Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 216 Unexplained Motives 6
The killer's actions seem illogical.

If there was something in the deceased's bag that would make him want to kill, why would he take the bag with him and throw it into the river instead of leaving it at the scene?
Robbers usually do this: they leave the bag at the scene so that no one suspects they're robbing them, which makes them safer.
People who drop their bags are usually spur-of-the-moment thieves who steal money or phones. They take the bag and then slowly check what valuables are inside, or they leave the bag aside to obscure the location of the murder.

But that doesn't add up either.

The deceased's body was in the alley. Even without Tan Jia's dream, the people in the alley would have discovered the body sooner or later.

Moreover, the contents of the bag were neatly arranged, and it seemed that nothing was missing.

Why would a murderer take a useless bag for no reason, risk being discovered, walk a kilometer, and throw it into the river?
Tan Jia shared her questions with Zheng Yan and the others, hoping to find relevant answers from their years of experience.

Zheng Yan patted her on the shoulder: "You have the typical reasoner's mindset. You focus too much on logic. It works wonders in cases like child murder, but when you encounter nonsensical details and can't figure out the killer's thoughts, you can't move forward. But many people commit crimes without logic or with confused logic."

"For example, there was a case where the victim was found dead under a osmanthus tree whose trunk had been cut down. We thought there must be some connection between the cut-down osmanthus tree and the victim, that it was the killer's habit or that he wanted to convey some message. But it turned out that the killer suddenly felt that the osmanthus smelled bad after killing the person, so he cut down the tree in a fit of anger."

Tan Jia remained silent.

Zheng Yan added, "Just like your brother said, we can never guess the motives of the murderers and the reasons they gave for doing these things. Some murderers we still can't figure out their motives until they are caught. So let's just bring them back and question them directly."

"Xiao Chen, have the tech team compare the surveillance footage from the riverbank with that from outside the alley, and find out who was in both places around the time of the incident."

Xiao Chen: "Why don't we take a look first? The technician's dark circles are even worse than mine."

"...Alright, alright, copy all the surveillance footage from this area back. If the killer could find this spot to throw something into the river, they must know the area very well; they might even be a regular resident of this alley."

Tan Jia always avoids watching surveillance footage whenever possible.

But Lin Zhiyue was requisitioned.

Zheng Yan seemed intent on using him as a technician, even pulling out a copy of "The Wonders of Visual Thinkers" that had been sitting on the table for who knows how long, and standing next to him to compare and use it.

"Making the best use of resources" no longer describes his behavior; it should be called purposeful development.

Unfortunately, Lin Zhiyue wasn't very cooperative. Halfway through watching, he suddenly said, "It's time to eat."

Then, in front of Zheng Yan and the others, he said to Tan Jia, "I told Auntie to make your favorite braised beef brisket and cold dishes. It's too hot and you'll be dehydrated, so Auntie said she'll make you a nourishing soup to replenish fluids."

Tan Jia nodded calmly and glanced at the reactions of the others.

Zheng Yan was speechless, Tan Ming was expressionless and hesitated to speak, and Xiao Chen was simply drooling.

Finally, Zheng Yan waved his hand and said, "...Alright, alright, let's go eat, we'll eat in batches."

They were just temporary workers, and their help was purely out of kindness. They had plenty of time to eat, and they didn't have to squeeze in with others. They could enjoy the air conditioning on the bus, eat fruit, drink soup, and sigh with comfort.

After dinner, Lin Zhiyue took over the shift, while Tan Jia sat to the side kneading dough, pondering the case details by looking at the tilted-headed dough figurine he had made earlier. "There are no identical people," Lin Zhiyue said shortly after sitting down. "The murderer left the alley between 3 and 4 a.m. During that time, there were only five people who appeared at the riverbank, the park, and the three-way intersection by the river. Two were driving, and they appeared in the surveillance footage of the next section of the road two minutes later. The third person walked by; they were probably drunk..."

He doesn't usually talk much, and suddenly speaking so much seemed to strain his throat; he was frowning as if he was about to give up at any moment.

Tan Jia poured him a glass of water, and then, when Zheng Yan wasn't looking, touched his hand.

So he obediently continued, "The drunk man passed three traffic lights before reaching the river. Judging from his route, he came from the alley, but he didn't appear in the surveillance footage outside the alley. In the end, the two of them were together, riding an electric bike, and they didn't appear in the surveillance footage outside the alley either."

"Your eyes are really sharp! You can even tell if a shadowy figure in the pitch black at three in the morning is the same person," Zheng Yan said, expressing his admiration.

Then he summarized his long statement: "So no one fits? That's strange, it shouldn't be possible. The murderer didn't appear in the surveillance footage of entering the alley, nor in the footage of leaving, and wasn't even by the river where the victim's bag was thrown away. Could he be invisible, or is there some route we don't know that allows him to completely avoid surveillance?"

Tan Jia said slowly as he thought for a moment, "He might be from a special area in the alley, someone who would never be seen on the surveillance cameras outside."

He then contradicted himself, saying, "But that doesn't explain why he wasn't on the riverside security camera. Even though the camera wasn't directly facing the spot where the bag was thrown, he should have been captured on camera... Could it be that someone else actually took the bag after discovering the body?"

Before anyone could interject, she countered, "No, that doesn't make sense either. If that were the case, the person who took the bag would have definitely searched it; it wouldn't be so tidy inside. Could it be that this was just an extra step the killer took to mislead the police?"

"Possibly, although the action was a bit inexplicable." Zheng Yan continued watching the surveillance video, pondering for two minutes.

“We need to go to the site and see if there are other routes to avoid the surveillance, or if the surveillance video has been tampered with, like in the last case. If the murderer really went to great lengths to hide his whereabouts, then this is definitely the key to solving the case. If not, then it means that our investigation is going in the wrong direction.”

That's how investigations are. You run around under the scorching sun investigating a bunch of things, only to find they're all wrong, and in the end you have to start all over again.

After briefly dividing the tasks, they planned to go out on fieldwork.

Tan Jia wanted Lin Zhiyue to stay in the car and not run around with them, but before she could say anything, the office door was suddenly pushed open.

"Captain Zheng, there's a new situation!"

The forensic investigators arrived, their faces grave. They said directly, "We found biological traces left by another woman at the first crime scene."

Zheng Yan thought he had misheard: "What do you mean? Another woman? Are you sure it's a woman?"

Forensic examiner: "My eyes aren't blind yet."

"That's impossible, the killer should be male..."

Zheng Yan looked at Tan Jia as he spoke.

She merely frowned, her reaction remarkably calm: "It means either I misinterpreted the dream, and the killer is a burly woman, or there was another victim at the initial crime scene."