National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 779 - 722: Unknown Path Ahead

Chapter 779: Chapter 722: Unknown Path Ahead

Police dogs are great helpers, but once they enter the scene, they contaminate the site.

Technicians, cute or not, with their hoods and gloves at least don’t shed hair. Police dogs not only shed, but they also drool and their little paws trample all over the place, so we must be cautious.

However, the advantages of police dogs are also quite obvious. Scent tracking is a skill where humans are weaker and difficult to replace with technology. With proper training, one or two police dogs can find a multitude of clues.

Tao Lu brought five police dogs this time.

Two dogs were kept behind to work in the courtyard, while the remaining three immediately left the yard to start searching the fields.

Including Jiang Yuan, Liu Jinghui, and others, everyone couldn’t help but focus most of their attention on the dogs. These shiny coated creatures, with just a few barks, could escalate the case at hand.

Tao Lu was even a little nervous.

He was starting to lose count of whether he wanted the dogs to bark or not.

Wuu wuu...

An evil wind passed through the woods, emitting an oppressive howl.

In such a large rural mansion, if only two or three people lived there, maybe even five, the sound of the wind would likely be somewhat scary.

But with a hundred police officers staying in such a small mansion, the wind’s slightly menacing noise just seemed amusing.

"Let’s go back," said Jiang Yuan after waiting a while, seeing the two dogs left in the courtyard showing no signs of going online and starting to feel a bit tired.

If they can’t smell anything, they just can’t. Waiting any longer would be pointless.

Liu Jinghui sighed, "What a pity."

Qiao Shengli, who had been hiding in the corner, wanting to leave but not daring to, asked quietly, "A pity for what?"

Liu Jinghui let out a long sigh, "Big cases aren’t common. Especially digging up a big case from scratch is truly rare. Just think about it, if you discovered a new species in botany, what would that feel like?"

"We often make discoveries," Qiao Shengli quipped smartly, "Last year we found about 300 new plant species, but our research isn’t focused on that..."

Liu Jinghui waved his hand and sighed again.

Jiang Yuan took a group of technicians back to the Criminal Police Brigade.

He slept on the way and arrived relatively refreshed, immediately starting the fingerprint comparison work.

This case was somewhat special. In the same kind of wild mansion, if it were located in the mountains of Ningtai County, the police station from top to bottom would probably be energized, solely focused on capturing the suspect.

But in a place like Qingling Mountain, whether we can concentrate solely on capturing the suspect is not certain.

Jiang Yuan also had to take advantage of the time to work. Not finding a body in the courtyard doesn’t mean there isn’t another body related to the case. As for being "wholeheartedly" committed, acting fast might just be effective.

Jiang Yuan had a simple understanding that if he could do things normal police couldn’t then, logically, the case-solving rate should increase.

Just like the current case, Jiang Yuan sped up the whole process today, confident that within the next two days, he would be able to pull out all the fingerprints and footprints. However, without his participation, a strong bureau like Zhengguang, even mobilizing an elite force, would probably need about a week.

Zhengguang Bureau didn’t have a Level 4 fingerprint expert or a footprint identification expert. To get one, they’d have to borrow from the city bureau. Even if they managed to get one, the expert wouldn’t be readily available. And even if the expert did come and was above Level 4, a perfect collaboration didn’t guarantee that the task could be completed in two or three days.

This was all under the premise that Jiang Yuan had established a baseline with his Level 5 crime scene survey and Level 6 crime scene reconstruction.

In the end, it wasn’t just a fingerprint expert that Zhengguang Bureau or the Criminal Police Brigade needed; they also needed experts in forensic material evidence, legal botany, and so on for collaboration.

Assuming Jiang Yuan’s opponents—the criminals—had a clear understanding of the police’s strength, normally, they should be prone to miscalculating.

That’s the most reasonable and safe way he had thought of to handle the case.

So, when Jiang Yuan returned to his office, he immediately got to work.

He had forensic technicians come over to help, and Jiang Yuan was unabashed in commanding them.

Fingerprint comparison was his foundation skill and the first thing Jiang Yuan checked; now back at the office, it was also the first thing he dealt with.

Fingerprints are known as the king of evidence for a reason. They are highly efficient and provide clear direction. As primates, it’s very easy for humans to leave fingerprints—working with gloves on is far more troublesome than wearing a mask or a condom.

So, putting themselves in the criminal’s shoes, is it easy for a crook to wear gloves the whole time? Not at all. It’s akin to expecting someone to wear a mask every time they leave the house or a condom every time they go to bed; the stricter the demand, the shorter the duration of compliance, the harder it is to follow through.

Moreover, whether before or after the fact, everyone prefers to go without protection if they can. Just like with face masks, as soon as people reach a place where they can take them off, many can’t wait to do so. The same goes for crime scenes—people often leave cigarette butts at the entrance or fingerprints in the alley when they leave; it’s extremely common.

In the mansion on Qingling Mountain, the fingerprints left behind were even more brazen.

Because of this, the technicians handled it pretty well.

It was still dark outside, but because the fingerprint processing went smoothly, everyone was in a quite good mood.

Sitting next to Jiang Yuan, the trace examiner Dong Ai hummed a tune before laughing and saying, "You can tell when someone knows their stuff by the fingerprints they collect. There are some crime scene investigators or detectives whose work really makes you want to hit them."

Feng Chao, sitting opposite Dong Ai, chuckled, "Don’t even mention some crime scene investigators and detectives; even fingerprints taken by some trace examiners make me want to hit someone."

"What trace examiners..." Dong Ai started to say before he suddenly realized and glared, "Old Feng, watch your words. Are you saying the fingerprints I collected are trash?"

"That envelope you processed with iodine fuming, remember? The big, brown fingerprint that appeared, what was that supposed to be? The photo looked like a lump. My son’s poop in the mud looks better than that," Feng Chao openly mocked, without the slightest consideration for his colleague.

Dong Ai was taken aback and, feeling slightly embarrassed, said, "Old Feng, why bring up old stories? That was a long time ago."

"Just so you don’t get carried away," Feng Chao laughed.

With a sigh of resignation, Dong Ai turned to Jiang Yuan and said, "Old Feng here never spares anyone with his words. I was in a hurry back then, and I didn’t adjust the lighting properly. The iodine fuming only takes a few minutes to develop the image, and we were pressed for time to take pictures, plus someone’s shadow got in the way. Old Feng has been nagging me about this for years."

"If an error only happens once every few years, that’s quite impressive," Jiang Yuan said as he was handling this complex case with a high level of emotional intelligence.

Feng Chao smiled again, "Of course, errors can’t just happen once every few years; otherwise, you’d be a god."

Feng Chao was clearly an old desk jockey who wasn’t interested in advancing his career; he was content with just having the last word.

However, from Jiang Yuan’s perspective, Feng Chao’s fingerprint identification skills were at least at a Level 2 standard. He could be considered an expert in Qinghe City, but in the Jingji police bureaus, he was just average labor. When working, he probably didn’t feel much sense of accomplishment.

Jiang Yuan simply ignored them and continued with the fingerprint comparison. As soon as he got results, he recorded them.

Tao Lu quickly returned, habitually going straight to Jiang Yuan’s office instead of the meeting room.

"How’s it going? Any new leads?" Tao Lu didn’t even look at the screen, asking Jiang Yuan directly.

"Of the fingerprints scanned so far, we have matches for 2 men and 7 women. The women are generally good-looking and were mostly recorded due to public security punishment. Mainly for prostitution, but some were involved in other public security cases as well," Jiang Yuan reported, glancing at his notebook. "The 2 male individuals are the same."

Tao Lu nodded, as if expecting this, and said, "So you’re saying this building is a den of debauchery?"

"It’s possible," Jiang Yuan replied.

"They set up a whorehouse in the mountains of Qingling and still only offer services for five or six hundred? Are they afraid the business would be too good and the girls couldn’t handle it, or what?" Feng Chao, who had popped his head from the other side of the desk, posed a rather valid question.

Tao Lu and Jiang Yuan exchanged glances and both nodded involuntarily.

Indeed, although prostitution is illegal, those who sell sex have to follow market rules. If this were a storefront, located so far away and with difficult access, how many people would come to patronize it?

No matter how safe it was, not many people would come. Is safety the primary concern for those seeking prostitutes? Obviously not. If absolute safety were their goal, they wouldn’t seek prostitutes in the first place.

"The price per customer is too low." In Tao Lu’s view, this place was likely a very high-end establishment. After all, with the trouble it takes to get here, those willing to come would have already incurred high costs and should be willing to pay a higher price. Only then would it be profitable for the person who built this mansion.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

"Could it be a drug den?" Liu Jinghui joined the discussion, having heard the others’ conversation.

"That’s a possibility," Jiang Yuan paused before responding, "There are no quick tests for that, but let’s see if we can detect anything later."

Given the severity of drug-related sentences, retreating into the deep woods for drug use isn’t unusual. And if there’s the added allure of female companions, it would indeed be a form of pleasure for the addicts.

"However, logically speaking, if this were a drug den, it seems too well constructed. Unnecessary—addicts don’t care about their surroundings once they have their fix. Instead of going through all this trouble, it would be better to find a place with easier access, like those sparsely occupied residential areas that are much more comfortable," Liu Jinghui seemed to recall another case, smirking as he spoke, "Many drug users are wrecks; they can hardly make the effort to climb mountains and ford streams."

"Are johns physically fit then?" Feng Chao laughed, "If johns are in good shape, it only means the prostitutes aren’t working hard enough."

"Your logic is sound," Liu Jinghui complimented.

"Let’s bring some people back for questioning," Tao Lu didn’t wish to discuss further. Checking the time, he saw it was almost dawn—a good time to send someone out.

Jiang Yuan nodded and added, "Remember to ask them where they went. If they left because of the homicide, they might have been unprepared."

Moreover, criminals who have already murdered are more likely to decide to kill again, which could escalate the crime.