National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1020 - 955 Dawn_2

Chapter 1020: Chapter 955 Dawn_2

Jiang Yuan simply pulled over a whiteboard and drew the shape of a keyhole on it, then marked a few dots and said: "We disassembled the lock because, in my opinion, there were too many scratches inside the keyhole, exceeding the level of a normal lock. Of course, this judgment is based on experience... Next, we took a wide range of samples, and then we could see that the presence of various metal elements inside the lock was beyond the normal range."

If a young technician had said this, it would definitely be hard to convince others, but when Jiang Yuan said it, Liu Jinghui immediately followed his line of thought.

"Let me get this straight... The metal elements you mentioned, are they brought in by the key, not originally part of the lock?" Liu Jinghui quickly grasped the important point.

Jiang Yuan nodded: "Elements like chromium and nickel are at least not part of the lock itself. But, there are also no typical traces of technical lock picking inside this lock. So, it can be understood that they were brought in by the key."

"But beyond the normal range? Exceeding what should be the normal range?"

"Exceeding the range of the keys for that lock." Jiang Yuan said, then suddenly slapped his forehead: "Is it a newly made key? But that’s not right, a newly made key wouldn’t leave so many traces..."

"Wait, let me think this through!" Liu Jinghui was very interested in any new clues and thought aloud: "Could it be that the newly made key was actually bigger than the original key, so it probed deeper, and the traces it left were also deeper?"

"Hmm... It’s not entirely like that, but there’s another point: a newly made key is also rougher, and even though the person cutting the key would polish it, if there are many fine grooves and ridges, they can’t be completely smoothed out with careful polishing, so it takes a few tries before it fits better..."

"So someone used a newly made key to open this door?" Liu Jinghui smacked his thigh, feeling like he suddenly understood.

Jiang Yuan had to dampen his enthusiasm, saying: "It’s not that simple. If it was just to open the door once, it shouldn’t have left so many extensive traces. If it’s a newly made key, it might have to be inserted dozens of times, even up to twenty times, to leave so many fine traces, especially the protruding ones, so it feels like a new kind of lock picking tool..."

Jiang Yuan stopped here.

Liu Jinghui urged him: "A new lock picking tool? Doesn’t that make the target more clear?"

"Yes, I’ve been researching this for the past few days. If there is a new lock picking tool, I think the murderer would not be able to resist using it. It’s unlikely they would use it just once and then abandon it." Jiang Yuan said, looking at Liu Jinghui, decided to speak more precisely: "Of course, we can’t rule out that the murderer is just this cautious, but if that’s the case, it’s going to be difficult to find the murderer through the lock picking tool..."

"Have there been any new lock picking tools on the market in recent years?" Liu Jinghui suddenly asked.

"Lock technology has been developing slowly... Well, we can follow this line of thought and check. The murderer might not dare to sell or continue using an old lock picking tool, but might rely on this for a living, specializing in this area, or perhaps starting a company?" Jiang Yuan wasn’t very certain. This condition sounded simple but was actually very broad. In theory, anyone related to the lock industry, the lock picking business, safe businesses, and the emerging electronic lock industry, could be included. This list would either be too large or risk omitting someone and belonged to the kind that even Xu Taining couldn’t narrow down through investigation.

Liu Jinghui puffed on his cigar, constantly exhaling thick smoke.

He was even more aware of the impracticality of Jiang Yuan’s approach. Perhaps they could work backward, first establish a list of suspects, and then see if they have any work direction related to locks, or suspicions and reputations related to theft and breaking and entering...

In fact, even without Jiang Yuan’s reasoning, if a suspect had experience in this area, they would already be specially marked.

And to investigate proactively, linking the murderer to the lock and then looking for the murderer, is also difficult. Because making locks, or to say developing a new kind of lock, isn’t really a profitable trade, and being a burglar obviously isn’t a lifelong career worth clinging to.

In theory, if the murderer really had talent in this area, having made a special new type of lock picking tool that even Jiang Yuan was unsure of 10 years ago, then 10 years later, they might have already made a name for themselves in machinery or some other field and wouldn’t need to showcase their talent in this area.

If the murderer was a contemporary of his daughter from 10 years ago, calculating the time, the murderer would now be just graduating with a bachelor’s degree, perhaps even going to a good school for a master’s degree, and possibly studying an entirely different major thanks to their smart head.

This might be the real truth...

Thinking this, Liu Jinghui vigorously shook his head, put down the cigar, and said: "We can’t consider this direction."

"Huh?" Jiang Yuan was puzzled.

Liu Jinghui: "What I mean is, didn’t we just talk about the newly made key? Compared to inventing an entirely new lock picking tool that you don’t even know about, isn’t the act of making a new key more plausible? Occam’s razor: if there is a simple explanation available, there is no need to resort to a complicated one."

"A newly made key cannot explain the large amount of fine scratches." Jiang Yuan had also been considering this idea for several days now.