Chapter 962

After approving Liu Jinghui’s plan, Cui Qi didn’t report to Tao Lu but went straight to the office director, then visited each criminal investigation team in turn and made a few calls to colleagues in the public security brigade and other units.

Police undercover agents, special informants, and sources are clearly distinguished. Undercover agents are the most prestigious and rarely seen in ordinary cases. Special informants and sources are divided into in-system and out-of-system categories; the former are used very strictly, so few people like to use them.

More often, after working as police for a long time, officers naturally come to know some marginal figures, exchange phone numbers, and can ask them for information when needed.

Some officers even skip the step of exchanging numbers—they deliberately pick out a few particularly stupid ones—no doubt such people exist, and they’re easy to find—and then just keep a close eye on them.

For example, a criminal investigator might select one or several clumsy thieves. Because they’re clumsy, their personal abilities are weak, so they often work in teams. The investigator spends a little time learning their behavioral patterns: some thieves like to post blessings or images on their social media before committing crimes, some even include location tags; if you spot one, you know exactly where to catch them.

When making arrests, you can deliberately let the clumsy thief slip away, letting him “luckily” escape, calm down, and regroup.

For particularly useful clumsy thieves, when they start having trouble forming new teams, you can arrest them once and send them to detention to expand their network.

In short, different officers have different working styles. After working so many years in the criminal investigation brigade, even if Cui Qi didn’t know the exact details, he still had some sense of his colleagues’ capabilities.

He’d mention what he could, without striving for completeness.

He only needed to spread the word—he didn’t need to create a hurricane.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yuan went specifically to the image investigation brigade, but found nothing.

The larger the city and the bigger the branch, the stronger the image investigation force, with better equipment and more capable personnel.

Jiang Yuan had Level 6 image investigation—trajectory analysis—which theoretically could use existing city surveillance footage to track the suspect’s location. But precisely because he had Level 6 in this skill, he had long realized this tactic wouldn’t be useful this time.

Not at least during the early pursuit phase.

The suspect had no exceptional counter-surveillance abilities or favorable conditions. He jumped over the police station’s wall at 2 a.m. and escaped on a shared bicycle. To track a suspect riding a shared bicycle through Beijing’s streets at night requires no more than Level 2 skills.

Even if the suspect twisted through alleys and pulled off some tricks, he couldn’t evade image investigation in such an environment. Under these conditions, the software’s built-in AI might already have locked onto the fugitive.

Beijing’s police department isn’t short of talent and has excellent image investigators. Before Cui Qi and Tao Zhi called Jiang Yuan, they’d certainly already consulted their top image investigation expert.

But even the best image investigator can’t handle a suspect heading straight for the wilderness.

Without surveillance, a short stretch might be manageable, but too long, and the trajectory becomes impossible to judge. If it were a vehicle, there might still be hope; on foot, the difficulty only increases.

Jiang Yuan guessed the suspect had probably spent the night in some park.

Parks have water and restrooms, and fewer surveillance cameras—fewer still connected to networks. Of course, if the suspect was even harsher on himself, he’d have many ways to hide. He could endure one night and change his appearance during the morning rush hour to escape—there were still many options.

As the saying goes, rats have rat paths, snakes have snake trails. Jiang Yuan wasn’t sure how things worked in Beijing, but in Qinghe City, local thieves familiar with the area could simply hop on any long-distance bus at a station’s outside pickup point. That’s one reason many bus stations strictly forbid soliciting passengers outside.

Circumventing train stations was even more common as a secret method in smaller cities.

When Jiang Yuan returned from the image investigation brigade, he saw Cui Qi and others had already begun setting up defenses.

Checking the time, twelve hours had passed since the suspect’s escape.

“If he keeps running, he might already be out of the city,” Cui Qi said, slightly uneasy.

“As long as he hasn’t left the country, it’s the same,” Liu Jinghui waved his hand, offering Cui Qi some emotional reassurance, then turned to Jiang Yuan: “Jiang Yuan, have you ever been to the neighboring province?”

Jiang Yuan shook his head: “No.”

“I haven’t been there either,” Liu Jinghui said, looking at Cui Qi.

Cui Qi smiled bitterly: “I know people there—but I’ve offended them all.”

“No problem,” Liu Jinghui laughed it off. “Then we keep using Jiang Yuan’s name? Or does your unit have anyone else suitable?”

“If it’s Team Leader Jiang, the effect would be better,” Cui Qi quickly explained to Jiang Yuan: “Team Leader Jiang, our image investigation database and such aren’t linked to the neighboring province. If you could just make a call, that’d be ideal.”

“Would my call even help?” Jiang Yuan understood Cui Qi’s meaning but hesitated.

“Of course it would! Extremely helpful!” Cui Qi smiled warmly. “With your reputation now, as soon as they know it’s your case, everyone will gladly make it easy for you.”

Many internal databases and high-tech applications across the country are organized by province. This stems from historical development and is tied to funding and management.

When these systems were originally built, preparations were made at the provincial level or even lower; nationwide databases were extremely rare.

The result was that data from Province A and Province B operated independently. Several years ago, DNA and fingerprint databases were each province’s own; for important cases, suspect data was sent to the Ministry, then distributed to each province.

Now, some provinces have interconnected systems, but many still haven’t fully merged. So if the suspect flees to the neighboring province, you can’t directly query their data—you must contact the corresponding department in that province.

Although the Ministry can issue official documents to assist, anyone who isn’t a foreigner should know—no, if you were from the EU or the U.S., you’d better understand state-level restrictions.

In short, even for police, personal communication in such cases is infinitely more effective than cold official correspondence.

Jiang Yuan didn’t mind using his personal influence—experts’ reputations are part of their strength—so he said: “I have no problem making the call, but I don’t know anyone or have their phone numbers.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll arrange everything. When the call goes through, you just say a couple of words. Rest assured, our Beijing Bureau may lack many things, but there are plenty of guys who know how to handle this,” Cui Qi said, visibly relaxing.

Any veteran criminal investigator knows there are two types of skilled investigators: one is the “iron feet” type, who relies on relentless effort and courage to overcome all obstacles; the other is the “connection” type, mostly seasoned veterans with contacts outside the city or even outside the province.

These “contacts” aren’t just acquaintances—they’re people who mutually recognize each other, who can settle matters with a single phone call.

Compared to the first type, connection-type investigators are far rarer. Many criminal investigation team leaders are exactly this kind.

Cui Qi belonged to neither type—he simply wasn’t a skilled investigator by nature.

But with Jiang Yuan beside him, Cui Qi had more than enough.