The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 957 Colluding with Murderers

He slammed the evidence he'd been working on all night onto the prosecutor's desk, the morning light filtering through the blinds and casting dappled shadows on his weary face. "Qin Yong worked in the outsourcing department of a cement factory and had professional dealings with the deceased, Li Dejun; Zhou Meihong transferred 20 yuan to his account after the incident, and Qin Yong frequently searched for information related to criminal methods before his disappearance." His finger traced the photographs of the evidence. "Apply for an arrest warrant and a search warrant."

Three hours later, the sound of sirens tore through the morning mist of the urban village. When Xiao Zhou kicked open the broken door of Qin Yong's rented room, a musty smell mixed with cement dust rushed out.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wang led his team into Zhou Meihong's home. In front of the dressing mirror in the bedroom, Zhou Meihong was applying lipstick. She paused when she saw the flashing police lights, her fingertips leaving crooked red marks on her cheek from the lipstick. "What law have I broken?" she sneered as she was handcuffed. "Just a widow remarrying, and you have to alarm the police?"

The incandescent light bulb hummed in the interrogation room. Qin Yong huddled in the iron chair with his head down, dried cement stains still clinging to the knees of his work pants. "I wasn't familiar with Li Dejun; I left last year." He repeatedly rubbed the marks on his wrists. "That 20 yuan was a loan from Sister Zhou to start my business; the IOU is with her."

Xiao Zhou suddenly slammed the photo of the work clothes on the table: "Explain this? The cement fibers under Li Dejun's fingernails are exactly the same as the work clothes you hid under your bed!"

Qin Yong's Adam's apple bobbed violently, but he suddenly looked up and laughed loudly: "I used to work in a cement factory, so what's so strange about me getting a little cement on me? Do you have any evidence that I killed someone?"

In the interrogation room next door, Zhou Meihong elegantly tossed her hair back: "Qin Yong is my cousin. I lent him money because I felt sorry for him. As for my husband's death, I cry every day, yet you suspect the victim's family?" She suddenly covered her face, but a wary look peeked through her fingers.

The atmosphere froze as Yang Sen walked in with the evidence. The syringe in the sealed bag gleamed coldly, and the residual tissue fluid on the needle matched perfectly with the insulin levels detected in Li Dejun's body. "This was found in a hidden compartment in your wardrobe," Yang Sen said, pushing the evidence bag in front of Zhou Meihong. "Also, do you want me to play your chat logs from your phone's cloud backup in front of everyone?"

Zhou Meihong's nails dug deeply into her palms, but she remained calm: "I don't know how these things ended up in my house. Someone framed me!"

Meanwhile, the technical department reported a new discovery. Trace amounts of blood were found in the cracks of the floorboards in Qin Yong's rented room, and DNA testing confirmed they belonged to Li Dejun; the shoe prints in the corner perfectly matched the footprints at the crime scene. As Li Ming laid out this evidence in front of the two women, Zhou Meihong finally broke down, tears mingling with her mascara, streaming down her face: "Qin Yong did it! He said that as long as Li Dejun died, we could be together..."

But Qin Yong just sneered, "Sister Zhou, didn't you say the plan was flawless?" He suddenly turned to the police, "She said Li Dejun discovered her affair and wanted to kick her out of the house. She orchestrated everything, teaching me how to use insulin and how to create an air embolism..."

In fact, the case is already considered solved at this point, but the two people still need to be interrogated separately, and after the case is taken to the company, the scene needs to be identified. There is still a lot of work to be done.

The incandescent light bulbs in the interrogation room emitted a faint hum, casting crisscrossing shadows on the cold, hard walls. Zhou Meihong sat in a stainless steel chair, her hands handcuffed to the table, her nails digging deeply into her palms, the meticulously manicured nails scraping against the metal with a harsh sound. Xiao Zhou slammed a stack of evidence photos heavily on the table, then unfolded the syringes and the fiber testing report from the sealed bag.

"Zhou Meihong, the syringe in the hidden compartment of your wardrobe, the insulin residue on the needle matches the composition of Li Dejun's body perfectly." Xiao Zhou's voice was as cold as ice. "Still going to keep making excuses?"

Zhou Meihong turned her face away, the veins on her neck throbbing slightly: "I don't know how that thing ended up in my house. Someone is trying to frame me!"

Suddenly, Xiao Wang pulled up his phone's recording. The moment he pressed play, Zhou Meihong and Qin Yong's conversation exploded in the enclosed space: "Use insulin to make him unconscious, then inject air into his jugular vein... that way, the autopsy won't be able to find the real cause of death." In the recording, Zhou Meihong's voice was gentle but chilling.

Zhou Meihong's pupils contracted sharply, and her lips began to tremble uncontrollably: "This has been edited! It's fake!"

"Really?" Xiao Zhou tossed out another document. "The technical department recovered your phone's cloud chat history, from planning to purchasing the murder weapon, every step was discussed in detail. There's also the work clothes found in Qin Yong's rented room, the cement fibers on them match perfectly with those in Li Dejun's fingernails."

Zhou Meihong suddenly coughed violently and reached for the water glass on the table. Xiao Wang quickly grabbed her wrist: "Don't even think about destroying the evidence!" He pulled half a torn piece of paper from Zhou Meihong's sleeve, on which the words "Time: 7 o'clock" and "Location: Stone pile" could be vaguely seen.

"Enough!" Zhou Meihong suddenly broke down in tears, her tears mingling with mascara and leaving streaks on her face. "It was me! I made Qin Yong do it!" Her voice was filled with resentment. "Li Dejun found out about my affair and said he would expose my affair with the child and put Qin Yong in jail! I can't lose everything I have now..."

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room next door, Qin Yong was banging his head against the iron table: "Zhou Meihong is the mastermind! She promised to marry me and give me half of her property if I killed Li Dejun!" He suddenly ripped open his collar, revealing obvious scratch marks on his neck. "She threatened me that if I didn't listen to her, she would call the police and say I raped her!"

Li Ming pushed open the door and played the recording of Zhou Meihong's confession. When Qin Yong heard "use insulin to make him unconscious," his body stiffened.

“What else is there to say now?” Li Ming’s voice was deep and authoritative. “You started searching for the method of the crime three days before Li Dejun was murdered; on the night of the incident, although your phone was turned off, the last signal appeared at a base station three kilometers away from the cement plant.” He threw the cell phone base station location map on the table. “It’s only a 15-minute walk to the back wall of the factory, and you know the blind spots of the surveillance cameras there like the back of your hand, after all, you used to work as a subcontractor at the cement plant.”

Qin Yong stared at the location map, then suddenly burst into laughter, a laugh tinged with despair: "That's right, I did it. That night, I hid behind the pile of stones beforehand. When Li Dejun appeared, I injected him with insulin using a syringe. Watching him collapse to the ground, I injected air into his jugular vein..." His eyes were vacant, as if recalling the scene, "He struggled a few times and then stopped moving, and then I buried him with stones."