Animal Detective

Chapter 280 - 240: Catch the Thief, Seize the Goods

The Lankou Town Police Station wasn’t very large.

Neither was the interrogation room.

Shen Xin leaned against the wall in a corner, silently observing the man, Zhang Fan.

"Officer, I really didn’t steal that dog."

"That night... I forget the exact date. I remember I was heading home from work. I’d bought half a roasted duck, and I hadn’t gone far before this Golden Retriever started following me."

"It barked at me and circled around me. I figured it must be hungry, so I gave it the duck head."

"After it finished eating, it just wouldn’t leave me alone. It kept following me."

"I thought to myself, ’Whose dog is this? How’d it get out on its own?’ It’s a Golden Retriever wearing a collar, so it was obviously a pet. I even took it around and asked people nearby."

"Everyone said they’d never seen it before. What was I supposed to do? It kept following me, and, well, I have a soft spot for animals, so I took it home to look after it."

"As for why I sold it... mainly, it ate way too much. Oh, right, and it was destructive. It tore up my place. So I figured, I might as well sell it, right? Make a bit of cash."

"Officer, I admit I was in the wrong. I should have tried harder to find the owner. And when I ran into that young woman, I got a little greedy and didn’t give the dog back to her right away."

"How about this: I’ll apologize to her, and I’ll pay for her phone. Okay?"

Zhang Fan sounded perfectly justified.

When people panic—like Zhang Fan had earlier when Shen Xin hit him with three questions in a row and he didn’t know how to respond—their minds go blank. In a state of extreme panic, a person is capable of anything.

But once they calm down, they can instantly weave a web of lies to conceal their anxiety.

That’s why the Criminal Investigation Division sometimes conducts surprise interrogations right at the scene of an arrest. The fear is that if you put a suspect in a squad car and take them back to the station for a formal interview, they’ll have the entire ride to calm down and invent a story to tell the police.

Evidently, Zhang Fan had already prepared his script.

And at first blush, it sounded truly ironclad.

The girl’s Golden Retriever had been missing for nearly a month. With that much time having passed, Zhang Fan could make up whatever story he pleased.

He could just claim he found it, and they’d have no way to prove otherwise.

However, the officer who’d taken the case, Zhou Wenyang, wasn’t so easily fooled.

He snorted and shot back, "Then why did you run?"

Zhang Fan glanced at Shen Xin, having clearly cooked up this part of the story on the way over. "I was scared," he said. "I mean, look at him! He’s terrifying! He reached into his pocket and pulled out handcuffs. I think I’ve heard that people go to jail for stealing dogs."

"I was afraid he was going to arrest me. I was just so scared, my mind went fuzzy and I bolted. But it’s not like I actually got away, is it?"

He pointed at Shen Xin.

Shen Xin thought, ’Who’s terrifying?’

Still, the explanation was just barely plausible.

Zhou Wenyang said, "You’re from Yanling, aren’t you? Where do you live? How do you ’find’ a dog all the way out here in Nanjiang?"

Zhang Fan’s expression flickered.

Apparently, while concocting his story to fool the police, he had forgotten to consider the most basic details.

For instance, where the girl was from and where she lived. The dog must have been lost near her home, but he had no idea where that was.

Besides, he was from Yanling.

The dog couldn’t possibly have run dozens of kilometers all the way to Yanling to get lost.

Zhang Fan subconsciously wiped a bead of nervous sweat from his forehead. He shook his head and said, "I wouldn’t know about that. All I know is I found him near my house. Maybe someone else brought him over there."

Zhou Wenyang slammed his hand on the table and barked, "Zhang Fan, do you really think we’re going to believe that?"

"Well, I’m telling the truth."

Zhang Fan muttered, then added, "Besides, she has the dog back now. If you’re going to insist I stole it, you’ll need to show some proof. You can’t just frame an innocent man."

Zhou Wenyang started to speak again, but Shen Xin stopped him with a soft cough and a meaningful glance. The two of them stepped outside.

Shen Xin said, "Brother Zhou, let’s start with mediation for now."

Zhou Wenyang gave Shen Xin a surprised look.

If they went with mediation, the dog theft issue would be dropped.

After a moment’s hesitation, Zhou Wenyang said, "Fine."

He figured Shen Xin just didn’t want to bother with it anymore.

After all, it wasn’t a major case, and it would be difficult to find evidence proving the dog was actually stolen.

Shen Xin knew what Zhou Wenyang was thinking. "Brother Zhou," he said, "I only said we should start with mediation. I never said we were dropping the case. There’s more going on with this guy."

As the saying goes, you have to catch a thief with the stolen goods.

Back in the day, the anti-pickpocketing squad had to wait for a thief to make their move before pouncing. You absolutely had to have evidence.

In a situation like the present one, the girl’s dog had been missing for almost a month. Too much time had passed.

If there were, say, surveillance footage of Zhang Fan forcing the dog into his car, the case would be simple. They could definitively charge him with theft.

But there was no such evidence.

That’s why Zhang Fan, having realized this, was so brazen, spouting a stream of nonsensical lies.

He was sticking to his story about finding it, and to prove him wrong, they needed evidence.

The guy had been incredibly arrogant during their earlier confrontation. He clearly wasn’t the timid, trouble-averse type who would spill his guts at the first sign of intimidation.

Shen Xin had the video from Yu Dalin.

It showed both his car and him.

At the time, besides Chen Fang and her husband, two other young men were moving the cages.

One of them was Zhang Fan.

But it led to the same problem: they hadn’t yet proven that Chen Fang was involved in anything illegal, so how could they use that to prove Zhang Fan was?

He could easily claim he was just there to transport some goods.

From his conversation with Li Dian, Shen Xin had a growing suspicion that this was part of something much bigger.

Even if they got concrete proof that Zhang Fan had stolen the dog, it was still just a single Golden Retriever. What could they really do to him?

But it might alert the people behind him.

So, Shen Xin decided to take a step back. He would first get a clear picture of the entire operation, and only make his move once he had solid evidence.

They knew who he was now. It wasn’t like he could just disappear.