Chapter 1374

Wei Zhen'guo was about to retire, so he simply took an extended leave and came to Anwan City to stand guard over the special task force.

He also didn't interact with Jiang Yuan and the others much, at most just sending a text message describing his wife's situation from his memory to Jiang Yuan and the others.

For the members of the special task force who had been police for a long time, having the victim's family members standing guard nearby was not unusual; in fact, not only was it not unusual, it was also a very effective supervisory measure. Especially for ordinary people, relying on some supervisory agency to achieve goals was far less effective than standing guard nearby themselves.

However, the super-large special task force was also destined to be unable to charge forward like an ordinary special task force; most people couldn't even influence it, just like a component inside a huge tunnel boring machine—apart from the key parts, changes in many components wouldn't affect the equipment's progress, at most being detected and replaced during maintenance.

At the same time, this ever-growing special task force was advancing resolutely, and as it progressed, it attracted more and more attention.

On the weekend, Song Tiancheng brought Cui Xiaohu, Li Haochen, and Chu Guanliang together to Anwan City.

Jiang Yuan invited everyone to eat hot pot together!

The ingredients for the hot pot were naturally beef slices slaughtered and cut by Jiangfuzhen, who had traveled far, sliced right after getting off the plane and put on the table, just completing the process from corpse rigidity to relaxation, then thinly sliced and dipped into the hot pot, watching the red meat roll in the red broth, which looked very appetizing.

Song Tiancheng and the others ate heartily and with great enjoyment.

They had spent half a day flying over, and while they were hungry, not to mention that, just out of respect for Jiangfuzhen, they would pretend the food was delicious.

"Please, Uncle, come eat with us." Cui Xiaohu invited again.

Before Jiang Yuan could speak, Jiangfuzhen waved his hand and said: "Chefs don't starve to death. Besides, chefs don't eat with customers; you just think it's delicious, I'm busy here."

Jiangfuzhen said while nodding, then went to the kitchen to supervise work with his hands behind his back.

"I feel a bit embarrassed." Cui Xiaohu turned his head and hehehed twice.

"It's fine, my dad just likes cooking meat, he doesn't like eating it himself." Jiang Yuan explained with a smile.

"Then what does he usually eat? Or does he just not like eating rice?" Cui Xiaohu asked curiously.

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and said: "My dad usually eats simple food; when he gets a craving, he calls the chef team over to cook, so he won't go hungry."

Cui Xiaohu pondered the term "chef team," hissed, and buried his head in eating.

Song Tiancheng put down his chopsticks, picked up the conversation, and said: "We came this time to provide you with some support. You've already done a lot for the ministry-supervised case, so we're assigning this case to you as well, mainly to provide some funding and such—do you need anything else on your end?"

"It's enough; your previous call already gave us great help, and the Ba Jiang cremation case being uncovered is thanks to your support." Jiang Yuan, while eating, had his social graces on point—probably honed from eating hundred-family meals as a child.

Song Tiancheng laughed heartily: "As long as I can be of help, just call me if you need anything. I won't say more about other things, but in terms of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, the ministry can still coordinate and support."

Jiang Yuan thanked him again.

Chu Guanliang said from the side: "With Song Ju domestically, it's settled; if you need overseas resources, just call me anytime—if the suspect flees to neighboring countries, even without a wanted notice, I'll find a way to persuade him to return."

Chu Guanliang had stepped down from his identity as a Malaysian police liaison officer, gained a lot, and very much wanted to repay Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan thanked him again.

As for the domestic police community, criminal police are essentially one big family, with many instances of mutual help and support; of course, Jiang Yuan is the most promising and beloved child in that family.

As a leader, Song Tiancheng truly likes Jiang Yuan; after finishing the hot pot, touring the special task force, and still not leaving, he simply stayed overnight, saying he wanted to observe Jiang Yuan's daily work.

Jiang Yuan's daily work and that of the special task force weren't really seen; upon hearing the news, all personnel of the Anwan City Bureau mobilized, repeatedly inviting Song Tiancheng to observe and guide work.

The progress of the large special task force was also being smoothed out, becoming faster and faster.

As the suspect's footprints were confirmed, his appearance was confirmed, and his facial feature sketches were confirmed, the details of several other C-type cases were also gradually being perfected.

However, at this point, noise began to appear.

"Eyewitnesses insist the carjacker's height does not exceed 175 cm, because he himself is 170 cm tall, and by judging the vehicle's height, he estimates the other's height feels about the same as his own."

"The surveillance at the incident site shows that on that day, there was indeed no one over 180 cm entering or leaving. Additionally, the people entering and leaving do not match the appearance of any known suspect."

Criminal police dispatched from afar also did their utmost to investigate, but the information they brought back was completely at odds with the special task force's established goals; using physics as an analogy, at this very moment, two dark clouds float above the seemingly impregnable physics edifice.

Then, Liu Jinghui stood up and proposed a new grand unified theory: "We have always suspected the murderer was a team effort; if so, it's quite normal for one murderer's image not to match the conclusion drawn from footprint analysis. Especially for the murderer A we've always believed in, he didn't appear at certain crime scenes, so this conclusion cannot be overturned; I tend to believe the murderer team doesn't always act collectively, but may have separate operations! The murderers usually act individually, occasionally cooperate, and may even have changing personnel."

This statement is hard to make, because Liu Jinghui didn't just give a conclusion—he also raised a problem. He not only confirmed the murderer team aspect, but also proposed a new theory, pointing out that the murderer team might operate under a free cooperation model of splitting and merging.

Everyone knows that in the workplace, you can avoid solving problems, but it's best not to create them.

Unless you're some certain king...

Even Xu Taining, who is so busy with organizational manpower that he's flying around, at this moment is not unhappy due to Liu Jinghui changing the investigation scope; his focus is on whether this inference is reasonable.

"What do you think?" Xu Taining looked at Jiang Yuan.

"I think it's quite appropriate, after all, it's a case from 15 years ago, and the clues we can obtain are just this many. However, we also need to consider that eyewitnesses may have forgotten or undergone memory reconstruction." Jiang Yuan paused, then continued: "I can infer the murderer's current appearance based on the existing suspect sketches through forensic sketching, but in this situation, trying to find people via facial scanning is not very possible."

"Hmm... then, to bring in this additional murderer, or perhaps two murderers mixed in, our special task force's scale might not be enough." Xu Taining's eyes flashed with red light: "Even the boxed meals aren't enough—we need to find another supplier; the fast-food industry here is too small."

"Actually, it's not necessary." Jiang Yuan stopped Xu Taining, speaking softly: "I think we should focus on capturing the first murderer, namely that 180 cm guy—just that would be enough."

Xu Taining hesitated for a moment, then said: "Do you think he'll give up the others?"

"Yes."

"But what if he doesn't know his accomplices' real names?" Xu Taining's mind automatically conjured various possibilities, then added: "15 years have passed; they might have lost contact, so even if a nickname is given, it might be useless. But if we don't expand the search scope now, and later we find a mismatch, it'll be too late."

"Expanding further would make Secretary Huang collapse." Jiang Yuan said, having said that before, then offered a solution: "Manhunts don't need this many resources—first focus on catching this 180 cm guy."

"Alright." Xu Taining didn't seem particularly willing.

"Do you have a plan?" Jiang Yuan began directing at this moment.

Xu Taining hesitated for a moment, then said: "If you're asking me now, I only have a clumsy method."

"What clumsy method?" Jiang Yuan didn't really expect a clever method; if a clever, easy way to solve the case existed, then all those previous special task forces, and this one even more so—hidden dragons and crouching tigers—would everyone just like going on business trips to play?

Solving a case is like solving a math problem; perhaps some genius could have a flash of inspiration and propose an exquisite solution, but if a clumsy method can solve it, that's already excellent.

Xu Taining took out his notebook, flipped to the record page, and said: "Fifteen years ago, a 180 cm tall, 180 kg heavy man with an out-of-town accent—such a burly fellow should still be quite noticeable, so your idea of focusing on this 180 cm guy isn't bad; I'm just worried that if we only go after him, we might startle the snake."

"Fifteen years have passed; who knows where the snake is now."

"Alright, I have two routes, but they need to proceed in parallel."

"You say."

Xu Taining spoke slowly: "First is the stolen goods trail. We currently suspect he's selling stolen goods elsewhere, but this trail hasn't been dug deep yet, because many buyers of stolen goods in the past can't be found anymore; but if we must follow this trail, with cooperation from criminal police across regions, I think we can find most of them."

"These people might not even know the 180 cm guy's identity."

"Combining with the second trail can work. We're collecting hotel accommodation lists from various places to see if there are people appearing during similar time periods, twice or more." Xu Taining said in advance: "I know, 15 years ago many hotel management systems weren't that strict, and even now there are ways to circumvent them, but the suspect commits crimes so frequently—can he really avoid detection every time? I guess he goes to many places; at most, he's careful during his fugitive period, but usually not—maybe there are also spontaneous crimes."

"What about multiple ID cards?"

"If you can't use it up, anything done too many times will eventually show its flaws." This is Xu Taning's experienced advice.