Diary of a Criminal Investigator

The theft case in the Criminal Investigation Team of the New District was merely a minor episode in Lu Chuan’s work.

After casually chatting with Liu Guodong, Old Bai, and Yang Sen, everyone lost interest in the case. After all, the money stolen by the suspect wasn’t much, and although the method was somewhat novel, it wasn’t anything special once you talked it through.

As Old Bai put it, this is a typical case of committing a crime by utilizing special professional skills.

There are many examples of this in life. During a crime scene investigation, a key focus is analyzing the suspect’s occupational characteristics.

When someone works in a particular job for a long time, they develop an unconscious habit.

This unconscious habit becomes part of all aspects of a suspect’s life.

The same applies to murder. For instance, when a surgeon commits murder, they tend to handle the body with a professional touch.

Dismemberment is the most common, and when a surgeon dismembers a body, they naturally exhibit some professional traits.

But ordinary people don’t do that; they just use an axe, or a hacksaw.

Take for example the serial killing case in Haizhou City 23 years ago, the suspect worked at a crematorium. After killing, they’d just throw the body into the furnace, destroying all evidence, leaving nothing to find.

The suspect was quite clever, as it’s not easy to activate the crematorium’s furnace. They would burn the victim’s body together with those that needed to be cremated normally.

They ended up with an abnormal amount of ashes, and once the victim’s family complained, asking why their relative, who was supposedly skinny, had ashes that couldn’t fit in a single urn?

That’s how the mistake was found, and the case was solved.

"Master, I haven’t seen Group Leader Ren these past few days. Is he on a business trip?"

Liu Guodong nodded: "He went to Liangzhou. There’s some sort of field meeting arranged by the city bureau over there. He should be back soon, supposedly just a two-day trip, left the day before yesterday, so he should be back today or tomorrow."

Then, Liu Guodong said: "By the way, Lu, our team will be doing some crime scene investigation training for a few Criminal Investigation Teams. How about you go this time?"

Lu Chuan had conducted training on crime scene investigation twice before and received good feedback, so Liu Guodong considered sending him again.

"Master, I think Yang or Brother Bai should go this time. The last lecture was worth 500 yuan."

This was part of the internal trainer reward system set by the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau. Whether external or internal instructors gave the training, there were lecture fees involved.

The fee varied with rank; Lu Chuan’s rank was the lowest, earning only 300 yuan per class, whereas Old Bai or Yang Sen could earn 500 yuan.

As for whether they could meet the technical standards for lecturing, Old Yang and Old Bai certainly could. The site investigation level of the lower teams was generally average.

It used to be Old Bai and Yang Sen teaching these courses.

Moreover, these lessons mainly cover theoretical topics. Crime scene investigators need practical exercises to improve skills.

"Alright, then Old Yang will handle it."

Yang Sen nodded: "I’m fine with it, one chat session and it’ll be over."

These theoretical courses often bore people to sleep, so bringing some case studies helps. Yang Sen has no shortage of stories, having worked for so many years. He can effortlessly captivate the audience.

With nothing urgent, Lu Chuan resumed his down time.

Recently, with no major cases in the Criminal Investigation Team, various trainings have increased.

Lu Chuan heard from Liu Guodong that Qin Yong arranged a bunch of training tasks this morning.

Leadership works this way: it requires both the art and strategy of leadership, never allowing subordinates to idle.

When there’s serious work, focus on that; when not, find something else.

Such as skills competitions, technical training, meetings, they might even bring some overtime.

Of course, without cases, it’s the general departments that handle the overtime. When there is a case, everyone cooperates quietly; otherwise, they’ll emphasize their presence.

"Lu, there’s a leadership training from HR in the afternoon; you should attend."

"I’m not a leader..."

"No one else is available; Old Yang is lecturing, Old Bai is attending the emergency drill, and I have a meeting..."

The team certainly has managed well even when he wasn’t around. The crime scene office, which once had three people, now has four, perfectly without anyone missing.

But how did they manage before?

Split a person in half to use?

Well, these trainings and meetings aren’t badly received. After all, you can’t just spend all day drinking tea in the office, right?

Zhang Hui sat next to Lu Chuan. Scrolling through his phone wasn’t an option due to surveillance, and getting caught would mean a pay cut, so nobody played with their phones during the team meetings.

If phones are out of bounds, they resort to whispering.

"Did you hear, Fat Belly got a tongue-lashing from Captain Qin yesterday."

Fat Belly, the HR head for the team, is in charge of personnel allocation, adjustments, benefits, physicals, etc.

"Didn’t hear about that. Why?"

"Still about staffing issues. Captain Qin asked him to request more people from the city bureau, but he didn’t get a single one back."

"Are we short on people?"

"Not short, they say?"

There’s no shortage of people in any Criminal Investigation Team; they are forever short-handed, even if you bring in a hundred people.

Just like every department is always short on vehicles. Even if each person is assigned a vehicle, they’ll still argue over who gets to ride which one.

A few years back, when conditions weren’t great, blaming the vehicles for not catching suspects was a common excuse.

Lu Chuan half-closed his eyes, listening to someone on stage earn their 500-yuan lecture fee, some expert from the city bureau waxing lyrical about leadership, almost falling asleep.

He went to bed a bit late last night and hadn’t quite recovered today.

As for a pay cut, Lu Chuan obviously didn’t care.

But before he could doze off, Zhang Hui nudged him awake.

"Brother Hui, what’s up?"

"Something happened."

Hmm?

Zhang Hui couldn’t be bothered with the lecture anymore, pulling Lu Chuan up to leave.

Upon hearing something happened, whatever sleepiness Lu Chuan felt vanished, and he immediately perked up.

"Where’s the deceased?"

To Lu Chuan, nothing qualifies as an incident unless it involves a death.

"It’s not a death; it’s Brother Qiang, he’s been in a car accident."

Ren Qiang?

In a car accident?

Wasn’t he in Liangzhou for the field meeting? How did he get into an accident?

The two hurriedly left the venue; the clerk maintaining order didn’t even ask, knowing their demeanor clearly indicated a case needing attention. Asking them to stay for the lecture in such a moment would only invite trouble.