Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 313 Home Visit
As Lestrade stepped through the gates of the Royal Academy, he straightened his bow tie and took a deep breath to reassure himself.

Although Levi introduced him to anthropologists, due to the rigor of forensic identification, Levi would certainly not recommend them to those anthropologists in Lestrade who were not yet famous.

The kind of person in novels who makes a groundbreaking invention but remains unknown, waiting for the protagonist to bask in the limelight, won't work in the legal field. This is because forensic authentication is a serious and rigorous matter; reputation and status are part of what can endorse the reliability of a technology, and are therefore more readily accepted.

Otherwise, even if an unknown person develops some technology, the police will not readily agree to use it as a legitimate investigative technique without a series of long-term verifications.

For example, Galton, whom Lestrade previously criticized, was a renowned anthropologist, astronomer, explorer, and writer. He even attended a meeting of the Royal Society's Institute for the Study of the Human Body, and subsequently wrote a book called "Fingerprints," in which he reached three important conclusions: human fingerprints remain unchanged throughout life, fingerprints can be identified, and fingerprints can be classified.

If a big shot like this comes to the police and says that fingerprinting can be used to solve a case, then the police have no choice but to give it a try.

Conversely, if an unknown nobody came to the police station, they would kick him away without saying a word.

Today, Lestrade is visiting Professor Henry, an anthropologist who is also a renowned scholar. This tendency to ride the wave of trends isn't unique to the entertainment industry; the scientific community does it too. Ever since Galton proved that fingerprinting could indeed assist police in solving cases, many anthropologists have entered this field and begun their research.

Professor Henry was one of them, and he also began his own research using Galton's "Fingerprints". However, Henry's research was not limited to fingerprints, but included skin patterns—including fingerprints, palm prints, and footprints.

Of course, as a fellow bigwig, Professor Henry disdained picking up Galton's leftovers, so he focused on footprints and patterns and published a series of papers on human footprints.

This is also why Levi recommended Lestrade.

After all, in this day and age, the most common and easily understood evidence left at crime scenes is fingerprints and footprints.

In the simple mindset of ordinary people, hands and feet are part of their own body. If there are your fingerprints and footprints at the scene, it means you have been there. So, it is useless for you to argue that you are innocent.

Moreover, fingerprints can be removed, but footprints... unless you don't have legs and can fly, they will definitely be left behind.

Professor Henry also had considerable insight into the study of footprints, so Levy asked Lestrade to invite him and his students.

In fact, logically speaking, Li Wei could have written it himself, but the problem is... he's just too lazy to write it.

Writing a thesis is a very tedious task, and it requires a lot of data support. It's not something you can come up with on a whim, especially in fields like fingerprinting and footprint analysis. If you don't compare hundreds or thousands of data points to lay the foundation, no one will be willing to read it because it's meaningless.

Li Wei didn't have time to go through the pain of writing a university graduation thesis again, so he simply adopted the "take it or leave it" approach. Anyway, he was going to use it anyway, and he wasn't interested in titles like "founder of fingerprinting and footprinting." Whoever wanted to take it could have it; he just needed to do his job as a detective.

From this perspective, Li Wei is more like an applied scientist, responsible for transforming scientific research results into practical applications, rather than inventing and creating them himself.

After all, he couldn't do it either.

What Li Wei can do is to put forward some concepts and ideas from his own era and see if they can be applied to this era.

Regarding the attack on the data hub tower in the Steel City, Li Wei only knew the concept of a computer virus. As for how computer viruses were created, and how a steam-powered difference engine could defend against attacks similar to computer viruses, he was completely clueless. He could only share his understanding with Qi Ya and the others, and then leave it to them to find a solution.

Actually, the scientists in this world are very talented. Li Wei felt that he was not as talented as them, and at most he could only suggest a direction.

As Lestrade entered the Royal Academy, he inquired along the way and quickly found Professor Henry's office. Looking at the door, he felt somewhat nervous—if the person inside were a criminal suspect, Lestrade wouldn't be nervous. But if they weren't, his innate reverence for his teachers instinctively took over as he walked through the school.

People who have been to school are like this. Even after graduation and starting work, when they go back to school, they still feel the need to be well-behaved. It's purely an instinctive reaction to being scolded by teachers.

So even though it wasn't his own school or his own teacher's office, Lestrade was still a little nervous, like a child being called out in class to be scolded, and he reached out and knocked on the door.

Soon, a man's voice came from inside.

"Come in."

The familiar tone and manner of speaking—if it weren't for the fact that it wasn't the same person, Lestrade would have felt the unease of being called in by his own teacher.

But having been a policeman for so many years, Lestrade gritted his teeth, pushed open the door, and went inside.

Then he saw a thin, middle-aged man sitting behind a desk, who looked up and glanced at him.

That glance sent a shiver down Lestrade's spine, and he almost cried out, "Report, teacher!"

Fortunately, my composure as a police officer came in handy.

"Hello, Professor Henry."

Lestrade quickly composed himself, then stepped forward with a smile.

"I'm Assistant Inspector Lestrade from the Chongqing Police Department. I'm here to ask you for some help..."

"From the police station? What do you want?"

Professor Henry looked up, glanced at the policeman, and showed no reaction. Lestrade didn't care; intellectuals were all like that, unless they had something to hide or had done something wrong, in which case they would tremble at the sight of the police.

It's a pity this guy didn't flinch, otherwise we could have just arrested him and taken him to the police station, and then used him for free.

Lestrade muttered to himself, but still smiled and continued.

"That's right. The Ministry of the Interior has issued a document requiring our judicial departments to adopt a scientific approach to case investigation. I have read your paper on 'Application of Footprint Pressure Analysis'..."

"You read the paper?"

Professor Henry looked at Lestrade as if he were looking at a talking, dressed pig.

"You understood it?" Feeling Professor Henry's gaze, Lestrade had a fleeting urge to slam his fist on the table and tell him what was so difficult about a mere paper.

But then he thought about all those angles, pressures, formulas, and data written above, which seemed like gibberish... He really didn't have the confidence to back it up.

"I...didn't understand the process, but your paper says at the end that a person's height, weight, gender, and physical characteristics can be determined through footprints..."

At this point, Lestrade was practically drooling, which is why he was willing to make this trip.

That's absolutely amazing!
Fingerprints can only identify a person, but for the police, the first priority is to find that person. If no other evidence is left at the crime scene, they won't even know who the person is. Even if fingerprints are left, it's useless if you can't find the person.

But footprint analysis is great! Unless a person can fly, they will definitely leave footprints. Moreover, some papers even say that by analyzing the angle, depth, and characteristics of footprints, you can determine whether the owner of the footprints is male or female, old or young, tall or short, fat or thin... This is the most important thing for the police!

Once you have the distinctive features, catching people becomes much easier!

The premise is that the wrong person was arrested.

"You want to apply footprint analysis to detect and arrest criminals?"

Professor Henry frowned. Pure scholars pursued pure scholarship, and they didn't care much about how their knowledge was applied. Hearing Lestrade say this, he naturally understood the other party's intention.

"Yes, in many cases we have no clue about the killer, but if we can narrow down a range through footprint analysis and then find the culprit from there, it will be much easier!"

Lestrade spoke with great excitement, and then he saw Professor Henry slowly shake his head.

Seeing this, Lestrade felt a jolt in his heart, like a student giving an outrageous answer and the teacher realizing with a speechless expression that the student hadn't been paying attention.

“I think you haven’t grasped the situation, Officer Lestrade. Our research is currently only at the barefoot level. The kind of footprints you’re talking about are from people wearing shoes, right? Different types of shoes do affect footprints. I’m currently researching this myself, but I don’t think it’s ready for practical application.”

"But, but..."

Lestrade was stunned by Professor Henry's answer.

"But Sir Levy said that your research is very helpful to us in solving the case..."

"You mean Detective Levi?"

Li Wei's name was known to everyone in the city, even the reclusive Professor Henry knew of him. Hearing his name now, he immediately frowned.

"Yes, he said your research on 'Footprint Studies' can be used to solve crimes. In fact, he has read your paper and said he has benefited greatly from it and can apply it to solving crimes..."

"Nonsense, what a nonsense!"

However, before Lestrade could finish speaking, Professor Henry slammed his fist on the table in anger.

"So young, yet so reckless. How can we use him like this? What if we arrest the wrong person?"

If footprint analysis were used for other purposes, Professor Henry probably wouldn't be so angry. But it's a different story when it's used to investigate criminals. Professor Henry is also an ordinary person with a pursuit of social fairness and justice. He believes that his "footprint analysis" hasn't reached the level of application of "fingerprint analysis," since "fingerprint analysis" relies on fingerprints, and most people's hands are exposed.

But footprint analysis is different; there's a difference between barefoot and shoeed footprints. A person can run around without gloves, but no one would run around barefoot.

"No, no, no, no!"

Professor Henry waved his hand.

"Stop messing with my thesis, I won't admit it! Get out!"

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry..."

Lestrade hadn't expected Professor Henry to react so strongly and quickly turned to leave. He wasn't sure what Professor Henry was thinking, but based on what Professor Henry said, did "Footprint Studies" still have flaws?
Can it really work?

After much deliberation, Lestrade decided to talk to Levi again... after all, it was his idea.

"...So, you mean Professor Henry feels that his 'Footprint Studies' is not sufficient for application in forensic investigations?"

Li Wei put down his paintbrush and looked at Lestrade.

He's having a tough time too. Right now, he's drawing the next part of the Betty the puppy's comic strip. As for the reason—Her Majesty's afternoon tea a few days ago wasn't free.

"Yes, that's what he meant, that the current theory is not mature enough... or something like that."

"Yes, that's a consistent idea among responsible scholars."

Li Wei was not surprised by this. Scholars are rigorous, even a bit fussy, especially when it comes to their own work. They are extremely careful and afraid of making even the slightest mistake.

The problem is that on-site investigation isn't done this way. If you want 100% accuracy, then you're not human; you're a machine.

"Well, let's put it this way."

Thinking of this, Li Wei also had an idea and looked at Lestrade.

"In the next few days, find me an unsolved case with footprints, then invite Professor Henry to conduct a field application of 'Footprint Studies' with me."

(End of this chapter)