Chapter 1045

In China, whenever the topic of drugs comes up, everyone treats it with the utmost gravity, and the criminal investigation detachment is no exception.

There were nearly 50 people present, and the look in everyone's eyes began to change.

"I don't believe the drug angle should be considered a primary target," Liu Jinghui said, suddenly interrupting the atmosphere Cao Chujun had been building.

Liu Jinghui had naturally seen the information regarding the three victims' drug involvement and had considered it carefully.

It is standard practice to conduct "saturation investigations" for homicides. Even back in Ningtai County, whenever Huang Qiangmin encountered a current homicide case or various leads, he would always investigate them. It was merely a matter of the number of personnel and resources deployed; in many cases, it was highly probable that a two-person team would follow a lead to the very end.

However, drugs are the exception. To follow the drug trail, or even to follow the line of reasoning that a killer was sent by a drug trafficking ring, is work beyond the scope of a criminal investigation detachment; it should be handed over to the anti-narcotics detachment to operate at full capacity. This means that the drug lead alone might require the resources of an entire detachment, if not more.

Therefore, Liu Jinghui had given deep thought to whether or not to pursue the drug lead.

Seeing that Cao Chujun had taken the initiative to bring it up, Liu Jinghui said, "The drug analysis of the three victims shows that the primary substance is ice, followed by a large amount of caffeine. I have consulted with colleagues in anti-narcotics, and our judgment aligns with the previous special task force's assessment: the drug composition in the three suspects' systems is highly likely to be Yaba."

Liu Jinghui looked at the crowd and continued, "Colleagues familiar with public security should know that Yaba is a successor product to ecstasy. The reasons for using both are similar, usually to enhance the mood or to get 'higher.' The presence of drugs in the three victims' systems only proves they were users; there is no reason for this to have invited a fatal disaster."

The crowd turned in unison to look at Cao Chujun, like a group of macaques deep in thought and observation.

Cao Chujun shook his head. "This must be judged in conjunction with their work. Zhao Qian, the female among the three victims, was likely the core of this trio. Her daytime job was as a postal employee, frequently visiting logistics centers and other units for inspections, which gave her a certain degree of authority. From a transport perspective, Zhao Qian was significant to the drug group."

Cao Chujun was not speaking lightly either; he had spent these years reflecting on the 303 case. He continued, "When we worked on the 303 case, the Jianyuan Group in Qinghe City was still active, and we didn't know about the Jianyuan Group or the role it played. But Yaba was clearly one of the main products produced by the Jianyuan Group."

Cao Chujun looked at Liu Jinghui and added, "The other two deceased, 28-year-old male Qin Jijian, was a porter at the logistics center who became a team leader after meeting Zhao Qian; he still worked at the logistics company and had convenient access to packages. 35-year-old male Gu Daxu worked for the government and also had certain convenient conditions. All three had significant income outside of their salaries."

Liu Jinghui said with a stable demeanor, "I also noticed their income outside of their salaries, ranging from several thousand to twenty or thirty thousand yuan per month. I don't believe this figure fits the earnings from participating in drug trafficking; it looks more like funding for organized activities. This can also be reflected in their interpersonal relationships."

"They even charged fees for their organized activities?" Liu Wenkai, who had just arrived and hadn't read the case files, was greatly surprised. "Organizing this kind of thing can get you five years."

"They had the nerve to get married, the nerve to have affairs, and the nerve to engage in multi-person activities; why would they be afraid of collecting a little money?" Liu Jinghui acted as a temporary mouthpiece.

Cao Chujun was unwilling to give up and added, "An income of several thousand or twenty to thirty thousand yuan is also consistent with the earnings from transporting small quantities of drugs."

"If they used their positions to transport drugs, would they only transport small quantities? If they had opened up the logistics system, the quantity of drugs transported would gradually increase, wouldn't it? Even if they didn't want to increase it, it should have been impossible in the later stages. How could it remain stable at the level of tens of thousands of yuan?" Liu Jinghui pushed further, gradually proving his line of reasoning.

Although the domestic crackdown on drugs is extremely intense, comparing news reports reveals that drug dealers caught in the early years often had seizures calculated in grams, and those reaching the kilogram level were major cases. In recent years, however, large-scale drug seizures have become common; to make front-page headlines, they are basically calculated in tons.

Ultimately, when the economy is poor and there is no transaction volume, drug groups are unwilling to invest; but when the economy is good and there are high profits, there will never be a shortage of people willing to lick blood from the edge of a blade.

Therefore, relative to the massive sales volume, if the three victims were merely drug users, they were just a type of consumer; there is no reason for them to have been killed by drug dealers.

And if the three of them had indeed used their positions to participate in drug trafficking, they wouldn't have only trafficked small quantities.

An income of several thousand to ten thousand yuan a month cannot be considered small for these three, but it isn't much either; it is clearly insufficient to compensate for the emotional and safety costs incurred by the individuals.

Likewise, for drug dealers, this amount is far from a partnership, let alone a motive for murder.

Liu Wenkai joined in at this point: "In my shallow experience, people who play this wildly generally don't have the energy to do anything else. My point is, secrets like this—you can't hide from your husband or wife while also hiding from the police and your peers. That's too comprehensive. They're just ordinary people, not elite secret agents; they couldn't reach that level."

"What makes you think they're ordinary people? Especially with drug transactions, problems arise easily. If they purchased drugs multiple times, it's possible they were being watched." Cao Chujun sighed, making one last struggle.

Liu Jinghui shook his head and said, "When drug transactions go wrong, you don't usually see this kind of murder scene. Taking them away to dismember them or sinking them in the river would be more appropriate."

Cao Chujun couldn't help but say, "Then you're still going to investigate from the angle of an affair? If that's the line of reasoning, it's very close to the previous task force's approach. While I don't doubt the investigative ability of Jiang Yuan's cold case team, five years later, today's investigation will surely be twice the effort for half the result."

"That is why I have decided to comb through the... romantic history of the three victims." Liu Jinghui smiled, quickly concluding the previous topic, and then explained: "Actually, as we just mentioned, among the three deceased, the female victim Zhao Qian was the core figure. In the pursuit of sexual partners, Zhao Qian also held an absolute advantage. We discovered she had over 12 direct sexual partners. Among them, 4 were exclusive, and the other 8 all participated in multi-person activities."

Liu Jinghui paused and said, "Further combing shows that Zhao Qian's direct sexual partners only had an average of 6 direct sexual partners themselves, and they were not all female. Looking further, the direct sexual partners of Zhao Qian's direct sexual partners only had an average of 3 direct sexual partners. Considering the existence of multi-person activities, the participants in the third layer of sexual activity were basically already in one-on-one relationships; it's just that the sexual behavior itself was relatively open."

Liu Jinghui projected a character relationship map directly onto the screen, with dense little circles divided into different colors, making one's head spin.

Liu Jinghui explained while pointing at the relationship map: "Actually, you can see from the chart that Zhao Qian and the other two deceased's partners were at the forefront among everyone, or rather, at the first level."

Liu Jinghui said, "Although the number of people is large, after carefully studying these individuals, I have reached a conclusion that, while not necessarily perfectly accurate, basically covers the majority: the scope of these three people's mate selection was basically limited to work relationships. The others were brought in by these mate-selection targets."

Having said this, Liu Jinghui looked at the crowd with a hint of pride.

Reaching such a conclusion was by no means easy; it relied on the fact that the relevant individuals had all been arrested and had clear, detailed transcripts—domestically, activities involving 3 or more people are illegal. In other words, the 'threesome' mode seen in the Paris Olympics, if it happened domestically, could get you five years.

Liu Jinghui had also carefully read through the case files, especially after conducting a detailed analysis of these people's transcripts, before reaching this conclusion. Considering that there are always some people who will lie about such matters, it was not easy for Liu Jinghui to make this judgment.

Yu Wenshu and most of the others clearly did not have a full understanding of this, and he coughed twice: "Not bad, Director Liu has put in the effort."

Liu Jinghui sighed inwardly, forced to skip the posturing process and speak more clearly: "The three victims' direct partners were all work-related, which means we can dig for more information through this direction; perhaps we will discover some hidden direct partners."

"Oh? Tell me more specifically." Yu Wenshu finally became interested.

"These people who have already been exposed," Liu Jinghui pointed to the small circles outside the three, "the investigation into them is already very deep. Therefore, the probability that these people or their partners are the killers has been greatly reduced. However, can we say these people were all of the three's partners? I have my doubts, and I would like to investigate from this angle."

"This can be a direction for the investigation." Yu Wenshu responded cleverly. Following Liu Jinghui's investigative method wouldn't cost much money or manpower; he truly lived up to his name as the Reasoning, Money-Saving, King of Finding New Paths, Liu Jinghui.

"How do you want to investigate?" Jiang Yuan also had a high degree of trust in Liu Jinghui and quickly took over Yu Wenshu's words. Jiang Yuan's cold case team now had over 30 people, and with reinforcements, it was quite flexible to deploy 50 or 60 people at any time. For these people, investigating in three directions was sufficient, but to investigate thoroughly, if focusing on one direction, 50 or 60 people would be just about right.

As for "saturation investigation," it also has its pros and cons in such cold cases. Times have changed, and after 5 years, many investigative directions are likely no longer viable. If one insists on investigating them, the manpower, material resources, and energy consumed would certainly multiply.

Thinking from a rational perspective, since 5 years have already passed, it's better to focus on one direction first; if that doesn't work, it's not too late to consider "saturation investigation."

The corners of Liu Jinghui's mouth curled up, harder to suppress than an AK. Jiang Yuan's trust in this setting could be said to be rare and commendable.

Liu Jinghui said earnestly, "I want to list all the colleagues of the three victims, as well as these people with work connections. If we can find hidden sexual partners of the three, we will conduct a thorough investigation of them. This is the first layer."

Liu Jinghui: "The second layer is to expand the scope and conduct a comprehensive investigation of the sexual partners of all the three victims' colleagues and work-related contacts. The killer's physical appearance and abilities are special; I believe there is still a great opportunity."

"Agreed!" Jiang Yuan no longer needed Yu Wenshu's consent. He confirmed Liu Jinghui's plan first and then added, "Through the bloodstain analysis of the crime scene, I have also reached some conclusions. I will share them with everyone, so that when you proceed with the screening, you can use them to narrow the scope and increase your vigilance."