Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Lu Chuan used meteorological chromatography to search for skeletal remains. Although it could only be done at night, preparation work could be done during the day.

The entire area under the Lion Mountain Bridge had been cordoned off.

The local police station had dispatched officers to enforce the lockdown.

"See if we can have someone clear the weeds above. It will also be helpful when they are discovered."

Liu Guodong spent an entire night crawling through weeds taller than a person, only to find himself covered in bites, all from mosquitoes.

Only Shen Yan was spared because she had sprayed some insect repellent beforehand.

In the afternoon, the doors to the crime scene investigation office and the forensic office were tightly shut; all were catching up on sleep.

Having stayed up all night before and not sleeping in the morning, and with another night of work ahead, an afternoon nap was essential.

The coming days were destined to be overtime days. Although the autopsy or rather the skeleton identification analysis for Wang Mingshan was completed, the autopsy report was not out yet, and the crime scene investigation records were not fully organized.

The forensic and crime scene investigation teams were certain to be busy for some time with this case.

Action Group Two.

Zhang Hui was leading his key team members in analyzing the case.

When Wang Mingshan disappeared back then, everyone involved was present, making Group Two quite familiar with the situation at the time.

"It’s definitely not personal enmity. Everyone knows Old Wang, and he basically had no friends outside. Most of the people he knew were in our team."

"Additionally, the crime scene investigation and forensic teams concluded in their skeleton identification analysis that Old Wang had likely been tortured before his death."

"Then why?"

"At the time, Old Wang was investigating the case of the missing police officer. He went to Songbei Mining for the investigation and then disappeared."

"So why would his killer torture him? Did he find some evidence at the time?"

"If he discovered some evidence, was it related to the previous case of the missing police officer, or was it something else?"

"Zhang Hui, can you ask Captain Qin if we can directly investigate Songbei Mining?"

"Songbei Mining?"

Zhang Hui furrowed his brows.

"Yes, Songbei Mining! The previous missing police officer case is also connected to Songbei Mining. Old Wang went missing after investigating there. Now that we’ve found his body, what’s wrong with checking out Songbei Mining?"

After Wang Mingshan disappeared, Songbei Mining was investigated, and everyone present here, including Zhang Hui, was involved in that investigation.

But in reality, nothing substantial was found during the investigation of Songbei Mining, and because of Wang Mingshan’s disappearance, the detectives in the Criminal Investigation Team were generally quite upset.

When investigating Songbei Mining back then, some detectives didn’t have the best attitude.

Since Wang Mingshan disappeared after investigating Songbei Mining, the suspicion was directly pointed at them.

It even resulted in them halting production at one point, but later on, someone higher up intervened. The Criminal Investigation Team had no clear evidence, so they had to drop the investigation of Songbei Mining.

"The current evidence suggests that Old Wang’s murder has no relation to Songbei Mining. No evidence or clues point to Songbei Mining committing the act or directing it."

Zhang Hui remained clear-headed. Although he wasn’t a group leader yet, he could already think from that perspective at times.

"Five years ago, the resistance we encountered while investigating Songbei Mining wasn’t unknown to you."

"Also, compared to five years ago, you know what kind of social status the current boss of Songbei Mining holds."

"Investigating Songbei Mining without any evidence or clues could lead to worse consequences, even if they were responsible or directed it."

"Let’s not consider Songbei Mining for now. Captain Qin surely looks at it more comprehensively than we do. We should focus all our efforts on finding the suspect behind Brother Qiang’s car accident."

"If the entire case is a tangled mess, the other party is a loose thread."

"Once we find this thread, we can use it to unravel the chain of events behind it."

Meanwhile.

Sun Jun and five others arrived in Liangzhou City.

The Criminal Investigation Team in Liangzhou City had already been informed by the team in Haizhou City and was ready to provide full cooperation.

Besides, the tampering with Ren Qiang’s police vehicle occurred in Liangzhou City.

Ren Qiang was involved in a traffic accident while attending a seminar organized by the provincial office there. If it were a regular car accident, that would be different.

However, someone tampered with Ren Qiang’s car, deliberately causing the accident.

The Criminal Investigation Team in Liangzhou City attached great importance, assigning elite forces to assist Sun Jun and his team with the investigation.

"Group Leader Sun, tell us how you wish to investigate and how we can assist; we are committed to full support."

The person assisting Sun Jun was Cheng Zihao, who had recently made significant contributions and had been promoted to Group Leader of Action Group One in the Criminal Investigation Team of Liangzhou City.

"Group Leader Cheng, here’s the situation: First, we want to see where Ren Qiang’s police car was parked at the time?"

"The suspect is likely to have tampered with the car after Ren Qiang received the message during the short duration he left Liangzhou City. This period is very brief; from the time he left the venue, checked out from the hotel, and drove away, should be less than an hour."

"If there’s surveillance, maybe we can identify the person who did it."

"Second, we want to review the surveillance footage from Liangzhou City onwards to see if any cars were tailing him."

Given the peculiar nature of the case, after the traffic accident on North Mountain, Ren Qiang himself reported the incident. After 120 took him away, his police car was towed away by someone using a cloned license plate and crushed into a metal scrap at the North Mountain parking lot under the jurisdiction of the traffic police team.

What does this imply?

It implies that the suspect was likely monitoring Ren Qiang’s police car the entire time and wanted to destroy the evidence as soon as they realized something had gone wrong.

Additionally, with the suspect organizing a cloned tow truck and devising such a disposal plan in such a short time, it is unlikely that a single person could achieve this.

Therefore, Sun Jun needed to determine whether the person who tampered with Ren Qiang’s police car in Liangzhou was also the one tailing him.

If so, then the individual would have been tailing Ren Qiang’s police car the whole time, and surveillance footage would reveal this.

"No problem. Ever since we got the notification and before your arrival, we had already contacted the traffic police to retrieve the relevant footage."

"Also, the location where Group Leader Ren Qiang parked was in the underground parking of the hotel where he was staying. We just obtained that day’s surveillance!"