National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 479 - 479 440 Rejoining the Team

479: Chapter 440: Rejoining the Team 479: Chapter 440: Rejoining the Team When Hou Xiaoyong and the others brought Sun Jinqiang back, those who understood footprint analysis and those who didn’t both looked at him as if he were the murderer.

At a height of 1.75 meters and a weight of 80 kilograms, Sun Jinqiang wasn’t particularly outstanding, but his arms were thick and muscular, and the thickness of his scapular area was noticeably above average.

A police officer immediately frowned, “He must be on drugs, test him.”

As a murder suspect, he received the VIP treatment: Police officers rushed to escort him to the restroom, collected his urine, and then brought him back for a blood draw.

While sending the samples for testing, they locked him in the interrogation chair to question him.

Sun Jinqiang remained silent as if he were a tough guy, not saying anything and just sitting there with his head down, stubborn to the end.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t a true tough guy.

The interrogation officer merely described and introduced to him the differences between death row inmates and regular prisoners, as well as the lifestyle of a maximum-security prison.

Just the thought was enough to nearly break Sun Jinqiang, who had experienced multiple detentions and short-term prison stints.

Indeed, those who have experienced prison life understand its implications more deeply, much like children who have gone through school life know which parts are bearable and which are intolerable.

If bullying in school can make life miserable, then the suffering in prison is ubiquitous.

With the interrogation officer’s gentle coaxing, Sun Jinqiang finally spoke up, explaining, “We didn’t plan to kill anyone at first…”

Excuses, a common state for most criminals during interrogation.

In general, criminals tend to steadfastly believe in the logic of “I am a good person, it’s just that…” which leaves one unsure whether this is a success or failure of education.

“I’ve needed a lot of money recently,” Sun Jinqiang took a sip of water and let his emotions out.

“Dating requires money, and my family is pressing me to marry.

I said I’d start a business, asked my uncle for some money.

He said he wanted to do business too.

So, we agreed to do a couple of jobs to save enough money, then each go our separate ways in business…”

“Let’s talk about the process of the crime,” said the interrogation officer, allowing him a brief vent before cutting him short.

If he vented too much, he might not disclose what he was supposed to.

Once Sun Jinqiang started talking, he couldn’t stop.

“I heard that grain buyers always have cash on hand.

A lot of the older farmers prefer to be paid in cash.

Also, they like to lend money to farmers.

Instead of repaying in cash, the farmers return the favor with grain when it’s time to collect, with prices that follow the market.

It’s all to ensure they get the grain.

So, I thought, why not borrow some ourselves…”

“When we got there, I laid it out, but not only did he not agree, he even started laughing.

You should have seen the look on that rich man’s face…

How could I tolerate that?”

“I swung the knife, and my uncle kicked him a couple of times…”

As he confessed the process, it corroborated Du Jinfu’s account.

Along with the on-site investigation, the chance of a mistake was now not high.

Hou Lejia, who had been exceedingly anxious, finally relaxed a little, exhaling deeply, thinking to himself: I can’t keep going as a criminal police captain, I won’t live to see my retirement at this rate.

Director Huang has a clever mind, wonder what he sold to become deputy director…

Jiang Yuan watched for a while in the surveillance room and then came out.

In this case, the uncle and nephew duo seemed to have a good sense of counter-surveillance.

Despite appearing rather pathetic after being caught, the crime scene revealed that they were hardened individuals, fully educated by prison, and likely very confident during the act.

The case did indeed pose some challenges, and Jiang Yuan had tracked down Du Jinfu based on mere clues.

Without that drop of sweat, Jiang Yuan would probably have had to rely on the footprints at the scene to narrow down the suspects.

If Longli County had handled this on their own, they would have had methods too.

The most likely one involved exploiting special circumstances: both the uncle and the nephew were ex-convicts with complex social ties.

Regardless of the business they claimed to be planning, bragging to friends was inevitable.

Longli County wasn’t a large place, and it was easy for rumors to spread.

Another method would be extensive questioning and investigation, or deploying the talented police dog Heizi, to see if they could catch any slip-ups.

Or they could have sifted through all the visitors on the day of the crime through their mode of travel, which could also have yielded results.

The only part that required more technical skill was the uncle taking on the major responsibility.

With experience in resisting interrogation and knowing that death was certain, he took the blame entirely upon himself, and he described the criminal details very accurately.

If it weren’t for Jiang Yuan’s investigation of the scene, facing such a situation would have been very challenging.

For the next two days, Hou Lejia was busy taking the criminals to identify the crime scene and the locations where they had buried the weapons, among other places.

The preliminary steps were finished, and once the check was sent, the police’s job was essentially done.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan also packed up and was ready to withdraw back to Ningtai County.

Hou Lejia looked at the equipment, computers, CT scanner, and the vehicles that carried them, feeling as if his heart were bleeding.

All these were the accumulations of Longli County over many years, and now they were being taken away like a slow, painful cut of the flesh.

Hou Lejia couldn’t even imagine how thrilled Huang Qiangmin must be seeing all this.

It was a pity they couldn’t keep Jiang Yuan…

Hou Lejia just couldn’t afford it anymore, and he had no more cases to offer either.

There were still many cold cases in Longli County, but Hou Lejia was running out of steam, and the support from the Longli County Bureau was limited.

Cold cases weren’t formed in a day, and even if Jiang Yuan was seen as a great opportunity, it was very difficult for the Longli County Bureau to decide to focus on cold cases—current cases not worked on would also turn into cold cases, and like this murder case, the resources consumed were already minimal, yet it still mobilized a large number of people.

Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad, forming a small convoy, cheerfully returned to Ningtai County.

At the very end of the convoy, Wang Zhong left a small window open, and from time to time, he would throw out a piece of yellow paper.

The yellow papers were all prepared in advance, drawn with talismans, stamped with a seal, and Wang Zhong just needed to calculate the time and direction every now and then, fill it in, and then throw it out.

It was said that this could effectively prevent vengeful spirits from following them into Ningtai County.

Although Wang Zhong didn’t quite understand why the vengeful spirits would be so persistent as to follow Jiang Yuan’s convoy to Ningtai, he still learned to scatter the yellow papers.

He considered it a sort of practice.

Back at the Ningtai County Bureau, Wu Jun patiently waited in his office.

As soon as Jiang Yuan came in, Wu Jun dragged him to walk over a fire basin, light incense to worship Guan Gong, and offer red eggs with ginseng.

After completing this series of rituals, Wu Jun said, “That’s it, now when we select cases, we won’t be affected.”

Jiang Yuan was unable to decide whether to laugh or cry.

“Hurry on now.

Director Huang is probably waiting for you.” Wu Jun sent Jiang Yuan out the door, feeling like it was part of the procedure as well.

…

Huang Qiangmin had been waiting in the conference room for a while.

In front of him, there were several files.

The thick ones were half an arm’s height, and the thin ones were only about a hundred pages.

“Director Huang, which county’s cases are these?” As soon as Jiang Yuan saw the case files, he knew they definitely weren’t from Ningtai County.

Had there been a case file this thick in Ningtai County, he would have reviewed it already.

“Recently, several counties have approached us, and I said, let’s pick a few cases to look at first.

These were sent over from those counties,” Huang Qiangmin said while gently sliding a stack of files forward.