National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 499 - 499 458 Beneficiary

499: Chapter 458 Beneficiary 499: Chapter 458 Beneficiary Qu’an County had spent a lot of money investing in surveillance, buying equipment, and setting up systems, and that had started eight years ago.

It was a case of learning from mistakes; it was never too late to mend.

In other words, during the station explosion case eight years prior, their surveillance had been scant.

It wasn’t that there were no cameras installed, but rather that there were indeed very few in use.

Inside the station, the surveillance was barely adequate, but once out of the bus station, at a distance of 30 meters from the exit, it became a complete blind zone.

By comparison, the surveillance in small shops and minimarts was slightly more useful.

But this was all relative.

Qiu Yue and his team once had their hopes pinned on the surveillance footage, but when that led nowhere, they pivoted to other directions.

Liu Jinghui found a separate computer for himself, and had a technician show him the previously organized footage, naturally to no avail.

After toiling for over an hour, Liu Jinghui was tired of watching, and Qiu Yue was tired of standing; only Jiang Yuan was still there, endlessly examining footprints.

The footprints at the scene were not only numerous but also of very poor quality.

Even the special investigation team, on the day itself, managed to collect only a few dozen footprints using the electrostatic lifting method.

The rest of the footprints were all documented through photographs.

These types of footprints aren’t usually given much attention by forensic investigators—unless analysis is absolutely necessary and time permits, otherwise everyone prefers a more comfortable way of working…

Jiang Yuan had to perform a selection, trying to identify as many footprints as possible, which made the process extremely difficult and tedious.

It was precisely because he had just achieved lv5 in footprint analysis that Jiang Yuan was feeling the novelty, and he worked on the footprints with great enthusiasm.

Liu Jinghui, on the other hand, was deep in thought, pondering and fretting simultaneously.

Jiang Yuan had finally provided a new clue, which couldn’t be confirmed or eliminated, causing Liu Jinghui discomfort.

To chase a clue to the end only to find it’s a dead end, or to fail to find the murderer, isn’t much of an issue.

But an interrupted clue is something detectives find hardest to bear.

Liu Jinghui paced to the other end of the conference room and aimlessly flipped through a notebook.

Qiu Yue, sitting nearby, quickly grew bored and, looking at Liu Jinghui’s expression, said, “May I say something?”

“Please do,” Liu Jinghui immediately sat upright.

Respecting elders was still a practice adhered to in the police force, especially the previous generation of officers, who were mostly brought up through a master-apprentice system.

“Don’t be so formal,” Qiu Yue sighed and said, “I see you want to follow up on the footprint information that Jiang Yuan found, right?

What aspect do you intend to investigate?

Actually, back in the day, we compiled some lists that didn’t make it into the case file, especially the less formal ones.”

Liu Jinghui’s eyes lit up.

Indeed, he wouldn’t compile every list and piece of information as if he were writing a report when working on a case.

The final submitted case files naturally had to be as thorough as a report, able to withstand scrutiny, but the process of solving a case didn’t need to be so meticulous.

And if a case couldn’t be solved, the materials ultimately handed in certainly couldn’t account for every little detail.

“Did you compile a list from the perspective of beneficiaries?” Liu Jinghui didn’t ask how many lists Qiu Yue and his team had, but directly inquired about what he wanted to know.

Qiu Yue first nodded, then recalling, said, “Beneficiary theory, yes, we certainly considered it at the time, but the explosion was aimed at an unspecified group of people…

You’ve kept the hard drives from back then, right?

Look for the ‘SYZ’ folder and see if the information is still there?”

“Okay,” Liu Jinghui immediately made a phone call.

The Qu’an Train Station explosion case was a prominent case.

Since it had not been successfully closed at the time, what was submitted were case files and reports, while the remaining hard drives and notes were all preserved.

For cases that the provincial department was involved with, county bureaus typically managed to retain the materials for a longer period of time.

Soon, the hard drive containing the “SYZ” folder was brought over along with its enclosure.

Liu Jinghui brought in an IT technician to help copy and organize everything onto his own computer before he opened the files to read in detail.

The so-called “beneficiary theory” wasn’t anything new.

As the widely circulated saying goes, “The greatest beneficiary is the murderer.”

However, for anti-social crimes, such as unspecific mass-targeted bombings, the beneficiary theory was somewhat less convincing.

Although the special task force at the time had discussed and validated the murder theory, it ultimately wasn’t the main focus of the investigation, and the list of beneficiaries was rather roughly assembled.

Even so, the task force from eight years ago had still compiled a list of over a hundred people.

Among them were private bus owners, shopkeepers and operators from near the train station’s side gate, competitors of motorcycle shops, and station managers who had risen in rank due to the incident…

The list was rough and unranked, making it unclear who the greatest beneficiary was.

Fortunately, the information on the related individuals was all well-recorded, with names, ID numbers, workplaces, reasons, etc., all clearly visible.

Liu Jinghui looked through it for a while, not bothering with the rest of the information for now.

He filtered by age first, following the additional information provided by Jiang Yuan, focusing on people who were around 34 years old at the time and about 42 years old now.

After sorting, there were only two people left on the list.

Liu Jinghui called both of them, only to find that neither matched the required height.

Frowning, Liu Jinghui waved over two detectives and said, “Call the people on this list.

Ask women about their husband’s height or their ex-husband’s.

For the younger ones, inquire about their father’s, and for the older, their son’s height.

Do the same with the men, asking about their own, their father’s, their brothers’, their sons’ heights.

For those in business, ask about their partners’ heights and compile a new list with the heights of males around 1.6 meters.”

Liu Jinghui intended to compare this list with the footprint information provided by Jiang Yuan, so he directly asked about heights.

No matter how much their weight, age, or appearance might change, their height would remain the same.

The two detectives, without asking further questions, busied themselves with the task.

Qiu Yue, watching the increasingly lively atmosphere, couldn’t help feeling secure and nostalgic, but observing Jiang Yuan’s silhouette, it still seemed like looking at the emperor’s new clothes to him.

At that moment, Qiu Yue felt a true sense of self: an honest youth who, despite years of turmoil, had not changed his original intentions and still harbored the kindest of ideals…

“Director Liu, we have one here,” a detective handed over a slip of paper,

“Hou Tianlong.” Liu Jinghui glanced at it, then turned to Qiu Yue and asked, “Ring any bells?”

“No, who is this person?”

“Eight years ago, he ran a car repair shop with a storefront and a workshop–his wife managed the front and he took care of the mechanical part…” Liu Jinghui became more serious as he read.

Someone who understood car repair would likely have the basics to build a bomb.

In recent years, Qiu Yue really had recalled too many details pertaining to this case.

After pondering for a moment, he said, “I remember, his car repair shop was on the other side of the city, and his business didn’t conflict with that of the victim.

Why was he on the list?”

“His wife made the list.

She’s a strong woman who, along with the victim’s motorcycle repair shop, became an agent for the same brand of motor oil.

They both wanted to be the agents for Qu’an County and met each other.

They had an argument in front of people from the oil company,” Liu Jinghui paused, looking at the computer screen, “He’s about 1.6 meters tall, was exactly 34 years old eight years ago, and divorced his wife four years ago.

He’s now one of the larger oil dealers in the county…”

As he read, Liu Jinghui suddenly called out, “Captain Han, come take a look at this person and bring him in for questioning.”

“It’s possible,” Captain Han responded promptly after checking the person’s information, feeling a spark in his brain as if connections were being made, “This person fits the profile of a suspect…

I think we should start with a covert investigation.”

“I agree,” said Liu Jinghui.

With an eight-year-old case, most forms of evidence had weakened.

At this point, the police’s advantage lay in the fact that they were hidden from the criminal’s view.

Such a long period without movement meant the murderer would undoubtedly have let his guard down; anyone who had been tense for eight years would have ended up with anxiety in a mental hospital by now.

Therefore, a covert investigation at this stage was most advantageous.