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

Lu Chuan continued: "Judging from the traces at the scene, the suspect is 175-180 cm tall, wearing size 43 sneakers, and may have driven a black van. He was familiar with the drainage ditch environment and knew that the surveillance camera was damaged. The deceased was wrapped in a canvas bag, and no identification documents were found, which may have been deliberately cleaned by the suspect. The brick fragments and nylon rope on the bag point to the suspect's possible connection to the construction and demolition industry."

He turned to Wang Shuai: "Confirm with Zhang Bin again, did the black van you saw the night before last have any special features? For example, the license plate number, whether there are any scratches or stickers on the body. Also, contact the traffic department and retrieve the surveillance footage from the demolition site upstream of the drainage ditch and the intersection downstream for the past three days, focusing on finding the person wearing the blue jacket and the black van."

Wang Shuai returned to Zhang Bin's side and continued to ask, "Master Zhang, was there anything special about the black van you saw the night before last? For example, the last few digits of the license plate, or any scratches or stickers on the body?"

Zhang Bin frowned and thought for a long time, then his eyes suddenly lit up: "I think so! The rear bumper of that car is a bit crooked, as if it has been hit, and there seems to be a red sticker on the car body, but I couldn't see the specific pattern because it was too far away."

This information startled Wang Shuai. He immediately instructed his team to record the characteristics of the black van, such as its crooked rear bumper and red stickers on the body, and send the information to the nearby police stations to assist in the investigation. At the same time, he contacted the person in charge of the demolition site to inquire whether any workers had gone missing recently or whether any unusual people had entered or left the site.

As the sun rose higher, dispelling the morning mist, the stench from the drainage ditch seemed to intensify. A few residents, alerted by the commotion, gathered outside the cordon, discussing the situation from a distance. Zhang Bin stood in the rest area, watching the officers bustling about, still shaken: "How could a perfectly good drainage ditch become a hiding place for a body… 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 information later." After saying that, he turned and walked towards the investigation site to meet up with Yang Lin and Yang Sen. Although the identity of the deceased is still unknown, the clues of the black van, the blue jacket, and the construction industry have provided an initial direction for solving the case.

Standing beside the police cordon, Lu Chuan looked at the murky drainage ditch before him. He knew that the investigation into this case of a decomposing corpse in the drainage ditch had only just begun. Who was the deceased? Why was the body dumped in the ditch? Who owned the black van? And who was the person in the blue jacket? 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 would eventually be revealed, and justice would prevail.

After leaving the drainage ditch site, Wang Shuai and two team members immediately launched a follow-up investigation. As per Lu Chuan's plan, their core tasks were twofold: first, to visit residents, businesses, and demolition sites around the drainage ditch to find possible witnesses or clues related to the case; and second, to retrieve surveillance footage from the upstream demolition site, downstream intersection, and surrounding roads to track the suspicious person in the blue jacket and the black van.

At 1 p.m., Wang Shuai and his group first arrived at the old town residential area on the west side of the drainage ditch. Most of the houses here were old, the alleys narrow, and the residents were mostly elderly people and renters. They knocked on doors one by one, patiently asking if anyone had seen anything unusual in the past three days. Grandpa Wang, who lived in the first row along the ditch, shook his head and said, “I’m old and go to bed early, so I didn’t hear anything. But this ditch usually smells quite bad, so few people go near it at night; only the scrap collectors occasionally come to check.”

Tenant Ms. Li recalled, "The night before last, around 11 p.m., I heard the sound of a car starting outside. It seemed to be parked on the path by the canal, but it only lasted for a few minutes. I thought it was just a passing car and didn't pay attention. As for the person in the blue coat, I don't remember them. I haven't seen them much before." After visiting more than ten households, the information obtained was mostly vague. Either they didn't notice, or they only heard sporadic sounds and had no substantial clues.

Afterwards, Wang Shuai arrived at the demolition site upstream of the drainage ditch. The site gate was tightly closed, and in the security room at the entrance, security guard Lao Zhang was dozing off. Upon hearing Wang Shuai's purpose, Lao Zhang immediately perked up: "Officer, you're here to investigate the drainage ditch incident, right? These past two days, there's been a lot of talk at the construction site that a dead body was found in the ditch, and it's scared us so much that we don't dare to go out at night."

"Have any workers gone missing at your construction site recently? Or have any strangers come and go?" Wang Shuai asked. Old Zhang thought for a moment: "No one has gone missing, but in the past two weeks, some strangers have indeed been loitering around the construction site, saying they want to find some scrap steel to sell for money, but we've chased them away. As for the black van, all the vehicles on the construction site are engineering vehicles, I've never seen a black van, and the construction site gate is locked tightly at night, so outsiders can't get in."

Wang Shuai asked Lao Zhang to lead the way, and they walked around the construction site. Construction waste was everywhere, with red brick fragments scattered all over the ground, matching the composition of the brick fragments in the cloth bags. "Where do these brick fragments usually go?" Wang Shuai asked, pointing to the bricks on the ground. Lao Zhang replied, "They're usually loaded into trucks and transported to the suburban landfill, but sometimes workers secretly take some home or dump them on the paths along the ditch."

In the construction site's materials warehouse, Wang Shuai found nylon safety ropes identical to those used to tie up the bags. The warehouse manager explained, "These kinds of ropes are commonly used on construction sites to tie up steel bars and cement bags. Many workers have them, and it's normal for a few to go missing. We can't be sure who took them."

After his initial inquiries yielded no results, Wang Shuai immediately went to the local police station to retrieve surveillance footage from the area around the drainage ditch. Police officers checked the system but found that most of the cameras were either malfunctioning or had poor angles, failing to cover key areas. "The camera at the upstream demolition site entrance was damaged by the typhoon last month and hasn't been repaired yet; the camera at the downstream intersection only captures half of the road surface, not the path beside the ditch; and most of the cameras in the surrounding residential areas are privately installed, with limited angles, only capturing their own doorsteps," the officer said helplessly.

After finally finding a private surveillance camera that covered the path along the canal, they discovered that its storage capacity was limited, only retaining footage from the most recent 24 hours; the recording from the night before last had already been overwritten. "Is there any possibility of recovery?" Wang Shuai asked. The police officer shook his head: "Private surveillance cameras usually use a cyclical overwrite system; once deleted, it's irretrievable unless you have specialized recovery equipment, and even then, the success rate is low." (End of Chapter)