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

Chapter 321 A Leaf (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
“You were absolutely right,” Pan Hongjie said. “We just had them identify Jiang Wei’s photo, and he is the one who abandoned the car.”

Standing in front of Pan Hongjie were the owner of the auto repair shop and several young employees, the youngest of whom looked to be just over 18.

"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Pan Hongjie said solicitously.

"Okay, Captain Pan." Zhou Yi looked at the group in front of him and asked, "Who was in charge of washing this car that day?"

The youngest boy raised his hand and said, "Yes...it's me."

"Could you please recall if there were any unusual circumstances when you were washing the car?"

The young man asked somewhat blankly, "What... what are special circumstances?"

"To put it another way, when you were washing the car, did you find anything in the car, like red marks or anything unusual? Also, when the person who washed your car asked you to wash it, did they tell you which areas they wanted cleaned specifically?"

Zhou Yi did not ask the other party to recount the events of that day, as he believed that Chen Dejiang must have already asked beforehand.

If he's going to ask a question, he should just ask the important one.

The young man immediately nodded and said, "The boss told me to clean the trunk properly and rinse it with a water gun. He said he had forgotten about the pork in there, so it all smelled bad. I opened the trunk and almost threw up from the stench."

Zhou Yi and Pan Hongjie immediately exchanged glances; it seemed the trunk was where the body was hidden.

"Have you washed?" Pan Hongjie asked hurriedly.

The young man nodded seriously and said, "I washed it. I used a high-pressure water gun to rinse it thoroughly inside and out twice."

Pan Hongjie stomped his foot and exclaimed, "Why are you taking this so seriously?!"

The young man glanced timidly at the boss next to him and said, "If the customer complains about the product not being clean enough, the boss will... will deduct money from my pay."

The shop owner gave Pan Hongjie a helpless, awkward smile and said, "We're just running a business, we didn't... we didn't know something like this would happen."

"Captain Pan, have the technical department take the car back and use luminol on it. I suspect this car might be the primary crime scene where Li Youqiang died."

Pan Hongjie nodded, "Xia, go and talk to Lao Ding."

"Okay, Captain Pan."

Zhou Yi asked the young man, "Is there anything else?"

"Um... I'm not sure if I'm seeing things..." the young man said hesitantly.

“It’s okay, just tell us, we’ll make a judgment,” Zhou Yi encouraged.

"Well... when the boss got out of the car, something fell out of him, wrapped in cloth, and it looked like a... a gun."

"A gun?" Pan Hongjie and Zhou Yi were both surprised.

"Are you sure?" Pan Hongjie asked.

The young man shook his head: "I...I don't know, he picked it up right away, I didn't see it clearly."

Pan Hongjie pulled out his Type 54 pistol and asked, "Is this the kind of gun?"

"No...it looks much bigger..."

Zhou Yi said seriously, "Captain Pan, it seems that Li Youqiang's homemade gun has fallen into Jiang Wei's hands. We need to readjust tomorrow's arrest plan."

The fact that the arrested suspect had a gun completely changed the nature of the case.

Pan Hongjie nodded solemnly, which fully confirmed Zhou Yi's previous analysis and judgment. Li Youqiang's gun had fallen into Jiang Wei's hands, and Jiang Wei was undoubtedly the prime suspect in Li Youqiang's murder.

After the questions were asked, the technical department completed its initial inspection of the vehicle.

We need to take the car back to test the luminol reagent. So far, the preliminary investigation has yielded about two results.

First, the paint color on the surface of the car is basically the same as the paint color extracted from the thorns outside Xiaoqiushan Park, but the specific composition still needs further testing and analysis to confirm.

Secondly, a leaf was found under the passenger seat cushion, with a grayish-white dot about five millimeters in diameter on it.

"Grayish-white?" Pan Hongjie was taken aback when he heard this. "Old Ding, are you sure it's not red?"

The veteran police officer in charge of the on-site investigation said, "Nonsense, I'm not blind. Why don't you see for yourself?"

As he spoke, he held up the evidence bag in his hand, which contained a leaf.

Pan Hongjie and Zhou Yi took a closer look and saw that the leaves in the evidence bag had turned yellow, indicating that they had been there for quite some time.

On one side of the leaf, there is a slightly irregular grayish-white spot that looks like a trace of thin mud.

Pan Hongjie stroked his chin and said, "I can't tell what this thing is. Old Ding, let's take it back for testing first."

Zhou Yi frowned as he looked at the small gray dot and suddenly said, "This should be the mark left by brain matter splattered on the leaves."

"Brain matter?" This remark startled everyone.

Zhou Yi continued, "Normal brain matter is light pink, but when it leaves the body or after death, because the blood supply stops, the hemoglobin in the brain matter will decompose and oxidize, and then it will appear as a dark grayish-white color."

After Zhou Yi finished speaking, he looked up and found that the people around him were looking at him in surprise, so he joked, "That young man didn't wash the car carefully, otherwise he wouldn't have left this leaf."

Just then, the tow truck arrived, attracting everyone's attention.

After the tow truck took the red car away, Pan Hongjie casually asked, "Old Ding, since you discovered that the leaves might have human brain matter, why didn't you say so sooner?"

Old Ding replied innocently, "I didn't find anything. I was just doing my job, taking the clues I found in the car back for testing." "Damn, once this case is solved, I have to tell Director Guo that we need to find some good talent. This... I can't keep up with him."

"Captain Pan, shall we go back?" Xia Yu called out from beside the car door.

"Go back, go back, go back!" Pan Hongjie ran over excitedly.

This time, however, Pan Hongjie sat in the back row with Zhou Yi.

He even asked Zhou Yi if she smoked, and Zhou Yi quickly took out the good cigarettes she had bought and handed them to her.

Along the way, Pan Hongjie chatted enthusiastically with Zhou Yi, subtly inquiring about Zhou Yi's situation in Hongcheng, information about some cases he had handled, and so on.

Although Zhou Yi tried to downplay some of the information, Pan Hongjie was still terrified.

As they approached the municipal bureau, Pan Hongjie asked with a sigh, "Zhou Yi, which school did you graduate from, you're such a high achiever?"

Zhou Yi scratched his head sheepishly and said, "Hey, I'm not some high achiever at all. I just graduated from the provincial police officer higher vocational school."

Although the result was hard for Pan Hongjie to believe, he still silently noted down the name of Zhou Yi's school and told Director Guo that he would go to Zhou Yi's school to recruit people in the second half of this year!
"Zhou Yi, come have dinner with us later. You've been here for several days, and I haven't been able to properly entertain you. I feel so ashamed. I also want to give everyone a boost so we can work together to solve this case within the timeframe set by Director Guo."

Zhou Yi smiled inwardly; this Captain Pan was quite different from others.

"Captain Pan, I don't think it's appropriate to eat here since the case isn't solved yet. What if someone whispers something to Director Guo and it causes a misunderstanding? How about we try your cafeteria today? Let's see how the food is."

"You haven't eaten in our cafeteria yet?"

Zhou Yi nodded.

"Xia, that's not right of you. Why didn't you even take Zhou Yi to the cafeteria?" Pan Hongjie criticized.

Xia Yu is an honest kid, so he quickly apologized.

"No, no, it has nothing to do with Officer Xia. I've just been busy."

"Alright, let's eat at the cafeteria today. Once the case is solved, I'll do my best to be a good host."

As soon as the group returned to the station, Pan Hongjie was still figuring out how to adjust the arrest plan for Jiang Wei the next day.

Although Jiang Wei only had a homemade gun, its lethality was unknown. The best outcome would be to subdue the person before firing a shot.

Just then, Chen Dejiang rushed over, his expression slightly grave.

"Captain Pan, we've found the owner of that car." He said, handing over a piece of paper.

Pan Hongjie took it and his expression turned serious.

"Captain Pan, what's wrong?" Zhou Yi asked hurriedly.

"The owner of this car is actually Zheng Guangming..."

“Zheng Guangming? Isn’t that the big boss who runs the chicken farm that we just mentioned today?” Zhou Yi asked.

Pan Hongjie nodded and said to Xia Yu, "Go find Tang Wenli and see how the autopsy is going."

"Old Chen, find out Zheng Guangming's home and office phone numbers and ask him where he is."

After Xia Yu and Chen Dejiang left, Pan Hongjie paced back and forth. "No, I need to talk to Director Guo about this."

"Zhou Yi, go back to your office and sit for a while."

"Captain Pan, you go ahead with your work, don't worry about me." Zhou Yi thought for a moment, then walked towards the forensic room instead of the office.

He knew why Pan Hongjie was so anxious. If the male corpse in the park was Zheng Guangming, the owner of the largest aquaculture business in Anyuan City, then the problem was much more serious than just three corpses.

The city is about to hold an investment promotion conference, but the city's biggest businessman in the industry has been buried in the wilderness. It has been more than a month since he was murdered and there has been no missing person report. With this kind of security environment, who would dare to invest here?

This is no longer an ordinary serious criminal case, but a serious case that affects public security and development.

Not to mention Pan Hongjie getting anxious, Wu Yongcheng would have been just as flustered in this situation.

The duty of the police is to solve cases and catch criminals, but the deeper purpose of solving cases is to maintain social order, improve social stability, ensure the safety of people's lives and property, and thus better and more steadily promote productivity and drive the overall development of society.

This is not a simple game of justice; it is an important part of social development.

Pan Hongjie may not be outstanding in his professional skills, but as a team leader, he certainly understands this principle.

Zhou Yi arrived at the door of the forensic room and found Xia Yu standing there, while Tang Wenli was writing a report at her desk.

He didn't disturb them, but stood there silently waiting just like Xia Yu.

Five or six minutes later, Tang Wenli signed the report and handed it to Xia Yu: "Tell Captain Pan that this is all we can do at this stage."

"Thank you, Forensic Doctor Tang, you've worked so hard."

Tang Wenli adjusted her glasses and smiled, "Zhou Yi is here."

Zhou Yi, who had been leaning against the door with her arms crossed, immediately went inside: "Hello, Teacher Tang."

Tang Wenli said, "The autopsy found something interesting. Can you analyze it for me?"

　Hey guys, today's the last day for double monthly votes! I'm sincerely asking for your votes. If we get over 1000 votes today, I'll add an extra 6000 words tomorrow. I mean it! Don't hold back and save your votes for the end of the month!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)