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

By the time Wang Shuai returned to the Criminal Investigation Division, it was already dusk. He organized the surveillance footage and interview records and delivered them to the information analysis room. Zhang Hui was analyzing Qin Yanming's social relationships when he saw Wang Shuai enter. He looked up and asked, "Any results?" Wang Shuai shook his head and placed the screenshots from the convenience store's surveillance footage on the table: "These are the only vague clues we have. We still need to verify them further."

Although the investigation that day yielded no substantial breakthroughs, Wang Shuai knew that every vague clue could be the key to solving the mystery. He wrote down new directions for the investigation in his notebook: "1. Investigate the blue Volkswagen Lavida with license plate ending in '37'; 2. Verify the identity of the man in the black jacket in the convenience store surveillance footage; 3. Retrieve cell phone signal data from the Beihe River embankment on the evening of June 13th." The streetlights outside the window gradually came on. Wang Shuai looked at the distant night sky, knowing that finding the murderer hiding in the shadows would require more patience and luck.

That night, the fluorescent lights in the Criminal Investigation Detachment's information analysis room hummed softly at midnight, casting long, thin shadows on everyone. Zhang Hui pasted the preliminary characteristics of Beihe's body on the whiteboard—"Male, 35-45 years old, height 178±2cm, wearing a black polyester jacket, right index fingernail broken, engaged in manual labor," with a thick red marker under the words "manual labor."

“We’ll start the search on June 10th, focusing on missing men within a five-kilometer radius of the Beihe River,” Zhang Hui’s voice was hoarse from a mix of coffee and nicotine as his fingers tapped on the keyboard, bringing up the missing persons database. “Height 175-185cm, age 35-45, excluding women and children, sorted in reverse chronological order of disappearance.” The information on the screen was like an endless river, names, ages, and characteristics floating in blue light. The first entry, “Wang Jianguo,” had a photo that was blurred like a mosaic, the scar on his left cheek twisted into a black line within the pixels.

Young police officer Xiao Lin rubbed his red eyes, his knuckles circling his temples, the blue light from the screen casting deep shadows on his face. "Can't this damn system be optimized?" He slammed the mouse down on the "exclude" button. The confirmation box that popped up on the screen looked like a mocking smiley face. "Searching for 'black jacket' brings up more than five hundred results, half of which are photos from ten years ago, the hairstyles have changed, how are we supposed to compare them?" He pointed to the "Zhao Wei" entry on the screen, the man in the photo grinning, revealing a gold tooth. "Look at this one, truck driver, 177cm tall, 40 years old, everything matches, but he's missing a piece of his right ear, while the deceased's ear was intact, so we have to exclude him too."

Veteran detective Li Bing suddenly slammed his laptop shut, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a screeching sound that startled the pothos leaves on the windowsill. "This job is even more grueling than staking out," he muttered, tugging at his sweat-soaked, wrinkled collar. A pungent, musty smell of sweat mixed with the aroma of Master Kong braised beef noodles wafted through the air conditioning. "Last month, when we caught that car thief, at least we had a security camera with his profile. Now, all we have is a vague height and age; nothing else." He grabbed the cigarette pack on the table; only one cigarette remained. It took him three clicks to light it, the orange flame flickering on his stubble-covered face, illuminating the weariness etched into his wrinkles.

Zhang Hui's fingertips hovered over the keyboard, his gaze fixed on the keyword "black polyester jacket." Forensic pathologist Zhang Kai mentioned that the deceased's jacket had tool marks on the left chest, suggesting he might be a driver or maintenance worker. "Adjust the filter criteria, add the keywords 'driver' and 'maintenance'," he added in the search box, the system's loading progress bar crawling slowly, like a snail. "Focus on taxi and truck drivers; these professions often wear work jackets, which also fits the characteristics of manual labor."

The search results dwindled from over two thousand to just over three hundred, and Xiao Lin's eyes lit up instantly, his drowsiness vanishing almost entirely: "Finally, fewer results! Otherwise, I wouldn't have finished looking at them even by dawn." His fingers flew across the touchpad, switching photos one after another on the screen. "This 'Sun Hao,' a taxi driver, 176cm tall, 38 years old, went missing on June 12th." He zoomed in on the photo until it filled the entire screen; the man's features were vaguely visible through the blurry pixels. "There's a pen mark on his left chest, somewhat similar to the characteristics of the deceased's jacket!"

Zhang Hui leaned forward, his nose almost touching the screen, and pointed his finger at the man's right hand in the photo: "No, he's wearing a watch on his right hand, the deceased's wrist is bare, and this person has double eyelids, the deceased has single eyelids and deeper eye sockets." He flipped to Sun Hao's disappearance details, "The family said he was wearing a gray jacket when he disappeared, not black, so that's ruled out."

The excluded entries piled up like a gray mountain in the system, each one like a spark that had briefly ignited a fleeting hope in everyone's eyes. Li Bing blew a smoke ring into the moonlight outside the window, the smoke swirling in the blue light: "I find it strange, this person has no relatives or friends? He's been dead for several days and no one has reported him missing?" He pointed to the "Zhou Jian" entry on the screen, "Look at this one, a ride-hailing driver, 179 cm tall, 42 years old, went missing on June 13th, but he had diabetes and had to inject insulin every day, and the autopsy didn't mention any injection marks, so he has to be excluded."

At 1:30 a.m., the information system suddenly popped up a notification box, and twenty-three suspected matches flooded in like a swarm of fish, finally stirring the deathly silence in the analysis room. Xiao Lin's fingers slipped on the touchpad, almost dropping the mouse: "The system used a weighted selection based on height, age, and occupational characteristics, and the match rate is over 80%." His voice was hoarse from staying up all night, "Let's go through them one by one. Better to be wrong than wrong, we can't let one slip through."

The first entry, "Wu Liang," is a construction worker; his height matches, but his occupation doesn't. The second, "Zheng Tao," is a truck driver; he has a right-hand injury, but his jacket is blue. The third, "Qian Ming," is a taxi driver; all the characteristics match, but his license was revoked six months ago for drunk driving, and he currently works in another city, providing an alibi. "This system is utterly unintelligent," Li Bing said, dragging the third entry into the exclusion list, the mouse cursor leaving an afterimage on the screen. "They even include migrant workers? Are the programmers idiots?"

Zhang Hui rubbed his throbbing temples; his eyes were so dry they felt like they were on fire. He remembered the bunch of keys found at the scene, with a car remote hanging from it—it might belong to a taxi.

“Add the keywords ‘taxi driver’ and ‘car remote control’,” he added to the search box. The system reloaded, the progress bar climbing even more slowly than before. “Limit the disappearance time to around three days before or after June 13th, corresponding to the time of death.” (End of Chapter)