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

The team members quickly contacted the vehicle management office to retrieve information on all vehicles of that model registered throughout the city. After half an hour of investigation, they found a total of 18 black Haval H6 2022 models in the city, including 3 vehicles with license plate numbers ending in "73", registered under different names: Zhang Lei, who lives in the High-tech Zone; Wang Li, who lives in the Economic Development Zone; and Zhou Qiang, who lives in the Old City District.

Wang Shuai first contacted Zhang Lei. When the call connected, Zhang Lei's voice sounded sleepy: "Officer? What happened to my car?" When asked about his whereabouts on the night of August 15, Zhang Lei said, "I stayed home with my child all night. The car was parked in the underground garage of the community. I didn't drive it out. You can check the community's surveillance footage if you don't believe me." Wang Shuai immediately arranged for his team to go to Zhang Lei's community and retrieve the surveillance footage from the underground garage. The footage showed that Zhang Lei's black Haval H6 was parked in its parking space throughout the day of August 15, with its taillights intact. This was clearly inconsistent with the vehicle in the surveillance footage that had "broken taillights," thus eliminating Zhang Lei as a suspect.

When contacted again, Wang Shuai heard Wang Li sound nervous: "I...I drove to my parents' house in the suburbs last night. I left around 9 pm and arrived around 11 pm. The taillights are indeed a bit damaged; I scraped against the guardrail last week." To verify her statement, Wang Shuai retrieved the highway surveillance footage of Wang Li's route. At 9:30 pm, Wang Li's car appeared at the entrance to the East Suburbs Expressway. The damage to the taillights matched the vehicle in the surveillance footage, but she was driving in the suburbs, opposite to the direction of the garbage transfer station. The surveillance footage from her parents' house in the suburbs also showed that at 11:20 pm, Wang Li's car entered the residential area and did not leave again, providing a solid alibi and eliminating suspicion.

When Wang Shuai finally contacted Zhou Qiang, the phone rang for a long time before being answered. His voice sounded tired: "I was on a business trip out of town last night. My car was parked in the company parking lot. What's wrong?" Wang Shuai asked him to provide proof of his business trip. Zhou Qiang then sent him his flight booking and hotel check-in records, which showed that he attended a meeting in a neighboring city on August 15 and did not return to the city that day. The surveillance footage from the company parking lot also confirmed that his car was parked in the parking space the whole time, and the taillights were intact, thus ruling him out as a suspect.

With all three vehicles ruled out as suspects, Wang Shuai frowned. "Could the black SUV in the surveillance footage be a fake?" Xiao Chen asked doubtfully. Wang Shuai shook his head: "Not necessarily. It's possible we misjudged the vehicle model, or Li Baojun misremembered the vehicle details." He reviewed the surveillance footage again, carefully comparing the details of the three Haval H6s with those in the surveillance footage: "The vehicle in the surveillance footage has a clear scratch on its rear bumper, while Zhang Lei's, Wang Li's, and Zhou Qiang's cars don't have this scratch, indicating that the three vehicles we previously identified are not the one in the surveillance footage."

To further confirm the vehicle model, Wang Shuai contacted professionals at the car dealership and sent them the surveillance footage. They replied, "Judging from the body proportions and front design, this looks more like a Changan CS75 PLUS, not a Haval H6. The two are similar in appearance and easily confused. The rear bumper design of the 2021 Changan CS75 PLUS is completely identical to the vehicle in the footage."

Based on this new clue, Wang Shuai re-checked the vehicle registration information and found a total of 25 black 2021 Changan CS75 PLUS vehicles in the city, of which 5 had license plates ending in "73". After contacting the owners one by one, he discovered that Zhao Wei's car, which lived in the old city area, not only had a broken taillight but also a scratch on the rear bumper, which perfectly matched the characteristics of the vehicle in the surveillance footage.

Wang Shuai immediately arranged for his team to find Zhao Wei, who was having his car repaired at his own auto repair shop. "I did drive my car out last night," Zhao Wei said, pointing to the taillights. "Around 8 p.m. last night, I went to a parts store near Heping Road to buy some parts, and I was walking back around 9 p.m. The taillights were damaged when I was repairing a customer's car before, and the scratches on the rear bumper were also caused around that time." He produced the parts store's receipt, which showed that the date was 8:30 p.m. on August 15th, which basically matched the time the vehicle was driven in the surveillance footage.

To verify Zhao Wei's statement, Wang Shuai retrieved the surveillance footage from the parts store. At 8:30 PM, Zhao Wei's car was parked in front of the parts store. He went inside to buy parts, stayed for about 15 minutes, and then left. His route was consistent with the vehicle in the surveillance footage. However, after leaving the parts store, he went directly back to the auto repair shop. The surveillance footage showed that at 9:10 PM, his car drove into the auto repair shop and did not leave again. This did not match the timeline of "suspicious vehicles appearing around 10 PM" at the garbage transfer station. Furthermore, his height was only 170 cm, which was significantly different from the suspect's height of "178-183 cm" predicted by the on-site investigation. Ultimately, he was also ruled out as a suspect.

After checking several black SUVs but failing to find any, Wang Shuai felt somewhat disappointed. "Could it be that the black SUV in the surveillance footage was just a coincidence appearing nearby and unrelated to the case?" Xiao Chen asked. Wang Shuai shook his head: "It can't be such a coincidence. Li Baojun clearly stated that he saw the black SUV heading towards the transfer station, and the surveillance footage also showed the vehicle stopping near the transfer station. We just haven't found the real owner yet." He reconsidered his approach. "Perhaps the suspect rented the vehicle or borrowed it from a friend. Next, we need to expand the scope of our investigation, focusing on people who recently rented or borrowed the black Changan CS75 PLUS, especially those with broken taillights."

As the sun set, Wang Shuai remained in the monitoring room, repeatedly reviewing the surveillance footage of the black SUV. Although the found vehicle had been temporarily ruled out as a suspect, he did not give up. Instead, he instructed his team to contact car rental companies throughout the city to retrieve recent rental records. At the same time, he visited auto repair shops around Heping Road to inquire if anyone had recently repaired the black Changan CS75 PLUS with "broken taillights and scratches on the rear bumper."

As Wang Shuai stepped out of the monitoring room, night had fallen, and the streetlights on Heping Road illuminated the street. Watching the passing vehicles, he knew that although this investigation hadn't yielded crucial clues, it had at least narrowed the scope of the investigation, ruled out irrelevant individuals, and saved time for subsequent investigations. He firmly believed that as long as he persisted, he would eventually find the black SUV truly connected to the case and uncover the truth.

The autopsy room in the Criminal Investigation Detachment maintained a stable temperature of 20°C, but when the male corpse from the Heping Road garbage transfer station was pushed into the entrance, a complex stench of decay, oil, and dirt still filled the air. Zhang Kai, wearing a double-layered gas mask, lightly touched the corpse's surface with his latex-gloved fingertips—the skin was cold and stiff, covered in black garbage stains and brown dirt. The collar of his dark gray jacket was torn and deformed, and a circular indentation was clearly visible on his wrist under the operating lights, exposed from a tear in the left cuff. Assistant Xiao Lin had already arranged the autopsy instruments in order on a stainless steel tray; scalpels, hemostats, skull saws, and other tools gleamed coldly. A label on the edge of the tray read, "Unidentified Male Corpse from Heping Road, Autopsy Date: August 16th." (End of Chapter)