Chapter 1365: Confidential Moment

Jiang Yuan first arrived at Ningtai County, he had already cooperated with Wei Zhen'guo on many cases.

As the deputy captain of the Sixth Squadron of the Ningtai County Criminal Police Brigade, Wei Zhen'guo's wife's disappearance case had caused a sensation at the time, and Jiang Yuan had always kept it in mind.

Jiang Yuan had memorized the fingerprint characteristics of Wei Zhen'guo's wife Li Huimin early on, and as his fingerprint technology improved, he also memorized the tertiary characteristics of Li Huimin's fingerprints.

Therefore, even if the fingerprints Jiang Yuan collected at this time were less than one-third of a normal fingerprint, upon seeing the tertiary fingerprint characteristics, he immediately recognized them.

Jiang Yuan raised his head and looked around, but he did not rush to explain.

For the criminal police of Ningtai County Bureau, this matter could be said to be very serious; even though he was extremely confident in his memory, he still had to treat it with caution.

Jiang Yuan first inspected the evidence bag and its label, then had Wang Chuansheng fetch his laptop to compare the data inside and reconfirm everything.

The internal network naturally contained Li Huimin's fingerprint and related information, but the internal network's data storage had its own rules and was far inferior to the rich collection Jiang Yuan had previously gathered himself.

Just like the tertiary characteristics of fingerprints, general fingerprint databases do not store them; they are treated like voiceprints, iris, and other biometric information, used only for one-to-one comparison.

Jiang Yuan had only obtained very little residual fingerprint, so he needed a high-definition fingerprint for comparison.

On the other hand, because Jiang Yuan's screen had always been open for people to see, checking Li Huimin's fingerprint at this moment was inappropriate for others to see; only after confirmation could it be announced.

Wang Chuansheng quickly went to fetch Jiang Yuan's laptop, placed it obediently in the corner, allowing Jiang Yuan to view it with his back to others.

The police at the scene were sensitive and suspicious in such matters; besides being unable to handle their wives and children, they could almost smell something in handling cases.

Many people began to lower their heads and do their own work, occasionally glancing at Jiang Yuan from the corner of their eyes.

Jiang Yuan rechecked Li Huimin's fingerprint multiple times, still did not speak immediately, but returned to the evidence box's position and called out to Wang Chuansheng: "Come take the photo."

"Yes." Wang Chuansheng said nothing, picked up the camera, adjusted the parameters, raised it, and gave Jiang Yuan a glance to signal.

Jiang Yuan put on gloves again, under the camera, took the female victim's shoe, then took a knife, carefully dismantled the shoe upper, leaving only the sole.

Footprint identification actually refers to the pressure surface; the pressure surface not only exists on footprints but also remains on the shoe sole itself. In fact, obtaining the shoe and observing the pressure surface on the sole is more authoritative than footprints.

All wear on the shoe sole is caused by the user's pressure.

Through this information, Jiang Yuan can easily determine the user's height, weight, age, gender, and walking habits.

Jiang Yuan even does not need to compare this information with Li Huimin; he only needs to match it with Li Huimin's old shoes left at home, and the pressure surface information of Li Huimin's old shoes has long been memorized by Jiang Yuan.

After multiple confirmations, Jiang Yuan had no more doubts, walked up to Huang Qiangmin, and said softly: "The female victim should be Li Huimin. Wei Zhen'guo's wife."

At this moment, he did not say anything like "Captain Wei" just to be accurate.

Huang Qiangmin's pupils contracted sharply; after several seconds, he asked: "Confirmed?"

He did not distrust Jiang Yuan; just as Jiang Yuan treated fingerprints, facing such important information, he subconsciously wanted to confirm it clearly.

Jiang Yuan nodded heavily and said: "Confirmed, should we ask Captain Wei to confirm the shoe style?"

"The shoe style should be in the file, right?" Huang Qiangmin said first, then slowly shook his head: "Don't rush, let's confirm again. The other victim is a male corpse, right? Can we confirm his identity?"

"I haven't started looking yet." Jiang Yuan said.

"You first check what information there is." Huang Qiangmin said, turned around and closed the meeting room door, then said to everyone: "Jiang Yuan has a new discovery; specific details are to be kept confidential for now. I will reiterate the confidentiality discipline..."

In front of the director of Anwan Municipal Bureau, Wu Jingwei, and other leaders, Huang Qiangmin solemnly said a sentence everyone understood.

Whether it was Zhang Limin from Pingzhou Provincial Department, the director of the Municipal Bureau Wu Jingwei, or the invited experts, at this moment they all listened silently to the political commissar Huang Qiangmin of the outlying county bureau, without refutation or question.

Jiang Yuan beckoned Wang Chuansheng over, continued to dismantle the male victim's shoe upper, then checked the pressure surface and took photos.

Soon, Jiang Yuan returned to Huang Qiangmin's side and said softly: "Height 1.75 meters, age 38, weight about 70 kilograms, likely someone who often drives wearing this pair of shoes."

"Driver?" Huang Qiangmin said while shaking his head: "Not enough; for now, do not notify Wei Zhen'guo. What he knows, we also know."

As an experienced criminal police officer, Huang Qiangmin instinctively suspects everyone.

Wei Zhen'guo is his old subordinate and old colleague; when his wife disappeared, Huang Qiangmin immediately organized capable forces and established a special task force for investigation.

But now, having found his wife's corpse, and beside it a male corpse of similar age, Huang Qiangmin cannot help but think further.

When a wife dies, suspicion first falls on the husband. This does not mean Wei Zhen'guo is the primary suspect, but Huang Qiangmin's primary task is certainly not to inform Wei Zhen'guo.

"Let's hold a small meeting." Huang Qiangmin thought, then said: "Call Liu Jinghui over."

Liu Jinghui is from Shannan Provincial Department and is an experienced criminal police officer skilled in deduction; using him now is most appropriate.

While the subordinates carried out the task, Huang Qiangmin came again to the director of Anwan Municipal Bureau, Wu Jingwei, and said: "We have encountered a clue to an old case; we will discuss it among ourselves first, and afterward we should focus on this case. It is not counted in your cases."

"No problem. No need to be so precise. 55 points is fine." Wu Jingwei also was not polite; Old Huang had set such a high price, now it is their own case, so naturally they want to calculate.

"Okay. Please keep it confidential first." Huang Qiangmin agreed in one breath.

"Good." Wu Jingwei agreed.

The two quickly finished their exchange, Huang Qiangmin then called a few people, they went out together, found a room at random, closed the door, and began to discuss.

Liu Jinghui rushed over hastily; he had been staying in Anwan these days, although there was no case requiring his participation, but he did not want to go home and guard his wife. A real man, spending all day with wife and children on the hot kang, what's the point?

When led into the small room, Liu Jinghui's face still bore a smile, but upon seeing Huang Qiangmin and Jiang Yuan's expressions were unusually solemn, Liu Jinghui quickly restrained his smile.

Liu Jinghui thought briefly and asked: "Has the case gone wrong?"

"Jiang Yuan, you tell Old Liu." Huang Qiangmin held his phone, ready to communicate with superiors at any time.

Jiang Yuan briefly explained his discovery, without describing Huang Qiangmin's concern.

Liu Jinghui immediately guessed it.

Having come from the provincial department, he often runs around various criminal police teams, understands Huang Qiangmin this kind of old criminal police team leader very well; first, to soothe, he said with a smile: "Old Huang, are you worried Wei Zhen'guo is involved in the case? Does he have a motive?"

Huang Qiangmin's mood was bad, he retorted: "Have you never thought of killing your wife?"

Liu Jinghui was stopped by the question, thought for a moment, and said softly: "Not to that extent…… not…… you are overthinking due to concern, this problem is very simple; even if you want to consider Wei Zhen'guo's issue, I will propose a plan. First, does Wei Zhen'guo have time to commit the crime? If this car was driven from Ningtai here, it's over 1000 kilometers, half of which would be national highways; Wei Zhen'guo driving nonstop would also take over ten hours; plus his return trip, if he committed the crime, he would definitely not dare to fly; no matter how you calculate, there must be a one-day gap."

Liu Jinghui: "After Wei Zhen'guo's wife disappeared, did Wei Zhen'guo leave alone for such a long time? There should be information before his wife's disappearance; the disappearance time is basically confirmed."

Huang Qiangmin's expression eased at once, as if something inside had been expelled.

Huang Qiangmin hurriedly said: "Indeed, after the case occurred, Old Wei has always been with the special task force; even if he had time for solo action, it would be at most a few hours."

Liu Jinghui nodded: "Second, was the car driven from Ningtai? Can the vehicle information be checked?"

"Checking via vehicle is relatively difficult." Wang Chuansheng said: "This is a case of the Anwan Municipal Bureau; after the incident, the special task force had considered investigating from the vehicle direction, but the license plate was removed, the chassis number was also gone; the perpetrator is a veteran, having deliberately handled it."

"They couldn't find the vehicle because they were checking Pingzhou vehicles. Do Ningtai County or Qinghe City have records of lost vehicles? 15 years ago…… this car might be a Xiaoli; a Xiaoli from 15 years ago is still worth some money; if the car was lost, someone would surely have reported it; look for matching police reports, then it's very likely to confirm the identity of the male victim." Liu Jinghui's reasoning unfolded in full detail, peeling away layer by layer to clarify the case.

"I'll make a phone call." Huang Qiangmin breathed a sigh of relief, and the pressure of solving the case replaced his anxiety.

Jiang Yuan gave a look, and the several police officers of the cold case task force, who had long been trained, immediately began investigating the information Liu Jinghui had mentioned.

As feedback came in from all sides, Huang Qiangmin's expression gradually returned to normal, only more stern and terrifying, and he quickly took out his phone and began reporting to his superiors.

Jiang Yuan continued to rummage through the evidence box.

Inside, besides physical evidence, there were also a large number of crime scene photos. Although digital cameras from 15 years ago were still usable, they were not very popular. Whether it was a USB drive or an SD card or similar storage devices, they all had corresponding retention periods, generally around five to ten years, so, to cope with today's situation, the photos taken with digital cameras back then all needed to be burned onto discs, which was equally expensive and troublesome.

Jiang Yuan focused on examining the crime scene conditions of the corpse and the autopsy report, attempting to think about the problem from the perspective of a forensic pathologist.