National Forensic Doctor

Chapter 1392: Chapter 1316: One Finger Sets the World Aflutter

Jiang Yuan walked with Liu Jinghui, two kilometers forward, 200 meters back, and still found nothing.

Seeing this level of difficulty, both of them had lost confidence in finding any traces at the scene. Liu Jinghui, with nothing to worry about himself, simply treated it as a stroll and slowed down his pace, also advising Jiang Yuandao, "If we can’t find it, let’s stop looking. So much time has passed that there’s likely not much trace left, and besides, not every robbery involves a fight nowadays."

"Zhang Xianyao’s nasal bone is fractured," Jiang Yuandao said.

"Even with a fractured nasal bone, it doesn’t necessarily mean he resisted. Kids nowadays have no experience fighting; they might get hit a few times and obediently hand over the money," Liu Jinghui said, shaking his head. "But the question is, why rob a 17-year-old boy? The passing women and elderly people have more money and are easier targets."

Jiang Yuan smiled, "That brings us back to the initial theory."

From the initial case analysis meeting, their discussions had led them here; now after stripping away all the extra details, they’re back at the original angle.

Liu Jinghui became interested, liking this return-to-the-source type of case discussion.

After some contemplation, Liu Jinghui said, "Actually, we’ve already extracted most of this case."

"Oh? How so?"

"We know the time period of the incident, which can basically be narrowed down to within one or two hours, right?"

"It depends on how you calculate it, starting from Zhang Xianyao leaving the school to the time of death—this would be the broadest period, about 8 hours if extended. If considering when the mobile phone lost signal, it’s 5 hours. If we include the time Zhang Xianyao walked from school to the riverside initially, we can further shorten the time."

"There’s such a long gap between the death time and when the phone lost signal?"

"After soaking in water for so long, the estimation of death time is greatly affected, so it’s better to give it a broader estimate." Jiang Yuan didn’t elaborate on the reasons; for similar bodies determining the time of death accurately within half a day is quite challenging, requiring some special detection techniques like examining the pupils, which aren’t necessarily accurate either, so it has to be broadened out a bit.

Liu Jinghui listened and nodded, then asked, "Then let’s calculate based on the phone losing signal. But when Zhang Xianyao’s phone lost signal, it was near the school, if this can be explained..."

"Didn’t you just say the case has nearly exhausted all possibilities?" Jiang Yuan didn’t let Liu Jinghui continue further in analysis, as the reasons for phone and personal separation are numerous, and they’d discussed them before. Even if Liu Jinghui provided a reasonable explanation, it wouldn’t encompass all subsets.

Liu Jinghui also chuckled and shook his head, "I got caught up in details again, well, let’s say, now we know the approximate time and location of the victim’s death, actually no need to concern ourselves with Zhang Xianyao’s mobile phone; let’s identify all mobile users who appeared at the crime scene during that period and question them one by one. The killer should be among them, maybe even a witness."

"If the killer had a phone with him," Jiang Yuan’s logic was sound, and indeed it was a possible scenario.

Just like the role of fingerprints was known to the public in the 1980s, and the role of DNA is well-known now, the fact that phones can be located isn’t news to ordinary people either, so those from Changsha thinking of committing robbery might take precautions. noveldrama

"Makes sense too," Liu Jinghui said and then changed angles, "However, if the killer didn’t bring a phone, there’s a high possibility of premeditated murder. As we mentioned earlier, it’s unnecessary to rob a 17-year-old male. Zhang Xianyao is quite tall too, almost 1.8 meters."

"From that angle, you’re right," Jiang Yuan continued walking with Liu Jinghui, strolling along the river embankment hundreds of meters away, noticing slight changes in the surrounding greenery, then waking up as if from a sleep, "Indeed, if we sift through phone users and can’t identify suspects, we should then suspect there’s bad blood or grudges between the killer and Zhang Xianyao."

"Yes."

"So the core issue is how to quickly and accurately sift through these phone users. This is near a school and within several hours, there might be a thousand or more phones connecting in nearby base stations, it’s unrealistic to record all their statements..."

"The thief may very well have a criminal history. For murder, based on what we discussed, it might be someone familiar with the victim, carrying some grudges," Liu Jinghui summarized, "We should ask and see what they have to say."

Such a method seemed very old-fashioned detective work. During an era when fingerprint identification wasn’t available, relying on witness statements was both characteristic of the times and a necessity. Though now there are still many people "forced" to conduct investigations in this manner.

"I think we could refine it by sorting the stay duration of mobile signals at the crime scene; the longer they stay, the higher they rank. The killer attacked the victim continuously, even if compared to Yip Man’s speedy strikes, it took much longer than merely passing through; ranking them should put the killer theoretically at the top," Jiang Yuan slightly integrated the autopsy results to promptly provide a viable idea.

Liu Jinghui nodded repeatedly, "That’s great, the scene is only about 200 meters long, normally you’d finish walking in a few minutes; those lingering longer can be asked about their reasons!"

"Exactly. Hmm, the scope of the actual point of immersion can be shrunk slightly, although 200 meters is fine, they might not have fought right next to the water point, being one to two hundred meters away wouldn’t be surprising..." Jiang Yuan relaxedly added, "Let’s go through this approach first, if it doesn’t work, we can extend the scope around the water point to a radius of 1000 meters and perform a priority check on those in the front, it may not cost much more effort."

"Sounds good," Liu Jinghui felt he was in perfect sync with the ’giant dragon,’ as if the case had already been solved.

Jiang Yuan then picked up his phone and made arrangements with Wang Chuanxing.

When it comes to mobile signal base stations, Wang Chuanxing was more professional than Jiang Yuan; with just a brief explanation, he understood.

Wang Chuanxing took notes on his laptop while complimenting, "It all depends on Captain Jiang confirming the location of where the victim fell in; this way, the number of phones passing by is limited..."

Jiang Yuan responded with a few "hms," hung up the phone, then noticed Liu Jinghui ahead had already arrived at a kiosk, buying milk tea.

"Let’s enjoy something young people like, come, come, my treat today," Liu Jinghui, in good spirits, intended to stealthily feed the ’giant dragon’ some snacks, while also waving to Mu Zhiyang and Wen Ming behind, calling them over to choose their picks.

With the case having a lead, everyone felt good, laughing and approaching.

Just then, male voice came from across the kiosk, "Sweetheart, I’m really not lying to you. We just helped rough him up a bit that day, but look where we’re at now, the cops are here, I need to find a place to hide for a while, and when things calm down I’ll return; or otherwise, why don’t you come with me?"

"Where to?" replied a female voice.

"No clue, wherever we end up. Let’s just take a train. Didn’t you want to visit Yun Gui? We’ll travel along as we go. But to have fun, we’d need some cash."

"How to gather it?"

"Doesn’t your mom’s store have a lot of cash stored frequently?"

"That’s the store’s takings!"

"Come on, just take a day’s takings, we can explain to her later. I’ll sell the e-bike too, we’ll stake everything!"

Upon hearing this, the four officers present immediately knew what was happening.

Jiang Yuan pointed forward with his finger, catching Mu Zhiyang’s eye contact.

Mu Zhiyang’s eyes widened, he reached with one hand for his gun, grabbing Jiang Yuan and pulling him behind himself; further back, Wen Ming silently drew out his bowl-sized gun, unhesitatingly flicking off the safety.