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

The next four car owners interviewed either had intact taillights or provided clear alibis; none of their vehicles perfectly matched the suspect's vehicle. "Team Leader Wang, all 18 vehicles we checked have been ruled out as suspects. The owners either have alibis or their vehicle characteristics don't match," came team member Xiao Li's weary voice over the walkie-talkie. "Three of the car owners said their taillights had broken before, but they'd been fixed long ago, and they hadn't been to Haotian Building recently."

The feedback from the other teams was similar: all 89 black Camrys had been checked, but none matched the suspect's vehicle closely. "Could the suspect's car be using a fake license plate? Or is it from out of town?" Xiao Chen guessed. Wang Shuai nodded: "That's possible. We can't just limit ourselves to vehicles registered in this city; we also need to check black Camrys from out of town that have recently entered the city."

Subsequently, Wang Shuai led his team to the city's traffic control center to retrieve the passage records of all out-of-town black Toyota Camrys that entered the city from the evening of August 22nd to the early morning of August 23rd. "From 6 pm on the 22nd to 6 am on the 23rd, a total of 37 out-of-town black Camrys entered the city," the staff at the traffic control center retrieved the records. "Of these, 28 left the city before 4 am, and 9 were parked in hotels or parking lots in the city."

Wang Shuai and his team immediately began investigating the nine vehicles. Through hotel surveillance footage and parking lot records, they confirmed that the owners of seven of the vehicles were tourists or business travelers in the city, with clear travel itinerary documentation. Of the remaining two vehicles, one was from a neighboring city, and the owner was visiting relatives and staying at their home that night, with witnesses to testify. The other vehicle was from another province, and the owner was there to discuss business and was working overtime at the company that night, as captured on surveillance footage.

“Still no clues…” Xiao Chen sat in his chair and sighed. “Could the suspect have hidden the car? Or has he already destroyed it?” Wang Shuai did not give up. He pulled up the municipal surveillance footage around Haotian Building and re-examined the possible driving trajectory of the black Camry: “At 11:30 pm on August 22, the suspect’s vehicle entered the underground parking lot of Haotian Building and drove out at 12:15 am. After that, it should have left in a certain direction. We will focus on investigating this time period and extend the surveillance footage for 5 kilometers in all four directions from Haotian Building to see if we can find any trace of the vehicle.”

The team members split into four groups, reviewing surveillance footage from each of the four directions. Wang Shuai was responsible for reviewing the footage heading west. The footage showed a constant flow of traffic, and he kept his eyes glued to every black sedan, afraid of missing a target. "Team Leader Wang, look at this one!" While reviewing the 1:20 AM footage, Xiao Chen suddenly shouted. A black Camry was seen driving through the intersection, its taillights not working, matching the characteristics of the suspect's vehicle.

Wang Shuai immediately asked Xiao Chen to zoom in on the image, only to find that the car's license plate was clearly visible. A search revealed the owner was a doctor in the city, who was on duty at the hospital that night. His wife had driven the car to run errands, and there was evidence from hospital and community surveillance cameras, ruling out any suspicion. "Another disappointment..." Xiao Chen's tone was full of disappointment.

For 12 hours straight, Wang Shuai and his team checked nearly a hundred surveillance cameras and interviewed more than 20 car owners, but they still couldn't find a black Toyota Camry that perfectly matched the suspect's vehicle. At 6 p.m., Wang Shuai and his team returned to the Criminal Investigation Detachment. On their investigation record, all possible vehicles were marked "excluded from suspicion".

“Captain Lu, as planned, we checked 126 black Toyota Camrys in the city and other areas, but we did not find any targets that completely matched the characteristics of the suspect’s vehicle,” Wang Shuai said wearily as he sat in the conference room. “The suspect may have used a fake license plate, or hidden the car in a secluded place, such as an abandoned factory, an underground garage, or even moved the car to another area.”

Lu Chuan looked at the investigation records and remained silent for a moment: "Thank you for your hard work. The vehicle investigation has hit a bottleneck for now. Let's adjust our direction." He pointed to Li Wei's photo on the screen, "Since the vehicle clues have gone cold, let's focus on tracking down Li Wei's whereabouts. He's from the renovation team, so he may know the team's secrets and the suspect's identity. Finding him might lead us to the vehicle clues."

Wang Shuai nodded: "Tomorrow we'll expand the scope of our investigation into Li Wei. In addition to his relatives and gambling buddies, we'll also visit the decoration company where he used to work, as well as the internet cafes and card rooms he frequents, to see if we can find any trace of him." Although the vehicle tracking yielded no results, Wang Shuai was not discouraged. He knew that solving cases was full of setbacks, but as long as he persisted, he would eventually find a new breakthrough.

The morning sun shone through the thin mist, illuminating the old residential area where Li Wei lived. Wang Shuai, along with his team members Xiao Chen and Xiao Li, drove for half an hour to reach their destination—a six-story residential building built in the 90s, where Li Wei lived in apartment 402. As per Lu Chuan's plan, after the lead on the black Camry vehicle went cold, tracking down Li Wei and verifying his suspicions became crucial to the progress of the case.

"Knock knock knock—" Xiao Chen stepped forward and knocked on the door. A series of light footsteps came from inside, and then a middle-aged woman peeked out, looking warily at the three people outside: "Who are you? Do you want something from my Li Wei?"

"Hello, we are police officers from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Division. We would like to inquire about Li Wei's situation," Wang Shuai said, showing his identification and speaking in a gentle tone. "Has he been home recently? Did he go home between the evening of August 22nd and the early morning of August 23rd?"

Li Wei's wife, Zhang Guilan, opened the door and let the three of them in. Unwashed dishes lay on the coffee table in the living room, and a photo of Li Wei and his family hung on the wall. "Li Wei hasn't been home for three days, and his phone is off. I'm so worried," Zhang Guilan said, her voice trembling with tears. "He called me on the evening of the 22nd, saying the renovation team was rushing to meet a deadline and he was working overtime at the construction site that night, so he wouldn't be coming home. I haven't been able to contact him since."

"When he called, did he mention which construction site he was working overtime at? Was his tone unusual?" Wang Shuai sat on the sofa, taking out his notebook to take notes. Zhang Guilan recalled, "He said he was at the Haotian Building construction site, and his tone was quite normal. He even chatted with me about his child for a bit. I didn't sense anything wrong." She paused, then added, "But lately he seems to have something on his mind. Sometimes when he comes home, he sighs. When I ask him what's wrong, he won't say, only that it's about work."

Wang Shuai instructed Xiao Li to inquire about Li Wei's recent social activities from Zhang Guilan, while he and Xiao Chen inspected Li Wei's bedroom. (End of Chapter)