"Director Chen, please come with us. There are some things you need to explain to us. For example, why did you try to disguise the crime scene as a burglary?" Fang Rui said.
Chen Xinran's face turned pale. She instinctively retorted, "Officer, what are you talking about? I called the police as soon as I saw the body. When would I have had time to stage the scene?"
"How do you explain the injury on your knee?"
"I fell when I was holding Yuanyuan earlier."
"Where did you fall? Please show us. The surveillance cameras are working again now. We can easily check the footage and find out what really happened."
Chen Xinran gave up her attempts at deception and left with Fang Rui and his team. Before leaving, she appointed the volunteer Li Min as the acting director. Li Min was in her early thirties and was one of the more experienced staff members.
"Li Min, please take good care of the children."
"Where are you going, Chen? I can't handle this alone. You must come back as soon as possible."
"Alright, I'll be back soon."
Back at the police station, Chen Xinran confessed to her crime.
"Officers, I really didn't kill anyone! I don't know how Director Zhang died!" Chen Xinran wrung her hands nervously. "I needed a large sum of money. I asked Director Zhang to lend it to me, but she refused. So I had the evil idea of sneaking into her office to steal money. It was raining heavily last night, wasn't it? When I was checking the electric meter, I suddenly thought, if I could trick them into a power outage, there would be no surveillance, and I could enter her office to steal the money."
"How did you know there was money in her office?" Fang Rui asked.
"She's loaded! What kind of person do you think our director is? A saint?" Chen Xinran sneered.
Zhang replied, "The newspapers say she's a selfless moral model. Although she has no children of her own, she's a good mother to many orphans..."
"Haha, only you would believe that! Do you know how much money kind-hearted people donate to our orphanage every year? The Jiangmiao Group alone donates millions every year. Where do you think that money goes?"
Chen Xinran wore a mocking smile, "It all goes into Zhang Xuemei's own pocket. She always brainwashes us with grand, empty words about charity and accumulating good karma, while paying us only two or three thousand a month. Meanwhile, she's raking in the cash. I just asked to borrow a few tens of thousands for an emergency, and not only did she refuse, she even lectured me."
"Are you saying she's been embezzling funds all along?"
"You've seen our orphanage, just two small buildings. The children's living expenses aren't that high. How much money could it possibly cost? Where did the rest of the money go? Obviously into her own pocket."
Zhang said, "But we didn't find any assets under her name, and there were only a few thousand yuan in her bank account."
"Young man, are you naive? If you embezzled millions, would you keep it in your own bank account? You'd obviously convert it to cash and hide it. At the time, I suspected the money was hidden in her bookcase. She treasured that bookcase and wouldn't let anyone touch it."
"So, did you manage to steal any money?" Fang Rui asked.
"Of course not! I searched her study with a flashlight for over an hour. The bookcase was full of books, which I checked one by one, but I didn't find a single cent. Her office was surprisingly bare, with nothing of value. I had searched her dormitory before, but found no money there either. I really can't figure out where she hid all that money."
Zhang said, "Could it be that she never embezzled any money at all?"
Zhang had inspected Director Zhang's dormitory. The clothes in her wardrobe were old, some even yellowed from washing, but clean and tidy. The quilt and bed sheets had several holes, which were covered with embroidered flowers. She even refused to throw away broken coat hangers. Would such a person embezzle public funds? Zhang thought of a corrupt official from a TV drama and realized it wasn't impossible.
"Was her office not locked at the time?"
"No, her office was never locked. I thought she was very bold, not locking the office with so much illegal money inside. Now I think that money probably wasn't in her office at all."
"Please give us a full account of what happened."
"The orphanage lost power after 8 PM last night. While Old Liu was on his rounds, I stole his shoes and made many footprints outside the wall. I even damaged some vines and moss to make it look like a thief had climbed over. I also left footprints on the windowsill. After doing all this, I searched the study with a flashlight for the illegal money. Around 10 PM, I heard movement downstairs, so I quickly slipped out of the office. Officers, I didn't steal anything. My actions weren't illegal, right?"
Zhang reminded her, "There's a charge called attempted theft. The specific sentence will be up to the judge."
Chen Xinran's face turned ashen.
Fang Rui asked, "You said you heard something last night. What kind of sound was it?"
"It sounded like Director Zhang's footsteps, so I quickly left her office."
"When did you discover she was dead?"
"Around 7 AM this morning. She usually gets up very early, but this morning she hadn't appeared for a long time, so I went to her office to look for her. That's when I found her stabbed to death. I was completely shocked."
Fang Rui remembered the two missing stuffed pigs and asked, "Did you steal the stuffed pigs from her office?"
"Why would I steal children's toys? Those two pigs were so ugly, with their paint peeling off. What would I do with them? Probably some kid snuck in and took them."
Chen Xinran couldn't help but ask, "I made so many preparations. How did you figure out I was involved?"
"You left too many clues. For example, those unnecessary footprints..."
Before ending the interrogation, Fang Rui asked, "Why didn't you get rid of Old Liu's shoes?" It was foolish to try to frame Old Liu with footprints, given that he had a limp.
"I did throw them away. I put them in the trash can. He's the only male in the orphanage, so I could only steal his shoes."
Fang Rui and Zhang exchanged a puzzled look. Why, then, had those shoes reappeared under Old Liu's bed?
At the next morning's meeting, Mu Mian reported the autopsy results.
"The time of death was the night before last, between 10 PM and 11 PM on March 21st. The cause of death was excessive blood loss."
"There was a hematoma with vital reaction on the occipital region of the victim's head, which was likely caused by falling to the ground," Mu Mian displayed photos of the deceased on the screen. "There were four knife wounds on the victim's body, all made by the same weapon - the fruit knife found in the victim's chest. Based on the location of the stab wounds and the blood spatter pattern at the scene, we can deduce that when the killer stabbed the victim, she was lying flat on the ground and didn't resist."
"Several fingerprints were found on the knife, all belonging to the same person. Judging from the size of the prints, they appear to be from a child," Wang said. "I suspect they might belong to the little boy found at the crime scene. However, I haven't been able to obtain his fingerprints yet. The orphanage staff won't let us see him, saying they're afraid it might traumatize him."
"Could Yuanyuan have killed the victim?"
"But Yuanyuan is only eight years old. How could he overpower Director Zhang and stab her to death?"
"Could Director Zhang have fallen and been knocked unconscious?"
"We also detected an overdose of nitrous oxide in her system," Mu Mian interrupted their discussion. "This gas has a slightly sweet smell, mild anesthetic effects, and can cause laughter. That's why it's also known as laughing gas."
