The Web of Deception

"Did you strangle the victim from the front or the back?"

"I... I need to think. The scene was so chaotic, I can't quite remember. I think... I think it was from behind."

The two interrogation officers exchanged a glance, one of them saying, "Think it over again."

"Then... then it must have been from the front," Zhang Chao stammered, panic evident in his voice, his whole body trembling with fear.

"Where did you put the rope you used for the crime?"

"I... threw it outside? In the trash? No, maybe not. After I killed him, I was terrified. I drank some alcohol, and now my head still hurts, my mind is a blur. I can't remember many details... How could I have just strangled someone to death? I... I never meant to kill him..." He pressed his hands to his head, softly sobbing.

...

A prosecutor from the city's investigation and supervision department paused the video projection and looked at the police officers across from him. Then, addressing everyone in the room, he said, "The interrogation footage clearly shows that the Lower City Police Criminal Investigation Team engaged in inducement."

The officers sat uneasily, their faces full of anxiety. In front of them stood officials from the Provincial Public Security Bureau, the City Police Department, and the Prosecutor's Office, all of whom made them feel like a group of guilty students who had been caught in the act.

Zhao Tiemin cleared his throat and asked, "Do you have any objections?"

The head of the criminal team hesitated for a few seconds before bravely answering, "I think... I think we didn't induce a confession. This was a standard interrogation."

"Induced?" The prosecutor snorted, looking at the materials in his hands. "During your interrogation of Zhang Chao, when you asked him whether he strangled the victim from the front or from the back, and he said he couldn't remember, you suggested that it must have been from the front. And when he couldn't recall details about the crime tools and the time of the crime, you allowed him to claim he didn't remember. But eventually, his confession had all these clear, specific details. Isn't it obvious that you had him write down the details based on the crime scene?"

The team leader was speechless, unable to respond. After Zhang Chao was arrested, he confessed to the murder, but some details remained unclear, which was perfectly natural. After all, in a state of panic and fear, it was normal for someone to forget certain things, especially after drinking. The police had investigated the crime scene and Zhang Chao did not raise any objections to the findings, and ultimately, he willingly wrote out a confession.

At the time of the confession, Zhang Chao was cooperative, and when he couldn't recall details, the police naturally reminded him based on the situation at the scene. This was standard practice in any interrogation. No one could have expected that Zhang Chao, despite confessing to the murder, would deliberately pretend to forget details, allowing the police to suggest the information. When the case went to trial, and the prosecutor obtained the interrogation footage, it was clear that the interrogation process had become an unassailable case of "inducement."

The officers felt they had been trapped by Zhang Chao from the very beginning.

The prosecutor scrutinized the group of silent officers and suddenly asked sternly, "Tell me honestly, after Zhang Chao was arrested, did you ever use torture to extract a confession?"

"No, absolutely not!" The team leader blurted out immediately.

The other officers quickly echoed his words. There could be no ambiguity on this issue. Moreover, they knew deep down that they hadn't tortured Zhang Chao. In fact, Zhang Chao had been cooperative from the moment he was arrested. Given the nature of the case, which appeared to be a crime of passion, they believed he could be forgiven, and so no coercive interrogation techniques had been used. After the initial investigation, they sent Zhang Chao to the detention center and gave him a single-cell isolation. Although he had been interrogated a few more times afterward, it was only to verify simple details. They could honestly say that Zhang Chao had never been mistreated in any way. To now be accused of torturing him was a cruel irony.

The prosecutor's expression was unreadable as he looked at the others. After a long pause, he said, "As for whether there was any torture involved, we will conduct further investigation. But for now, it's clear that inducement was present. There were procedural violations."

The officers could not argue further. The prosecutor dismissed them and directed specialized personnel to speak with them privately.

The team rose silently, dejectedly moving toward the door. At the threshold, the team leader suddenly turned and faced the many officials. He exclaimed, "I swear we did not torture Zhang Chao! You can arrange for him to confront us directly. I am certain that he was involved in the case. He set us up! Even if he's overturned the case now, I am sure he was involved!"

After the preliminary meeting with the task force, the team leader, Zhao Tiemin, returned to his office, staring at the pile of documents in front of him. Among them were Zhang Chao's flight tickets, airport boarding records, accommodation logs from Beijing, facial recognition reports from surveillance footage, and witness statements about his meetings with clients in Beijing. All of these indicated that Zhang Chao was in Beijing during the time of the victim's death, with no opportunity to commit the crime.

Zhang Chao insisted he had not killed anyone. The reason he had been carrying a suitcase containing Jiang Yang's body was that when he returned to Hangzhou on the morning of March 2, he went to find Jiang Yang. They both had keys to the apartment. When no one answered the door, Zhang Chao unlocked it himself. Inside, he discovered the large suitcase on the floor, which contained Jiang Yang's body. Terrified and panicked, Zhang Chao checked the apartment. The locks were undamaged, the windows closed—only he and Jiang Yang had keys. Given their recent disputes and the fact that they had fought just days before, Zhang Chao feared that if he called the police, they would suspect him of the murder. Overwhelmed by fear, he drank heavily, and in his disoriented state, he decided to dispose of the body.

But if this was the truth, then why had he confessed earlier?

Zhao Tiemin initially suspected that the police had coerced Zhang Chao into a confession due to the social pressure surrounding the case, fabricating details of his confession to close the case quickly. However, after preliminary investigations, he learned that not only did the Lower City Criminal Investigation Team deny any coercion, but the police who had visited Zhang Chao at the detention center also confirmed that Zhang Chao himself admitted there had been no torture.

If no torture had been involved, why had Zhang Chao confessed only to later retract his statement?

According to Zhang Chao, it was because he had been subjected to an overwhelming, invisible pressure during the interrogation.

Psychological pressure—this was his explanation.

This answer would be enough to bring the majority of terminally ill patients to confess their final wishes before passing away. Even Zhao Tiemin, a seasoned officer, felt a pang of inner pain.

Now, Zhao Tiemin faced a difficult task. The task force's immediate priority was to investigate whether the police had engaged in torture, but more importantly, they needed to uncover the truth behind Jiang Yang's murder and catch the real killer.

If the true killer was not caught, and Jiang Yang's death remained a mystery, could the public believe that the confession had been genuine despite Zhang Chao's subsequent retraction? Would the higher-ups accept that no coercion had been used? Could the judicial system, on a national scale, accept this?

The most pressing issue was to uncover the truth and find the real killer.