National Forensic Doctor

Chapter 1376: Chapter 1300: Progress

After receiving a message from Meng Chengbiao, Jiang Yuan thought for a moment. Instead of immediately having someone call Hassan, he got up, had a grill prepared, ordered various cuts of beef, and personally marinated a fish called "Unforgettable." Then he invited Liu Jinghui, Huang Qiangmin, and other people, and they all gathered around the grill to eat.

The team was currently in the preparation phase of their work, divided into three directions for the investigation. The leads they were getting were limited, and a few people could easily handle the tasks in the conference room.

However, after Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui took a break, the special task force’s work naturally slowed down.

Jiang Yuan was in no hurry. He set up a table and chairs in the courtyard, lit charcoal, and slowly grilled fish over a low flame. The core selling point of the "Unforgettable" dish is its oily richness, which requires slow grilling to bring out the flavor without burning the edges.

Halfway through the barbeque, old man Hassan hurried over. Upon meeting, he used an earnest tone to say, "God Jiang, I’m sorry, my people made the wrong decision. They were worried that my son’s actions would spread and affect my reputation, and even more worried it would affect the sect’s reputation. So, they wanted to control what those girls were saying."

"I know." Jiang Yuan flipped the grilled fish, sprinkled the final layer of seasoning, then served it to everyone.

Hassan sat next to Jiang Yuan and said, "They mainly didn’t want any legal documents to form, not for any other reason, and they certainly didn’t mean to interfere with the investigation process. I was unaware of this matter, but now that I know, I guarantee that there won’t be any similar incidents in the future."

Jiang Yuan took a big bite of the fish, feeling an intense sense of satisfaction, which is rare with fish meat. Putting down his chopsticks, Jiang Yuan politely said, "Mr. Hassan, do you know why we need to talk to these girls?"

"Uh... to determine Qikoli’s itinerary in his last few days." Hassan was unsure of whether Jiang Yuan was angry and paid close attention to his expression.

Young people tend to be impulsive, and detectives have never been known for being easy-going.

Jiang Yuan seemed not to be angry, still speaking kindly, "Yes, because Qikoli’s death was a sudden event. If he had foreseen any danger, his lifestyle wouldn’t have been like this. So in our discussion, the first question is why Qikoli went to that five-story building where the incident occurred."

Hassan was startled, "This... I’m not a detective. Maybe he was kidnapped?"

"It’s possible; we can’t rule it out. He might have been lured there, or perhaps he was just passing by. Considering the possibility of kidnapping, there are indeed many aspects to explore. Where was he kidnapped? Qikoli spent most of his time with friends every day, and there were no obvious restraint marks on his body... According to his schedule, he generally spent his private time with beautiful girls."

Jiang Yuan asked again, "But if we don’t question the details of their time together carefully, how would we discern if these beautiful girls were lying?"

Hassan sighed deeply, "I understand, my people did make a mistake. I sincerely apologize for this incident."

"We must prevent similar situations from happening again," Jiang Yuan said gently.

"Of course, I will have a good talk with them," Hassan said seriously.

At this point, Jiang Yuan shook his head decisively and said, "That’s not enough."

"Then?" Hassan couldn’t help but look at Huang Qiangmin.

Huang Qiangmin pretended not to see, keeping his face taut.

"Mr. Hassan," Jiang Yuan called back his attention, "I need your people to completely withdraw from the investigation team. I need a few of your liaison officers to sit in the room next door, not allowed to leave the room, nor inquire about the investigation progress. When needed, I expect them to cooperate; otherwise, I hope they can remain quiet."

"No, that’s not possible!" Hassan objected immediately, "I assure you that something like this won’t happen again, and I will do my best to cooperate..."

"But obviously, you haven’t managed that." Jiang Yuan looked up at him and said, "You had the chance, and it was messed up by you or your people."

"Give me another chance," Hassan pleaded.

Jiang Yuan lifted his eyes to look at him, "Mr. Hassan, we are not playing games, I am taking the most serious attitude to find the murderer of your son, and I hope you are too."

This response left Hassan with no more strength to resist.

Jiang Yuan didn’t say anything threatening about leaving, as such threats didn’t need to be spoken aloud; they were self-evident. If it weren’t for the fact that Jiang Yuan had the authority to leave at any time, Hassan wouldn’t have rushed over here.

However, compared to Jiang Yuan’s direct threat, Hassan was even more speechless when Jiang Yuan lectured him from a case-handling perspective, leaving him with no choice but to comply.

Jiang Yuan wasn’t surprised at his choice. As to whether Hassan’s claim of his subordinates acting on their own was true or whether they would be punished later, Jiang Yuan didn’t care at all.

As a genuine detective and forensic doctor, Jiang Yuan didn’t understand many investigative strategies, nor did he need to. He only needed to know what the path to success looked like and what conditions were needed to handle a case successfully.

In this world, the ways to fail are countless, with a quantity advantage that exhaustive methods wouldn’t dare approach, but success—the path to success—is often one of only a few routes, with people not only finding it hard to grasp the whole picture but even finding it difficult to master even one of them. Most people’s success is practically an enigma, much like most case investigations where the leading officers might just be following the standard procedure.

Not every district police station has a few detectives capable of mastering the rhythm of a case and advancing the investigation in a suitable manner.

Jiang Yuan had cracked so many cases so far and had somewhat grasped some of the secrets. Even so, he still aimed to minimize the management difficulty of the special task force.

The previous inclusion of Hassan was to ease the management burden, and now discarding him served the same purpose.

This was a standard case of focusing on the matter rather than the person. Once Hassan understood, he could only leave dejectedly.

"Let Meng Chengbiao continue the questioning." Jiang Yuan returned to the conference room, regaining control over the investigation’s rhythm.

Wang Chuanxing quickly organized the information and came to report, "Shen Yaowei and Ni Cha’s team, it’s said they’ve gone through over a thousand tons of trash. So far, they’ve found some resident garbage from the building in question, but nothing that serves as a useful lead."

Wang Chuanxing continued, "Tang Jia and Zhong Renlong retrieved surveillance videos that are currently being analyzed. Six image investigation technicians were assigned, and it will take at least a few months to finish viewing them all. Also, the reward they wanted to publish has been posted, and we’ve already received calls that sound like scammers."

"Police rewards" and "scammers" mixed together form a compound term unintelligible to ordinary people. But in reality, most reward calls are from scammers, which is not a surprising situation.

Jiang Yuan nodded slowly, not rushing to receive the surveillance videos. The surveillance videos or cameras around the crime scene are unsystematic, belonging to individuals or companies who set them up as needed, and even the police update cameras randomly according to city interface updates, with no single person or agency capable of unifying them.

In this situation, for surveillance videos to be effective, it purely depends on whether the perpetrator shows any flaws.

In fact, the current direction of the entire investigation is to catch any slip-ups from the perpetrator.

If the perpetrator were truly flawless, showing no lapses, then in the current investigative environment, this case might turn into an unsolved one.

Wang Chuanxing continued, "Over at Meng Chengbiao’s team, although the lawyers have withdrawn, the cooperation from some of the girls is still not high; some of them even requested lawyers themselves, making both sides a bit at an impasse."

"No need to rush, if it has nothing to do with them, once the initial reaction passes, they’ll eventually talk," Jiang Yuan had seen this often and wasn’t worried.

Normal people react strongly when faced with judicial authorities, initially either crying profusely or resolutely refusing to speak. Once the chemical reward mechanism-forged response fails, they become easier to manage.

Lawyers getting involved early can at least stabilize the emotions of ordinary people, but this can also slow down the investigation process, and Jiang Yuan didn’t have many options at the moment.

At this point, Jiang Yuan’s phone suddenly rang.

Picking it up, it was a call from Meng Chengbiao.

After the huge incident earlier, Meng Chengbiao had only been calmly sending messages, but now he called.

Jiang Yuan answered immediately, "Team Meng?"

"Qikoli has a backup phone." Meng Chengbiao said quickly.

Jiang Yuan: "And then..."

"It’s not one we knew about. He has not just one backup phone, but at least two," Meng Chengbiao elaborated after taking a breath, "Apart from the two phones we know of, he has one phone used specifically for contacting women. We discovered this when cross-checking numbers, but neither at the crime scene nor in Qikoli’s apartment was this phone found."noveldrama