Chapter 431

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

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

That meant he wasn't familiar with him.

Captain Han understood. Eight years ago, he had been the one assisting Qiu Yue, and in his impression, the Qiu Yue of those years was somewhat overbearing.

Of course, people who are capable have the right to be overbearing, especially capable people who can save everyone time, increase income, and reduce risks; the tolerance of normal people is very high.

But Qiu Yue ultimately failed. Captain Han couldn't help but ask, "I haven't heard much news about Section Chief Qiu since then. What did he go off to do?"

Liu Liu Jinghui answered the question with another: "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, and although he was very annoyed and regretful about not solving it, he hadn't reached the point of losing his spirit and energy. On the contrary, he had the effort of "feeling shame and then being brave."

Liu Liu Jinghui shook his head: "Qiu Yue must be over 50 this year. The Qu'an Station bombing case dragged on for several months, cost a fortune, had a huge impact, and 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 from being scolded a bit, he couldn't handle it?"

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

Captain Han was instantly speechless.

To be honest, a criminal police captain in a county can still live quite comfortably. Even if one doesn't pursue enjoyment and power, it's not difficult to find good educational resources for one's children, good medical resources for one's parents, or help family members arrange jobs and find business prospects.

It's the senior police officers like Liu Liu Jinghui and Qiu Yue who, if they don't have a solid position, are really just drifting across the province; besides their reputation, they have nothing to show for it.

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

"Then just invite him over. Just make sure he doesn't interfere with Jiang Yuan." Liu Liu Jinghui actually didn't care too much.

In a little while, Qiu Yue, wearing an old cadre vest, followed Captain Han inside.

The fifty-something Qiu Yue looked just like a man in his fifties; his skin had many wrinkles and a dull tone, and he looked somewhat listless, only showing a glimmer of brilliance in his eyes when he entered the door and scanned the people around him.

"Section Chief Qiu." Liu 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, have you found any leads?" Qiu Yue spoke in standard Mandarin, somewhat rusty and somewhat stiff.

Captain Han said from the side, "Section Chief Qiu, this year is our Qinghe Municipal Bureau's year for tackling cold homicide cases; it's 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 leads. Otherwise, restarting them only to start looking for leads would inevitably waste more time, and most importantly, if no leads were found, wouldn't it be restarting for nothing?

However, this method also has its drawbacks, which is that the cleanup of cold cases is very slow. Without taking the initiative to strike and passively waiting for case leads, it's very likely that year after year will pass, and in the end, it will be even more impossible to solve.

Therefore, the cold case cleanup operations constantly organized by the ministries, provincial bureaus, or municipal bureaus are what's called "not waiting and not relying." While this sacrifices a certain amount of efficiency, from the perspective of social governance, it is definitely worthwhile.

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

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

Being in the Shannan Province police community, even if one were the most marginal figure, it would be impossible not to know about Jiang Yuan. And Liu Liu Jinghui was also somewhat famous among the upper echelons of the provincial bureau and various county bureaus—the "deduction expert" title still carried some weight, and besides, it's very rare to see a police officer who was held hostage by a serial killer in the flesh.

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

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

Listening to Qiu Yue's tone, Liu Liu Jinghui knew he wasn't reconciled. Actually, he didn't need to listen to the tone; he could figure it out with deduction. If he could have had peace of mind, Qiu Yue should be lying flat at home right now. What's fun about coming out to work on a case? It's tiring and you have to take responsibility!

Liu Liu Jinghui hesitated for a few seconds and said, "No breakthroughs for the time being."

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

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

"What new plan?"

"You're really getting to the bottom of this." Liu Liu Jinghui said half-jokingly, half-deflecting.

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

Time had long since ground down his sharp edges.

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

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

Captain Han was helpless and could only go make the call.

Before long, Deputy Bureau Chief 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, "Let's agree on this: it's fine if you want to understand the case, but you cannot interfere or disturb our investigation. Otherwise, we'll have to kick you out."

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

Although veteran criminal police officers from Qu'an were participating and understood the case from that day, he, as the person in charge, definitely knew more and more comprehensively.

It was precisely because Bureau Chief Wang considered this point that 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 thinking their own thoughts, went together to the conference room next door.

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

Qiu Yue was stunned when he heard it—not the stunned look of admiration, but the 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 easily ask questions, so he frowned, preparing to observe and then ask them properly later how they used footprints from eight years later to compare with footprints from eight years ago.

In the eyes of someone who understood the trade like him, 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 looked more like a modern version of "The Emperor's New Clothes."

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

Qiu Yue hummed impatiently twice.

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

The noise made by the few people disturbed Jiang Yuan. He looked back, but only nodded.

Level 5 footprint analysis was quite useful, but it was also tiring.

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

"We're just watching; don't get too tired. If you can't go on, take a rest." Liu 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 first gave Liu Liu Jinghui a conclusion, 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 noticed last night, but since it wasn't decisive evidence, there was no need to rush to present it.

Liu 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. And, next to the explosive, similar footprints also appeared." Jiang Yuan described it briefly and marked several locations on the map.

The map was a map of the blast radius made temporarily before, with many things marked 1, 2, 3, 4 on it. Jiang Yuan then used a marker to draw a few triangles, and Liu Liu Jinghui immediately saw the mystery.

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

"These are the footprints from the second day." Jiang Yuan used circles to draw a few more times.

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" theory doesn't hold water.

However, the few that Jiang Yuan pointed out were indeed suspicious. Liu 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 110 jin—these are all data from 8 years ago. Relatively thin, but should be athletic, and walks relatively fast..." Jiang Yuan, relying on level 5 footprint analysis, gave a more accurate judgment.

Qiu Yue couldn't help it anymore at this point and said in a low voice, "Standing for two or three hours, how did you figure that out from the footprints?"

Jiang Yuan looked at him, and although he didn't know him, out of respect for the police uniform, he said: "When a person is standing, in most cases, they aren't standing perfectly still, but changing their posture from time to time, so 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, level 3 footprint analysis couldn't see this; you had to reach level 5 to see it. It can be said that after the footprint analysis skill was upgraded to level 5, the biggest change was the increased understanding of time.

Correspondingly, if the other party didn't have level 3.9 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 victims' association 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 Liu Jinghui looked at the location on the map and pondered: "If it doesn't work, we can look at the surveillance footage from the scene. Maybe we can run into this person; he wandered around nearby for so long, maybe he can be captured on film..."