Diary of a Criminal Investigator

At the same time, on Qingguo Road, North Second Lane, within the No. 94 Market, the investigation by Zhang Hui and Sun Jun continued.

Both of them had been at the North Mountain parking lot of the traffic police team, watching the towing driver’s surveillance video. Although there was no image of the driver’s face, they had a certain impression of the person’s physique.

"Continuing like this... is not a solution."

After wandering through most of the seafood market, Zhang Hui felt that checking like this wasn’t going anywhere.

The towing driver shown in the surveillance video from North Mountain parking lot was approximately 1.75 meters tall, of medium build, neither fat nor thin.

But such a physique was too common; in the seafood market, there were more than a few fishmongers with this build.

Moreover, many people had a hoarse voice from years of shouting to sell fish.

And who among those selling fish in the No. 94 Market didn’t have a fishy smell?

These traits, although distinct at the parking lot, were nearly useless in the seafood market.

"Boss, want to buy some fish?"

Another vendor beckoned the two to buy fish.

"Just looking around. Right, boss, are there any strange people in your seafood market?"

"Strange people? What do you mean?"

"You know, introverted people, something like that."

"Are you here to buy fish or something else?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing, we’re just looking around."

"If you’re buying fish and ask whose fish tastes good, I’ll definitely tell you ours is the best. But if you’re asking about strange people, I really don’t know; we just do business here."

Running a fish stall in a fresh market means everyone there is tough and hardworking.

Zhang Hui and Sun Jun’s past tactics were almost ineffective in the face of these fishmongers.

"Let’s go back and take another look; continuing like this, there’s no way to find any clues."

Sun Jun nodded. Most of these fishmongers knew each other, and the two of them asking around without buying fish seemed suspicious after a while.

If I had known this earlier, I would have brought Lu Chuan here.

This seafood is so damn expensive.

At that moment, Lu Chuan was also extremely busy in the forensic lab.

The seven skeletons found from last night to early this morning had all been analyzed by Lu Chuan.

He had identified some physical traits, height, weight, age, and even occupational traits of some skeletons from their lifetime.

There were two important objectives for the analysis: one was to confirm the identity of the skeletal remains, and the other was to determine certain characteristics at the time of death.

For example, the cause of death, or the approximate time of death.

Fortunately, the identities of four skeletons had been confirmed through DNA comparison. They were missing persons from a few years back.

Including Wang Mingshan.

At this moment, Lu Chuan was standing in front of Wang Mingshan’s skeleton, deep in thought.

He was observing some scratches on the tibia of Wang Mingshan’s left leg.

It seemed that Wang Mingshan suffered intense torture before his death, which was evident from many skeletal damage traits.

Lu Chuan was already familiar with the circumstances surrounding Wang Mingshan’s disappearance case from back then.

According to the records, Wang Mingshan disappeared on the way back to the Criminal Investigation Team after leaving Songbei Mining.

No matter who the murderer was, why did they torture Wang Mingshan after he disappeared?

From the investigation at the time, it was already ruled out that Wang Mingshan was killed for personal reasons.

When Mingshan disappeared, Songbei Mining was the first suspect, but no evidence was found.

Moreover, since it was just a disappearance, no one knew if he was dead or alive.

A disappearance case does not equal a murder case.

Now that Wang Mingshan’s skeleton had been found and identified, confirming he was murdered, did it mean people from Songbei Mining were the killers back then?

If Songbei Mining people were indeed the murderers, what was the reason behind Mingshan’s death?

It’s known that Wang Mingshan was a criminal investigator, and the murderer must have known that killing him would draw a lot of police attention.

Yet, they still killed him, why take such a big risk?

There could only be one possibility, that Wang Mingshan had some critical evidence against the perpetrators.

But five years had passed since his death, so where would any evidence from back then be?

The scratches on Mingshan’s tibia made Lu Chuan suspicious.

Those markings were deliberately etched, varying in length but seemingly with a pattern. Would the torturers have done this while tormenting Mingshan?

He couldn’t figure it out!

Lu Chuan was completely puzzled.

"Lu, take a break; you didn’t sleep a wink for a day and a night."

Wang Changjiang yawned, patting Lu Chuan on the shoulder.

These days, they had worn out the old forensic doctor. With eight bodies, he couldn’t finish writing all the reports, let alone make the skeleton identification analyses.

Of course, Wang Changjiang wasn’t particularly skilled in this field; thankfully, Lu Chuan’s help not only eased Wang Changjiang’s workload but also kept them from having to ask the provincial team for help with the skeletal analyses.

Shen Yan had already gone home, being a girl; after two days and nights without rest, she had been stumbling around. Wang Changjiang had let her leave home in the afternoon at around three.

After all, the tasks here were just the final touches; the identification analyses of the eight skeletons were complete. Six of the reports were finished, and the remaining two could wait until tomorrow.

Lu Chuan, who had been quite alert, now felt drowsy as soon as Wang Changjiang mentioned resting, failing to keep his eyes open.

"Alright, Brother Wang, I’ll nap in the office; you should rest too; don’t push yourself. I’ll finish the last two reports tomorrow morning."

"No need, no need, just two reports left; besides, forensic reports don’t need your help, just go home and let’s deal with tomorrow’s issues tomorrow."

Lu Chuan nodded and left the forensic lab, returning to the crime scene investigation office to find Old Liu napping on a chair, while Old Bai and Yang Sen hadn’t returned yet.

"Back already?"

Liu Guodong opened his eyes and saw Lu Chuan, stretching tiredly.

"Master, I’m sorry for waking you up."

"Don’t worry, I’m a light sleeper. Get some rest; you’ve been up for two days."

They had hoped the work at the crime scene would be done by midnight last night, but instead, eight skeletons were dug up under the Lion Mountain Bridge.

With so many dead, no one could sleep until the necessary work was done. They worked all night, and another day had passed, leaving both the crime scene team and forensics with no time to eat.

"Are Brother Bai and Brother Yang still out there?"