Chapter 1284: Conduct

"If we were to... start investigating from his conduct, how would we do it?" After discussing it with several others for a long time, the old man, Hasan, tentatively proposed his idea to Jiang Yuan. It was entirely within Jiang Yuan's expectations.

This was, in fact, the only path he had left for the old man, and it was also the predetermined direction for their side's investigation.

Interpersonal and interest relationships were too complex; the old man would certainly avoid choosing those if he could. And for Jiang Yuan and his team, investigating the interpersonal and interest relationships of the child of a political and religious figure in a foreign land was clearly unfeasible.

Or rather, if results could truly be obtained through interpersonal and interest relationships, they wouldn't have waited until now. The Malaysian police had plenty of ways to investigate from these two aspects, and furthermore, these two directions did not require the results of a forensic autopsy.

The logic was sound, but when it came to the specifics of how to investigate and whether it could be done, it became a concrete, subtle, and difficult task.

Even the best strategy requires specific people to execute it. The more grand the strategy, the more it needs powerful individuals to support it. This is like scientists in a research chain, doctors in a medical chain, or Conan among special agents.

Old man Hasan looked at Jiang Yuan expectantly, hoping to hear a steady answer from the mouth of the "God of Jiang."

"I'll give it a try." Jiang Yuan did not respond to the old man's expectations, but instead said according to his own thoughts: "The police will first open a case, then estimate a rough route based on the victim's mobile phone signal. I estimate the police have already done this privately, and in all likelihood, there was no follow-up."

"They did indeed do that. After arriving at a market, the phone was turned off." Zhong Renlong had been acting as the interpreter, and he spoke up now to provide support.

"Then what should we do?" Hasan blurted out.

"Search for surveillance cameras on a large scale along the route, distribute flyers along the streets, and look for eyewitnesses." What Jiang Yuan said were the most common methods for finding people, whether searching for a killer, an eyewitness, or a victim.

However, once this action was taken and the scale grew, the voice of society would also rise.

Hasan nodded slowly, still hesitating whether to add a few restrictive conditions.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan said: "Although the momentum is great, I estimate the effect of this move won't be very good. Unless we have incredible luck and find a brilliant eyewitness, otherwise, as long as the killer is careful enough, they can avoid 90% of the sightlines. Judging by the killer's use of foot covers, I believe this is very likely."

"Then..."

"A 10% chance is not small either. When we solve cases, what we are actually chasing is this kind of 10% chance."

Hasan was speechless. Jiang Yuan's answer did not satisfy him, but it was logical.

If he had a choice, Hasan might have chosen other paths, but in reality, he had no choice.

"What can I do?" Hasan finally stepped onto the correct path. In fact, as a family member of the victim, there was nothing he could do anyway.

He wasn't even sure if his son had been killed by someone close to him.

For Jiang Yuan and his team, family members like Hasan were not rare. The Malaysian police couldn't handle it because they didn't want to; to them, Hasan's identity was too sensitive, making it a troublesome case that no one wanted to touch.

On the contrary, foreign experts like Jiang Yuan had no such concerns. But not just any foreign expert would do; only someone like Jiang Yuan, who had already proven himself and could mobilize the Malaysian police as a foreigner, had the foundation to investigate such cases.

Whether it was Hasan himself or the reminders he received from those around him, he knew the subtlety of this, which was why he appeared so well-behaved. And this touch of obedience was something the Malaysian police could not obtain even after exhausting their efforts to manipulate power.

Jiang Yuan, however, made his demands without hesitation: "There isn't much you need to do. We need detailed information about your son, to check your son's mobile phone and computer, and for the people around your son to cooperate in giving complete statements..."

Everything Jiang Yuan said was something Hasan was not very willing to accept in his heart. However, after some back-and-forth with the local police station and a brief explanation from Jiang Yuan, Hasan's internal reluctance had to give way to the impulse for revenge.

"I understand. I will have people cooperate," Hasan replied with difficulty.

The person sitting next to him twisted uncomfortably and hurriedly said: "Hasan, Qikeli's phone contains content from your family's internal chats, and he also attended some of our internal meetings, plus his accounts..."

"How about I find a few people to cooperate with your investigation?" Hasan changed his approach.

Jiang Yuan looked at Liu Jinghui.

After the two exchanged a quick look, Liu Jinghui spoke up: "We can try that first."

If trying that didn't work, Jiang Yuan could just negate it later. Everyone could think of this approach, but everyone felt it was decent. The core was that both sides wanted to solve this case.

With that said, it became a pure hotpot session.

Hasan accompanied them with some pleasantries, while the others quickly ate their fill and then took their leave.

At the entrance, a Hongqi and a BYD were already waiting there.

"I borrowed them from friends. You can drive them as you please; it doesn't matter if you crash them. I'll handle any problems," Hasan said with the tone of an introduction.

Huang Qiangmin clicked his tongue twice and shook hands with Hasan: "You've put in the effort. Thank you, thank you..."

After some polite exchanges, everyone got into their respective cars and, escorted by two police motorcycles, quickly returned to the Malaysian police station.

It was the familiar conference room, and besides that, the entire floor had been cleared out.

The Bureau Chief arrived upon hearing the news, first expressing his gratitude, then having someone mention confidentiality, and finally saying: "I will have the personnel you need come here to work. For the initial phase, is one month okay?"

"Is the case limited to a one-month investigation?" Liu Jinghui asked.

The Bureau Chief first looked at Huang Qiangmin.

Huang Qiangmin coughed twice: "I've been too busy and haven't had a chance to say. Well, we discussed it, and the case is like this: it's for 3 months. If it can't be done in 3 months, then forget it. It's best to finish within two months; we can't afford to drag it out. If it can be finished in one month, that would be the best. Hasan's side and the local police station will both be more satisfied."

Huang Qiangmin emphasized his tone, which counted as an emphasis.

"Fine then." Seeing this, Liu Jinghui didn't dwell on it. Working backward from the time, two months was already a long time. If it were three months, not to mention what the Malaysian police station would think, Jiang Yuan's Cold Case Task Force would have to return to China; it was impossible to leave domestic cases unattended and waste so much time here.

Bureau Chief Kumar focused on Jiang Yuan's expression. Confirming he wasn't dissatisfied, he immediately clapped his hands, had his subordinates get busy, and said: "I will transfer people over. For the initial phase, Nizha will still be responsible for personnel management. In addition, other support units..."

Kumar was completely following the domestic task force model to allocate initial personnel. Since he had already called Jiang Yuan over, he naturally had to learn the full set of the Chinese model. Of course, this was also a good project model to explain where the funding went.

After Jiang Yuan waited for him to leave the conference room, he called everyone to sit down and said: "Director Liu, you speak first."

"Hmm, this case, actually, according to our normal way of thinking, isn't considered very difficult." Liu Jinghui looked at Jiang Yuan as he spoke: "Team Leader Jiang told the old man a lot about the difficulties, mainly to explain the difficulty itself. However, we are adding a state here: only by knowing how much the Malaysian police station has actually done can we judge whether the case is difficult. That... Nizha, would you like to say something?"

Nizha received the translation, coughed twice, and said: "I also just gained some understanding. Actually, I should have learned about this case earlier. From what I understand, Kumar has actually been putting in a lot of effort behind the scenes."

The emotions of the crowd were pulled back and forth like a roller coaster by Liu Jinghui and Nizha, and now everyone became serious.

"How much effort?" Liu Jinghui opened his notebook.

"The three points Team Leader Jiang mentioned earlier. Large-scale searching for surveillance cameras along the route, distributing flyers along the streets, and looking for eyewitnesses—we actually did all of that. Except for distributing flyers, we had residents in the surrounding area look at photos, and we even searched for employees in the surrounding office buildings, but we didn't get any effective clues." Nizha negated these ideas in one breath and then said: "The 10% chance Team Leader Jiang just mentioned to Hasan—actually, that 10% chance is basically gone."

Nizha looked at the Chinese people who made up the majority of those present and added: "The police force at the crime scene is relatively weak; it's not a traditional wealthy area. In fact, it's a place where people like Qikeli shouldn't set foot. Therefore, in the eyes of the police, if we want to solve this case, we must start from Qikeli's interpersonal or interest relationships—who wanted to kill Qikeli, why they wanted to kill him, and why they were able to kill him. This is what's more important."

"The old man wouldn't be willing, would he?" Liu Jinghui smiled.

"Hmm." Nizha didn't say much more. They weren't very proactive about this case to begin with. If Hasan was truly unwilling, no one would force him. In fact, before Jiang Yuan intervened, this case might have been closed as a suicide.

"We have to see your previous investigation content first," Liu Jinghui said.

"There isn't any." Nizha spread his hands and specifically explained to Jiang Yuan: "It's really not that we aren't cooperating; there are truly no records. The Bureau Chief didn't want to handle this case either, and the investigation was conducted in the name of understanding the case; there is no formal investigation material."

Jiang Yuan adjusted his sitting posture and looked at Nizha with a serious gaze.

Nizha sat upright and looked at Jiang Yuan calmly.

"Mutual trust... is very important." Jiang Yuan spoke slowly, then looked at the people around him and said: "Since that's the case, let's start the investigation of this case assuming that the corresponding investigations have all been completed and yielded no results."

Jiang Yuan's team had no issues with this. Including Liu Jinghui and Huang Qiangmin, no one expressed anything special. All roads lead to Rome. When handling cold cases, a lot of information is naturally missing. As for the reason why it's missing, there's no need to delve into it; this is the cost of handling cold cases.

Nizha was so moved that he trembled all over. He had already prepared himself to be dissected, but he didn't expect Jiang Yuan to accept it in one go.

Looking at the high spirits of the people around him, Nizha suddenly felt a burning fighting spirit rise within him. He looked around and asked: "Where do we start?" ===== CHAPTER 1285 =====