You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 118 Where's my bicycle? (Seeking monthly votes)

Yang Jinwen picked up a watercolor pen, found a clean spot on the whiteboard, and wrote down the dates of each of the girls' disappearances.

To avoid any mistakes, Jiang Bala and Fu Yun double-checked the information and reported the specific date and time.

A moment later, the forms were listed as follows:
On Tuesday, January 21, 1992, Zhang Qian went missing.

On Tuesday, February 9, 1993, Wang Lin went missing.

In 1994, no girls went missing.

On Tuesday, July 4, 1995, Liao Dongmei went missing.

On Tuesday, December 12, 1995, Jia Chun went missing.

On Tuesday, May 21, 1996, Qin Xuelan and her daughter Zhang Huiqun went missing.

On Tuesday, July 8, 1997, Ma Weiwei disappeared.

After Yang Jinwen finished writing, he swallowed hard and took a few steps back.

In the 20-square-meter room, a dim yellow light bulb hangs from the ceiling.

Yang Jinwen stood in front, Jiang Bala and Fu Yun stood on either side of him, and Maozi stood in the corner.

Before them were two clue boards: one whiteboard was covered with clues written in watercolor pens, and the other whiteboard displayed photos of missing women.

Some of these girls had long hair, some had short hair, some smiled shyly, while others had calm expressions.

Zhang Qian, who had been missing for the longest time, was not heard from at all for five years. Her mother committed suicide by jumping off the balcony of the dormitory where she used to live the following year.

The shortest disappearance was for Ma Weiwei, which lasted only eight days. Her mother, unable to cope with the shock, deliberately crashed into a truck, resulting in her death.

At this moment, the lights cast the four men's bodies onto the floor and walls, creating a colorful halo composition.

After a long silence, Jiang Bala finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked the question that had been weighing on his mind: "What day is Tuesday?"

The other three shared the same thought, and Fu Yun pondered, "Tuesday is a workday."

"Nonsense." Jiang Bala retorted, then widened her eyes: "No, what you said makes sense!"
The perpetrator only committed the crimes on Tuesdays, and always after school. Does this mean the perpetrator rested every Tuesday?

Yang Jinwen said, "That possibility cannot be ruled out!"

"Not necessarily," Cat said, stroking his chin. "What if the murderer doesn't have a job?"

"Uh……"

Jiang searched for Maozi's people but couldn't find him. He turned around and saw the other person standing behind him, close to his back.

"No, could you please stop moving behind me? It's fucking creepy!"

Cat looked completely innocent: "Captain Jiang, this room is so small, where am I supposed to stand?"

Jiang Bala stepped aside and said, "If the murderer didn't have a job, why would he choose to commit the crime on a Tuesday? Wouldn't it have been better if he committed the crime on Saturday or Sunday? The Chengnan Health School is closed on weekends, right?"

Yang Jinwen shook his head: "We can't generalize from a single case, otherwise we'll make common-sense mistakes."

We can infer that the murderer had time to commit the crime on Tuesday, but at other times, he lacked the opportunity to do so.

Fu Yun snapped his fingers: "That's right, Yang Jinwen makes sense."

Yang Jinwen continued, "Also, it's strange that no girls went missing in 94."

Furthermore, starting in 94, the number of missing female students from Chengnan Health School increased by one each year, and the frequency of the crimes also increased. Why is this?

Jiang Bala and Fu Yun also thought of the question that Maozi had just raised, and the two asked in unison: "Does that mean the murderer will commit another crime this year?"

Yang Jinwen nodded: "It can't be ruled out."

Jiang Bala asked, "So how do we investigate now?"

Yang Jinwen turned around and replied, "We'll use the old method to investigate, starting from Zhang Qian's disappearance in 92. The murderer committed six crimes, and seven women have gone missing."

Clue 1: The missing girls were all students of Chengnan Health School. The murderer was familiar with Chengnan Health School, so you can search within that area, such as among the faculty and staff, or students who had studied at Chengnan Health School.

Clue 2: The fact that the murderer only targets girls from rural areas indicates that the murderer had carefully selected them. Therefore, he would definitely have scouted the locations and lingered in a certain place for a long time, which would have attracted the attention of passersby.

Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that he has a car or other means of transportation, since these missing girls would not go to too remote places.

To kidnap and abduct an adult woman, the perpetrator will either coerce or entice her, but in order to take her away, in addition to using a means of transportation, the perpetrator will definitely use some other methods.

Therefore, we need to investigate the specific movements of these seven women who went missing that day, where they went, what they bought, which roads they took, and where they disappeared.

The time should be more precise, ideally down to a specific point in time, such as after 6 PM or after 8 PM.

Therefore, Ma Weiwei's disappearance a week ago is particularly important, as it is the case closest to us.

We compiled these clues and cross-referenced them to see if we could find any commonalities.

For example, if all seven missing women had visited a certain store to buy daily necessities, could it be that the store owner was watching them? Therefore, this must be investigated—their movements before their disappearances must be traced…”

Yang Jinwen wanted to continue speaking, but then he saw Jiang Bala, Fu Yun, and Maozi sitting in a row at the table, like three reformed students, taking notes scribblingly.

So he paused, and after they finished writing, he continued, "The third clue is particularly important: why the murderer chose to commit the crime on a Tuesday, and why he didn't change this habit for five years."

To investigate this, we need to do a city-wide search, checking the shift schedules of state-owned enterprise employees and which companies have Tuesdays off.

After Jiang Bala finished writing, he let out a heavy sigh of relief.

He looked at Yang Jinwen with a complicated expression and exclaimed sincerely, "You're amazing, kid! Now I finally understand why our South City Brigade lost to your North City Brigade in that burglary and murder case. You're really something!"

Fu Yun smiled at Jiang Bala: "We didn't lose to the Chengbei Brigade, we lost to them."

Yang Jinwen frowned, looking preoccupied. He shook his head and said, "Our work as police officers is a collective effort. Without everyone's participation, one person cannot catch a murderer."

Cat knew him well, so she quickly asked, "Is there anything else we need to investigate?"

Yang Jinwen pursed his lips and replied, "Are you absolutely certain that only these women are missing? If it's confirmed to be Tuesday, should we conduct a city-wide search?"

These words immediately silenced Jiang Bala and Fu Yun.

Yes, if the disappearance occurred on Tuesday, does that mean there were other women outside of Chengnan Health School who went missing around that time?

Fu Yun looked surprised: "If that's true, then this case is huge."

Jiang Bala looked at Yang Jinwen: "To be honest, Lao Fu and I spent two days thinking about it, but we still couldn't come up with as much as you did in just a few hours."

Now that Tuesday is confirmed, we can go back to the bureau and ask the leaders to open a case!

Just like you dared to say, with so many girls missing and such a big case, if the department really lets it go unpunished, it will cause huge trouble.

Yang Jinwen nodded: "That's right. There are only four of us. Even if we investigate, we can only follow one or two clues, and we don't know when we'll be able to find them."

“Okay, Lao Fu and I will go back to the station now and ask them to open a case.”

Jiang Bala and Fu Yun stood up and began packing their things.

Before leaving, Yang Jinwen glanced at the missing women on the clue board and nodded slightly at their photos.

Jiang Bala turned off the light bulb in the small room, and their faces disappeared into the darkness.

Yang Jinwen and Maozi got into Jiang Bala's car, intending to go to the police station first and then ride their bicycles back.

Upon arriving at their destination, they were immediately dumbfounded: "Where's my car?"

"Yeah, where's our car?"

Cat shouted after them, hurriedly got off the car and looked around, but their bicycles were nowhere to be seen.

Yang Jinwen looked at Jiang Bala, who was touching his nose: "Captain Jiang, didn't you say that no one dares to steal a car in front of the police station?"

“Uh…” Jiang opened the car door: “I’ll go ask for you.”

A moment later, he came out of the police station and, as soon as he got into his car, he cursed, "A bunch of good-for-nothings! They can steal from cars parked in front of their doors. Where can we go to seek justice?"

"Alright, I'll take you back." Jiang started the car, not daring to look at Yang Jinwen and Maozi's faces.

It was already past 7 p.m. when I got back to the Chengbei branch.

Yang Jinwen and Maozi sprinted towards the cafeteria like runners in a race.

The branch office canteen serves meals from six to seven o'clock. Except for a few leaders, everyone has to run to get their meals. There's no other way. Lao Fan cooks the food according to the principle of not wasting food, making sure to cook for each person.

If anyone takes an extra portion, or sneaks an extra spoonful when Lao Fan isn't looking, then it's over. The last person to arrive will only be able to eat rice with steamed buns.

After the two entered the cafeteria, they saw Wen Ling sitting at the table, eating while looking at the materials in her hand.

When she saw them return, Wenling pointed with her spoon to the two lunchboxes placed to the side.

“I went to your criminal investigation team’s office this afternoon, and Uncle Xu said you had gone out. I thought you must have gone out to investigate a missing persons case, so I left you some food in advance.”

"Thank you so much." Cat was extremely grateful. How kind of person Doctor Wen was to think of him.

After sitting down, the cat happily opened its lunchbox and looked at the dishes for tonight's meal. All it had was cold bitter melon salad...

"No, Uncle Fan didn't have any meat today?"

Wen Ling glanced at him: "Why are you eating meat so late at night? When did the food in our bureau become so good?"

Cat looked at Wenling's lunchbox; it also contained bitter melon.

He pursed his lips and was about to look away when he suddenly saw two smooth braised chicken legs and a braised egg lying in Yang Jinwen's lunchbox!
Cat was dumbfounded. He glared angrily at Wenling, only to see Wenling avoiding his gaze, her long eyelashes blinking repeatedly.

(End of this chapter)