Chapter 1088: Mysterious Associates

Although the bonus was estimated to be worth 100 million yuan, everyone from the Special Investigations Team knew that bringing this up was just Li Beini’s attempt to comfort them. How were a few police officers from the Criminal Investigations Team supposed to find a treasure that an entire country’s efforts couldn’t locate over 80 years?

Even without Zhao Yu’s reminder, everyone knew that discovering who had murdered the five experts was their real mission! Only when the murderer was found would it be possible to obtain new clues for the treasure case! At that time, even if it was impossible to actually find the treasure, they could at least give a satisfactory answer to the Secret Services department.

Hence, when the investigations began, the focus of Zhao Yu and the team was on uncovering the truth behind the murders. Their job was to look for the murderer! However, there was an obvious unprecedented difficulty regarding the experts’ murders. Both the bizarre manner of death of the old experts and the confusing motives behind the murder cast shadows of doubt over the case.

According to the data, after Secret Services found out that the deaths of the five experts were potentially murders, a wave of in-depth investigations had been carried out. However, even with their most advanced investigation methods, they were unable to find any obvious leads. You could tell this murderer was of an entirely different class of criminals considering he was able to escape the reach of Secret Services! This would be an even more difficult task for the lower positioned Criminal Investigation Department.

Thinking about it, Zhao Yu felt that if the case were to be solved, they would need to start from the motive for the murders. Only by finding out why the five experts were murdered would they have any hope in finding the killer. The list of names from the thief king was the most important piece of this puzzle. Thus, Zhao Yu turned his gaze to Cui Lizhu.

“Ah? What do you mean?” Cui Lizhu was shocked and hurriedly clasped her hands, trying to defend herself. “Boss, you have to speak with some conscience! I’ve already told you all I know. If there is anything else I’m hiding, may the heavens strike me with lightning five times and allow me to be arrested the minute I open this door!”

“God d*mn it!” Zhao Yu said seriously, frowning. “I’m being serious here! I didn’t mean you hid something and didn’t report it, I’m asking you if there were any details that you could have overlooked? Li Jing is right. After all, you were the closest person in the world to the thief king. Even though he didn’t discuss anything directly with you, if you think back carefully, can you remember if you ignored anything that might be of importance?”

“Well… you… what do you mean by that…?” Cui Lizhu was obviously not taking what Zhao Yu had said well.

“Urgh!” Zhao Yu turned around and looked at the whiteboard. “Actually, I don’t really understand what your job entails. If this was just a petty theft or a small tiff, then maybe we could treat it as a separate crime. But to reach the level of King of Thieves, he must have received some form of help! Xiao Cui, think about it carefully. All those large-scale operations that Tao Xiang participated in, could he really have done it all alone?”

“Are you trying to say he had accomplices?” Cui Lizhu asked, surprised. Her eyes widened.

“Maybe not multiple accomplices…” Zhao Yu said. “Just one very capable accomplice! Xiao Cui, tell me, what’s the most difficult part of a major theft?”

“Well…” Cui Lizhu’s eyes turned red. “Do you actually need me to say this? It’s obviously getting information! If you don’t get real information, then even if you have the skills, you won’t know what you’re stealing!”

“Yes!” Zhao Yu nodded. “With Tao Xiang’s ability, the actual theft itself is not the most difficult part! The most difficult part is how to get detailed and reliable information!”

“Well, so… so…” Cui Lizhu tried hard to recall. She felt as though her blood was boiling.

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“We…” Zhao Yu said to the group, sighing. “We have to look at the big cases that Tao Xiang had committed and analyze them more. If you look at it, doesn’t it seem as though he had a really well-informed accomplice? In addition,” Zhao Yu said, turning to Cui Lizhu. “Write the exact locations where you and Tao Xiang have lived before. I’ll send someone over to them see if he left anything behind.”

“Ah, okay! Oh, right!” Cui Lizhu suddenly remembered something. “In the rented house in Jin Ping, there were some things my father left behind…”

“Alright!” Zhao Yu nodded. “I will inform Li Luoyun later. And…” Zhao Yu patted Cui Lizhu on the shoulder. “I need you to calm down and carefully recall every detail of Tao Xiang and your past life. This time, we have to be even more detailed than we would be when we were looking for gems. You shouldn’t neglect to share even the slightest of expressions and movements! Especially your past with your father in the Golden City! Carefully recall who you were in contact with at that time! Your dad’s accomplices may have entered your sight without your knowledge!”

“Alright, I understand what you mean!” Cui Lizhu nodded vigorously. “Rest assured, I will try my best to recall! Actually, I also suspected that my dad might have some team or accomplices, but he never told me if he did!”

“Yes! From gathering the information to planning out the theft, right up to the final sale, it would be impossible for one person to control the entire operation, even if he were a thief king!” Zhao Yu nodded. “If we can find out more about Tao Xiang’s accomplices, maybe we can figure out what the list of names is all about!”

After Cui Lizhu agreed, she immediately picked up a piece of paper and a pen and began working based on what Zhao Yu had asked of her. Seeing Cui Lizhu’s positive attitude, Li Beini quietly approached Zhao Yu and whispered, “Brother, do you suspect that Tao Xiang’s accomplice is someone within the system? Wouldn’t it be someone in the Secret Services?”

“Whoa, well done Beini!” Zhao Yu complimented her. “It seems like I didn’t choose the wrong person this time! You’re right, I did have such a suspicion. When Tao Xiang was at his peak, he often disappeared unpredictably and carried out one unimaginable theft after another. I feel that if there were no high-profile personnel behind him, he wouldn’t have been able to get away with it! It’s just that I’m not sure whether or not Secret Services was involved!”

“I agree with your judgment! Tao Xiang probably wasn’t alone in his actions. He had a mysterious accomplice in the shadows that he did not even tell Cui Lizhu about,” Li Beini said with serious thought. “Maybe he got the list from his mysterious accomplice. Either they were looking for the treasure, or they were trying to utilize Tao Xiang’s intelligence and wisdom…”

“Beini, these are mere speculations, we still can’t come to any concrete conclusions,” Zhao Yu said, shaking his head. “Actually, if you compare another case to this one and look at them together, we may be able to figure out a rough framework!”

“Oh? Which case?” Li Beini asked.

“The Gemstone Theft Case!” Zhao Yu said as he moved toward a blank whiteboard and began writing words. “Look, before the Tamil Star was stolen, Tao Xiang had always pulled off thefts without a hitch. He frequently committed big thefts from private vaults, museums, diamonds, gold, art… no matter what he stole he didn’t make any mistakes. However, who would have thought that his legacy would come to an end after the gemstone case? The buyer did him dirty and almost cost Tao Xiang his life, injuring his head and causing him to become crazy!” Zhao Yu continued. “The most important point was that in the gemstone case, Tao Xiang suddenly made use of his long-lost senior Li Fei! Beini, have you figured anything out?”

“This…” Li Beini was trying to keep up with Zhao Yu’s ideas but was still one step behind him.

“We can assume that Tao Xiang really had a great acquaintance who could scout for information and help Tao Xiang avoid the police’s eye. If this was the case, in that gemstone case, why would Tao Xiang still need Li Fei’s help?” Zhao Yu asked.

“Oh, something must have gone wrong!” Li Beini suddenly realized. “Either the mysterious acquaintance of Tao Xiang got into trouble, or they broke off the partnership and no longer cooperated! With no other options, Tao Xiang went to Li Fei for help!”

“That’s about it!” Zhao Yu nodded. “I was hoping that it had been because they fought, that way we would at least have some chance to find out who the accomplice was. But if this person is long gone, then the matter of the list of names will be hard to investigate!”

“Ah!!” Li Beini exclaimed, her heart pounding with excitement. “Senior, you said… the list of names was given to Tao Xiang by a mysterious accomplice, and now the murder of the five experts… could it be the same person?!”