National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 924 - 861: Core Layer

"Director Song, shall we eat in the cafeteria tonight or go out?" The support staff, seeing the smile on Song Beishou’s face grow wider, seized the opportunity to ask.

Song Beishou was just chuckling at the ever-expanding list of suspects when he heard the support staff speak, and his smile abruptly vanished: "Eat? Now is not the time for eating!"

He looked at the support staff as if they had no brain and thought, now is the crucial juncture when we should unite and work our brains out. Is there anything more important than identifying suspects? To think about eating—at a time when we should be rushing ahead, even if it meant eating dirt!

The support staff, looking at their leader whose mind seemed to be emptied, calmly said: "Of course, we can skip eating, but shouldn’t we at least arrange for Captain Jiang’s dinner? Captain Jiang took a flight here, and it’s nearly 8 PM now."

Song Beishou took a sharp look at the time; indeed it was 7:45 PM. In Changyang City, inviting someone for dinner, especially if drinking is involved, setting it around 7 PM is considered reasonable. But if it gets to 8 PM, it feels rather insincere.

Song Beishou sighed, got up, and walked over to Jiang Yuan, saying: "Captain Jiang, shall we take a break for a dinner?"

"No need for dinner." Jiang Yuan paused, then said: "Just let the cafeteria handle it. Do you have a cafeteria?"

"We do have a cafeteria, but the quality of the food there might be lacking," Song Beishou said modestly.

"If the cafeteria doesn’t cut it, we could just borrow a few people from other restaurants," Jiang Yuan said very matter-of-factly, upping the ante.

Song Beishou was stunned for a moment; he had encountered many experts, but this was the first time he had seen someone make a request like Jiang Yuan.

Under normal circumstances, leaders wouldn’t make such demands.

However, Song Beishou merely glanced at the big screen and, far from being upset, smiled unconsciously: "No problem, I’ll go find some chefs to come over. Captain Jiang, what kind of cuisine would you prefer?"

"With so many people today, let’s have Sichuan cuisine. There’s no need to order specifically, just get a really good Sichuan chef to stir-fry a few dishes and make them into rice plate specials. It has to be individual stir-fry, not big-pot rice. If there aren’t enough chefs, call a few more. Just fry their most familiar dishes, like Kung Pao chicken, shredded pork with garlic sauce, Mapo tofu, and the like..."

Jiang Yuan wasn’t new to ordering dishes either, proficient and surprisingly particular.

Song Beishou snapped out of his stupor and realized that Jiang Yuan was mainly ordering for his subordinates and promptly agreed. Neither of them asked if anyone couldn’t eat spicy food. Narcotics police have tougher times than criminal investigators, so mainstream tastes like Sichuan cuisine are well within everyone’s capacity.

"Also, the suspects within Shannan Province, let’s bring them in today; no more waiting. Anyone who could have gotten the news might have already fled," Jiang Yuan issued another order from his executive level.

"Eh, arrest them now? We still can’t determine their hierarchy." Going by experience, Song Beishou was also quite seasoned, but to be frank, he might not have fought a battle with such ample technical resources.

Normally, major cases handled by the narcotics squad are the focus, not counting the intelligence battles and life-threatening undercover tactics you see on TV. Even routine cases, from gradually gathering information to strategizing and ultimately making arrests, normally take around a year.

Moreover, compared to the final arrest stage, the initial investigation to determine the list of relevant personnel is actually more crucial.

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said: "It’s hardly possible now to determine their ranks by surveillance tracking or traditional methods, finding the core members. This drug network has been already destroyed by us; it would be quite difficult for them to resume operations, let alone continue facing our attacks. The core members are likely already on the run."

"That’s indeed possible..." Song Beishou hesitated for a moment. "If we could find the money trail, perhaps we could track them down that way."

"Starting from the money trail means restarting the case from scratch. Moreover, I can’t be of any help in this aspect," Jiang Yuan said, not suggesting that Song Beishou’s idea was wrong—this was also the narcotics squad’s working experience. Drug trafficking is all about making money, and once the money is made, they naturally want to keep it. So, even if the drug network collapses, the money trail can still lead to the suspects.

It’s just that Jiang Yuan wasn’t particularly skilled in this investigative approach.

In fact, Song Beishou didn’t have the time or energy to rebuild the case from the start.

"Alright then. Let’s make the arrests," Song Beishou said, gritting his teeth. "But doing so means the core members might slip away."

"It has come to this," Jiang Yuan wasn’t feeling regretful.

If the usual cases handled by the narcotics squad are meticulously prepared major battles, then this case is akin to starting off at the late stage of a battle, a campaign that begins from the end-stage.

The enemy was actually in a state of scattered flight, and now it was a matter of how and where to catch them.

As for Song Beishou’s position, his interest lay solely in the big drug lords.

Catching ten thousand drug addicts was not as valuable as capturing one big drug lord.

The problem now was that the drug network was essentially destroyed, and the person in charge of the drug network was mostly on the run, but the police neither knew who he was nor whether he had fled the country or was hiding somewhere playing a dangerous game.

Song Beishou arranged for personnel to capture suspects.

In the command center, the voices from two radio frequencies were quickly heard.

On one side were technicians like Jiang Yuan, using the main resources for investigations, and on the other side was Song Beishou communicating with all sides for capturing suspects over numerous phone calls.

People like Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta also felt an extra surge of passion. The suspects you just confirmed were soon caught by colleagues, and after a brief interrogation, they were almost certain to face the death penalty, a kind of joy that ordinary police officers could not experience.

The person who had dealt with the most death-row prisoners was Forensic Alpha, whose technical level in the anti-narcotics brigade was already first-class. Combined with being among the first to participate in fingerprint comparison, and the initial matching of simple fingerprints being numerous, he had identified the most suspects.

Watching the death-row prisoners passing through his fingertips, Forensic Alpha looked up at Jiang Yuan, and in a trance, he seemed to see blazing flames burning.

Ningtai Jiangyuan, with fierce and overwhelming momentum...

"Bro, your double-cooked pork with rice." A young police officer delivered the dinner to him.

Forensic Alpha thanked him and got up to eat at the table next to him.

Next to him, Forensic Charlie wiped his mouth, greeted him, and went back to work.

Jiang Yuan also came over with his food basin and sat down. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

"Captain Jiang. Director Song." Forensic Alpha moved over a bit.

Jiang Yuan and Song Beishou smiled back at him, sat down, and each commented briefly on the food.

Just as Forensic Alpha thought it was a normal food gathering and was prepared to join in, he heard Jiang Yuan say, "I just studied the matched fingerprints and found several peculiar ones."

"How so?" Song Beishou immediately put down his chopsticks.

"Some fingerprints have appeared in more than two provinces, and several others match the fingerprints excavated from the fish piles on Su Island, it seems that these fingerprints, if not at the core level, should at least belong to the mid-level of the drug syndicate," Jiang Yuan didn’t beat around the bush and shared his thoughts on the spot.

Song Beishou’s eyes lit up and he eagerly asked, "Which ones?"

"I’ve got them written down here." Jiang Yuan handed a piece of paper to Song Beishou.

"I’ll go check it out now." Song Beishou couldn’t care less about his steaming covered rice, got up, and left.

If they could catch a few mid-level members, preferably one or two core members, most of the core members of this group would probably be doomed.

On the small dinner table, it seemed like the light of righteousness was flowing.

Jiang Yuan bowed his head to eat a few bites, then looked up to catch his breath, and using a bit of emotional intelligence, greeted Forensic Alpha sitting next to him, "You were one of the first to come over for support, right? How should I address you?"

Forensic Alpha looked up at Jiang Yuan and saw him in front of the large, brightly lit screen, his whole body seeming to emit light. Forensic Alpha’s heart trembled, his emotional intelligence and perceptiveness temporarily engaged, "My last name is Yi, just call me Xiao Yi."