Chapter 178: Case Foundation

"Jiang Yuan, busy?" Wang Zhong knew Jiang Yuan was back, calculated that Wu Jun's superstitious ritual should be over, and strolled over, looking like a civil servant with nothing to do.

Jiang Yuan said "Yeah," and added, "I'm looking at a set of pictures."

"Oh, a set of pictures?" Wang Zhong perked up, his face full of smiles, "I said..."

He looked like a fellow enthusiast, moved behind Jiang Yuan's desk, and saw on the large screen a door half-open, with bloodstains scattered everywhere in the light and shadow.

"Holy crap!" Wang Zhong almost jumped up.

He wasn't scared; someone who had been to a few crime scenes had experienced everything they should. It was just that the pictures didn't match his expectations at all...

Wu Jun raised his head and looked at Wang Zhong with dissatisfaction. Being the same age, Wang Zhong was a few years older, but he just couldn't get things done. When it came to business, he was always at the end of the line; he didn't understand the traditional virtues of respecting the old and loving the young, and his way of speaking and doing things was very jumpy...

"A cold case from thirteen years ago." Jiang Yuan introduced it.

Wu Jun, on the other side of the desk, heard this and couldn't help but ask, "Which one?"

Jiang Yuan immediately reacted; this cold case murder from thirteen years ago was definitely one Wu Jun had handled.

Jiang Yuan immediately acted obediently, saying, "The 611 He Jingqin case, there's a lot of blood at the crime scene..."

"I have an impression of it; I took some of the photos myself." Wu Jun stood up as he said this and walked over.

Standing behind Jiang Yuan, Wu Jun lit a Zhonghua cigarette, exhaled gently, and said, "You don't need to have any psychological burden. It's a good thing you're choosing to do these cold case murders now. While I'm still here, maybe I can still remember something. Later on, when I retire and go playing all over the country, where are you going to ask people?"

"I'll just call you then." Jiang Yuan grew up in the village eating food from a hundred families, so he knew how to say what needed to be said.

Wu Jun imagined his retirement life, nodded with satisfaction, and said, "That works too. At that time, if the old woman doesn't let me smoke, I'll say that I must smoke to think about cases. Hey, that'll get me two or three cigarettes back."

Jiang Yuan felt inexplicably sad, thinking to himself: By that calculation, Guan Erye smokes more than you do.

The chat ended, and Jiang Yuan continued to scroll through the pictures one by one.

Wu Jun watched without making a sound, just smoking, his gaze occasionally crossing the smoke rings, as if recalling something.

Wang Zhong just watched foolishly. He did trace examination, and if one were to say he could dabble a bit in bloodstain examination, well, to be honest, bloodstain science at LV1 level was just looking at the spray positions and such. Once away from the actual crime scene, it basically couldn't play any role.

Not to mention, Wang Zhong's bloodstain science was likely at LV0.3 level—basically just being able to distinguish obviously abnormal murderer bloodstains.

After graduating from the police academy and joining the force through the joint examination, the number of violent crimes had already become very small, and those involving bloodstains were even fewer; there was nowhere to learn it.

In fact, nowadays, talent in this area was actually in a state of surplus.

The supply of violent cases couldn't keep up, and the trace examiners who used to do bloodstains hadn't died either. Occasionally, when a case occurred with blood covering the floor, bloodstain experts from the municipal bureau and provincial department would pounce on it like they smelled something, leaving no environment for Wang Zhong to practice.

"There's a bloody footprint here." Wang Zhong watched for a long time and finally saw something familiar.

Jiang Yuan said "Yeah" again and swiped past this picture.

"Is it useless?" Wang Zhong asked.

"I don't know." Jiang Yuan exhaled, gave his master a cigarette, Wang Zhong a cigarette, and himself a cigarette, stubbornly resisting secondhand smoke with the cigarette in his mouth.

Wang Zhong took a shallow puff and said, "If even you don't know, then this footprint probably won't yield anything."

"Too much time has passed. This kind of footprint without any features can only lead to some basic judgments." Seeing Wang Zhong was interested, Jiang Yuan pulled over a notebook, opened to a blank page, and wrote while saying:

"The criminal suspect's age is approximately 25 to 30, male, height 170 to 175, weight 120 to 140."

These were all very common values.

Jiang Yuan felt it was meaningless to write them down.

These values could be said to be the most common values for Chinese men. Of course, the average height of young people today had increased a lot, but the number of them entering the crime market wasn't enough.

Wang Zhong understood Jiang Yuan's meaning a bit and nodded, "So, there's not much information to extract from the footprints."

"Not necessarily." Jiang Yuan put down his pen, flipped the photos forward a dozen times, and said, "You can see his gait here."

He found a few photos, which were the ones he had already looked at.

While letting Wang Zhong look through the photos himself, Jiang Yuan recorded the numbers of these photos, put down his pen, and asked Wang Zhong, "Do you see anything?"

Wang Zhong looked blank, just like when he was looking at the bloody footprint earlier.

Jiang Yuan intended to teach him some things, so he said, "Memorize the most basic footprint teaching. First, look at the outline from afar, look at the wear and tear up close, combine measurement with observation..."

Wang Zhong recited it silently.

Looking foolish.

"Second: look at the size of the footsteps, look at the start and end of the steps, the shape of the foot is very important, look for them one by one in the four areas, make good use of the edge features, and don't forget comprehensive analysis." Jiang Yuan wrote these two paragraphs in the notebook and asked Wang Zhong, "Did you remember?"

Wang Zhong looked confused.

If he could remember things after one look, he would have taken off on his own long ago.

Jiang Yuan then tore off the page from the notebook where he had just written the two paragraphs and handed it to Wang Zhong, saying, "Take it back and look at it."

"Hmm..." Wang Zhong read it silently once and asked in a low voice, "Which four areas?"

"The toes, the ball of the foot, the arch, and the heel," Jiang Yuan said. "Once you've memorized it, look at some photos and compare them with old cases. Apply your fingerprint experience, and you'll be able to practice it very soon."

Wang Zhong nodded repeatedly.

Wu Jun saw they had finished talking, twisted out his cigarette, and asked, "What did you see from the gait?"

"I can see that this person's psychological quality is quite good." Jiang Yuan pulled up the previous picture again and said, "Look at these steps, the stride length basically hasn't changed."

Wu Jun and Wang Zhong both looked and nodded.

"There are also dragging marks here." Jiang Yuan sighed, pointed to another picture, and said, "The murderer should have knocked the victim down, the victim was still struggling, and he dragged her to the rooftop. Even so, it was step by step, and the stride length was consistent."

"Very calm."

"Right, so it's very likely a repeat offender." Jiang Yuan wrote these two words in his notebook and added, "If I make a bold speculation, I think it's possible he's a person released from prison."

Wu Jun perked up at this and said, "What you say makes sense. Whether someone has been to prison, their mindset is different. If the victim was struggling and screaming, and he could still be unhurried... then it's very likely he has been to prison, and possibly has experience with violent crimes."

"Not necessarily violent crimes." Jiang Yuan corrected Wu Jun's words slightly and added, "From the bloodstains, I think it's more likely a sex crime."

"Why? I remember... this girl wasn't sexually assaulted." Wu Jun frowned.

Looking at the crime scene pictures now, he could gradually recall the details of the case. Although 13 years ago was a long time, the impression a murder case leaves on people is extremely deep.

Jiang Yuan selected a few pictures, straightened out the order, and said, "The central crime scene is the rooftop, but the victim couldn't have gone to the rooftop voluntarily, so the murderer should have threatened and lured her in the beginning stage. At the very least, by the time they reached the fire door, he had already pulled out a knife."

Wu Jun said "Yeah" and just listened.

Jiang Yuan pointed to the bloodstains and said, "If the purpose was murder, since he had already pulled out the knife, he could have just stabbed her directly. Going to the rooftop actually wasn't very necessary. If he had similar experience, he should have known that going to the rooftop would actually carry greater risk. Besides, he also dragged the other party to the rooftop. What was the purpose?"

"Was the purpose rape?"

"Right," Jiang Yuan said affirmatively. "And it's very likely that there was already indecent behavior in the elevator. Because the girl lived on a middle floor, the reason for going to the top floor must have been the murderer."

"Makes sense."

"Also, I think the murderer's initial purpose might have been indecent behavior. Because the crime scene was in the victim's own building, this reason can also explain why he ultimately gave up rape. He should have sensed the risk and ultimately gave up the rape act."

Wu Jun didn't insist on his own opinion; by comparison, he trusted Jiang Yuan's judgment more.

Seeing that Jiang Yuan had already clarified his thinking, Wu Jun said decisively, "Your judgment is very important. I think there is already a foundation to restart the case. Call Old Huang over." ===== CHAPTER 179 =====