National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 788 - 731 Locking

Chapter 788: Chapter 731 Locking

Wang Chuanxing ran up the mountain and, after taking two boxes from the assembly point, he quickly made his way back down.

Then, two other police officers ran up, each grabbing an investigation box and heading down as well.

Tao Lu, who was discussing manpower allocation with the director, couldn’t help but stop talking when he saw people continuously coming up to collect things. He abruptly called out to one of them, asking, "What are you all doing?"

"The team lead, Jiang Yuan, found an area down below that is suspected to be a resting place used by the murderer. He asked us to bring down investigation equipment to try to sweep for some evidence," explained Shen Yaowei, who was stopped. He made things very clear in just a few sentences.

Tao Lu, who had already been discussing manpower issues with Director Chu, exchanged a glance with him, then said hurriedly, "Let’s go together."

"Yes," Shen Yaowei answered. He called over a young officer to take his investigation box down first and then led Director Chu and Tao Lu, along with the others, downward.

The 200-plus-meter mountain path wasn’t far to walk, but to Director Chu and Tao Lu, it felt like a long distance.

That’s because what Shen Yaowei said was too clear, filling their hearts with anticipation.

At the same time, they feared their anticipation might be misplaced. After all, it hadn’t been very long since the dismemberment case began. To say there was a major breakthrough already didn’t seem realistic. For the same reason, they didn’t feel it would be appropriate to ask again, as it could show a lack of common sense.

This is akin to a factory leader asking a worker, "I heard you moved 800,000 bricks by yourself today?" No one would seriously entertain such a statement.

It was only because of their deep experience and composure that they refrained from constantly pressing for answers.

At the large camphor tree.

More than a dozen police officers had turned this area into a bustling scene.

There were those taking photographs, filming, collecting soil samples, climbing the slope to pick up trash, and kneeling to collect trace evidence—people of all kinds were there.

Jiang Yuan was also half-kneeling in front of a tree stump, looking down as he collected physical evidence. Liu Jinghui had climbed up onto the tree branch, about three or four meters off the ground, surveying the distance. The only somewhat normal one was Xu Taining, who was on his phone, continuously making calls.

"What’s the situation now?" Tao Lu and the others hadn’t entered the cordoned-off area yet and shouted from a distance.

"Just a moment, I’ll be right there," Jiang Yuan looked up, but decided to first place the item he had in the tweezers into an evidence bag and seal it before getting up and coming over. "Tao, you’ve also come down."

Tao Lu asked, "Did you find something?"

"Yes," Jiang Yuan briefly recounted the discussion they had previously. "The tire tracks of the motorcycle found here can be basically determined to be the same as those found at the body dump site. Based on how deep the tracks are, we can infer that the murderer stopped here to rest after dumping the body."

The body dump site was a wild slope made up of secondary forest and shrubbery, where under normal circumstances, there would be no need for anyone to stop and stay. Hence, the motorcycle tracks found on the side of the slope were highly likely to have been left by the killer.

The same mode of transportation naturally linked the two sites.

Tao Lu couldn’t help but nod, a smile appearing on his face, "So, you found the killer’s traces here?"

"The killer clearly let his guard down here. We have already collected dozens of cigarette butts, hoping some might belong to the killer. Additionally, down in the grass, we found a cigarette box, tissues, plastic bags, a mineral water bottle, and other trash that we’ll take back to the lab to see what clues we can find," Jiang Yuan stated. Taking into account the authority of the branch chief, he specially explained, "Even if the killer can’t be identified for the time being, we have assumed that the killer likely lives nearby and is familiar with the area. Therefore, finding these people who frequently come to the mountains may also lead us to some clues."

Listening, Tao Lu nodded; it was an obvious fact with a decent probability.

The simplest method for a policeman could be to take the statements of all these people—probably totaling no more than twenty to thirty individuals. Then have them list everyone they know who comes, or might come to the mountain. Cross-referencing that information to identify individuals with motorcycles or who often ride motorcycles...

Since these are people who know each other or are relatively familiar, a few phone calls and home visits would likely narrow down the list significantly.

Given that the case might involve a crime of passion, an accidental killing or involuntary manslaughter—owing to the use of packaging materials, the murderer and the victim could also most likely have a personal acquaintance—it seemed reasonably straightforward to develop a pool of suspects.

In addition, since there are traces of a motorcycle, identifying the owner basically means identifying the murderer.

Plus, there may be reports of missing persons and so on, this case can now be said to be seeing the first light of dawn.

Tao Lu couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief and, when he looked at Director Chu, an uncontrollable smile appeared on his face, "With this, the dismemberment case seems to be getting some direction."

"Indeed," Director Chu was generous with his smile. This incidental dismemberment case, if solved, would have no impact on his status, but if unsolved, it would be a huge blow to his personal prestige and the overall budget.

The slogan "Every murder case must be solved," when analyzed with the cost-output method, is a pure loss, but the proposal of this slogan is a great protection for the ordinary citizens under Chinese society. It is a great restraint on the unlimited expansion of upper-level power. Its virtue is immeasurable.

Turning his head, Director Chu looked at Jiang Yuan, almost wishing he could feed him deer blood as a tonic, first rolling out the routine praise, then asking, "I saw you inspecting that stump earlier, was there something on it?"

"Someone wiped their booger on it, and there’s what appears to be spit, I guess," Jiang Yuan said nonchalantly, "The snot and spit on the ground have basically decomposed, but the ones on the stump have retained some form."

"Hmm... it’s been hard work." Director Chu, the head of the Zhengguang Bureau, hadn’t touched base with the grassroots level in a while.

"I’ll continue with the inspection, we need to get this area cleaned up quickly before it gets dark," said Jiang Yuan to Director Chu and Tao.

"Go on with your work. Don’t overdo it," Director Chu quickly said before watching Jiang Yuan kneel back down at the stump without hesitation, feeling somewhat touched.

Jiang Yuan’s movements were far from elegant; even in the wilderness, such commonly used resting spots could only appear filthy.

Yet Jiang Yuan just knelt there, clearly so strong that even the criminal police of the Zhengguang Bureau had to look up to him, still unabashedly cleaning up snot and saliva that might have accumulated at some unknown time...

"This kid needs some extra hands, maybe a promotion or something," Director Chu couldn’t help but mutter.

Tao Lu was startled and quickly said, "Jiang Yuan is assigned to Ningtai County."

"Then are you willing to let him go back to Ningtai County? Besides, Huang Qiangmin’s demands are too harsh, we can’t just let him slaughter us like this," Director Chu said, his back teeth clenching when he mentioned Huang Qiangmin.

He hadn’t brought this up before because he saw benefits in temporary transfers. Zhengguang Bureau, like other police bureaus at various levels, had a history of borrowing manpower and was experienced in it. Borrowed people are best used in the first few years; whether they like it or not. Newcomers try to prove themselves, or to fit into the team, or in hope of the slim chance of staying on, or even possibly out of boredom, they tend to put in the effort at the beginning.

But as time passes, people’s inertia sets in, and only a few can break through this emotion. Thus, borrowed people, like someone else’s wife, are good only for temporary use; it is futile to expect a long-term commitment.

But this time, Director Chu felt an unprecedented stir.

Director Chu instinctively felt that he could not lose Jiang Yuan, and Zhengguang Bureau couldn’t afford to be without him either!

Tao Lu also thought that buying was better than renting, frowned, and said, "Then I’ll think of a way and talk to Jiang Yuan later. The main issue is he’s a Ningtai local, and his family is wealthy..."

As Tao Lu pointed out the difficulty, chatting idly for a moment, Xu Taining received a phone call and came over.

"We’ve had a breakthrough; the burned cigarette butts sent down earlier for a rapid DNA test have matched someone in the database," Xu Taining reported: "Pei Yongsi, living in a new village 3 kilometers away, local resident, detained twice by public security. His wife has been missing for two months, and he reported it two days after the disappearance, but she hasn’t been found..."

"Pei Yongsi has experience as a chef, and they owned a flower shop in the city. Contact with the shop staff revealed that Pei Yongsi’s daily responsibilities included packaging flower boxes and delivering them to homes..."

"Pei Yongsi has a car registered under his name, as well as a motorcycle."

The descriptions by Xu Taining matched their earlier conjectures one by one.

At this point, everyone was excited, and Xu Taining silently took a step back, already considering the next steps for broadening the search.