Chapter 164: Broken by One Picture

Rumble!

A bolt of lightning struck from the sky, followed by the sound of a thunderclap.

The sunny weather suddenly turned gloomy.

Jiang Yuan clutched the USB drive and ran back to the Criminal Police Brigade building, with Liu Jinghui following closely behind.

"I actually have earphones." Jiang Yuan sighed, leading Liu Jinghui back to the office.

Splash, splash.

A torrential rain started just like that, hitting the glass and making a pattering sound.

Jiang Yuan hurriedly closed the window and turned on the computer.

Liu Jinghui found a seat and sat down on his own, like a guest, watching Jiang Yuan busy himself, feeling a special sense of security.

"Tea or coffee?" Jiang Yuan closed the window and asked Liu Jinghui politely.

"Tea, I guess." Liu Jinghui considered it.

Jiang Yuan fished a bottle of "Tea π" from under the desk and placed it in front of Liu Jinghui.

40-year-old Liu Jinghui almost couldn't hold it in.

But when he looked up and saw Jiang Yuan already looking at the case on the USB drive, he had to suppress his mood.

"This is a case from last month, in a residential community in Yunchang City. The deceased was a female, 45 years old. She was an accountant at the *Yunchang Evening News* and had a hobby of buying gold and silver jewelry. It is suspected to be a case of burglary or robbery that escalated to murder." Liu Jinghui used only two sentences to introduce the case and hint at its complexity.

Cases involving the media must be handled with extra care.

Since the deceased was an accountant at her unit, the level of caution had to be raised another notch.

"Multiple fingerprints were extracted from the crime scene, but there were no bloody fingerprints, and none could be linked to the case itself. In addition, there were bloody footprints at the scene, which were shown to two experts from the Provincial Department, but the conclusions given failed to lock onto the killer."

Liu Jinghui continued his introduction.

The case was obviously very difficult, but Liu Jinghui wasn't very anxious.

He had always handled difficult cases.

Any case where suitable fingerprints, potential DNA, or footprints, murder weapons, etc., could be found and located through technology would never fall into Liu Jinghui's hands.

In Shannan Province, Liu Jinghui was the only one who relied purely on reasoning to solve cases.

Of course, reasoning doesn't mean technical support isn't needed.

Liu Jinghui's idea was quite simple: "I think the personnel who did the on-site survey in Yunchang City have limited skills. There were a large number of bloody footprints at the scene, but not a single bloody fingerprint was left, and no clothing fibers or other physical evidence were found. I want to ask you to go take another look."

The physical evidence found, including the fingerprints of unknown origin, the footprints, and the bloodstains themselves, had all been seen by experts from the Provincial Department.

However, this evidence was all extracted by the on-site survey team of Yunchang City.

From Liu Jinghui's perspective, if the existing evidence couldn't solve it, then just re-survey the crime scene.

He also hoped to reconstruct his own assumptions about the case through surveying the crime scene.

Compared to fingerprints and such, Liu Jinghui had a fresh memory of Jiang Yuan's on-site survey skills and trusted him quite a bit.

In fact, Jiang Yuan's ability to survey a crime scene was indeed stronger than his fingerprint identification—the criminal police of Ningtai County couldn't see it, and Liu Jinghui didn't actually see it either, but he had seen and experienced enough to have a vaguely more accurate understanding.

Jiang Yuan flipped through the photos one by one on the computer without saying a word.

Liu Jinghui looked a bit displeased. After saying a few sentences without getting a word from Jiang Yuan, Liu Jinghui, who prided himself on being a reasoning expert, turned his brain and guessed a bit, so he said:

"Yes, I happened to find you while I was here, but I didn't want to trouble you. You know. Because I have to go on a business trip, and you've been handling several cases in a row recently, I thought about taking another on-site survey expert with me."

"It was only because the people from the Ministry came over and said they were coming to Ningtai County that I specifically followed along. I believe in your ability to survey the scene; if I didn't, I wouldn't have come all the way here."

"By the way, when I took this case two days ago, you were still working on the previous homicide case. Who knew when you would solve it? Yunchang City can't wait."

Jiang Yuan waved his hand, said "Mm," and said: "I know. You're overthinking it."

Liu Jinghui's eyes gathered light. *Overthinking it? * Usually, people who say this are blaming you for not thinking of it sooner...

"Ahem." Liu Jinghui changed his angle: "Why don't you rest for a day? It's raining today anyway, so you can't leave. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

"It's fine, I was already in a resting state yesterday." Jiang Yuan waved his hand again.

Liu Jinghui reasoned in his mind and explained: "I understand, I might have come too hurriedly and didn't call in advance..."

"Was the crime scene well-protected?" Jiang Yuan interrupted Liu Jinghui's mental gymnastics.

Liu Jinghui paused for two seconds before answering: "The crime scene is indoors, mainly in the victim's master bedroom, so there won't be any influence from wind or rain."

"If possible, it's best to seal the crime scene first. Tell people not to enter or exit for the time being," Jiang Yuan said.

Liu Jinghui's train of thought shifted: "You have an idea? What idea?"

"I need to look at the pictures of the scene again, study them, and then I'll have a conclusion." Jiang Yuan emphasized: "Once I have a train of thought, I'll reconsider the issue of the crime scene. Don't let anyone go there for the next two days, and protect the scene well..."

"Don't get into metaphysics." Liu Jinghui was unhappy and said deliberately: "In TV shows and movies, technicians who act mysterious often die before the results come out."

Jiang Yuan glanced at Liu Jinghui and said slowly: "I think there's a problem with the footprints. I'll go back and ponder it."

Liu Jinghui couldn't help but say: "I showed the footprints to Old Zuo. What problem do you think there is?"

"The previous experts probably just looked at the pictures statically, right?" Jiang Yuan asked Liu Jinghui back.

Liu Jinghui recalled for a moment and nodded slightly: "Pretty much. How else do you want to look at the footprint pictures?"

"I can consider it comprehensively. I don't have a definite conclusion yet." Jiang Yuan said this, not wanting to be long-winded, and stood up: "Director Liu, why don't you rest first? I'll give you the results tomorrow."

"This... alright." Liu Jinghui had no choice but to keep quiet.

However, it was raining outside, and Liu Jinghui had nowhere to go.

Jiang Yuan also glanced out the window, sat back in his chair, and silently looked at the pictures on the USB drive.

Liu Jinghui had dumped all the photos taken by the local on-site survey team into the USB drive; in terms of the number of pictures, there were very many.

As Jiang Yuan watched, the rain outside stopped.

The air after clearing up was exceptionally sweet.

Jiang Yuan stood up and opened the window, took two breaths of fresh air, and turned back. Liu Jinghui stood up as if he had been startled awake.

It was rare to encounter a time when Liu Jinghui didn't want to talk. Jiang Yuan shook his head and took the initiative: "Director Liu, I have a guess."

"Oh, tell me." Liu Jinghui answered hurriedly.

"I think a portion of the bloody footprints at the crime scene were artificially created," Jiang Yuan answered.

Liu Jinghui frowned: "Artificially created?"

"You have to look at it as a whole. The footprints here are the most obvious. They look like footprints of someone coming in, but in reality, the criminal suspect walked out backward." Jiang Yuan pointed at the picture on the screen, his tone gradually becoming certain.

Footprints with different centers of gravity are also different. But static footprints can have multiple interpretations. One must combine the scene and the gait to make a certain judgment.

The main train of thought is that the gait of walking backward must have a smaller stride.

Liu Jinghui never cared about technical details and just pushed it forward rapidly: "Faking a crime scene shows that the criminal suspect really has anti-reconnaissance capabilities. And if he wants to use a faked scene to escape guilt, it means he is easily suspected and is very likely the key suspect..."

Seeing Liu Jinghui enter a state of reasoning, Jiang Yuan simply watched without saying a word.

Liu Jinghui, however, became more and more excited.

After a while, Liu Jinghui turned back, looked at Jiang Yuan, and sighed: "If the footprints were really faked, then it's very likely a crime committed by an acquaintance. The biggest suspect is the deceased's husband. If that's indeed the case, the case is solved."

Liu Jinghui looked at Jiang Yuan with fervent eyes. ===== CHAPTER 165 =====