Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 404 Helpless
In the past, thefts like these would usually only be solved by time.

Anyway, at the time, there were only about a dozen people in total, including the owner, the salesperson, and the customers. The police station sent people to keep a close watch on all of them, patiently patrolling and questioning them repeatedly to gradually eliminate them, and they were eventually able to catch the suspects when they slipped up.

Although it was hard work for the police, the cases were always solved.

Now that we have Mimi, many things have become much simpler.

It's not that Mimi's sense of smell is significantly better than other police dogs, but rather that her olfactory conversion rate is higher. Police dogs search according to police commands or pre-existing targets, ensuring accuracy, if not efficiency. This cat, however, besides precision and efficiency, also possesses its own judgment and ideas. This is remarkable, reducing many unnecessary steps. It's not that other police dogs lack this ability, but rather that their ideas are difficult to communicate with their handlers—that's the key issue. As for this cat's ability to lead a cat team, that's a separate factor, and its practical application is relatively limited.

Take Ma Dongzhi's case for example. Did the police not find him without the cat-themed police? Not at all! Apart from the fact that his Zhu Jingui ID card might affect the investigation, his other methods were actually within the police's expectations.

Anyway, we've gone off on a tangent. For a moment, Nie Guoqiang was lost in thought when he saw Lin Ge lazily leave Wan Ying's side and jump down to squat down at the counter where the incident had occurred.

How do you find gold?

Lin Ge squinted and looked around, feeling slightly worried.

Gold doesn't have a distinctive smell, and there's little difference between an 80-gram piece and a 1-2-gram piece to a cat's sense of smell. Therefore, even if Boss Gu is convinced the gold bracelet is still hidden somewhere in the shop, Lin Ge won't be able to find it anytime soon. Another problem is that such a heavy and expensive gold bracelet is rarely inquired about, and shop assistants don't touch it often, making it unlikely to leave any personal scent on it.

In other words, whether he looked for gold or the smell of the shop assistants, things had become very complicated for Lingo at this moment.

Because this store focuses on affordability, with gold prices only slightly higher than the US stock market price, it has an unusually large customer flow. There are many people buying or trading in their old gold, and the smells on site are also very mixed, making it difficult to identify the suspect.

"How do we do this?"

Finding nothing unusual on the counter, Lin Ge jumped down amidst the gazes of the crowd.

He then circled around the other three shop assistants and found that two of them were fairly friendly to it, while the third, whether disliking cats or something else, showed considerable disgust. However, none of the three seemed to have any unusual behavior, and their expressions were normal.

In short, Lin Ge still hadn't found anything, and after wandering around Boss Gu's side again, he still got nowhere.

"Could a gold bracelet really just disappear into thin air?"

Lin Ge frowned.

Besides, he, a renowned police cat, can't be brought down by such a trivial case, can he? He's a well-known figure in Zhangzhou City, and even has some reputation in the national police system. It would be ridiculous for him to be stopped by a thief!
"Should we trouble Qian Wei to come over? I always feel that he has some special skills and experience in theft."

Xie Hua moved closer to Nie Guoqiang.

"Holy crap, doesn't that mean I lost to that bastard Qian Wei?"

Lin Ge's ears twitched, and he turned around to glare at Xie Hua. This guy dared to disregard his own police cat's dignity for his wife?
"Wait a little longer. If Mimi really has no other choice, she'll have Qian Wei come and take a look."

Nie Guoqiang spoke calmly, glancing down at Lin Ge.

When Lin Ge saw that this bastard actually dared to compromise, he exploded. Even though he knew the guy was using reverse psychology, Lin Ge was still furious! How could he possibly lose to a mere Qian Wei when it came to solving cases? That Qian Wei was only fit to be Zhao Zhigang's buddy in the hospital!

So Lin Ge didn't waste any more time and began searching the jewelry store aggressively again.

To be honest, the gold shop isn't very big; it's much smaller than brands like Jin Liufu and Chow Tai Fook. In addition to the regular gold jewelry sales area, there are also separate gold processing and gold inspection areas, which is a unique feature of this handcrafted gold shop.

The gold jewelry in this shop is mostly handcrafted by the owner and another craftsman; very few pieces are made from Shuibei.

Many customers choose this shop not only for its affordable prices but also for the freedom to design and customize their gold pieces. This is especially true for the braided gold bead bracelets, where customers can choose the style and string order, and even the individual beads can be different. This freedom and the uniqueness of each bracelet certainly attracts customers, which is why this shop is located next to Jin Liufu. However, this also means that the shop's merchandise is more complex than other gold shops. Countless accessories, various small decorations, and semi-finished products are casually displayed on the processing tables in the processing area. The owner seems completely unconcerned about these small items being stolen?
Upon discovering this, Lin Ge was taken aback.

He glanced back at Xie Hua, only to find Xie Hua gently shaking his head at him. Clearly, before he arrived, Xie Hua had already determined through surveillance footage or some other means that Boss Gu was not a suspect and there was no indication that he had orchestrated the whole thing.

"whispering sound!"

Lin Ge snorted unhappily, wishing he could get this unscrupulous boss arrested.

But if the boss is not a suspect, the employees are not a suspect, and the customers tested negative, then who did this?

Surely the bracelet can't just grow legs and run away by itself, right?
Lin Ge jumped back onto the counter. The counter, which was over a meter high, had no effect on him, but it caused a gasp from the onlookers outside the door.

The presence of these people made Lin Ge even more annoyed. "Damn it, don't cats have any dignity? If you guys watch me fail to solve this case, how am I supposed to live in Zhang City after this?"

To be honest, Lin Ge really had no idea what to do. Cats have a better sense of smell and eyesight than humans, but that's not a magic bullet. When faced with a delicate case like this, where something as seemingly simple as a piano string dancing, most of his methods were useless.

"So the question remains: how exactly did the suspect manage to make a large bracelet disappear without a trace in full view of everyone?"

Lin Ge felt that even if Qian Wei came, it wouldn't make a difference in this case. Perhaps they would have to get some forensic experts from the Municipal Bureau to come and take a look, investigate fingerprints, subtle traces, or even microorganisms, before they could find any clues.

That's right, Lingo is ready to admit defeat.

Besides, he's not some god, nor some monster who solves every case. Isn't it normal to struggle with things beyond his capabilities? Even now, Lin Ge realized, "I'm just a cat, why am I working so hard?" The mall's air conditioning is so warm, it's like electricity is free. As a cat, what he needs to do right now is find a comfortable spot to curl up and steal like a normal animal…

Lin Ge suddenly looked up and stared in astonishment at one of the three customers left behind at the door.

There seems to be something wrong with this person's behavior.

He wasted no more time, jumped off the counter, and followed Huo Guangping's scent. Huo Guangping was still in the monitoring room copying surveillance footage; they should be able to find something there.

"Mimi?"

Seeing Lin Ge turn and run, Nie Guoqiang quickly followed. He turned back and signaled Xie Hua and Feng Yi to keep the scene under control, then hurriedly chased after Lin Ge to the monitoring room.

As soon as they entered, they saw Mimi causing trouble for Huo Guangping. Not only did she stop Huo Guangping's copying process, she even ordered him to show her the surveillance footage. When the playback was too slow, she used her paw to speed it up to thirty times. The figures on the screen moved back and forth as if forming phantoms, making Nie Guoqiang's eyes blurry, but the cat stared unblinkingly at the large nine-grid screen in front of her, seemingly unaffected by the speed.

Huo Guangping stood awkwardly and helplessly to the side. He had known about the cat's status in the police station since he first arrived there, and he dared not complain at all about how the cat was affecting his work.

"Mimi, did you discover something?"

Seeing Lin Ge's tail wagging, Nie Guoqiang knew what was going on.

Without turning his head, Lin Ge simply tapped the screen, his gaze still fixed on it. Soon, three familiar figures flashed past him. Nie Guoqiang was about to signal Huo Guangping to pause when Lin Ge stopped him with a paw, still looking up at the monitor.

But soon, just as the three female customers entered a women's clothing store, Lin Ge slammed his claws on the pause button.

The three women in the picture are frozen in place, as if time has stopped. One of them is holding a wool coat, while another is saying something while still in the act of taking off her coat. The whole scene looks normal.

But in Lin Ge's eyes, this scene was different!

The lining of her half-undone dress clearly revealed a slightly protruding cylindrical shape. Perhaps because the pockets were cramped, a long, thin, pointed orange tail peeked out from the pocket opening.

"Awooo!" Lin Ge jumped onto the monitoring console, pointed at the not-so-obvious tail with his paw, and howled at Nie Guoqiang.

"What is this? The outline of a bracelet?"

Nie Guoqiang was taken aback at first, then reflexively began to wonder how the female customer had managed to steal the bracelet. In the store's video footage, both of her hands were clearly visible on the monitor; surely she couldn't have had a third hand to steal it?
However, Nie Guoqiang soon realized that Lin Ge was not pointing to the outline, but to the small part sticking out of the inner pocket.

"Tail?"

Nie Guoqiang squinted, somewhat doubting whether what he was seeing was an optical illusion.

But upon closer inspection, he had to admit that the short, pointed tip, barely the size of a little fingertip, was most likely indeed the tail of some animal. The mall's security camera footage was a bit too far off to be very clear, but he could vaguely make out… scales?
"Phew...it must be a snake! A corn snake, a hognose snake, or a similar pet snake?"

Lin Ge let out a breath.

It was truly remarkable that he could patiently monitor the three women's movements and find a flaw while simultaneously fast-forwarding through nine surveillance cameras at 30x speed. Shopping mall surveillance cameras generally don't point inside the shops, as people changing clothes or something similar would be unsightly. The footage Lin Ge captured this time was actually only pointed at the elevator entrance, coincidentally capturing the three women shopping, revealing only a tiny, subtle flaw from afar.

In other words, Lin Ge was certain that this woman was hiding a snake or something, and that her dynamic vision was far superior to that of humans; otherwise, he would never have paused the game in a place like this.

"A snake...stole the gold bracelet! The woman used herself as cover, letting the snake in her arms do the work. Tsk tsk...what an ingenious and unbelievable method. And then think about it, how did she bypass the metal detector?"

Nie Guoqiang suddenly realized what was going on.

"Swallowed by a snake?"

Huo Guangping also excitedly joined in, mainly because the first criminal case he solved at Zhanghe Police Station was so outrageous that it truly broadened his horizons.

"That bracelet is an open bracelet. With the hardness of pure gold, it doesn't take much effort to secretly straighten it or make it nearly straight. Snakes don't like to swallow round things, but long ones are easy to handle with a little training."

Nie Guoqiang now understood exactly what had happened; the method and escape plan were crystal clear. The woman, confident that Boss Gu wouldn't dare search her, hid the bracelet where the gold detector couldn't reach it, and easily smuggled it out of the shop.

As for the fact that she has spent tens of thousands of yuan at this store, to be honest, considering the cost of gold and the "small profits but quick turnover" strategy of Shikou Goldsmiths, Boss Gu has only made a few thousand yuan.

But precisely because she saw the huge sum of money, she gained Mr. Gu's trust.

Now, with a cost of only a few thousand yuan, she can steal a bracelet worth 36,000 yuan just for the gold alone, not counting the craftsmanship. This woman has clearly made a huge profit.

"Hoo hoo... I knew it! How could there be a case I couldn't solve? The smell of snakes is faint, so I didn't smell it at first and thought it was just body odor or cosmetics. But as long as I get serious, this kind of thing is a piece of cake!"

Lin Ge proudly raised his tail, arrogantly boasting that in addition to his keen sense of smell, his dynamic vision had also come in handy.

To watch nine surveillance cameras at 30x speed, seeing every single frame clearly—only he could do that, right? If this task were given to Chu Ting in the police station's monitoring room, watching so many cameras by herself would take at least two days, consume a lot of eye drops, and there's no guarantee she wouldn't miss anything. For example, in this scene where she found a flaw, the three women were too far from the camera; without pausing, they couldn't see anything clearly.

For Lingo, all of this was a piece of cake!
"Hehehe! From now on, if there are any cases that require using surveillance footage to solve, I'll participate too. While others watch at two or three times speed, I'll watch at thirty or fifty times! While others watch one set, I'll watch an entire wall! That's hundreds of times more efficient!"

Lin Ge thought smugly, forgetting for the moment that he always avoided work.

The group returned to the Ten Goldsmiths, where a large crowd of onlookers still gathered at the entrance. When Lin Ge squeezed in, he saw three suspects causing trouble for Xie Hua, seemingly dissatisfied because their efforts to clear their names had been delayed for too long.

Lin Ge knew without guessing that she was actually in a hurry to go back and deal with the snake that was hiding somewhere in the mall, as well as the gold bracelet that was with the snake!

"Ms. Wu, you keep snakes as pets, right?"

Nie Guoqiang wasted no time and went straight to the point with the evidence: "You even carried that snake with you when you came to the mall today. So now can you tell me where you put that snake?"

"snake?"

The two companions of the woman surnamed Wu changed their expressions drastically.

Although they knew their friend had a pet snake, they didn't know that the snake was with her all the time! The thought that they had spent half a day in close contact with a terrifying snake made the two women turn pale and back away.

"These two aren't working together?"

Lin Ge and Nie Guoqiang had the same idea.

That's right! It's not worth the risk to share a gain of tens of thousands of yuan with one's accomplices. Besides, having two equally wealthy accomplices to cover for her would further lower Boss Gu's guard and allow her and her companions to appear innocent.

"Snake...what snake? I don't know!"

Wu Yan's expression changed and she quickly retorted.

When Nie Guoqiang showed her the surveillance footage, she stubbornly retorted, "So what if I keep snakes? What's it to you? Keeping hognose snakes isn't illegal, so why should I care where I put them?"

"But if that snake was stolen by a thief, then Ms. Wu, you've committed theft! You know the value of that gold bracelet; even in the case of theft, it's a huge sum. So, as a suspect, please honestly tell me where the snake is."

Nie Guoqiang showed no respect for Wu Yan, mainly because he didn't know if Wu Yan had any accomplices or if the snake and bracelet had been moved. The most important thing now was to find those two items.

"I don't know! I got tired of keeping it and threw it away! As for where I threw it, I forgot!"

Wu Yan wasn't hiding the bracelet, so she was pretty sure she wouldn't know anything about it. She was betting that as long as the bracelet wasn't found, even if the police came, they couldn't do anything to her!

At worst, I'll just get detained at the police station for a couple of days!

Earning tens of thousands of yuan in two days is worth it!
"Yan'er~"

The two companions stared at Wu Yan in astonishment, knowing from her expression that she was definitely the one who did it. But why? Wasn't Wu Yan's family very wealthy? Wasn't her husband a big boss? Why would she do such a thing?
"I've been divorced for over six months now. Who do I have to rely on? If I told you that, why would you still invite me out to have some fun?"

Wu Yan roared inwardly, glaring hatefully at her two companions. She knew she was about to drift further and further away from them, so besides denying it outright, she cursed these two women, who, like her, only knew how to spend money, and wished they would be dumped by their husbands just like her!

"Ms. Wu, there's no point in trying to argue!"

Nie Guoqiang was very patient and not in a hurry at all.

He even pointed at Lin Ge, who was watching the commotion, and said, "This is our police station's police cat. It was the one that smelled the snake's scent on you. It means that if it can smell this little bit of scent on you, how much more so a live snake hiding in the mall? I advise you to confess now and you can still try to get leniency and a reduced sentence! Otherwise, if we find the snake and the stolen goods ourselves, you'll have no way to defend yourself and will have to go to jail."

Wu Yan's face turned deathly pale instantly.

"Bullshit! I didn't smell it this time! Who knows why the snake's scent was so faint, and why this woman had so much body odor. This time I used the surveillance footage, with my other weapon!"

Lin Ge smugly refuted Nie Guoqiang's misunderstanding.

(End of this chapter)