"In the safety deposit box vault, there were a total of seventeen safety deposit boxes that was opened." Peng Xin pointed at the information written on the whiteboard and said, "The bank worked really hard, and there were ten owners that came to retrieve their lost items, but…what's weird is that none of them lost anything. Even though their boxes were broken into, nothing was taken! I think Yu can share something with us regarding this!" The detectives looked towards Zhao Yu, but he waved.
"Hold on, Little Zhao!" Liang Huan gave him a thumbs up and said, "Wait until we close this case, and I will conduct a mini auction for your two-hundred thousand old notes. You will gain a fortune from that!"
"Peng," Xiao Liu suddenly raised his hand and asked, "did the bank give out the items in a hurry? Are the items in the boxes correct? Why did they claim them so quickly? What if there was a mistake?"
"This is the bank's emergency mechanism. There were valuable personal goods in the safety deposit boxes. The bank had to take care of their customers. If not, it would severely affect their reputation! Regarding claiming the wrong items, you should ask Zhao Yu!" Peng Xin threw the ball to Zhao Yu again.
Zhao Yu nodded and answered, "That's easy. It's like claiming your lost wallet! The bank needs to verify three things: first, keys; second, password; third, to describe the items in the box in detail before you can claim them. When they open the box and everything matches, they give you the items! If it doesn't, they won't give you anything!"
"Oh…" Everyone understood the process.
Pen Xin said, "But besides the box that was used to store the corpse, there were six boxes left that have yet to be claimed. Among the six, there were items from two or three boxes that were damaged. They were removed and thrown on the ground!" She continued, "The boxes were opened without any logic or pattern, as though they were opened randomly."
"This is so annoying," Li Beini said. "It's been so long, but we don't even know what the robber took?!"
"Peng, what's the update for the six boxes that were not claimed?" Miao Ying asked.
"The bank tried to get in touch with the six owners, but the contact details are all false!" Peng Xin replied, "I guess these items are probably illegal!"
"Regardless of the situation, we have to find them. We have to find out what is missing!" Miao Ying pleaded.
"Yes, we are on it!" Peng Xin then continued and zoomed in on a photo. "Look, this is the internal structure of the safety deposit box. Although it is solid, there was a hidden unlock button located three inches to the right of the lock. This is to prevent the box from being locked if it malfunctioned. The door could still be open if there was a hard knock on the secret unlock button!
"This secret unlock button was only made known to a few high-ranking architects of the manufacturing company. It is classified information. Even the bank managers were not informed, let alone the ordinary attendants! But surprisingly, the robbers were familiar with it. All seventeen boxes were opened with one hard knock! That's why the bank manager that had on a mask said that there was not much movement!"
Amazing! Zhao Yu nodded. No wonder the robbers were not easy to deal with. They were really experts at this. But because of that, Zhao Yu had a new idea. Because there were not many experts in this field, he might be able to find something if he found the right person to ask about it.
"Team Leader Miao and fellow colleagues," Peng Xin continued, "over these two days, we have listed all the items in the safe deposit boxes that were broken into. Even though the boxes weren't huge, there was a large variety of items, such as gold, jewellery, accessories, and different kinds of notes. Whatever valuable items you can think of were all in there.
"There were only three robbers that got into the vault, and from the surveillance camera in the bank hall, they only brought two backpacks. From comparing before and after footage on the surveillance camera, the backpacks didn't look any different! The robbers didn't seem to have put a lot of things into the backpacks. So, we thought that they must've taken items that were light and expensive. That way it'd be easy for them to escape, and also make a big profit from it!"
"Mm…" Liu suddenly raised his hands and said, "Peng, I think that they did not just take lightweight and valuable items, but that they took from one or two boxes only! Their aim was very precise! They were already sure that the owners weren't going to claim their lost items! That's why we are so confused about what was stolen!" Liu's analysis won applause and agreement from his colleagues.
"That made sense," Miao Ying agreed. "They opened the other boxes just to mess with us. The robbers already knew what they wanted to steal from the very beginning! That's weird, what on earth did they steal?"
"Everyone, please don't forget about the corpse!" Zhang Jingfeng reminded, "Maybe, the robbers breaking open the safety deposit boxes was to show us the corpse hidden within?"
"Woahhh!" Just when Zhang Jingfeng finished talking, Zhao Yu jumped up and pointed at Peng Xin as he asked, "Peng…Peng, you…did you just say that the robbers only brought two backpacks into the vault? And the backpacks looked the same before and after entering the vault? Not carrying many things?"
"Yeah?!" Peng Xin was confused. The other police detectives did not understand as well.
"F*ck!" Zhao Yu sighed and said mysteriously, "Everyone, these robbers are super cunning!" Zhao Yu stood in front of the whiteboard and said, "They were probably using the backpacks as a cover! In fact, I know they did!
"Before they robbed the bank, they already opened a few other safety deposit boxes anonymously. When they robbed the bank, they broke open their own safety deposit boxes too. Then they moved all the stolen items into their own boxes and escaped to make us think that they were running away with stolen goods!
"But in fact, the things were still in the safety deposit box! They then headed back to the bank to claim their 'lost items' fair and square!" Zhao Yu's theory left everyone's mouth hanging open. If it was really so, these robbers had a really high IQ.
"Oh my God. No wonder they covered the bank manager's eyes!" someone agreed.
"Wait…" Peng Xin pondered for a while and said, "No, Zhao Yu! We've thought about this. Although they would know what was inside the safe deposit boxes, if they opened their safety deposit boxes during the robbery, the bank would have known as it would've been recorded on the digital key code system.
"Yeah!" Liu Xueshan continued, "On top of that, the bank stopped operating when it got robbed! If the robbers did touch the other safety deposit boxes, we could investigate right now!"
"No!!!" Miao Ying suddenly shouted. She said excitedly with her eyes wide open, "Sh*t! We forgot the most important question!"
"Huh? What? What is the important question?" Zhao Yu stunned and asked.
"We forgot about those…those boxes that were opened without losing anything!" Miao Ying pointed at Zhao Yu and said, "Just like your two-hundred thousand that was still in the box! The robbers could easily move the items from the other boxes into their own, just like yours!"
"Huh?" Zhao Yu finally understood and he felt a shiver go down his spine. "You mean, the robbers broke open the other boxes and their own as well. Then they moved the stolen items into their own. After that, they went through the claim procedure of the bank and took the items just like that. Oh my God…"
"Yes! Didn't you say just now that there are three things: key, password, and a description of the items in the box." Miao Ying held her fist and said, "Of course the robbers would know what is inside."
"It can't be!" The idea took Peng Xin's breath away, and she said, "Does it mean that the real robbers have already appeared in front of us a couple of times? They were among the ten owners who claimed their lost items?"
"No! No! Nine of them!" Zhao Yu clarified, "You can't count me!"