Chapter 700

Rain.

Heavy rain.

Continuous.

Xu Taining got out of the car, looked at the raindrops a few meters away, and couldn't help but shake his head.

"The weather in the capital is like this; there are few light drizzles, and it rains heavily at every turn." Huang Qiangmin came to greet him, his face full of smiles, completely devoid of the embarrassment and anxiety he had when meeting him in Ningtai County.

This time, Xu Taining will be using the funds of the Zhengguang Bureau and even the Capital Bureau, so Political Commissar Huang is very happy. Watching others spend money is much more comfortable than spending his own. At most, everyone is just in a healthy competitive relationship.

Xu Taining was wearing a white shirt, got out of the car calmly, and after shaking hands with Huang Qiangmin with a smile, said: "It's true that light drizzles are not easily remembered. Even if there are few heavy downpours, they are memorable."

"Director Xu has a good literary talent." Huang Qiangmin complimented casually.

Tao Lu also stepped forward to shake hands with Xu Taining and exchanged a few pleasantries.

Jiang Yuan, Liu Jinghui, and others followed. The entire welcome ceremony was not rigorous, but very lively.

"I have heard about the several cases you solved in the capital. The Provincial Department even organized a discussion meeting, but there is not much understanding of your cases, and the discussion was relatively superficial." Xu Taining was still happy to see Jiang Yuan and naturally started talking about business.

Jiang Yuan followed Xu Taining's lead and chatted for a few sentences. It wasn't until they entered the office that Jiang Yuan began to talk about the specific situation of this case.

Xu Taining listened carefully. This was a report from a frontline criminal police officer, which best explained the situation on the front line.

When looking back at the case analysis meeting, even if the Zhengguang Bureau could do it more simply, many contents were still not as detailed as those of the frontline criminal police.

Of course, case analysis meetings often have high-level instructions that explain the situation of the case from another aspect, but Xu Taining actually doesn't lack this part of the content with his ability.

Most importantly, the value of Jiang Yuan's explanation is more thorough than that of ordinary criminal police.

Even Tao Lu and the others, even though they already understood the case, were listening carefully while Jiang Yuan was speaking.

It was impossible for Jiang Yuan to report every detail to Tao Lu and the others, but facing Xu Taining, what Jiang Yuan said was obviously much more detailed.

Investigation is not just about spending money; it also requires a large amount of police force and material resources. Frankly speaking, if thousands of police officers were deployed for three days, they could have solved thousands of cases. If they were all small cases like theft, it would be possible to send 10,000 people for prosecution.

Now that they have invested in one case, and it is only a part of this case, everyone's seriousness has been raised by a notch.

Xu Taining sat at Jiang Yuan's desk, took out a leather notebook with an old cover from his breast pocket, and recorded it in detail.

Liu Jinghui's eyes narrowed. Xu Taining's notebook is somewhat famous in Shannan Province.

It is said that Xu Taining only uses this battle-damaged leather notebook when he is prepared to invest a large amount of manpower and resources. The inner shell of the notebook can be replaced, but the outer leather shell remains unchanged. Xu Taining often likes to record names, times, and places on it. Most specially, starting many years ago, Xu Taining began to draw mind maps in the notebook.

In that era when major and important cases relied entirely on investigation, Xu Taining traveled all over Shannan Province with this leather notebook, and occasionally went to other provinces to work upon invitation, making a great name for himself with his lavish style and high case-solving efficiency.

"So, you have basically obtained the information of the people involved in the case. But you just can't find the people, and you can't even determine whether they are alive or dead?" After hearing Jiang Yuan finish, Xu Taining tapped the table with his pen and made a small summary.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said: "Facial recognition, fingerprint and DNA searches have yielded no results. There are currently more than 30 people involved in the case. Except for Zhang Lizhen who has already died, the others have had no records of using transportation or communication tools in the past year, no news of contacting family and friends, and no eyewitnesses..."

"Vanished into thin air?" Xu Taining said.

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly: "It's hard to imagine, but that's the situation at the moment."

In terms of the operating mode of modern society, the difficulty of vanishing into thin air is very high. For an individual, it is almost impossible to complete. Because individuals are exposed when they acquire the resources that enable them to vanish into thin air.

Only a powerful organization, and only a powerful organization, can achieve this level of vanishing into thin air.

Considering that the espionage case does not fit well with this case, religion is indeed a highly likely option.

And ordinary brothels and underworld societies have non-compliance as their basic condition. They don't even listen to their parents or teachers; expecting these people to follow orders and prohibitions is truly too naive.

Xu Taining looked at Liu Jinghui and then at Tao Lu, saying: "On the way here, I also considered the investigation of this case... From the perspective of living supplies, I don't think it's feasible. The main reason is that there are many types of living supplies, and most of them are difficult to track. Moreover, there are many collective units in the capital and nearby. Kitchen procurement, or even some families buying more at once, are all difficult to track. Furthermore, some units may not let us track them. If we are timid, the investigation will not be able to continue."

"This is indeed a problem." Tao Lu proposed the investigation of living supplies, and he didn't mind the suggestion being denied.

According to Xu Taining, it is estimated that only by finding more corpses can one have huge authority to conduct this kind of unscrupulous investigation.

But if more corpses were really found, this case would be considered solved.

Xu Taining flipped through his leather notebook and added: "I think we can simplify the case first. Assuming the organization's performance is consistent, what they need most and what is most conspicuous is actually not living supplies, but a place to live."

Liu Jinghui and the others couldn't help but look at Xu Taining.

Xu Taining said: "They cannot live in residential areas, and it is even unlikely that they live in urban areas. Otherwise, facial recognition checkpoints or even residential surveillance cameras would have discovered something. Therefore, I think their most likely approach is to live around the urban area, like the mansion in Qingling Mountain, to rebuild a similar mansion and live together. We can find these people by looking for such separate mansions."

Seeing the eyes of the crowd light up, Xu Taining poured cold water on them: "There are two problems here. The first is that it is difficult to determine where they might move to; they might be around the capital, or they might have gone to other cities... The second point is that if it is a low-probability event of everyone dying, this way of finding a residence will fail."

"With so many people leaving the capital, they would likely be captured at the checkpoints. Therefore, the probability of dying in the capital is greater than the probability of leaving." Liu Jinghui quickly filled in the missing or partial parts for Xu Taining and added: "Everyone dying is indeed a low-probability event. I think we don't need to consider it for the time being. It is rare for an organization not to collapse after most of its members die. And if it is not an organizational act, killing dozens of people intact is too difficult."

As everyone knows, killing is actually a very physically demanding task. Taking killing chickens and pigs as an example, to safely control the victim and then kill them, it requires the cooperation of several people, and the difficulty is no less than killing a pig. Even if the other party is as weak as a chick, killing a chicken requires a certain amount of strength and proficiency.

From this perspective, killing thirty-something people in one breath is almost an impossible challenge, not to mention the subsequent cleanup work.

And using some people to kill others, as Liu Jinghui said, the organization would collapse first.

Xu Taining took over Liu Jinghui's words and said: "Since these two problems have been avoided, I think the investigation can start from the buildings. We draw a range, and then, all separate buildings within the range will be investigated..."

Tao Lu frowned as he listened: "The area of the capital is many square kilometers!"

"We also have to add some surrounding areas." Xu Taining said and added: "The urban area can be removed; we will look for remote places."

"Satellite?"

"Yes, satellite combined with drones. If we encounter suspicious buildings, we will send people to search."

"Then do farmers' self-built houses count?"

"Yes. Especially those that have been rented out or sold, and houses far away from other families must be investigated."

Tao Lu's eyebrows jumped as he listened. This plan might not require many people, but it requires a lot of political resources. And for the criminal police detachment in the capital, gathering people is much easier than fighting for political resources.

"I will report to the bureau chief." Tao Lu couldn't decide directly.

Xu Taining added: "If this plan is agreed upon, I suggest starting at multiple points at the same time. Otherwise, if the other party hears the news and runs away, it will be more troublesome."

Starting at multiple points at the same time means that the manpower will have to be increased significantly.

Tao Lu had a headache. Now that he thinks about it, gathering people is also very troublesome!