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

The receipt showed that I exited the highway at Yangluo High-tech Zone at 4:05 PM on the 18th, but the journey from Yangluo High-tech Zone to the South Suburb Fire Prevention Road should only take one hour and fifteen minutes, leaving a full three-hour gap. "Where were you during those three hours?" Wang Baokai suddenly raised his voice, the veins on his neck bulging as if they were about to explode: "Eating and sleeping at the service area! Go check if you don't believe me! I ate braised noodles at the restaurant in Yangluo service area, and even added a braised egg. The waiter can vouch for it!"

Surveillance footage from the service area showed that Wang Baokai did indeed eat at the restaurant at 5 PM on the 18th, sitting by the window with a bowl of noodles and a bottle of beer in front of him. However, he left the restaurant at 5:40 PM. The surveillance footage from the parking lot showed him getting into his truck, but it didn't capture the truck driving away—because the parking lot exit surveillance camera was under maintenance. His truck didn't appear at the Dongzhou Logistics Park until 8:12 PM, leaving him missing for two hours and forty minutes. "This period was enough time for him to drive from the service area to the southern suburbs, commit the crime, and then return," Zhang Hui analyzed at the meeting, pointing to the route on the map. "The Yangluo service area is 130 kilometers from the southern suburbs firebreak road, which takes an hour and a half on the highway. He had plenty of time to commit the crime and then rush back to the Dongzhou Logistics Park. Moreover, his work clothes, truck, shoe size, and tire characteristics all match the clues at the scene. In addition, the feud between the two over a job dispute makes his motive perfectly plausible."

A more crucial clue came from Wang Baokai's phone. The technical team spent three hours recovering his deleted chat history, discovering a WeChat account with the nickname "Mountain Eagle," featuring a profile picture of a soaring eagle against a backdrop of a dense forest. At 8:23 PM on July 17th, this account sent a private message to Li Jianfeng: "There are rare fluorescent bacteria in the southern suburbs on the 18th. They glow at night, perfect for taking pictures. I know a good spot, quiet and not crowded, wanna go together?" Li Jianfeng replied at 8:45 PM: "What time? I'll go after I finish picking up the goods, I should arrive around 7 PM." This record perfectly matched the "Mountain Eagle" account previously discovered by Wang Shuai, and the IP address was Wang Baokai's phone number. When the message was sent, his phone was within the signal coverage area of ​​Tongda Freight Company.

Inside Wang Baokai's truck cab, technicians discovered a broken trekking pole stained with diesel fuel. The pole had a noticeable scratch, the paint underneath having peeled off. The soil at the tip matched the humus found in the southern suburban forest, containing abundant pine pollen and fern spores. DNA testing revealed fragments of Li Jianfeng's skin tissue, particularly in the anti-slip grooves of the pole, where the extracted DNA profile perfectly matched Li Jianfeng's. "This trekking pole and the broken piece found at the scene belong to the same person," Zhang Hui said, holding up an evidence bag to the light. "The break can be perfectly pieced back together, even the wood grain matches, indicating that Wang Baokai brought this pole to the scene and it was broken during the struggle."

But one last point of doubt remains: Wang Baokai's WeChat step count showed only 876 steps on July 18th, far below the amount of exercise required to travel to and from the woods. "He definitely left his phone in the car," veteran detective Zhou Jianguo said, tapping the table, making the teacup on it vibrate. "After driving to the firebreak, he put his phone in the driver's seat, took the murder weapon, walked into the woods, committed the crime, and then drove away. He didn't have his phone with him, hence the low step count. Look at the storage compartment in the passenger seat of his truck; there's a phone holder, perfectly positioned and angled to hold the phone. The holder even has fresh scratches on the phone case, but it's empty, indicating he did remove the phone midway to cover up his true activity." This hypothesis was partially confirmed by the truck's dashcam footage. At 5:30 PM on the 18th, the dashcam captured Wang Baokai placing his phone on the passenger seat, and the phone was never seen again in the subsequent footage.

The investigation continued late into the night. Zhang Hui's notebook was filled with clues pointing to Wang Baokai, the edges of the pages soaked with sweat. The intense conflict with Li Jianfeng over a job, the highly matching truck tire, the distinctive dark blue work clothes and size 44 shoes, "Mountain Eagle's" WeChat account and chat history, the bloodstained hiking stick, the inconsistencies in his movements around the time of the crime… each piece was like a puzzle piece, gradually piecing together the complete picture. But he knew he needed one last piece of evidence—the size 44 work boots Wang Baokai wore during the crime, and the wrench that might have been stained with blood.

“Apply for a search warrant,” Zhang Hui said, closing his notebook. Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating the words “Wang Baokai is a prime suspect.” The sound of his pen slicing across the paper was particularly clear in the quiet office. “Search his residence and truck first thing tomorrow morning. Focus on the work boots and the wrench, especially the crevices of the wrench, where there’s a high chance Li Jianfeng’s bloodstains might still be present. Finding these will create a complete chain of evidence.” Under the conference room lights, everyone’s faces showed a tired yet excited expression. The ashtrays were piled high with cigarette butts. This murder case, which had puzzled them for days, had finally found its crucial breakthrough through subtle clues in interpersonal relationships, like finally seeing the path to the truth in a dense forest.

The red seal on the search warrant gleamed in the morning light. As Zhang Hui led his team into the old building where Wang Baokai lived, the motion-activated lights flickered on and off with the sound of their footsteps. The security door on the third floor was ajar, and a faint smell of diesel fuel wafted from the crack, exactly like the smell of the woods in the southern suburbs. "Be careful to protect the evidence," Zhang Hui said in a low voice, indicating to the technicians to first apply the fingerprint extraction film. The dark blue fibers on the doorknob were particularly conspicuous in the light—they were exactly the same nylon as the one in Li Jianfeng's down jacket.

The moment the door was pushed open, a pungent smell of mustiness and engine oil hit the room. The small single room, about ten square meters, was divided in two. In the outer room, a folding table was piled high with leftover instant noodle containers, the soup stains forming brown crusts. In the inner room, a metal bunk bed leaned against the wall, half a black backpack peeking out from under the bed frame—the very one the landlady had mentioned. Technician Xiao Zhou put on gloves and unzipped the boot. Inside, size 44 work boots had dark red stains on the toes, and the serrated soles were inlaid with deep green moss—the exact same type of moss found in the southern suburban woods.

"What's this?" Zhang Hui's finger stopped on the toolbox under the bed. The latch was rusted, and the key was still in the lock. The moment he opened the box, the metallic gleam of a wrench was blinding. Dark red stains stained the wrench's opening, and a strand of silver-white hair clung to its edge. "Take samples of the stains and hair," Zhang Hui said, carefully picking up the hair with tweezers. (End of Chapter)