Rebirth 2014: I, the King of Criminal Investigation

Chapter 642 On the Issue of Unified Command among the Three Parties

"We don't have a suitable candidate for the position of deputy chief of staff yet, so it's temporarily vacant."

The speaker was the chief of the Songhai Criminal Investigation Corps.

That was the only answer he could give to the question about the Chinese team.

If I told the truth, probably no one would believe me.

In Songhai, we have a criminal police officer who specifically restrains the deputy chief, so much so that the position is still vacant.

Of the two deputy chiefs, one was sentenced to prison, and the other's future was ruined.

That's right. This position has been vacant ever since the previous one was transferred. It's not that no one is looking for a candidate, but rather that no one is willing to take the position.

After all, there are precedents to learn from.

Currently, everyone within the Songhai system believes this position is unlucky, and to be qualified, one's birth chart must be strong enough.

"Has the task force been established?" Captain Hua asked again.

He's in a hurry to connect with this side, so he wants to find the person in charge of the case.

The chief investigator naturally cannot personally get involved in solving cases.

"The task force was just established this morning."

The captain replied:

"The team leader was temporarily transferred from another branch office. He's on his way and should be here soon."

The brigade asked the branch office to borrow personnel? When Hua heard this, he thought he had misheard.

Even if your brigade doesn't have a deputy brigade leader, you wouldn't need to find someone from a branch office to be the head of the special task force, would you?

From this perspective, Songhai's Criminal Investigation Corps is indeed suffering from a severe shortage of talent, and has even resorted to seeking support from lower-level authorities.

What surprised him most was that the captain didn't blush or skip a beat when he said these things, and didn't seem to feel ashamed at all.

Songhai is quite interesting... Team Leader Hua couldn't help but mutter to himself.

If the branch office really had a top-notch detective, they would have been promoted long ago, or at least transferred to the headquarters or the municipal bureau.

Therefore, he can now be certain that the task force in Songhai is of very limited ability.

"Captain Xu, what do you think?"

Since it has been determined that the task force here is incompetent, Team Leader Hua can only discuss the matter with Team Leader Xu.

"Let's wait for the team leader here before we talk about it," Team Leader Xu suggested.

"Then we'll discuss it together as a three-way meeting, and the information will be shared in a timely manner."

He didn't believe there weren't capable people in Songhai.

On the contrary, in his mind, the most skilled detective he had ever met was a fat man from Songhai.

However, Captain Xu also knew that Yu Dazhang was just an ordinary criminal police officer.

Even if the Criminal Investigation Corps goes to a branch office to call for outside help, the minimum requirement is a team leader.

Seeing that Captain Xu had said that, Captain Hua didn't know what else to say. After all, they were on someone else's turf, and even if they were in a hurry, they had to wait until everyone had arrived before they could say anything.

The captain also noticed that the two leaders from other provinces were both rather arrogant.

Although they tried their best to restrain themselves, the arrogance that emanated from their bones still made the captain a little uncomfortable.

However, this kind of personality is indeed needed for solving cases.

If the leader lacks confidence, those below will be even less confident.

While waiting, people inside lit cigarettes one after another, and Hua and his team also started smoking.

After taking two puffs, Captain Hua spoke again:

“Since the cases we have are all similar, I think we can combine them for processing. In fact, we all know that the missing people are very likely to have gone to the same place.”

Upon hearing this, Captain Xu nodded and continued the conversation:
“I also think we can combine the cases, but the jurisdiction is not easy to handle, and there is also the issue of unified command among the three parties.”

By saying this, he was essentially making his intentions clear. S Province would accept the combined handling of the cases, but he was not going to relinquish his authority to investigate.

This is only because he and the Chinese team are already familiar with each other, which is why he speaks so frankly.

When they first met, they simply didn't talk about this topic at all.

Since no one wanted to hand over the major case they were handling, they decided to work together on it.

"There has to be a leader."

The Chinese team also seemed quite helpless:
“It’s too inefficient for each of the three parties to investigate separately. Even if we are cooperating, there should be someone giving orders.”

To put it bluntly, he didn't want to relinquish his authority to handle cases, nor did he want to be directed by others.

We're all on equal footing, so cooperation is fine, but we should try our best to secure command authority on our side.

The captain smoked a cigarette, occasionally glancing at them without saying a word.

He couldn't be bothered with such things.

No one would easily hand over such a major case, and if it were to be combined into one case, it would be a matter of great importance.

Nationwide, if news of such a large number of missing persons, especially a series of disappearances, gets out, the Ministry of Public Security would have to personally oversee the case.

What kinds of cases will the Ministry of Public Security designate for supervision?
The main point is: cases with a wide social impact and serious consequences.

For example, Chow Yun-fat back in the day.

This case was supervised by the Ministry of Public Security.

The reason for the supervision was that it was widely circulated in society, and it became almost a household news story at the time.

If we can't catch Ma Ying-jeou, the social impact will be unimaginable.

Many cases of family annihilation were not publicly investigated because the news did not spread and did not cause a negative social impact.

I won't go into details.

In short, any case that has a negative impact on society may be placed under special supervision.

Look at the sentence above; there's a word in it: "maybe."

Because there's a fermentation period in between, many cases are solved before they're widely publicized, so they don't reach the stage of being supervised.

Therefore, don't rush to ask the Ministry of Public Security to supervise every case you encounter.

The Ministry of Public Security is not the Football Association; it's a place that handles serious matters. Don't get them mixed up.

"I also think there should be unified command."

Seeing that he couldn't avoid it any longer, Captain Xu decided to take the initiative:

"The person in charge of command must be experienced and have a long service in the police force; only in this way can they control the overall situation."

"Isn't this talking about yourself?" Hua immediately understood the implication in his words.

Both men held the same position as deputy chief, but in terms of seniority, Captain Hua was not as senior as Captain Xu.

Moreover, Captain Xu's age speaks for itself; there's no need to ask further—his head of gray hair is enough to prove everything.

"A long service in the police force does not necessarily mean rich experience, and years of service do not represent anything."

Team Hua glared and retorted:

“We had a special case like this before, and the person who led us in solving it was a young man…”

He suddenly stopped talking, as if he were attracted by something. His gaze was fixed on the door of the conference room, and his eyes were wide open.

Seeing his expression, Captain Xu followed his gaze and looked towards the door.

He was stunned at first glance.

At that moment, a fat man was standing at the door of the conference room.

He was walking in stealthily, his waist slightly bent, as if trying to minimize his presence.

(End of this chapter)