Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Sip.

After taking a sip of tea, Old Bai continued to talk about the case from back then.

"The disappearance case of that police officer back then wasn’t under the jurisdiction of our Criminal Investigation Team, so Wang Mingshan didn’t have direct authority over it. When he went to investigate at Songbei Mining, he was acting in a private capacity, not as part of official duties. To put it bluntly, his investigation back then was unauthorized."

"But since he disappeared, well... you know."

Lu Chuan nodded.

Old Bai meant that Wang Mingshan’s disappearance back then wasn’t because of an official task assigned by the team, but due to his own unauthorized actions.

"Regardless of whether Wang Mingshan had jurisdiction over the case, he went to investigate it, so the municipal bureau took it very seriously at that time."

"They investigated for a long time, but unfortunately didn’t uncover any results."

It’s a big deal when a detective goes missing, let alone any police officer.

Although Lu Chuan wasn’t there at the time, he could imagine how many resources were expended by the bureau back then.

"Hey, why are you suddenly interested in this case?"

Old Bai took out a cigarette and handed one to Lu Chuan: "I remember this case was being looked into by the second unit since Wang Mingshan was part of that unit back then."

"This morning, Brother Qiang’s side seemed to have some leads from the case back then, coming back from Liangzhou, preparing to investigate, and ended up in an accident."

Hmm?

"Are you saying Old Ren got into an accident?"

"How is he?"

"Is he okay?"

Lu Chuan shook his head: "He’s okay, though his arm is broken, and his leg is fractured, he’s laying in the hospital. Zhang Hui and I were attending leadership training this morning when he found out and took me to see him."

"That serious?"

"Does Old Liu know?"

During the day, everyone in the Crime Scene Investigation office was busy, so Lu Chuan was the first to know.

"I suppose he knows by now. Master was in a meeting with Captain Qin this morning, and when I went there, Captain Qin had already gone over."

Old Bai nodded, since Captain Qin knew, everyone who was in the meeting would likely be informed.

"Let’s wait for Old Liu to come back, then the few of us can go and see him together."

Lu Chuan nodded and continued reviewing the case files.

Although there wasn’t much information inside, Lu Chuan still found some issues.

Just like what Ren Qiang mentioned earlier, Songbei Mining seems particularly treacherous. It seems like whoever investigates them ends up having trouble.

First, a police officer from Songbei Police Station disappeared, then Wang Mingshuan from the Criminal Investigation Team went to investigate the officer’s disappearance and also vanished. Now Ren Qiang found some leads and wanted to look into Songbei Mining, but got into an accident on his way there...

Hmm?

Lu Chuan suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Three people in a row, all encountered problems when they were on their way to investigate Songbei Mining.

Coincidence?

Over the years, working on numerous cases, Lu Chuan has learned never to trust coincidences.

With this thought, Lu Chuan grabbed the phone and called Zhang Hui.

"Brother Hui, where’s the car that Brother Qiang had trouble with?"

Two and a half hours later, at the North Mountain parking lot of the Traffic Police Brigade.

Lu Chuan wore a grim expression as he looked at the pile of scrap metal before him.

"Who told you to scrap the car?"

Zhang Hui, furious, pointed at the nose of the person in charge of the parking lot.

Ren Qiang was returning from Liangzhou and was driving a police car from the Criminal Investigation Team, but without a driver.

After the accident, Ren Qiang himself called in the report, was promptly sent to the hospital, and the car was towed to the North Mountain parking lot of the Traffic Police Brigade.

On the way here, Lu Chuan had communicated his suspicions to Zhang Hui.

"When the Songbei police officer disappeared back then while investigating Songbei Mining, Wang Mingshan went and disappeared, and now Brother Qiang got leads, tried to investigate Songbei Mining, and had an accident."

Zhang Hui was no fool; connecting the three incidents, he understood what Lu Chuan meant.

"You mean... Brother Qiang’s car accident... wasn’t an accident?"

"I only suspect. Whether it’s an accident or not can be known by inspecting the police car involved in the accident."

The two then hurried from the Criminal Investigation Team to North Mountain.

However, North Mountain is far from the city center, and getting there from the Criminal Investigation Team requires going across the entirety of Haizhou City. Due to traffic and distance, by the time they arrived, it was already two and a half hours later.

Yet, in those two and a half hours, they were too late.

"I... I don’t know what happened, the cars over here are all condemned vehicles and were awaiting processing. This car... shouldn’t have been in this area."

"Surveillance!"

"Brother Hui, go check the surveillance!"

Twenty minutes later.

Zhang Hui and Lu Chuan found the surveillance video of the accident vehicle entering the parking lot.

As a parking lot of the Traffic Police Brigade, it naturally isn’t lacking surveillance equipment; from the main entrance, almost every key parking area is covered by surveillance.

"It’s this tow truck!"

In the surveillance video, a yellow tow truck entered through the main gate, with a dilapidated police car on its back.

"Is this your vehicle?"

"No, all our cars were out at the time. This is a social rescue vehicle, not one of ours, but they reported in with us."

It’s impossible for a regular tow truck to enter the parking lot of the Criminal Investigation Team without prior notice.

Lu Chuan had heard previously about some exorbitant towing fees; ten kilometers, and they charge you a thousand bucks.

Why does this happen? It’s due to market entry barriers for towing services; not just anyone can get in, and once the barrier is set, prices are dictated by those who are within the barrier.

No matter whom you call, the price is the same.

But there seems to have been some cleanup recently, and such news is now rarely heard.

After the vehicle entered, it turned left directly into the condemned vehicle parking area.

The manager at this end then adjusted the surveillance for the condemned vehicle parking area.

"Our parking areas are separate: one is for condemned vehicles which undergo crushing processing, another is for accident vehicles which are stopped there, and there’s also a zone for illegally parked vehicles, which were towed there for offenses."

"Technically, this accident vehicle should be parked in the accident vehicle zone... how did it end up in the condemned vehicle zone?"

Zhang Hui’s face was tense. Not only was the vehicle sent to the condemned zone, but it was also crushed into scrap metal in just a few hours!

"Alright, here’s the footage from back then."

In the video, the tow truck slowly entered the condemned zone parking lot, stopping next to the crushing machine.

A man wearing a yellow work uniform got out of the vehicle. He was wearing a mask and a baseball cap, making it hard to see his face in the video.

After getting off, he seemed to pull something out from the cabin.

"Zoom in, see what he took out?"

The manager paused the video and zoomed in on the image.

"Cigarettes, probably a carton of cigarettes."

Due to the distance between the camera and the man, the image was blurred upon zooming in, but it was discernible as a red elongated object.