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

At a farm machinery station in the western suburbs, they found a black farm tricycle with horizontal stripes on its tires and a small amount of black soil remaining in the cargo bed. "There's something wrong with this vehicle!" Xiao Zhang exclaimed excitedly. "The black soil likely came from the grassland, and it might be the suspect's vehicle!" Wang Shuai immediately contacted the owner—Zhao Dayong, a villager from the township. After receiving the call, Zhao Dayong quickly arrived at the farm machinery station, looking puzzled: "What's wrong with my vehicle? I was watching TV at home on the night of the 15th; I didn't go out."

It has been verified that Zhao Dayong's tricycle did indeed break down on the evening of the 15th and was parked at the agricultural machinery station for repairs until it was picked up on the afternoon of the 16th. The black soil in the truck bed was something he picked up when he went to the suburbs to haul coal on the 14th. Although it was similar in composition to the black soil of the grassland, technical testing showed that it lacked the humus unique to the black soil of the grassland, thus ruling out any connection.

"How many vehicles have we ruled out? How come there isn't a single one that matches?" Xiao Li sat in the police car, rubbing his sore shoulders, his tone filled with frustration. "We've checked so many repair shops, agricultural machinery stations, and even searched the entire used car market, but we still haven't found a vehicle that matches all the characteristics. Did the suspect drive the car into a river or the mountains and destroy it?"

Wang Shuai looked out the window at the passing farmland, his brow furrowed: "We can't rule out that possibility, but it's also possible that the suspect's vehicle had out-of-town license plates, or was unlicensed and unregistered. Let's expand our search and check the surveillance footage at traffic checkpoints in surrounding counties and cities to see if any vehicles matching the description entered or exited on the night of August 15th."

Subsequently, they contacted the traffic police departments of three surrounding counties and cities, retrieving traffic checkpoint surveillance footage from 8 PM on August 15th to 3 AM on August 16th. A total of 12 suspicious vehicles were identified—5 black motorcycles and 7 black agricultural tricycles. The team contacted the owners one by one to verify their identities. Eight of these vehicles were ruled out due to "alibi" and "inconsistent routes." Three vehicles belonged to owners from out of town, and local police confirmed they were all out of town on the evening of the 15th. Only one black agricultural tricycle remained; the owner's information was unknown, and the surveillance footage only captured the rear of the vehicle, making it impossible to confirm its complete features.

“There’s a white scratch on the back of this vehicle, which looks a bit like the tricycle we investigated before, but we’re not sure,” Xiao Zhang pointed to the surveillance screenshot. “Moreover, it left the county checkpoint near the grassland around 11 p.m. on the 15th, heading towards the mountains, and then disappeared without a trace. Maybe it was taken to destroy the vehicle.”

Wang Shuai immediately dispatched his team to search the mountainous area. Near an abandoned road in the mountains, they found a burning site with a small amount of black metal fragments and remnants of burnt tires on the ground. "We'll take samples back for testing to see if they're the vehicle we're looking for," Wang Shuai said, squatting down beside the burning site and carefully examining the ground. "This place is remote and suitable for destroying vehicles. If we can confirm that the fragments came from a farm tricycle, we might find a breakthrough."

However, the technical test results disappointed everyone—the metal fragments came from an old bicycle, the tire residue did not match the tire material of agricultural tricycles and motorcycles, and the burning marks were formed by burning waste discarded by nearby villagers, which was unrelated to the case.

After a week of continuous investigation, Wang Shuai's team traveled throughout the city and six surrounding counties, checking nearly a hundred suspicious vehicles and interviewing hundreds of villagers and shop owners, but they still couldn't find any crucial clues to identify the suspect. The team members all looked exhausted, and the atmosphere in the meeting room was somewhat heavy.

"Did we miss something?" Xiao Wang sat in his chair, flipping through the thick investigation records. "Could it be that the suspect didn't use his own car, but stole it? Or borrowed it, used it, and then returned it without leaving a trace?"

Wang Shuai nodded: "That's possible. We previously focused on checking vehicles owned by local residents and didn't consider theft or lending of vehicles. Next, we will work with the police station to investigate vehicle theft cases in the city and surrounding areas around August 15th to see if any black motorcycles or farm tricycles were stolen. In addition, we will visit villagers around the grassland to ask if anyone lent their vehicle to strangers around the 15th or saw any suspicious people borrowing their vehicles."

Despite the slim chances, the team members immediately threw themselves into a new investigation. They visited 56 households in three villages surrounding the grassland, and only one household reported that a bicycle had been stolen on August 14, which was unrelated to the case; the police station's vehicle theft records also showed that there were no reports of black motorcycles or farm tricycles being stolen around August 15.

“That’s strange. The suspect couldn’t just appear out of thin air in the meadow and then disappear into thin air, could he?” Xiao Li scratched his head, looking puzzled. “Could he really have gone there on foot? But the deceased was 178cm tall and weighed 70kg. It would be too much trouble to carry him there on foot. Besides, there were vehicle tracks at the scene. It’s impossible that there was no means of transportation.”

Looking at the photos of the grassland scene, Wang Shuai had some doubts: "Could the motorcycle tire tracks and tricycle tire tracks at the scene not belong to the suspect? For example, could they have been left by other herders, and it was just a coincidence of timing? But Zhang Kai's autopsy report said that the time of death was between 10 pm and 11 pm on the 15th, and the freshness of the tire tracks also occurred during that time period, so it is unlikely to be a coincidence."

Just as everyone was at a stalemate, the technical department sent a message: "The male fingerprints extracted from the mineral water bottle earlier matched a similar record in the database—Zhang Qiang, a released convict in the city with prior convictions for theft and intentional injury, who is 182cm tall, matching the suspect's height characteristics. However, Zhang Qiang was detained by the police station on the evening of the 15th due to intoxication and has an alibi. The fingerprint matching rate is also less than 99.99%, so the connection cannot be confirmed."

“Another invalid lead,” Xiao Zhang sighed. “Why is this case so difficult? There are so many clues, but we can never find the key breakthrough.”

Wang Shuai patted Xiao Zhang on the shoulder and said firmly, "Don't be discouraged. We've already ruled out so many possibilities, and we're one step closer to the truth. Next, we'll change our focus and stop just looking at the complete vehicle. Instead, we'll check the vehicle parts—the suspect might dismantle the vehicle and sell the parts. Let's go to the scrap yards and auto parts markets in the city. Maybe we can find tires or car body fragments that match the description."

As the sun set, Wang Shuai and his team set off again, their police car driving along the road to the city's scrap metal recycling station. Although their efforts to locate the suspect through his vehicle hadn't yet yielded a major breakthrough, they hadn't given up—every investigation, every elimination, was paving the way for the final truth. Looking at the darkening sky outside the window, Wang Shuai knew that if they persisted, they would eventually find the vehicle hidden in the fog, uncover the suspect's true identity, and give Zhang Tao's family closure. (End of Chapter)