National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 497 - 497 456

497: 456 497: 456 “In a typical murder case, is the murder target the victim?” Captain Han asked, still playing the straight man to Liu Jinghui’s comic routine, but at the same time, he posed a very critical question.

If the target of the murder is the victim, then there must be a motive.

If not, then who could it be?

Actually, this was not an easy question to answer.

Liu Jinghui, recalling the case files he had reviewed, mused, “The victim is a local, in his thirties, owned a motorcycle repair shop.

The business was doing alright, only his cousin was helping out in the shop, his wife along with their children would occasionally help with the cashier duties and tidying up the store, and they all said they didn’t offend anyone…”

Captain Han listened in silence, and from just that statement, it was clear that when Liu Jinghui mentioned “eliminating all impossibilities…” earlier, he wasn’t just talking nonsense out of desperation; he had really contemplated this issue.

In the morning meeting room, there were only four people present—just the right environment for exchanging ideas.

Liu Jinghui had no reservations and continued, “If the victim was indeed the target, then everything makes sense.

The perpetrator achieved their goal, and naturally, there would be no need for further explosions.

The explosives were placed at the train station, which was also on the unavoidable route from the motorcycle repair shop to the victim’s home…”

Liu Jinghui listed several possibilities, saying, “Our investigation in the past few days hasn’t been a waste either.

We confirmed that over the past few years, there haven’t been similar explosions, nor has the same type of gunpowder reappeared.

This could corroborate the point that the perpetrator achieved their goal…”

Liu Jinghui looked somewhat excited as he spoke, but Captain Han’s face showed no trace of emotion.

“Old Han, what do you think?” Liu Jinghui was seeking some feedback now.

Captain Han spoke slowly, “Targeting the victim, we have actually investigated that, and there is no motive.

The victim’s wife has no technical background, their relationship was harmonious, and they had no financial incentive to kill her husband; they had just had their child less than two years ago.

The victim’s cousin felt the same, he was learning the trade and was about to graduate in half a year.

Now he has returned to the countryside and has to start all over again…”

“What about the motorcycle repair shop itself?”

“A motorcycle repair shop from 8 years ago wasn’t the same as one from 18 years ago.

His was just a small workshop focused on repairs, earning hard-earned, manual labor money.

After the victim’s motorcycle shop closed down, it stayed closed.

The landlord also took a loss; it took a long time to rent the place out again, and no similar shops have opened nearby.”

“You would open an auto repair factory instead,” Mu Zhiyang said.

“Exactly, starting an auto repair factory doesn’t really cost that much more than running a motorcycle repair shop.”

“Perhaps it’s a deeper emotional issue,” Liu Jinghui speculated.

Feelings and interests are the easiest sources of disputes and the most likely to lead to murder.

A little-known fact: although modern people often feel that human relationships are indifferent and everyone is money-oriented, with the economic development and the increase in per capita income in China, the main reason for Chinese people committing homicide has shifted from financial gain to emotional entanglements.

At least in terms of murder, personal bonds still seem to prevail over money.

The so-called loyalty and emotional connections matter.

Captain Han looked at the list of names on the A4 paper beside him.

Without a direction to go in, they could only follow Liu Jinghui’s speculations, but…

“Should we follow the motive for investigation?” Captain Han asked.

“We’ve already scrutinized it thoroughly, including the victim’s relationships in Qu’an County and back in his hometown…”

“I think we can do this,” Liu Jinghui’s gaze turned towards Jiang Yuan, saying, “If we gather all the victim’s social connections and footsteps, is it possible to compare them with the footprints at the scene?”

Jiang Yuan nodded without hesitation, “Of course, there’s no problem with that.”

This wasn’t too difficult a task, the only issue was that there were too many footprints at the scene.

However, Jiang Yuan immediately understood Liu Jinghui’s thought process.

Explosive cases are different from ordinary crimes of passion; they are meticulously planned.

So, the culprit must have spent a significant amount of time at the scene of the explosion, making it very possible they left footprints.

Even if they had worn shoe covers or similar, it would still be easy to identify—the footprints at the scene were not so obviously disguised, but if they went through all the footprints at the scene…

Considering a radius of 20 meters from the blast center, and the train station being a place of heavy foot traffic, the number of involved footprints was estimated to be vast, yet it was indeed one of the feasible options, especially since there were footprints to compare against.

Of course, this kind of many-to-many footprint comparison was still quite challenging.

The special investigation team hadn’t used this method before, mainly because it wasn’t feasible.

Many-to-one comparisons are relatively easier to conduct, but many-to-many, where a large number is compared against another large number, is difficult to ensure success—even for Jiang Yuan.

A level 3 footprint identification might not suffice.

It was then that Jiang Yuan remembered the second-class merit award he had just received.

He felt it wouldn’t be interesting to use second-class merit to obtain a skill related to explosions, as such cases were too rare, and even traveling nationwide might lead to conflicts with various experts.

But footprint skills were different.

Jiang Yuan summoned the system and immediately upgraded his footprint analysis skills on the spot—

Footprint Analysis (LV5)

Because it’s a relatively minor aspect, the level to which it rose was still quite high.

At an LV5 level, it’s not just first-rate, it’s at least at the national top-tier, with very few people being able to reach it.

This skill was one that Jiang Yuan upgraded without any burden.

Footprints are used so often that, even if they aren’t needed in this case, it wouldn’t be a waste to upgrade the skill.

“I need to find several more computers, monitors…” Jiang Yuan hadn’t dealt with this scale of multiple-to-multiple analysis before, so he, too, was trying it out as he made his request.

Captain Han naturally agreed with full support.

Having already provided the meat, there was no need to be stingy with the soup.

Liu Jinghui was a bit excited—this was an important moment to validate his own thinking.

The notion that “there is only one truth” in deduction rarely came true in his career as a detective.

Most criminals didn’t require this tactic to be defeated; the stories imagined by mystery novelists are often built on perfect premises.

However, in reality, unless the case is particularly simple, the more complex the case, the greater the likelihood of leaving traces.

Similar reasoning could be applied to this current case.

If it’s an explosion targeting a general, non-specific group of people, then the criminal could simply place the explosive and leave.

This case was one where a refined explosive was used, but it was a crude anti-social bombing.

But if converted into a murder case, it became a case of using a refined explosive, where time was calculated meticulously, turning it into a sophisticated explosive murder case.

Thus, the criminal would have spent more time in the vicinity.

It’s basically unlikely that he would have just dropped the explosive and left immediately; there would have been some calculations involved, and perhaps the need to wait beforehand, observe, and so on.

The four of them seemed a bit more invigorated.

Captain Han immediately picked up the phone, his eyes red with intensity as he began arranging the delivery of more computers and monitors, and of course, IT personnel who could do the installation.

By around 9 o’clock, an adjacent conference room was cleared out and outfitted with a vast array of monitors, as well as computers and printers.

“The IT guys should leave a few people behind, and organize these footprints, number them, and make sure none are overlooked,” Jiang Yuan pulled members of his own team over as well.

Wang Chuanxing and the others, all highly educated young detectives, now gathered together to start displaying the footprints retrieved from the scene.

The special case team had already sorted through the footprints during the current case, identifying over 20,000 usable footprints, which belonged to more than 4,000 people.

Among these were footprints within the radius of the explosion, those outside the perimeter of the blast, and some more distinct footprints at the station’s entrance and exits…

As for the footprints of the victim’s relatives, a few had been collected at the time, mainly those of the victim himself, the victim’s wife and younger brother who assisted, and a few direct relatives of the victim, a few neighbors in the village, a few notorious local thugs…

Limited by technology at that time, the special case team had essentially conducted a few-to-many comparison, following a similar line of thought to that of Liu Jinghui.

This indicated that the special case team had also considered the idea of “belling the cat,” but it was likely that the capabilities of the executing ‘mouse’ were inadequate.

Jiang Yuan’s LV5 skill, in the world of mice, would also have ranked at the level of a naturally-born mouse.

Belling the cat might be difficult, but it was not entirely impossible.

Captain Han even specifically assigned a team to collect the footprints of various relatives and friends around the victim, and those with vested interests.

Truth be told, these detectives were actually amateurs in this field.

Footprints, unlike fingerprints, can change along with the person; while there are parts that don’t change, there are more that do.

But they didn’t know, and therefore didn’t ask many questions.

Jiang Yuan was knowledgeable, and having just advanced his skill to LV5, he was in high spirits; he was quite confident in his ability to identify footprints after eight years.

In a sense, the task of belling the cat by the mouse had almost become about the mouse impregnating the cat, but since the executing mouse kept silent, the others had no way of knowing.

Another two busy days went by.

Just as Jiang Yuan adjusted to the LV5 footprint analysis skill, a senior superintendent from the provincial department quietly arrived in Qu’an County.

Qiu Yue—was the person previously responsible for the Qu’an Train Station explosion case.