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

Chapter 331 The Case Is About to Be Solved
"Oh, okay, I'm afraid I won't have time right now," Xia Yu nodded and said.

"Not only that, there are two other tasks I need to trouble you with."

"Officer Zhou, please speak freely."

"First, go to Zheng Tianlan's house and find out from his wife what the situation is like, including the relationship between him and his son, the reason why the Zheng Tianlan family of three moved out of the villa, and... find out about the relationship between Zheng Tianlan and Huang Yanli."

"Secondly, Zheng Guangming owns a large number of properties. Check the current occupancy status of these properties to see if they are vacant or rented out."

Xia Yu asked, "Are you trying to find out where Bai Xiuxiu lives?"

Zhou Yi nodded. Xia Yu was indeed a promising student. "Zheng Guangming has so many houses. If he wants to settle Bai Xiuxiu, he will definitely prioritize letting her stay in one of his houses. Both of the deceased were wearing pajamas, so theoretically it is unlikely that they stayed in hotels for a long time. However, we still need to do a basic check on the high-end hotels in Anyuan City."

Xia Yu nodded, but said with some difficulty, "It's just that I'm afraid this workload is too much for me to complete by myself..."

"If you need to call in people, you can ask Captain Pan to take the initiative to ask for people. He can draw people from the branch to assist you and take your command. You can also ask the police station for help. Remember, we are the Municipal Bureau, and we are handling a major case that the city leaders attach great importance to. This case has the highest priority."

Upon hearing this, Xia Yu's spirits lifted, and he immediately nodded and thanked Officer Zhou for the reminder.

Seeing his excited figure running away, Zhou Yi suddenly felt gratified. Young people still need opportunities to perform, otherwise their passion and spirit will easily be worn away, making them lifeless and no longer full of enthusiasm.

After arranging all this, Zhou Yi was still not in a hurry to go back and interrogate Zheng Tianlan.

Instead, they went to Tang Wenli because Zheng Guangming's height matched that of the male corpse, but that alone was far from enough.

From a legal perspective, faster and more decisive evidence is needed.

"Teacher Tang, is it still possible to extract fingerprints from that male corpse?" Zhou Yi asked.

Tang Wenli shook her head without hesitation: "The success rate of extracting fingerprints from a corpse that has been decomposing for more than two weeks is very low, because the skin surface will expand and peel off during the decomposition process, and the ridge structure of the fingerprints will be destroyed. So it is basically impossible."

Zhou Yi stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "Does 'basically impossible' mean there's still a slight possibility?"

Tang Wenli smiled helplessly: "You're really persistent. Let me put it this way, in this situation, there are roughly three ways to extract fingerprints."

"The first method is to treat epidermal fragments, which involves softening the epidermis that has not completely fallen off by soaking it in formalin or glycerin to restore the epidermis, and then using powder or tape for extraction. This is currently the most mainstream and conventional method. Its advantage is that it is easy to operate, but its disadvantage is that the extracted fingerprint is completely affected by the degree of epidermal shedding."

Zhou Yi hurriedly asked, "Can this be done?"

"Yes, but the fingerprints extracted will most likely be small, localized areas that cannot be used as evidence in a legal context."

"What about the second one?"

"The second type is called dermal reconstruction. For epidermis that has sloughed off but has not yet rotted severely, the papillary structures of the dermis may still retain fingerprint traces, but ordinary extraction techniques cannot do this. It requires more complex micro-anatomical techniques, which require both equipment and people with experience in this area."

Tang Wenli, fearing that Zhou Yi might not understand, explained: "Simply put, the vast majority of forensic doctors use systemic anatomy and regional anatomy in their daily work. This mainly involves studying the morphology and structure of the human body through visual observation. In our profession, we collectively refer to this as macroscopic anatomy."

"In contrast, there is microanatomy, which uses a microscope to observe and study the local morphological structure of the human body at a microscopic level."

Zhou Yi nodded: "Can I understand this as using a microscope to reconstruct the rotten and sloughed skin of a finger?"

"Well, almost."

"Teacher Tang, can you do this?"

Tang Wenli shook her head and said, "I only have some knowledge in this area, I'm not a professional, and our equipment here doesn't support doing this. We need an ultra-high magnification optical microscope."

Zhou Yi lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then looked up and asked, "What about the third one?"

"The third method I saw in a professional academic journal, and I'm not sure if China currently has the capability to implement this technology. It involves using laser scanning for spectral imaging to capture residual fingerprint traces. Theoretically, this has the highest success rate, but... in practical applications, I'm not sure about first-tier cities, and at least in a small place like ours, it's out of the question."

“I understand.” Zhou Yi nodded. Since the third option is not technically feasible at the moment, the second option is the best choice.

Tang Wenli couldn't do it, but when he heard about it earlier, he had already thought of someone who might be able to do the technology.

Xu Nian.

He remembered that in his previous life, Xu Nian had mentioned that her graduation thesis was about the application of microscopic anatomy in clinical forensic medicine.

It seems that one of her university professors was a leading authority in this field in China.

However, he didn't know much about its practical applications.

"Teacher Tang, we might have someone in Hongcheng who can do the second method. I'll make a call."

Tang Wenli was taken aback and asked, "Can Song Yiming do this?"

Zhou Yi took out his mobile phone and said, "It's not Forensic Doctor Song, it's someone else."

Zhou Yi dialed the landline of the forensic office of Hongcheng City Public Security Bureau, and the call was answered a moment later.

"Hello, forensic department." Xu Nian's cool voice rang out on the other end of the phone. "Xu Nian, this is Zhou Yi, I'm in Anyuan right now."

"An Yuan? No wonder I haven't seen you these past few days."

"I'm here to assist with a case. There's a very tricky case, and it might be the only one who can help us."

A moment later, Zhou Yi hung up the phone and said to Tang Wenli, "Teacher Tang, it's all settled. It's another female forensic doctor from Anyuan named Xu Nian. She's quite proficient in microscopic anatomy. She said she'll bring her equipment to Anyuan first thing tomorrow morning to assist us."

"That's great. Does Hongcheng have such a high-powered microscope?"

“No…” Zhou Yi said, “but she said she has…”

Tang Wenli was taken aback. "You have one at home? This kind of equipment isn't cheap."

Zhou Yi sighed inwardly. If even a professional forensic doctor said it wasn't cheap, then it really wasn't cheap.

The fact that Xu Nian's family has such equipment is probably inseparable from her father's influence.

After Zhou Yi was reborn, he did think about Xu Nian's father's problem.

The conclusion is that Rome wasn't built in a day.

Her father was ultimately expelled from the Party and removed from his post, which means that the state has thoroughly investigated his problems and found that he had committed serious violations of rules and regulations and was involved in serious corruption.

Even in homicide cases, there's a possibility of wrongful convictions by the police. But when it comes to matters concerning state officials, it's absolutely impossible for a mistake to occur.

Therefore, he must not have made this mistake on a whim, but rather he had long been corrupted by power and money.

It's just that nothing has happened yet.

Don't even mention that you don't want to do anything; even if you did, you couldn't do anything about it.

If you remind someone to clean up their mess, their first thought will be to get rid of you, because they might know something.

When the government investigates thoroughly, your future will be ruined just because you said that one sentence.

Therefore, some people's fate is already predetermined, and even if they are reborn, they cannot change anything.

That's why he understands things so clearly; in matters of the heart, hesitation only leads to more trouble.

Coming back to his senses after a moment of reflection, Zhou Yi found himself standing in the corridor, having already left the forensic room.

He picked up the phone and called Wu Yongcheng, firstly to report on the current progress of the case.

Secondly, he was asked to arrange for someone to accompany Xu Nian to Anyuan tomorrow to ensure the safety of Xu Nian and the equipment.

He had a premonition that confirming Zheng Guangming's identity would be the key to bringing the case to a close.

Over the phone, Wu Yongcheng told Zhou Yi to let Qiao Jiali accompany Xu Nian.

Hearing the commotion across the street, which sounded like they were on the road, Zhou Yi asked, "Captain Wu, is there anything else going on?"

Wu Yongcheng said, "You're so cunning. I was planning to wait until there were results before telling you. Biaozi, Chen Yan, and I drove to Lujiang City."

"Lu Jiang? From another province?" Zhou Yi was taken aback and quickly asked, "Did they discover Fu Daqing?"

"It's not certain yet, we can only say it's highly suspected. A suburban hospital in Lujiang admitted a patient who had alcohol poisoning from drinking counterfeit alcohol. The hospital thought the person was a bit suspicious, so they called the police. The person has now been taken into custody by the local police, but he hasn't woken up yet."

"So they sent us photos. The facial features looked very similar to Fu Daqing, but he was very unkempt with a full beard. So, just to be safe, we went straight there. If it was confirmed to be Fu Daqing, we would interrogate him on the spot and bring him back later."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi thought it was truly great news. The case, which had been stalled for many days, had made significant progress today, and it seemed that solving the case was just around the corner.

"Captain Wu, I'll wait for your news."

"Okay, I'll send you the results of the investigation right away."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi felt much more relaxed; it was probably the best day he had felt since arriving in Anyuan.

After Pan Hongjie finishes interrogating Jiang Wei, the matter of killing Li Youqiang should be clear. There are witnesses at the car wash, and the homemade gun is physical evidence. No matter how much Jiang Wei resists, it will be useless.

Once Wu Yongcheng arrives in Lujiang City and interrogates Fu Daqing, he will be able to find out who hired the killer, what exactly happened on March 16th, and the details of Li Youqiang's death, which can be matched with Jiang Wei's testimony.

If Xu Nian can successfully extract the fingerprints from the male corpse after he arrives, then the deceased can be legally confirmed as Zheng Guangming.

Once all of these are sorted out, a complete chain of evidence can be established.

Zhou Yi pushed open the door to the interrogation room, where Zheng Tianlan, who was sitting inside, had been tortured to the point of looking like a Shar Pei.

Zhou Yi sneered, thinking to himself, "It's about time I started targeting you!"
(End of this chapter)