National Forensic Doctor

Chapter 1295: Chapter 1221: Hijacking the Train

After Liu Jinghui stated that everyone was a suspect, he excitedly paced back and forth in the room.

Everyone in Changsha knows that high intelligence crimes are not advisable. For a murder case to succeed in exonerating the guilty party, the key is not to let the case become classified as a murder.

In this case, to begin with, the perpetrator might have intended for it to deviate from being categorized as a murder. However, Liu Jinghui couldn’t be sure of this determination since the method of strangling to fake a suicide is somewhat amateur. Anyone with a bit of knowledge should know that forensic doctors have a considerable accumulation of expertise in this area. Even when encountering a low-level forensic doctor, it might not succeed.

Yet, even after seeing through the amateur tricks of the murderer, there still remained much mystery, which made Liu Jinghui feel particularly intrigued.

This was equivalent to a double-insurance structure.

It’s widely known that a series of interlinked safeguards is more likely to result in a situation where one breakage leads to a chain reaction, especially in the case of a murder accompanied by violent actions.

Mistakes are the norm. Achieving perfect invisibility is very hard.

Liu Jinghui took a few strong strides forward and, turning sharply, said, "The role that video surveillance can play is limited. Going forward to solve the case, I think we can start with motives. I think we can thoroughly question everyone in the apartment and ask each of them to write down at least three names of people who might have murdered Matina..."

Hearing this, Cui Qishan knew exactly why Liu Jinghui was excited and smirked, "Are you playing games?"

Liu Jinghui coughed twice and said, "Our understanding of them is limited, and the apartment is mostly occupied by foreigners, making it hard to investigate their backgrounds. Thus, our clues can only come from testimony. Having them each write down three murder suspects forces them to inform on each other, but you can’t explicitly say it’s informing, right? After all, they are employees of the same company..."

"Alright." Cui Qishan acknowledged that what he said made sense, and besides, the scene fit the persona of Shannan’s Deductive King, even if he was a bit playful.

Cui Qishan immediately called his subordinates, instructing them to follow Liu Jinghui’s proposed method.

Liu Jinghui, seeing that the point was made, turned abruptly and fixed his gaze on Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan was very familiar with Liu Jinghui’s demeanor, gently lifted his coffee cup, and asked, "What do you want?"

Liu Jinghui said, "We don’t have any suspects now. We need some updated information. Can you recreate the crime scene?"

Jiang Yuan chuckled silently, "Can’t find footprints, and there’s no blood, so I can’t recreate it."

Liu Jinghui was a bit disappointed, "I saw random things left all over the scene, like pillow towels and such. Can’t you make judgments based on them?"

"They are exactly why there are no footprints," Jiang Yuan shrugged.

Liu Jinghui sighed, "There are no condoms or other such things; there’s no sweat or semen. It’s unclear what they were doing in the room. Simulating sexual asphyxia implies the killer was somewhat familiar with Matina, knowing she had this interest. Did they actually have intercourse?"

While speaking, Liu Jinghui looked at Jiang Yuan again.

"There is no evidence to show they did, but it doesn’t prove they didn’t," Jiang Yuan explained clearly enough.

Liu Jinghui nodded thoughtfully, lost in his own contemplation.

Seeing his struggle, Jiang Yuan said, "If you want more information about the room, you’ll have to wait for the trace evidence report. By then, if semen is found on the room’s fabrics, it will be the gold standard. If a lot of sweat is found, it could be tentatively inferred."

Liu Jinghui’s eyes lit up, "That’s a good idea. When will their report be out?"

"It should be soon. I’ll put a rush on it." Having tackled many cases at Zhengguang Bureau, Jiang Yuan, having led local Criminal Science personnel, was adept at expediting reports.

In his continuing contemplation, Liu Jinghui asked, "What are your thoughts now?"

"Hot pot?" Jiang Yuan looked up.

Having done everything that could be done, for him, it’s now just a matter of waiting for the report.

Liu Jinghui thought about it deeply and couldn’t find a reason to object at the moment.

"Hey, Xiao Gu, I’m over at Zhengguang Bureau..." Before he regained his senses, Wei Shikan was already on the phone.

Putting down the phone, Wei Shikan explained with a smile, "I have a little brother who specializes in copper pot lamb. I asked him to bring the chef and the pot over."

"Alright then." Jiang Yuan didn’t refuse and said, "Have him bring a few more pots and more ingredients. Let’s see if Tao and the others want to eat."

"Understood. I’ll have them put it on Zhengguang Bureau’s tab." Wei Shikan, naturally adept or having had some family tutoring, didn’t need any instructions.

Before long, the cafeteria at the Zhengguang Bureau’s Criminal Police Squad was filled with copper hot pots.

This scene was very familiar to both the county bureau’s Criminal Police Brigade and Zhengguang Bureau’s Criminal Police Squad officers. Despite the significant rank difference, it’s fundamentally a matter of the city’s scale. The nature of their work was similar, mainly field-based yet not fully frontline like precincts with countless minor cases and trivial tasks, and somewhat more professional than township-level roles. Whenever it escalates to a criminal case, the work falls to the criminal police squad.

And if there are cases to be handled, there are endless cases to handle.

Although there are fewer homicides now, even various contact crimes have decreased. But with the number of police officers in the country, even a several percentage point reduction in cases remains in a backlog state. Once a major case arises, or worse, one that gets the leadership’s attention, the officers assigned to it have to start their days early and end them late.

That’s why the detective squad’s cafeteria is relatively well managed, especially in police stations where funding is more adequate, they are still willing to spend money on food.

Although the cafeteria at the Zhengguang Bureau is not large, it is compact and well-organized, with all necessary arrangements in place. A few copper hot pots were brought in, and after a little preparation, it was ready to eat.

Initially planning to go home, Tao Lu simply stayed behind to eat with Jiang Yuan.

Some regular officers took the opportunity to leave.

Jiang Yuan naturally didn’t care about these things. With Huang Qiangmin and Wei Shikan entertaining, he sat steadily in front of the hot pot, watching the clear soup simmer with slices of ginger and sections of green onion, while thinking through the two cases he had come for this time.

For genius-level individuals, Chinese people have always been very tolerant. Huang Qiangmin and Tao Lu exchanged a glance. Without needing Huang Qiangmin’s explanation, the latter waved his hand and laughed, saying, "With our relationship, relax, relax, there’s no alcohol today—eat your fill and then get to work!"

The people around hummed and clattered, starting to crazily dunk meat into the hot pot.

Wei Shikan sat conscientiously in the last seat, using public chopsticks to put in about three or four slices of meat in one go, then laughed, "The lamb from this shop is all hand-cut, adhering to the old standard methods. Today, eight masters were called over. They should be able to manage the cooking. However, the most delicious and famous thing from this shop is not the lamb, but the frozen tofu."

"Oh, there’s a particular way to do frozen tofu?" Huang Qiangmin played along with a question.

"We make our own old tofu, and it has to have a low water content. After freezing, it must be naturally defrosted, not quickly in hot water." Wei Shikan said with a smile, "Actually, it’s nothing special, it’s just made according to the traditional master craftsman’s technique, not sacrificing flavor to improve efficiency. It is made just as before, so it tastes better than the products available in the market."

"Rare, rare indeed..." Tao Lu nodded admiringly but didn’t continue the topic.

Wei Shikan paused. He originally thought the leader would give some high-level remarks at this point, but unexpectedly the stage was set, and Tao Lu didn’t proceed. Wei Shikan then pondered, Tao Lu probably didn’t want to assume the leader’s stance at this moment.

Wei Shikan couldn’t help but look at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan was at this time dipping lamb in sesame sauce, eating in big bites, not touching a single piece of frozen tofu.

Jiang Yuan ate quickly, and Tao Lu and the others followed, eating briskly. As many ate, they disappeared...

Liu Jinghui, being older, couldn’t eat much. Accompanying for a while, he also prepared to excuse himself. At this time, his phone first pinged him with a document.

"The onsite physico-chemical report is out." Liu Jinghui didn’t care about others, immediately handing it to Jiang Yuan.

"Let me see." Jiang Yuan reluctantly put down his chopsticks, and as soon as he turned, Wang Chuanxing handed over a pad.

The content on a pad that hadn’t been hit by bullets was exceptionally clear.

Jiang Yuan flipped through the pages one by one, flipping them extremely fast.

Performing measurements on trace evidence sounds impressive, but in practice, it doesn’t necessarily work well, especially when you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Trace means even a small amount can be detected, and as a result, when testing a piece of clothing comprehensively, fibers, hair, soil, dust, and metallic particles might be found. There might also be paint, pollen, and spores, along with various chemical substances like cosmetics and skincare products...

At this time, the common modern dilemma emerges: with so much information obtained, oftentimes no conclusion can be reached.

Therefore, in most cases, frontline detectives need to find specific objects, specific locations, and indicate the substances they want to find. Like in a kidnapping case, looking for rope marks on clothes or searching for the presence of drugs in a drug case, or in fields like legal botany, trace evidence assistance is also required. noveldrama

Jiang Yuan was somewhat familiar with this segment, but this time, the direction he was looking for was not things like spores.

What he wanted to see was what wasn’t in the apartment room, preferably not in the entire apartment.

At this moment, a string of chemical compounds like CaCO₃, CaMg(CO₃)₂, SiO₂, appeared before Jiang Yuan’s eyes.

Jiang Yuan immediately flipped back, indeed seeing chemicals like H₂C₂O₄ and C₄H₁₂O₃Si.

"What’s this?" Liu Jinghui, holding his stomach, noticed Jiang Yuan’s expression, saw him becoming serious, and started asking.

"The source of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) is many, with calcium magnesium carbonate [CaMg(CO₃)₂] looking at these together... and then there’s oxalic acid (H₂C₂O₄), salt acid, and methyltrimethoxysilane (C₄H₁₂O₃Si), these..." Jiang Yuan pondered for a moment: "One can speculate oxalic acid, salt acid are cleaning agents, methyltrimethoxysilane is a surface protective agent..."

"Protecting what?"

Jiang Yuan said: "Cladding stone. The outer wall of the apartment building uses cladding stone, right? In this way, silicon dioxide is likely sourced from quartz, not necessarily quartzite; granite, sandstone, and slate all contain quartz, and calcium magnesium carbonate is generally dolomite, likely sourced from marble, so..."

"The perpetrator climbed in from the outer wall into the apartment?" Liu Jinghui swiftly deduced, and promptly continued: "How did they enter? Glass breaking leaves traces, Matina’s room’s window is confirmed to not be pried, so was it Matina who let them in? Why? Or, they may not need to enter from Matina’s room, first entering some hallway or other rooms..."

Even though Liu Jinghui pointed out various possibilities, he was not in a hurry, taking out a notebook to keep records, "Check whether there are any signs of prying from the outside on all rooms’ windows, ask all residents whether they closed their windows properly, or if they heard any strange noises past midnight. Particularly inquire whether anyone had a similar experience, especially pay attention to families with teenagers, foreigners like to play this kind of game... Besides, for someone capable of climbing walls to get in, especially foreigners, look to find such a person."

"Should we consider the possibility of burglary?" Cui Qishan asked softly.

"We actually already considered it before, this case isn’t for profit." Liu Jinghui decisively shook his head, saying, "It’s no longer just an Eastern Train murder case, it’s about someone sneaking onto the train. Once we determine the path they took into the apartment, this case is essentially solved!"