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

Chapter 421 Team Leader Shi Joins the Group (Seeking monthly votes, a long chapter of 10,000 words)
Zhou Yi woke up groggily and saw Lu Xiaoshuang in her pajamas next to him.

"How did I fall asleep..."

"It must be because I'm too tired," Lu Xiaoshuang said with a smile.

"Xiao Shuang, how long have I been asleep?"

"It should only take about half an hour."

Zhou Yi sat up and found that a corner of the folded blanket was covering him.

"No, I have to go."

The investigation into the archives is still ongoing, and I've been gone for so long.

"By the way, Xiaoshuang."

"Don't worry, I won't wander off. I've never lived in such a nice house before," Lu Xiaoshuang said sweetly. "You don't need to worry about me."

Zhou Yi nodded: "If you have any needs, you can tell Mr. Qian and his wife at any time. Don't be shy, they are trustworthy."

"Okay." Although she called Qian Hongxing "Uncle" and Yao Yuling "Sister" at first, Lu Xiaoshuang quickly realized that the two were husband and wife.

"By the way, Brother Zhou, could you please go to my grandma's house and tell her that I'm alright? It's been so long, I'm afraid she'll worry."

Zhou Yi thought about it and agreed. Although Lu Xiaoshuang's two uncles and their families treated her badly, they were no good people either.

But that's only on a moral level.

Legally speaking, the task force has investigated both the previous and current cases, and these individuals have no connection to the case.

Lu Xiaoshuang has now been released, and we really need to tell her grandmother at least, otherwise the old lady will be extremely worried.

"Don't worry, I'll go there first and then come back to the station."

"Oh, there's one more thing. Although Sister Qiao has already asked enough questions, you were drugged at the time, which may have affected your memory. If you remember any clues later, be sure to tell me immediately. Mr. Qian has a phone number at home."

Lu Xiaoshuang nodded.

“Even the smallest details don’t matter, and it doesn’t matter if you’re not entirely sure; they might just be crucial,” Zhou Yi emphasized.

“Brother Zhou…” Lu Xiaoshuang hesitated, “Actually… there’s something I forgot to tell you about the question you asked me when we were having Western food last time…”

……

After leaving Hongcheng Baodi, Zhou Yi first went to the Lu family's large courtyard.

In front of the old lady, he called Qian Hongxing's family and let the grandmother and grandson have a phone call.

Hearing her granddaughter's voice, the old lady finally felt relieved.

She said that the police came several times a few days ago, asking her second son and youngest son's families a lot of questions. She has hearing problems and couldn't hear what they were asking.

Now that she knows her granddaughter is alright, she can finally relax.

After leaving the courtyard, Zhou Yi drove back to the task force.

All the way, he kept thinking about the person Lu Xiaoshuang mentioned, Zheng Jianxin.

Lu Xiaoshuang said that on the night the school organized a viewing of the episode of "Asking the Heart" featuring Zhou Yi, when she came out of the lecture hall, Zheng Jianxin, a male classmate of hers, gave her a love letter under the pretext of returning a book.

She refused immediately, without even opening or reading the love letter, and returned it to the other party.

After that, Zheng Jianxin never contacted her again, and would even avoid her when he saw her.

That day, when Zhou Yi asked her about relationships while they were having Western food, her first reaction was that Zhou Yi was interested in her, which was why he was so concerned.

She didn't mention Zheng Jianxin's matter, after all, it was just a very minor incident.

In high school, someone wrote her love letters and secretly slipped them into her desk. However, at that time, she was only focused on studying and didn't read the love letters, but she used the back as scratch paper.

Later, at her part-time jobs, besides the fat supervisor at the Lucky Restaurant, there were other men who genuinely wanted to pursue her, but all of them gave up because she pretended to be stupid and wouldn't engage.

She didn't want Zhou Yi to have a bad feeling over such a trivial matter, so she didn't say anything.

However, these past few days, lying on the iron bed in the police station's detention room, she recalled everything that had happened and realized something was wrong.

From the very beginning, Zhou Yi was particularly concerned about his own safety, then there was the question during that meal, and Zhou Yi repeatedly emphasized "waiting for everything to calm down."

This made her realize that Zhou Yi seemed to have known from the very beginning that danger was approaching her.

That's why she asked that question in the car.

But after she said those words, she regretted it, because she believed in Zhou Yi, no matter what the reason was, she believed in him.

That's why the following sentence came about.

Then she remembered when Zheng Jianxin confessed his feelings to her, because Zhou Yi had said that even the smallest details mattered.

For Zhou Yi, this clue was both surprising and slightly embarrassing.

The surprise stemmed from the fact that the investigation team had not discovered Zheng Jianxin's secret crush on Lu Xiaoshuang during the previous life's investigation.

Based on the case details from the previous life, anyone who harbors a secret crush on Lu Xiaoshuang would undoubtedly be a prime suspect.

However, this point is not in the task force's records, which suggests two possibilities.

First, Zheng Jianxin didn't confess his feelings in his previous life, but that's unlikely.

Secondly, just like in this life, Zheng Jianxin was rejected by Lu Xiaoshuang in his previous life, so no one knows about this.

However, one thing is certain: Zheng Jianxin hid his feelings of unrequited love for Lu Xiaoshuang very well, and no one else knew about them except for the two people involved.

This mentality does indeed include the possibility of criminal behavior stemming from unrequited love and hatred.

The awkward part is that Zheng Jianxin, as one of the few male classmates of Lu Xiaoshuang in the same major, was already on the core investigation list.

All the people on this list have verifiable alibis in their previous lives.

So far in this life, no suspicious targets have emerged, indicating that these people, like in the previous life, have alibis and have been ruled out as suspects.

However, since Lu Xiaoshuang herself provided the clues, we still need to investigate.

Back at the task force, everyone saw him yawning.

On the contrary, he probably had a deep sleep for half an hour at Qian Hongxing's house, and he is in pretty good spirits now.

"Brother Yan, any progress?" Zhou Yi asked when he saw Chen Yan.

Chen Yan shook his head wearily: "I'll go wash my face first, to refresh myself..."

"Okay, I'll go find out some things first. Wait for me, we'll go take care of something else in a bit."

Zhou Yi first went to see Xiang Jie, then went to the internal affairs team to check the previous investigation progress records, and finally ran into Brother Biao.

We quickly gained an understanding of and sorted out the current progress of the case investigation.

Because of the grand case in this life, although there are some clues and directions, the complexity of the case has increased dramatically, leading to more chaotic information.

First, let's look at some progress in the investigation into Xiao Bing.

The first thing was that Xiang Jie said that around 8:40 pm last night, a police officer patrolling near the long-distance bus station spotted a suspicious person and suspected it was Xiao Bing.

After being discovered, the man immediately fled. However, due to the darkness, the police lost sight of him halfway through their pursuit.

Police officers stationed near the station immediately launched a search, but they searched until dawn without finding any trace of Xiao Bing.

Xiang Jie said that, in principle, there should be police officers patrolling each area in the vicinity. After the person was lost, the police immediately reported it via radio, and a search network was quickly set up.

But we just couldn't find that person.

If Xiao Bing didn't have a motor vehicle as his means of transportation, then it can only be attributed to his good luck in managing to flag down a taxi or unlicensed motorcycle taxi and escape before the surrounding area was sealed off.

They are currently investigating taxis and unlicensed motorcycle taxis near the train station.

The second thing is about the Xinhua Bookstore near Xiao Bing's home.

After looking at Xiao Bing's photo, the shop assistant confirmed that he was a regular customer of the bookstore, coming to buy books almost every month.

As for whether Xiao Bing came to the bookstore to buy books on May 1st, it's not certain, because the bookstore was very busy that day.

However, after the police showed the book "Being Digital" to the bookstore, they confirmed that the book was indeed sold by them and had a stamp on it.

However, the exact date of sale cannot be found because there are no sales records.

However, one of the shop assistants noticed a detail: the printing batch of this book was different from the one currently being sold in the bookstore.

Because best-selling books are printed repeatedly, bookstores will have different printing batches when they purchase them.

Coincidentally, this batch of books only arrived on April 29th.

In other words, Xiao Bing couldn't have gone to the bookstore on May 1st; he lied.

As for the purpose of lying, it must have been to cover up his whereabouts on May 1st. So where did he go that day and what did he do?
We'll probably only know once Xiao Bing is caught and interrogated.

Then came the investigation into Xu Liu.

The routine investigation is still ongoing, following a similar trajectory to the previous life. The difficulty lies not in the individual questions asked, but in verifying and confirming the information after the questions are asked.

We were already short-handed, and new leads kept popping up, so we had to resort to robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The investigation into Xu Liu is currently focusing on two main directions.

First, the man who provided Xu Liu with financial support.

The investigation into this matter was divided into two groups.

One group went to Xu Liu's hometown, Huaixing, and asked the local police to cooperate in investigating clues about Xu Liu going to work in the city after the college entrance examination.

Since Xu Liu had no worries about living expenses from the beginning of her university years, it is highly suspected that she met this man during that summer vacation.

Another group of people conducted a check-in investigation of all hotels and guesthouses in Qingshan District and Nanming District of Hongcheng. If the man was not a local, then the two of them would definitely meet secretly in a hotel if he came to Hongcheng to find Xu Liu.

Furthermore, Xu Liu's roommates also provided information that during her first semester of freshman year, Xu Liu would spend about one weekend every three to four weeks away from the dorm. Someone once casually asked her about it, and she replied that she was going on a short trip nearby, so the others didn't pay much attention, since everyone knew that Xu Liu "came from a well-off family."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi thought to himself, "It's a pity there's no WeChat Moments these days. If there were, I'd probably steal a bunch of pictures from Moments to create a sophisticated persona."

This investigation was also very tiring because in these kinds of extramarital affairs, the woman is unlikely to register the affair. The man can book a room first, and the woman can just go in later.

So the task force had to repeatedly ask Xu Liu's photo, not only at the front desk but also by the housekeeping staff, because they were afraid of missing anyone and then not being able to find her again.

Meanwhile, the task force also investigated another direction.

Based on Xu Liu's leave request on the 29th and 30th, we focused our investigation on other faculty and students at Hongda University who also requested leave on those days.

Based on normal logic, Xu Liu's request for leave from her counselor under the pretext of a family member being sick and hospitalized was most likely to be a trip to spend time with her lover, since there were three days off for the May Day holiday.

If anyone asks for leave, they will be subject to a thorough investigation.

However, there is a loophole here, which is that the work nature of teachers at the associate professor level and above in the school is relatively flexible. Because associate professors and above have to do research work, academic exchange and review in addition to teaching tasks, their time is highly autonomous.

Therefore, we can only judge based on the actual implementation of the class schedule. At least so far, no abnormal behavior has been found, especially among Xu Liu's male teachers, who basically followed the class schedule during the day on the 29th and 30th and were present on time.

The second option was the pager provided by Zhou Yixin.

Since Ni Jianrong gave the order personally, his direct subordinates naturally took it to heart, so they are checking the attendance records of various club activities and lectures at the school.

Zhou Yi went to the internal affairs team and asked Director Wang, the person in charge, for the investigation records about Zheng Jianxin.

The internal affairs team was basically composed of elite personnel drawn from the command center by Director Wang, who personally led the team.

In the office of the internal affairs team, documents were piled up like mountains. Director Wang sat there, flipping through the file folders one by one.

Each file folder has a corresponding name written on it.

“Liu Changyong, Zhao Qian, Fan Tianyou…” Director Wang shook his head, “No, this pile belongs to the teachers.”

Turning to another pile, he said, "Yes, this pile belongs to the male students. Liu Yan... Guo Peng... Zheng Jianxin..."

"Got it, it's here." He handed the file folder to Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi opened it and looked at it. It mainly contained signed statements from the interrogation, as well as some records of subsequent investigations and verifications.

Director Wang adjusted his glasses and said, "I remember Xiao Qiao verified Zheng Jianxin's alibi for the time period of the incident. What, is there a problem?"

Zhou Yi flipped through Zheng Jianxin's statement and casually replied, "Some new clues have emerged. I need to learn more about this person. Director Wang, may I take this first?"

"Sure, but if you want to take a statement from Zheng Jianxin again, you have to follow the rules, sign and fingerprint it, and then bring it back for me to check and file."

Zhou Yi nodded: "I understand, thank you, Director Wang."

Sure enough, in both Zheng Jianxin's previous and current testimonies, he did not mention that he had a crush on Lu Xiaoshuang and sent her love letters.

It seems necessary to ask.

As Zhou Yi emerged from the internal affairs team, he spotted a figure in the corridor and waved, calling out, "Team Leader Shi."

Shi Tao was about to turn the corner and go downstairs when he turned around and saw Zhou Yi, so he stopped.

Zhou Yi jogged a few steps to Shi Tao: "Captain Shi, what brings you here?"

Shi Tao sighed helplessly: "Sigh, Captain Ni said that we are really short-handed and asked me to join the task force as well."

“That’s great! Captain Ni is right. The task force is extremely busy right now. Captain Shi, as a leader in the bureau, you should set an example for us by taking the lead,” Zhou Yi joked.

Shi Tao lowered his voice and said, "It's just that you're young and energetic, and you don't understand the reasons behind this."

"Wh...what reason?" Zhou Yi asked, puzzled.

Shi Tao glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then whispered, "These kinds of cases involve so many different parties, they're really troublesome. Even if we handle them well, we won't get any benefits. After all, there are so many leaders above us, and the credit won't go to us no matter how we're ranked. At most, we'll get some collective honor. But if we don't handle them well... hmph, everyone's going to be in trouble."

Zhou Yi thought to himself, "Sure enough, it's still Shi Tao's classic style."

But Shi Tao's next words made Zhou Yi's heart tighten.

“I witnessed something like this ten years ago.”

Ten years ago, the special task force? Could Shi Tao be referring to the July 27 shooting incident?
"Captain Shi, what case was it ten years ago?" Zhou Yi asked tentatively.

"It's that..." Shi Tao was about to say when he suddenly stopped.

Then he waved his hand and said, "Hey, you were only a few years old back then, it's all ancient history, it has nothing to do with you."

Regardless of whether Shi Tao was feigning ignorance or trying to change the subject, there was no point in asking about it anymore.

Further questioning could easily arouse suspicion.

"Team Leader Shi, which task will you be in charge of next?"

"It was the task that your team leader Wu was in charge of before: interviewing and investigating witnesses in Xinbei Town, and exploring that mine."

"Oh, there's still no progress on that?"

Shi Tao said helplessly, "What progress? After Lao Wu was suspended... on sick leave, this matter was delayed. Later, everyone was transferred to arrest Xiao Bing."

Zhou Yi sighed. It had been several days since Captain Wu left the task force. The case seemed to have made progress, but it didn't feel like it had. It was frustrating.

"So, Captain Shi, do you have anyone else available?"

Shi Tao scratched his head and said, "There's no one else here. It'll just be me and Lao Gu asking from house to house. He Bin and the others are still out there searching for Xiao Bing. Oh, you reminded me. I still need to ask Lao Qiu for two more people. Lao Gu and I can't go down into this mine."

"Hasn't the mine already been explored?" Zhou Yi found it strange.

“That’s what I thought too. We’ve already explored it, so why do we need to investigate it again? But I called your team leader Wu this morning to ask him about the previous situation, and he told me that we still need to investigate this mine.”

Shi Tao said that Wu Yongcheng meant that he had learned about the situation through the local town government and that these abandoned mines were illegally mined, so the underground structure was very messy and complicated, and many mines were interconnected.

Therefore, a comprehensive survey is basically impossible.

So during the initial investigation, after discovering the human head and the murder weapon, they only continued searching for a short distance. After finding no other traces, they withdrew and sealed the entrance to the hole.

"But Lao Wu told me today that he thinks we still need to investigate the mine shaft. He said he has figured it out. Just because we didn't find any traces when we went deeper doesn't mean there are no traces at all, because the mine shaft itself is not a straight line."

Zhou Yi immediately understood Wu Yongcheng's meaning: "Does Captain Wu mean that the hole where Lu Xiaoshuang was found might not be the hole where the murderer disposed of the body?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Tao's eyes widened in surprise: "Old Wu told you?"

"No, I'm just guessing. Captain Wu probably doesn't mean to continue searching inside the original entrance, but rather to look for other mine entrances that might be connected internally, right?"

Shi Tao nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, that's right, that's exactly what he said. Goodness, you and your Captain Wu must have some special abilities, you two think exactly the same thing."

Zhou Yi had never been to Xinbei Town, let alone seen the mine site. At most, he had only seen the on-site investigation data after joining the task force.

Shi Tao just relayed Wu Yongcheng's words, which enlightened him.

It is indeed possible that the entrance into which the body was dumped and the entrance that was discovered are not the same.

There are several suspicious points.

The first thing is the cave entrance where Lu Xiaoshuang was rescued. It was because a child who went to collect coal cinders heard the cries for help from inside the cave.

That means the location of the mine entrance is not particularly remote. Judging from the photos of the site survey, the area around the mine is relatively flat and not overgrown with weeds or particularly barren.

Otherwise, children wouldn't dare to go and collect coal cinders.

However, this surrounding environment is actually not suitable for such an obvious act of disposing of a body.

Because the surrounding area is relatively open, it is very easy to be exposed.

Secondly, the on-site investigation outside the mine did not find any vehicle tire tracks nearby.

If footprints in the mine could be deliberately erased through careful examination, it would be plausible, consistent with the killer's cautious nature.

It's unbelievable that the car's tracks were also deliberately erased.

It's not like the murderer would drive the car a certain distance and then get out to clean up the traces every time.
As I said before, such bizarre behavior is very easy to expose and form a memorable characteristic for eyewitnesses.

Finally, on the night I returned to Hongcheng, at Wu Yongcheng's house, when he mentioned the mine exploration situation, he emphasized the issues of illegal mining and internal connections within the mine.

Zhou Yi wasn't sure if Wu Yongcheng had already begun to suspect that the murderer might have used other openings to dispose of the body at that time. But Zhou Yi was preoccupied with figuring out why Lu Xiaoshuang had become a suspect, so he didn't notice this.

Looking back now, Captain Wu was truly a seasoned veteran.

Unfortunately, he made a sacrifice in order to get himself into the task force.

But Zhou Yi didn't understand why Wu Yongcheng didn't voice his suspicions at the time.

Did they think they would definitely find out?

Zhou Yi suddenly felt her face burning, because she was somewhat ashamed.

It was only after Shi Tao took over that Wu Yongcheng pointed out the problem.

I wonder if Captain Wu felt disappointed...

This reminded Zhou Yi of another detail: Wu Yongcheng had mentioned that after the coal mines in Xinbei Township were depleted, the local government didn't have the money to fill them in, so they could only use wooden boards to block the openings.

However, some people even steal these wooden planks, which leads to some holes being directly exposed.

From the killer's perspective, a secluded cave entrance where no one would pass by would be the best choice because it would have a high safety factor.

Zhou Yi preferred a hole with a wooden plank to one without, because it would be less likely to arouse suspicion.

However, this method of sealing holes with wooden planks usually involves using horizontal beams to form a frame around the perimeter, and then laying wooden planks on top and nailing them in place.

Although it was difficult to disassemble, it would be less likely to arouse suspicion afterward, so Zhou Yi felt that it was important to pay close attention to it.

Especially when nails are removed and then nailed back in, it's unavoidable that marks will be left behind.

He told Shi Tao to follow these two points when searching, which he estimated would be much more efficient.

Shi Tao nodded repeatedly, saying that you and Lao Wu are the most reliable. He would go with Gu Changhai to Xinbei Town to search for them one by one.

After seeing Shi Tao off, Zhou Yi immediately thought of something else.

It concerns the issue of Lu Xiaoshuang inhaling methane and carbon monoxide.

He immediately returned to the station, intending to consult with Song Yiming, but he didn't see Song Yiming in the forensic room; instead, he saw Xu Nian.

Xu Nian was somewhat surprised to see Zhou Yi: "Why are you back again?"

"Oh, I came back because..." Zhou Yi was taken aback, "What do you mean by 'again'?"

"I saw you this morning. Has Lu Xiaoshuang's status as a criminal suspect been withdrawn?"

Zhou Yi nodded, "Oh, I see. Yes, it's been cancelled, so I came to pick her up, since her parents aren't here."

"Oh, I see... So where have you settled her now? It might not be safe for her to go back to school given her condition." Xu Nian bit her lip and asked, "It's not at your house, is it? Otherwise, you could let her stay at my place..."

"No need, I sent her to a friend's place, she's safe."

Xu Nian nodded and whispered, "That's good, then you can rest assured."

Zhou Yi sensed something amiss and immediately changed the subject, saying, "I have a question for you. How long does it take for a person to die from inhaling formaldehyde and carbon monoxide?"

Xu Nian said there is no fixed time; it mainly depends on the concentration of harmful gases in the surrounding environment.

The higher the concentration, the faster the death. If the methane content in the air exceeds 70%, a person may die in five minutes in such an environment.

This prompted Zhou Yi to immediately go to the technical department to find Lao Qiu and ask about the test results of the harmful gas content in the mine.

Lao Qiu's feedback was that the testing facilities were not available during the first on-site investigation, but they were recently added.

The test results showed that the levels of the two harmful gases in the mine were actually not high, with an overall average concentration of less than 5%.

Old Qiu said the reason was simple: the coal mines underground in Xinbei Township had been mined out too thoroughly.

The reason there is methane in the mine is that when coal is formed, the decomposition of organic matter produces a large amount of methane.

However, the coal mine has been hollowed out, so only a small amount of methane remains, and no new methane gas will be formed.

Moreover, methane is much less dense than oxygen, so it tends to accumulate in the upper layers of a confined space.

This is also the reason why Lu Xiaoshuang felt dizzy and collapsed after walking only a short distance after standing up, according to her statement.

This is why it could continue crawling inside the cave after falling down, searching for an exit.

Then there's carbon monoxide.

Theoretically, there is no carbon monoxide inside the mine.

However, because mining produces a large amount of methane, which is highly explosive, specialized personnel are needed to prepare the explosives and detonate them to eliminate all the methane.

Meng Dahai, a member of Long Zhiqiang's gang, did this kind of thing back then.

The explosions used to remove methane actually produce carbon monoxide.

Therefore, legitimate coal mining operations will release carbon monoxide into the environment.

But this requires cost and time, which, for those unscrupulous coal bosses who are only interested in profit, is all about money, their lifeline.

This is why illegal mining and safety accidents occur.

Although the carbon monoxide concentration in the mine is not high, Lao Qiu said that carbon monoxide is only 3 percent lighter than oxygen, so it is basically mixed with oxygen and will not float on the top layer like methane.

Therefore, if the victim continues to inhale the substance, it will cause significant harm to their body.

Section Chief Qiu's explanation made Zhou Yi understand why Lu Xiaoshuang, who had clearly woken up after previous treatment, suddenly had a dangerous situation and needed to be rescued.

This is because of the harm to the body caused by the continuous inhalation of carbon monoxide.

As for how long it would take for someone to die in this situation, Lao Qiu said, "I can't give you a precise time."

He added a remark that left Zhou Yi both amused and exasperated: he said he wouldn't help her with experiments.

It was probably because Zhou Yi's experiment with Song Yiming had frightened him that he was afraid he would also ask the technical department to conduct an experiment with harmful gases.

Finally, based on the situation, Lao Qiu gave a maximum reference time of two hours.

In that environment, where a person is constantly lying down or prone, the maximum survival time would not exceed two hours.

Qiu Zhiyong said firmly, "Even if a god came, he wouldn't survive for more than two hours!"

This information is just as valuable as Song Yiming's experiment on frying meat.

This would allow us to determine roughly when the murderer threw Lu Xiaoshuang and her head into the mine.

The afternoon of May 1st.

In other words, it was just as Zhou Yi had predicted.

While the police were rummaging through trash cans looking for body parts, the murderer took the opportunity to transport the unconscious Lu Xiaoshuang, the severed head from the travel bag, and the murder weapon to a mine in Xinbei Town, thus carrying out what appears to be the final step in the case.

This time should be between 2 PM and 5 PM.

Xie Guoqiang gave clear instructions at the first case meeting that suspicious vehicles and pedestrians should be thoroughly investigated, which was around 4 p.m. that day.

The timing was just right.

Of course, we can't just consider this hindsight, because no one really thought of that at the time.

Upon discovering body parts, a rapid and targeted large-scale search is the correct course of action.

They did the same thing in their previous life, so even Zhou Yi didn't think anything was wrong.

He also chose to go to Daguan Street as soon as possible to find the head of the deceased using his own methods to confirm the identity of the deceased.

After all, who would have thought that at a time when police were everywhere, the murderer would brazenly dispose of the body in the suburbs?

So Zhou Yi called Shi Tao and told him that when interviewing witnesses, he should pay special attention to unfamiliar vehicles that appeared in Xinbei Town between 2 pm and 5 pm on May 1st.

Shi Tao was extremely excited and repeatedly said, "Zhou Yi, you are my guiding light!"

But after hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi had a new question in his mind.

The murderer had already abducted and controlled Lu Xiaoshuang on the afternoon of April 30th, so why did he wait until May 1st to throw her into the mine?
According to the previous analysis, the reason why the murderer did not kill Lu Xiaoshuang was simply because he needed her to die in a manner that was not murder.

But Zhou Yi couldn't think of any reason why it needed to be precise down to May 1st.

Why not just kidnap the person on April 30th, transport them directly to Xinbei Township, and dump them in the mine?

In any case, it wouldn't make much difference whether Lu Xiaoshuang died a day earlier or a day later in the mine.

Zhou Yi pondered what exactly was going on.

Could it be that the 30th was not a suitable date, creating a conflict with the time for disposing of the body?

The task force had previously conducted a comprehensive analysis regarding the timing of the body disposal.

Xu Liu went missing on the night of the 28th, making it extremely unlikely that she could have dismembered and disposed of the body that night.

It is also unlikely that the body was disposed of during the day on the 29th, because the 29th is a sunny day, and disposing of a body during the day would easily expose the suspect's whereabouts and leave traces if seen by witnesses.

Similarly, the possibility of the body being disposed of during the day on the 30th is also very small.

Especially with the latest clues confirming that the murderer kidnapped and held Lu Xiaoshuang hostage on the afternoon of the 30th, time is even more pressing.

Therefore, the most likely time the body was disposed of was on the night of the 29th.

In the 1990s, except for some special areas, the sanitation bureaus of prefecture-level cities did not have enough manpower to clean up the garbage cans on the road and the garbage dumps of residents every day.

The task force confirmed with the sanitation bureau that due to the high population density at Hongda, students generate too much garbage every day. The school's logistics department collects all the garbage on campus and brings it to the side gate for the sanitation bureau to collect and dispose of.

It's a daily cleanup, since the education department has dedicated funds to pay the sanitation department for garbage disposal.

In addition, the nearby food street generates a large amount of kitchen waste every day, which also needs to be dealt with in a timely manner.

In the vicinity of Hongdae, and even in most parts of the city, street trash cans are emptied every other day.

After all, there was no garbage sorting back then, and there were many trash cans on the streets.

After investigation and verification, the sanitation bureau confirmed that the trash cans on the road near Hongda had been emptied between 9 pm and 10 pm on the 29th.

Jiang Biao even led a group of people to search the garbage dump for a whole day and night, just to confirm whether there were any body parts in the garbage that had been dumped earlier.

Nothing came of it.

This confirms that the body was disposed of at least within the 22 hours between 10 PM on the 29th and 8 AM on the 30th.

The task force generally agreed that the timeframe was from midnight to dawn on the 30th.

Because the movements are more concealed in the latter half of the night, it is more in line with the criminal psychology of the murderer to dispose of the body.

Of course, before interrogating Lu Xiaoshuang, the task force could not rule out the possibility that the murderer disposed of the body in a very short time on the afternoon of the 30th.

After all, no valid eyewitnesses have been found so far.

Yes, it's not that there are no clues. In fact, the police obtain a lot of clues during their investigations and interviews.

The problem is that the clues provided by the public are very one-sided and based on their own perspective. Often, after some investigation, it turns out that the goods are not as described.

Unless the murderer is caught, showing the murderer's photo to witnesses for identification would be more accurate.

Otherwise, if someone deliberately and quickly passes by and throws things into the trash can, even if there are witnesses, they may not notice.

Therefore, theoretically, the disposal of the body was completed before Lu Xiaoshuang was kidnapped.

The two things are not in conflict in essence.

There must be some compelling reason why the murderer didn't throw Lu Xiaoshuang into the mine on the 30th.

The most likely explanation is that the murderer didn't want to, but rather couldn't, that afternoon.

What unforeseen event forced the murderer to choose to go to the mine the next day?

It cannot be ruled out that the murderer went to the mine on the afternoon of May 1st as a desperate act.

After all, the police had already begun a large-scale search for body parts on the night of the 30th.

The murderer only needed to walk around the street and linger among the onlookers to find out what had happened.

Lu Xiaoshuang is a living, breathing person. The murderer cannot let her "die a violent death." He must either release her or take the risk of committing another crime right under the nose of the police.

Letting go is impossible, so there's only one path left.

In other words, the period after 2 p.m. on the 30th may be crucial.

Zhou Yi immediately recalled the school celebration that Xiao Bing had mentioned earlier. Could the murderer also be attending this event? Leaving without a reason would easily arouse suspicion, rendering the alibi invalid?

It seems I need to talk to Xiang Jie about this and ask him to arrange for someone to check the list of participants in this event.

As things stand, it seems this matter can only be discussed after we find this woman named "Lulu".

Zhou Yi then remembered that he had asked Chen Yan to wait for him, and he had completely forgotten about it.

Just as I was about to go downstairs, I suddenly heard thunderous snoring coming from the office of the Third Brigade ahead.

"Who could it be at this time? It can't be Captain Wu, can it?" Zhou Yi walked over curiously and pushed open the half-closed door.

Then I saw Jiang Biao leaning back in his chair, mouth wide open, and thunderous snoring coming from his mouth.

Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment, and it seemed that Jiang Biao had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Just as I was about to leave and close the door so he could get some sleep, the snoring stopped abruptly.

Jiang Biao suddenly stood up and asked, "Who!"

"Brother Biao, it's me. Sorry to disturb your sleep." Zhou Yi said with a helpless smile. This alertness is a bit too high.

Upon recognizing the person, Jiang Biao sat down again, rubbed his face with both hands, and said, "Oh, Zhou Yi, weren't you with the special task force? Why are you back?"

"I just got some information from the forensic doctor and the technical department. Brother Biao, you can take a nap a little longer, I'm heading back now."

Jiang Biao shook his head and said, "I'm not going to sleep. I came back to look for information and I felt a little tired. I thought I'd sit for a while, but I ended up falling asleep."

Zhou Yi looked at Jiang Biao, whose face was covered in stubble, sweat, and dust, and whose dark circles were almost as dark as a panda's.

His once towering, 1.9-meter-tall frame now appeared somewhat shaky and precarious.

"Brother Biao, how long has it been since you rested?" Zhou Yi didn't leave. He picked up a cup to pour Jiang Biao some hot water, but when he tried, both thermos flasks in the corner were empty, so he had to give up.

Jiang Biao yawned and said, "I don't know, I didn't count."

Jiang Biao was in charge of searching for body parts from the beginning. Although he had found most of the body parts, he hadn't found a single bone, so the search couldn't stop.

Besides bones, there are two other things under his jurisdiction.

First, investigate the rapeseed oil used in the explosion of the body. At least fifteen kilograms of rapeseed oil must have been available in a specific location, such as a restaurant or food processing plant, or it must have been purchased around the 28th for the purpose of committing the crime. Of course, the murderer wouldn't be stupid enough to buy so much at once; he must have bought it in batches.

Secondly, regarding crime scenes, in addition to specific locations such as restaurants and food processing plants that require door-to-door investigations, it is also necessary to mobilize the public to obtain more suspicious clues.

After all, dismembering a body might not necessarily raise suspicion; there have been cases like this in Donghai Community before.

But deep-frying a large amount of meat slices in the middle of the night is something that can't be masked, either by sound or smell.

However, it is clear that no effective results have been obtained from these two points yet, otherwise the information would have been synchronized.

Besides these three things, when Xiao Bing escaped, Jiang Biao had another task, because he was the only one with a large number of peripheral police forces at his disposal.

The biggest difference between the Hongda case and the Long Zhiqiang case is that, although both involved mobilizing a large number of police officers in a short period of time, the Long Zhiqiang case had a clear objective, a serious situation, and posed a great threat to social stability. Therefore, almost all police forces were deployed immediately, and the normal operation of the Hongcheng Public Security Bureau was not even considered in the short term.

Moreover, Long Zhiqiang is an outsider whose purpose is clearly to escape, which will create an open game of cat and mouse with the police.

But major cases are different. The murderer is in the shadows, and the chances of the case being solved in a short time are very small. Therefore, when allocating police resources, the normal operation of the public security organs must also be taken into account, so it is impossible to deploy all police resources at once.

If this drags on for too long and breaks down the police force, how can social order be maintained?

After all, there were quite a few ruthless people, hooligans, and thugs in society in the 1990s.

This is why Shi Tao didn't join the task force before. Besides his personal desire not to get involved in such a difficult case where he wouldn't get much credit, Zhou Yi guessed there was another reason: Director Xie wanted Shi Tao to first warn some unstable elements who might take the opportunity to cause trouble.

Therefore, Shi Tao's joining the task force today may not necessarily be because they are missing him.

Rather, it's because Director Xie has already completed most of the tasks assigned to him, so it's time to bring him in to work as well.

This makes sense, especially since Shi Tao should have filled in immediately after Wu Yongcheng was "on sick leave".

"Zhou Yi," Jiang Biao suddenly said, "Do you think I'm not suited for this job?"

Zhou Yi was stunned. Was Brother Biao being driven to question his very existence?

"Brother Biao, don't underestimate yourself. In terms of large-scale searches, who in the entire Hongcheng has more experience than you?" Zhou Yi comforted him.

"But what's really strange is that I've searched almost every inch of Hongcheng, and I've even snatched bones from the mouths of wild dogs to check, but I still can't find a single one."

Jiang Biao said sullenly, "You know, Xu Jiaguang threw away bones back then too. Although some of them were never found in the end, at least most of them were salvaged. This time, however, not a single one was found."

"To put it bluntly, I am now the most hated policeman in the entire Hongcheng. In order to find Xu Liu's bones, I have offended every department I could."

These words left Zhou Yi both amused and exasperated.

"Brother Biao, your description is just too funny," Zhou Yi said, trying to lighten the mood by changing the subject.

Jiang Biao countered, "Which description?"

"It's like snatching bones from the mouths of stray dogs."

Jiang Biao's eyes widened as he said, "I'm not just describing it, I really did it..."

Zhou Yi was completely dumbfounded. Holy crap, he was actually forced to snatch a bone from a dog's mouth!

"Brother Biao, I think you shouldn't rush things. I think the problem with not finding the bone might be fundamentally flawed in our approach."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Biao eagerly asked, "Zhou Yi, tell me quickly, what's the problem?"

(End of this chapter)