Chapter 328 - 328 296 Current Case

Words : 1952 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

328: Chapter 296 Current Case 328: Chapter 296 Current Case Spring Lakeside Greening Landscape Project construction site. Inside a blue color-coated steel sheet enclosure, an acrylic boardwalk led straight into the steel house from the entrance. As soon as Jiang Yuan saw this boardwalk, he knew the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment was determined to succeed. Usually, it would suffice to extend the boardwalk from the entrance to the side of the body. Moreover, it was often a temporary measure, removed as soon as evidence collection nearly ended. In fact, units that used boardwalks were already quite meticulous. Not to mention, this one was made of transparent acrylic. For example, the boardwalks at Ningtai County Bureau were made of steel and were even scarce in number; crime scene officers often disliked bringing them. They were heavy and cumbersome to move, and sometimes, colleagues wouldn’t cooperate, making it all for naught even if one put in the effort. In minor situations, people would simply walk directly into the crime scene. Boardwalks were only used when there were excessive bloodstains on the ground or for similar reasons. Go back 10 years, and there were no metal boardwalks to use—trampling over the crime scene was often unavoidable. For the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment, the situation wasn’t much different. Only when orders came from above would they deploy hundreds of boardwalks to form a path. Otherwise, even in the face of a proposal to a girlfriend, they wouldn’t waste their time and energy like this. Yu Wenshu stood at the start of the boardwalk. He was the officer in charge of the scene, and his work was quite burdensome. The rank of the officer in charge had no requirements for accumulated or dormant cases, but for current ones, it did. Seeing Jiang Yuan approaching, Yu Wenshu’s face softened. He smiled, walked two steps, and greeted, “Was the drive here smooth? You didn’t speed, did you?” “I don’t think I was caught,” Jiang Yuan replied. Yu Wenshu: “Even if you were, it’s no big deal. Come to me later, and I’ll take care of it for you. Um, this is the scene, there are footprints on the ground, bloodstains in the second-floor room; I immediately thought of you. However, the body has already been removed.” Jiang Yuan listened and nodded, first looking toward the footprints mentioned by Yu Wenshu... In front of him, there were about a thousand footprints... This side was a construction site; not only was the ground unhardened, but there was also a great deal of loose soil. With electrostatic equipment, it was likely that even more footprints could be identified. Jiang Yuan felt no ripples in his heart and had no desire to start with the footprints. Collecting these footprints would exhaust thirty oxen. “Let’s go see the body first.” Jiang Yuan thought it would be better to start by finding the killer’s footprints in the room, then look at the direction of the footprints. However, once footprints were found in the room, the outside ones would lose much significance, likely only indicating a direction of escape. Apart from that, the room would most likely provide similar information as the outside. Of course, Jiang Yuan didn’t bother to elaborate. He simply stepped onto the boardwalk and headed toward the scene. Yu Wenshu followed him directly. Huang Qiangmin faced the pressure of the performance rankings, and so did Yu Wenshu. For the criminal police detachment of a provincial capital city, lagging behind in the rankings was nearly unacceptable. They had to fight not just to avoid last place, but to be the best. Shannan Province operated in what was known as a capital city ‘blood-sucking mode.’ Not only did it have advantages in economics, culture, education, and policy, but it also had requirements in terms of public safety, health, and other areas. If the relevant leaders couldn’t meet these requirements, the solution was simple. The leader of the brother unit from another prefecture-level city who ranked first, or continuously maintained first place, could potentially be transferred to the capital to take over your role. Changyang City was in good shape this year. Rarely had the criminal police detachment managed to solve every current and homicide case. But if today’s case couldn’t be solved, Yu Wenshu would feel the pressure mount. The body was on the second floor of a color-coated steel house. As the main structural building, located thirty to forty meters from the construction site’s gate, the house had six rooms both downstairs and upstairs, all relatively large and styled like spacious offices. The scene was similar; an office desk in the middle, a large safe in the corner, and the body, as seen in the photos, was at the office desk, killed by blunt force trauma to the head. The so-called bloodstains... were just a small puddle by the desk. It appeared to have formed slowly so that the killer didn’t step in the blood at all by the time they left. Jiang Yuan quietly glanced at Yu Wenshu. His mention of bloodstains and footprints seemed somewhat unreliable. “The evidence is weak, but current cases should be easier to solve than accumulated ones,” Yu Wenshu rationalized. Jiang Yuan asked, “No surveillance, no eyewitnesses?” “None,” Yu Wenshu understood what Jiang Yuan meant and said, “This construction site was almost at a halt. The remaining laborers were over there in the color-coated steel houses, gambling; none came out. They’ve been questioned already, no loopholes for now.” Whether a person has an alibi depends not only on the credibility of their alibi but also on their demeanor during questioning. Most people’s psychological quality actually isn’t up to par; those who can lie to their parents or girlfriends without batting an eye can hardly keep from cracking a smile during a company’s annual meeting while performing a sketch, let alone conceal the truth. Moreover, when faced with an interrogation by criminal police, the behavior of a normal person is certainly not emotionless, forcibly suppressing their feelings. Therefore, most people’s alibis are easily debunked during the interrogation process by the police. This is also one of the reasons why criminal investigators insist on conducting face-to-face interviews, rather than over the phone. The false sense of security that comes from a phone call is exactly what should not be present during an inquiry. A few migrant workers without any special background, as long as their daughters aren’t living in kennels, shouldn’t be able to evade the probing questions of the criminal police—those several individuals on the construction site are definitely prime suspects, they won’t just be let off with a couple of questions. Jiang Yuan looked around once more, then asked, “The murder weapon hasn’t been found either?” “No, the murder weapon is suspected to be a rod-like object such as a steel reinforcement picked up from the construction site, and it was taken away,” Yu Wenshu answered with a hint of helplessness. “We’re currently putting together a list, looking at people who have had disputes with the construction site, and former employees, but there are quite a lot of them. Moreover, the list is incomplete. If it’s an external person committing robbery and murder, this case will be quite difficult to crack.” If the relationships involved were straightforward, the case would be easier to handle, falling into the category of robbery cases that are easier to crack, where personal connections can be pursued to solve the crime. But if not, the workload for the case becomes much larger. With every additional layer in the web of relationships, the workload multiplies by ten. For example, cases involving an inside man often take a very long time to crack. It’s not that they are particularly difficult to investigate, but finding the insider and then exploring their network of relationships can be very time-consuming. Jiang Yuan first ascertained the situation outside the scene, then roughly understood Yu Wenshu’s thoughts. Now, the best evidence was the crime scene and the body itself. As for fingerprints and footprints, it wasn’t that there were none, but that there were too many, making it impossible to determine which were useful. “Then I’ll take a look at the crime scene first,” Jiang Yuan said. “Has this area been swept already?” “Only the most basic evidence was collected,” Yu Wenshu replied. Jiang Yuan cut directly to the core, “Nothing of importance?” “No,” Yu Wenshu shook his head slightly. In real criminal cases, sweeping a crime scene is not about documenting every single detail meticulously. It’s hierarchical. Normally, the procedure starts with sweeping the obvious, such as bloody handprints or footprints, collecting blood samples, and removing the body, and so on. Next, areas showing signs of disturbance are swept, such as door handles, the victim’s neck, window frames, stiff toilet paper, and the like. If any information about the perpetrator is found among these two categories, the crime scene investigation has essentially reached its conclusion and would not proceed further. For instance, the victim’s sweater may have fingerprints, but if there are bloody handprints present, there’s no need to try and lift prints from that part. Even when there’s too much information at a crime scene, not all evidence will be collected. For example, taking the entire sweat-drenched bedsheet from a crime scene is often met with the harshest criticism. As for the current situation, fingerprints and DNA were everywhere at the scene, but there were no definite indications to point to the perpetrator’s DNA. “I’ll call a couple of people to help out,” Yu Wenshu thought it was about time and went outside to call for assistance, then left the crime scene. Shortly after, two police officers arrived with a case and other equipment. “Jiang, great to finally meet you, I’m He Guohua from the Shuidong District trace examination team.” The first person to come in was He Guohua, who called Jiang, “God Jiang” and “Master Jiang” in the group chat. He Guohua appeared to be in his thirties, with a small beard on his chin, wearing glasses, slightly overweight, and had a very pale complexion. Jiang Yuan was momentarily stunned as he matched the real person with the He Guohua from the group chat. “Just call me Jiang Yuan,” Jiang Yuan was cordial in person. He thought about pulling out a cigarette but, considering that they were at the crime scene, he refrained. “This is Xiao Bo, Wang Bo, my apprentice,” He Guohua then introduced the younger man following him, who was carrying two cases. Wang Bo also had an impressive appearance. Needless to say, those who have been admitted to the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment in recent years are all a group of guys who come to disrupt the paradigm. But once they join the force, they truly enter a new dimension and their talents aren’t as conspicuous. Jiang Yuan asked, “You’ve used the examination light here, right?” “We did, and we also collected some fingerprints, but none seem promising,” He Guohua replied directly while Wang Bo looked on curiously. Jiang Yuan gave a hum of acknowledgment and stood in the middle of the room, falling into a contemplative state. He was trying to reconstruct the crime scene. Any crime scene investigation actually has the requirement to reconstruct the crime scene, although it’s not as direct and comprehensive as Bloodstain Analysis. For Jiang Yuan, with his level 4 Crime Scene Investigation skills combined with level 5 Bloodstain Analysis, even if there were few bloodstains at the scene, he would still be able to glean some useful information.

Chapter 328 - 328 296 Current Case

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