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

On the other side, Wang Shuai led Li Baoku to a temporary rest area outside the cordon and handed him a cup of warm water: "Grandpa, don't be nervous, tell me slowly, and describe in detail how you found the body." Li Baoku held the cup of water in both hands, his fingertips still covered in dust from the garbage dump, his voice filled with lingering fear: "I came to work at 6 a.m. I was shoveling household garbage on the east side, but then the team leader told me to go to the west side to clear industrial waste. I had only shoveled a few times when I smelled a strange odor. I followed the smell and, after clearing away the garbage, I saw that black plastic bag with a person wrapped inside... I was so scared that I ran out and called the police. I even left the rake there."

"When you saw the body, did you notice any unusual details? For example, were there any markings on the plastic bag, or were there any suspicious people or vehicles around?" Wang Shuai took out his notebook, his pen moving quickly across the paper. Li Baoku frowned as he recalled, "The plastic bag was just a regular big black bag, I didn't see any markings, just a few holes, and the exposed parts looked rather frightening. As for suspicious people, yesterday afternoon when I got off work, I saw a white van parked at the entrance of the garbage dump. The driver was wearing a hat and a mask and didn't get out of the car. I thought it was strange at the time, because people usually don't drive vans to the garbage dump. When I came this morning, the van was gone."

"Was there anything unusual about that white van? Like stickers, license plate, or obvious scratches?" Wang Shuai pressed. Li Baoku scratched his head: "The van was quite old. There seemed to be a yellow patch on the side. I couldn't make out the license plate. It was getting dark, and the driver had the windows tightly closed. Oh, and there seemed to be something piled up in the back seat, covered with a tarpaulin. It looked bulging, but I don't know what it was."

At that moment, Yang Lin's voice came from the scene: "Captain Wang, come here for a second, we've made a new discovery!" After settling Li Baoku in, Wang Shuai quickly walked into the cordoned-off area. Yang Lin pointed to the trash beneath the body: "At the bottom of a black plastic bag, we found a crushed bus ticket. It's a short-distance bus ticket from the day before yesterday, with the destination being the suburbs of our city and the departure time being 2 PM. Although the ticket information is a bit blurry, we can still make out some passenger information, which might provide clues to confirm the deceased's identity."

Yang Sen added, "In addition, we found a blurry fingerprint on the cement bag at the end of the drag marks. The fingerprint was stained with oil, so it should have been left by the suspect. We have extracted it with powder and are waiting for further comparison. We also checked the surveillance footage of the landfill. The surveillance cameras in the western area broke down last month and did not capture the suspect dumping the body. We can only check the surveillance footage at the entrance of the landfill and the surrounding roads to look for the white van that Li Baoku mentioned."

Lu Chuan walked to the investigation site and looked at the preliminary investigation results: "Based on the initial assessment, the garbage dump is not the primary crime scene. The body was transported here by a vehicle and dumped. Judging from the traces at the scene, the suspect is 175-180 cm tall, wearing size 43 sneakers, and may have driven a white van. There were items covered with tarpaulins in the back seat, and the suspect was familiar with the garbage dump environment and knew that the surveillance camera on the west side was broken. The identity of the deceased cannot be confirmed at the moment. The body was wrapped in a black plastic bag, and no identification documents were found, which may have been deliberately disposed of by the suspect."

He turned to Wang Shuai: "Confirm with Li Baoku again whether the white van he saw yesterday afternoon had any other characteristics. For example, whether there were any collision marks on the front of the van, or any unusual sounds. Also, contact the transportation department and retrieve the surveillance footage from the afternoon before yesterday to early this morning around the landfill, focusing on finding traces of the white van."

Wang Shuai returned to Li Baoku's side and continued to ask, "Grandpa, think about it carefully again. Did you see any signs of a collision on the front of the white van you saw yesterday afternoon? Or did you hear any strange noises while it was driving?" Li Baoku thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "It seems so! The left headlight of that car seemed to be broken, and it was taped up. Also, I heard a strange engine sound, like it was weak and was driving very slowly."

This information shocked Wang Shuai. He immediately instructed his team to record the characteristics of the white van: it was an old vehicle, had yellow patches on the body, a damaged left headlight, and unusual engine noises. He then sent these notes to the surrounding police stations to assist in the investigation. At the same time, he contacted the garbage disposal plant to retrieve recent records of vehicles transporting garbage to check if any unusual vehicles had mixed the body into the garbage.

As the sun rose higher, the wind at the landfill remained biting. Several workers who had rushed over upon hearing the news gathered outside the cordon, discussing the situation from a distance. Li Baoku stood in the rest area, watching the officers' busy figures, still feeling lingering fear: "How could a perfectly good landfill become a hiding place for a corpse... I hope you find the murderer soon so the deceased can rest in peace."

Wang Shuai patted him on the shoulder: "Thank you for the clues. They are very helpful to us. We may need your cooperation to verify some details later." After saying that, he turned and walked towards the scene of the investigation to meet up with Yang Lin and Yang Sen. Although the identity of the deceased is still unknown, the clues of the white van, sneaker prints, and metal chain have provided a preliminary direction for solving the case.

Standing beside the cordon, Lu Chuan looked at the chaotic garbage dump before him, knowing that the investigation into this case of a decomposing corpse in a garbage dump had only just begun. Who was the deceased? Why was the body dumped in the garbage dump? Who owned the white van? These questions needed to be answered by examining the traces at the scene and conducting further investigations. But he firmly believed that with meticulous examination and patient investigation, the truth of the case would eventually be revealed, and justice would not be denied.

After assigning follow-up investigation tasks at the scene, Lu Chuan specifically walked over to Yang Lin and Yang Sen, pointing to the waste area extending west of the landfill and the abandoned sorting area to the north. "These two areas haven't been thoroughly investigated yet. Expand the search area further, especially around the waste compression station and along the base of the wall. The suspect will most likely have used these concealed routes to escape after dumping the body; you might find more traces there. Remember, the landfill environment is unique; anything, no matter how small, could be crucial. Don't overlook even a single fragment."

Yang Lin and Yang Sen nodded, slung their survey bags back on their shoulders, and headed towards the western waste area. It was nearly noon, and sunlight streamed through the hazy sky onto the landfill. The acrid smell mixed with the dusty odor grew stronger, forcing the two to tighten the straps of their gas masks to prevent the pungent smell from entering their nostrils.

"Let's start near the compression station. Garbage trucks come and go here every day. If the suspect mixed in with the garbage trucks and dumped the body, he might have left tire tracks or footprints." Yang Lin said, turning on the footprint light, the beam sweeping across the ground around the compression station. (End of Chapter)