National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 445 - 445 411 Guihua

445: Chapter 411 Guihua 445: Chapter 411 Guihua Song Alley Police Station.

The leader of the third squad, Zhang Qi, grinned as he presented the recently found dogs to Cai Yuan, “Little girl, look, which one of these is your dog?”

Zhang Qi had a towering figure and a booming voice which, from a child’s perspective, was a bit of an imposing presence.

Cai Yuan hid behind Cai Mian for a moment before looking around.

In the yard of the police station, there was a row of fences against the wall, with large dogs such as Huskies, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, and German Shepherds inside.

Next, a row connected to it held small dogs, including Papillons, Teddies, and Pekingeses.

In the cages in the middle, there were several small dogs on display that clearly had been groomed.

Among them, Pugs were the most numerous – the same breed that Cai Yuan had lost.

With wrinkled skin, they looked at everyone and all the other dogs with either a pitiful or dazed expression, lazily lounging and occasionally sticking out their tongues, acting foolish and silly.

Next to the Pug’s cage, there were groomed Teddies, meticulously dressed Pomeranians, trimmed Bichons, pruned Yorkies, bathed Bull Terriers…

By the looks of it, even if the little girl pointed to a Terrier inside the cage and said it was her Guihua, Zhang Qi would not hesitate to acknowledge it.

Or rather, he was hoping for exactly that kind of situation.

Resorting to having a dozen or twenty people deployed just to search for a dog seemed quite unreliable.

It would probably be better to just pay out of pocket, or even use the squad’s funds, to simply fool the little girl and get this over with.

Jiang Yuan glanced behind him.

There stood several pet shop owners, smiling and watching.

The dogs in the yard indeed included newly found lost pets as well as stray dogs that happened to wander by.

After being cleaned up by the pet shops, they looked decent enough.

Besides these, of course, there were new dogs for sale, because the dogs consigned at these pet shops were the cutest, regardless of breed or age.

Jiang Yuan didn’t stop Zhang Qi’s attempt; after all, he had his own ideas.

If it came down to it, letting Cai Yuan have an extra dog wouldn’t be a big deal.

Cai Yuan first approached the Pugs’ cage full of hope, her eyes shining.

There were a total of seven Pugs in the cage, each looking slightly different, but to someone not familiar with dogs, the most one could distinguish was just a level of cuteness.

Cai Yuan looked at each one carefully, but eventually shook her head in disappointment, “Guihua isn’t here.”

Zhang Qi’s face changed, then he laughed like a gender-bending Big Bad Wolf and said, “Then take a look at the cages next to it.

Is Guihua there?”

“No, Guihua is a Pug,” the little girl firmly shook her head.

“How about you take home another dog you like for now, and then we continue to search for Guihua?

Once we find her, you can decide whether to keep both or choose one of them.” Of course, Zhang Qi didn’t mention the possibility of not finding her, but as a delaying tactic, it would be good to drag things out for a while, at least long enough to get his own team’s time over with, and that would satisfy him.

As for which other squads would end up being the “doggy squad,” he didn’t care and would likely be the loudest one laughing.

The 7-year-old little girl, with her discerning eyes, scanned the scene and finally said, “I don’t want another dog, I just want Guihua.”

“Then we’ll look for Guihua,” Jiang Yuan said, stepping forward to stop Zhang Qi’s further attempts.

Zhang Qi coughed twice, wanting to struggle a bit more.

Jiang Yuan said, “Captain Zhang, for the next two days, please lead your team to visit the shops in Song Alley and distribute Guihua’s photo.

If you come across anything suspicious, take a statement.”

He used a tone of command, which was effectively an order.

Zhang Qi was assigned to work with him, and while having some subjective initiative would be good if everyone was on the same page, if there were disagreements or even opposing views, Jiang Yuan would dispense with the pleasantries.

Having worked on many cases, organizing various check-ups and search operations, Jiang Yuan had become very skilled.

Directing a group leader level police officer didn’t require him to do any mental preparation.

Zhang Qi was taken aback.

He had been preparing to discuss things with Jiang Yuan in a more cooperative manner.

However, once Jiang Yuan issued the command, Zhang Qi suddenly realized he had no basis for disobedience.

The head of his own squad, Xu Xuewu, was excitedly studying Case 613.

It was evident that the third squad had been sold out.

Could they just turn and run?

On further thought, he remembered the large amount of effort it took the squad leader, including several all-nighters and cracked cases, to finally get his beloved Passat, which was then casually lent to Ningtai County.

Had the squad leader abandoned them in the end?

Certainly not.

He was simply eager to solve a homicide and gain another 100 points on the combat power leaderboard.

The captain of the Song Alley Police Station gently pulled Zhang Qi back, preventing him from saying something inappropriate due to Jiang Yuan’s youth.

Turning back, Jiang Yuan then addressed Wang Chuanxing, “Please organize the reports from this side.

Has Dazhuang arrived yet?”

“He’ll be here in another hour,” Wang Chuanxing replied.

Then, turning to Zhang Qi, Wang Chuanxing added, “Dazhuang is a police dog from our Ningtai County.”

Ningtai County had few cases, and police dogs often had no occasion to be used.

Nowadays, they spent more time being lent out than being brought back.

But anyway, the use of police dogs was quite formal.

Just this alone could show Jiang Yuan’s determination.

Zhang Qi smiled and decisively stepped back two paces.

Worried that Zhang would take offense, the chief of Song Alley Police Station pulled him to the back of the crowd and lowered his voice, “Old Zhang, we’ve known each other for many years.

Let me give you some advice.

If Xu Xuewu were to give you Case 613 to lead, do you think you could handle it?”

Grinding his teeth, Zhang Qi said, “If it were left to us, we’d have no choice but to work overtime to crack the case.”

“Could you crack it?”

“We couldn’t,” Zhang Qi said earnestly, looking quite handsome.

The chief laughed, “Xuewu probably knows that.”

Helpless, Zhang Qi pursed his lips again, “The problem is, we can’t even find the dog.”

The chief laughed heartily.

…

The third squad assembled and set off on their mission.

Jiang Yuan, with Mu Zhiyang in tow, strolled up and down the alleyways, first around the Cai residence, covering all the places Cai Yuan often took the dog, then checked the nearby woods and barren areas, and finally chased after any stray dogs…

The dog had been missing for too long, and it was no longer a simple case of a lost dog.

These past days, Jiang Yuan had also specifically researched the issue of finding dogs and realized that ordinary people’s lost dogs were usually still within their living area.

That is to say, if a dog were to get lost normally, even if it couldn’t find its way home, it would still wander around close to home.

Thus, the first few days were the optimal time to search for a lost dog.

But Cai Yuan was too young, and Cai Mian lacked the ability to act, resulting in Guihua missing the optimal time to return home.

However, it’s also possible that Guihua was taken away by someone in the initial period.

In that respect, there were two possibilities: one was a pure dog thief, primarily stealing dogs to sell for meat.

The other possibility was that someone took a fancy to the dog or realized it had no owner and simply decided to take it home to keep.

For the former, Jiang Yuan actually felt the likelihood was not very high.

On the one hand, Guihua was a pug, small in size, and not worth stealing.

On the other hand, such incidents were rarely heard of in Miaohe County or nearby, and Song Alley was not very conducive to a dog thief’s quick in and out operations.

Even so, Jiang Yuan still sent Wang Chuanxing and others to follow this lead.

He himself focused on the possibility that someone in the vicinity might have adopted the dog.

The best way to handle this was… to distribute flyers.

If the adopter saw the flyer or if their conscience was pricked and they felt unease, returning the beloved pet voluntarily, that would be the best outcome.

During this time, Jiang Yuandao began tackling the theft cases around Song Alley, especially home burglaries.

He didn’t have a clear plan; anyway, he was idle, with no leads on the dog, so in the hunt for thieves… fingerprints, footprints, tool marks, and other evidence considered, matching one case per hour on average was not an exaggeration.

Soon, Xu Xuewu had no choice but to send another squad of officers exclusively responsible for apprehending the theft suspects identified by Jiang Yuan.

One by one, habitual theft offenders were crammed into the Miaoheshire Bureau’s case center.

Some of the suspects still tried to act nonchalant or indifferent.

It was the leaders of Miaoheshire Bureau who were taken aback, with people frequently visiting the crowded case center.

All day long, Xu Xuewu seemed to be tethered to the case center, greeting and sending off people.

“So many people here.”

Xu Xuewu: “Yes, our case center is too small.

With slightly more criminal suspects, there’s no room for them all.”

“Does Miao River County have that many thieves?”

Xu Xuewu: “Some of them are old thieves.

Some cases from two or three years ago left fingerprints that Jiang Yuan matched, and so they were arrested.

The main issue is our case center is too small.

As soon as there are too many people, it’s impossible to give them each a separate room.”

“I heard that so many people were arrested all because of a dog?”

Xu Xuewu: “They were arrested for theft.

But if Jiang Yuan could find that dog, these people might have had a few more days at home.

Ah, the main issue is that our case center is too small, there’s nowhere for so many people to lie down…”