kind of accident, so in a moment of panic, I kicked the door in.”

Officer Tang’s heart, which had been lodged in his throat, eased a little.

He couldn’t really say Mo Fei had acted wrongly, under the circumstances.

“Tell me what happened.”

Officer Tang took a small notebook from his pocket and faithfully recorded Mo Fei’s account of events. The unusual text message, the abandoned cellphone—while these weren’t direct evidence, they were enough to show that Lü Chunqiu’s disappearance was far from ordinary.

“Does she have any enemies?” Officer Tang asked quickly as he jotted things down.

Mo Fei frowned. “I mentioned before she might have offended some traffickers, but as for anyone else, I don’t know.”

As for his own list of enemies, Mo Fei could count a whole basketful, but Lü Chunqiu always strove for harmony in her dealings. For the life of him, he couldn’t think of anyone she might have crossed.

Officer Tang put down his pen, his expression darkening.

The most troubling aspect was that the missing person was an adult woman, and there was no direct evidence she was in danger.

A report could be filed, but there weren’t grounds yet to open a formal case.

Officer Tang walked to the window and looked out.

Neon lights flickered outside. Below, the street was a torrent of traffic.

His gaze swept over the street and the shops on either side, searching for a camera that might have captured the building’s entrances.

This kind of apartment building had over twenty units per floor, with all sorts of tenants—nail salons, cat cafes, board game rooms. The constant stream of people made things even more complicated, and there were only a few cameras near the elevators on each floor.

“Come with me to find the building manager,” Officer Tang announced after surveying the room and finding nothing else amiss.

On his way out, Mo Fei glanced guiltily at the door he’d kicked into a C-shape. “What about the door?”

It would be just his luck if, after finding her, they discovered the place had been robbed.

“Find someone to keep an eye on it for now,” Officer Tang replied, at a loss for a better solution.

No one would come to fix the door at this hour, so at least someone could stand guard—and let them know if Lü Chunqiu returned.

“I’ll—” Mo Fei scrolled through his contacts and got stuck.

With his rather sparse circle of friends, he truly couldn’t think of anyone appropriate for this task. Officer Xu, their go-to man, was injured. Should he try calling Ji Xingyu?

“No need,” Officer Tang said, typing out a message on his phone. “I’ll have my wife come over.”

At this stage, it was better not to trouble other colleagues. Family was the most convenient.

“You wait here for her. I’ll go contact the building manager,” Officer Tang instructed after sending the message, then hurried off.

You couldn’t expect a competent building manager in a place like this, and waiting there would only lead to endless squabbling once the manager arrived.

Mo Fei waited anxiously outside the door. About twenty minutes later, a stern-faced, short-haired middle-aged woman approached him.

She glanced at the warped door and spoke. “I’m Tang Xin’s wife. Leave this to me.”

It took Mo Fei a moment to realize Tang Xin was Officer Tang’s name. He quickly nodded. “Thank you for your trouble.”

With someone guarding the apartment, Officer Tang and Mo Fei could search for Lü Chunqiu without worry.

Mo Fei found Officer Tang in the lobby downstairs.

“How is it?” he asked.

Officer Tang looked less than pleased. “Waiting for someone to open up.”

When he’d called the person in charge, he’d been told the manager was off duty. Only after identifying himself as a police officer and requesting cooperation had the supervisor agreed to send the manager over.

This place really had no sense of security.

Mo Fei found it absurd as well. Old neighborhoods weren’t exactly fortresses either, but at least you’d see a few retired old men acting as security at the entrance every day.

After quite a wait, the middle-aged manager finally arrived, looking distinctly impatient. “What’s the matter? It’s the middle of the night.”

Officer Tang showed no leniency. He flashed his badge. “Police. Someone is missing from this building. Please cooperate with our investigation.”

Seeing the badge, the manager straightened up a little, though he kept muttering about how troublesome the tenants were and that the missing person probably just left on her own, all while unlocking the door to the surveillance room at a leisurely pace.

Inside, a large TV screen was divided into a mosaic of surveillance feeds.

“Show us footage from the twelfth floor around seven p.m.,” Mo Fei requested.

The manager sighed and complied.

The elevator and hallway footage appeared normal. Lü Chunqiu was seen taking the elevator down with several other residents. Fast-forwarding, she did not reappear.

“Switch to the lobby camera,” Officer Tang instructed, eyes fixed on the screen. “Start from the time she went up, eight-times speed.”

The manager had no idea what they were hoping to see at that speed—anyone passing through would be a blur—but since it was the police, he grudgingly complied.

The building’s surveillance quality was poor, the connections fuzzy.

Officer Tang studied the screens for several minutes, then suddenly barked, “Stop! Rewind five minutes, play at double speed.”

He had clearly noticed something. The manager and Mo Fei tensed as the footage rolled back.

A janitor in a cap appeared in the lobby, pushing a cleaning cart and slowly passing through the frame.

Normally, cleaning in such buildings was done in the morning or afternoon; it was rare for janitors to be around at night. After all, this wasn’t a busy street, and tenants wouldn’t want to hear trash being collected late in the evening.

“Your cleaning staff are more diligent than you. Working this late,” Officer Tang remarked, glancing at the timestamp. “She went down just ten minutes before—this was premeditated.”

He patted the manager on the shoulder. “Are there cameras outside the entrance?”

The manager nodded repeatedly. “Yes, there’s one, but it was damaged a few days ago by someone with a laser pointer.”

Such cameras might not be used for months at a time, so when it broke, no one rushed to repair it.

“Amazing,” Officer Tang remarked sarcastically. He switched his phone to video mode, aiming it at the monitor. “Play it again. Afterwards, copy this footage and bring it to the station.”

“And pull all the elevator footage from these ten minutes, start with the twelfth floor up and down.”

The manager was momentarily dazed. Officer Tang snapped, “Did you hear me clearly?”

The manager finally snapped out of it. “Yes, yes, I understand…”