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

Yang Lin and Yang Sen, carrying their exploration bags and wearing waterproof boots, carefully approached the canal. The water was murky, covered with dark green foam. The dark cloth bag containing the corpse was half submerged in the water and half draped over the weeds on the bank. The stench of decay carried by the wind forced the two men to put on gas masks. Yang Lin turned on his powerful exploration light, focusing the beam on the bag, while Yang Sen took out a long probe and gently parted the algae and debris on the bag's surface to carefully examine its details.

"The bag is made of dark canvas with obvious signs of wear and tear, and there are patches along the edges, indicating that it has been used for a long time," Yang Lin said while taking notes and picking up a fiber from the edge of the bag with tweezers. "The bag is tied with nylon rope in a slip knot, and there are obvious signs of pulling at the end of the rope, indicating that the suspect tied it hastily or with little strength. In addition, the surface of the bag is covered with a lot of algae and silt, and the silt contains a small amount of red brick fragments, which may have come from a demolition site upstream of the drainage ditch."

Yang Sen then found a set of faint footprints in the mud by the ditch to the west of the bag. "They are men's athletic shoe prints, about size 43," he measured with a ruler close to the ground. "The edges of the prints were covered in damp mud, the stride length was about 80 centimeters, the stride width was 18 centimeters, and the stride angle was 3 degrees outward. I estimate the height to be 175-180 centimeters and the weight to be 70-75 kilograms. The weeds next to the prints showed signs of being crushed, and the broken stems were still oozing sap, indicating that the prints were left relatively recently, probably within 24-48 hours, which is consistent with the extent to which the bag was soaked in the ditch water."

Following the direction of the footprints, the two tracked them upstream for about 20 meters, where the footprints disappeared at a garbage dump. "This place is full of household garbage, and the footprints were covered up, so we couldn't continue tracking," Yang Sen straightened up with some regret. "However, judging from the direction of the footprints, the suspect probably came from upstream along the path beside the canal, dumped the body, and then left along the same route without entering the surrounding residential area. He has a strong sense of counter-surveillance."

Yang Lin then used a net to retrieve a piece of black plastic from the ditch east of the bag. "The fragment has cut marks on the edges, and the material looks like a part of some kind of plastic bag," he said, placing the fragment into an evidence bag. "The silt on the fragment is consistent with the silt on the surface of the bag, which may have been used by the suspect to wrap the body in an extra plastic bag, which then broke and fell off. In addition, there are several brown fibers floating in the ditch, with a different texture than the canvas bag, which look like they came off the deceased's clothing; these have already been collected."

On the other side, Wang Shuai led Zhang Bin to a temporary rest area outside the cordon and handed him a glass of warm water. Zhang Bin took the glass, his hands still trembling slightly, his face pale: "Officer, I really didn't expect to encounter something like this. My legs are still weak."

"Don't be nervous, tell me slowly. How did you find this bag? Was anyone else around when you found it?" Wang Shuai took out his notebook, pen hovering over the paper, his eyes focused on Zhang Bin.

Zhang Bin took a sip of warm water, calmed himself down, and said, "I come to this ditch to clean every morning around 5 a.m., and today was no exception. When I got here, I was using a net to scoop up trash when I bumped into something heavy. At first, I thought it was an old sofa, but when I got closer, I realized it was a cloth bag. I could smell the odor, and it scared me half to death."

"When you found the bag, where was it in the ditch? Was it moved by the current? Or did you see anything unusual, like a cigarette butt, a bottle, or someone loitering nearby?" Wang Shuai pressed, afraid of missing any crucial details.

"It's in the middle of the canal, slightly to the west, half in the water and half on the bank. It seems to be stuck by something and hasn't moved much," Zhang Bin tried to recall, his brows furrowed. "Something special... I don't think I saw anything special, just a lot of garbage. As for people, when I came here, besides me, the only other people along the canal were those at the demolition site upstream. There was a guy in a blue jacket loitering around, but he was too far away to see his face clearly. I thought he was just collecting recyclables and didn't pay any attention. Now that I think about it, could it be related to this?"

"Could you describe what the person in the blue coat looks like? For example, their height, build, or any distinctive features?" Wang Shuai asked quickly, his pen scribbling rapidly on the paper.

Zhang Bin shook his head and said with some regret, "It was too far away. I could only see a rough outline. He seemed to be about 1.7 meters tall, neither fat nor thin, and he seemed to be carrying a black bag. I couldn't see anything else. I was too scared to look closely at the time. By the time I called the police and looked again, the person was gone."

"When you clean this drainage ditch, have you noticed anything unusual? For example, has anyone been out and about by the ditch late at night recently, or have you seen anyone throwing things into it?" Wang Shuai continued to press, trying to uncover more clues.

Zhang Bin thought for a moment and said, "For the past two weeks, I've seen people loitering by the canal at night. They're all wearing dark clothes, so I can't see their faces. At first, I thought they were thieves, and I even reminded the residents around the area to lock their doors. The night before last, I came to take out the trash around 1 a.m. and saw a black van parked upstream with its lights off. It drove away a few minutes later. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that I think about it, it might be related to this body."

Just then, Yang Lin's voice came from the canal: "Team Leader Wang, come here for a second, we've made a new discovery!" Wang Shuai settled Zhang Bin down and quickly walked to the canal. Yang Lin pointed to the rope binding the bag: "We carefully examined the material of the rope; it's nylon safety rope commonly used on construction sites. This type of rope has strong load-bearing capacity and is readily available at demolition sites and building material markets. In addition, there's a hole at the bottom of the bag. We used a net to retrieve a metal button from the canal water below the hole. It's about 2 centimeters in diameter and has wear marks on the surface, as if it came off clothing. It might be a button from the deceased's clothing."

Yang Sen added, "We also found half a cigarette butt in the weeds along the ditch. It was a 'Liqun' brand cigarette, with obvious teeth marks on the filter. The silt on its surface matched the composition of the soil along the ditch, so it was probably left by the suspect when he disposed of the body. It has already been put into an evidence bag. In addition, we also checked the surveillance footage of the drainage ditch. The surveillance cameras in this section broke down last month due to a line fault, so they didn't capture the suspect disposing of the body. We can only check the surveillance footage from the upstream demolition site and the downstream intersection to see if we can find any clues."

Lu Chuan walked to the investigation site and looked at the preliminary investigation results: "The preliminary assessment is that the drainage ditch was not the primary crime scene. The body was transported here by a vehicle and dumped there, then washed ashore by the current and became stuck." (End of Chapter)