Reborn in 1995, Criminal Investigation Records

"The killer? Where is the killer?" Wang Chao's expression immediately tensed up. He quickly reached out to protect Zhou Yang behind him, his eyes widening as he searched through the crowd.

"Don't be nervous, I'm just guessing. It's impossible for him to tell!" Zhou Yang laughed and patted the other person's shoulder.

Despite saying that, Zhou Yang's eyes did not show a trace of a smile. Many studies in later generations have shown that the vast majority of murderers, and this range can be even narrowed down further—the vast majority of murder cases and serial killers cannot resist the temptation to return to the scene.

Therefore, Zhou Yang had a vague guess in his mind: was it possible that this return to the scene greatly satisfied the killer's twisted psychology, and even made him look down on the police, which led to the series of crimes in the following days?

"Oh!" Wang Chao replied reluctantly, then turned to see Zhou Yang still searching: "So what features did you use to find the killer?"

"Find the person with the strange look in their eyes!" Zhou Yang answered instinctively, "They don't seem to be watching the spectacle; they're more like admiring, or even... inspecting!"

"I understand!" Wang Chao left a message and squeezed out of the crowd to start searching from the outside. Anyway, he couldn't see anything from the scene; catching people was his forte.

The scene was very clean; it was just a typical plastic mannequin torso, but the limbs were human, with holes cut into the plastic and the head inserted.

However, the head has been specially treated so that the face is no longer recognizable.

"Liu Da, since the torso hasn't been found, I can only give a rough assessment."

As Wang Zhenhai spoke, his expression grew increasingly serious: "The skull is small and thin, the forehead is relatively vertical, and the cranial sutures are obvious. The initial assessment is that it is a woman under 30 years old. If a more accurate assessment is needed, we will need to measure the bones and the wear on the teeth later, among other auxiliary methods."

Liu Chengyu nodded. Forensic doctors are not sophisticated machines and cannot be all-encompassing. After making a preliminary judgment, the team can conduct a preliminary investigation based on the situation.

"What was the time of death?" Liu Chengyu still wanted to narrow down the scope further.

Wang Zhenhai shook his head: "It's impossible to determine right now. Finding the torso would make things easier, but..."

Wang Zhenhai looked at the corpse being loaded into the vehicle and slowly said, "The limbs and head were all severed while the body was still alive. Please!"

"Don't worry!" Liu Chengyu nodded heavily.

Two old friends, with just a few words, formed an agreement, a promise.

Find witnesses, search for torsos, search for missing persons.

In fact, many people were near the square when the incident occurred, but due to the weather, few people would have bothered to cross the middle – after all, there were dense trees on both sides.

However, because the square was built relatively late, it is much higher than the surrounding terrain. This creates a situation where people on the square can look down on the surrounding area, but those enjoying the shade under the trees can't see anything happening on the square unless they stand on tiptoe and strain to look.

Zhou Yang squatted at the crime scene, his gaze then turned in another direction—the Xiangjiang Hotel!

When Zhou Yang and Wang Chao arrived at the hotel, they encountered a rush of people checking out. They saw many people carrying luggage and queuing to check out.

Although the front desk staff were busy, they still maintained a professional smile.

"Xiangjiang Hotel is at your service! Sir, please show your room card!" Zhou Yang stepped forward, and the woman at the front desk quickly greeted him.

"Hello, this is the Municipal Public Security Bureau!" Zhou Yang said, and Wang Chao habitually showed his police officer ID.

There were originally two girls at the front desk. One of them was busy with something, but while Zhou Yang was speaking, she quickly turned around and looked at Zhou Yang and Wang Chao.

"Excuse me, does your hotel have security cameras installed around the perimeter?" Zhou Yang gestured, indicating, "Roughly around these areas, facing the plaza!"

"Excuse me, officer, no, our Xiangjiang Hotel, as a flagship hotel in this city, only has surveillance cameras installed at the front desk!" The girl shook her head at Zhou Yang, but then added.

Although he knew there was a high probability that it wouldn't happen, Zhou Yang still held onto a bit of luck, since it was just a matter of asking one more question.

"Okay, thank you!" Zhou Yang replied politely, then habitually looked up and found that the surveillance camera was in a really good location.

Although it's facing the front desk, it also conveniently captures the exit area in the photo.

"If possible, please let us copy the tape, or I'll take it to the station to make a copy!" Zhou Yang said. "Also, could someone come with me upstairs? I need to go check out the room!"

Wang Chao simply glanced at Zhou Yang without saying a word. He didn't know what the other man was planning, but he knew there must be a reason for his actions. He would just observe and learn from him.

The Xiangjiang Hotel has three floors. The first floor, facing the site, includes the lobby, corridors, and staff entrances.

On the third level, facing the square, the best location is for two laundry rooms. One provides washing machines and other equipment for hotel guests, while the other is used by the hotel to wash bed sheets and duvet covers.

The second floor offers the best view, and after Zhou Yang compared the rooms, he found two that offered the clearest view.

In other words, if someone who happened to be staying at the hotel at the time was facing the square, they could have witnessed the whole process and would have had a high probability of seeing the killer's face.

Unfortunately, one of the two rooms was checked out at five or six in the morning, and the other was checked out as soon as they heard about the death in the square.

Zhou Yang observed the two rooms for a while, and then followed the staff downstairs.

"Officer, here's the video you requested!" The receptionist brought out a bag containing more than a dozen cassette tapes.

"What is this?" Zhou Yang asked, looking at the other person.

"Officer, our hotel's security cameras are automatically overwritten every week, and these videos are all the footage from the week before you entered the hotel." There were two girls at the front desk, and now there's a man in a suit.

"Then we, the police, thank you. We will return the copy as soon as possible!" Zhou Yang didn't expect the other party to think so deeply.

These VHS format cassette tapes can generally only store less than 12 hours of video recordings, so if you calculate it that way, you really do need that many.

"You're welcome. Mr. Zhuang often says that police officers are there to protect the people's property and safety, and he always teaches us that we must cooperate with the police; it's everyone's duty!"

The man in the suit spoke with a shy smile, but the pride in his eyes was impossible to hide.

"Does this hotel belong to Zhuang En?" Zhou Yang frowned.

"You know President Zhuang?" The man in the suit stared wide-eyed, looking incredulous.

"I don't know, just guessing!" Zhou Yang tightened his grip on the bag. "Brother Chao, let's go!"

......

"Zhou Yang, you don't look well. Do you know that hotel owner?" Wang Chao noticed that Zhou Yang had been keeping his head down since getting into the car, so he slowed down and asked.

"What does this have to do with him?" Zhou Yang shook his head: "I'm worried about this case!"

"What's there to worry about in this case? I believe in you!" Wang Chao freed one hand and gave Zhou Yang a thumbs up, leaving Zhou Yang somewhat amused and exasperated.

This is more confidence than I have, but I don't even have that much confidence myself.

"I want to believe in myself, but I'm afraid this killer will commit another crime!" Zhou Yang said, his eyes suddenly lighting up and his heart pounding.

If we knew the location where the killer disposed of the body beforehand, wouldn't we be able to apprehend the guy sooner by staking out the location?