Chapter 705: Overturned

The corpse had to be hoisted down from the hillside, which would take quite some time. Fortunately, the police officers of the Zheng-Guang Bureau were experienced and quickly sent people to take over the corresponding work.

During the busy work, Xu Taining, in a white shirt, also came over by car to take a look.

"Can the cases be merged?" Xu Taining blocked Jiang Yuan at the bottom of the slope and asked as soon as they met.

His primary goal and task was still the dragnet work this time.

Jiang Yuan shook his head. "There is currently no reason to see for merging the cases."

"So it's an unrelated accidental case?" Xu Taining asked.

Jiang Yuan said, "The time of death is within three months, very likely only sixty or seventy days. Because the murderer's way of wrapping the corpse is relatively special, I haven't unwrapped it to observe the corpse parts carefully. It might be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow before there is a specific autopsy report."

Seeing Xu Taining come, Liu Jinghui also walked over to participate in the topic. "Autopsy of three bags of corpse parts is more troublesome than a whole corpse, right?"

"Definitely, especially since the degree of decomposition is high. If the information obtained from the autopsy is insufficient, we might have to boil it to look at the bones." Jiang Yuan explained slightly. Everyone present was a component of high-end police power and often came into contact with forensic anthropology, so they knew the complexity and trouble inside just by mentioning it.

Speaking of which, Zhang Lizhen's corpse was also in a state of high decomposition, and the conditions were no better than here...

Xu Taining's way of thinking about things was different from ordinary police officers. Hearing Jiang Yuan say this, he first lowered his head to think, then said, "If it's not a series case of the Zhang Lizhen case, Jiang Yuan, you should be able to solve it very quickly."

"Ah... this is very hard to determine..." Although Jiang Yuan was relatively confident, as far as the current situation was concerned, he hadn't collected enough evidence and clues.

Xu Taining just waved his hand and said, "When you did similar cases before, I didn't see you being so unconfident. Instead, several difficult cases were prepared for dragnets, and you solved them directly."

Jiang Yuan felt he heard resentment in Xu Taining's tone!

There had indeed been two or three, perhaps three or four times before, where Xu Taining had already killed his way over, even deployed his formation, and prepared to conduct a dragnet, only to have Jiang Yuan solve the case using technical means, saving the local police bureau a large sum of money.

Xu Taining certainly wouldn't blame Jiang Yuan for this... or would he?

But regardless, Xu Taining clearly had a higher evaluation and understanding of Jiang Yuan's case-solving ability and style.

From Xu Taining's perspective, when a department or city decided to use dragnet means, especially when they were prepared to invite him, Xu Taining, to command the dragnet, it meant that even if they hadn't reached the edge of despair, it was a choice made after the case simply couldn't proceed.

For such cases, there was no need to discuss whether the participating police officers were smart or not; usually, they were all using the exhaustive method.

Honestly, even if they conducted a dragnet, Xu Taining couldn't get the answer every time. He was just a high-ranking police officer with a relatively high success rate.

And Jiang Yuan could solve the case single-handedly in such a situation, pulling a certain unit back from the edge of the budget cliff, and not just once or twice. Xu Taining's evaluation of Jiang Yuan naturally rose with the tide.

If it weren't for this understanding, as a high-ranking police officer of the Shannan Provincial level, an old veteran who no one could kick if he wanted to lie flat, how could he be summoned by Jiang Yuan?

Seeing Jiang Yuan listening, Xu Taining used the voice he often used to bewitch his subordinates, very magnetically, "What is the probability of two difficult cases appearing at the same time? What's more, this murderer is already unlucky enough. It was completely unexpected that we found the corpse. In other words, even if he had a plan, the plan was broken. No matter from which angle you look at it, this case shouldn't be a difficult case for you."

Jiang Yuan was slightly hesitant. "Whether a case is difficult or not sometimes has to do with luck."

"We now have thousands or tens of thousands of people doing a dragnet. Relying on luck? Even if we rely on luck, we win." During the period of commanding a dragnet, Xu Taining's self-confidence was off the charts.

As a colleague, and more of a collaborator, Xu Taining had such a strong will, and Jiang Yuan couldn't help but take it seriously, his brows slightly furrowed in thought.

Liu Jinghui said on the side, "Old Xu is afraid that this case will affect the dragnet?"

"It will definitely affect it; it's just a matter of time," Xu Taining said with experience. "When doing a dragnet, it's a high probability that other cases will be discovered. Ordinary small cases are fine, but homicide cases are more troublesome, especially this kind of dismemberment case. If you don't follow up, you're afraid of missing the opportunity and losing the current homicide case—that's not like picking corn and losing the cob. But if you follow up, unless you catch the murderer quickly, it's all embarrassing the longer it drags on."

Xu Taining had been doing dragnets for so long that he didn't need to wait for the later stages; he could guess the thoughts of the criminal police detachment and the Zheng-Guang Bureau right now.

Xu Taining took out a cigarette but didn't smoke it, just tapped it on the cigarette box and added, "If we can find strong clues and let the Zheng-Guang Bureau see the hope of solving the case, they will think calmly. However, it's best to be a bit faster. It's best to have a breakthrough today. By tomorrow, the Zheng-Guang Bureau should find a way to mobilize manpower. Now the team has already been laid out; collecting them back would delay time and waste resources."

Xu Taining's reasons were sufficient, and Jiang Yuan began to ponder intently.

Liu Jinghui was the same. The three of them stood under a pine tree at the bottom of the slope, each lowering their heads, not caring about the gazes of others.

Strange behaviors among criminal police were not uncommon, especially during the investigation stage of major cases. Many people were in a fragile period of psychology and spirit, and it was easy to derive some strange habits and behaviors.

Seeing this, Mu Zhiyang didn't even think about it, stood in a position in front of the three, looked straight ahead, and blocked the path of those who wanted to probe.

For a long time, Liu Jinghui raised his head and said, "First of all, the newspaper is a very good entry point. The circulation of newspapers is very low now, and there are almost no newspapers for sale on the market. Subscription households are also fixed. Although we don't know the specific situation of the newspaper the murderer got, it should have the potential for tracing."

"It's possible." Jiang Yuan wasn't optimistic and said directly, "The murderer's wrapping of the corpse is very rigorous; it doesn't look like he would make such a low-level mistake."

"If we consider it from this angle, the woven bags, rice bags, and plastic bags used by the murderer are also very difficult to form clues," Liu Jinghui said.

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly, thought for a moment, and added, "The corpse source hasn't been determined yet. If we determine the corpse source, there might be a breakthrough."

"What about a direct ball? Is there any direct ball plan?" Xu Taining believed Jiang Yuan could determine the corpse source. Not to mention anything else, Jiang Yuan's skull reconstruction technique was the trump card for corpse source determination. However, the time factor he cared about most at the moment was exactly the opposite.

"Actually, there's no need to think about how meticulous this murderer is." Liu Jinghui pulled out Jiang Yuan's judgment just now and re-explained, "The murderer's wrapping of the corpse is rigorous, perhaps it's just his habit, or he has corresponding life and work experience, such as having been a courier, packer, supermarket stocker, or a doctor or nurse. Judging from the murderer's way of handling the corpse, I tend to think he is acting on instinct."

Liu Jinghui looked at Jiang Yuan and saw that he didn't mind his conclusion being overturned, so he continued, "Using woven bags, rice bags, and plastic bags to hold the corpse shows that the murderer didn't have much preparation. The reason for the murder is very likely a crime of passion or an accidental murder. But in order to escape punishment, he adopted the method of dismemberment. These things were also very likely found at home."

Jiang Yuan and Xu Taining both nodded. Rice bags, woven bags, and large plastic bags were a few large bags suitable for dismemberment found at home; this was a very reasonable explanation.

Liu Jinghui said, "This shows one point: the murderer has the conditions for living alone, very likely an independent housing, which to a large extent excludes young people in group housing or shared housing."

Jiang Yuan and Xu Taining nodded again.

Liu Jinghui: "The murderer is very likely male; otherwise, dismemberment and corpse abandonment are too difficult. However, abandoning the corpse without burying it, and using leaves and branches to cover it, also shows that the murderer's preparation was insufficient. This is also one of the reasons why I say he isn't rigorous enough. Abandoning far and burying near is a characteristic of many murderers' crimes, and it is also a relatively instinctive choice. Judging from the situation at the crime scene, actually, burying is better than abandoning, and abandoning and burying is even better."

Xu Taining said, "Maybe his physical strength was exhausted. Killing, dismembering, and having to transport the corpse here—climbing this slope is enough to choke..."

"I agree." Jiang Yuan suddenly interrupted Xu Taining and said, "It took several of us to transport the corpse just now. Although it was to ensure integrity, no matter what method the murderer used to abandon the corpse, he must have been exhausted."

Liu Jinghui nodded. "That's right. Unless it's a multi-person crime, anyone with good physical strength will be very tired moving a corpse. Look at where he parked the motorcycle; it's basically just ten meters away from the corpse abandonment."

"After consuming so much physical strength, did he ride away immediately after abandoning the corpse? Can his physical strength keep up? Even if he rode away, it wouldn't be easy to ride back in one breath on such a bad mountain road..." As Jiang Yuan spoke, he stood up and returned to the corpse abandonment position.

He looked around roughly, then turned on the crime scene reconstruction (temporary +1) skill, hung with Level 6 crime scene reconstruction, and began to pace counterclockwise.

The scene here had been separated for a long time, and the ground was mostly organic matter such as leaves and branches, leaving no traces such as footprints.

Jiang Yuan walked while looking, and after turning a large circle, he found nothing, so he simply walked slowly down the slope in the direction of the mountain.

Liu Jinghui and Xu Taining both understood his meaning a bit and hurriedly followed.

Liu Jinghui whispered, "It rained a while ago; maybe we can't find traces."

"Few people come here. Maybe there will be traces of a motorcycle left." Jiang Yuan said, his walking speed not slow.

The road up and down the mountain here was just one road, no more than two meters wide; it could be said to be the only way. No matter how flexible the motorcycle the murderer drove was, it was impossible to drill in from the woods and bushes.

Jiang Yuan walked about 200 meters in one breath like this, and saw another relatively flat plot of land ahead.

A lush cedar tree occupied a dominant position, and several tree root stumps under the tree told of unfair treatment.

Jiang Yuan immediately walked over, and it was easy to find familiar tire tracks next to the tree root stumps.

Equally conspicuous was a pile of cigarette butts in front of the tree stumps.

"Take some more evidence bags." Jiang Yuan shouted, and then had people pull the line, while he took out spare evidence bags and tweezers from his pocket, collected the cigarette butts one by one, and put each cigarette butt into different evidence bags.

These cigarette butts were very likely left by other people who came up the mountain, but if the murderer smoked, his little life was basically thrown to nicotine and Jiang Yuan. ===== CHAPTER 706 =====