I'm not a genius detective

Chapter 89 Finding the Phone
The next day.

Hu Lihui carried steamed buns and soy milk to the case-handling hall of the First Squadron. It was still early, and most of the police officers had not yet arrived, so the room was quite empty.

Han Ling was sitting at her workstation by the window when she heard the noise and looked up.

"Team Leader Hu."

"So early." Hu Lihui gestured to the breakfast in his hand. "Have you eaten?"

Han Ling smiled and said, "I've already eaten. My rented apartment is nearby, only a five or six-minute walk away."

Hu Lihui said, "That's good."

After saying that, he put his breakfast on his table, opened the package, took out the steamed buns, and ate them while standing up, asking as he ate, "What's the status of the case in Huaiyan Town?"

Han Ling replied, "The investigation is still ongoing, and there are currently no leads pointing to homicide."

Hu Lihui nodded. He had been busy with other cases these past few days and hadn't participated.

"Has Captain Hu's case been resolved?" Since they were already chatting, Han Ling asked casually.

Hu Lihui chewed continuously, his voice coming out: "It's almost done. There's nothing complicated, just a bit troublesome in terms of evidence and procedures. I estimate that the case can be closed today or tomorrow, and then I'll go to Huaiyan Town with you."

Han Ling: "Okay, sure."

Hu Lihui: "What did Captain Ji say? Did he suspect murder?"

Han Ling: "Without a body and without a motive, it's not easy to handle. Even if we have suspicions, we can't formally file a case."

The case of Cao Kexuan's accidental death has not yet been filed; it is only under preliminary investigation. If clues of homicide are found, the criminal investigation team will file a case according to procedure.

Hu Lihui swallowed the food in his mouth and said speechlessly, "I don't know what these people are thinking. They cremate unnatural deaths directly. We need to pay more attention to legal education in rural areas."

Han Ling: "You're right."

As they chatted, more and more people from the First Squadron arrived. Some had eaten breakfast before coming to work, while others, like Hu Lihui, brought their breakfasts directly to the branch office to eat.

"Team Leader Feng."

"Team Leader Feng."

A familiar voice sounded outside the door; it was Fang Zhou and Tong Feng. The two waited at the door for a moment before pushing it open and walking in, their expressions a little strange.

"Captain Feng doesn't seem too happy today." It was Tong Feng who spoke. "No, he wasn't happy yesterday either. What's wrong? Did he get criticized?"

Fang Zhou sat down: "Don't talk nonsense. Didn't the Second Squad handle a child abduction case a few days ago? It reminded Captain Feng of the murder case twelve years ago, which is why he was in a bad mood."

Tong Feng, unaware of the matter, asked curiously, "What murder case? What does it have to do with child abduction?"

Fangzhou: "Because the deceased was also a child."

Tong Feng's expression froze: "Uh... is it a secret? Tell me more?"

Fang Zhou: "The veteran police officers in the bureau all know this; it's not exactly a secret."

On the other side, Han Ling was drawn to the topic and looked up to listen.

It's a very simple case: outdoors, seven years old, six stab wounds, almost all to vital organs, and the killer's DNA is present, but they haven't been caught yet.

It is suspected that the tomb raiders were trying to silence him.

It's been twelve years. Unless the murderer is foolish enough to come forward on his own, it's unlikely there will be any further progress.

Although DNA technology has become increasingly sophisticated, it seems to be of little use in this case.

"Meeting started!" Ji Bowei knocked on the door as he passed by.

All the criminal police officers involved in the investigation of Cao Kexuan's accidental death immediately stood up, took paper and pen, and went to the conference room to begin the third day of the investigation.

Without a clear direction, we can only continue our investigation using traditional criminal investigation methods, covering all the villagers in Weijiazhuang Village. There are not many left to investigate.

“Last night I posted on the fishing forum that in that situation, no one chose to jump into the lake to chase the fishing rod; it was too dangerous.”

Tong Feng brought up this matter.

Ji Bowei nodded. Cao Kexuan's behavior was indeed unreasonable, but jumping into the lake was a subjective act, and subjective behavior cannot be used as evidence. The investigation must be objective.

"Captain Ji, are we still going to Qingchang University?" Zhang Yandong asked.

Ji Bowei said, "Don't go there yet. Focus on Weijiazhuang Village. If there are problems with Cao Kexuan's death, the problem most likely comes from Weijiazhuang Village."

Zhang Yandong nodded: "Okay."

At this moment, Fang Zhou spoke up: "Captain Ji, I think we can't ignore Cao Kexuan's phone, right? We've already investigated this far, shouldn't we apply to the Municipal Bureau for phone location tracking?"

Even if it's turned off, at least we can know its approximate location when it was powered off. If the phone has a built-in location module, we might be able to find it directly.

The location module in some mobile phone models cannot be turned off.

The municipal bureau has a technical investigation branch that does this kind of work. They are very skilled at it and also know people on the telecommunications operators' side.

In the future, the branch will establish its own technical investigation team, which will make things much easier.

“It’s difficult to handle without a case being filed.” Ji Bowei pondered for a moment, then continued, “However, given the special circumstances, it should be possible. I’ll discuss it with Captain Feng later and write a report to send to the Municipal Bureau. Who among you will deliver it?”

The errands were all done by the newcomers, so everyone naturally went to look at Han Ling and Tong Feng.

"I'm not going, Fengzi, you go." Han Ling resolutely refused.

There's Zhang Yunhang and Lin Rong in the Municipal Bureau, so he's not going to risk offending them.

Tong Feng sighed helplessly, "Fine, I'll go."

Ji Bowei didn't understand Han Ling's point, so he said, "You two drive together and head straight to Weijiazhuang Village. Fang Zhou and I will go first."

Han Ling: "..."

After the meeting, Ji Bowei acted quickly, handing over the technical investigation report and related materials to Han Ling, who then left the branch office with Tong Feng.

The municipal bureau is in another district, a half-hour drive away. Upon arrival, Han Ling parked the car at the entrance and urged Tong Feng to go inside and deliver the items himself, while he waited there.

"What exactly did you do to Lin Rong? Why are you so afraid of her?" Tong Feng muttered, mercilessly exposing the truth, and then opened the car door.

Han Ling ignored him, rolled down the car window to smoke, and watched Tong Feng walk quickly into the city bureau gate.

The municipal bureau doesn't look very big; its building area is smaller than that of the branch bureaus. This is probably because some branches have separate office locations and are not all concentrated in the municipal bureau.

If they all need to work and train at the Municipal Bureau, even twice the space wouldn't be enough.

For example, the Special Police Detachment, the Evidence Identification Center, the Prison Management Detachment, and the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau are all subordinate units of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

There is also a police dog training brigade. The municipal bureau has a dedicated police dog base that serves multiple departments, including criminal investigation, drug enforcement, and counter-terrorism.

With hundreds of police dogs, the largest in the province and among the top in the country, the municipal bureau simply doesn't have the space to accommodate them, so a separate base must be set up.

Halfway through his cigarette, footsteps sounded, and Han Ling instinctively turned around.

Lin Rong appeared out of nowhere like a ghost, smiling as she walked over, bending down to look Han Ling in the car at a very polite angle: "Did you come to the Municipal Bureau for business?"

Han Ling nodded and flicked his cigarette ash: "There's a case that requires mobile phone location tracking, so Tong Feng went in."

"Oh..." Lin Rong drawled, her rosy lips like full flower petals, "I invited you to dinner last time, why didn't you come? Are you so busy?"

Han Ling smiled and said, "I've been quite busy since I arrived at the branch office, sorry."

Lin Rong blinked her naturally long eyelashes and said, "We'll talk about it another time. You... have you got a girlfriend recently?"

Han Ling was about to deny it, but then she thought that Lin Rong was somewhat ill at the moment and needed to see a doctor, so she replied, "Yes, I paid."

Upon hearing this, Lin Rong's eyelashes trembled slightly, but she didn't show any strong emotions. She smiled and said, "Congratulations, are you a police officer too?"

Han Ling: "No, he's a doctor."

Lin Rong: "Police officer, doctor, a perfect match."

Han Ling casually tossed away the cigarette butt: "Thank you."

Lin Rong glanced down, bent down and picked it up: "It's not good to litter cigarette butts in front of the Municipal Bureau. Goodbye."

Watching Lin Rong pass by the windshield, Han Ling felt a chill run down his spine, just like when Tong Feng called him "Han Baobao".

On the other side, Tong Feng came out of the Municipal Bureau and saw Lin Rong stop to greet him. It's unclear what they talked about.

The two parted ways quickly, and Tong Feng jogged to get into the car.

"What a coincidence, running into Lin University's campus belle." Tong Feng fastened his seatbelt. "Did you two chat?"

Han Ling started the car: "Not only did we talk, she also took my DNA with her."

Tong Feng immediately stopped moving, turned to look at Han Ling in disbelief, his expression quite interesting: "D...DNA?! Just now? So fast??"

Han Ling stepped on the gas: "Wash away the filth in your brain, and your entire brain will be gone."

Tong Feng: "Huh?"

……

Weijiazhuang Village.

The city bureau's technical investigation team acted quickly, sending the phone's location two hours later, with an error margin of approximately 200 meters.

Cemetery.

Cao Kexuan's cell phone is in the cemetery.

Perhaps the person who sent the text message simply threw it away somewhere nearby after sending it.

If Cao Kexuan's girlfriend, Zhu Yuntang, had called the police on the day of his funeral, the police station would have arrived and investigated, and perhaps they could have found the person who stole the phone then.

All the criminal police officers dispersed and conducted a thorough search of the area, including burying the phone in the ground.

It's not buried very deep, so it's easy to find.

Half an hour later.

Pfft!
The sound of a dive rang out, and everyone turned around to find that Fangzhou had jumped directly into the stinking ditch near the cemetery.

The stinking ditch was within the area provided by the Technical Investigation Detachment.

He bent down and began to grope his way through the ditch. A few minutes later, he suddenly stood up, holding a cell phone in his hand.

"Found it!" Fang Zhou shouted, climbing to the ground with the help of his colleagues.

He shook off the water and put the phone into the evidence bag.

The crowd gathered around
"Brother Shen, is it still possible to extract fingerprints in this situation?" Fang Zhou asked.

Director Shen shook his head: "The possibility is extremely low, don't have any hope. The main components of fingerprints are sweat and skin flakes, and soaking in water will directly destroy the oil's adsorption capacity."

It's been a week already, and with oxidation and corrosion, the fingerprint's structure will be further damaged, making it virtually impossible to identify.

Upon hearing this, Fangzhou was somewhat disappointed.

Sending a text message to Cao Kexuan's girlfriend on the day of his funeral might not necessarily be a prank. If the person who stole the phone and sent the message can be found, it might lead to clues about Cao Kexuan's accidental death.

Ji Bowen said, "Finding the phone is a breakthrough. Take it back immediately and see if the memory card still works."

Cao Kexuan's call records and online chat history have been checked and found to be normal. The mobile phone is the new clue.

This phone can take pictures. Besides the photos, the other contents on the memory card are also important and need to be sorted out.

If there are still no problems, then things will get complicated. Ji Bowei will make a decision eventually.

Unable to prove it was an accident or a homicide, the First Squadron couldn't possibly waste its time in Weijiazhuang Village.

(End of this chapter)