Chapter 307: Past Events

When it came to specific cases, Jiang Yuan was still somewhat interested.

Jiang Yuan put down his small shovel and said, "Go ahead."

"Good." Seeing that Jiang Yuan hadn't directly shirked or refused, Shen Yaoguo was already very happy.

He subconsciously took out a cigarette and offered it to Jiang Yuan, then said with a bit of embarrassment, "I'm an old smoker; I want to smoke whenever I talk about cases. That..."

"It's fine." Jiang Yuan took a lighter and lit it for him.

Shen Yaoguo cupped his hands around the flame, took a drag, exhaled, and then said slowly, "Speaking of this case now, it's a bit embarrassing. It was eight years ago. A warehouse in the suburbs caught fire. After the fire department put it out, they found two corpses."

"After the fire department investigated the ignition materials and the source of the fire, they believed there was a possibility of arson, so the case was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division. At that time, I was the captain of the Second Brigade of the Criminal Investigation Detachment."

Jiang Yuan was a little surprised; it turned out this man had also been a criminal police officer.

"Two victims, one male and one female. The female was the boss's wife, and the male was a warehouse keeper." Shen Yaoguo sighed as he spoke and said, "We used the process of elimination at the time and finally determined the criminal investigation direction to be the warehouse keeper."

"The warehouse keeper had a criminal record for juvenile delinquency. In the room he was renting at the time, we also found DNA traces of his cousin. His cousin had a history of theft and was a repeat offender, so the case had a major breakthrough."

Jiang Yuan frowned as he listened. If this were a normal case, this would clearly be the turning point where the case broke through.

But Shen Yaoguo had come here specifically, so it was clearly not just to show off the investigation process of such a simple case.

Sure enough, after a slight pause, Shen Yaoguo continued, "The warehouse keeper was already dead. I immediately arranged for members of the special task force to arrest his cousin, but it was too late. His cousin had already absconded. The subsequent pursuit was not smooth, and after a period of issuing a wanted notice, the case was put aside."

This was equivalent to an unsolved homicide. However, it was understandable for a case that only required the pursuit of a perpetrator to end there.

Especially for cases involving people with criminal records, the killer might have run away at the very beginning of the crime, not waiting for the police's reaction, and not caring whether you had solved it or not; running away was the priority anyway.

As long as they had money and physical strength, they could live just as well in places like Rangcheng Prefecture, living even more comfortably and easily than in their hometowns. If they didn't have the burden of elderly parents or children, it was very difficult for the police to catch these people.

"I didn't really take this case to heart before. I thought that after a while, I would launch a special fugitive pursuit operation and catch the person while I was at it. As it turned out, I never succeeded, and this year, problems arose." Shen Yaoguo sighed again.

"Did some accident happen?" Jiang Yuan accompanied him with a sentence after hearing him talk for so long.

Shen Yaoguo nodded heavily and said, "A few days ago, this perpetrator—the warehouse keeper's cousin, Wang Haiyong, who was considered the main culprit in this case—was arrested in another city for theft. After the fingerprints matched, we immediately requested Wang Haiyong and proceeded with the interrogation."

"He didn't confess?"

"I participated in the interrogation. In all likelihood, Wang Haiyong probably didn't commit the arson. His alibi is also quite solid."

Shen Yaoguo stopped there, having finished speaking, and looked down at the winter melon seedlings.

The winter melon seedlings were growing vigorously, green and beautiful.

Jiang Yuan also looked at the winter melon seedlings and could feel that Shen Yaoguo's emotions were much more agitated.

"Wang Haiyong's alibi—was he committing a crime elsewhere?" Jiang Yuan guessed blindly. For a theft recidivist to convince the police after such a long time, this kind of reason was the only one that could be considered solid.

Shen Yaoguo nodded: "He even took a plane and has a record. It proves he was stealing in another city at the time."

"Plane tickets? Thieves are taking planes now?"

"Because they stole something, they were probably very happy." Shen Yaoguo shook his head: "They played and stole in West Lake for more than a month, and only came back after they had had enough fun."

"Then what about the DNA?"

"Wang Haiyong lived in the warehouse keeper's room for about a week. He had the idea of stealing from the warehouse, but he didn't implement it. After hearing about the situation here, he immediately hid."

"Come in."

"He has quite a good sense of smell."

Jiang Yuan could quite understand the change in Shen Yaoguo's emotions.

If this biggest suspect, the designated killer Wang Haiyong, was not the real killer, then it meant Shen Yaoguo's command of the case had completely collapsed.

For such a big case, after waiting for so long, what he got was a completely opposite result, and the case was still unsolved, so... this could more or less be considered a mistake.

Of course, as a job, under normal circumstances, mistakes are allowed. Being a criminal police officer, it is impossible to avoid cases going off track. No one is a god; how can one solve a case every time one encounters one?

As for this kind of old case, if it weren't dragged out due to some special circumstances, most of the time, no one would actually pay attention to it.

"Is there any problem now?" Jiang Yuan didn't need to play Tai Chi with Shen Yaoguo. As the saying goes, as long as I don't want to be promoted to deputy section chief, I am a full section chief.

In addition, Jiang Yuan's master, Wu Jun, had also opened up a "deputy section chief promotion method," the so-called "rolling and screaming" style, which was always ready for Jiang Yuan.

Shen Yaoguo nodded and said, "Now it seems that the line we were originally following, that is, the warehouse keeper's line, might be wrong."

Jiang Yuan nodded. One could think of it; when the special task force was established and the warehouse keeper's line was determined, they must have investigated the little warehouse keeper thoroughly. And on the whole line, the cousin Wang Haiyong, who looked most like the killer, ran away, so they must have investigated others on the same line...

If there were no other suspects like this, it actually explained the problem quite well.

"Another line. That is the female victim. The warehouse boss's wife, her other identity, is the mistress of Yuan Jiansheng, the boss of Jianyuan Pharmaceutical in Qinghe City." What Shen Yaoguo said this time made Jiang Yuan sit up straight involuntarily.

"I know you handled the Jianyuan Pharmaceutical case and even arrested one of the sons of the Jianyuan Pharmaceutical boss?" Shen Yaoguo asked again.

Jiang Yuan's brows couldn't help but furrow, and he subconsciously said: "His sons were infighting, and the victim was killed by an outsider to the case at the time. It was a crime of passion."

As Jiang Yuan said these words, the person in his mind was actually Yuan Jiansheng's daughter, Yuan Yushan.

When Jiang Yuan was about to leave, she had thanked him in a very sincere tone; in her emotions, one could see neither the sorrow of brothers turning against each other nor the joy of becoming the greatest beneficiary. She didn't seem like a woman in her twenties at all.

Shen Yaoguo's brain, however, was dominated by emotion. He sighed and lamented, "It's this case. When I heard about it back then, my heart skipped a beat. But at the time, I still had a bit of wishful thinking—perhaps, just like this case of yours, it was also a one-time accidental event?"

"And the result?"

"The result... the male victim, the warehouse management path was a dead end, so it could only be the female victim. The boss of Jianyuan Company's mistress died; to say the case had nothing to do with Jianyuan Company would be too self-deceiving." Shen Yaoguo shook his head.

Jianyuan Company is the largest company in Qinghe City and also a prominent large company within the province. Therefore, once a case related to Jianyuan Company is to be investigated, the previous story almost certainly has to be dug up.

Shen Yaoguo let out a breath and said, "I've also figured it out. Rather than waiting a year or two until I encounter an opportunity, only to have this case exposed by someone else, I would rather correct it myself now. Jiang Yuan, your special task force's current movements are still relatively small. Could you please try your best to solve this case in a low-profile manner?"

"I can help you look into it, but I cannot guarantee it can be solved. Moreover, the cases I handle must all go through review by Branch Chief Yu." Jiang Yuan was indeed interested in this case, but what he said was also the truth.

There are rules for opening cold homicide cases, and the final authorization for Jiang Yuan's side has always remained in Yu Wenshu's hands.

Furthermore, in the event that there are traps in the case, Yu Wenshu has a high probability of discovering them.

Shen Yaoguo was not surprised: "As long as you agree, I will go talk to your Branch Chief Yu."

Jiang Yuan looked at Shen Yaoguo and said, "I can take this case, but I will not do it according to your instructions."

"That goes without saying." Shen Yaoguo smiled, patted his backside as he stood up, and said, "As long as the case can be solved, I"

"will actively cooperate."

Solving the case is what he needs most right now.

Jiang Yuan hurriedly stood up to accompany him; he hadn't done anything yet, so it wasn't his place to act like a big shot.

Jiang's father, Jiangfuzhen, heard the commotion and rushed out from the kitchen, holding a kitchen knife in his hand. He smiled and said, "Are these Jiang Yuan's colleagues? Stay for a meal before you go. I cooked lamb today, and there's also a roast goose—a tenant gave it to me; his family specializes in selling roast goose."

Shen Yaoguo looked at Jiang's father's kitchen knife. It was a good thing he wasn't carrying his service weapon, otherwise... this time he would have begged for help in vain.

"No need to be so polite, we've already eaten," Shen Yaoguo said.

"Even if you've eaten, you can still eat a little more. You wait a moment, let me show you." As Jiangfuzhen spoke, he went straight into the kitchen and brought out the roast goose.

The crimson roast goose had a curvaceous figure, with a full chest and plump thighs, and the fragrance was enticing.

"In that case... I'll accept your hospitality." Shen Yaoguo also wanted to build a better relationship with Jiang Yuan.

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