National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1060 - 993 Pickpocket

Chapter 1060: Chapter 993 Pickpocket

After a brief and rapid discussion of Wang Futing’s situation, Jiang Yuan turned to Zhang Xiaoya and said, "We still need to wait for the result of Wang Futing’s interrogation. If you wish to participate, you can follow us to the case handling center and communicate with the police officer responsible for the interrogation to see how we can make Wang Futing let down his guard."

"What about bloodstain analysis?" Zhang Xiaoya could not be easily deceived by Jiang Yuan’s information; her day-to-day job involved discerning the truth from the words of a group of executives.

Jiang Yuan took a glance at Zhang Xiaoya, then said, "Bloodstain analysis involves using bloodstains to deduce and simulate in an attempt to figure out exactly what happened at the crime scene. This process will inevitably touch upon the state your brother was in at the time. I think it would be unnecessary for you to listen; it’s going to be very cruel."

"I want to hear it," insisted Zhang Xiaoya.

Jiang Yuan hesitated for a bit before saying, "You don’t need to listen."

"I agree too. Director Zhang, please step aside for a moment," Huang Qiangmin, although not quite understanding Jiang Yuan’s thoughts, was certain to cooperate with Jiang Yuan, and he also couldn’t afford to offend Zhang Xiaoya, so he could only step forward.

Zhang Xiaoya was quite surprised by this, but she didn’t want to really conflict with the special case team, so she could only instruct them to keep good records before leaving.

After escorting her out, Huang Qiangmin came back, took a breath and said to Jiang Yuan, "That was too dangerous. It was good that she was reasonable. If we met someone who wasn’t, we could have been in trouble."

"But the content of the bloodstain analysis really isn’t suitable for her to hear," said Jiang Yuan.

With this, Tao Lu and the others all looked towards Jiang Yuan. Tao Lu asked, "Have you discovered something?"

"Looking at the crime scene and the previous photos, the murder process was very brief. The distribution of bloodstains suggests that some activity bloodstains were covered by miscellaneous objects, while others landed on top of them, so I’ve traced a clear timeline..." Jiang Yuan briefly explained, then went straight to his conclusion, "From the crime scene, the murderer’s motive seems more like theft rather than murder."

Tao Lu spoke in a heavy voice, "Burglary?"

"Possibly," Jiang Yuan sighed, "After entering the victim’s room, the perpetrator seems to have been rummaging for items at first. Then the victim entered the room and was stabbed to death on the spot. After that, the perpetrator did not leave immediately but searched through the items again before leaving."

Cui Qishan was astonished: "I wonder if the previous special case team had thoroughly investigated this angle."

"The investigation definitely took place, but I guess it didn’t yield any results," Tao Lu said conjecturally, but her guess was very likely.

In the late 1990s, public security was generally bad, many places lacked even streetlights, let alone surveillance; installing them wouldn’t help either as clarity and storage space were issues.

"So, there is a possibility of burglary followed by accidental homicide here," Jiang Yuan paused, then continued, "The crime took place in the morning; those who dare to commit burglary at this time are usually quite confident, and probably habitual thieves. If the special case team had considered this possibility and compared the habits of local habitual thieves, then this case becomes very difficult—it could have been the work of a master thief from outside the region."

The term ’master thief from outside the region’ refers to skilled thieves from out of town. Their techniques are solid, and their behavior patterns are unfamiliar to local police, making them almost impossible to catch in an era without surveillance and mobile phones.

Itinerant criminals have always been very challenging to manage, which is why a strict hukou (household registration) system was established in the early days. The hukou system acted as a way to control territory; without this system, not only would the police struggle, but many governmental management measures would fail.

"No wonder you asked Director Zhang to leave," Cui Qishan suddenly understood.

As a family member of the victim, Zhang Xiaoya naturally hoped her brother’s death had significance, even if it was because he offended someone due to factory reforms and was stabbed to death; this she could accept. If it was due to a family reason that he was stabbed to death, it would be even easier to come to terms with.

To be senselessly murdered, or just randomly stabbed to death during a theft, was as void as a cockroach being crushed - such an answer might be even harder for the Zhang Family to accept. Just thinking about it felt offensive.

Tao Lu coughed twice, "Are you the only one with a mouth, the only one who can talk?"

"No, no..." Cui Qishan quickly explained and then changed the subject, "Tao, you think the same, right? You mean not to say it out loud..."

Tao Lu made a ’hiss’ sound and stared sharply at Cui Qishan, "You’re clenching tight when analyzing the case but speaking so freely when throwing around remarks."

...

With more and more people of high standing being imprisoned, an increasing number of former special case team members are returning.

By the end of the 90s, the core members of the special case team, who were once in their prime, are now either in high positions or have retired.

As for the young lads who were green at the time, they are still relatively strong and vigorous as seniors and have revisited the special case team several times. When they talk about the cases, they know them inside out.

However, understanding the case of the day isn’t difficult; what is extremely challenging is going through the details to find a suitable suspect.

In the meeting room of the Criminal Police Brigade of Zhengguang Bureau, more and more people gathered, yet the case seemed to be at a standstill.

Tao Lu’s smiles were more of a facade now, even to the point where it seemed like his skin was disassociating from it. Many former members of the special case team had become officers at the Beijing Bureau, holding not insignificant ranks at the sub-bureaus, always expecting a certain amount of respect from Tao Lu.

On the other hand, the constantly assembling special case team was a huge pressure for Tao Lu.

This case was previously managed by a special case team organized by the Beijing Bureau, its level virtually at its peak. Now that it was handled by the Criminal Police Brigade under Zhengguang Sub-bureau, one might think the case was banished to oblivion.

Only those within the bureau knew that Zhengguang Bureau was almost at the point of selling its pants.

Duanda had been bloodily cleansed to the bone.

The corporate sector of the listed company had been thoroughly swept clean with a broom, not to mention those commercially vigorous staff with backgrounds. Even the regular recruits from prestigious universities who, over the years, were involved in dirty money, engaged in unfair competition, played by unwritten rules, and ran their own side businesses, etc., had been arrested by the Economic Investigation Department down to the last one.

Once it involves criminal cases, the methods employed by the police are on a completely different dimension from those used by corporations.

As for the unlucky ones related to the Jianmen Court case, there were also Duanda’s upstream and downstream enterprises, especially those with Duanda’s shares or in which Duanda had invested; they were the focus of the second round of thorough inspections.

The key was that this investigation did turn up some problematic individuals.

Speaking of which, how could capital enterprises close to money not have any problems? They didn’t expect to face an investigation of this level. And the true "Duanda people," originally bold and daring, were even less scrupulous in their actions.

It was tough for the investigators, capturing a whole string of them, and then conducting further interrogations about Jianmen Court—Zhengguang Bureau still hadn’t restarted the special case team for Jianmen Court, but most of a sub-bureau’s manpower had been drawn into this case.

The basement interrogation center was even stacked with salty soda, indicating that the leaders were truly investing at any cost.

It could be said that on the two directions proposed by Jiang Yuan back in the day, Zhengguang Bureau had already poured a massive amount of resources into the first path.

However, the breakthrough happened on the second path.

After Zhang Xiaoya sent people to analyze the pros and cons with Wang Futing in-depth, and Wang Futing pondered overnight and made several demands, he finally let out, "At that time, I was responsible for receiving someone at Jianmen Court, but I don’t know who he was."

Wang Futing’s words excited thousands of men and hundreds of ladies.

The interrogation records and videos were also sent to Jiang Yuan and others at once.

In the video, Wang Futing, holding a cigarette and looking somewhat resigned yet rebellious, slouched in his chair, saying:

"I was paid 500 yuan to just unlock the door, no need to care about anything else."

"While I was unlocking the lock on the drawer, I was a bit out of it when the person came up and stabbed the homeowner to death. Honestly, in that era, I followed and saw several bodies with Boss Pan, who liked to sink bodies in the river... So, I knew at a glance that the man was a goner."

"The money man told me to touch the corpse. I was young at the time and still wanted to pickpocket some money. We had an agreement that any found jewelry and cash would be split fifty-fifty, and anything locked would be divided forty-sixty, me with the bigger share. I thought I could get a little more for the stuff I found on the body. Turns out he didn’t want to get his hands bloody. In the end, we found nothing valuable, just a few hundred yuan in cash—I thought the boss made a loss this time."

"Afterwards we climbed over the wall to escape; that guy was wearing gloves. He also had a grappling hook, just able to pull himself up the wall. I was young and thought it was some exotic weapon and wanted to learn, but he just brushed me off. Later on, we split up the money and went our separate ways. Thinking that someone had died, I went away to hide for a while."