Chapter 432

Qu'an County spent a lot of money investing in surveillance, buying equipment, and setting up systems, starting eight years ago. It was a case of "learning from a mistake," and "it's not too late to mend the fold."

In other words, when they had the station bombing case 8 years ago, surveillance was sparse.

It wasn't that it wasn't installed, but it really wasn't used much.

Surveillance inside the station was barely usable, but once outside the bus station, the area 30 meters from the exit was a pure blind spot. By comparison, surveillance in places like small shops and small supermarkets was a bit more useful. But that was also relative.

Qiu Yue and the others had once counted on surveillance videos, and it was only when they had no hope that they turned to other directions.

Liu Jinghui found a computer alone and asked a technician to play the videos organized previously for him, but naturally, there were no results.

After tossing and turning for more than an hour, Liu Jinghui was tired of watching, and Qiu Yue was tired of standing. Only Jiang Yuan was still there, looking at the footprints non-stop.

The footprints at the scene were not only numerous but also of very poor quality.

Even for the special task force, the footprints actually retrieved that day—the ones picked up using the electrostatic method—only numbered in the dozens.

The remaining footprints were all in the state of being photographed for evidence. Ordinary trace examiners wouldn't look at such footprints carefully—if they were forced to analyze them, they would spend some time; otherwise, everyone would choose a more comfortable way of working...

Jiang Yuan wanted to do screening, but he had to identify as many footprints as possible. This process was very difficult and cumbersome.

It was just that he had just attained lv5 footprint analysis, and Jiang Yuan was in the midst of the novelty, doing footprint work quite excitedly.

Liu Jinghui, on the other hand, had his eyes focused, worrying while thinking.

Jiang Yuan had finally provided a new clue, but it could neither be verified nor excluded, making Liu Jinghui feel uncomfortable all over.

Tracking a clue to the end and finally discovering it was a dead end, or failing to find the killer, was no big deal. But a broken clue was the hardest thing for criminal police to endure.

Liu Jinghui paced to the other end of the conference room, aimlessly flipping through a notebook.

Qiu Yue sat nearby and soon felt bored. Seeing Liu Jinghui's expression, he said: "Can I say something?"

"Please do." Liu Jinghui sat up straight immediately. In the police force, there is still a lot of respect for the elderly, especially for the previous generation of police officers, who were basically brought up through the master-apprentice system.

"No need to be so polite." Qiu Yue sighed and said: "I see you want to investigate downward based on the footprint information Jiang Yuan found. Which aspect do you want to investigate? Actually, we did get some lists back then that weren't put into the case files, especially the less formal ones."

Liu Jinghui's eyes lit up when he heard this. Indeed, when he worked on cases, he wouldn't compile various lists and materials as if he were writing a report.

The final case files submitted naturally had to be like reports and stand up to scrutiny, but during the process of solving a case, there was naturally no need to be so rigorous. And if a case couldn't be solved, the things finally submitted naturally couldn't be exhaustive.

"Did you list them from the perspective of beneficiaries?" Liu Jinghui didn't ask how many lists Qiu Yue and the others had, but asked directly for what he wanted.

Qiu Yue nodded first, then recalled and said: "Beneficiary theory, right? We definitely considered it at the time. However, what we considered back then was a bombing case targeting an unspecified crowd... You should have kept the hard drives from back then, right? Search for the 'SYZ' folder and see if the materials inside are still there?"

"Okay." Liu Jinghui immediately made a phone call. The Qu'an Station bombing case was a major case. Since it wasn't successfully closed back then, the submitted case files were case files, reports were reports, and the remaining hard drives and notebooks were all sealed.

For cases like this that the provincial bureau participated in, the county bureau can usually keep them for a relatively long time.

Soon, the hard drive containing the "SYZ" folder was sent over along with the hard drive case.

Liu Jinghui found an IT person to help copy and organize it onto his computer, then opened it to read carefully.

The so-called beneficiary theory was nothing new. To use the widely circulated saying, whoever benefits the most is the killer.

But if it were an anti-social case, like a bombing targeting an unspecified crowd, the beneficiary theory wouldn't hold much water.

Although the special task force at the time had discussed and argued for the possibility of a murder case, it was ultimately not the main direction of the investigation, and the beneficiary list was made very crudely.

Even so, the special task force from 8 years ago still organized a list of over a hundred people.

In it, there were private bus owners, shop owners and operators at the station's side entrance, competitors of the motorcycle shop, and station managers who had been promoted because of it...

The list was made very crudely, without sorting, and it wasn't clear who the biggest beneficiary was. Fortunately, the information of the relevant people was recorded very completely: names, ID numbers, workplaces, reasons, etc., were all clearly visible.

Liu Jinghui looked at it for a while, stopped looking at the information behind it, and first screened it by age. According to the information Jiang Yuan provided later, he first extracted those who were 34 years old back then and about 42 years old now.

With this extraction, there were only two people left in the entire list. Liu Jinghui called them separately and found that their heights didn't match.

Frowning, Liu Jinghui beckoned two criminal police officers over and said: "You call the people on this list. For women, ask for the husband's height or the ex-husband's height. For the young, ask for the father's; for the old, ask for the son's. For men, ask for their height, their father's, brother's, and son's height. For those in business, ask for the partner's height. Make a list of males around 1.6 meters tall."

Liu Jinghui wanted to compare this list with the footprints provided by Jiang Yuan, so he simply went for height. No matter how weight, age, or appearance changed, height could never change.

The two criminal police officers didn't ask much and busily started operating.

Qiu Yue watched the gradually heating atmosphere, feeling stable and nostalgic, but looking at Jiang Yuan's back, he still felt like he was looking at "The Emperor's New Clothes."

At this very moment, Qiu Yue felt that he sensed his true self: a simple youth who, after years of turmoil, had not changed his original intention and still held the kindest ideals...

"Section Chief Liu, there's one here." The criminal police officer handed over a slip of paper.

"Hou Tianlong." Liu Jinghui took a look and looked at Qiu Yue: "Any impression?"

"No, what kind of person is he?"

"He opened an auto repair shop 8 years ago, with the shop in front and the yard in back. The wife was in charge of the front, and the husband was in charge of the mechanical repair part..." Liu Jinghui looked a bit more serious. Knowing mechanical repair meant the foundation for making a bomb was there.

Qiu Yue had truly recalled too many details about this case in the past few years. He frowned and thought for a while, then said: "I remember his auto repair shop was on the other side of the city, and the business itself didn't conflict with the victim's. Why was he on the list?"

"His wife was on the list. His wife was a strong woman, and she and the victim's motorcycle repair shop were agents for the same brand of engine oil. Both wanted to be the agent for Qu'an County, and the two had even met and argued in front of the engine oil manufacturer's people." Liu Jinghui paused, looked at the computer screen, and said: "Height 1.6 meters. 8 years ago, he was exactly 34 years old. He divorced his wife four years ago and is now a relatively large engine oil agent in the county..."

As Liu Jinghui read, he shouted: "Old Han, come take a look at this person. Invite him over and ask him a few questions."

"Can do." Captain Han agreed first. After looking at this person's information, he felt his brain nerves connect all at once: "This person matches the suspect's relevant information... I think we can investigate him indirectly first."

"Okay, I agree." Liu Jinghui said.

For a case from 8 years ago, the validity of evidence in all aspects was gone. At this time, the police's biggest advantage lay in the enemy being exposed while they were in the dark.

Having had no action for such a long time, the killer must have relaxed. Someone who had been tense for 8 consecutive years should have long since gone to a mental hospital with anxiety disorder.

Therefore, an indirect investigation at this time was the most favorable.