The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

At this time, the other officers present also gradually joined the discussion.

Moments later, Jiang An cleared his throat, and his steady voice broke the indoor noise: ”Regarding competition from peers, I personally think the possibility is low.”

He paused briefly, looked around, and then continued to analyze: ”Firstly, there is more than one foot massage parlor on this street. Although competition exists, malicious cases often involve deeper motives.”

”Secondly, the clientele of the foot massage parlors isn’t fixed, and there is no obvious intersection among the victims pointing to a particular competitor.”

”Therefore, focusing the investigation on peer competition may lead us astray.”

His tone was firm and his thoughts were clear: ”As of now, the most pressing matter is to bring the owner back to cooperate with the investigation.”

”As the actual manager of the shop, she is most familiar with the employees’ backgrounds and daily interactions and is most likely to possess key information that we have yet to discover.”

Jiang An paused briefly and emphasized: ”More importantly, these missing or deceased women seem to share a certain commonality in their backgrounds—this could be the crucial breakthrough in solving the case.”

Since the head of the criminal investigation team had clearly expressed his stance, the other officers nodded in agreement.

Wan immediately stepped forward and replied swiftly: ”Understood, Mr. Jiang, I’ll go and ’invite’ the owner back to cooperate with the investigation.”

After speaking, he called upon two other officers and set out quickly, heading back to the foot massage parlor.

As night deepened, the neon lights at the entrance of the foot massage parlor remained a suggestive pink.

Through the glass door, several women could be seen lazily sitting on the sofa—some scrolling through their phones, others leisurely applying nail polish.

Wan pushed the door open, and the bell jingled crisply.

Behind the bar, the owner was checking the day’s financial accounts but promptly looked up upon hearing the commotion.

At the sight of Wan and the others, her face immediately wore a professional smile as she hurried over, ”Mr. Wan, why have you come back?”

”Do you need additional materials for earlier matters? Please let us know, we’ll fully cooperate!”

Wan responded expressionlessly, ”Thank you for cooperating, but this time it’s not a simple questioning; I need to trouble you to come back with us to assist in the investigation.”

Upon hearing the words ”come back to the bureau,” the smile on the woman’s face instantly froze.

She instinctively looked back at the others in the shop and lowered her voice slightly, ”Mr. Wan, we haven’t officially opened tonight yet...and as you know, we always do legitimate business here, never delving into things we shouldn’t!”

”Don’t misunderstand, this time we’re asking you to come in; it’s unrelated to your current business behavior.”

Wan gazed at her, speaking word by word, ”We suspect you are related to the deaths and disappearances case, and we’re asking you to come back for questioning according to the law.”

”Deaths and disappearances?”

The woman’s eyes flickered, and her tone became urgent.

Upon hearing this, the owner still appeared somewhat resistant, her gaze flickering uncertainly.

But before she could hesitate for long, another officer stepped forward, speaking coldly: ”Don’t waste time. Our police car is parked right outside your shop.”

”If the police stay here all night, your shop won’t be opening tonight—you might want to reconsider.”

This statement was like a heavy hammer, causing the woman’s face to change as she hurriedly nodded and said: ”Alright, I’ll go with you, I’ll go with you.”

Half an hour later, the woman was brought to the interrogation room at the district police station.

The interrogation was led by the young officer Wan, with an experienced older officer sitting beside him.

Meanwhile, Jiang An and his colleagues stood behind the one-way glass, silently observing every movement inside.

Wan opened the recording book and asked: ”Name, address, how many years have you been in this business?”

The woman paused slightly, seemingly habitually organizing her thoughts before answering: ”My name is Du Yue, I’m 49 years old, and I’ve been in this foot massage business...for twenty years.”

After speaking, she seemed to suddenly realize something, hurriedly waving her hands to add: ”However, the first nineteen years were spent running legitimate foot massage shops, professionally trained and transparently priced, never involving any dubious activities.”

”These past two years, business has become increasingly difficult, and the shop’s revenue has continually fallen, so I really had no choice...but to add some other health service items.”

Wan didn’t dwell on her notion of ”legitimacy” but directly went straight to the point.

”Do you know Li Qian...”

He listed five names in one breath, causing Du Yue to visibly pause.

After bowing her head in contemplation for a moment, she raised her head and said: ”Oh, these people...have all worked at our shop.”

”But speaking of it, they all left suddenly.”

”Previous employees, even if they wanted to leave, at least gave notice beforehand, settled wages amicably, and left.”

”But these people, they disappeared while working, without even claiming their deposit...”

Wan stared into her eyes before continuing to ask: ”When they disappeared, did you report it to the police?”

Du Yue seemed stung by this question, responding with a suddenly excited tone: ”Report to the police?”

”Officer, you don’t understand, these individuals are clever and have some attractiveness; they received many calls for service, and business was always good.”

”If they indeed wanted to walk away, as someone doing business, could I possibly hold them against their will?”

”Externally, I could only say that they resigned by themselves, to develop elsewhere...”

Hearing this, Wan leaned forward slightly and continued to ask: ”According to what you said, you should be most familiar with each of their personal circumstances, right?”