Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 416 Difficulties abound
Several police cars quickly arrived near the Dahongshan Reservoir.

“The Dahongshan Reservoir is about 90 kilometers long, with winding waterways and complex terrain along the banks. Many areas are rarely visited. Some of the waters have very rapid currents, and underwater there are even reefs and long, dangerous aquatic plants. Even locals are unwilling to go there.”

As Xu Zhen led Lin Ge and his group towards the scene of the incident, he pointed to the riverbed below the steep slope on one side of the road: "A little down from here, we set up a rafting project early last year. Whether it's summer or winter, many tourists and enthusiasts come to play. Heh... maybe it's a generation gap, I don't know what's so interesting about playing in the water in winter. Anyway, because of that Dahongshan rafting, the number of strangers near the Dahongshan Reservoir has increased dramatically, adding a lot of trouble to our investigation. To be honest, the reason this year's case is more complicated than last year's is precisely this. Last year, there was no fishing ban at Dahongshan Reservoir, and it was a group of anglers who discovered the victim's body. Although they called the police in time, they also completely destroyed the scene. This year, Dahongshan finally announced a fishing ban, and we thought fewer people would come. But who would have thought that a rafting trip would complicate the search for the murderer once again?"

"Tourists? They are indeed a difficult-to-control and unstable factor."

Li Yiduo looked down and exchanged a glance with Lin Ge, both feeling a pang of sympathy.

The presence of tourists certainly brings many opportunities to the local economy and employment. However, at the same time, it also brings a lot of trouble to local public security. Not to mention Xizhong City, even in Zhang City, or more specifically, the Zhanghe Police Station, at least a quarter of the calls they receive daily are related to the Zhanghe Scenic Area. The Zhanghe Scenic Area actually has its own dedicated police post, as well as a police team dispatched by the city bureau and a water police department. But even so, their workload is still overwhelming. Furthermore, since the scenic area originally fell under the jurisdiction of the Zhanghe Police Station, many troublesome and difficult disputes are simply passed on to the police station.

Jiang Yiyi spends almost half of her time resolving conflicts between tourists or between tourists and travel agencies. Fortunately, she is quick-witted and patient, and over the years, nothing major has gone wrong.

After thinking for a moment, Li Yiduo added, "But there must be companies and various surveillance cameras at the rafting site, right? Tour groups must also be registered. Hasn't the investigation yielded any results in this regard?"

Xu Zhen shook his head and remained silent.

"That's true! Expecting a company to manage such a large place without any mistakes is simply impossible. In addition, people are smarter these days, and there are more individual tourists than tour groups, making management even more difficult."

Li Yiduo quickly offered his own explanation and stopped questioning why Xu Zhen always seemed to know nothing.

The police aren't omnipotent, and they can't chain everyone up to prevent them from wandering off. Some people like to go off-track and explore places outside the designated routes, and even the police can't manage that, let alone the景区负责人 (scenic area manager/organizer).

"So, at this point, we can't even determine a single suspect?"

Lin Ge sighed, feeling that this case was likely to be even more complex and difficult than the one in Southern Province. Especially with those itinerant killers who commit crimes and then flee, even if Lin Ge could find clues, he wouldn't be able to pinpoint the target!

They soon arrived at their destination, where twenty or thirty police officers were still working diligently. It was already dusk, and darkness was approaching. Even so, the officers didn't stop. They searched the ground like scavengers, looking for any possible clue. Under a makeshift shed nearby, four police dogs lay listlessly, tongues lolling out. The dogs looked utterly exhausted, too tired to even bark at Lin Ge.

"Hey! Four German Shepherds!"

Li Yiduo exclaimed in admiration, noting that it was the first time he had seen a place using the same type of police dogs. In fact, different police dogs have different strengths, and this was the first time he, a particular fondness for German Shepherds, had ever seen them used together.

“They are the treasures of the police dog squadron, and each of them has made great contributions. Their daily food allowance is higher than mine.”

As Xu Zhen spoke, he glanced at Lin Ge with a flick of his eye.

"Honors! My Mimi has them too, she's got several second-class merits already. I heard she has a first-class merit award under review, but it probably won't be awarded until the case is completely closed. As for the meal allowance, she gets her regular salary."

Li Yiduo knew exactly what Xu Zhen was thinking.
"First-class merit..."

Xu Zhen gave an awkward smile, knowing that even though a police dog's first-class merit wasn't as prestigious as a police officer's, it wasn't something easily obtained. As for the third-class merit and commendation, Li Yiduo didn't mention them, and Xu Zhen was too embarrassed to ask further.

"My salary is more than I can spend! Even after treating so many of my men to dinner last time, I still don't feel like I've cut back anywhere. These few guys who are just like my underlings dare to compare themselves to me?"

Lin Ge scoffed dismissively.

The group finally arrived at the scene. The person in charge of directing was an acquaintance of Xu Zhen, who waved and greeted him from afar.

"These are the experts Director Shi found? I don't see anything special about them! They all have delicate skin and fair complexions. Could they just be the kind of experts who sit in their offices and give orders?"

"Hehe... Old Wang, the real expert is this one!"

Xu Zhen pointed to Lin Ge on the ground, who was looking around. The way this cat pricked up its ears and looked around was quite interesting. He wondered how much real strength it actually had.

"cat?"

Wang Chuanqi was stunned for a moment, then quickly took out his phone and scrolled through the chat history. After scrolling for a while, he finally found it and was in disbelief when he saw Lin Ge's achievements.

Lin Ge ignored those two scumbags who looked down on cats!

The scene was in a patch of weeds, and a little further down was a steep slope of at least 60 or 70 degrees. Protective netting and a water safety barrier were laid at the bottom of the slope, indicating that this was where the victim was found and recovered.

Although it wasn't spring yet, the temperature in Sichuan Province was still higher than in Hubei Province, and the cogongrass sprouted earlier. Add to that the various unidentified withered grasses and thorny vines on the ground, and the haphazardly crooked trees, and the terrain and environment were indeed quite complex. Moreover, this place was a good forty or fifty meters away from the dirt road worn down by pedestrians; if someone hid behind a tree or in the grass, unless they shouted loudly, it would be very difficult for passersby to spot them.

Lin Ge didn't go directly to the scene and get in the way; instead, he craned his neck to look inside from a distance. With so many police officers searching like a sieve, he didn't think he was any different and could find something that had been overlooked on the ground.

only……

Lin Ge had a question in his mind: the murderer was assaulting the victim here, wasn't he afraid of getting pricked in the buttocks by dry grass and thorns? What kind of perverted person would go to such lengths to do such a thing?
"The incident happened six days ago, and it's not easy to smell anything after so many days."

Lin Ge circled the area again but still didn't find much of value. There were some footprints and signs of struggle on the ground, but the investigators had already processed them and drawn conclusions. However, the biggest difference between real-life cases and those in TV dramas is that there aren't that many distinctive pieces of evidence in reality. Things like being left-handed, being exceptionally tall or short, having unusually large or small shoe sizes, etc., are rarely encountered in cases. Or rather, such simple cases would have been solved quickly long ago, without the Xizhong City Public Security Bureau needing to worry about them, and there was no need for them to cling to a last straw and bring in a cat.

"Weren't any experienced experts from the province or the country invited?"

Seeing that Lin Ge was deep in thought, Li Yiduo didn't disturb him, but instead continued to question Xu Zhen.

Xu Zhen shook his head and said, "Experts from the province came to see this place, but they were at a loss because there were too few clues. We also sent the on-site photos and other information to the top experts in the country, but we haven't received any effective response yet."

"With so many plants, it's impossible that someone would have been abducted without touching them or collecting any usable skin flakes or fingerprints, right?"

“We found the victim’s hair, skin flakes, and even blood and fabric from his clothes. But the killer, who seemed to have forced the victim to clear a path, was the only one whose clear traces were not found at the scene.”

Xu Zhen shook his head again, exhaled, and said, "Of course, we judge that the murderer likely scouted the place beforehand. But this scouting was probably done last year, because the crime scene last year was not far away, less than a hundred meters away. The investigation and search after the incident last year did not find anything of value, so it is probably even less likely now. Sigh! This murderer is more troublesome than we imagined."

"Having succeeded in his first crime, he was able to be more composed and better prepared for the second. Therefore, I still believe this is a serial murder case, and the two crimes, separated by a year, are definitely the work of the same killer!"

Captain Ji couldn't help but speak up.

"Without concrete evidence, there's no point in saying all this! Ji Wenjie, you're good at reasoning, but it still needs to be supported by concrete evidence."

Xu Zhen glanced at Captain Ji and sighed again.

"I'll go take a look over there!"

Lin Ge was also clueless, so he decided to take another look at last year's crime scene. There, under the awning where the four police dogs were, their handlers were pleading with them to get up and work. Unfortunately, two hours wasn't enough time for the dogs to get back into shape. "I'll take Mimi over there," he said. "Anyway, it seems like I'm the only one left free right now."

Ji Wenjie gave a wry smile and accepted the task of entertaining Lin Ge. He could already see that everyone's emotions were nearing their limit. Moreover, the absurd notion of pinning their hopes on a cat was not something anyone would be happy about.

Led by Ji Wenjie, Lin Ge quickly arrived at the wasteland where the case had occurred last year.

This place should have been overgrown with weeds like the surrounding area, but the subsequent police search and investigation have compacted the soil. With repeated walking, the soil has become a path. This area has been transformed into a barren, compacted patch of land; there aren't even many clods of stones, let alone wild grass. Furthermore, some traces of digging remain at the site, but unfortunately, a year of wind and rain has obscured any remaining evidence.

Lin Ge didn't really have much confidence in coming here.

It's been a year since this case was filed. The police must have tried every method and means imaginable countless times. Just like with the new case, where a dozen people were meticulously searching through every inch of soil, how could there be any oversight?

"Ok?"

But as he got closer, Lin Ge suddenly stopped.

To be honest, it's a bit unbelievable, but he actually smelled something unusual here, a fresh odor. Just in the last few days, someone did something disgusting here—he came here and urinated!

Fuck!
It smells like urine!

Lin Ge's face instantly filled with disgust and speechlessness.

But why is this smell here?
Did the murderer return to the crime scene, look at his "great achievements" from a year ago, and feel a pang of emotion, so he urinated as a sarcastic remark to the police? Or was it a way of reminiscing about his past crimes?

Or maybe some idiot was passing by, desperate to pee but couldn't find a toilet, and just happened to see this place was clean and wouldn't hurt his genitals, so he came here to indulge himself?
It couldn't have been the police over there who did it, could it?
Lin Ge narrowed his eyes, hoping in his heart that it was the former, but he couldn't guarantee it wasn't the latter, and he definitely didn't want it to be a third possibility.

So, under the suddenly serious gazes of Li Yiduo and Ji Wenjie, Lin Ge squinted and turned around, walking towards the place where the smell of urine was coming from.

"Mimi?"

Li Siyu had just opened her mouth when Li Yiduo stopped her. He took out his phone from his pocket, and Ji Wenjie also turned on his body camera. The two of them followed Lin Ge and slowly walked towards the open space.

Upon reaching the area where the odor was strongest, they found that there were no traces of liquid visible to the naked eye. After all, it was soil, and several days had passed; apart from Ringo or the police dogs, no one else could detect anything unusual.

Seeing Lin Ge staring intently at the ground, Ji Wenjie thought there was something underneath and quickly put on gloves to dig, but Lin Ge stopped him.

"There's really no need for this piss-picking thing. Even if you've caused me so much trouble, I don't need to tease you like this. So let's get a professional, Captain Ji. I don't want you to want to chop off this hand that picked out my piss later!"

Lin Ge shook his head and glanced at Ji Wenjie.

Ji Wenjie and Li Yiduo both understood, and even Li Siyu realized that there was indeed a problem with the land in front of them.

Ji Wenjie quickly made a phone call to a surveyor, reminding him not to touch Mimi directly with his hands. The surveyor then hurriedly went to retrieve the equipment—a small device, slightly larger than an old-fashioned mobile phone. This device had pipes and a metal probe extending from it, which the surveyor held in his hand. In this respect, Xizhong City was indeed financially powerful; Lin Ge had never seen such high-tech equipment in Zhangzhou City or the Southern Province.

Then, as soon as the metal probe touched the ground, the instrument quickly emitted a sound. Its small LCD screen, no bigger than a business card, rapidly displayed several chemical symbols and percentages, immediately catching the surveyors' eyes.

"Chief, we've found something here!"

"Really?"

The surveyors turned around and shouted, causing a commotion over there. Ji Wenjie, who had come over, suddenly turned pale when he saw the chemical symbol.

Even though he had graduated from school many years ago, he still recognized the chemical symbols for urea and ammonia. But what did they represent when combined? Thinking about how he had almost touched a puddle of urine, Ji Wenjie suddenly felt nauseous.

Hearing the commotion, a group of police officers who had already given up hope dropped what they were doing and ran over.

Aside from Xu Zhen, another elderly policeman with graying hair ran the fastest. A group of people came noisily behind the investigators, and when they saw the alarm device and its display, they were all overjoyed.

Whether it's useful or not, at least we found something!

“Someone peed here, and it happened before the incident or before the police arrived!” Xu Zhen thought for a moment, then turned to look at the people behind him and said, “Let me ask you this first, none of you would do something so stupid here, right?”

A group of people quickly shook their heads.

We're all police officers; how could we not understand the importance of preserving the crime scene? Forget about urinating, even spitting requires walking far away. Besides, they searched this place themselves last year; how could they not know this is the crime scene of last year's case?
"Since it wasn't one of our own people who made a mistake, then someone must have caused trouble here before the incident in the last few days! Regardless of whether they are suspects or not, Director Zhang, can this thing yield usable DNA?"

Xu Zhen looked at the old policeman in the technology center.

Director Zhang squinted at the dried-up land, thought for a moment, and nodded, saying, "We'll try our best! If it was left by the suspect, then it's been four to five days. To be honest, with such a long interval and the soil substrate rich in microorganisms, extracting DNA from trace amounts of urine is extremely difficult. So I can't give you any guarantees, but I assure you that the technical center will do its utmost to identify this person!"

Xu Zhen didn't force him, and just watched as Director Zhang slowly nodded.

At this moment, Ji Wenjie raised his head again and looked at Director Zhang, saying, "Leaving aside whether it's a coincidence that someone just happened to choose this place, from an anthropological and psychological perspective, this puddle of urine is highly likely to belong to the murderer! And there's also the possibility that, Mr. Zhang, you could try to extract semen from here? After doing that kind of thing, especially a criminal act, it's normal to have the urge to urinate afterwards. I believe everyone can agree on this, right?"

The group of grown men quickly shook their heads.

"I'm not impotent, I can stay erect all night, why would I need to pee!"

"Ji Wenjie, we're not as weak as you!"

"I've never urinated afterward!"

"That's utter nonsense!"

Each of these shameless men tried to save face with their sophistry, but the guilty conscience in their eyes was crystal clear.

Besides the men, there were also several female police officers present! They glared at Ji Wenjie, then couldn't help but cover their foreheads and chuckle.

"Hehe... These are all normal physiological reactions, nothing to be embarrassed about. But Xiao Ji is right, semen is more important than urine! If we can also collect the victim's bodily fluids, then the nature of the crime becomes even clearer!"

The only elderly man, Director Zhang, chuckled. He was nearing retirement age anyway, so he wasn't embarrassed about the situation. Besides, if they could really find so many clues in this unseen place, the case might finally see a glimmer of hope. Heh… now the pressure was all on the technical center. The police experts had finally found a breakthrough; it would be such a shame if it failed due to technical problems.

(End of this chapter)