Restarting life by going to the countryside to support medical work

Chapter 610 Command
"Director Li, what are your instructions?"

After everyone else had left the meeting room, Deputy Director Wang quickly walked to Li Yancheng's side and stood there, asking softly.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was clearly audible in the quiet conference room.

Even so, Li Yancheng seemed not to have heard anything, and just sat there steadily, carefully looking at the crime scene photos in his hand.

The leader's reaction made Deputy Director Wang of Yangchao District Branch feel increasingly uneasy. He knew very well that the leader was expressing dissatisfaction with his work. He wanted to explain, but after moving his mouth, he didn't know what to say or where to begin. In the end, he could only close his mouth again in dejection and stand there obediently like a primary school student being called to the teacher's office as punishment.

It's unclear how much time passed, but just as Deputy Director Wang was starting to feel his legs go numb, Li Yancheng finally put down the photos he was holding.

Seeing this, Deputy Director Wang immediately perked up.

Here, Li Yancheng put down the photo in his hand, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and then turned to look at the deputy director of the Yangchao District Branch who was standing not far from him.

"If you really can't handle being the deputy director, you can resign and become a regular police officer on the front line. You don't need to worry about so much. Don't just occupy a position without doing anything."

The leader's words made Deputy Director Wang's face turn deathly pale in an instant, and he swayed a few times as he stood there.

Just as he was about to say something, Li Yancheng's men made their next move.

He reached for a piece of paper that he had been keeping nearby and threw it directly at Deputy Director Wang.

A thin piece of paper can't be thrown very far, of course. Deputy Director Wang hurriedly stepped forward and caught the paper floating in mid-air.

After catching it, he looked down at the letter, and after only glancing at its contents, his face turned even paler than before.

The letter listed six criminal cases that had occurred in the Yangchao District since he took office as deputy director of the Yangchao branch at the end of August, but it did not include the one that had just happened.

The six cases consisted of three fights, one of which resulted in one death, and two of which resulted in multiple injuries.

Of these three cases, only the one that resulted in one death has been solved. However, although it has been solved, not all the people involved in the fight have been arrested, meaning that not all the accomplices have been apprehended. Therefore, it cannot be transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution and cannot be considered closed.

In the other two cases that resulted in multiple injuries, the injured were completely uncooperative, determined to resolve the matter themselves after recovering. As a result of their lack of cooperation, the Yangchao Branch Criminal Investigation Team seemed to be at a loss. It's unclear whether they actually investigated the cases or not; in any case, the cases remained unresolved.

Of the remaining three cases, two were thefts. Because the value of the stolen goods exceeded 500 yuan, they were no longer considered public security cases and were transferred to the criminal investigation team by the police station. However, more than a month has passed, and there has been no progress in either of the theft cases.

The last case was rather bizarre, yes, bizarre.

A police station under the jurisdiction of Yangchao District Branch arrested an armed robber. No, that's not right. It was the public who brought an armed robber to the police station.

When the local police station saw that the guy had seriously injured someone, they reported it to the branch bureau, and the criminal investigation team took over the case.

When he arrived at the criminal investigation team for the first interrogation, the experienced pre-trial investigator immediately realized that this guy was not being honest and deduced that this was definitely not the first time he had done this, so he immediately intensified the interrogation.

They actually uncovered some things during the interrogation. This kid had indeed done this before; he had done it twice before.

He failed to rob any money the first time, but he never expected to run into someone even poorer than him.

Later, the criminal investigation team went to verify the information and found the person who had been robbed. The situation was similar to what the murderer had said. Since nothing was taken from him, the person did not think of calling the police.

The second time was the strange one. According to the guy who was arrested, he robbed a woman who was walking alone after her night shift. The woman was not afraid of the dagger he pulled out. Instead, she fought back desperately and shouted for help.

Fearing that his cries for help would attract nearby residents, the man stabbed the woman several times with a knife, then took the money from her body and ran away while she was unable to resist.

He hadn't run far when he felt a sense of fear, not of the robbery itself, but of the woman dying.

Although he didn't know much about the law, he knew that killing someone and injuring someone were two completely different concepts.

After some hesitation, he turned back to the place where he had just robbed the woman, wanting to see if she was still alive. If she was, he would try to get her to the hospital; if she was dead... well, that would be troublesome.

To his astonishment, when he returned to the spot, there was nothing on the ground except a pool of blood, and the surroundings were completely silent. If it weren't for the pool of blood, he would have wondered if he had gone to the wrong place.

The woman's disappearance put his mind at ease. If he could walk on his own, there must be no major problems. He left with peace of mind, taking out the money he had just stolen from his pocket as he walked.

He had rushed off in a hurry and only touched a thick wad of cash, not knowing exactly how much it was. Now that he had taken it out, he could see clearly that it was a whole wad of ten-yuan notes. He crouched down by the roadside and counted it three times under the streetlight before he could count it all. It was a thousand yuan! He was so happy that his eyebrows almost flew off.

A thousand yuan, that's enough for him to play cards for a while.

When the officers from the Criminal Investigation Team of Yangchao District Branch saw that he had confessed to this, they immediately began searching within their jurisdiction, going through all the registers, but they could not find any record of this report.

This is really strange. He was stabbed several times and robbed of a thousand yuan, but he didn't report it to the police. What kind of nonsense is this?

Regardless, the victim had to be found first. So, they searched all the hospitals, big and small, in the area to see if there was a woman in her thirties who had been stabbed and treated on the night of the incident.

still none!

They searched all the hospitals in the area but couldn't find any similar victims. Fearing that the perpetrator might have misremembered the time, they even extended the timeframe to a week before and after, but still couldn't find anyone. There were no female victims, not even any male victims.

The officers of the Yangchao Branch Criminal Investigation Team split into two groups: one group went to hospitals in the surrounding districts and counties to investigate, while the other group began to visit surrounding units and residential areas, with the crime scene as the center.

As a result, neither team won anything.

This left everyone in the criminal investigation team somewhat dumbfounded.

The murderer has been caught and confessed, but the victim cannot be found. This is... truly baffling.

Looking at the six cases listed on the letter in chronological order, Deputy Director Wang, pale-faced, opened his mouth as if to say something, but didn't know what to say.

The fact is, their Yangchao branch criminal investigation team was indeed incompetent, failing to solve several cases.

Faced with this fact, anything said is futile. What can be said? That the current criminal investigation team captain doesn't listen to his orders and only investigates cases according to his own ideas, which is why things have come to this?

If you dare to say that, your boss will only say you're incompetent, and won't even consider whether you have any hidden difficulties.

Like I said before, if you can't do it, then step down. There are plenty of people who want to do it. If you can't even solve this little problem, are you just a mascot?

Li Yancheng glanced at Deputy Director Wang, who stood there silently with his head down, reached for a cigarette on the table, lit one for himself, and said calmly after exhaling the smoke from his mouth.

"What? You're reluctant to resign from your position as deputy director?"

“I’m not reluctant to part with it.” Deputy Director Wang raised his head abruptly.

“Director Li, I know what to do. I’m making a pledge to you. Today is the 27th. I guarantee that all these cases will be closed before the Spring Festival next year. If I fail to complete the task by then, I will resign from my position as deputy director without you having to say anything.”

The Spring Festival in 1981 was on February 5th, which means that this Deputy Director Wang set himself a deadline to solve the case, with less than forty days left.

Li Yancheng neither praised nor criticized the pledge he had made, but instead pointed to the chair next to him, indicating that he should sit down.

"Come, sit down and tell me your thoughts on these cases."

The first five of the six cases were not particularly difficult; they were just broad-based investigations that took time. Since there was clearly not enough time, they had to work overtime, and the frontline officers of the criminal investigation team had to work around the clock.

That depends on whether Deputy Director Wang can effectively command the situation.

Logically speaking, he was the head of the Criminal Investigation Department before, so there shouldn't be any problem in him commanding the criminal police team that was reorganized from the Criminal Investigation Department.

But that's exactly where the problem lies. After Captain Duan took office as the head of the criminal investigation team, he transferred several people from the public security team and then transferred people from the criminal investigation team out.

Even the former deputy head of the criminal investigation department, whom Deputy Director Wang had favored to take over as captain, was transferred to the police station as its head.

As a result of Captain Duan's actions, the entire criminal investigation team had changed drastically in just a few months, and Deputy Director Wang was no longer able to intervene.

He has now made such a pledge, which means he has completely staked his future.

Of course, there's no other way but to gamble. Li Yancheng's tolerance level is basically limited to before the Spring Festival. If there's no change before the Spring Festival, he will definitely send this Deputy Director Wang to guard the reservoir.

"I won't go into the earlier cases, but I'll mainly talk about the last armed robbery case."

"Director Li..." After sitting down, Deputy Director Wang of the Yangchao Branch Bureau sorted out his thoughts and then spoke.

"The victim was stabbed several times and robbed of a thousand yuan, but she never reported the crime. I suspect the reason is that the thousand yuan was obtained illegally, and she was afraid to report it."

She worried that even if she reported the case, she might not be able to get her money back, and she herself might have to bear even greater responsibility.

That's the only possibility I can think of right now: being robbed but not reporting it is truly baffling. I can't think of any other reason besides that.

"Could the murderer be lying?" Li Yancheng asked.

“He shouldn’t be lying about this.” Deputy Director Wang shook his head: “After he confessed, we interviewed several people who played cards with him. According to them, this guy was indeed quite rich during that period. He could lose tens of yuan in a game of cards without even blinking an eye.”

Those people said they had never seen him so generous before. Knowing he had made a fortune, they had tried to subtly inquire about it, but the guy just chuckled and said nothing else.

We then calculated the amounts of money he lost and won in each card game based on the figures provided by those individuals. From the time he robbed that woman until he committed the crime again, the amount of money he lost was approximately one thousand yuan.

Therefore, it can be basically ruled out that he lied about this matter.

“You misunderstood me.” After Deputy Director Wang finished speaking, Li Yancheng waved his hand and said, “When I said the murderer lied, I didn’t mean he lied about the case, but that he lied about the details of the crime.”

For example, he confessed that he stabbed the woman three times, and only after she collapsed did he take money from her pocket and then make his escape.

He said that after running several hundred meters, he was worried that the woman had died, which would aggravate his guilt, so he returned to the crime scene a second time. However, he did not see the woman when he returned; he only saw a pool of blood on the ground.

But if he returned to the scene a second time, he would not see the pool of blood, but the woman would be dead. Fearing that his murder would be exposed, he hid the woman's body.

"The body hasn't been discovered yet, so how can you find the victim?"

“I’ve considered what you’re saying, but if that’s the case, why haven’t her family reported her missing for so long? Even if she doesn’t have family, she should have friends, a workplace, and neighbors.”

"What if the victim isn't from your Yangchao District? Did you contact other districts? Another point worth noting is that the victim's physical characteristics were provided by the murderer. What if what he provided was fake?"
He said he robbed a woman, around thirty years old. What if all of this is false information? Can you find anything based on the false information he provided?

"To be honest with you, Director Li, I have considered all of these things. For the past month, we have been interrogating that guy continuously. Judging from what he has confessed, it doesn't seem like a fabricated story."

I personally investigated all the missing persons in the city, regardless of age or gender, and they could basically all be ruled out as potential victims.

Go investigate in person?

Upon hearing this, Li Yancheng raised an eyebrow.

He knew about the predicament that Deputy Director Wang was facing, but he didn't expect it to be this difficult.

In this situation, it can be said that he has completely lost control of the criminal investigation team.

After thinking for a moment, Li Yancheng said, "How about this, now that the General Team has taken over the investigation of the theft of the Finance Office's salary funds, you can ask General Manager Jin to provide you with the necessary assistance."

Furthermore, as the deputy director in charge of criminal investigation, if you can't even command the criminal police team, then you should indeed consider resigning from this position.

(End of this chapter)