National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 707 - 650: The Missing Person

Chapter 707: Chapter 650: The Missing Person

The Green Plant Company was built right behind the vegetable plots, using the village’s land—a stretch of paved ground, a concrete road about four to five meters wide, and then a deceiving wall, which pretty much made up their basic infrastructure.

Liu Cheng clicked his tongue as he walked, saying, "People in office buildings are so easy to fool, huh? With a company like this, they can rack up over a hundred thousand a year, but you can’t grow that many flowers."

"So that’s why there’s a need to expand the middle-class demographic, huh?" Mu Zhiyang timely chimed in with his opinion.

Liu Cheng nodded then shook his head, "We’re considered middle-class too, right? I don’t spend that money."

Thus, Mu Zhiyang asked, "Is it your wife and kids who help you spend it?"

Liu Cheng’s expression stalled for a moment, and he finally sighed, "Spending money doesn’t require taking an exam, that’s what I’m most unhappy about."

"With so many trades out there, there’s always one that’ll have you wrapped around its finger." As they talked, they arrived at the entrance of the Green Plant Company.

Liu Cheng stepped forward, showed his badge to the security guard, and called over two police officers to stand guard, additionally cautioning the security guard, "Behave yourself. If you try to tip anyone off, I’ll send you straight to jail."

The security guard was somewhat defiant, "At least let me make a phone call. Otherwise, if my boss fires me, I’ll come to your office every day for my meals."

"Trying to argue with the police, I see you really want to taste prison food," chuckled the police officer who had been pointed out, with a sneer. He had seen plenty of tough guys act tough in front of the police—the criminal investigation department doesn’t tolerate freeloaders.

The security guard was intimidated by the "ferocious" police officer. It’s important to note that people’s police doesn’t necessarily mean handsome officers.

At this moment, Liu Cheng was working on a homicide case and was definitely not in the mood to be polite, speaking straightforwardly, "Behave and you can sit tight, misbehave and you get cuffed."

Mu Zhiyang, on the other hand, smiled at the security guard, "Don’t be scared. If your boss gets caught, how can he fire you?"

The security guard didn’t know which statement got to him, but he stopped struggling.

Liu Cheng looked at Mu Zhiyang helplessly, then led a group of people into Green Plant Company and quickly dispersed, with officers stationed at the front entrance, the back, and along the perimeter wall.

Even though the recent discussion had concluded that the Green Plant Company likely wasn’t the body-burying site, the possibility of the killer being one of its employees still existed.

A service company like this that provides green plants and flowers to various companies has close interactions with them, which makes it easy for conflicts to arise. Especially with today’s youth who value their pride over their wages, they tend to act impulsively, which is something that cannot be ignored.

When they next saw the boss of the Green Plant Company, the alarms went off in everyone’s heads.

Tattooed arms, a muscular bruiser, and a middle-aged man with a fierce demeanor... The boss had the look of a "thug", which got the police officers all revved up at once.

With that appearance, using an old internet term, he matched the prison "big data" profile—someone with even a slight criminal record wouldn’t need a reason to kill again; his face was motive enough.

"What’s all this about?" The boss himself seemed guilty, his protruding belly sucked in, his shoulders slumped, his eyes full of hesitation.

"Let’s find an office and have a good talk," Liu Cheng changed the original plan and began a thorough interrogation with a few people. But the result...

Disappointing.

"You were away on a business trip recently?"

"Gone for half a month, that long?"

"You were inspecting agriculture? Got photos of the local area?"

"Even took an airplane, huh..." Liu Cheng looked at the records on the boss’s travel app, checked his social media moments, and tried to align the timeline, but nothing matched.

The bloodstained clothes had been washed, but the duration for bloodstain preservation is limited; even with a generous timeframe, it still didn’t fall within the relevant period.

Despite this, Liu Cheng still collected the socialite brother’s DNA and reminded him not to leave the city. He also took DNA samples from everyone in the company, inquired about any missing persons as usual, and began investigating the companies serviced by them.

Extracting contracts and other items from the company’s safe, Wang Chuanxing and others quickly produced a list of names. After comparing addresses, two companies were singled out.

"One is a company we’ve already checked out. The other is called Ruicheng Design Co., Ltd., which is... 2.3 kilometers from the incident location," said Wang Chuanxing, measuring the distance from the map, and he couldn’t help but take in a cold breath.

Liu Cheng glanced at Jiang Yuan, saying, "We almost missed it."

"Do the types of plants they use match?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"About eighty percent match, but there are no peppers or cucumbers..."

"That won’t be missed. If a 2-kilometer radius doesn’t yield results, expanding it to 3 or even 4 kilometers is just something that has to be done," Jiang Yuan said with certainty. In the murder cases he had worked on before, it was common to expand the search area.

One could even say that all the cases that involved Xu Taining were those where the search area was expanded. No matter how complex Beijing’s environment was, when there was no other way, expanding the range was just how it had to be.

Liu Cheng just didn’t have that kind of boldness; that was also why he didn’t have enough solid technology and evidence at his disposal.

Jiang Yuan had a level 4 background in Legal Botany, and he felt justified in expanding the search area.

Of course, that concern was now obsolete.

Liu Cheng checked his phone, stood up, and said, "Let’s head back now."

"It’s too late for us to go now, let’s have someone else dispatched from the bureau," Jiang Yuan also stood up.

If it were still early, he would have apprehended the suspect himself. However, after a full day’s investigation, it was almost the end of the workday. Any further delay could lead to problems.

Liu Cheng opened his mouth to speak but ended up just sighing and saying, "Alright."

One phone call back to the branch bureau set everything in motion there.

At the same time, Liu Cheng wasn’t in a hurry to return. He gathered the documents from the plant company and invited the boss, who had the appearance of a streetwise man, to assist with the investigation.

The tattooed boss was numbed, muttering, "I really didn’t do anything this time..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Cheng wanted to ask, "Then what did you do before?"

But seeing the pitiable look on the tattooed boss’s face, Liu Cheng held back, clearing his throat and said, "We just need you to come and make a statement. If there’s no traffic, you’ll be home by the evening. No worries."

His attempt at reassurance almost made the tattooed boss cry, "That’s what you guys said last time..."

Liu Cheng sighed again. With you bringing it up, there’s no way we can avoid asking about last time.

...

The team hurried back to the branch bureau. Floors that usually had the lights off by this hour were now brightly lit.

Murder cases in a big city’s district bureau were not uncommon, especially in a main district branch where the baseline was hundreds of dead bodies a year; complicated cases were inevitable.

However, the mystique of this current case was slightly higher. Not to mention the discovery of the bloody clothes, which was already quite probabilistic, the investigation process featured high-stakes rounds, and ordinary detectives could hardly get a word in.

Add to that the arrival of Jiang Yuan as an outside assistant—asking for outside help from Beijing Bureau was common, but the difference between one assistant from another could be enormous. Unlike the basic manpower borrowed from below or the weak say that ordinary technical experts had, Jiang Yuan was the kind who could take the lead, conducting the investigation with his skills as the core. This approach had not been seen in Zhengguang District Branch Bureau in recent years.

Such a case, and such an investigative mode, inevitably aroused curiosity. Of course, the most important thing was that the chief of the squad, Tao Lu, had ordered to work overtime.

With a breakthrough in the case, it was unclear how much manpower and resources were needed at the moment. Being prepared was what mattered most.

The command center.

The silver-gray walls gave off a sci-fi vibe.

Dozens of large screens displayed the city traffic, surveillance video, various data tables, and other content.

In the central screen, one could see real-time images from multiple interrogation rooms.

Jiang Yuan curiously inspected the high-tech hall, which was several hundred square meters. The place was like something out of TV, filled with screens and computers everywhere, young people who looked like they had graduated from prestigious schools sitting and typing away, and a group of middle-aged and older leaders who looked the part standing in front of the large screens, seemingly deep in thought...

Such a command center was something even Changyang City Bureau didn’t have. It was probably not a matter of not being able to afford it, but rather not knowing how to use it or finding it unnecessary even if it were used.

If Ningtai County Bureau acquired such a setup, it would probably be incredibly cool.

While Jiang Yuan observed and daydreamed, Tao Lu pulled Jiang Yuan aside. He signaled for a subordinate to hand over a printed interrogation record to Jiang Yuan, saying, "One of the company’s employees has gone missing, and the timing fits."

Yes, despite such an advanced command center, since some leaders preferred paper documents, a paperless office was still an unattainable goal.

As Jiang Yuan skimmed through the interrogation record, he asked, "Has the body not been found yet?"

"No, we’ve sent dogs to sniff it out. We’ve also sent people to collect DNA from the missing person’s house. The issue now is that we haven’t identified a suspect yet," Tao Lu said, his expression growing serious. Even if they found the victim’s body, with a company of over a hundred people, identifying the murderer was still a problem.