Chapter 984: The Second Sub-question

Confirming Li Dianzhong's death as homicide did not ease the mood of the crowd.

Quite the contrary, when Jiang Yuan stated this conclusion, even though everyone was mentally prepared, their hearts still tightened.

This was equivalent to opening another new case.

If it were suicide, it could still be explained as suicide out of fear of punishment or other similar explanations. But if it were homicide, it could almost be determined that there was a mastermind behind it.

No professional was needed to judge this; ordinary people could see that this was killing to silence someone.

But opening a new case, and a cold case from 20 years ago at that, was too difficult. It was so high that it made people shrink back.

"Since it's confirmed as homicide, let's continue investigating." Director You drank his tea, his voice not loud, but it felt firm to everyone's ears.

"Then let's continue." Tao Lu looked at Jiang Yuan.

At this stage of the case, he could only rely on Jiang Yuan.

In fact, the case hadn't started yet, and the actual difficulty was still uncertain. But working on cold cases is like walking in a desert; if you happen to encounter a simple cold case, it might just be that you happened to take the right path, not that the case was truly simple.

There might be a road in the desert, but there might also be no road at all. But regardless of whether there is a road or not, you had better have a team of camels and an old guide.

Jiang Yuan nodded without hesitation and said, "First, take Li Dianzhong's photo to Wang Futing and see. Don't tell him who it is; well, take a few more people's photos and let him identify them. If he recognizes him, then ask for details. In addition, send people to visit the people around Li Dianzhong—relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. —and see if there is any information."

"Yes." Shen Yaowei hurriedly agreed and went to distribute the tasks.

Seeing this, Director You nodded and asked, "Wang Futing, is that the informant you caught earlier, the accomplice in the homicide case?"

"Yes, it's him," Jiang Yuan said.

"Well, this person is a breakthrough point; you can ask him first." Director You looked like he was sitting and waiting, then turned to ask Jiang Yuan, "Have you shown him the photo before?"

"We have, but he didn't recognize him," Tao Lu explained from the side. "We showed him group photos, as well as some group photos of workshops, teams, and different offices. In several of those photos, the suspect Li Dianzhong was present, but Wang Futing didn't recognize him. He should have also seen a single photo, but because the factory had thousands of employees and was already a laid-off and dismantled factory, many of the photos we retrieved were from several years, or even more than ten years, later."

Jiang Yuan wasn't as cautious as Tao Lu and said refreshingly, "There are too many people, and Wang Futing's memory isn't that reliable anymore. He didn't look carefully enough either."

Looking at photos to recognize people is not reliable enough. Just like a friend from more than 20 years ago—it's not strange to recognize them, and it's not strange not to recognize them.

Of course, some people are very good at recognizing people, but others are not good at this point. In modern society, there are many people who claim to be face-blind; some people can't even remember colleagues in different clothes or with different makeup, and if you add the time factor, it's even harder.

Requiring Wang Futing to recognize Li Dianzhong, who was only a brief "case-friend," cannot be said to be impossible, but it cannot be forced either.

Director You nodded and said, "Then ask now, I'll wait and see."

He clearly wanted a definitive answer. From a certain perspective, he also needed evidence. Eyewitness evidence, even if it was eyewitness evidence from 20 years ago, was at least a type of evidence.

Tao Lu understood Director You's thoughts very well and urged everyone to work.

Turning back, Tao Lu added as if chatting, "The factory was already failing at the time and wasn't recruiting externally. If they needed young people to work, they would first recruit temporary workers, then hang the temporary workers with contract worker quotas, and then hang the off-the-books workers with permanent quotas. But when it came to paying money and benefits, these people couldn't be on the list. Off-the-books personnel like Li Dianzhong weren't that close to the unit's people. It might have been easier to find his photos back then, but it's not easy to find them now."

"Didn't you say that the flying claw he learned was quite difficult? Was he still willing to be an off-the-books employee?" Director You suddenly connected to the previous evidence.

"His flying claw was still in the learning stage; he shouldn't have fully mastered it yet," Jiang Yuan said.

Tao Lu smiled and said, "Having a job and doing some burglary on the side wasn't prominent in the 90s."

Many thieves started stealing because they couldn't find work and lacked skills. But some thieves might have originally had jobs, but because of petty theft or major theft, they were fired by their units and had to focus on being thieves.

Looking at it from a neutral point of view, Li Dianzhong might have had a period of confusion back then.

A group of people started digging deep along Li Dianzhong's identity.

Compared to the investigation at the beginning of the case, this investigation was much simpler and smoother.

Previous investigations were all walking along the ruts of the former task force, and almost no usable clues could be found. The things that could be investigated had been investigated repeatedly by the previous criminal police.

But the Li Dianzhong case was different. Although it was a follow-up to the Jianmen Academy case, the case itself was handled as an unnatural death, that is, closed as suicide, so it basically didn't go through any effective investigation before being closed.

Now, following Li Dianzhong's line, the amount of clues obtained was completely different.

When Wang Chuanxing returned, two tables full of materials had already piled up in front of Liu Jinghui and Jiang Yuan.

Liu Jinghui looked through them one by one as usual.

That's how it is with reasoning; you must have sufficient information to reason well. Of course, everyone hopes you can make reasonable inferences with thin information, but this kind of difficulty is something even Liu Jinghui wouldn't easily challenge.

Because reasoning still has a certain probability, any failure for any reason is a failure, and the consequences are so serious. Therefore, it is cases with complete information that consume more of Liu Jinghui's time.

"Let's start by investigating interpersonal relationships." Jiang Yuan looked at the materials roughly, gave an investigation direction first, and looked at Tao Lu.

Tao Lu nodded: "Okay."

There is nothing to say about this. In an era without mobile phones and surveillance, visits and interpersonal relationships were one of the main investigation directions for criminal police.

If it were a current case, this type of case should also investigate the flow of funds to see if the suspect has any large capital flows. Further, you can also ask special informants to understand the suspect's situation.

Cold cases don't have these things. Checking interpersonal relationships can also understand the suspect's background, which is very suitable as an initial investigation.

Criminal police in several cars were scattered into the pitch-black night. They had to drive all night, striving to find relevant personnel tomorrow morning to save as much time as possible.

The rest remained focused on online investigations.

After all kinds of orders were sent out, Tao Lu looked at the pitch-black sky outside and smiled at Director You: "There's basically nothing to do today; why don't you take a rest?"

"Find an office and just find me a folding bed," Director You said.

Tao Lu opened his mouth, thinking to himself that in the time it takes to find a folding bed and make the bed, you could have already been home.

However, thinking about the case, Tao Lu stood at attention: "Yes." ===== CHAPTER 985 =====