Chapter 431

"Qiu Yue is here." Captain Han came to Liu Jinghui's side and whispered, "He wants to come over and take a look at our case. Are you familiar with him?"

"Qiu Yue?" Liu Jinghui paused for a moment, smiled, and said, "When I entered the profession, Section Chief Qiu was already a god at the provincial bureau. I didn't have much opportunity to interact with him."

That meant he wasn't familiar with him.

Captain Han understood. He had worked under Qiu Yue eight years ago, and in his impression, the Qiu Yue of those years was somewhat overbearing.

Of course, people who are awesome have the qualifications to be overbearing, especially those who can save everyone time, increase income, and reduce risk; normal people have a high tolerance for them.

But Qiu Yue had ultimately failed. Captain Han couldn't help but ask, "I haven't heard any news about Section Chief Qiu for a long time since then. What has he been doing?"

Liu Jinghui answered irrelevantly, "Solving cases requires spirit and energy."

Captain Han's expression changed: "It shouldn't be that bad, right?"

He had also experienced the entire case. Although he was very frustrated and regretful about not solving it, he hadn't reached the point of losing his spirit. On the contrary, he had the effort of feeling ashamed and then being brave.

Liu Jinghui shook his head: "Qiu Yue is already in his fifties this year. The Qu'an Station bombing case took months, cost a fortune, and had a huge impact. Many people in the bureau said unpleasant things. Section Chief Qiu had been praised all the way up; how could he handle this?"

Captain Han clicked his tongue twice: "Just getting scolded, and he can't handle it?"

Liu Jinghui smiled: "As criminal police, besides fame, what else can we have left?"

Captain Han was instantly speechless.

Honestly, a county-level criminal police captain can still live very comfortably. Even if one doesn't pursue enjoyment and power, it's not difficult to find good educational resources for children, good medical resources for the elderly, arrange jobs for family members, or find career prospects.

However, for senior police officers like Liu Jinghui and Qiu Yue, it would be fine if they had a real position, but those who drift all over the province are truly drifting in the air; besides fame, nothing else settles down.

"Then should we invite Section Chief Qiu over?" Captain Han felt a bit soft-hearted.

"Then invite him over, just don't let him affect Jiang Yuan." Liu Jinghui didn't actually care too much.

A while later, Qiu Yue, wearing an old cadre vest, followed Captain Han inside.

The fifty-something Qiu Yue looked his age; his skin had many wrinkles and was dull, and he looked somewhat listless, only showing a glimmer of light in his eyes when he entered the room and scanned the surroundings to observe the people there.

"Section Chief Qiu." Liu Jinghui took the initiative to step forward and greet him.

"I heard you restarted the Qu'an Station bombing case, so I came over to ask, are there any clues?" Qiu Yue spoke in standard Mandarin, somewhat rusty and somewhat stiff.

Captain Han said from the side, "Section Chief Qiu, this year is the year for our Qinghe Municipal Bureau to tackle cold cases and homicides, a cold case cleanup operation organized by the Qinghe Municipal Bureau."

According to normal police case-solving procedures, such cold cases would only be restarted if there were substantial clues. Otherwise, restarting them only to start looking for clues would inevitably waste more time, and most importantly, if no clues were found, wouldn't it be restarting for nothing?

However, this method also had drawbacks, which was that the cleanup of cold cases was very slow. Without taking the initiative and passively waiting for case clues, it was very likely that year after year would pass, making them even harder to solve in the end.

Therefore, the cold case cleanup operations constantly organized by the ministries, provincial bureaus, or municipal bureaus were what is called "not waiting and not relying." Although a certain amount of efficiency was sacrificed, from the perspective of social governance, it was definitely worth it.

Qiu Yue said "Oh" and asked, "How is it going now?"

He was looking at Liu Jinghui, while his gaze was also searching for Jiang Yuan's figure.

Being in the Shannan Province police community, even as a peripheral figure, it was impossible not to know Jiang Yuan. And Liu Jinghui also had some fame among the upper echelons of the provincial bureau and various county bureaus—the "deduction expert" title was quite significant, and furthermore, it was rare to see a police officer who had been pinned down by a serial killer in person.

Liu Jinghui smiled and said, "The case is in progress."

"Are there any key breakthroughs?" Qiu Yue was also someone who had played through the front lines. He spoke bluntly, then felt it was a bit too stiff, so he added, "I followed this case from beginning to end. The second day after the incident, I arrived in Qu'an County. Afterward, I also thought about it repeatedly, perhaps I can be of help."

Liu Jinghui heard Qiu Yue's tone and knew he wasn't reconciled. Actually, there was no need to listen to the tone; one could figure it out with deduction. If he could have peace of mind, Qiu Yue should be lying flat at home right now. What fun was there in coming out to work on a case? It was tiring and required taking responsibility!

Liu Jinghui hesitated for a few seconds and said, "No breakthroughs for now."

Qiu Yue wasn't surprised and asked, "Where is it stuck?"

"It can't be said that it's stuck; we are using a new plan now."

"What new plan?"

"You are really getting to the bottom of it." Liu Jinghui said half-jokingly, half-deflecting it.

"Section Chief Liu, this case is truly a knot in my heart." Qiu Yue's tone was solemn, and his expression showed not the slightest bit of arrogance.

Time had long since worn down his edges.

Liu Jinghui was somewhat touched by this, but still didn't respond directly, deciding instead to pass the problem upward: "Captain Han, will you report this to Director Wang?"

Liu Jinghui was just here to help and didn't want to manage so much.

Captain Han was helpless and could only go make a phone call.

Not long after, Deputy Director Wang, who was in charge of criminal investigation at the Qu'an County Bureau, arrived at the conference room.

He knew the situation when he arrived. He smiled and said a few words to Qiu Yue, then said, "We have an agreement: you can understand the case, but you cannot interfere or disturb our investigation. Otherwise, we will have to kick you out."

"Don't worry, I'm just looking. Unless you need me, I won't say a word." Qiu Yue immediately agreed. He wasn't actually afraid of not having a chance to speak; this case was complex, and many details wouldn't be reflected in the case files.

Although old criminal police officers from Qu'an were involved and had an understanding of the case from that day, he, as the person in charge, definitely knew more and more comprehensively.

Director Wang considered this point, which was why he immediately agreed to Qiu Yue's participation. He didn't care about anything else; being able to solve the case was the biggest goal.

The few of them, each with their own thoughts, went together to the conference room next door.

At the same time, Captain Han introduced the work Jiang Yuan was doing: many-to-many footprint comparison.

Qiu Yue was stunned when he heard it—not a stunned look of admiration, but a stunned look of feeling it was brain-dead.

Because he understood footprint identification.

In fact, veteran criminal police officers in the early years all used footprint identification.

Unlike abroad, where footprint identification can only determine the shoe, domestic footprint identification can determine the person. In this way, the value of footprint analysis is greatly increased. Especially in the era without DNA technology, footprint analysis was a major weapon for criminal police.

However, having just said he would only watch and not speak, Qiu Yue couldn't ask questions. He frowned, preparing to observe and then ask them properly later how they could compare footprints from eight years ago with footprints from eight years later.

In the eyes of someone who knew a bit about it, this was even more absurd than using a sword from a previous dynasty to execute an official of the current one.

Conference room.

Laid out in a row were hundreds of monitors, all displaying various kinds of footprints.

Jiang Yuan was walking slowly in front of the tables, switching back and forth from time to time.

Many-to-many footprint comparison meant that excluding a single footprint took a lot of time. It could be said to be very troublesome.

Of course, in Qiu Yue's eyes, this was more like a modern version of "The Emperor's New Clothes."

A group of people watched Jiang Yuan performing there, and not one dared to speak the truth: footprints from 8 years ago... if the person from 8 years ago stood in front of you, some wouldn't even be recognizable.

Qiu Yue hummed impatiently twice.

He had been "letting it rot" for a long time, but a person's character doesn't actually change much; when encountering things he couldn't stand, he still couldn't stand them.

The noise made by the few people disturbed Jiang Yuan. He turned his head to look, but only nodded.

lv5 footprint analysis was quite useful, but it was also tiring.

It was just like a mouse impregnating a cat; no matter if this big rat was a grandmaster or at the innate realm, riding a cat was always a very hard task, and wanting to produce results was even harder.

"We're just watching, don't be too tired. Rest if you can't go on." Liu Jinghui felt a bit of heartache seeing Jiang Yuan's state. In order to help him verify that "there is only one truth," Jiang Yuan's pressure was truly not small.

"Footprint comparison is progressing very slowly." Jiang Yuan gave Liu Jinghui a conclusion first, and without waiting for him to be disappointed, added: "However, I noticed a footprint that stood in the vicinity for a long time, a bit too long."

This was something Jiang Yuan had seen last night, but since it wasn't decisive evidence, there was no need to rush to present it.

Liu Jinghui asked: "How do you define standing for a long time?"

"Standing for one or two hours, or two or three hours, right near the blast point. Moreover, similar footprints also appeared next to the explosive." Jiang Yuan described it briefly and marked several locations on the map.

The map was a map of the blast area made temporarily before, with many things marked 1, 2, 3, 4. Jiang Yuan drew a few triangles with a marker, and Liu Jinghui immediately saw the mystery.

"This is surrounding the blast point? That's a trash can in front, right? Standing next to a trash can for so long, smoking?" Liu Jinghui said, already shaking his head: "Where is there anyone who smokes for one or two hours? Do they really want to donate a carrier-based aircraft themselves?"

"This is the footprint from the second day." Jiang Yuan drew a few more circles.

After the explosion occurred, there were actually many people who came to watch, especially residents living nearby, who specifically brought their mobile phones to take pictures. Simply put, the criminal returning to the crime scene was not an explanation that made sense.

However, the few that Jiang Yuan pointed out were indeed suspicious. Liu Jinghui stroked his chin and said: "Let me think about how to drag this person out. Are there any characteristics?"

"Height 1.6 meters, male, weight around 55 kilograms—these are data from 8 years ago. Relatively thin, but should be athletic, and walks relatively fast..." Jiang Yuan, relying on lv5 footprint analysis, gave a more accurate judgment.

Qiu Yue couldn't help it anymore and whispered: "Standing for two or three hours, how can you tell that from footprints?"

Jiang Yuan looked at him. Although he didn't know him, out of respect for the police uniform, he said: "When a person is standing, in most cases, they are not standing still, but changing their posture from time to time, and the center of gravity on the footprints will shift and change..."

"Then why is it two or three hours, not seven or eight hours?" Qiu Yue wasn't being argumentative; he just had too many questions.

Jiang Yuan just shook his head lightly: "There is a rate of change for this."

Previously, lv3 footprint analysis couldn't see this; it had to be lv5 to see it. It could be said that after the footprint analysis skill was upgraded to lv5, the biggest change was the increased understanding of time.

Correspondingly, if the other party didn't have lv3.9 footprint analysis, explaining it would be meaningless, just like explaining cat-riding strategies to a white mouse—completely useless.

"Is this person not on the victim's contact list?" Captain Han asked from the side.

Jiang Yuan shook his head: "Not on it."

Many-to-many footprint analysis currently had no substantial findings.

Liu Jinghui looked at the location on the map and pondered: "If it doesn't work, we can look at the scene's video recordings. Maybe we can run into this person. Since he wandered around nearby for so long, maybe he can be captured on camera..."