National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 599 - 544: If You Say You Can Do It, Then You Can Do It

Chapter 599: Chapter 544: If You Say You Can Do It, Then You Can Do It

Luo Jin City Criminal Police Detachment.

Several young detectives hustled in, greeting everyone along the way. Upon seeing Pang Jidong, they called from a distance, "Captain Pang, good morning."

Pang Jidong moved slowly like a wandering soul, carrying a cup of coffee in his hand. If he did not move so slowly, the coffee might spill over and scald his hand.

Thinking that Pang Jidong hadn’t heard them, they approached and said loudly, "Captain Pang, good morning."

"Ah... morning... morning," Pang Jidong finally responded, looking up at them with a still rigid expression.

The young detectives climbed up the stairs with a smile. Reaching the third floor, they greeted others around them while quietly discussing:

"What happened to Captain Pang? His eyes were all glazed over."

"It’s similar to how I feel after running five kilometers; can’t think of anything, my brain stops working and I just have to vegetate until energy comes back."

"Reminds me of how I felt before a joint exam, especially during make-up classes when the teacher would drill you non-stop, and by the end of it, my head felt like it was stuffed full."

"You’d better hope that’s all that’s stuffed full..."

Conference room.

Once everyone had arrived, the head of the detachment immediately convened a case analysis meeting on the second sexual assault case.

Discounting the urgency of the current case, this project, named after the 110 emergency call, was Luo Jin City’s most pressing case to solve.

Not only was the case itself extremely vile, but the unpunished criminal was also very likely to offend again.

There could be many reasons for the current halt in crimes. Perhaps the criminal got run over by a car, maybe he’s bedridden with illness, or perhaps he got hit by a car on his way to barbecue, didn’t die initially but then got hit again on the way to the hospital, and agonizingly perished in the ambulance...

However, it’s also possible that the criminal just encountered some issues but didn’t die. With the resolution of these issues and changes in his environment, he could decide to commit crimes again.

Serial rape, like serial killing, indicated that the perpetrator had some level of psychological issues. Relying on him to stop on his own due to his willpower or some other reason was wishful thinking. Capturing and punishing him was the most rational plan.

Present at the meeting were members of the Luo Jin City Criminal Police Detachment and two people from the ministry, Cui Xiaohu and Li Haochen.

Legal Botany was quite rare, the ministry might have needed it, but seldom used it, and for the most part, they sought external botanists for collaborations. Unlike police officers like Jiang Yuan, who could solve cases in one go, presenting a onetime solution.

The ministry’s expectations for Jiang Yuan were also very high.

If this worked out well, many cold cases could be solved, and it could even extend back quite far in time. It was analogous to the possibilities for case resolutions that arose after the advent of DNA technology, even potentially solving crimes from the Napoleonic era.

After a brief narration, Jiang Yuan pressed the microphone and said,

"The geographical traits of this case are relatively pronounced. The criminal must be very familiar with all eight scenes and the surrounding areas, having cased them out at least before the crimes. Although it’s been a long time, we still hope to check the surveillance footage."

The head of the detachment immediately replied, "No problem, let the fourth team handle it, Old Pang."

"Well..." Jiang Yuan, who normally wouldn’t interfere with leadership decisions, spoke up with some reluctance due to the task at hand, "Captain Wang, I’ve just become familiar with Captain Pang. Could I continue working with Captain Pang on this case?"

Captain Wang looked over.

Pang Jidong appeared clueless, his eyes clear. He had been inundated with so much information by Jiang Yuan over the past few days that he felt overwhelmed. As for being familiar with the task, he wasn’t sure if his brain burning out counted as being familiar.

"It’s fine, if you like Old Pang, then he can continue to work with you," Captain Wang easily agreed and assigned a newcomer to handle the surveillance footage.

The Luo Jin City Bureau didn’t have a specialized Image Reconnaissance Brigade, mainly because they lacked the conditions and positions to accommodate many technical staff members. So they temporarily used regular police officers to do the work of Image Investigation, looking at surveillance monitors.

Under such circumstances, exceptional Image Investigation results were unlikely.

Jiang Yuan wasn’t seeking this either; he continued, "If everyone agrees that the criminal lives nearby, actually, I have another method to find the criminal."

"Go ahead," said Captain Wang, looking over with a bit of surprise. He had seen Jiang Yuan’s report and had pondered for a while at his desk without thinking of a plan to catch the perpetrator, but he didn’t expect Jiang Yuan to have another solution.

Jiang Yuan pondered for a moment and then said, "We’ve identified the eight crime scenes based mainly on the spores found on the clothing of the four victims. But looking at it from another angle, the spores on the victim’s clothing don’t solely come from the crime scene. A smaller portion also comes from the assailant, that is, the criminal himself or herself..."

Captain Wang’s eyes lit up, and he immediately asked, "Does this mean we can locate the perpetrator now?"

"We can pinpoint a rough area, but it’s quite complicated and there are chances of error," Jiang Yuan turned to look at Pang Jidong and said, "Captain Pang, could you explain to Captain Wang the plan I mentioned earlier about locating the perpetrator?"

Even with rote teaching, questioning and assessments are necessary, or else how can knowledge be solidified and one’s own knowledge structure be established?

Pang Jidong was somewhat dumbfounded. Wasn’t this your stage to perform? You’re asking me? But... hey, it seems I do know a little.

Pang Jidong touched his newly grown brain, frowning doubtfully.

"Old Pang?" Captain Wang urged.

Pang Jidong cleared his throat and said, "According to what Captain Jiang mentioned earlier, it seems we can find some pollen profiles that are not in the main pollen atlas, meaning there are large and small pollen profiles. The discrepancy between them could be what the perpetrator brought... Is that the idea?"

He turned his head to ask Jiang Yuan.

"Not entirely accurate, but it’ll do... Just use that understanding," Jiang Yuan didn’t expect Pang Jidong to master Legal Botany. He just needed him to be able to utilize people who have mastered it.

In Jiang Yuan’s view, as long as Pang Jidong could understand the scope of Legal Botany, knowing which clues could be produced by it and which were beyond its capabilities, that would be sufficient.

Of course, Pang Jidong should also understand some of the principles, which would help ascertain the value of the clues. It’s like having two leads pointing in different investigative directions, one being DNA and the other a footprint; without a doubt, you’d follow the DNA lead because it’s much more reliable than the footprint.

That is, DNA evidence has a much higher confidence level.

The degree of confidence in Legal Botany is even more scrutinized, for instance, a pollen atlas has a higher confidence level than a single pollen, and a large amount of pollen differs from sparse pollen; wind-pollinated pollen is less reliable than insect-pollinated, which in turn is less reliable than algae...

"Be more specific, how do we find the suspect?" Captain Wang couldn’t listen anymore.

Pang Jidong looked towards Jiang Yuan slightly confused.

"You go first," Jiang Yuan continued to give him the opportunity.

"What do I know... But... if it’s within the area, does that mean if we find a place that matches this discrepancy in the pollen profile, we could possibly locate the perpetrator?" Pang Jidong tapped his head, feeling like something not his own was growing inside.

Captain Wang looked at Jiang Yuan and asked, "Will that work?"

Jiang Yuan nodded, adding, "More or less, but we have to consider the source of the pollen on the perpetrator. It’s definitely not just from home and location, so searching this way, we can’t accurately find the one and only place; we’ll still need to check several locations."

"That’s enough," Captain Wang felt much relieved and looked at Pang Jidong with a grin, saying, "Old Pang isn’t half bad, picking up a few things."

Everyone in the conference room, familiar with Pang Jidong, nodded their approval.

"I’ve been listening to a lot of things from Captain Jiang recently," Pang Jidong, slightly embarrassed, humbly said, "I did learn a little bit, but it’s not enough."

Jiang Yuan opened the system page to take a glance; the task had not been completed, signifying that indeed, the learning was insufficient.

Building on what Pang Jidong had said, Jiang Yuan remarked, "It’s because I didn’t teach for long enough. I’ll pair up with Captain Pang in the coming days and try to spend more time on it."

Pang Jidong’s smile slowly shifted and gradually became stiff, "That’s not necessary..."

It wasn’t that he was unwilling to learn; he just felt that cramming education was too cruel, and also, he didn’t quite like the feeling of fainting at any moment.

The surrounding colleagues, offering encouragement as if it cost them nothing, didn’t mind all that and rushed to say:

"Old Pang is amazing!"

"Old Pang, good job making full use of the partner advantage."

"Pang Jidong will be Luo Jin City’s number one in botany!"

Pang Jidong quickly waved his hands to correct them, "That’s not it; I’m too old for this."

"No problem, since Captain Pang is willing to learn, I’ll definitely teach him well. Let’s go catch the criminals," Jiang Yuan patted Pang Jidong’s shoulder, looking very familiar.

Pang Jidong wanted to say he wasn’t willing, wanted to say no, but he couldn’t just not go catch the criminals...

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