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

While Yang Lin and Yang Sen were conducting a more detailed investigation of the scene, Wang Shuai was searching for surveillance footage of the logistics system based on clues provided by the security guards, and investigating the white van and suspicious individuals.

The fluorescent lights in the monitoring room hummed softly. Wang Shuai stared at the constantly changing images on the screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard. The surveillance footage from Beishan Logistics Park resembled an old cassette tape being played on repeat. The white van briefly stopped at the entrance of warehouse number 17 in area B before disappearing into the fog-shrouded main road of the park.

"Switch the camera to the entrance guard post and zoom in on the license plate area." Wang Shuai's voice broke the silence in the monitoring room, and technician Xiao Zhou immediately adjusted the focus. On the screen, the windshield of the white van reflected the guard post's light, and the blurry license plate was covered by mud splatters after the numbers "京A8". "Check the model of this vehicle," Wang Shuai pointed to the screen, "Judging from the wheel style, it should be a 2018 Wuling Hongguang. This kind of vehicle is very common in logistics parks, but not many have a spoiler installed."

For the next four hours, Wang Shuai and his team pieced together the clues like a jigsaw puzzle. They retrieved all surveillance footage within a five-kilometer radius of the park, from supermarket security cameras to gas station payment records, and finally captured a clear license plate—京A8X273—in the surveillance footage of a community convenience store. A search through the vehicle management system revealed the owner to be "Hongda Freight Co., Ltd.", with a registered address in a secondhand market on the outskirts of the city.

At seven o'clock in the morning, when Wang Shuai knocked on the door of Hongda Freight Company's office, the boss, Zhang Qiang, was frowning at a pile of documents. "That white van belongs to our company," Zhang Qiang said, rubbing the oil stains on his hands. "It did go to Beishan Logistics Park three days ago, carrying electronic components. I have the warehouse entry and exit slips to prove it." He pulled out a stack of documents from his drawer. The shipper on the documents was "Sunshine Technology," and the recipient was an obscure electronics factory.

To verify the situation, Wang Shuai decided to inspect the vehicle. In the company parking lot, a white van was parked in a corner, its rear spoiler still covered in mud from the logistics park. Opening the trunk, a faint smell of disinfectant wafted out, somewhat similar to the smell in the warehouse. "We disinfect before loading goods," Zhang Qiang explained. "These electronic components are sensitive to moisture, so we spray disinfectant before each loading." Technician Xiao Zhou took a sample from the vehicle, and preliminary tests showed that the composition was consistent with the disinfectant in the warehouse.

Meanwhile, Wang Shuai questioned the driver, Mr. Li. Mr. Li was a veteran driver in his fifties with calloused hands. "I arrived at the logistics park at three o'clock that afternoon," Mr. Li recalled. "The warehouse manager took me to warehouse number 17 in area B to load the goods, saying it was an urgent order to be delivered to the electronics factory overnight. While loading, I saw a lot of cardboard boxes piled up in the warehouse, about the same size as what we were hauling." When asked if he noticed anything unusual, Mr. Li shook his head: "I just felt that the warehouse was a bit dark, and the manager kept urging us to load quickly, so I didn't think much of it."

To verify Mr. Li's statement, Wang Shuai contacted the electronics factory. After checking the documents, the warehouse manager confirmed that they had indeed received electronic components from Hongda Freight three days prior, and the quantity and model matched the documents perfectly. "These components are for producing mobile phone chargers," the manager said, pointing to the boxes on the shelf. "We have all the receiving records; every single one is registered."

The investigation seemed to have reached a stalemate, but Wang Shuai didn't give up. He noticed that the stamp of the shipper, "Sunshine Technology," on the Hongda Freight Company's inbound and outbound slips was somewhat blurry and slightly different from the official seals that had appeared in previous cases. "This stamp is problematic," Wang Shuai pointed to the document. "Look, the last stroke of the character '图' should be a vertical hook, but here it's written as a vertical hook." He immediately contacted the technical department for authentication, and the results showed that the official seal was forged.

However, when Wang Shuai contacted Zhang Qiang again, the latter looked completely innocent: "We were just following the procedures for receiving and shipping goods. Who knew the official seal was fake?" He provided the contact information for the person who liaised with "Sunshine Technology." After verification, it was found that this person had already left Sunshine Technology and was now nowhere to be found.

Although the white van was cleared of suspicion, Wang Shuai felt things weren't so simple. Standing in the parking lot of Hongda Freight Company, looking at the white van, he suddenly realized a detail—Master Li said the warehouse manager kept urging them to hurry up with the loading, but normally, the loading and unloading of electronic components requires extra care and shouldn't be so rushed. "Check the identity of that warehouse manager," Wang Shuai said to his team, "and also check Hongda Freight Company's recent financial transactions."

As the sun set, Wang Shuai returned to the Criminal Investigation Division with his investigation results. Although the white van had been cleared of suspicion, the forged official seal and the mysterious warehouse manager had shrouded the case in even greater mystery. He knew that the key to solving the mystery might lie hidden in these seemingly unrelated details, waiting to be discovered.

The body was sent to the Criminal Investigation Division for autopsy that afternoon.

Zhang Kai's double-gloved hand hovered above the corpse. The stainless steel table in the autopsy room gleamed coldly, the smell of formaldehyde mingling with the stench of death in the negative pressure system. His assistant, Xiao Lin, had already completed the standard measurements and was now taking pictures: "Professor Zhang, the deceased was 174.5 cm tall and weighed approximately 65 kg. Rigor mortis has reached its maximum; the joints are immobile."

Zhang Kai's gaze fell on the deceased's skull: "Treat the head wound first." He used a compass to measure the wound's diameter: "3.6 centimeters, with blunt, rounded corners, consistent with the characteristics of a blunt metal object." He paused abruptly as the probe entered: "There are fragments of glass remaining inside the bone wound; remove them for compositional analysis."

"Could it be something attached to the murder weapon?" Kobayashi handed over the tweezers, watching as the transparent fragment was placed into the evidence bag.

"It's more likely that the glasses shattered and became embedded when the deceased was struck." Zhang Kai flipped open the eyelids; the corneal opacity had reached level two. "The initial assessment of the time of death is between 72 and 96 hours, but this needs to be considered in conjunction with the degree of internal organ decomposition." He cut open the chest and abdomen; dark green putrefactive fluid flowed down the grooves of the autopsy table. "The right lobe of the liver showed softening, and the pancreas showed obvious autolysis, consistent with characteristics of approximately four days after death."

As the sternum was slowly opened by the retractor, Zhang Kai's fingers stopped on the surface of the heart: "There are bleeding points in the myocardium, is this a sign of asphyxiation?" He cut open the pulmonary artery, then suddenly shook his head, "No blood clot, it's not a pulmonary embolism. Take a blood sample and test the carboxyhemoglobin concentration."

"Should we dissect those three shallow puncture wounds?" Kobayashi asked, pointing to the wound on his chest. (End of Chapter)