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

Their only hope lay in the traffic monitoring at the downstream intersection. Wang Shuai and his team stared at the screen, reviewing frame by frame the footage from the past three days. From 6 a.m. to midnight, a steady stream of vehicles passed by, including more than ten black vans. However, none of them matched Zhang Bin's description; either their rear bumpers were intact, or they lacked the red sticker. There were a few pedestrians wearing blue jackets, but they either didn't fit the description or were simply passing by without stopping at the canal, thus ruling them out as suspects.

"Checking these surveillance cameras is really frustrating. The key ones are all broken, and the good ones don't capture anything useful." Team member Xiao Li rubbed his sore eyes, his voice full of disappointment. Wang Shuai also frowned, feeling anxious: "Check carefully again, see if anything has been missed, especially the time period from 11 pm to 1 am the night before last, maybe there are clues."

The two watched it again but still found nothing unusual. By this time, it was already dark, and the lights in the monitoring room were particularly glaring. Wang Shuai turned off the monitor and rubbed his temples: "Let's go back first. Tomorrow we'll expand the scope and retrieve surveillance footage from more distant sections. At the same time, we'll continue to visit the surrounding scrap metal recycling stations to see if anyone has seen the person in the blue jacket or the black van."

Back at the Criminal Investigation Detachment, Wang Shuai reported the investigation results to Lu Chuan: "After visiting the surrounding residents and the demolition site, no witnesses were found. We only confirmed that the brick fragments at the construction site matched those on the cloth bag, and the nylon safety rope was also commonly seen at the construction site. As for the surveillance cameras, most of them were faulty or had poor angles. The traffic surveillance cameras at the downstream intersection did not find a black van or a person wearing a blue jacket that matched the characteristics. The identity of the deceased is still uncertain."

After listening, Lu Chuan remained silent for a moment: "It seems the suspect has a strong sense of counter-surveillance, specifically choosing a blind spot in the surveillance to dump the body. However, it's not without results; at least we've confirmed that the suspect may be connected to the demolition site, or frequently operates in the vicinity of the site. Next, on the one hand, we will continue to expand the scope of surveillance footage retrieval, checking roads within a 3-kilometer radius; on the other hand, we will investigate recent missing persons, especially those related to the construction and demolition industries, combining the metal buttons and brown fibers on the bag to see if there are any matching clues."

Wang Shuai nodded, knowing that although the investigation was currently at a standstill, as long as they didn't give up and continued to focus on the details, they would eventually find a breakthrough. He took out his notebook and marked "to be verified" next to keywords such as "black van," "blue coat," and "metal buttons," secretly determined to make new progress tomorrow, identify the deceased as soon as possible, and find a direction for solving the case.

As night deepened, the lights remained on in the Criminal Investigation Division's office. Wang Shuai stared at the crime scene investigation report and surveillance screenshots on his desk, his thoughts churning—who was the suspect? What was the victim's identity? How many untold secrets were hidden in that murky drainage ditch? These questions awaited his and his team's answers, so that justice could be served as soon as possible.

When they received Lu Chuan's order to expand the investigation area, Yang Lin and Yang Sen had just finished organizing the evidence from the initial investigation of the drainage ditch. Carrying investigation bags full of tools, the two returned to the scene and began a thorough search of a 500-meter radius around the bank where the body was found. It was nearly evening; the afterglow of the setting sun cast an eerie golden light on the murky ditch water. The stench, though less intense than in the morning, still lingered, making one involuntarily frown.

"Let's start by searching upstream from where the body was found. We only managed to search 20 meters before the search got blocked by garbage. This time, if we're more careful, we might find more traces." Yang Lin turned on the high-intensity search light, the beam piercing through the darkening sky and landing on the muddy soil along the canal. Yang Sen, holding a probe, carefully parted the overgrown weeds, taking each step with extreme caution, afraid of destroying any possible clues.

After walking about 30 meters, Yang Sen's probe suddenly hit a hard object. He crouched down and gently cleared away the soil and weeds with tweezers, revealing a metal piece. "What's this?" he asked, handing the metal piece to Yang Lin. "It looks like a fragment of some kind of tool; it's rusty and has some brownish stuff on it."

Yang Lin examined the metal fragment carefully under the light: "It looks like a wrench fragment. It's made of iron, and the brown marks on it might be oil stains. Look, the edges of the fragment are obviously worn, so it must have been used for quite a few years." He put the metal fragment into an evidence bag. "Keep it for now. When we get back, we'll test the composition of the oil stains to see if it matches the machine oil commonly used on construction sites. If it does, it might be related to the suspect's profession."

Continuing upwards, the soil along the canal became increasingly soft. Yang Lin suddenly stopped, the beam of his searchlight focusing on a depression in the ground: "There are footprints here!" Yang Sen immediately moved closer, took out a ruler, and measured the footprints against the ground: "They're men's sneaker prints, size 43, the same as the prints found to the west of the body!" He carefully examined the pattern of the prints: "A grid pattern, with a few red brick fragments embedded in the lines, consistent with the composition of the fragments on the bag. They must have been left by the same person."

“The stride length is 81 centimeters, the stride width is 18 centimeters, and the stride angle is 3 degrees outward,” Yang Lin added. “This is exactly consistent with the previously calculated height of 175-180 centimeters and weight of 70-75 kilograms. You see, the grass next to the footprints has been trampled, and the broken grass stems are still fresh, which means that the suspect did walk through here, and in a hurry. The footprints are even deeper than before.”

Following the direction of the footprints, the two walked another 20 meters, where the footprints disappeared at an abandoned drain. "The drain was blocked by garbage, so the footprints must have been covered by the garbage," Yang Sen said with some regret. "However, we can confirm that the suspect walked upstream towards where the body was found, dumped the body, and then returned along the same route. The route is very clear."

The two then turned downstream to investigate. After walking only 10 meters, Yang Lin discovered something unusual under a willow tree by the canal. "There are fibers here!" He picked up a few brown fibers with tweezers and examined them against the light. "The texture is rough, unlike the brown fibers we found in the canal water before. This one is coarser, like the fibers from some kind of work jacket."

Yang Sen then joined in for comparison: "They are indeed different. The previous fine fibers were probably from underwear or a thin jacket. This coarse fiber might be from the suspect's clothing catching on a branch." He began a careful search around the willow tree and found two more identical fibers. "It seems the suspect lingered here, perhaps observing whether anyone was around before deciding whether to dispose of the body." (End of Chapter)