Animal Detective

Chapter 309 Cases Abound Wherever You Go
Down the corridor.

Shen Xin and He Wenyu sat in chairs.

He Wenyu was still fiddling with his broken glasses. After a long time, he finally gave up, stuffed them into his pocket, and squinted at people.

In the courtyard not far away, Li Xiaowen and others were gathered together discussing something. It was hard to hear what they were saying, but they were talking all at once and seemed to be having a heated discussion.

He Wenyu looked at it for a while, then asked in a low voice, "Shen Xin, is this case getting complicated?"

He's not in the business department.

But even if you haven't eaten pork, you've still seen pigs run, right?

The "murderer" is dead, but now a confession has surfaced claiming that the murderer didn't kill anyone.

In He Wenyu's view, if this were in one of the TV dramas he often watches, it would mean that a key figure was murdered to silence him, and the case had reached a dead end.

Shen Xin nodded subconsciously.

Li Xingping's death did indeed complicate the situation.

But...

"It's actually not bad."

Shen Xin pulled a hamburger out of the bag. After working all morning, he was now feeling hungry.

He continued, "It was an accident that we were able to identify Li Xingping so quickly, but ultimately, this is still a murder case."

“There’s a set procedure for solving murder cases. Think about it, Baijiashao is surrounded by mountains on three sides and is isolated from the outside world. There’s no doubt that the murderer is 99% likely to be in the village.”

"Of the more than 140 people in the village, how many are left after deducting the elderly, the infirm, and the sick?"

"You know about Fan Lei's case, right? We marked out an area of ​​several kilometers and visited each household and each individual. That's a huge scale. These dozens of people are nothing compared to that."

“In a murder case, there are only a few key points, such as the motive and who had a conflict with the victim. These are easy to find out.”

"Once the motive is found, the murderer won't be far off. Then, we can find a way to secure the evidence, and the case will naturally be solved."

In Shen Xin's view, cases that occur in these closed villages are actually quite similar to the locked-room mystery in detective novels.

It's relatively easy to identify the murderer.

The real problem is when outsiders pass through the village, take a dislike to Zhang Kaiyong, go up to him, hit him a few times, and then leave.

He Wenyu nodded thoughtfully.

Shen Xin continued, "And this case has only been going on for a few hours. Nowadays, the rule is that all murder cases must be solved, and there is a time limit for solving cases, but it shouldn't be this fast."

On the contrary, because Li Xingping was identified as the murderer immediately, normal investigation work has not yet begun.

The autopsy report hasn't been released, the physical evidence hasn't been identified, and the interviews haven't ended.

Normally, the investigation would have just begun.

There were some twists and turns and unexpected events, but Shen Xin was very confident in solving the case.

Just then, Li Xiaowen walked over.

Seeing Shen Xin eating a hamburger, he suddenly realized what was happening and quickly apologized, saying that he had taken up Shen Xin's time.

Moreover, Shen Xin had helped pursue Li Xingping, keeping him busy all morning. Logically and morally, he should treat Shen Xin to a nice meal.

When Li Xiaowen tried to take him out to eat, Shen Xin quickly refused: "Captain Li, I'm also a criminal police officer. To be honest, my stomach isn't used to eating on time."

Li Xiaowen was amused and nodded with a smile.

Every detective has a stomach ailment, right?

"Alright, I won't stand on ceremony then. Why don't you stay a couple more days? Once this case is closed, I'll treat you to a good meal." Li Xiaowen said politely, then got down to business.

He wanted Shen Xin, or rather Tian Kui, to take action again.

The reason is simple.

If there were a second murderer, after killing Zhang Kaiyong, he would inevitably be covered in blood, just like Li Xingping.

He can go back and wash it off, but the smell won't dissipate in a short time, and police dogs can track it.

Shen Xin understood that after Li Xingping's unexpected death, Li Xiaowen had returned to square one and was investigating the case according to the usual homicide procedure.

Shen Xin immediately stood up: "Okay, let's set off now."

Police dog tracking requires timeliness and cannot be delayed.

Shen Xin returned to the police station and took Tian Kui away.

On the way, Shen Xin and Li Xiaowen exchanged ideas about the case.

Just as I thought, regardless of whether Li Xingping is really the murderer, we should start from the beginning and investigate this murder case from the most basic elements such as the body, physical evidence, and motive.

However, Shen Xin first poured cold water on Li Xiaowen, saying, "Captain Li, the scene was severely damaged. There are signs of trampling on the bloodstains, and quite a few people helped carry the body. If Tian Kui is tracking it, these will become obstacles."

Such a major event happened in a secluded village, and all the villagers came to see what was going on.

Some people carried the body, while others stepped on the bloodstains at the scene.

Tiankui can track down all these people, but he still needs to filter them to determine who the real murderer is.

Li Xiaowen had obviously considered this situation, and sighed softly, saying, "There's nothing we can do. It's rare for a case to happen in a village like this to go undiscovered. And then there's Li Xingping. Now that I think about it, he's the biggest obstacle."

Shen Xin nodded in agreement.

The fact that the crime scene was destroyed was one thing, but the fact that Li Xingping was identified as a suspect so quickly certainly delayed the investigation.

Without him, Fu Lianghui might have been able to protect the scene.

Once Shen Xin and the others arrive at the scene, they can proceed with the original investigation process and use Tiankui to track down the murderer.

That can eliminate a lot of the interference.

When they arrived, Zhang Kaisheng was causing trouble at Li Xingping's house, which affected the preservation of the scene.

They immediately confirmed that Li Xingping was a prime suspect in the crime.

Given the circumstances, you had no reason not to track him down.

On the way to Baijiashao, Shen Xin also saw Li Shi riding a bicycle.

He left and then returned.

Guo Jin followed on his motorcycle.

Li Xiaowen also saw it, but he couldn't care less about it now and handed it over to the staff at the health center to ask.

We arrived in the village.

The perimeter outside the cordon has been expanded further.

The technical investigators who stayed behind can't leave either; now they need to expand the search area and continue looking for physical evidence.

Outside the cordon, the villagers remained watching.

Shen Xin led Tian Kui and they began.

For Tian Kui, tracing bloodstains is not a difficult task.

The only problem is that there are many people coming and going at the scene, and the bloodstains are very mixed.

Tian Kui confirmed the source of the smell, looked around, and immediately went to the front of the cordon, where he stood in front of a middle-aged woman and called out.

The middle-aged woman retreated repeatedly, looking nervous.

Tian Kui approached.

[Foot] That is obviously the case when entering the crime scene and stepping on bloodstains.

But we cannot rule her out yet.

Li Xiaowen gave a signal, and one of his men immediately pulled the middle-aged woman aside for registration and questioning.

Then Tiankui immediately went to an old man next to him, raised his paw, and pointed at his foot.

There's no need to look further; it'll definitely be the same situation.

At the beginning, a large number of villagers surrounded the crime scene. Zhang Kaiyong was still trying to escape, and blood was dripping everywhere, so there was a good chance that someone would step on it.

Moreover, when the first person steps on it, the blood on their foot will be carried to other places as they walk around, and then stepped on by the second person.

A single drop of blood, diluted hundreds of thousands of times, can be smelled even by police dogs.

So let alone the second person, even the third or fourth, Tiankui can still smell it.

really.

There were 13 onlookers at the scene, not one of them was missing.

One of the middle-aged men had it not only on his feet, but also on his hands.

"What does this mean?" Seeing Tian Kui leaning close to him and smelling his right hand, the middle-aged man nervously stepped back to avoid him.

Li Xiaowen immediately asked him if he had touched the body.

The middle-aged man nodded nervously and said that he had helped when they were carrying the body at Zhang Kaiyong's house.

Li Xiaowen frowned slightly, indicating that he should write it down first.

Tiankui continued his pursuit.

[Here it is]

[Here]

Shen Xin kept hearing his inner thoughts.

He was referring to the cement road surface.

It means that when people go out, they leave bloodstains everywhere.

Li Xiaowen had anticipated this situation, but he did not expect it to be this serious.

Shen Xin comforted him, "It's alright, Captain Li. Find them all first, then we can screen them slowly later. There are only a little over a hundred people, it'll be quick."

Li Xiaowen thought about it and agreed. He said that more than ten years ago, when there were no surveillance cameras, they had to walk until their legs broke to solve cases.

His record was sleeping only five hours in three days. In the end, while he was eating, he suddenly fell headfirst into his noodle bowl, startling the people at the table who thought he had died suddenly.

As he spoke with great enthusiasm, Shen Xin felt a pang of sympathy and a pang of sadness, but then suddenly said, "Captain Li, I've noticed that you're quite talkative."

Before, they seemed quiet and reserved with low emotional intelligence, but after getting to know them, I found that they were not like that at all.

"Have it?"

Li Xiaowen paused for a moment, then smiled wryly and said, "Anyway, quite a few people say I'm not very good at speaking."

He changed the subject, asking Shen Xin if he had any further thoughts on the case.

We were just exchanging information about the case.

Shen Xin thought for a moment and said, "Physical evidence is still the best way to confirm whether there was a second person at the scene."

Words are not credible; physical evidence is the only irrefutable fact.

Li Xiaowen thought so too.

He took out his phone and called the team, urging them to speed up the process, and if all else failed, to request assistance from the city.

The investigation continues.

The situation was not optimistic. Tian Kui led his group into one household after another.

When asked, they all said they had gone to the scene to see the excitement.

There's also Zhang Kaiyong's family.

In Baijiashao Village, Zhang is the most common surname, with almost two-thirds of the villagers bearing this surname.

Zhang Kaiyong was also the village head, and after he died, a lot of people came to mourn and offer condolences.

His wife, Tan Guizhi, initially held the body and wailed loudly, her body covered in blood.

After the body is brought home, when people come to see it, shouldn't we shake hands and offer our condolences?

Even if Tan Guizhi washed her hands, it was no use; the rumors still spread everywhere.

Tian Kui's tracking ability is too strong; he can detect even the slightest scent.

This led to the discovery that at least half of the villagers had an odor reaction after a series of investigations.

And at home.

After watching the excitement, I went home, and the house smelled terrible.

Some people even went outside after watching the spectacle.

Some people need to go out and work; they can't just stop doing nothing because of a murder.

If he left the village with a lingering scent, how can we determine whether the murderer took the opportunity to escape or left normally?

If we can't even be sure about this, how can we pursue it?

If we were to track everything, Tiankui would be exhausted.

In the end, Li Xiaowen took the initiative to stop it, saying that this wouldn't work and the situation was too chaotic.

Shen Xin initially thought that he could screen people by smelling the people who had been at the scene, just like in the Fan Lei case, but after this investigation, he decided to give up.

"It's still physical evidence."

Li Xiaowen frowned, walked to the side, and continued making phone calls, urging for physical evidence.

Tian Kui looked up at Shen Xin.

I'm not going to follow it anymore.

His gaze was puzzled; they were really getting into the chase.

Shen Xin patted his head, then suddenly received a call from Sun Zhao.

Ask Shen Xin if he has arrived in Nanjiang.

Shen Xin was originally scheduled to fly back to Nanjiang, and at this point in time, he should have already arrived in Nanjiang.

"No, something came up."

Shen Xin briefly explained the case.

On the other end of the phone, Sun Zhao exclaimed in surprise, "You little rascal, you seem to find cases wherever you go!"

Shen Xin said, "Captain Sun, please stop joking with me."

Shen Xin glanced at Li Xiaowen, who was on the phone in the distance, and said, "Captain Sun, could I go back a few days later? They might need to use police dogs here, so it might be better for me to stay here."

This is one aspect.

On the other hand, it would be so frustrating to encounter a case and leave before it's solved.

(End of this chapter)