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

Chapter 343 It’s dark under the lamp!
That afternoon.

An unauthorized person appeared at the Qincheng Criminal Police Detachment.

Wearing his uniform and holding his police cap, Gao Jie ignored the stares of passersby and went straight to the branch building, heading upstairs.

Everyone in the detachment knew him, but no one spoke to him, especially the former members of the Third Brigade, who tried to avoid him.

When he arrived on the third floor, he happened to run into Gu Jun, who was coming downstairs.

"Captain Gao." Gu Jun stood on the stairs looking at him.

Gao Jie smiled and said, "Captain Gu, it's been a long time."

“Call me Jun’er, that’s what you’ve always called me.”

"You're a criminal investigator, so your rank is naturally higher than ours as street watchers."

"Captain Gao, please don't say that, I..."

"Alright, you go about your business, I'm going to find Yang Jinwen."

"The Third Brigade's office is on the first floor, next to the toilet."

Gao Jie gave Gu Jun a deep look: "You're not a member of the Third Brigade anymore?"

Gu Jun looked away: "I..."

"Alright." Gao Jie waved his hand, turned around and went downstairs.

Arriving at the office next to the first-floor restroom, the door was closed. Gao Jie looked up at the nameplate on the right side of the door; the three words 'Third Brigade' seemed dull and lifeless to him.

He raised his hand as if to touch the words, but after thinking for a moment, he withdrew his hand and knocked on the office door.

No one called out "Come in," but footsteps could be heard, as if someone was coming to open the door.

Clearly, the people inside were wary of those outside.

Upon seeing that it was Feng Xiaocai who opened the door, Gao Jie smiled and said, "Captain Feng, Gao Jie is here to report for duty!"

"Master!" Feng Xiaocai cried, her eyes brimming with tears.

Where is Captain Yang?

"I'm waiting for you."

Gao Jie nodded and patted her on the shoulder: "Eat more meat, you've lost weight."

A warm feeling rose in Feng Xiaocai's heart. She stepped aside and replied, "I know."

Upon seeing Gao Jie arrive, Yang Jinwen stood up from his seat, and Yao Weihua, Cai Ting, and Maozi greeted him politely as well.

Gao Jie looked at the furnishings in the room and smiled bitterly, "Although the office has been moved, the furnishings are still exactly the same as before."

"Welcome." Yang Jinwen extended his hand and shook hands with him.

“Captain Yang, you’re young and promising.” Gao Jie stared at him and continued, “I’ve looked into all the cases you’ve solved in An’nan City.”

Yang Jinwen laughed and said, "You did your homework before coming?"

"Of course. If I can't solve the case, then my leave will have been wasted, and I'll get scolded by my captain."

"Alright, how much do you know about the case?"

Yang Jinwen turned around, and Gao Jie followed his gaze. Behind the door, against the wall, were three clue boards, densely covered with clues and related evidence from the two cases.

Photos of Zhou Lei, the victim of the 711 case, Wan Simiao, the victim of the 609 case, and Kou Tao, the suspect.

Gao Jie squinted at the familiar photos, the cases he had handled reappearing before his eyes, and his heart surged with emotion.

"Captain Gao, what's the situation regarding the errors in the investigation of Case 609?"

Gao Jie pursed his lips and replied, "Because of Kou Tao's fall, besides me being transferred, the most severely punished members of our original Third Brigade were Zhou Xiaochuan and Yue Feng."

The situation arose because the inspection team discovered that during the investigation of Case 609 by our Third Brigade, there was a discrepancy in the questioning of the convenience store owner that Zhou Xiaochuan and Yue Feng had interviewed.

"What's the problem?"

"The convenience store owner is lying!"

"lie?"

"At the time, we suspected that the 711 case and the 609 case were committed by the same perpetrator. Moreover, because the 711 case became an unsolved case, it wasted most of our time and slowed down our investigation."

This resulted in our Third Brigade having the lowest case-solving rate at the end of the year, and the team members all hated this case.

The shop owner on Dayuan Street confessed that the murderer who followed Wan Simiao bought a pack of cigarettes from his shop before the incident. He was truthful when describing Wan's appearance and height, but he lied when identifying the suspect…

Yao Weihua raised an eyebrow: "You've all been ruined by him."

Gao Jie sighed and continued, "No, one thing is accurate: the shop owner's account of the murderer's height, his wearing of a military green raincoat, and his wearing of rubber gloves are all accurate because they are consistent with the testimonies of other eyewitnesses."

The problem arose when he gave this statement. Zhou Xiaochuan and Yue Feng immediately thought of the height of the 711 perpetrator and the fact that no fingerprints were left at the scene, only footprints. So, the two of them took a photo of Kou Tao and asked the convenience store owner to identify him. To their surprise, the owner insisted that the person who came to his store to buy cigarettes wearing a raincoat was Kou Tao.

At the time, I didn't verify this clue because I was too eager to catch the murderer, so I immediately carried out the arrest of Kou Tao, which led to the accident.

Later, the inspection team discovered that the man in the raincoat who followed Wan Simiao had never bought cigarettes at the convenience store; he had only passed by the store, and the owner hadn't even seen his face.

Cai Ting frowned: "Then why did he say that?"

Gao Jie shook his head with a wry smile: "Because the son of this convenience store owner was imprisoned for robbery years ago and has been serving his sentence in jail. His daughter-in-law remarried with her grandson, and the old man hates our police and deliberately lied to us."

"Damn it!" Yao Weihua cursed. "This kind of person is the most hateful."

"It's my fault; I didn't verify the source of the clues."

Feng Xiaocai comforted him, "Master, you had no choice."

Gao Jie shook his head: "So now when I think back on it, I think I was too stupid. Why did we have to compete with the First and Second Detachments? The team members worked day and night to improve the case-solving rate, which made them sick and caused disharmony at home."

"Captain Yang, you're the captain of the Third Brigade now. I think you'd better relax and not focus on the case-solving rate. Being too impatient will only make you worse at solving cases."

Cat muttered from the side, "That's right, staying in the office for two days and one night almost wore me out."

Yang Jinwen glanced at him: "Then I'll give you a day off?"

Cat felt guilty: "It's not that bad. I can hold on for a few more days. The main problem is that our team is too small, and we don't even have anyone to take turns."

Cai Ting laughed and said, "These past two days, we've been relying entirely on Li Yang from the gatehouse to bring us food and drinks. It's all thanks to Xiao Cai."

Feng Xiaocai blushed and shook her head, saying, "There's nothing between us, he was the one who wanted to give it to me."

Yang Jinwen steered the conversation back on track, asking, "Captain Gao, if we were to reopen these two cases, where do you think we should begin?"

Gao Jie squinted at the clue board and pondered, "The 711 case wasn't done by Kou Tao. This case was too random and there were no eyewitnesses, so it's difficult to investigate. We can only start with the 609 case."

At the time of the 609 incident, Wan Simiao came out of Sihai Hutong to buy a late-night snack. It has been confirmed that she picked up a bag of trash on the road and was about to throw it away at the garbage station when she was followed and attacked by the murderer.

At the time, the garbage station was only a street away from the night market, about a hundred meters away. The fact that the murderer dared to commit the crime in full view of everyone shows that he had strong mental fortitude and was confident that he could escape the scene after committing the crime.

I think he definitely has a means of transportation, like a motorcycle or a car.

Yao Weihua shook his head: "Even so, more than a year has passed since the case was filed. It's simply impossible to find the license plate number and eyewitnesses."

At this moment, Yang Jinwen took out a map and pasted it on the clue board.

Several red markers have already been drawn on the map.

Gao Jie immediately recognized the scene of the 711 case, as the map marked the park, grove, and nearby street buildings on Xiangyuan Road, as well as the address where the victim, Zhou Lei, lived.

Yang Jinwen said, "Assuming that the 609 case and the 711 case were committed by the same murderer, then the 609 case shows that the murderer's methods have been upgraded. The murderer was prepared to kill, killed very quickly, and fled the scene very quickly as well."

Furthermore, in the 609 case, the murderer was wearing a raincoat. It didn't rain that night, so why was he wearing a raincoat? Because he was prepared to quickly clean up the blood sprayed on his body after the murder.

Although there were eyewitnesses who saw the killer, they did not see his face. Of course, his height was similar to that of the killer in the 7/11 case.

So what are the differences between the 711 case and the 609 case that occurred in 96?
I think the 711 case was more random, and the perpetrator most likely lured the victim, Zhou Lei, to the grove next to the park under the pretense of soliciting prostitution.

After killing Zhou Lei, the murderer did not take any valuables and fled the scene before Zhou Lei was completely dead.

Moreover, the scene of Zhou Lei's murder was 30 meters from the road on the left and 50 meters from the guardhouse.

Why didn't Zhou Lei run to the left side of the road to ask for help?
On the left side of the road, although there is very little traffic, cars are still passing by.

Suddenly, the cat answered with a brilliant idea: "Because the murderer fled in the direction to the left!"

“That’s possible.” Yang Jinwen nodded and continued, “Then we have the following judgments.”

First, although it was a random crime, the perpetrator was most likely committing murder for the first time. Since he did not take the victim's belongings, it may have been a crime of passion, meaning he did not prepare in advance.

Second, the incident occurred after 10:30 p.m. on July 11. If the murderer did not intend to kill beforehand, could it be that he intended to solicit prostitution?

If that's the case, why would he have brought a tool for the crime, and why would he use a screwdriver to stab the victim's throat three times?

What kind of person would carry a screwdriver around, especially late at night?
If it was premeditated, why didn't they use a knife? If it was robbery, then Kou Tao took the valuables, but the murderer didn't take any.

Summarizing these clues, I figured the murderer must live near Xiangyuan Road, within a radius of no more than one kilometer.

Upon hearing this, Gao Jie's eyes widened: "No, we've already checked this area."

"You're investigating suspicious individuals, but the murderer lives in this area and isn't suspicious at all."
Furthermore, the victim, Zhou Lei, went to the grove with the murderer, which was more than 200 meters away from where she was working on the street. Even if Zhou Lei didn't know the murderer, the two of them might have seen each other frequently.

Gao Jie said, "That's not right. We've investigated the streetwalkers in that area. Many of them are prostitutes who take their customers to the woods to do 'that'."

Yang Jinwen squinted at the map: "In murders without a clear motive, the killer usually chooses someone familiar but not in their social circle to kill. I tend to think the killer lives near Xiangyuan Road!"

Furthermore, the locations of the 711 and 609 cases are less than three kilometers apart, an area familiar to the perpetrator and the maximum walking distance for a normal person. Therefore, the perpetrator is highly likely hiding in this area!

"Captain Gao, the murderer we're looking for might be right under your nose!"

(End of this chapter)