Chapter 17 Mistakes by the River.8

The man's name is Xu Liang, and he is thirty-five years old.Never married.Doesn't seem to have had any relationship with any girls.His only hobby is fishing.Neighbors said he was withdrawn, but colleagues in the unit said he was very cheerful.The introduction about him made Ma Zhe feel that he was talking about two unrelated people.Ma Zhe is not very interested in this.What he was concerned about was that according to the neighbors' memories, Xu Liang went out around 4:00 pm that day, and Xu Liang himself said that he arrived at the river at 5:30. "Where did you go during that hour?" In the afternoon of the next day, Ma Zhe summoned Xu Liang. "Not going anywhere," he said.

"So you went to the river around four o'clock?" Ma Zhe asked. "No." Xu Liang said lazily. "I wandered the streets for a while." "Meet someone you know?" "Meet one, and I chatted with him on the sidewalk." "Who is that person?" Xu Liang thought for a while, and then said, "I can't remember." "You said you were an acquaintance just now, but you can't remember who it is." Ma Zhe smiled slightly. "This is very normal." He said, "For example, when you write, you often can't write a character you are most familiar with." After finishing speaking, he looked at Ma Zhe with some pride.

"You won't forget forever, will you?" Ma Zhe said. "It's hard to say. Maybe I'll remember it tomorrow, maybe I'll never remember it." He said in a nonchalant manner, as if it had nothing to do with him. Ma Zhe asked Xu Liang to go back that day.But the next day Xu Liang still said he couldn't remember who it was, and he kept saying that for the next few days.Obviously, he was lying about this detail.Xu Liang has become an important suspect in this case.Xiao Li felt that it was time to take action against him.Ma Zhe did not agree.Because it is not enough for him to be at the scene at the time of the incident, there is also a lack of other evidence.When Ma Zhe summoned Xu Liang, Xiao Li and the others searched his house carefully, but found no evidence sufficient to explain the problem.Other investigations have not yielded much.

Meanwhile, Marger investigates another suspect, a maniac.Here at Madman, they have made unexpected progress. When Ma Zhe heard that the madman was washing clothes by the river that evening, he was stunned.So it quickly reminded me of the strange scene after the criminal committed the crime.At first, he seemed to have had an idea that the perpetrator was a little abnormal.But he didn't go any further.Later, the plot of the madman washing clothes by the river also surprised him, but he ignored it.Two people in the Old Post Lane saw the lunatic come back with a wet suit between 5:30 and 6:00 on the evening of the incident.They recalled that they thought the madman had fallen into the river.But when he found that his outer pants and shirt were dry, he was surprised again.But they didn't care, because any eccentric behavior of the madman didn't matter. "What else did you see?" Marger asked them.

At first they said they saw nothing more, but then one of them said he thought the madman seemed to be holding something in the other hand too.He couldn't remember the specifics, because his attention was attracted by the wet clothes. "Can you talk about impressions?" Marger said. But the man couldn't tell what to say, he could only tell the approximate shape and size. Ma Zhe suddenly remembered something, and he asked, "Is it like a hatchet?" The man's eyes lit up after hearing this: "Like." About the lunatic carrying the dripping clothes, people from the old post office have seen it almost every evening since then.According to them, before the incident, the madman had never behaved like this.And on the afternoon of the incident, others saw the lunatic walking towards the river shortly after the fourth mother-in-law left.The clothes he was wearing were the same watery clothes that he carried in his hands every day these days.

So Marger decided to search the madman's room.In his messy house, they found Granny Mosi's lost hatchet.It was covered in blood.After testing, the blood type of the blood on the hatchet was consistent with that of Granny Mo Si. The next thing to do is to find the money accumulated by the fourth mother-in-law as soon as possible. "I want to rule out the possibility of robbery and murder." Ma Zhe said, it seems that Ma Zhe has already decided in his heart that the criminal is a lunatic. However, at the end of a week, even though all the places that should be considered were searched, the money was still not found.Ma Zhe couldn't help being a little impatient, and at the same time he felt that it was difficult to find.Although there is still one doubtful point left in the case, in order not to prolong the case, Ma Zhe decided to arrest the lunatic because the fourth mother-in-law hid the money in an unknown place.When Ma Zhe made up his mind, Xiao Li seemed hesitant.He asked Ma Zhe: "Arrest who?" Ma Zhe seemed to not understand what he meant.

"But." Xiao Li said, "That's a madman." Ma Zhe didn't speak, and walked slowly to the window.The window on the second floor is facing the street.He saw a group of people not far away, surrounded by bicycles, and people on both sides could not pass by.The lunatic in the middle is lying comfortably on the road.Pedestrians on both sides were furious because the traffic was blocked, but there was nothing they could do. The river has been flowing, and autumn has entered its last days.The willow trees on both sides of the bank began to grow old, and the sky was still as clear as before, but the fields under the sky looked a little bleak.A few sparrows were pacing up and down in the grass, and the grass was thriving, dancing in the wind on both sides of the river.A group of people came to the river.

"I found out later that a lunatic did it," someone said.Evidently he was talking about the murder, and his audience must have come from a foreign land. "It's the lunatic we saw just now," the man continued. "The madman who screams and runs around when he sees you?" asked one of them. "Yes, because he is a lunatic, the people in the Public Security Bureau have nothing to do with him, so he was handed over to us. I tied him with a rope for a week, and since then he has been terrified whenever he sees me." At this moment they We have reached the bend in the creek.The man said: "Here we are, right there, there is a human head."

They followed the bend in the creek and turned around. "It's a nice place," one person said.The man turned his head and smiled, then pointed with his finger and said, "It's right here, there's a human head." As soon as he finished speaking, he froze immediately.Immediately, a woman's voice screamed like a whistle, while the others were stunned. Ma Zhe stood beside the small grave, the head had been taken away, and the body was carried away.What was exposed in front of Ma Zhe was a shallow pit. He saw that the dug out soil was gray-red, with a few irregular blood clots on it. A black leather shoe of the deceased was thrown on the side of the pit. There were bloodstains, and the leather shoes were lying there. The leather shoes were exactly the same as the leather shoes on Ma Zhe's feet.

After watching it for a while, Ma Zhe walked towards the river. At this moment, the noon sun was projected on the river surface, and the river surface was shining like a piece of silk.He thought of the flock of geese, if the flock of geese were moving on the water, what would it look like?He looked around and felt his eyes go blank because the geese were not in his sight. "The lunatic has been locked up." A man beside Ma Zhe said. "As soon as we got the report, we went and locked up the lunatic, and searched his room, and found a hatchet, all stained with blood." At noon on the day of the incident, two people saw the lunatic walking back with a pair of dripping clothes, but they both said they didn't care afterwards.

"Why didn't you send him to a mental hospital?" Ma Zhe turned around and asked. "I was planning to send him there, but later..." The man hesitated for a moment, and then said, "No one mentioned it after that." Ma Zhe nodded and left the river.The man followed behind and continued: "Who would have expected that he would kill people again. Everyone thinks he is not very good at..." He found that Ma Zhe was no longer listening, so he stopped talking. From the window of a room, Ma Zhe saw the madman again.The lunatic was sitting on the ground talking to himself at that time, his trousers were unbuttoned, and his hands were stretched in as if catching fleas with great concentration.After catching it for a while, he seemed to have caught one, so he put it in his mouth and chewed it with relish.At this time, he saw Ma Zhe outside the window, and he giggled cheerfully.Ma Zhe looked at it for a while, then turned away.He suddenly roared: "Why don't you tie him up?" The deceased was thirty-five years old and was a worker by profession.According to the forensic examination, the murderer cut it off from the back of the neck with a hatchet, which was exactly the same as the death of Grandma Mosi, and the blood on the hatchet found in the madman's house was also consistent with the blood type of the deceased after testing.After the lunatic was tied up with a rope for two days, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital not far from here. "The deceased just got married this year, and his wife is three years younger than him." Xiao Li said. "And she's pregnant." The deceased's wife sat opposite Ma Zhe, her face was pale, and her hands rested lightly on her slightly protruding abdomen.Her eyes wandered around the room. At this moment, he was at the deceased's home, and in the cremation ground two miles away, the funeral of the deceased was going on.Everything in the home feels as fresh as the sun. "We are both in our thirties. I don't think it is necessary to arrange the room like this. But he must arrange it this way." She said to Marger in a voice that made her seem a little embarrassed.For some unknown reason, when he was about to leave here in the afternoon, Ma Zhe suddenly wanted to visit the wife of the deceased.So he sat here. "On the day of the wedding, they all screamed as soon as they entered the room. They laughed at us both. You didn't come that day, did you?" Ma Zhe was slightly taken aback.She was looking at him questioningly at this moment, and he didn't know how to answer for a moment.She looked at Ma Zhe carefully for a while, and then said: "You didn't come. There were many people who came that day, but I remember them all. I didn't see you." "I didn't come." Ma Zhe said. "Why don't you come?" she asked in surprise. Ma Zhe was also surprised by this.He looked at her a little bewildered. "You should come." She looked away and complained softly. "But..." Ma Zhe wanted to say that he didn't know about their marriage, but he hesitated when he opened his mouth.After thinking for a while, he said: "I was on a business trip that day." He thought to himself, I have never met you.After hearing this, she said with great regret: "It's a pity, it's a pity that you don't come." "I'm sorry," Marger said. "If I hadn't gone on a business trip, I would have been able to attend your wedding." She looked at Ma Zhe sympathetically, and nodded seriously after watching for a long time. "He drank a lot that day and vomited as soon as he got home." She turned her head to look for something in the house, and after searching for a while, she pointed to the place where the color TV was placed. "I just vomited there, a big puddle." She gestured with her hands. Mazhe nodded. "You heard that too?" She asked a little excitedly. "Yes." Marshall replied. "I've heard that too." She couldn't help smiling slightly, and then continued to ask: "Who did you listen to?" "Many people say that." Ma Zhe said in a low voice. "Really?" She was a little surprised. "What else did they say?" "No more." Ma Zhe shook his head. "Didn't say anything?" she asked, still hopeful. "No." She stopped talking, turned her head to look at the place where her husband had vomited, a shy smile appeared on her face.Then she turned to Marger, "Didn't they tell you about our biting apples?" "No." So her eyes searched the room again, and then she pointed to the chandelier and said, "It's there." Ma Zhe looked up and saw the tea-colored chandelier like a lotus flower in full bloom.There is still a short piece of white thread dangling from the chandelier. "The thread is still there," she said. "But it was much longer at that time, and I tore it off later. They hung an apple there for us to bite at the same time." Speaking of this, she smiled at Ma Zhe. "My husband just vomited, but they still refused to let him go, and he must be bitten." Then she fell into deep thought, and her pale face began to turn slightly red. At this moment, Ma Zhe heard the sound of chaotic footsteps downstairs.The voice began to climb up the stairs.He knew that the funeral of the dead was over and the mourners had returned. She heard that voice too.At first she didn't pay attention, then she frowned and listened carefully.Then the expression on her face changed drastically, as if she was slowly remembering something that had been forgotten for many years. Ma Zhe stood up quietly at this time, and when he walked to the door, he saw an urn held in his hand.He turned sideways and let them go in one by one.Then he walked slowly downstairs, and when he reached the street, he still didn't hear the heart-piercing cry he thought he was going to hear. When he got to the pier, he saw Xiao Li jumping ashore from the motorboat and walking towards him. "Do you still remember that person named Xu Liang?" Xiao Li asked. "What's wrong?" Ma Zhe immediately became alert. "He committed suicide." "When?" Ma Zhe was surprised. "Just yesterday."