One Step Late

At the insurance company, Xu Mo found a computer and took out his phone to dial the number his manager had given him.

In an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city.

A man in a suit answered the phone.

"Hello, is this Mr. Li? This is the bank. We've detected a one million yuan transfer from your bank card. Are you aware of this transfer?"

"Oh, I'm aware. I bought an elephant."

Xu Mo: "……"

After a two-second silence, Xu Mo spoke again.

"And what is the specific purpose of buying the elephant?"

The man in the suit, while wiping the blood off his hands with a handkerchief from his suit, casually blurted out, "To feed the ants."

Xu Mo: "……"

The brief conversation was enough for Xu Mo to locate the other party's phone through the computer. There was no need to continue talking.

He didn't immediately reveal his identity as a police officer because he was afraid of scaring off the target.

Utilizing the common tendency for people to engage with scam calls and toy with the scammers, Xu Mo successfully managed to chat with the man for a few moments, obtaining the location of his phone in the process.

Once he had the location, Xu Mo hung up without hesitation.

In the abandoned factory.

The man in the suit also realized that the 'scammer' had hung up and couldn't help but complain, "No professional ethics at all."

...

Meanwhile, Han Fei and the others were preparing to check the surveillance around the insurance company to see if they could find any clues.

At that moment, Xu Mo, who had been absent for a while, reappeared.

"Where have you been?" Han Fei asked upon seeing Xu Mo again.

"I have a lead," Xu Mo briefly replied. "The boss of the insurance company is also suspicious. I just located his position using his phone number. He's in the suburbs. Let's go take a look."

"The suburbs!?" Han Fei was intrigued.

Why would the boss of the insurance company go to the suburbs under normal circumstances?

This was indeed suspicious.

"I'll fill you in on the details on the way. We need to hurry; let's head to the suburbs," Xu Mo nodded.

Han Fei didn't hesitate to agree with Xu Mo's idea of checking out the suburbs.

He was at a loss about where to start investigating, and Xu Mo had just provided him with a direction.

Well done! He'll have to commend him later... Han Fei thought to himself.

One team of officers stayed behind at the insurance company, while the rest got into cars to follow Xu Mo to the location he had found.

On the way.

Xu Mo detailed his thoughts.

"Several hours have passed since the incident, and there's no reason the boss of the insurance company wouldn't come to check on the progress. This is suspicious..."

Han Fei's eyes lit up.

Exactly!

He had overlooked this point.

The boss of the insurance company hadn't shown up at all, with only the manager handling things.

Didn't the boss of the insurance company care?

Considering the company's vault had been robbed, the loss would be enormous for him, yet he hadn't shown his face. This was indeed suspicious.

Plus, Xu Mo had just located the insurance company boss's position, and he was in the suburbs... With such a major incident at the company, as the boss, he didn't come to the company to check on things, but instead went to the suburbs. This was very strange.

When something is abnormal, there's usually a reason.

Hearing Xu Mo's analysis, the three trainee officers who were on the car also nodded in agreement.

Xu Mo truly had a knack for this; he was meticulous and exceptionally intelligent!

Everyone had overlooked this clue, but Xu Mo had thought of it. So far, the progress of this case had been entirely driven by Xu Mo.

Although they hadn't caught the thieves yet, Xu Mo's ability to find clues was something they should learn from.

The three trainees silently took out their notebooks and jotted down a few notes.

...

An hour and a half later.

Several police cars stopped in front of an abandoned factory in the suburbs.

The lead car was driven by Xu Mo, who had the location and was responsible for guiding the way.

The doors opened, and Xu Mo, Han Fei, and the three trainee officers got out of the car.

The officers from the other cars also got out.

At that moment, everyone's gaze was fixed on a corpse at the factory entrance.

This was the second corpse discovered since the investigation began.

Xu Mo stepped forward to examine the body.

"The body is still warm, and livor mortis hasn't formed yet... The time of death is less than two hours ago. The fatal wound pierced through the chest from the back, killing him instantly."

Xu Mo was frustrated, "We're too late again."

Looking at the corpse on the ground, the officers fell silent once more.

Another case of silencing a witness.

"These bastards... They're ruthless," Wang Dachuan muttered angrily.

Every time they got a lead, the trail was cut off.

"Huh..." Suddenly, Xu Mo noticed something while staring at the body.

"This is a fugitive!"

Before joining the police force, Xu Mo had seen the wanted posters, and he had memorized every fugitive with a bounty.

The deceased in front of him was one of them, with a bounty of 100,000 yuan.

"A fugitive?" An officer looked at Xu Mo.

Xu Mo recounted the information he had seen on the wanted posters.

"Wang Baoguo, 32 years old, killed a family of four during a burglary and has been on the run ever since..."

However, this discovery wasn't particularly useful.

The identity of the deceased as a fugitive didn't provide any significant clues.

So Xu Mo only briefly mentioned it and then stopped paying attention to the body, instead focusing on other clues in the surrounding area.

Near the deceased, Xu Mo noticed tire tracks on the barren ground.

Not just Xu Mo, but the other officers also noticed the tire tracks.

Earlier, everyone's attention had been on the body, and no one had noticed anything else. After examining the body, they naturally noticed the tire tracks on the ground.

"Judging by the width of the tires and the depth of the tracks, it looks like they were left by a truck," Han Fei concluded after a few seconds of observation.

Hearing this, Li Chen's eyes lit up and took over the conversation.

"A truck... Then the truck must be carrying the stolen goods? If we can find that truck, we can recover the stolen items, right? Han Fei, we should..."

At that moment, Xu Mo suddenly interrupted Li Chen, "Wait, there's something wrong..."