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

"Check the municipal surveillance footage of this alley, focusing on the footage from 8 pm last night to 5 am this morning," he ordered into the walkie-talkie. "Especially the black SUV that Li Baojun mentioned, be sure to confirm the vehicle's characteristics and driving trajectory." In the distance, garbage trucks were still waiting to work, and the pungent smell grew stronger. The figure of the corpse lying face down against the backdrop of messy garbage looked particularly jarring.

As Wang Shuai closed his notebook, Li Baojun was still reciting the black SUV from last night: "If only the surveillance cameras hadn't broken, maybe we could have seen the license plate..." His voice was full of regret as he repeatedly rubbed his oil-stained work clothes. Yang Lin and Yang Sen's investigation records were already two pages long. From the characteristics of the body to footprints, fibers, and cigarette butts, every clue pointed to the possibility of "homicide," but the identity of the deceased, the motive, and the specific information of the suspects remained hidden behind the stench and morning mist of the garbage transfer station.

Lu Chuan directed the follow-up work into the walkie-talkie: "Yang Lin and Yang Sen, continue to expand the investigation area, focusing on the area around the wall and both sides of the alley, to find more traces and physical evidence; Wang Shuai is responsible for retrieving the municipal surveillance footage outside the gate, verifying the information of the black SUV from last night, and visiting nearby businesses to find witnesses; the technical department should immediately send the fibers, cigarette butts, and suspected bloodstains extracted from the scene for testing to confirm the composition and possible related personnel."

As the sun rose higher, it dispelled the morning mist, but it couldn't completely mask the stench emanating from the transfer station. Lu Chuan looked at the body lying face down beside the garbage, knowing in his heart that behind this cold body lay an untold story, and what they had to do was piece together the truth from these scattered traces, so that the deceased could rest in peace.

The smell of disinfectant mingled with the stench of decay at the Heping Road garbage transfer station, growing stronger as the sun rose. Yang Lin placed his investigation kit on a clean cement platform and took out a spare investigation light and fingerprint scanner—after the initial investigation, he and Yang Sen decided to expand the investigation area from inside the transfer station to the surrounding alleys, outside the walls, and adjacent abandoned factories, trying to find more clues pointing to the case.

“Let’s start with the alley north of the transfer station. Li Baojun said he saw a black SUV drive by in this direction last night; maybe we can find tire tracks or debris.” Yang Lin slung his investigation bag over his shoulder and stepped through the scattered trash and debris into the alley. The alley was about 3 meters wide, with mottled brick walls on both sides and broken cement slabs on the ground, the gaps filled with plastic bags, cigarette butts, and food scraps. Yang Lin held his footprint lamp close to the ground, the beam slowly moving across the messy ground, illuminating a cement slab covered in brown dirt.

“There’s a size 43 work boot print here, matching the one we found next to the compression box before.” Yang Sen crouched down and measured with a ruler. “Stride length 76 centimeters, stride width 18 centimeters, stride angle 5 degrees outward, the brown soil embedded in the sole’s tread isn’t completely dry yet, the edges are clear, it must have been left last night.” He took out plaster powder and carefully sprinkled it on the shoe print. “This shoe print extends from the direction of the transfer station’s wall into the depths of the alley, indicating that the suspect fled along this alley after dumping the body.”

Yang Lin's investigation light lingered at the base of the brick wall next to the shoe print, revealing a fresh friction mark on the wall, approximately 20 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide. "The edges of the mark have a metallic sheen," he said, scraping off a small fragment with tweezers and placing it in an evidence bag. "It looks like it was left by friction from a part of a black SUV's body. Considering Li Baojun's mention of a 'broken taillight,' it's possible that the broken taillight rubbed against the brick wall when the vehicle passed by." He took a picture of the mark. "It needs to be sent to the lab to test the metallic composition to see if it matches the common body material of SUVs."

The two walked deeper into the alley, and near an abandoned trash can, Yang Sen's footprint light made another discovery. "There's a size 42 leather shoe print here, matching the characteristics of the deceased's shoe print," he pointed to the ground. "The brown soil around the edge of the shoe print is wetter than before, the stride length has shortened to 68 centimeters, and the stride width has increased to 19 centimeters, indicating that the deceased may have been in a state of panic or coercion, resulting in an unsteady gait." There were also a few drops of light brown liquid next to the shoe print. After testing it with a test strip, Yang Lin frowned: "Positive reaction, suspected bloodstains, but we need a lab to confirm whether they belong to the deceased."

Moving to the west side of the transfer station's perimeter wall, Yang Lin found half a yellow plastic rope in the grass, the same material as the half-rope clutched by the deceased. "The rope's break is irregular, with obvious signs of pulling," he observed with a magnifying glass. "The edges also have a small amount of brown soil and fibers, the same polyester fiber composition as the deceased's jacket, suggesting it's remnants of the same rope." He put the rope into an evidence bag. "This indicates the deceased may have been bound by this rope before death; after it broke, one half remained in their hand, and the other half was discarded here by the suspect."

Yang Sen found more size 43 work boot prints in the soil outside the wall. These prints were irregularly distributed, with some overlapping. "The suspect stayed here for a while," he analyzed. "The prints are dense, and there are traces of turning around, so he may have been observing the surrounding environment and leaving only after confirming it was safe." At the edge of one of the prints, he found a blurry fingerprint, in the damp soil, in the shape of a whorl. "The fingerprint is severely incomplete, with only 6 feature points," Yang Sen extracted it with silicone rubber, "but the pattern is similar to the whorl pattern found on the inside of a cigarette box before, so it might be from the same person. We need to compare and confirm it in the lab."

The two returned to the transfer station and conducted a thorough examination of the garbage compactors. Yang Lin shone a powerful searchlight on the inside of the compactor and discovered a complete palm print in a corner. "The palm print is of a right hand, with 22 clear feature points and no obvious contamination," he explained, highlighting it with black magnetic powder. "The direction of the lines initially matches the hand characteristics of the person whose work boots were previously extracted, suggesting that the suspect may have left this print by pressing their hand against the compactor while moving the body." He carefully extracted the palm print. "This palm print is crucial. If we can find a match in the fingerprint database, we can narrow down the suspects."

Yang Sen then inspected the locks on the transfer station's main gate. He noticed minor scratches on the lock cylinder. "The lock cylinder showed no signs of forced entry, but the scratches were fresh," he observed with a magnifying glass. "It looks like it was pried open with a thin wire or a special tool. The suspect may have entered the transfer station to dispose of the body by picking the lock, or perhaps tried to damage the lock to cover up the tracks when leaving." He collected metal fragments from the lock cylinder. "We need to test the composition of the fragments to see if they match the material of any tools the suspect might have carried."

During the investigation, the two occasionally exchanged their opinions on the clues. (End of Chapter)