Chapter 25: Is This Criminal Being a Bit Too Cautious?
“There’s an 80% probability, which is quite high...”
Bear Beibei hesitated for a moment as he was undressing, then looked at Shen Ting.
“When you say 80%, is that on a scale of ten? Don’t tell me it’s out of a hundred!”
“Out of ten!”
“That’s good then! I can’t wait any longer—I’ll go in first to help the divers scout the area.”
In no time, Bear Beibei had stripped off his clothes. Although the midday sun was strong, it was still winter and the temperature was quite low. Yet Beibei didn’t seem to feel the cold at all. After stretching a bit, he dove headfirst into the pond.
“Look at him...”
Shen Ting watched in confusion as Beibei submerged to the bottom of the pond, then glanced at Xu Xinyi beside him.
Xu Xinyi, however, seemed unbothered, calm as ever:
“That’s just his temperament. Don’t mind him; just let him be.”
Beibei repeatedly surfaced for air while diving, and after several minutes, he looked toward Shen Ting on the shore:
“Nothing! Even though the Hummer is so big, even if you can’t see clearly at the bottom, you should at least be able to feel it, right?”
Shen Ting smiled and said,
“This time, it’s not so certain you’ll find it. The criminal likely dug a pit at the bottom of the pond and buried the Hummer.”
A pit at the bottom?
Bear Beibei and Xu Xinyi exchanged doubtful looks.
If that were true, the criminal was being overly cautious.
Shen Ting, based on the slightly lower riverbank, the presence of silt, and the typical arm length of an excavator, roughly estimated where the excavator might have been positioned years ago and the range of its arm’s reach.
He tossed a stone into the pond and said,
“About here. If you want to keep searching, look around this area. But just groping around won’t work—you’ll need to dig into the silt. If we had a high-powered spotlight to illuminate the bottom, it would be much easier.”
“I’ll try again!”
Bear Beibei dove back under the water.
But after more than ten minutes, he found nothing—only his hands were covered in black muck and smelled foul.
He gave up and climbed ashore to dress.
“No luck?” Xu Xinyi asked curiously.
“No, nothing at all,” Beibei shook his head. “The bottom’s too dark. I was just poking around blindly. I can’t really say what’s going on down there. We’ll have to wait for professional divers.”
The three waited silently. After another ten minutes, the divers finally arrived.
Shen Ting exchanged brief words with them and pointed out the key search areas.
Several of the divers were already familiar with the Luo River kidnapping case, some having even participated in the investigation. Their expressions showed some skepticism.
But after a quick discussion, they suited up and entered the water.
With their powerful spotlights, the once murky pond was brightly illuminated. Near the shore, Shen Ting and the others could even see the pond’s bottom from above.
No matter the case, underwater salvage usually takes a lot of time.
Shen Ting and the others sat on the shore, waiting again.
But unexpectedly, after barely over ten minutes underwater, one diver suddenly exclaimed:
“Looks like there really is a car! And just like Shen Ting said, it’s buried in the silt.”
The three onshore sprang to their feet immediately.
“What’s the exact situation down there?”
“Did you find it?”
“Did you really find it?”
Shen Ting was excited.
Bear Beibei and Xu Xinyi were incredulous.
The divers came ashore, looking at Shen Ting in shock:
“The bottom isn’t too complicated. It’s just so dark because of the pollution. But with the spotlight, we can basically see clearly. We dug into the silt within the area you circled... Ahem, to be honest, we were a bit ashamed. None of us thought you’d find the Hummer here and initially dismissed your suggestion. But then all our detectors suddenly went off. We detected metal beneath the silt. We dug it up and hit something hard, very likely steel—the Hummer’s roof. The size of the detector’s signal matches the Hummer, a bit larger than an ordinary car.”
The other divers also looked at Shen Ting in disbelief.
“Brother, how did you pinpoint the car’s location?”
“You even knew it was buried in silt?”
“And how was your estimate so accurate? We’ve never had a search go this smoothly or easily before.”
Bear Beibei and Xu Xinyi were the most stunned.
They had been with Shen Ting all these days. This guy seemed like he was just sightseeing around, yet he actually found the Hummer?
Suppressing their shock, Xu Xinyi immediately took out his phone to contact Zheng Yuanqiao:
“Captain Zheng, the divers have detected what appears to be the Hummer at the bottom of the pond, but it’s buried in silt, and we can’t get it out. Please arrange for an excavator and crane as soon as possible!”
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