Chapter 1209: No Need for Motive

Beep, beep...

The modified lift platform, while beeping, lifted Jiang Yuan to the height of the 6th floor to facilitate his observation of the exterior wall.

If this were in a county bureau or a prefecture-level city, the police bureau would mostly borrow a fire truck from the fire brigade. But in a wealthy police bureau like the Beijing Bureau, professional lift platforms were also available. The feature was that the vehicle body could be painted with its own livery.

Jiang Yuan was carried by the lift platform and began to descend slowly from the top floor, with Cui Qishan and Xiao Si accompanying him on the side, helping out along the way.

As the lift platform made its "ze-ze" sound tirelessly, Xiao Si couldn't help but say: "Why did we always hang ropes from above before?"

"Because borrowing cars from the municipal bureau is too much trouble." Cui Qishan had an expression of "it goes without saying," then looked at Xiao Si's unhappy expression and said: "If you're not satisfied, you can go borrow it next time."

"They hang up on me." Xiao Si curled his lips: "If I had a title like Captain or something, I would have borrowed the car long ago."

Cui Qishan stared at Xiao Si with a look that could make a person fall from a height: "You mean, I, this Captain, am just occupying a position without doing any work?"

Xiao Si: "It's not the first time I've said that. Of course, the words I used might not be as high-level as yours."

"You know how to use honorifics now?" Cui Qishan raised his hand but put it down again: "I won't slap you. We're standing so high; let's not let the people below see a joke."

"It doesn't matter." Xiao Si's tone carried a faint sense of seeking death: "We have plenty of days ahead of us for people to see us as a joke."

"Next section." Jiang Yuan interrupted their bickering. Only then did Cui Qishan notice that the lift platform had landed on the vehicle carriage, and the vehicle began to move. After reaching the position, it lifted the three of them again.

Jiang Yuan looked at the wall surface, turning his head from time to time to look at the surroundings, especially the greenery on the ground and the road outside the wall.

"Hanging ropes down might be a bit faster." Jiang Yuan looked at the slowly changing wall surface, feeling slightly bored. A wall without any traces was like a fake antique at first glance; one could tell there was nothing to it just by looking. But the speed of the lift platform was what it was, and most of the time was equivalent to waiting.

However, taking the time to look at the greenery and the road outside the wall was also necessary. To a certain extent, on-site inspection is analyzing the criminal's psychology. You have to guess how they left so that you can do a more detailed inspection at the key points during the investigation.

When this mode develops to its peak, it becomes a crime scene reconstruction, directly simulating the perpetrator's activities within a certain space. Of course, this mode has very high requirements for evidence. Its status as an advanced skill for bloodstain analysis is because only a large amount of blood can provide so many on-site clues like footprints, fingerprints, palm prints, and tool marks.

Cui Qishan didn't understand Jiang Yuan's thoughts and just expressed respect: "Hanging ropes is very straining. If you do it for a long time, the average person can't stand it."

Xiao Si sneered on the side, talking to himself in a voice only Cui Qishan could hear: "We don't count as people, huh."

Cui Qishan's tolerance for Xiao Si was actually very high. As long as he didn't affect others, he let him talk. As a criminal police officer, one can even communicate with informants who are high on drugs and out of their minds; what's a foul-mouthed colleague? Not to mention, Xiao Si was still useful.

Cui Qishan turned his head and said: "How about this, you carry a camera on your side too. Don't wait for Captain Jiang to find traces. Just based on the speed of the lift platform's descent, take pictures of the wall surface we pass. Go back and organize and mark them to facilitate Captain Jiang's subsequent search and comparison."

Jiang Yuan couldn't help but nod. Although it wasn't strictly necessary, this rigorous attitude toward evidence was necessary.

Xiao Si originally only needed to stand on the side. Now that he had been given such a big task, his face couldn't help but fall, but he still obediently picked up the camera to take pictures, muttering: "The one and a half sections we passed before weren't filmed."

"Then you go hang the ropes and film it in a while." Cui Qishan gave a reasonable solution.

Xiao Si's face turned green: "Can't I use the lift platform even if there is one? I'll wait until Captain Jiang is done and then supplement it."

"You haven't taken Director Jiang's habits to heart at all. After Director Jiang finishes the inspection, he will analyze and compare. At that time, you won't be able to produce photos, and then you'll drive the lift platform to film? Waste of time! I'll have people prepare the ropes now. You go down in a while and film the omissions. Speed up the ropes a bit, just enough to catch up with us." Cui Qishan instantly arranged Xiao Si clearly.

Jiang Yuan internally expressed approval and inexplicably thought of Shen Yaowei. Of course, Shen Yaowei spoke much more pleasantly than Xiao Si; it was just that he still needed practice in doing things.

The lift platform went down and up, brushing past the exterior facade of the Avi Apartments section by section.

The reporters below were also craning their necks to watch, taking photos from time to time, but soon they also fell into boredom.

Watching on-site inspections and such is inherently very boring. Some experienced people might have seen criminal police on-site inspections. If they don't know the ropes, they feel like they are doing foreplay for the room, touching and wiping, not knowing what they are busy with. But if they are in the know and know where the erogenous zones are, they often smile knowingly.

"Stop for a moment."

When the lift platform rose to the position between the second and third floors, Cui Qishan finally heard the sound he wanted.

Jiang Yuan raised his hand to call a stop, which was equivalent to solving the case.

Cui Qishan's standing posture changed from attention to at ease.

Jiang Yuan didn't know what Cui Qishan was thinking; he just looked at the traces on the wall by himself and began to sprinkle powder.

Traces on the wall surface are harder to preserve compared to traces indoors, so they don't look very obvious, especially the traces on dry-hanging stone materials, which are even less easy to reveal.

On the other hand, the multi-band light source that Jiang Yuan uses more often is also not suitable for use on a small lift platform under daylight. In the end, the most traditional powder was the most useful.

Once the powder here was sprinkled on, one could see the not-so-obvious scratches and wear. Xiao Si, who had returned, hurriedly took pictures. Jiang Yuan paid more attention to the position, direction, and depth.

This was above the second floor and below the third floor of the apartment. Jiang Yuan only saw traces of hands and feet, but no traces of tools. Looking more carefully, the traces in front of him were all downward traces, with no traces of climbing upward.

In this way, the killer either used another way to go upstairs, or took two paths to go up and down the building separately.

"Judging from the traces, the killer climbed down from the rooftop on the top floor and didn't pass through other windows." Jiang Yuan said while recording.

"No inside help in the apartment?" Cui Qishan asked.

"This is the route of departure, indicating that when he left, he came out of the victim's home, went to the rooftop, and then climbed down. But how he got in, we still need to keep looking." Jiang Yuan shook his head slightly.

Cui Qishan frowned: "Why not leave directly from Martina's home? Coming out and then going to the rooftop is a bit superfluous, right?"

"Coming out of Martina's home window and then going down would pass by other people's windows. Besides, this climbing route is probably not easy to climb. Instead, it's better to choose this kind of wall surface with an outer edge from the top floor down... For someone who is good at rock climbing, climbing down six floors along this route should be very easy."

Jiang Yuan had already thought about this problem and answered very quickly.

Cui Qishan raised his eyebrows: "The killer is a rock climbing expert?"

"High probability. He was free-climbing." Jiang Yuan finished looking at the wall surface and specifically jumped off the lift platform to look at the ground.

"The ground is cleaned every day." Cui Qishan reminded him in a low voice: "After the case, the outdoor cleaning here didn't stop. They outsourced it to a cleaning company, and the cleaning company gets paid by the job. We only ordered them to stop yesterday."

"There are no traces on the ground, but there is a depression in the lawn next to it... The perpetrator climbed from top to bottom to the second floor and jumped down directly..." Jiang Yuan stated the result of his observation directly without further deduction.

Xiao Si tutted: "Jumped down from a height of four or five meters? Don't his feet hurt?"

Jiang Yuan wiped it with his hand and continued: "As far as we can see, our suspect is a rock climbing expert, free-climbing. Judging from the distance of the climbing points chosen each time, his arm span is over 1.9 meters, and he has a tall and sturdy build. In addition, the suspect has a certain ability for counter-reconnaissance. He not only cleaned up some traces in Martina's room but also cleaned up the traces on the rooftop."

After Jiang Yuan finished saying this, he signaled for the lift platform to continue moving forward. The exterior facade of the apartment building hadn't been fully looked at, and the climbing route hadn't been found either.

However, there wasn't much area left. Jiang Yuan let Cui Qishan go and took Xiao Si and Wang Chuanxing to circle around. This time, he wasn't in a hurry.

It was just another three times up and down before Jiang Yuan saw another climbing route. This time it was at the northwest corner of the building, still in the free-climbing mode.

And looking at it now, Jiang Yuan instantly understood why there were two routes, because the needs for climbing up and going down were different. The suspect obviously chose the easiest route for both.

And similar to the previous route, for this route, the suspect also chose to climb to the rooftop.

After Jiang Yuan reached this conclusion, Cui Qishan couldn't wait to say: "The suspect tricked them into opening the door? I have a suspect! Martina had an ex-boyfriend who works in a private enterprise in Shanghai, loves rock climbing, and has long participated in various types of free-climbing activities!"

"Prohibit him from leaving the country, bring him back!" Tao Lu didn't even ask about the motive. At this time, the motive didn't matter anymore!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1210 =====