Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 478 Drawing the Circle to Identify the Murderer

The new man who came in had a dark complexion, a pair of very distinctive large ears that were turned away from the wind, and broad shoulders. When he stood at the door, he was like a huge wall standing in front of everyone, giving people a sense of security.

Wang Hao smiled and stepped forward, shaking hands with the man who had just entered: "Team Leader Zhao, these are comrades from the Donghai Provincial Police Academy who have come to conduct research."

Team Leader Zhao said honestly, "Haozi brought all the brothers! Brothers, I have a case to handle right now, I'll treat you to drinks later."

After saying that, Dengdeng quickly walked up to Tursunjan and asked, "Has the report come out yet? Let me see it."

Tursunjan scratched his head, feeling a little guilty, when suddenly his eyes lit up and he quickly handed over the notebook he had been holding.

Team Leader Zhao took the notebook and complained, "Tursunjan, how come you're even less reliable than your mentor? You're writing this report as a draft in your notebook? That won't do!"

Captain Zhao suddenly fell silent, reading line after line for a long time. Although the handwriting was messy and difficult to read, he could still manage to make it. Finally, he closed the notebook, laughed, and patted Tursunjiang on the shoulder: "I didn't expect you to be so capable, kid. You've thought things through so thoroughly. This time, you really have the feel of a detective."

He paused, then added, "Once your master returns from the meeting in Urumqi, I'll have him release you so you can come to my place for some proper training."

"Really?" Tursunjan jumped three feet high, overjoyed.

"real."

"Really?"

“It has to be true!”

“A man means what he says.”

"It's hard to chase a horse!"

Captain Zhao nodded with a smile. He didn't know why, but recently, major cases had been occurring all over the jurisdiction, and there weren't enough detectives under his command.

He had to deal with the fires wherever they started, but eventually, fires broke out everywhere, and as the squad leader, he had no choice but to go out and investigate.

They're more like backup team members than duty officers; they have to go to the front lines even when no one else is around.

There's a severe shortage of people! An extreme shortage!

"Hahaha."

Tursunjan laughed loudly, as if he had let out a great sigh of relief, and then said to Captain Zhao, "Captain Zhao, actually, this notebook of mine is full of notes about these two friends, and it's all their reasoning."

"what!"

Having been in a rush to solve the case, Zhao hadn't looked closely when he entered. But after Tursunjiang's explanation and recalling Wang Hao's earlier introduction, Zhao looked at each guest again and finally took them seriously.

However, the radiant woman had half her body leaning against the dissection table, gazing tenderly at the charred corpse, her fair hand repeatedly caressing it, completely ignoring the disturbances of her surroundings.

Judging by this work ethic, he's clearly a very capable person. The police academy is indeed full of hidden talents.

Presumably, the others who came along are also quite good.

Not daring to disturb the extraordinary man's work, Captain Zhao, who was short-staffed, said to Chen Shu seriously, "As expected of a brother from the coast, you are truly capable. Let's discuss this case in detail. I think..." Looking at Zhu Li, who was completely focused on her work, and Captain Zhao, who was talking endlessly about the case and didn't treat him like an outsider at all, Chen Shu was dumbfounded.

The enthusiastic Wang Hao, taking advantage of his large size, cheerfully pulled Chen Shu over and pressed him into a seat, and together they began to ponder the murder case.

Based on Captain Zhao's preliminary investigation, the deceased's identity was confirmed by the motorcycle left at the scene and the missing persons report received the following day. Further interviews provided a general understanding of the deceased's identity and the surrounding area.

The man lived in a town not far from the crime scene. According to his wife, the deceased was usually very honest and had never had any conflicts with anyone or offended anyone. He only had a few hundred yuan on him when he went out that night.

After explaining the case, Captain Zhao stroked his chin and said, "I feel this case is most likely a robbery-murder, but I also think the killer wouldn't have gone to such lengths if it were just for the cash on the victim. Sigh, I'm afraid it might just be a random killing by passersby."

Wang Hao asked, "Do you think it's a typical criminal case?"

Upon hearing this, the room fell silent, and everyone had a bad feeling.

Chen Shumo silently opened the leather bag that Captain Zhao had previously tossed on the table and repeatedly looked through the documents inside.

The only sound in the room was the rustling of pages turning.

After a long while, Chen Shu pulled out a few A4 sheets of paper from a stack of documents and pointed to the first one, which had a background of muddy ground near the edge of the road: "According to the report, unlike the other rows of footprints, only these three footprints were left alone at the scene, and there were no matching footprints around them."

"I suspect that these three footprints were left by the murderer. After killing and burning the body, he cleaned up all the footprints he left at the scene, then backed up onto the concrete road and finally fled the scene."

Jiang Hai leaned over and stared at the photo Chen Shu was pointing to for a long time before asking his question: "Brother Shu, is it possible that these footprints were left by someone else just by chance? Or perhaps they were left before the incident?"

Chen Shu: "Impossible. If it were left by someone else, there would definitely be more footprints around it, and it wouldn't break off so abruptly. Ordinary people don't think about cleaning up after every few steps they take when they walk."

Team Leader Zhao agreed, but was still somewhat hesitant: "Having footprints alone is not enough to identify the murderer; we're still at a disadvantage in the next step."

Chen Shu laughed and said, "Captain Zhao, actually we already have four circles. One is the footprints, one is the male, one is the deceased's social circle, and the last one is the specific experience of the murderer being sexually assaulted, which we previously defined."

“These footprint photos are very clear. Have the police officers in charge of the main traces examine them first; they should be able to identify some characteristics. Then, you can compile a list of male sexual assault victims. Hmm, this list should have quite a few people. We can then compare the two lists and maybe find some similarities.”

Team Leader Zhao clapped his hands, beaming, and said, "Great! Let's do it!"

After saying that, he quickly gathered the documents into a leather bag and stuffed it all into Tursunjan's arms, then gave the order: "Tursunjan, I'm going to the office to pull up the list now. You'd better investigate this footprint thoroughly!"

"I won't"

Leaving Tursunjan standing there dumbfounded, Captain Zhao turned and ran outside. When he was almost at the door, he went back inside to get Tursunjan's notebook, which he had previously placed on the table, without caring that it wasn't his notebook.

"Hurry up and get it done! What are you standing here for?" Team Leader Zhao glared at Tursunjiang and then ran off again.

It's clear that Captain Zhao is an impatient person.

Wang Hao shrugged and explained to Chen Shu, "Even if we spend a lot of money to make this place better, no one wants to come. Tursunjiang and his master have taken on all the forensic work for all the departments in the bureau, taking turns working a day shift each. They really don't even have time to date. It's not that Tursunjiang doesn't want to be a forensic doctor, he just can't stand this one-on-one work schedule. Sigh, it's not easy!"

Chen Shu looked at Tursunjiang's teary eyes and felt sorry for him, so he pointed to Zhu Li, who was busy fiddling with the corpse.

(End of this chapter)