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

Chapter 371 Returning to Hongcheng (Three chapters today)

With a horn blaring, Zhou Yi was jolted awake from his nightmare, finding himself drenched in sweat.

The train announcer said, "Our next stop is Hongcheng Station. Passengers who are getting off, please prepare to disembark and do not forget your belongings."

Qiao Jiali and Xu Nian, who were already awake and sitting on the lower bunk opposite him, saw that he was awake. Qiao Jiali asked, "You're awake? We were just about to get off the train."

Zhou Yi looked out the window; it was already dawn.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, still shaken. The scene in his dream felt unexpectedly real.

He began to comfort himself, thinking that dreams are the opposite of reality, and having such a dream meant that Lu Xiaoshuang must be safe and sound.

“I called Captain Wu twenty minutes ago. They should be back at the station around the same time as us,” Qiao Jiali said.

Zhou Yi nodded. Although it was a nightmare, he had at least slept through it and rested physically.

He patted his face, feeling that his mind was calmer than it had been the night before.

He decided to temporarily set aside the question of whether the deceased was Lu Xiaoshuang, because the timing of the major case had changed compared to his previous life, and the method of dismemberment had also changed.

There is still one thing he is unsure about.

Has the location where the murderer disposed of the body also changed?

In my previous life, apart from the travel bag that was retrieved from the Nansha River, there were a total of twelve locations where bodies were disposed of, including the head.

The exact locations of these body dumping sites were almost etched into his mind as if carved by a knife and axe.

He didn't know whether the locations where the bodies were dumped had changed.

Especially the head of the deceased.

Once the head is found, it will be clear whether the deceased is Lu Xiaoshuang or not.

The premise is that the murderer did not damage the victim's facial features.

He knew one thing very well: the grand case was not one that could be solved overnight, and even if he knew the case files from his previous life like the back of his hand, it wouldn't help.

Because in the previous life, this case had been going on for a full twenty-seven years, making it a veritable number one unsolved case!

No matter how advanced technology becomes or how much criminal investigation skills improve, this case remains a cold case.

It wasn't that the task force back then was incompetent, but rather that the case itself left no useful clues.

Whether it's the Du Xiaolin case, the Zhang Hui case, or even the recently solved An Yuan murder case, Zhou Yi's view is that there must be some kind of relationship between the murderer and the victim; it's impossible for a murderer to appear out of thin air.

He kept exploring various possibilities by focusing on this point, and that's how he finally uncovered the murderer.

But the grand case is different, whether it was the investigation of thousands of people by the special task force over three months in the previous life, or my understanding of Lu Xiaoshuang's personal situation in this life.

The murderer in this major case appeared out of nowhere, leaving no trace whatsoever.

In his previous life, he had seen all sorts of murderers, including those with gloomy personalities who liked to stalk and monitor their victims from the shadows for extended periods.

However, such murderers do not appear out of thin air. There is always some interpersonal connection between them and the victims, but most of them are relatively superficial. For example, they may be classmates in a training class, friends of friends who have met a few times, or deliverymen with whom they have had multiple contacts, or even online game friends who have never met in person.

In short, the perpetrator who was monitored and tracked for so long could not possibly be someone who had no connection to the case.

Therefore, in the later stages of the major case, the task force will focus on mobile and random crimes, thereby expanding the scope of the investigation.

The reason is simple: all those who had interpersonal connections with Lu Xiaoshuang in the early stages either had clear alibis starting from the night of May 3rd when Lu Xiaoshuang disappeared, or, after investigation and comprehensive analysis, were found to have no criminal motive.

To put it simply, let's say a male student is in the same major as Lu Xiaoshuang, but they have almost no interaction or communication with each other. The police wouldn't believe the male student's claim of no interaction simply because he said so. The police would conduct extensive questioning and investigation, asking other students, roommates, teachers, parents, and even investigating the male student's personal belongings and daily behavior before finally confirming that the male student could be cleared of suspicion.

The task force conducted nearly three thousand investigations of this level of detail over three months.

It's easy to imagine how much work it involved. A police officer who participated in the investigation recalled the situation and said that the level of fatigue took him six months to recover.

It was impossible for Zhou Yi to remember all of the nearly three thousand pieces of investigation data. He could only say that he had a certain impression of these data, but he remembered the ones that had a direct relationship with Lu Xiaoshuang very clearly.

Classmates, teachers, relatives, and people I met while working.

He had already sorted out this information beforehand, and it was all in his mind.

But there are two key points to make this information work.

First, he needs to think calmly, because this information cannot be shown to others; it is all stored in his mind.

Therefore, blind panic will not help anything. Even if Lu Xiaoshuang is the victim in this grand case, at least... at least this time the murderer must be brought to justice!
Second, the use of this information needs to be more skillful and cautious.

Unlike the Zhang Hui case in Donghai Community, Zhang Hui herself did not have any special status, and the case was only filed because of her own insistence, so it is normal for the case to be handled by the Third Brigade.

The case will only escalate if the Third Brigade fails to solve it for an extended period.

In the previous life, after the head was discovered and the deceased was identified as Lu Xiaoshuang, a freshman at Hongda University, the provincial department immediately established a special task force and directly sent the task force to Hongda to carry out its work.

This speed is due not only to the extremely heinous nature of the case, but more importantly, to the fact that it involves a vast scope.

There are only four 211 key universities in the entire province. Such an incident will have a huge impact on the future of education in Hongda and even the entire province.

That's why the action was so swift and decisive. But this also means that once the special task force is established, the initiative in the case investigation will no longer lie with Hongcheng or the Third Brigade.

Even in the worst-case scenario, if the deceased was Lu Xiaoshuang, based solely on his relationship with her, he wouldn't be able to participate in the special task force, let alone the peripheral investigation.

So the time left for him may be very short.

And the most painful thing is that only by finding the head can he confirm whether the deceased is Lu Xiaoshuang! But if she is, then he will basically be ruled out of the case!

This is a true dilemma.

"Zhou Yi...we've arrived at the station," Xu Nian whispered a reminder.

Zhou Yi snapped out of his reverie and followed Qiao Jiali and Xu Nian outside.

Tang Wenli said she could send the equipment Xu Nian took to An Yuan back to her if she wasn't in a hurry to use it. So on their way back, they traveled light, while Xia Yu bought a lot of food that they didn't finish.

Zhou Yi noticed that Qiao Jiali and Xu Nian kept turning around to look at him, so he smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine."

But Qiao Jiali and Xu Nian weren't stupid; they could tell he was forcing a smile.

After the three of them got off the train, they hailed a taxi, since train stations are the most popular destination for taxis these days.

"You can sit in the back," Qiao Jiali said, opening the passenger door.

As soon as the three of them got into the car, the driver looked them over and, seeing that they didn't have any large luggage, asked them where they were going.

Qiao Jiali said, "Municipal Public Security Bureau, driver, please drive faster, we have official business to attend to."

Upon hearing that they were going to the Municipal Public Security Bureau and that the driver was on official business, he immediately became hesitant to engage in conversation. He simply said, "Then you all sit down," and then stepped on the gas and sped off.

Normally, it takes half an hour to drive from the train station to the municipal bureau, but today it only took eighteen minutes.

The driver asked with a hint of pride, "How was it, folks? Fast enough, right?"

While paying, Qiao Jiali said, "Driver, please don't drive so fast next time, be careful. Besides... dangerous driving can easily get you fined..."

The driver's lips twitched slightly, and he forced a smile and nodded.

As soon as the three of them got out of the car, the driver quickly stepped on the gas and disappeared in a flash.

After joining the Municipal Public Security Bureau, the three parted ways. Xu Nian went to the forensic room, while Zhou Yi and Qiao Jiali returned to the Third Brigade.

As soon as I entered the office, I saw Jiang Biao and Chen Yan, both of them sitting there looking exhausted, clearly having driven all night.

"Brother Biao, Brother Yan, you're back?" Zhou Yi said.

“We arrived just a short while ago,” Jiang Biao said, stretching.

Where is Captain Wu?

"I went to find that person."

Zhou Yi knew that Jiang Biao was referring to Ni Jianrong.

After all, he was the team leader who was at the scene last night, which means that he was implicitly in charge of handling the case.

As the deputy branch captain and head of the serious crime task force, Wu Yongcheng naturally had to contact him immediately.

Zhou Yi only hoped that Ni Jianrong wouldn't occupy the position without doing anything, since he didn't have much time left.

Jiang Biao, unaware of Zhou Yi's reaction to the case, joked, "By the way, haven't you guys noticed how much busier we've become since Zhou Yi arrived? We've had more cases in the last two months than we did in the previous six months, haven't we?"

Upon hearing this, Qiao Jiali immediately punched Jiang Biao.

But it was too late. Zhou Yi laughed at himself, saying, "Yeah, maybe I'm just a jinx."

Jiang Biao was stunned when he heard this, and quickly said, "Zhou Yi, that's not what I meant, I was just joking."

Qiao Jiali glared at Jiang Biao.

At this moment, Wu Yongcheng walked into the office.

"Zhou Yi and Xiao Qiao are back. You've worked hard on An Yuan's case, especially Zhou Yi." She said, patting him on the shoulder.

Zhou Yi asked impatiently, "Captain Wu, is this dismemberment case under our jurisdiction?"

Wu Yongcheng replied, "Of course! Our Third Brigade is in charge of major crimes and homicides. If we don't handle them, who will?"

These words served as a temporary reassurance for Zhou Yi.

“I won’t go into the basic details of the case. Apart from the travel bag, there were no useful clues at the scene. The preliminary examination results from Lao Song’s side are not yet available, so we have to wait,” Wu Yongcheng said. “The next focus is on searching for other body parts and identifying the deceased.”

Wu Yongcheng turned to Zhou Yi and asked, "Zhou Yi, what are your thoughts?"

"I……"

(End of this chapter)