National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 838 - 779: Smooth

Chapter 838: Chapter 779: Smooth

A group of people drove to a commercial district, where the front car slowed down.

The walkie-talkie soon broadcasted the voice of Captain Tang, who had just introduced the technical reconnaissance team, saying, "Next, we’ll use the tech recon vehicle to lock onto the mobile phone’s location. Normally, in old models of tech recon cars, we would turn off the walkie-talkies at this point. However, today we’ll conduct a test and add a bit of difficulty by not turning them off."

"Received." Huang Qiangmin responded with a smile.

In the walkie-talkie, Captain Tang continued, "Usually, to find a phone, we first locate the base station and then triangulate. But this method works best during calls. Another method, using the base station to search, has lower resolution—it works fairly well outdoors, but is less effective in more urban areas. Tech recon lock-on is different... Ah, found it."

The front car kept moving as it spoke, and then stopped in front of a residential building with commercial shops on the ground floor.

This neighborhood wasn’t a closed community but rather a mixed-use apartment model. The ground floor consisted of four levels all occupied by shops, bustling like a small commercial community. The floors above the shops were occupied by residences or apartments, totaling around twenty-some buildings. It was challenging to pinpoint the exact building containing the phone when the person wasn’t making calls.

The tech recon car was different; it smoothly drove straight to Building 6 without any hesitation.

The basic model of a tech recon car, often seen in spy dramas, is a radio direction-finding vehicle that can monitor surrounding radio waves while driving, thereby pinpointing the origin of radio signals as precisely as possible.

In earlier years, when electromagnetic signals weren’t as wildly pervasive, driving a radio direction-finding vehicle near a building would generally determine the location.

However, today’s environment, with more complex electromagnetic conditions and increased building height and density, has made it almost impossible to pinpoint a person in a building like decades ago. The environment added to the complexity.

After the tech recon car came to a stop, they brought out several small boxes.

"This is the ’manpack,’ officially known as the Man Portable Reconnaissance Device, costing 100,000 each. We’ll use this to address the last mile problem," Captain Tang explained as he opened a few small boxes and switched them on before heading upstairs.

The manpack essentially simulates a cell tower. It induces nearby phones to voluntarily register and report back their data, which can then be aggregated for analysis or focus on locating a particular phone.

Several tech recon team members first took the elevator to the 10th and 15th floors, explored a bit, and eventually converged on the 11th floor.

The apartment building had a pattern of four elevators servicing sixteen units, and the rooms, all appearing rather small, were packed closely with one door next to another.

Captain Tang then showed Huang Qiangmin and Jiang Yuan the signal on the manpack, saying, "The manpack allows the criminal police to be trained for its use. Typically, we just look at the signal strength and proceed to search each household."

"This home’s signal is 8, the next door is 9, and the one after that is back to 8. So let’s loop back, check again, and if the signal really is 9, then it’s this one." Captain Tang walked around with the manpack, identified the location, and then made way.

The criminal police who accompanied them naturally gathered at the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

Knock, knock, knock.

The officers knocked on the door, but no one inside responded.

Captain Tang whispered, "The phone is inside; the person must be inside too."

This evidence was already sufficient. Wu Junhao nodded and said, "Prepare to break in."

After saying this, Wu Junhao shouted, "Police! If you don’t open the door, we’ll force our way in."

Creak...

The door cracked open.

Wu Junhao immediately rushed in, showing no sign of someone who had just been shot three times through a bulletproof vest.

Liu Wenkai and the other police officers stormed in as well. The Zhengguang Bureau officers also held the 92 type—a more advanced model often distributed in Shannan Province, whereas in Beijing, such outdated revolvers had long been phased out.

"Who are you looking for?" asked a flustered young girl who had opened the door, her face adorned with nightclub-style smoky makeup and clad in black silk stockings, looking timid.

"Ah... Where is Li Xiangming?" Liu Wenkai asked, holding his gun, his brow furrowed but handling the situation gently...

The girl shook her head.

"What’s your name?"

"Li Shunyang."

"How is Li Xiangming related to you?"

"He’s my brother."

"Where has he gone?"

The girl shook her head again.

"You, move aside." Liu Wenkai motioned with a gesture for the girl to stand by the wall.

The apartment wasn’t large, basically a slightly larger one-bedroom unit, with no place to hide except for the kitchen and bathroom.

Several technical surveillance officers also frowned, whispering by the sides of Jiang Yuan and Huang Qiangmin, "Could he have left his phone behind? Does he have a work-specific phone?"

At this time, the police officers in front of Jiang Yuan had already approached, and Jiang Yuan glanced sideways at the girl standing against the wall, slightly raising his voice, "Please take control of Li Shunyang."

Inside, Wu Junhao hesitated for a moment, since it was inconvenient to take action, he just stood by and said to Li Shunyang, "Raise your hands, are you carrying any weapons?"

"There’s no need to be so polite," Jiang Yuan called out again, "Captain Wu, keep guard, Captain Tang, cuff him."

"Do you think I’m particularly adept at handcuffing women?" Liu Wenkai’s personality wasn’t very serious, but he still took the handcuffs and approached Li Shunyang, saying, "Please turn around..."

"Why... why?" Li Shunyang looked pitiful.

Liu Wenkai hesitated a bit; if there was no rush, he would actually prefer to wait for a female officer to handle it, to avoid any trouble later.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan stepped forward and looked at Li Shunyang’s feet, saying, "Because this person is actually Li Xiangming himself. Judging by the foot shape and walking posture, they are undoubtedly male. The footprints also match those in the file."

"A man?"

Not only Liu Wenkai and Wu Junhao but also the technical officers outside the room all looked over.

The girl, pretending to be pitiful, was also shocked, trying hard to say, "I am not..."

"Turn around! Raise your hands!" Wu Junhao, understanding what Jiang Yuan had said, no longer cared about the suspect’s excuses, and his voice deepened abruptly.

The girl still wanted to pretend, but Liu Wenkai’s voice also turned fierce, "Li Xiangming! Don’t cause trouble for yourself! You’ve got enough problems already!"

With so many police officers in the room, all heightened their vigilance, and Li Xiangming no longer harbored any illusions, his voice returning to a normal male tone, "I know. I just changed into a different cosplay..."

At this point, everyone was certain.

Liu Wenkai snapped the cuffs, spreading Li Xiangming’s legs apart, "Put your hands on the wall. I’m going to search you now!"

Since the suspect was a man, Liu Wenkai had nothing to hesitate about.

Liu Wenkai first lifted Li Xiangming’s skirt, ensuring there was nothing in the bulging petticoat underneath, and then tore open the steel-ringed bra to check inside before grimacing and saying with a smirk, "Quite the sensation."

Li Xiangming calmly responded, "If you like, I have several more dresses."

"Your voice really breaks the immersion," Liu Wenkai said unswayed as he handcuffed Li Xiangming’s hands and then started to inspect the room’s contents.

The technical officers watched, somewhat stunned. Captain Tang packed up his portable equipment, chuckling, "Life as a criminal police is indeed interesting."

"It’s rare to encounter such cases," the accompanying criminal police also watched the excitement.

With so many people present, those outside chatted while those inside methodically conducted the investigation.

It was a minor case, but the investigation procedures were still necessary, though the area and number of items to be examined could be reduced.

After a while, Captain Tang seemed reluctant to waste more time and turned to Huang Qiangmin, "Our practical application this round is just like this. Speaking of technical surveillance vehicles, ours is quite well-made..."

He was ready to take his leave.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan called out to him, "Captain Tang, since you’re here, let’s check another person."

"Uh... who?" Captain Tang hesitated. Theoretically, deploying technical surveillance required authorization from the provincial or municipal bureau. However, since the technical surveillance vehicle was already deployed, the procedure must have been followed. Nevertheless, Captain Tang inherently remained cautious about using technical surveillance methods.

Jiang Yuan said, "I collected some fingerprints from the stolen goods and scanned them through the police service system, and matched them to a habitual offender with a prior record of receiving stolen goods. Let Li Xiangming identify his phone number, and you can locate it, shall we go directly to the arrest?"

"Well... okay then," Captain Tang led Jiang Yuan and others downstairs, entered the technical surveillance vehicle, performed some operations, and came back saying, "Based on the phone’s location, he should be nearby, just a few hundred meters."

"Let’s walk there," Jiang Yuan called Wu Junhao, Liu Wenkai, Mu Zhiyang, and a group of young, energetic police officers, who grandly arrived at...

A hotpot restaurant.

The suspect, along with two others, was noisily enjoying hotpot and drinking ice-cold cola.

"Be careful with the hotpot base, it’s boiling hot. Find someone to get a lid or something in case the suspect goes crazy and tries to overturn the hotpot; control the pot first!" Wu Junhao, experienced in arrests, quickly assigned roles, then ordered several key arresting officers to change clothes and enter from both the front and back doors.

The initial preparations were somewhat tedious; because of this, when it came to the actual arrest, the three unsuspecting suspects didn’t resist at all and were captured without a fight.

"These two also have cases pending, they are on the wanted list," Liu Wenkai verified the fingerprints of the three on the spot, and seized the two hotpot sessions of the fence.

Meanwhile, several cell phones and about a dozen figurines were found in the three’s backpacks.

"I’ll scan the fingerprints," Jiang Yuan, intrigued, borrowed a private room in the hotpot restaurant, and started dusting the figurines right there.