Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 265: Unexpected Discovery

Ren Qiang’s gaze seemed unfocused, as if he was recalling every detail of the video he had just watched.

"The kidnapper’s address for Xu Zhe and Liu Bai."

"The way he addressed them was Mr. Xu and Mr. Liu Bai."

"Someone who constantly uses ’Mr.’ either is deliberately concealing something, or this person’s educational background or level should not be low."

Ren Qiang’s comments were a speculation regarding the kidnapper’s identity.

After hearing this, everyone felt it made sense.

In the North, the use of such titles is indeed not very common.

"Does anyone else have any opinions?"

The people in the room shook their heads.

The call was very brief, and not much information was revealed.

In fact, they didn’t even mention how the ransom should be exchanged later.

They just wanted us to gather the money.

"Captain Qin, can we trace the caller’s number?"

Qin Yong looked at Sun Jun; Sun Jun was present when Xu Zhe received the call.

"No, we can’t."

Sun Jun shook his head: "The other party used a virtual phone number, not a normal mobile number."

When the call first came, Xu Zhe even thought it was a scam call and almost hung up.

"These types of calls are usually made through virtual networks, mostly using overseas servers, making it hard to trace the user."

Zhang Hui nodded, as he had encountered such cases before.

Calls from domestic mobile phones are relatively easier to pinpoint.

Because now any phone that wants to make a call must connect to a network.

The vast majority of mobile internet access is achieved through base stations of various network operators.

Based on this principle, theoretically speaking, as long as the call is connected, or even just the phone is turned on, you can trace from the backend of the operator to which base station a particular number is linked.

In this way, based on the location of the base station, the general phone location can be determined.

There are very few phones that connect directly to satellites, making tracing more difficult for such cases.

Because such phones are mostly sold from overseas.

Tracing satellites from other countries is not impossible.

However, this is beyond what a Criminal Investigation Team or even a provincial police system can achieve.

And calls made via online virtual accounts are even harder to trace.

Zhang Hui and others, who work on the frontlines of investigations, knew the moment Sun Jun mentioned virtual accounts that tracing would be impossible.

"Does anyone have any other opinions?"

Qin Yong looked around, and seeing no objections, he began to deploy the next steps.

"First, based on Ren Qiang’s monitoring clues, we can basically conclude that the perpetrator kidnapped Liu Bai between 10:30 and 11:00 last night."

The perpetrator replaced last night’s video with the video from the same time the day before in the Haotai Hotel’s surveillance system, indicating the crime happened during this timeframe.

"Ren Qiang, get in touch with the Photo Investigation Team and have them lead the investigation on how the perpetrator replaced the video."

"Focus on the personnel on duty in hotel surveillance the day before and yesterday to see if there is a possibility of collusion in the crime."

Ren Qiang nodded in agreement.

Qin Yong’s plan coincided with his own thoughts.

There are only two ways to replace a video.

Either by replacing it on-site or through remote hacking methods.

But in either case, the video replacement must have happened after yesterday’s incident.

Otherwise, if the incident hadn’t happened and the video hadn’t been recorded, how could the perpetrator replace the video?

"Second, focus on checking the surveillance video around the Haotai Hotel."

"The incident happened after 10:30 last night, a time when there aren’t many vehicles or pedestrians."

"The perpetrator must have left some traces when leaving the hotel."

"Moreover, even if they can hack into the Haotai Hotel’s surveillance system, can they hack into the municipal surveillance as well?"

"Investigate all suspicious vehicles and find clues in the shortest time possible!"

"Yes!"

Sun Jun and Ren Qiang’s teams were working at full capacity.

"Xu Zhe, who exactly knew about your schedule this time?"

"Well... all six of us in the studio knew."

Sun Jun personally asked Xu Zhe for details about Liu Bai’s itinerary.

"From our current understanding, the kidnapper was absolutely prepared when they kidnapped Mr. Liu Bai."

"They knew in advance where Mr. Liu Bai would stay, even knowing the room he was in."

"This information must have already been leaked."

"Among you all... is there anyone you suspect?"

"A suspect?"

Xu Zhe furrowed his brow: "This... I really can’t say. Among the six of us, myself included, four have been with Liu Bai since he debuted."

"The other two are Liu Bai’s fans and are professionals in this field."

"Group Leader Sun, you might not be very familiar with our line of work."

"In being an agent, what’s most important is not ability, but loyalty."

"For any agent wanting to make it in this industry, the reference from your previous employer is crucial."

"You can resign, but you can’t betray your employer, or else no one will dare to hire you."

"Especially for singers, it’s actually easy to ruin them—a glass of water that damages their voice will do."

"Such incidents have happened in the industry before."

"But the agent who did it faced immense consequences, and no one dared to do such things afterward."

"So... I think none among us would do it."

"If your team has no issues, then who else might know about Mr. Liu Bai’s schedule?"

"The organizers, the local organizers in Haizhou, arranged the hotel and the itinerary."

Organizers...

Sun Jun frowned heavily.

The local organizers are the entertainment company under the Qiangsheng Group and the local tourism management unit.

It’s not easy to get to the bottom of this.

The key issue is, even without Sun Jun investigating, he already knows that many people have access to Liu Bai’s itinerary.

Nonetheless, even though it’s difficult, it still needs to be investigated.

Meanwhile, in room 1108 where Liu Bai was staying.

Lu Chuan’s investigation work continued.

More than thirty bags of biological traces had already been collected.

No matter what level, Lu Chuan thought hotels were not places to scrutinize for hygiene.

Especially from a crime scene investigator’s perspective, staying in a hotel was simply untenable.

Hmm?

The ultraviolet light scanned the bedroom wall-mounted TV, a faint red glow caught Lu Chuan’s attention.

Lu Chuan went closer to take a look, and it was a reflection from the wall painting next to the TV.

"This..."

Lu Chuan closely examined it, tracing the reflective point to the nostril of a figure in the painting.

"A pinhole camera?"

Lu Chuan did not expect there to be a pinhole camera hidden inside the nostril of the figure in the painting!

Taking a step back, Lu Chuan turned off the ultraviolet light and looked at the painting again, but didn’t discover anything.

The pinhole camera was hidden in the nostril of the character in the painting, and due to the angle and paint color, it just looked like a black hole, making it impossible to detect the camera inside.

Shining the ultraviolet light on it, the camera lens’s reflection was the only evidence of its presence.