Chapter 1372

Dawn rose in the east, green vines hung low, indoors without wind things still danced, nothing but oxen and horses running.

Wang Chuansheng lay on the ground, his legs twitching unconsciously twice. He had been busy all night, only lying down on the camp bed at dawn, then fell silent.

A room full of policemen walked back and forth, yet did not wake Wang Chuansheng, until the leaders began work, when someone kicked Wang Chuansheng.

Wang Chuansheng rolled over in a Huang-style tumble and sat up, eyes still closed, speaking clearly: "The materials for the Bajian corpse-burning case have been organized, just waiting for Director Jiang to review."

"How do you know I'm not Director Jiang?" Shen Yaowei, who kicked him, complained.

Wang Chuansheng opened his eyes: "Director Jiang kicked so accurately, all hitting pressure points……pah, Director Jiang would never kick people, one guess and I knew it was you, brat!"

Shen Yaowei chuckled twice: "Director Jiang has arrived, I'm doing this for your own good."

"For my own good, I should let Director Jiang see me bowing my head, exhausting myself, sleeping on the camp bed." Wang Chuansheng complained while slowly tidying up the camp bed.

As he was tidying, Jiang Yuan, Liu Jinghui, and Xu Taining walked into the meeting room together, the first thing catching their eyes being Wang Chuansheng tidying the camp bed.

"Oh, Chuansheng slept in the office last night?" Liu Jinghui, being sensible, shouted upon entering, as if deeply shocked inside.

Wang Chuansheng smiled contentedly, saying: "Last night was too late, I really couldn't hold on, so I slept a few hours, but the materials for the Bajian corpse-burning case have been organized, and the other four cases sent over, rated C, I have also contacted personnel to deliver the related evidence, everything should be clarified by noon today."

Liu Jinghui smoothly followed the topic, thinking: "These four C-rated cases, where are they from?"

"Three of them are from Pingzhou, some involved pre-mortem corpse burning, some post-mortem. The other is from our Changyang City, a corpse burned in the wilderness, identity uncertain, burned severely, rated C-." Wang Chuansheng said.

"Are the crime scenes all confirmed?" Liu Jinghui said while walking to the desk: "Chuansheng summarized well, three from Pingzhou, one from Shannan, this is quite interesting……adding the Li Huimin case, currently suspected cases are concentrated in Pingzhou and Shannan……"

"Is the killer operating in both places?" Huang Qingmin heard several people arrive, wiped his face and came over, also with deep dark circles, asking: "If it's really two places, our dragnet is too wide."

Xu Taining was very experienced in this, firmly glanced at Huang Qingmin, saying: "Don't rush, resources invested elsewhere cannot compare to Shannan and Pingzhou, so Shannan and Pingzhou get results first. Thus, resources determine everything, you need massive resource investment to get massive output."

Huang Qingmin chuckled, basically ignoring Xu Taining's point. Not that he disbelieved resource theory, placed elsewhere he would advocate resource theory even more than Xu Taining.

Furthermore, Huang Qingmin having interacted with Xu Taining many times, knew he could not win an argument with Xu Taining, because he dares to bet any decision against anyone.

It's not that his accuracy is high, but that he has already bet everything, so any form of annotation, to him, is cost-free.

Xu Taining's work is destined for him to only win, even to win splendidly. At this moment, he is like a champion team's coach, victory to him is commonplace, continuous victory is his daily routine, defeat would ruin his reputation.

"I'll check on the progress." Xu Taining did not look at specific materials, just picked up his phone to track people.

Jiang Yuan picked up the existing evidence of the newly arrived C-rated cases for review.

The evidence being sent over are all physical objects, photos are basically complete.

According to Xu Taining's grading, compared to B-rated case similarity, these C-rated cases are actually mainly similar in target selection and corpse burning to the Li Huimin case, to say the modus operandi is identical, there is still discussion.

However, just like Xu Taining, Jiang Yuan is not in a hurry either. Since the big net has already been cast, there's no need to rush the haul, he continued reviewing the earlier case files, calm and unhurried like an air force veteran turned fisherman, now everything is ready, lacking not skill or effort, but fishery resources!

Near dusk, green vines slightly curled.

Jiang Yuan's phone "buzz-buzz" rang.

Zhang Dinghui's laughter from Meiyang City Bureau came first: "Hahahaha, finally caught you when I called. You just got off work, about to eat, hahahaha……"

Jiang Yuan only felt it childish, replying: "Still my normal working hours, Director Zhang, do you usually sleep well? Still have night terrors?"

"You brat, hahahaha……" Zhang Dinghui was laughed into amusement, to the point that his junior subordinates stared dumbfounded, the two newly hired officers couldn't help but glance at each other, feeling they had grasped the pulse of officialdom.

"Any findings?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"Yes, we have a case, arson after breaking in, but it didn't ignite, only burned the curtains, but the victim was indeed bound hand and foot, the binding method also matches, I'll have someone send the materials to you?" Zhang Dinghui said, getting down to business, immediately attracting Jiang Yuan's attention.

"Great, trouble you." Jiang Yuan also didn't find Zhang Dinghui childish anymore, with this ability to submit first, he must be an old mischievous child.

"What's there to be polite about, I'll have someone first send the basic case information to you, send a text then a WeChat……" Zhang Dinghui, as bureau chief, often being served, also knows how to make people comfortable, just see if you want to or not.

Jiang Yuan gladly accepted, waited a moment, immediately received the message, opened it, and saw the case file number and index information.

He beckoned Wang Chuansheng over, soon a large number of images surged forth.

Jiang Yuan first flipped through the photos of the victim's bound wrists, then looked at the victim's autopsy report, the answer was about to emerge.

"Found it?" Liu Jinghui and Xu Taining, having received the message, came over.

"Possible." Jiang Yuan paused, looked at Xu Taining, saying: "A-level. The binding method is basically consistent, the rope chosen is also similar thin type, length looks about the same. Killing method, although not heart-penetrating, is also stabbing the front chest, total three stabs, purpose still to completely kill the victim."

"This is an earlier murder case?" Liu Jinghui instantly understood, and replaced it with excitement.

Xu Taining then said in a deep voice: "Serial killer."

The probability of the killer being a serial killer is already high, but only now relatively confirmed this point, for Xu Taining, the search pattern will also change.

"What can be seen?" Liu Jinghui followed up. From his perspective, the investigation focus of a serial killer is early and initial cases. For such a profession with extremely high elimination rate, striving for excellence is the norm, rustic fellows are rather few.

Jiang Yuan quickly flipped through the photos, looked for a long time, saying: "The killer is only one person, height about 1.8 meters, weight about 180 jin, from footprints, not a very evenly built muscular man, more inclined to have a beer belly type. Male, at the time of this case, should be about 27 years old."

Liu Jinghui said: "This case is over a year earlier than the Li Huimin case, meaning the killer is about 44 years old. Slightly floating upward, between 42 and 46 years?"

"About right." Jiang Yuan said, then added: "Wait for the case-related evidence to arrive, I can sweep again for fingerprints, but judging from the bloodstains at the scene, the killer very likely wore gloves, hope is slim."

"However much counts as much, we are already much better than when the case opened. Of course, this case must be chewed slowly and swallowed thoroughly, although it is also a dormant case from sixteen or seventeen years ago, but if we can find the killer through this case, or even find partial evidence, it's a gain!" Xu Taining's mindset was very good, saying this while laughing himself.

Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui also showed smiles, linking cases requires exactly this effect.

The smile not yet over, Wang Chuansheng again took out his phone, handed it to Jiang Yuan, mouthing: "Gao Changjiang."

Jiang Yuan nodded to the person beside him, picked up the phone: "Chief Gao!"

Gao Changjiang's voice was high: "Director Jiang, mission accomplished without disgrace, we found a case, quite similar to yours!"

"Great, shall I put on speaker?" Jiang Yuan asked, after getting agreement, immediately turned on speaker, saying: "Chief Gao, trouble you to say the specific case details."

Gao Changjiang: "Okay, it's a home invasion robbery-murder case, the killer bound the victim, looted the residence, then killed and burned the corpse. The scene was damaged due to firefighting, to the extent the case remained unsolved. But our colleagues examining the case believe, the killer's method and yours have similarities, especially the victim's hands bound, then stabbing the heart with a dagger, quite distinctive……"

Jiang Yuan recalled the call just received, involuntarily said: "Meaning, the killer of this case, used precise heart-stabbing to complete the killing?"

"Yes, our forensic doctor said, it went in along the ribs, quite accurate, and no bone scraping, should be feeling the victim's chest and stabbing in." Gao Changjiang, because speaking to Jiang Yuan, deliberately added: "Supposedly quite difficult."

"It is not easy." Jiang Yuan agreed, immediately asked: "What specific time is this case?"

Compared to other body parts, the ribcage protection in front of the heart is already top-tier, the gap between one rib and another is very small, let alone stabbing vertically in, when stabbing horizontally, the blade tip flaring up too much, possibly hitting the rib.

So, the case presented by Guqi City Bureau, the killer's operational difficulty has increased. Jiang Yuan asked for specific time, also for verification.

Liu Jinghui and Xu Taining also thought of the same question, silently staring at the phone.

On the other end of the phone, Gao Changjiang covered the mouthpiece and asked a few questions, then said: "I confirmed, compared to your Li Huimin case, it's not earlier by less than a year, about 16 years ago? This case, we have investigated considerable materials, key is there is an eyewitness, that day saw a stranger come out of the stairwell, soon the building caught fire……unfortunately never found the person……"