Chapter 1207

After Liu Jinghui declared that everyone was a suspect, he became agitated and paced back and forth in the room.

Everyone in Changsha knows that high-IQ crime is unacceptable; in a murder case where the perpetrator successfully evades conviction, the key is to prevent the case from being classified as murder.

In this case, it is possible that the killer initially intended to remove the act from the category of murder, but Liu Jinghui could not be certain about this either; after all, the method of feigning suicide by strangulation is rather amateurish, and anyone with even a little expertise should know that forensic pathologists have accumulated too much experience in this area, so even encountering a low-level forensic examiner might not guarantee success.

However, having seen through the killer's amateurish tactics, the situation remains shrouded in mist, which makes Liu Jinghui feel particularly intrigued.

This amounts to a double safeguard structure.

As everyone knows, interlocking safeguards are more prone to a single link breaking and triggering a chain reaction, especially in a murder case accompanied by violent action.

Making mistakes is the norm; perfect concealment is very difficult to achieve.

Liu Jinghui strode forward a few steps, then turned sharply and said: "The function of video surveillance is only this great; next, to solve the case, I think we should start from motive. I think we should thoroughly question these people in the apartment, and have each of them write down at least three names of people who might have murdered Martina..."

Upon hearing this, Cui Qishan still didn't know what Liu Jinghui was excited about, and curled his lip: "You're playing a game."

Liu Jinghui coughed twice: "Our understanding of them is limited, and most of the people in the apartment are foreigners, making it difficult to investigate their backgrounds; in that case, clues would only come from testimonies, so having each person write three murder suspects is to pressure them into reporting, but you can't openly say 'report,' right? After all, they are employees of the same company..."

"Alright." Cui Qishan found what Liu Jinghui said somewhat reliable; moreover, as the Mountain South Reasoning King, even if he were a bit playful, the current scene also fits his character setup.

Cui Qishan directly called his subordinates and instructed them to operate according to the pattern Liu Jinghui had just mentioned.

Seeing that this side had been clarified, Liu Jinghui suddenly turned his head and stared at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan was very familiar with Liu Jinghui's demeanor; he gently lifted his coffee cup and asked: "What do you want?"

Liu Jinghui said: "We currently have no suspects, so we need to update some information. Can you reconstruct the crime scene?"

Jiang Yuan smiled helplessly: "No footprints can be found, nor any bloodstains, so reconstruction is impossible."

Liu Jinghui looked a bit disappointed: "I see the scene is messy with scattered items like pillowcases, but we cannot make judgments based on them."

"They are precisely the cause of the lack of footprints." Jiang Yuan spread his hands.

Liu Jinghui sighed: "There's also no condom or anything like that, no sweat or semen either—I don't know what they were doing in the room. Simulating death by asphyxiation indicates the killer had some familiarity with Martina, knowing she had this preference; actually, whether sexual intercourse occurred or not..."

As Liu Jinghui spoke, he glanced again at Jiang Yuan.

"There is no evidence indicating it happened, but it cannot be proven that it didn't." Jiang Yuan expressed this quite clearly.

Liu Jinghui nodded while pondering, his mind unknown what else he was thinking about.

Seeing Liu Jinghui's difficulty in thinking, Jiang Yuan then said: "If you want to know more information about the room, you can only wait for the trace evidence report; at that time, if semen is found on the fabrics in the room, it would be the gold standard; if a large amount of sweat is found, we can barely infer something."

Liu Jinghui's eyes lit up: "Your idea is good; when will this report come out?"

"It should be soon. I'll urge them." Jiang Yuan had handled many cases at the Zhengguang Bureau, especially participating in multiple major cases, and is an expert who has led local forensic staff; urging reports comes very naturally to him.

Liu Jinghui continued thinking, and asked: "What are your current thoughts then?"

"Want to have hot pot?" Jiang Yuan looked up.

Everything that could be done has already been done; for him, the next step is simply waiting for the report.

Liu Jinghui pondered carefully for a moment, and for a time could not find a rebuttal.

"Hey, Xiao Gu, I'm at the Zhengguang Bureau here..." Before he could come to his senses, Wei Shikan's phone had already been dialed out.

After hanging up, Wei Shikan smiled and explained: "I have a younger brother who specializes in copper-pot lamb; I asked him to bring the master to deliver the pot."

"Also good." Jiang Yuan naturally did not refuse, and said: "Let him bring a few more pots, and bring more ingredients as well, to see if Tao Zhi and the others will eat."

"Understood. I'll have them issue Zhengguang Bureau tickets." Wei Shikan needs no instruction, as if he were born knowing it, or as if he had attended some family counseling class.

Not long after, the copper hot pots were filled to the brim in the cafeteria of the Zhengguang Bureau Criminal Police Detachment.

This scene is very familiar to both the criminal police brigade of the county bureau and the criminal police detachment of the Zhengguang Bureau; although their ranks differ significantly, it is mainly due to urban disparities, and in essence, the work they do is similar in nature—both are rear-line positions, lacking the numerous minor cases and trivial matters of police stations, and are more professional than township-level units, but once elevated to the level of criminal cases, it becomes the duty of the criminal police team.

And as long as there are cases to handle, there will be endless cases to handle.

Nowadays, criminal cases have decreased, even various contact-related crimes have diminished, but given the number of criminal police nationwide, even if cases were reduced by several tenths, the backlog would still persist; once a major case arises, especially one that leadership values, the officers dispatched must leave early and return late.

Precisely for this reason, the cafeterias of criminal police teams are relatively better, especially in well-funded police bureaus, where they are still willing to spend money on food.

Although the Zhengguang Bureau cafeteria is not large in area, its furnishings are compact and orderly, with all necessary equipment present; a few copper hot pots delivered, after slight preparation, can be ready to eat.

Tao Lu, who had originally planned to go home, also simply stayed behind, accompanying Jiang Yuan for a meal.

On the other hand, some ordinary police officers took the opportunity to withdraw.

Jiang Yuan naturally paid no attention to these; he let Huang Qiangmin and Wei Shikan and others greet him, and simply sat firmly in front of the hot pot, watching the clear broth roll with ginger slices and scallion segments, while mentally reviewing the two cases that had brought him here.

For genius-level figures, the Chinese have always been tolerant; Huang Qiangmin and Tao Lu exchanged glances, and the latter didn't even need to listen to Huang Qiangmin's explanation, just waved his hand and laughed: "What relationship do we have? Everything is casual, everything is casual; today there's no alcohol, eat your fill and then get back to work!"

The people around hummed and hawed for a moment, then began to loudly cheer and stir the meat.

Wei Shikan consciously sat at the end, took the public chopsticks, and shoved in two or three pieces of meat in one go, then laughed: "The lamb at this restaurant is all hand-cut, made according to the ancient standards of the past; today we called over eight masters, so it should be possible to cook it through; however, the best and most famous dish at this restaurant is not lamb, but frozen tofu."

"Oh, frozen tofu also has its particulars?" Huang Qiangmin echoed.

"Homemade old tofu, and it must have low water content. After freezing, it must be thawed naturally—cannot use hot water for rapid thawing." Wei Shikan said with a laugh: "Actually, there's nothing particularly special about it; it's just made according to the old masters' craftsmanship, not sacrificing flavor for efficiency, done this way, the taste surpasses that of market products."

"Rare and precious..." Tao Lu nodded in praise, but did not continue discussing this topic.

Wei Shikan was stunned; he had originally thought the leadership would deliver a lofty speech, but didn't expect the table to already be set, and Tao Lu hadn't left. Wei Shikan then pondered, thinking Tao Lu likely did not wish to assume the role of leader at this moment.

Wei Shikan couldn't help but look toward Jiang Yuan.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan was dipping lamb into sesame sauce and eating heartily, not touching a single piece of frozen tofu.

Jiang Yuan ate quickly, and Tao Lu and the others followed suit, eating rapidly; many people ate and ate until they disappeared...

Liu Jinghui is older now and cannot eat much; he accompanied them for a while, then also prepared to leave the table. At this moment, his phone first popped up a document.

"The physical and chemical report from the scene has come out." Liu Jinghui didn't care about others anymore, and immediately handed it to Jiang Yuan.

"Let me take a look." Jiang Yuan reluctantly put down his chopsticks, turned his head, and Wang Chuansheng arrived with a pad, handing it over.

The pad, which had never been hit by a bullet, displayed content exceptionally clearly.

Jiang Yuan flipped through page after page, and did so extremely quickly.

Although trace evidence measurement sounds impressive, in practice it is not necessarily very useful, especially when you don't know what you're looking for.

Trace means that even tiny doses can be detected; thus, if a full test were to be conducted on a piece of clothing, the results would include fibers, hair, soil, dust, and metal particles, possibly also paint, pollen and spores, and various chemical substances such as cosmetics and skincare products...

At this point, the dilemma frequently encountered by modern people arises: information obtained is too abundant, often leading instead to no conclusion.

Therefore, in most cases, a frontline criminal investigator needs to find a clear object, a clear location, and point out the substance they want to find. For example, in a kidnapping case, they look for traces of rope on clothing; in a drug case, they look for the presence of drugs; or, like forensic botany, they also need the assistance of trace evidence.

Jiang Yuan was quite familiar with this area, but this time, the direction he was searching for was not something like pollen.

What he wanted to see was something not present in the apartment room, preferably not present in the entire apartment.

At this moment, a string of chemical components such as CaCO?, CaMg(CO?)?, SiO? entered Jiang Yuan's field of vision.

Jiang Yuan immediately flipped forward and indeed saw chemical substances such as H? C? O? and C? H?? O? Si.

"What is this?" Liu Jinghui held his stomach, paying attention to Jiang Yuan's expression, and when he saw Jiang Yuan was serious, he began to ask.

"The sources of calcium carbonate (CaCO?) are many, and when viewed together with calcium magnesium carbonate 【CaMg(CO?)?】……there is also oxalic acid (H? C? O?), hydrochloric acid and methyl trimethoxysilane (C? H?? O? Si)……" Jiang Yuan pondered for a moment: "It can be inferred that oxalic acid, hydrochloric acid and the like are cleaning agents, and methyl trimethoxysilane is a surface protectant……"

"Protect what?"

Jiang Yuan said: "Dry-hung stone. The exterior walls of the apartment building use dry-hung stone, right? Looking at it this way, silicon dioxide likely comes from quartz, not necessarily quartzite, granite, sandstone, and slate, all of which contain quartz; calcium magnesium carbonate is generally dolomite, likely from marble, so……"

"Is the killer entering the apartment from the exterior wall?" Liu Jinghui quickly inferred, and immediately followed up: "How did he enter? Breaking the glass leaves traces, and Martina's room window is confirmed not to have been pried open, so did Martina let him in? Why? Or, one could also not enter through Martina's room, but first enter a corridor or another room……"

Although Liu Jinghui listed various possibilities, he was not in a hurry, and took out his notebook to record: "Check all rooms' windows for signs of being pried open from outside, inquire with all residents whether they have closed their windows, and whether they heard strange noises after midnight. Special inquiry should be made as to whether anyone has had similar experiences; families with teenagers should pay special attention, as foreigners like to play this……Moreover, those with the ability to climb walls and enter, especially foreigners, should be sought out."

"Should we consider the possibility of burglary?" Cui Qishan said softly.

"Actually, we have already considered this before; this case is not about financial gain." Liu Jinghui firmly shook his head and said: "Now it's no longer the Orient Express murder case; someone has climbed into the train, found his way into the apartment, and this case is basically solved!"

?? Today I went to Singapore to attend the annual meeting, which will take several days, and I'm not sure about the schedule, so updates may be somewhat unstable=。=

? (This chapter ends)