Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

"Three people? And they brought things?" Jiang Ruolan pressed.

"Yes, three people. Two are quite strong, and one is a bit shorter, but he looks pretty sturdy."

They walked towards the dormitory; I didn't see them come out.

Because the cafeteria started serving food later, we all went to eat, and nobody paid attention to what was happening over there.

"How long after they went in did you hear any noise?"

The old worker shook his head:

"No, there was no sound at all. Later, Old Li went back to the dormitory to get cigarettes and found that the person was already dead."

Three men, two strong and one short, who were not construction workers, entered the workers' dormitory on New Year's Eve carrying a plastic bag. Without making a sound, they killed a steelworkers' foreman and disappeared into the night.

This was not a crime committed on a whim. It was an organized, premeditated, and coordinated execution-style murder.

What exactly did Ma Guoqing, an ordinary worker who had tied steel bars on construction sites for twenty years, do that warranted his execution in this way on New Year's Eve?

Jiang Ruolan asked Director Fang to arrange for someone to take statements from all the workers present, then walked to the entrance of the construction site and stood under a dim street lamp.

The fine snow was still falling, landing on her shoulders and melting quickly. She took out her phone and called Zhou Pei.

"Zhou Pei, a case has occurred on New Year's Eve. At a construction site on Binhe Road in the north of the city, the foreman of the steelworkers was strangled to death with a towel in his dormitory."

The three people committed the crime together, and their methods were clean and efficient, leaving no trace of disturbance or defensive injuries.

The deceased was supposed to go home tonight to have New Year's Eve dinner with his son. Before he died, he received a phone call from someone whose contact name was "Old Zhao".

I need the department to help me find the owner of this number and its call records for the past three months.

Zhou Pei paused for two seconds on the other end of the phone, then said:

"A murder committed on New Year's Eve, by a group of three—this isn't an ordinary murder case. What do you suspect?"

"It's still uncertain. But since Shen Wangshan's downfall, the small gangs in Yi'an that used to be affiliated with Fengmao have been splitting and reorganizing."

What I'm most worried about right now isn't the case itself, but that someone is taking advantage of the weakened police presence on New Year's Eve to re-establish rules and seize territory.

If this murder is a "pledge of allegiance" for a new criminal gang, then there will be a second, a third.

Jiang Ruolan stood under the streetlight for less than two minutes when her phone rang.

The person on the other end of the phone was a police officer on duty at the command center, speaking in a very low voice, as if afraid of being overheard by those around him.

"Director Jiang, another police report has come in."

A body was found in a rented room in Qinglong Lane in the west of the city. The deceased was a young woman.

The landlord reported the incident, saying he smelled a strong odor of gas and found the person dead in bed when he opened the door.

The Chengxi Police Station has arrived at the scene and has preliminarily determined that it is carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, during the inspection, the police found that the deceased had the same ligature marks on his neck as the worker in the north of the city.

He suspected it was a staged accidental homicide, so he didn't dare disturb the scene and reported it immediately.

"Qinglong Lane." Jiang Ruolan repeated the address, her voice unconsciously tense.

The two bodies were found less than an hour apart: one on Binhe Road in the north of the city, and the other on Qinglong Lane in the west. They were located at the northernmost and westernmost parts of Yi'an, respectively.

She glanced at the time on her watch and quickly made a judgment:

"Have the Chengxi Police Station seal off the entire rental building. All tenants should not leave for the time being. We'll discuss it when I arrive."

Notify forensic pathologist Zheng that after finishing up in the north of the city, we should immediately head to the west. Notify Lu Zheng to come with me.

After hanging up the phone, she gave a few instructions to Director Fang, who was standing next to the cordon: the scene in the north of the city must not be disturbed, all workers' statements must be completed, and everyone must leave their identity information and contact information, especially the old worker who saw three strangers enter the dormitory. Ask him separately and in detail, and try to find out the physical characteristics of the three people.

After explaining all this, she opened the car door and started the SUV. The roar of the engine was particularly jarring on the quiet streets on New Year's Eve.

Lu Zheng ran out of the prefab house, still holding a half-eaten dumpling in his hand—he didn't know who had given it to him—and opened the passenger door, got in, and swallowed the dumpling in a few bites while fastening his seatbelt.

"What's going on in Qinglong Lane? Is it related to this case?"

"It's not certain yet."

Jiang Ruolan turned the steering wheel, and the car turned off Binhe Road. The tires rolled over the thin layer of snow on the road, making a rustling sound. "The Chengxi Police Station reported that there were ligature marks on the deceased's neck, which were similar to the neck wounds of Ma Guoqing, a worker in Chengbei—three to four centimeters wide and with a rough texture. It is suspected that the wounds were caused by the same type of weapon."

But when the landlord discovered it, the room smelled strongly of gas, and the gas cylinder valve was open. The killer was trying to fake a gas poisoning.

If the case in the north of the city was an execution-style murder, then the case in the west of the city is more like a cover-up, where the murderer didn't want anyone to find out that she was killed.

But their methods had one thing in common—they both used fabrics like towels to strangle their targets, suggesting that the perpetrators in both cases shared some kind of background or training.

Lu Zheng swallowed the rest of the dumplings, reached for a bottle of mineral water from the back seat, took a swig, and his face darkened.

"The same murder weapon, the same method of killing, and the two crime scenes were less than two hours apart. The simultaneous attacks on New Year's Eve indicate an organized operation."

To coordinate two groups of people to commit crimes simultaneously, this organization must at least have a decent command structure.

After Shen Wangshan fell, no large, well-established gangs ever emerged in Yi'an. Instead, there were only small factions of three to five people, constantly fighting amongst themselves without ever gaining any real power.

If someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes to reunite these scattered individuals, then these two murders on New Year's Eve are a signal that they're ready to regroup.

"There are more than two people."

Jiang Ruolan said, "There are three in the north of the city and at least one in the west of the city, making a total of at least four operatives."

Including those who planned and provided intelligence behind the scenes, there are conservatively estimated to be no fewer than five to six core members.

The killer was able to accurately track the whereabouts of two victims on New Year's Eve—Ma Guoqing was supposed to go home to be with his son, but he stayed behind; the identity of the victim in the west of the city is still unclear, but the killer knows where she lives, when she is there, and when her landlord is not there.

Their intelligence capabilities are considerable. Anyone capable of acting on New Year's Eve must have a deep understanding of this city.

Her fingers tapped lightly on the steering wheel:

"Of Shen Wangshan's group, Tang Yuanqing is dead, Ren Pengfei and Qian Shouyi are in prison, and Zhao Biao was sentenced to life imprisonment. None of the core members are outside."

But that doesn't mean that the people under them just disappeared.

Those who used to run errands, do odd jobs, and stand guard on the periphery lost their backers after Shen Wangshan's downfall and quieted down for a while, but their only survival skills were fighting and killing.

If they find a new leader, it's only a matter of time before they reorganize.

................