National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1061 - 994: Flying Claw

Chapter 1061: Chapter 994: Flying Claw

Wang Futing’s interrogation video was very long, replayed many times, and quite complex, even tiring for viewers.

The interrogators also made significant efforts, providing Wang Futing with nearly two packs of cigarettes.

Holding a cigarette and talking about death was regarded as the last romance for male prisoners.

Latterly, the leaders of the sub-bureau watched with tightly furrowed brows, commenting, "Absolutely no remorse!"

Tao Lu joined the conversation: "He crawled out of the underworld, started mixing in the society since his teens, and even followed Pan Renwu, the one executed by shooting in the late ’90s. Those who played with him have been executed twice over."

"He hasn’t been executed?"

"Those who survived must have been lucky. He even rose to the position of Vice President at Duanda, mingling with many of Lü Qiang’s men. Many were earlier than Wang Futing; in the end, they were just appointed as directors, constantly devising ways to play with women."

"How come he’s so lucky?" Knowing how hard promotion can be, leaders are the least likely to believe those who claim to have achieved through sheer hardship.

Tao Lu was taken aback by the question, thought for a moment, then attempted to answer: "It might still be because of his adaptable personality. From what I know, when Wang Futing was in the underworld, he was quite good at communicating. In his youth, he worshipped several masters and followed several bosses. Later, following Lü Qiang, he transitioned from a thief leader to a demolition manager, very skilled at handling demolitions, adept at using both threats and incentives, not just relying on brute force."

"He knows how to judge the situation," the leader nodded, accepting this logic.

"Your summary is particularly apt..." Tao Lu quickly affirmed, colloquially known as brown-nosing.

"Well, no wonder then." The leader suddenly understood more about Wang Futing’s vice presidency. Being articulate, having a specific area of expertise, and particularly capable of fulfilling the spiritual needs of superiors, this is indeed the model for promotion.

The other police officers who watched the video also had their thoughts, quietly discussing among themselves.

Wang Futing had completely given up, hence he spoke a lot.

However, with so much information, all from over twenty years ago, how much could be useful became another challenge.

Some officers were skeptical about the truthfulness of Wang Futing’s testimony - this made the task even more difficult; it’s the same reason, the cases from over 20 years ago, many proofs of testimony are very difficult now.

"I am planning to look into the ’claws’ mentioned by Wang Futing," Jiang Yuan finished watching the video of Wang Futing, feeling a bit sleepy and simply yawned.

At the same time, his emotional intelligence was also running low.

Song Tiancheng asked next to him, "What about the direction of the investigation? Should we confirm it first?"

"I want to wait for Director Liu to have a look first," Jiang Yuan shook his head. The evidence provided by Wang Futing was too much and too ambiguous to distinguish, which was not Jiang Yuan’s forte and too time-consuming.

Song Tiancheng hesitated for a moment; although he knew Liu Jinghui from Shannan Province, by national standards, Liu Jinghui obviously wasn’t as well-known as Jiang Yuan. However, Song Tiancheng could understand the concept of specialization, and knowing Jiang Yuan’s case-solving history, he refrained from commenting.

Tao Lu sensed Song Tiancheng’s unease, openly asking, "Director Liu assisted remotely quite smoothly before, do you want me to call him over? Can he afford to leave his current duties?"

"He pushed back the subsequent cases; he will need to repay Director Liu this favor," Jiang Yuan spoke again, adding, "There’s too many case files now, and many are on film rolls; remote assistance might not be practical anymore."

By the end of the 90s, crime scene photographs were still taken by professional criminal photographers using film cameras, with a roll of Kodak film costing over twenty yuan. Even if their own unit had a darkroom for printing, the average cost per photo was about one yuan.

So, the habit of ’click, click, click’ photographing, fearing not to miss rather than fearing to take too many, did not exist in the police stations of the late 90s.

Weaker police stations, such as the Ningtai County Bureau, might not even keep photos for an ordinary theft case. Only major cases could have thousands of photos because there were many murder cases, thus, the allocated budget for handling cases, especially for taking photos, was naturally limited. Some homicides would therefore be treated as ordinary murder cases.

The value of a forensic photographer in that era was minimal in merely completing designated shooting tasks, moderate in providing a comprehensive and detailed representation of the crime scene and vital evidence with minimal budget, and high in accurately reconstructing the truth.

At Jianmen Court, forensic photography experts were also invited to do the shooting. This is one of the benefits of being in Beijing; back then, the Beijing Bureau spared no expense in terms of film and photography skills.

However, it has been many years, and it’s normal for some photos to have faded and some negatives to have become unprintable. Liu Jinghui is coming over to review them again.

After all, Jiang Yuan’s standards for him are different from those he holds for himself.

When Jiang Yuan investigates a case, he fundamentally seeks to find evidence, which he then uses to search for suspects; this is his underlying approach.

Although Liu Jinghui often identifies the murderer through simple reasoning, the case of Jianmen Court needs meticulous reasoning regardless.

Theoretically, even if he could identify the murderer through simple reasoning, the Zhang Family still needs to see comprehensive and rigorous reasoning to confirm that Zhang Xiaoming’s murderer is indeed the person in question.

In reality, the case at Jianmen Court has been analyzed over and over, and there’s no possibility that it could be solved through mere simple reasoning.

However, this case is indeed attractive to Liu Jinghui.

The more it has been studied by many people and the more experts have been involved, the more valuable the case appears. And Liu Jinghui has long given up on promotions; solving cases is his greatest pleasure.

Early morning.

When Liu Jinghui arrived at the compound of Zhengguang Bureau’s Criminal Police Squad, it was just in time for the regular meeting of the Jianmen Court special investigation team.

This was also the first official meeting since the Jianmen Court special investigation team restarted, and there were so many attendees that speakers had to use a microphone.

The meeting was predominantly informational, with hardly any dedicated discussions taking place.

As the saying goes, "Small meetings decide big matters; big meetings decide small matters". At such a large meeting, effective discussions are virtually impossible.

After the meeting, Liu Jinghui approached Jiang Yuan, and saw two very thin files in front of Jiang Yuan, causing Liu Jinghui to frown subconsciously.

"Are these the results of your research on that grappling hook?" Liu Jinghui knows Jiang Yuan’s capabilities all too well. Tool Trace Identification is a century-old technique, but few can do it well, and even fewer as well as Jiang Yuan.

A typical example of Tool Trace Identification is like having a nick in a kitchen knife. You use it to kill the eldest son of a neighbor, and then the second son of another neighbor downstairs. If the police match the nick, it’s very likely the same knife was used.

Of course, the knife used to kill the second son might have more nicks, which is also part of Tool Trace Identification.

Based on Liu Jinghui’s understanding, with such an obscure weapon as the grappling hook, Jiang Yuan is bound to make significant discoveries.

However, Jiang Yuan simply patted the two files in front of him, saying, "I’m also puzzled, but after searching and reviewing, I really only found two cases somewhat related to this grappling hook."

"Only three cases involving a grappling hook nationwide in all these years?" Liu Jinghui couldn’t believe it.

Jiang Yuan shook his head: "Not all grappling hooks are the same. These are difficult to craft, and as far as I know, those who are proficient in using them wouldn’t easily replace them. So, while the murderer might have been involved in two other cases, as far as we know, there are only these three cases in total."

"Impossible," Liu Jinghui immediately shook his head, "unless it’s unused, but who would learn the skills of a wall scaling ninja and not use them? I initially thought that by the grappling hook, there might be a chance to solve the case."

"It seems not," Jiang Yuan spread his hands, "Moreover, the other two cases were also thefts, involving even lesser amounts."