Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 355: A Clue

Lu Chuan thought of this and decided to take action immediately.

But having an idea is one thing; whether it can be executed, or to what extent, is another matter entirely.

Back then, Liu Guodong had already compared the footprints collected at the scene with those of the corresponding individuals.

However, the footprints he selected for comparison back then were clear ones, not the overlapping ones.

The process of separation was not very smooth; it was a technical task requiring meticulous patience and high-level skills.

He looked up at the quartz clock on the wall; it was almost time to clock out.

At the time of the incident, more than thirty sets of overlapping footprints were collected at the scene.

Handling all of them wouldn’t be something that could be done in a day or two.

Moreover, today’s workload was already immense; Lu Chuan had managed to solve the backlogged cases from two and three years ago.

He stretched lazily and decided not to work overtime.

He took out his muted phone and called Shen Yan.

"Are you done on your side?"

Forensic Doctor Shen didn’t have much work today; he just measured the bone density and checked the health of a few retired colleagues.

From the perspective of their subjects, forensic doctors and medical doctors have fundamental differences, but for simple checks, forensic doctors have no issues performing them.

Many retired colleagues from the Criminal Investigation Team would drop by when there wasn’t much going on in the team.

After all, the family quarters were just next door, and it only took a few minutes to walk over.

The colleagues in the team were also happy to communicate and interact more with their former seniors, especially since the young ones liked to hear about past cases solved by the veterans.

Not only did it broaden their knowledge, but they could also learn something.

The forensic laboratory also undertook these health checks for the retired colleagues, measuring blood pressure, listening to heartbeats, and so on.

"Almost done, can’t finish in a day. How about we watch a movie tonight?"

"Sure, I’m just worried you might be too tired. How about another day?"

"No worries, watching a comedy would be a great way to relax."

"Alright, I’ll tidy up the instruments, and you can wait for me downstairs."

"Okay, see you in a bit."

Ten minutes later, Lu Chuan and Shen Yan left the team and went to the cinema.

They had left, but things were not finished for the action team yet.

Cheng Zihao from Liangzhou City also hadn’t finished work.

After assisting the Criminal Investigation Team in Haizhou City in apprehending someone in the afternoon, Cheng Zihao returned to the Pipeline Maintenance Team.

This time, the person in charge of the team had returned, and Cheng Zihao obtained the maintenance records from three years ago. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Old Wu, can you help me check the bank transactions of a few people from three years ago?"

After making the call to his friend in the economic investigation, Cheng Zihao put the maintenance records back in the drawer.

Now, he just had to wait until tomorrow to compare the data from the past maintenance records with those from the pipeline maintenance team’s payouts at the time; maybe he could find some clues.

Actually, for permanent employees of the maintenance team, there’s no need to check so arduously because their wages are directly credited by the team.

However, some temporary workers received their payments from a labor company based on the number of jobs, making it difficult to investigate on the maintenance team’s side.

The next morning, as usual, Cheng Zihao reported to work, attended a morning meeting, and it was already past ten by the time he was done.

Ding.

It was a text from Old Wu.

"I’ve sent you the bank transactions you asked for on Instant Messenger."

Cheng Zihao opened his computer, logged into Instant Messenger, and quickly printed out the bank transactions.

He took out the maintenance records from the drawer and began to verify the data one by one.

Soon, two pieces of data caught Cheng Zihao’s attention.

"These two people..."

According to the bank payout records, two people in the maintenance records had gone on a job after the incident occurred, but the payout was made the previous day.

In other words, these two individuals had actually gone on a job the day before the dismembered body was found, but the records indicated the following day.

Zhang Can, Wang Jian.

Cheng Zihao switched systems to check the information on these two individuals in the Hukou registration system.

The bank transaction information was comprehensive, so there was no need to distinguish by name; he directly entered the ID numbers.

Zhang Can, male, 43 years old, from Yunzhou City, missing.

Missing?

Cheng Zihao immediately straightened up, feeling invigorated.

He clicked on the detailed page; the missing date was three years ago!

Comparing it to the time the dismembered body was found, the disappearance was ten days after the incident, and the report was made by Zhang Can’s wife in Yunzhou City.

Then, he checked Wang Jian’s information, male, 46 years old, from Huangzhou City, with no other irregularities.

Wang Jian...

Thoughtfully, Cheng Zihao organized all the documents and went straight to the team leader’s office!

"Do you suspect that the dismemberment case from three years ago... was done by this Wang Jian?"

"It’s possible. Back then, when we investigated the maintenance team’s workers, we only looked into those who worked before the incident."

"This list was the construction crew’s record at the time, but only yesterday did I learn that sometimes the maintenance team’s on-job personnel list didn’t match up."

"The situation of having advance job listings is quite common."

"Fortunately, their pay was given after each job."

"I had Old Wu from economic investigation check everyone’s bank transactions before and after the incident, and found that Wang Jian and Zhang Can both appeared to have worked before the incident, but their names didn’t appear in the maintenance records."

"In other words, these two people weren’t included in our investigation scope at the time."

"I just checked the Hukou system; Zhang Can disappeared 10 days after the body was found."

"Precisely, these two weren’t on our radar, and 10 days after the dismemberment case, Zhang Can disappeared."

"Could there be such a coincidence?"

Zhang Zijian flipped through the documents organized by Cheng Zihao again; from this perspective, Wang Jian certainly seemed suspect.

However, with just this bit of evidence, it was clearly insufficient to reopen the cold case of a homicide.

"Zihao, here’s what you’ll do: take a couple of people and head to Huangzhou, get to the bottom of this Wang Jian."

"Yes, sir!"

Cheng Zihao didn’t expect to reopen the investigation into the cold case just based on this lead.

To reopen a homicide cold case, more concrete evidence would be required, such as fingerprints or DNA information.

For now, it was just about getting this individual back into the investigative scope.

Then, they could consider the next steps.

"Also, investigate this Zhang Can, look into his relationship with Wang Jian, and follow up on his missing person case."

"Understood, I’ll arrange it now."

Cheng Zihao was still quite excited; the dismemberment case from three years ago had no leads at the time, and now he finally saw a glimmer of hope.

Years in criminal investigation had led Cheng Zihao to believe that in solving cases, there are no coincidences; if there appears to be one, it must be a clue.

Returning to the action team, Cheng Zihao organized two teams: one to Yunzhou to investigate Zhang Can’s disappearance case, and the other he led straight to Huangzhou to dig into Wang Jian’s background.