Chapter 757

Jiang Yuan took a figurine that hadn't been lost in the burglary and first observed its form and structure.

This was a Saint Seiya figurine; which specific Saint Seiya it was was a question for someone older. The key was that there were no Saint Seiya figurines on the list of items lost in the burglary. Therefore, this belonged to the evidence of another case.

To be more specific, there was a possibility of another thief's fingerprints on this figurine.

Of course, when small-time thieves steal things now, they definitely wear gloves, but once they've stolen them and are trading them, they basically don't wear gloves anymore.

Especially for items that have already entered the pocket of a fence, everyone basically treats them as their own, and no one cares about fingerprints.

On the other hand, once this figurine is taken back to the fence's home, proving its origin is also a very troublesome matter. Whether they are professional fences or part-time sellers on Xianyu, in order to sell them, they will more or less tidy up the condition, wipe them down, or even put them in a box.

By then, catching people through stolen goods is not as effective as catching them through WeChat contacts.

Furthermore, lifting fingerprints from irregularly shaped items like figurines also has a certain level of difficulty.

First, its curvature is significant, making it troublesome to photograph completely; second, the powder dusting is uneven, and the suspect's finger impressions themselves might not be complete. The quality of fingerprints obtained this way is naturally slightly poorer.

Of course, these are all concerns for criminal police below LV1 in fingerprint investigation; for Jiang Yuan, fingerprints with slight variations just add to the interest.

The criminal police nearby were watching quite seriously. Everyone now knew that Jiang Yuan's technical skills were strong, and having such a technical master scan fingerprints in the simplest way was a rare opportunity, and they all wanted to learn a thing or two.

Huang Qiangmin raised his chin as he watched, thinking to himself: These are all the spillover benefits from my Jiang Yuan.

Team Leader Tang worked in technical investigation; his skills were already overflowing, and he had no interest in trace examination techniques. After waiting a little while, he stood up and said: "Political Huang Zhengwei, we have nothing left to do here. Otherwise, we'll take the technical investigation vehicle back first..."

"Let's find one more person." Jiang Yuan walked out of the crowd, holding his phone, and said: "Add me on WeChat, I'll send you the name, ID number, and phone number, and we'll see if we can find them."

The name and ID number were extracted by Jiang Yuan from the police network using the fingerprints. There were several fingerprints on the figurine, and lifting them wasn't easy; the highest difficulty might reach LV2.5.

After filtering through them, there was only one recidivist, so he would definitely talk to him first.

At the same time, Liu Wenkai also pulled the fence to the side and began asking for details.

Team Leader Tang felt a bit annoyed and said helplessly: "Team Jiang, for such a small case, using the technical investigation vehicle is too wasteful."

"The other party just finished the transaction, the case is still fresh, and perhaps there's an officer in the Criminal Investigation Detachment currently working on this case. If we just grab the person directly, it saves time and effort." Jiang Yuan smiled.

Team Leader Tang scratched his head: "Alright then..."

"Thanks for your hard work. Have a cigarette first, and in a moment, take that fence to identify the person." Jiang Yuan handed a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes to each of the technical investigation team members.

Logically speaking, using a technical investigation vehicle to track and catch people can save a lot of effort. Digging for clues from the fence is even more time-saving and efficient. As for whether the technical investigation vehicle is wasteful, this vehicle was going to be sold to Ningtai County anyway, which meant it was surplus.

If one were to speak righteously, the criminal police could say a lot, but it wasn't necessary. If speaking righteously were useful, what would they need criminal police for?

Huang Qiangmin took out his phone and silently recorded a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes.

This was an official expense; he couldn't let Jiang Yuan pay for it himself.

Team Leader Tang sent two people back to the technical investigation vehicle. After the group silently smoked a cigarette, a call came back.

"He's nearby, 600 meters away. So he's still in this business district. Let's just continue with the individual equipment." Team Leader Tang checked the location and picked up the individual equipment to leave.

At the very least, Jiang Yuan wasn't wrong about one thing: since they were already here, they might as well catch a few more people.

Wu Junhao and the others swarmed out. The first case they handled after arriving in the capital was a spy case, and they were full of pent-up frustration; now they just wanted to find some weak, petty thieves to vent.

Don't talk about "bullying the weak and fearing the strong" or other such unrefined talk. In military terms, this is called "concentrating superior forces to annihilate the enemy one by one." Police activity isn't about fighting for dominance; these are personnel from organized units working in the field, and what's required is the safe and efficient completion of tasks.

If possible, Wu Junhao would also prefer to stay comfortably in the office, handling a case with a cup of tea.

It's just that he couldn't, and he had to come out and use force, which is why Wu Junhao trained himself to be strong.

Wu Junhao's First Detachment believes that catching one person is a First Detachment job, and catching a group is a First Detachment plus (long-gun team) job. They never care about fair duels; they fight asymmetric warfare.

Seeing this, Team Leader Tang simply assigned an individual equipment unit to Wu Junhao, taught him the simple usage, and then went up to the 16th floor of Building 3.

It was almost the exact same process, but the suspect inside wasn't wearing black silk stockings.

What was more different was that in this one-bedroom apartment, there were two bunk beds, and all four beds had messy bedding piled on them. Judging by the chargers and other items by the pillows, it was clear that four people lived there.

"What's the situation with your roommates?" Liu Wenkai caught the scent, pulled the suspect by the handcuffs into a corner, and said: "Don't feed me a bunch of nonsense. You've been out of prison for less than half a year; what kind of good people would live with you? If you point these three people out to me now, I'll help you plead with the prosecutor. If you want to drag this out, I'll drag it out with you. The others are searching the room; everything involved in the case will be pinned on you. Later, when I ambush these three, I'll have them point you out."

People who have been to prison are usually very reasonable. The suspect understood Liu Wenkai's words and readily agreed.

Huang Qiangmin pulled Team Leader Tang to sit at the table in the living room, opened the newly bought Zhonghua cigarettes, handed one pack to each, and waited while smoking.

Team Leader Tang also resigned himself to his fate, sent two people back to the technical investigation vehicle to stand by, smoked his cigarette, and said: "Let's just say, Political Huang Zhengwei, you're a bureau political commissar, Detective Jiang is also famous far and wide, and we have two detachments here... no, more than that, plus a liaison from the Criminal Investigation Detachment, and our Technical Investigation Detachment is accompanying a multi-million dollar technical investigation vehicle, just to catch a few petty thieves? Is it necessary? How much does this cost for one day?"

Huang Qiangmin smiled: "What you say makes sense, but we can also change our way of calculating."

"You say..." Team Leader Tang put down his cigarette, looking like he was listening intently.

Huang Qiangmin said: "Since we're idle anyway..."

"Huh?"

"Beating a child on a rainy day—since we're idle anyway," Huang Qiangmin added.

Team Leader Tang laughed in spite of himself: "This..."

"Yeah." Huang Qiangmin nodded, then gestured around with his cigarette: "Actually, regarding what you said about manpower and the technical investigation vehicle, do you have many tasks recently?"

Team Leader Tang smiled; this was considered confidential content and couldn't be spoken of.

Huang Qiangmin said: "Since there are no major cases, we can do small cases too, right? Big cases or small cases, they're all cases."

"That may be so..."

"While doing small cases, who knows, there might be a big case." Huang Qiangmin changed the subject: "The recent homicides in our Beijing Bureau either ended in surrender or the perpetrators fled while dripping blood. If we don't dig them out ourselves, how can we manage, right?"

Team Leader Tang was stunned by the question; this was far beyond his scope of understanding.

After a long while, Team Leader Tang took a puff of his cigarette and pointed out the logical flaw in Huang Qiangmin's argument: "Doing small cases and having them turn into big cases, that's not necessarily certain."

"That depends on who's doing them."

"It's not certain whoever does them." After saying this, Team Leader Tang quickly added: "I'm not doubting Detective Jiang; it's mainly that you need someone to commit a crime first before we can solve it, right?"

Huang Qiangmin shook his head: "Not necessarily."

Team Leader Tang was so shocked he took a deep puff of his cigarette: "Although I know you don't mean it that way, what... what's the logic behind this?"

"There are plenty of cases. What did those who did preliminary hearings say? Dig for residual crimes, solve cold cases, right? Reading case files is investigating, and catching people is also investigating." Huang Qiangmin followed Jiang Yuan's lead completely, focusing on trust.

The Ningtai County Bureau had already taken on a new look, so what was there not to trust?

Team Leader Tang smoked his slim Zhonghua cigarette and chose to believe as well.