As soon as the rolling shutter door was opened, a moldy smell immediately hit my face.
Obviously, this room has not been ventilated for a long time.
"Boss, how long have you been closed?"
Li Jie looked at the furnishings in the room and asked a question casually.
There are no traces of the photo studio in this room anymore. There is a thick layer of dust on the table and the floor is full of debris.
"It's been two or three years."
The fat boss blurted out: "Isn't this place about to be demolished? Since the demolition documents came out, this place has been closed."
"Besides, in this world of mobile phones, who would go to a photo studio if they have nothing to do? This is not a professional photo studio."
"Business has been bad over the years. If it weren't for my dad's love for photography, this store would have closed down long ago."
Leng Xiaobing touched the dust on the table. Judging from the thickness of the dust, the boss must not have lied.
"How long has this store been open?"
The fat man thought about it for a moment and replied, "It should be thirty-four years ago."
"Thirty or forty years?"
Hearing this answer, Leng Xiaobing was stunned for a moment.
It is indeed rare for a store to be open for such a long time.
"Yes."
The fat man nodded and explained: "This store has indeed been open for thirty or forty years, but my dad only took over it in 2000."
"The previous owner of this store was another person. Because the market was not doing well, the former owner was planning to sell the store."
"It just so happened that my dad liked photography very much, so he bought the store at a low price and kept it open until a few years ago."
"It wasn't until my dad got sick and had no energy to look after the store, and the area was about to be demolished, that the store closed."
It’s 2000 again?
Leng Xiaobing's heart moved. The last person in the Haizhou serial murder case, 'Xia Jinlan', died in 2000.
At this moment, Leng Xiaobing suddenly had an idea in his mind.
Perhaps, this photo studio is the place they have been looking for.
How can there be so many coincidences in the world?
"By the way, boss, I would like to ask, the holder of this receipt did not come to pick up the photos. How do you usually deal with photos like this that did not come to pick up the photos?"
Li Jie shook the receipt in his hand as he spoke.
"Did you throw it away?"
"Still keeping it?"
Xia Jinlan did take photos here, but she was killed before she could come to take the photos.
The original owner had never touched Xia Jinlan's room before due to post-traumatic stress disorder. More than ten years later, Xia Jinlan's room is still exactly the same as before she was injured.
This receipt was exactly what he found while tidying up his room.
Because of this receipt, the importance of Hongguang Road Photo Studio was immediately highlighted.
"Save it, save it."
The fat boss nodded hurriedly and pointed towards the second floor.
"My dad has a habit of saving the photos of those who didn't come to pick them up and put them upstairs."
"Officer, please wait a moment. I'll go up and get it for you to see."
After saying that, the fat man hurried towards the second floor. After a while, he came down with two cardboard boxes in his arms.
"It's all here."
The fat boss placed the two cartons on the table, then patted the dust on his sleeves.
"Police officer, why don't you look for it yourself?"
The box was full of dust, and the fat man really didn't want to do it himself, lest he get covered in dust.
Leng Xiaobing didn't mind it being dirty, so he opened the carton and poured out all the photos inside.
Investigating a case doesn't require so much attention.
In order to investigate the case before, he hid in the garbage dump. Gu
Where is this?
As the photos in the box were poured out one by one, Li Jie suddenly looked stern.
His observation ability is far beyond ordinary people. Although there are many photos on the table and they are scattered, he can still find the key points from the pile of photos immediately.
"etc!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Leng Xiaobing turned around and looked, his face full of confusion.
"Team Leng, look!"
Without saying anything, Li Jie directly found a few photos and a paper bag containing the photos from the photo pile.
The date and name are written on the paper bag.
‘August 2000, Xia Jinlan.’
The other photos show no one else but the victims of the Haizhou case.
Photos of Han Xiu, Wu Fangfang, Lin Haiyun, Zhang Ping, and Xia Jinlan are prominently listed.
Seeing these photos, Leng Xiaobing's face suddenly turned red.
He is so excited!
Seventeen years, he had been investigating for seventeen years, and finally... finally found the traces of the murderer.
Han Xiu and the other five have all taken photos here. This is definitely not a coincidence!
murderer!
The murderer must be hiding in this store!
"Who took these photos?"
Suddenly, Leng Xiaobing raised his head and glanced sharply at the fat boss opposite.
"Forehead."
The fat boss is just an ordinary citizen. At most, he only has a few houses, so he is barely a big demolisher.
He had never experienced such a lineup before. When Leng Xiaobing looked at him like this, he was immediately frightened.
I saw him stumbling and saying: "This...this should...should have been taken by my father."
"Your dad?"
Leng Xiaobing's expression changed and he said coldly: "Where is your dad now? Let him come over!"
"I...my dad is dead!"
The fat boss was frightened by Leng Xiaobing's tone and trembled.
"Dead? When?"
Leng Xiaobing's heart skipped a beat, how could he die?
Will the Haizhou case never be solved?
etc!
Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind, and he suddenly remembered that the fat man opposite had just said that his father only took over this store in 2000.
Except for Xia Jinlan, the other four victims were all killed before 2000.
In this case, the fat boss's father should not be the murderer.
After seventeen years of investigating the case, Leng Xiaobing finally found the murderer's tail. He was so excited that he ignored some details.
After calming down, Leng Xiaobing was about to ask the question again, but Li Jie on the side said what he was going to ask in advance.
"You just said that your father took over this store in 2000? When was the specific time?"
The fat man thought for a while and replied in an uncertain tone.
"It should be October."
The next second, his tone changed and became much firmer.
"Yes, it was October. I remember it very clearly. I was still in school at that time. During the National Day holiday in 2000, my dad bought this store."
Li Jie continued to ask: "Besides your dad, are there any other photographers in this store?"
"Yes, of course!"
Although he didn't know what the police wanted to investigate, being called by the police, and it was a criminal policeman, was obviously not a good thing, so the fat man immediately cheered up.
"My father couldn't open this store by himself. At that time, we hired several photographers."