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

“Captain Wang, these kinds of cross-departmental file retrievals are the most troublesome. Yesterday I went to the Transportation Bureau, and they said there were procedures to follow. By the time I got the truck driver registration information, it would be too late.” He pushed up his glasses, which he had put on again. “And even if we got the information, it would be even more difficult to compare it with just the text information without photos.”

Xiao Wu suddenly put his feet up on the table, making the chair creak. "If you ask me, the murderer dismembered and disposed of the body to destroy the evidence. Maybe the victim wasn't even a local. We're just wasting our time here." His words brought a brief silence to the office, with only the sound of the air conditioner vents being particularly clear.

Xiao Chen bit his lip, his fingers hesitating on the keyboard: "Coco's tattoos are so unique, maybe someone has seen them before? Should we contact the tattoo shop to ask?" Da Liu finally gave up on restarting the computer, grabbed his coat, and headed to the server room: "By the time you've asked every tattoo shop in the city, the murderer will have already fled abroad. The most urgent thing is to fix the system. At this rate, we can't even filter two hundred records a day."

At 2 a.m., the smell of instant noodles filled the office. Wang Shuai's walkie-talkie suddenly rang; it was Yang Lin's voice: "We found the employee register at the abandoned factory. Records from before 2018 show three workers matching the age range, but there are no photos." Wang Shuai gripped the walkie-talkie tightly: "Scan them immediately and send them over. We'll cross-reference them here." He turned to his team members and said, "Everyone, stay alert! There might be a breakthrough!"

Old Zhang, holding a magnifying glass, stared at the scanned document he had just received: "This guy, Zhou Qiang, is registered as 'equipment maintenance,' and his start date matches the degree of fading of the deceased's tattoo. But his file says his place of origin is from another province, and there's no missing person report for him in the system." Xiao Wu leaned over for a look: "Maybe he's an unregistered resident, or maybe his family doesn't even know he's missing. If you ask me, this clue is just pure luck."

Xiao Chen suddenly pointed at the screen: "Captain Wang! This person's disappearance time and body disposal time are close! Li Jianguo, 47 years old, truck driver, went missing three months ago after a long-distance trip. But the system shows that his teeth are intact and there is no record of repairs." Wang Shuai frowned and thought: "Teeth can be treated later. Contact his family to get recent photos and details of his life."

As dawn broke through the windowsill, everyone had been working continuously for 18 hours. Xiao Chen's voice was so weak it was almost inaudible: "Li Jianguo's wife said that he was injured at the construction site last year and went back to his hometown to have his teeth fixed, but she didn't know what material they used. And, and she couldn't remember if her husband had a tattoo on his waist." Xiao Wu loosened his tie and sneered: "See? Another dead end. All this useless work we've done is enough to write a book called 'A Bloody History of Modern Criminal Investigation'."

Wang Shuai stared at the densely packed clues on the whiteboard, the information circled in red intertwined like a net tightening ever tighter. "Three hours of rest for the team," his voice was hoarse but firm. "Remember, the truth often lies hidden in the details we complain about. Once everyone's rested, we'll continue to relentlessly work on this data." A chorus of weary voices rose from the office, while the unfinished comparison entries still glowed faintly on the computer screens, awaiting the next round of intensive work.

The day after the incident.

The Venetian blinds in the conference room sliced ​​the morning light into thin, elongated patches, casting dappled shadows on the floor. Lu Chuan stood before the whiteboard, his fingertips tapping on the surface covered with photographs—from crime scene photos of the ditch to close-ups of dismembered body parts, seventeen images strung together with a red string, like a string of congealed blood beads. "Eight o'clock sharp, the first case analysis meeting begins." His voice was hoarse from a sleepless night, yet every word was clear. "Everyone, put down the clues you have. We need to find the thread that connects the truth."

Yang Lin opened his laptop, and the projector displayed a 3D model of the scene on the screen. He pulled up a panoramic view of the bend in the ditch, pausing the laser pointer at the reed bed: "The location where the head was dumped is 327 meters from the road. The SUV tire tracks in the mud indicate that the killer used a 2700mm wheelbase SUV with 225/65 R17 tires, a 91% match to a 2019 Honda CR-V." He switched to the metal detector readings: "The metal box lock showed signs of prying, but no fingerprints were found inside. The killer was aware of counter-surveillance measures."

“More importantly, this is crucial.” Yang Lin zoomed in on a photo of the deceased’s head; the indentation at the back of the head appeared as a regular circle under the high-definition lens. “The blunt force wound is 4.2 centimeters in diameter, with radial bone fractures at the edges, consistent with the characteristics of a steel pipe weapon. Combined with Zhang Kai’s autopsy, this injury, along with mechanical asphyxiation, constitutes the cause of death.” He paused, then pulled up a high-definition scan of the factory floor. “Bloodstains matching the deceased’s blood type were extracted from the cement floor of the abandoned factory workshop, suggesting this was the primary crime scene.”

Zhang Kai's autopsy report instantly sombered the atmosphere in the conference room. The CT scan images on the screen showed a compression fracture of the third cervical vertebra and a fracture of the superior horn of the thyroid cartilage: "The fracture of the greater horn of the hyoid bone caused by mechanical asphyxiation is not obvious, but the bleeding area in the neck muscles reaches 6×4 cm, indicating that the strangulation lasted at least 3 minutes." He switched to the dental slide images; under a 100x microscope, secondary caries was visible at the edges of the amalgam filling. "The filling material is a low-copper alloy commonly used before 2005; combined with the degree of wear, it is inferred that the filling was done 15-20 years ago."

The details of the age determination were elaborated one by one: "The ossification tubercle fusion rate of the pubic symphysis reached 80%, which meets the Suchey-Brooks classification stage 5; the Haver canal diameter of the mid-rib section was 0.12 mm, and the bone density was 18 units per square millimeter; plus the Smith grade 4 standard for tooth wear," Zhang Kai pushed up his glasses, "the comprehensive age determination is 47±2 years, height 175±3 cm, weight 68±5 kg, and he engaged in work that required frequent neck rotation for a long period of time before his death."

Wang Shuai's report was tinged with obvious frustration. He slammed the missing persons search list on the table, the edges of the papers curled from repeated handling: "There are 1276 male machinery workers aged 45-50 in the city, 349 of whom match the description of amalgam fillings, including 76 with tattoos on their waists. However, after comparing them one by one, either they have clear alibis, or their physical characteristics don't match." He pulled up Li Jianguo's file; the man in the photo had a dark complexion. "This truck driver matches in every way, but the family firmly denies he has tattoos, and the dental filling record doesn't match the deceased."

"The biggest problem is the flow of people across regions," Wang Shuai said, pointing to a red marker on the map. "This logistics park on the outskirts of the city has a large number of temporary truck drivers who are highly mobile and lack complete registration information. We've contacted police in five surrounding provinces for assistance, but so far we've only received three responses." (End of Chapter)