The Bodyguard King’s CEO Wife Chapter 1818: Fire Disaster

If this case was just reported today, it means that until yesterday, the missing person had returned to his residence, which is this pipeline right before us. So why isn’t there any mud left behind?

Ye Shikai took out the statement from the person who reported the case. The missing person is a scavenging old man in his sixties who returned to this pipeline yesterday. Because the living conditions were really too rough, the surrounding residents would often bring some daily necessities. But today, they couldn’t find him, which is why someone reported to the police.

"That is really strange, but in an environment like this, anything could happen, right? Like you said earlier, this pipe is at best a windbreaker. If it rained outside, there would definitely be water flowing inside, wouldn’t there?" Zhang Ting retorted.

"That’s possible." Ye Shikai put down what he held. After all, these were just his deductions, without any basis. But that’s a helpless move, as this is the suburbs, where there are no cameras around, and no one even knows a person lived in this abandoned pipeline. Without any leads, he could only rely on reasoning to speculate and then reverse-find evidence to prove the reasoning.

As they spoke, the sky started to rain again, and their clothes soon got wet.

"Hey, let’s go quickly. This rain looks quite heavy." Zhang Ting covered her hair with her hand to avoid getting soaked by the rain.

"Wait a moment, we can just use this to experiment." Ye Shikai took out two umbrellas from the storage and handed one to Zhang Ting.

"What are you going to do?"

"Yesterday’s rain was about the same as now. We can just simulate how this pipeline would behave in the rain." Ye Shikai explained.

"Look."

The surrounding is muddy land, the rain is considerable, causing the soil here to turn into sludge. The two held umbrellas, watching the pipeline entrance attentively.

Rain mixed with mud turned into sludge, flowed down from the slope, and splattered rain quickly formed puddles. Just when the two thought the water would flow into the pipeline, the puddles and sludge followed the stones at the entrance and flowed downwards. The inside remained intact.

Only at this moment did Ye Shikai realize that the stones at the entrance were deliberately placed in such a way, likely for drainage, to prevent water accumulation inside the pipeline. Of course, some water did flow inside, but only a small amount, certainly not enough to wash away the muddy footprints quickly.

"These stones must have been placed by that scavenging old man to prevent water accumulation in the pipeline." Saying this, Ye Shikai’s previous guess wasn’t wrong, so how did the muddy footprints inside disappear?

"Could it be that the scavenging old man wiped them away himself?" Zhang Ting asked in return.

"How could someone living in a pipeline be that fastidious? The only explanation is that someone didn’t want us to see these footprints because... when kidnapping the scavenging old man, the invader’s shoes must have also left footprints. That would certainly become an important clue, so the intruder erased the footprints before leaving." Hearing Ye Shikai say this, Zhang Ting suddenly understood. Everything seemed to make sense. If that’s true, it must be an organized crime, and it was premeditated.

"There are now over twenty reported cases. If this really is a series of disappearances, then the criminal must have also cleared all traces at other residences."

"Alright, I’ll get someone to check immediately." Zhang Ting said excitedly.

Ring Ring Ring

At this moment, Zhang Ting’s phone suddenly rang, but Ye Shikai didn’t mind. He looked around, hoping to find some more clues.

Ye Shikai can now determine that the missing old man was kidnapped here, but he really can’t understand the criminal’s motive. Who would kidnap a bunch of beggars and scavengers? They have no money, and if it’s for labor, that might make sense. But most of these old men are in their sixties or seventies, where would they have the strength? If it’s human trafficking, it doesn’t make sense either. Who would abduct old people?

"Something’s wrong, something’s wrong." Zhang Ting shouted loudly.

"What exactly is wrong, why are you so excited?" Ye Shikai asked in return.

"Just got the news, there’s a big fire in the slum area, and some of the missing persons’ residences are right there."

"A big fire, are you sure? The rain is almost forming puddles." Ye Shikai looked at the sky, how could there be a big fire in this weather?

"It happened just before the rain started, the fire was large. The firefighters arrived, and with this heavy rain, they just put it out now. My colleague called me." Zhang Ting explained.

"Not good, we need to go check it out quickly." Ye Shikai felt a bit uneasy, this fire came too suddenly with many questionable points.

"Okay, let’s hurry."

Two hours later.

"Damn traffic jam." Zhang Ting couldn’t help but curse, it’s currently the evening rush hour, and the slum area is too far from their location, plus the rain is affecting the speed. So... they’re unfortunately stuck on the road.

"Alright, stop cursing, save some energy." Ye Shikai said calmly, it was an inevitable situation. Yanjing traffic is like this, even if they didn’t meet a huge jam, it would take an hour or two to get there. They are temporarily unable to reach the scene. Ye Shikai leaned back on the passenger seat, carefully pondering these cases, if this is a series of disappearances, there must be a connection, perhaps they missed it.

"Do you want something to eat?" Zhang Ting grabbed a piece of bread from the back seat and handed it to him.

"Thank you."

"I think the fire must be man-made." Zhang Ting suddenly said.

"I have the same feeling, maybe they left evidence, so they wanted to set a fire to destroy it." Ye Shikai agreed. The slum area itself isn’t strictly managed, if a fire breaks out, most people wouldn’t think of arson.

"But we can’t get there now. Looking at this traffic, it might be evening when we arrive."

"Don’t worry, I’ve already asked colleagues to protect the scene, hopefully, this fire didn’t destroy any clues."

Two hours later.

"Ting, you guys came too late." As the two arrived at the scene, a female cop hurried over.

"How’s the situation?"

"Not very good. Among the disappearances we’re investigating, three of them lived in this area. But now it’s already become ruins of ashes." The female cop pointed to the charred houses behind.

Hearing this news, Ye Shikai dashed into the scene. If his guess was right, there should be clues here, just not sure if they were burned away.