Chapter 385: Criminal Investigation Match-Three

See through it without saying it through, and you can still be friends.

Chief Long was just short of spelling it out, so Yu Dazhang naturally couldn't refuse.

Besides, this case was his inescapable responsibility.

Then he and Captain Hua went to the municipal bureau compound, and before long a police helicopter landed in the center of the compound.

This thing doesn't have a weight limit, right...? Yu Dazhang had never ridden in a helicopter before, so he couldn't help feeling a bit worried.

But once they were in the air, he finally understood what a sense of speed meant—310 kilometers per hour made him feel as if he were flying through the sky.

Not only was it fast, the stability was also excellent.

From the city to the mountain in the suburbs, it took them only a little over ten minutes.

Chief Long was already waiting for them on the mountain. After landing, Yu Dazhang was led into a military tent.

This served as Chief Long and his team's temporary command post on the mountain.

"This is the topographic map of the entire mountain."

Chief Long handed a tablet computer to Yu Dazhang:

"Every facility on the mountain has been marked on the electronic map. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me anytime."

He spoke very quickly, giving people an inexplicable sense of urgency.

Taking the tablet, Yu Dazhang sat down and focused his attention on the electronic map.

The markings were extremely detailed; the location of every facility was clearly displayed—obviously all added by hand that very day.

He first located that mountain road on the map, then started from the foot of the mountain and looked over it bit by bit.

Every time he saw a marker beside the mountain road, he had to stop and think for a moment.

Looking further on, the mountain road led between two adjacent mountain peaks.

The markers stopped there as well.

Clearly the main force had only searched up to this point.

Yu Dazhang looked at the space between the two mountains, and after only a brief thought, guessed what Chief Long was thinking.

Although the two mountains were adjacent, there was no need to search the other one.

If the underground prison were on the other mountain, that box truck wouldn't have taken the longer way around via this mountain road.

Could it be that the two suicide victims had discovered they were being followed and deliberately led the police into a trap?

This hypothesis lingered in Yu Dazhang's mind for only two seconds before he rejected it.

Those two definitely hadn't realized they were being followed; otherwise they would have tried to escape long ago, or simply chosen a different route.

They couldn't have led the police all the way to Liancheng on purpose.

Moreover, when they slowed down, they were still a considerable distance from that mountain road.

It was the middle of the night; at that distance they simply couldn't have seen the entrance to the mountain road ahead.

From this point alone, one could tell they traveled that mountain road often—otherwise they wouldn't have found the entrance so accurately.

Since the location wasn't wrong, why hadn't so many people found it?

Every marker was crystal clear, showing the search had been very thorough, without missing any possible hiding place.

Staring at the electronic map on the screen, Yu Dazhang's mind was running at full speed.

"If it were me, after choosing a suitable civil defense project, I would definitely set up a warning facility at the entrance."

"This facility could serve both as camouflage and as an early warning."

"To avoid arousing suspicion, I'd also need to make this facility seem reasonable, for example..."

His eyes once again fell on that mountain road, then he went through the markers on either side one by one.

A picking garden, a guesthouse, a pig farm, a resort, a restaurant...

"Since each one has its own reasonability, then use process of elimination."

First, the picking garden.

Yu Dazhang considered the nature of a picking garden's business in his mind.

To be reasonable, it would have to be open to the public, and people who came to a picking garden to play were usually groups.

Too many eyes around.

If the entrance were set at a place like this, it would easily be discovered.

Simple construction, single business activity—places like that weren't suitable for camouflage either.

After thinking it through, Yu Dazhang decisively ruled it out.

When he looked again at the picking garden's marker on the screen, he even found it a bit of an eyesore.

"Chief Long, can I delete the markers on the electronic map?" Yu Dazhang looked up and asked.

"Of course." Chief Long replied:

"Which one do you want to delete? Need my help?"

"No, no, no." Yu Dazhang quickly waved his hand:

"I can delete it myself."

Saying so, he touched the screen with his finger and deleted the marker representing the picking garden from the map.

Much easier on the eyes now... Among the many criminal investigation methods, Yu Dazhang's favorite was process of elimination.

Because eliminating things triggers positive emotions in people, producing a sense of pleasure.

This is also the main reason why "match-three" style games have such a large audience.

Ancient emperors also loved playing this kind of game, but what they played was real-person match-three or nine-clan match-three.

Yu Dazhang turned his gaze to the other markers again.

Looking at it this way, the guesthouse and the restaurant were also unsuitable for camouflage.

First, it wasn't complex enough.

A disguise requires a relatively complex environment, so the entrance can be hidden more effectively.

But homestays and hotels are usually fairly simple places, making it hard to provide enough cover.

Second, these two places constantly receive outsiders.

That means all kinds of people coming and going, which raises the risk of being discovered.

There's a saying: walk by the river often enough, and your shoes are bound to get wet.

With outsiders constantly coming to eat and stay, it's only a matter of time before someone notices something off.

So homestays and hotels can be ruled out as well.

Yu Dazhang promptly deleted those two markers from the electronic map.

He didn't need to ask — he knew that anywhere marked on the map had already been searched by Director Long and his team.

Since they hadn't found it, there were only two possibilities:

One, the entrance really wasn't there.

Two, it was hidden even deeper.

The three locations just eliminated fell into the first category.

Next…

The resort villa and the pig farm.

These two places were a bit more interesting.

The resort villa had a variety of architectural styles — hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities, and so on.

In a diversified environment like this, building a single extra room wouldn't draw any attention.

That provided convenient conditions for any concealed entrances or exits that might be needed.

There was another convenient condition that other commercial facilities didn't have.

The demand for supplies.

A resort villa like this consumed an enormous amount of food every month, so even if large quantities of ingredients were purchased here, no one would find it suspicious.

That would also neatly solve the food problem for that underground prison.

"Has this resort villa been searched?" Yu Dazhang looked at Director Long.

It looked like a question he already knew the answer to, but in fact he was asking about how thorough the search had been.

Director Long naturally picked up on that. He nodded and said:

"The resort villa was our key search target. Every room was carefully checked — no hidden doors or passages were found."

That can't be right… Yu Dazhang stared at the two remaining markers on the electronic map, his brow furrowing.

Only here could the food problem be solved.

If the resort villa wasn't the disguise site, then how had they solved the food problem?

Could it be that pig farm?

No.

Pigs eat feed — buying large quantities of ingredients meant for people would definitely raise suspicion.

So that resort villa definitely had a problem!

Yu Dazhang set down the tablet, stood up, and said:

"I need to go take a look at that villa."

(End of chapter)