Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 320 A New Look at You (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

"Jiang Wei?" Pan Hongjie asked, somewhat puzzled.

Zhou Yi said, "That's right. I consulted Teacher Tang about rigor mortis before. Teacher Tang thought that with the size of that well, it might be difficult to fit Li Youqiang's body in, because rigor mortis occurs after a person dies."

"However, once the time of death exceeds 72 hours, rigor mortis will completely disappear. Therefore, Professor Tang believes that it is more likely that the body will be disposed of in the well after rigor mortis has completely disappeared, rather than immediately after death."

Pan Hongjie was somewhat surprised and muttered to himself, "Why haven't I heard her mention this before?"

"I just heard Officer Chen mention that the person sent the car over and requested a deep cleaning. A deep car cleaning not only cleans the surface but also the interior. The person who sent the car over must have had a purpose in doing so."

"But this purpose is clearly unrelated to the two corpses in Little Hill Park."

Zhou Yi's words piqued Pan Hongjie's curiosity. "Why is it unrelated? Perhaps it's to clean up traces left during the removal of the body?"

"If the murderer who killed those two people was so careful, it's impossible that he wouldn't have noticed the scratches on the car. Shouldn't his first action have been to touch up the paint to cover them up? And leaving the car at the repair shop doesn't make sense either; it would only make him more likely to be exposed."

Pan Hongjie hesitated, feeling that Zhou Yi's words made some sense, but also seemed to lack something.

"Captain Pan, let's assume that the murderers at Xiaoqiushan Park are Fu Daqing and Li Youqiang. How likely do you think that is?"

"Based on the clues we have so far, it's at least 70% certain," Pan Hongjie replied, because the hidden knife was the strongest evidence. No matter how the knife appeared, these two people couldn't escape involvement.

"Okay, let's put aside the question of what the relationship was between Li and Fu and the two deceased, and just talk about the young man who took the car to be cleaned. Captain Pan, what do you think is the likelihood that this person was their accomplice?"

Pan Hongjie stroked his chin and said, "It's really hard to say. Li Youqiang has no social connections in Anyuan, while Fu Daqing does, but so far, the investigation shows that they are all old connections from more than five years ago, and they haven't reconnected. Judging from this, it's more likely that they are not accomplices, because conspiring to kill usually requires strong relationships to maintain, otherwise it's easy to become suspicious of each other."

“Captain Pan, you’re right. This person isn’t an accomplice. Either he found or stole the car on the roadside, but that doesn’t fit the act of washing and abandoning a car. Or he’s someone who has some connection with Li and Fu. In short, it’s impossible for someone to just appear out of thin air.”

"Now, let's go back to the matter of Li Youqiang dumping the body. The well is located in a remote area, which suggests two factors. First, there must be a suitable means of transportation to move the body, and a car is undoubtedly the most suitable. Second, it is highly unlikely that the location of this well is known to anyone other than a local of Anyuan."

“We previously analyzed that the possibility of Fu Daqing killing Li Youqiang was relatively low. But now let’s assume that Fu Daqing did kill him to cover up the crime. Why didn’t he choose to bury Li Youqiang’s body in Xiaoqiushan Park as well? He knew that place well. Why would he go to the trouble of throwing the body into the well and increase the risk?”

Pan Hongjie stopped talking at this point and listened intently to Zhou Yi's analysis of the case, nodding repeatedly.

Zhou Yi said, "Furthermore, Professor Tang previously analyzed that it is more likely that the body was dumped in the well after the rigor mortis had completely subsided. This would require taking the risk of hiding or preserving the body for two or three days. Under such circumstances, the fact that the person did not choose to bury the body in Xiaoqiushan Park indicates that the person's first reaction was to dump the body in that well, rather than on the mountain."

"So this fully proves that the two groups of murderers were not the same group at all. Then let's continue to speculate. Suppose that after Li Youqiang was murdered, the murderer used this car to transport the body and dispose of it. After disposing of the body, when the murderer was considering how to dispose of the car, he found that because the body had decomposed to a certain extent, some traces were left in the car. What would he do then?"

At this point, Pan Hongjie understood the direction of Zhou Yi's analysis. He continued, "The murderer would clean up the traces left by the body and then dispose of the car."

Zhou Yi nodded: "That's right, leaving it to a repair shop is the easiest way, and this car has nothing to do with the murderer behind it, so no matter how you investigate, you won't be able to trace it back to him."

Pan Hongjie suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "This car should belong to the male victim in the park. According to the information you provided before, neither Fu Daqing nor Li Youqiang owns any vehicles, so this car couldn't have just appeared out of thin air. It also can't be a stolen vehicle, because we checked yesterday and found no matching stolen vehicle records."

“So the most likely candidate is the male victim. After all, no one reported the death, so it’s not surprising that there was no record of the vehicle theft.” Pan Hongjie clapped his hands excitedly and said, “In that case, as long as we find the owner’s information for this car, we can confirm the identity of the male victim.”

Turning around, I saw Chen Dejiang still standing at the door. "Old Chen, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and go check with the traffic police."

Chen Dejiang had been engrossed in Zhou Yi's analysis, and only now did he realize what was happening. "Oh, I'll go right now."

No sooner had Chen Dejiang left than Xia Yu returned: "Captain Pan, everything is ready."

"Okay! Let's go right away." Pan Hongjie waved to Zhou Yi and said, "Zhou Yi, come on, come along."

"Okay, Captain Pan." Zhou Yi knew that his "operations" just now had made Pan Hongjie look at him with new eyes, which could be seen from his eyes just now.

Moreover, Zhou Yi also discovered that An Yuan's overall criminal investigation capabilities were relatively weak.

Firstly, there are economic reasons. Although Anyuan is a prefecture-level city, it only has one district and two counties because half of its area is mountainous, and its population is less than 1.2 million. In the past, it relied entirely on agriculture, and only in recent years has it begun to develop animal husbandry.

A weak economy will lead to a relatively weak economy in all other aspects; this is a basic principle.

Secondly, Anyuan has a relatively low rate of major homicides. While solving cases does require a certain talent, such as meticulous logical thinking and strong observation skills, this is not applicable to ordinary people. Geniuses usually only exist in legends.

Ninety-nine percent of police officers develop their keen eyesight and uncanny foresight through experiencing all sorts of cases.

Just like leveling up in a game, you can't level up without gaining experience.

Moreover, Zhou Yi had learned from Xia Yu that An Yuan did not have a department like Hongcheng's Third Brigade that was specifically responsible for major cases, and the overall size of the city bureau was also much smaller than that of Hongcheng.

In fact, Zhou Yi had been piecing together various clues to try to reconstruct the structure of the case, but he didn't offer much advice for fear of overshadowing the main point.

But as time went on, he couldn't hold back any longer and spilled everything.

Even if you piece together the information yourself, it's still incomplete for the whole case because there's a lot of information that doesn't make sense and a lack of key clues.

On the way, Pan Hongjie asked, "Zhou Yi, so what do you think is the probability that it's Jiang Wei?"

Hey, this Captain Pan is kind of like Captain Wu, actually using the same question he just asked to retort.

"I think there's at least an 80% chance. There are three reasons for this. First, this person must be a local who knows Anyuan very well. Second, this person has a motive to kill Fu and Li, and killing them in self-defense is the most reasonable motive. Third, Jiang Wei hasn't been home for more than ten years, and suddenly he wants to go home to pay respects at his father's grave, which fits the psychological characteristics of a criminal suspect on the run."

Confused, Xia Yu asked, "Wh...what's going on?"

Pan Hongjie said, "Xia, cherish this opportunity and learn more from Zhou Yi. Deputy Detachment Leader Wu has sent Hongcheng's ace to support us."

Pan Hongjie's logic was actually very simple. Originally, when there was only one body in the case, it was definitely An Yuan who was in charge of the case. They could assist, but they couldn't steal the credit.

But now that three corpses have appeared, Director Guo has given him five days to solve the case. Anyone who can help him solve the case is a living saint.

Because solving the case within a specified time is practically equivalent to a military order; failure to do so will result in disciplinary action at best, and reassignment at worst.

At this point, solving the case is more important than anything else; everything else is just a lie.

Xia Yu blinked, then gave a slightly bewildered "oh."

Zhou Yi laughed and said, "Captain Pan is joking. Let's learn from each other."

Upon arriving at the repair shop, they immediately spotted a red car parked outside. Zhou Yi thought to himself, "These days, red cars are a rare sight; it looks rather flashy."

Chen Dejiang had previously instructed his boss to keep a close eye on the car and not let anyone touch it again, otherwise he would be responsible for any problems that might arise.

So when the repair shop owner saw the two police cars parked on the side of the road, he immediately ran out, identified himself, and offered cigarettes to the men.

Pan Hongjie politely declined, then showed his identification and asked, "Boss, this car hasn't been touched by anyone, has it?"

The boss shook his head repeatedly: "I haven't touched it with a single finger."

Do you have the car keys?

"No, the police officer already asked. This guy really messed with us. He left without even leaving his keys. He was washing his car right in front of our shop. We had no choice but to get a bunch of people to push him aside, otherwise we wouldn't be able to do business," the owner complained.

Zhou Yi walked over to the car and looked at it. Logically speaking, after being parked for so long, it should have been covered in a layer of dust. However, because of the recent heavy rain, the car body was washed clean.

There are several scratches at the rear of the car, most of them are quite shallow, except for one that is a bit deep.

The technical staff began their work, conducting an on-site inspection of the vehicle.

"Zhou Yi," Pan Hongjie called out, waving to Zhou Yi.

"What's wrong, Captain Pan?"

(End of this chapter)