Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

This case is like a complex puzzle, and each piece of evidence is a key fragment. Only by piecing them together can the truth be restored. Criminal investigation work is to unravel the mystery and pursue justice in countless such late nights.

During the puzzle process, Zhang Hui was quite depressed. He spent the whole day comparing the information of missing persons.

In the missing persons information comparison room of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, the incandescent lamps emitted glaring light and the air conditioner continued to roar, but they could not dispel the depressing atmosphere in the room. Zhang Hui rubbed his sore eyes. The information of the missing persons on the computer screen in front of him was constantly refreshing. The dense text and photos made him dizzy.

"The 827th file still has no match." Team member Xiao Lin sighed heavily and threw the pen in his hand on the table. "From morning till now, my eyes are almost blind and my neck is so stiff that I can't move. How come there is no clue at all?" He reached out and pinched his shoulder, frowning tightly.

Technician Lao Zhou turned his stiff neck and looked at the data scrolling on the screen. He said, "Many of the photos in the missing persons database are from a few years ago. Their appearances have changed a lot. In addition, the faces of the deceased are highly decomposed, so it is too difficult to compare them." He tapped the keyboard and called up a new file. "Moreover, the physical characteristics of many missing persons are not fully recorded. Key information such as burn scars and special diseases cannot be found at all."

New employee Xiao Chen stared at the screen, his eyes full of fatigue and frustration: "I thought I could find a breakthrough from chronic diseases, but after screening all the missing persons with a history of iron deficiency anemia, none of them met the other characteristics." He took a mouthful of instant noodles that had long been cold, but the food was tasteless. "This is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Zhang Hui forced himself to stay awake and took a sip of the cold coffee, the bitter taste spreading in his mouth: "Everyone, hold on a little longer, let's expand the search to the missing persons databases in the surrounding provinces and cities." His voice was also filled with fatigue that could not be concealed, but his tone was still firm, "The murderer chose to dump the body in the cornfield during the autumn harvest. Maybe the deceased was not a local and just came here by chance."

Time passed by, and the only sounds in the room were the clicks of the mouse and the tapping of the keyboard. The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and another night came. The team members' condition was getting worse and worse. Xiao Lin dozed off in his chair, his head nodding; Lao Zhou rubbed his temple, his eyes bloodshot; Xiao Chen stared at the screen in a daze, his thoughts drifting to who knows where.

"This one looks a bit like him!" Xiao Chen suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention. He pointed at the screen excitedly, "Look, the age and height of this missing person match the deceased, and he is also a migrant worker with no relatives or friends in the local area, which fits our inferred identity characteristics of the deceased."

Zhang Hui immediately came forward and carefully checked the file information, with a glimmer of hope in his eyes: "There is indeed some resemblance. Contact the local police to obtain more detailed information, especially whether he has any old burn scars."

However, hope was soon dashed. When we received additional information from the local police, our hearts sank again. In the photo, the man's left waist was as smooth as new, with no trace of burn scars at all.

"Why is it always just a little off!" Xiao Lin slammed the table angrily, "We have been screening and comparing repeatedly all day, and our eyes and heads hurt, but it's all in vain!" His voice was filled with despair and unwillingness, "If this goes on, when will we be able to find the identity of the deceased?" Zhang Hui looked at the depressed team members, took a deep breath and said, "I know everyone is very tired and irritable, but this is how criminal investigation work is, full of uncertainty and frustration. Every time we eliminate a wrong option, we are one step closer to the truth." His eyes swept across everyone firmly, "Let's sort out our ideas again, change our angle, and start from the social relations of the missing person and the trajectory of their activities before their disappearance. Maybe we can make new discoveries. Work harder tonight, I'll go buy supper for everyone, and only when you're full will you have the strength to continue fighting!"

With Zhang Hui's encouragement, the team members cheered themselves up again, forced themselves to continue devoting themselves to this boring and difficult information comparison work, and the room was filled with busy sounds again.

While Zhang Hui was investigating and comparing the missing persons database, Wang Shuai and his team had already followed Lu Chuan's request to investigate the relevant information of people who had facial burns and skin grafts in recent years.

Wang Shuai's hands were numb from holding the steering wheel. He glanced at the rearview mirror and saw two police cars full of team members following behind him, heading towards the Third People's Hospital of the city. This was already the seventh large hospital they had visited. The archives of each hospital were piled with mountains of medical records, waiting for them to screen one by one.

"Captain Wang, maybe we can get something this time." Xiao Chen, who was sitting in the passenger seat, tried to break the dull atmosphere in the car, but his voice was exhausted. Wang Shuai smiled and did not respond, focusing on the road ahead that was blurred by the rain. He knew in his heart that the slimmer the hope, the heavier the disappointment.

The hospital's archives room was filled with the smell of paper and dust, with rows of metal cabinets neatly arranged, seemingly endless. Wang Shuai and his team members divided into several groups and began the tedious work of searching. "Focus on finding patients with a record of large-area burns and skin grafts on the left waist in the past five years!" Wang Shuai shouted, his voice echoing in the empty room.

Team member Lao Zhang, wearing reading glasses, carefully flipped through the medical records, muttering from time to time: "This is wrong, the time doesn't match." "This skin graft is on the arm, which is not right." He pushed up his glasses and looked up at Wang Shuai, "Captain Wang, if we keep looking like this, when will we stop? There are too many medical records, and a lot of key information is not recorded in detail."

Wang Shuai wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked to Lao Zhang: "Lao Zhang, thank you for holding on a little longer. We don't have any other good ideas now, we can only look for a needle in a haystack. Maybe the next medical record is the clue we are looking for." He patted Lao Zhang on the shoulder, turned around and said to the other team members: "Everyone, be careful and don't miss any details!"

While looking up the information, Wang Shuai found time to find Dr. Li, the director of the hospital's burn department. "Dr. Li, sorry to bother you. We are investigating a case and need to know about the patients who have undergone burn skin grafting surgery in the past five years." (End of this chapter)