National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 931 - 867: Fish in the Pond

The dilapidated factory building.

No windows, no doors, no machines, no ceiling, no floor, dirty as a black plum lying across a small hill. There’s a road up the hill and a slope down the hill, with escape routes in all directions, making it truly seem like a fitting place for a drug lord’s meeting.

Jiang Yuan put on shoe covers, foot covers, and a head cover at the door, first peeked inside the factory, then circled around the building before returning to the main entrance. Without any hesitation, he activated the skill "Temporary +1" and assigned it to Crime Scene Investigation (Level 5).

This task was by no means simple; in fact, it could be described as the greatest challenge Jiang Yuan has faced in the area of crime scene investigation.

For he wasn’t looking for a specific person’s footprint or fingerprint; his task was to prove that someone’s footprint or fingerprint was not present.

In other words, proving an "absence."

Proving an "absence" is much harder than proving a "presence."

In some other fields, this could even be considered as creating problems out of nothing, to the extent that it would be reasonable to call the police.

But in the eyes of the police doing criminal investigations or forensic work, proving an "absence" is not as common as home-cooked meals, but it is a common occurrence.

For example, the basic requirement for evidence in criminal cases is to "exclude reasonable doubt," which is fundamentally a demand by criminal procedure law to prove the "absence" of "reasonable doubt."

"No" criminal act, "no" criminal motive, "no" illicit gains, etc., there are actually many different requirements for proving an "absence."

Therefore, from an investigative standpoint, utilizing the method of proving an absence to demonstrate that the geomancer in question is Yellow Crystal makes sense to the police.

It’s just that while the theory is easy to understand, putting it into practice is difficult.

Over 5000 square meters of factory space, with an intermediate mezzanine covering an area of approximately three to four hundred square meters, which was used as an office space in the past—according to the geomancer, Yellow Crystal was on the mezzanine on that day, talking to the person inside the factory.

However, to prove an absence, merely securing a second-floor mezzanine is absolutely insufficient. For such a big case, there’s no need for a death penalty review; the court will already have strict requirements for evidence. Besides, there must be precautions against the criminal suspect recanting—a single "I remembered wrong," "I got it wrong," or "I was misled" could catch the prosecution off guard, and the police would still have to conduct additional investigations.

The key issue is that some investigations cannot be supplemented, and if key evidence is missing to such a severe extent that you can’t even prove that A is person A, it would be very difficult to proceed with the trial.

Thus, Jiang Yuan’s task was to confirm all the footprints and fingerprints within this dilapidated factory of over 5000 square meters, categorize and identify them, and then prove that there was no third person at the scene, or rather, no thirtieth person.

Turning around, Jiang Yuan faced the 17 criminal forensics officers he had specifically requested to come and said, "Everyone is already aware of the content of the mission, and its difficulty and importance do not need to be stressed by me. Here, I want to make one thing clear. The 17 technical police officers present today include both those with numbers and whole persons. Do you know why there are seventeen people?"

Wearing white coats and carrying green military bags, the technicians stood shivering in the wind, giving their sparse but exclusive attention.

"Each of you has been personally called and requested by me; you are all above-standard in trace detection. Consider it my personal endorsement, Jiang Yuan. Solely in terms of trace detection technology, especially crime scene investigation, I believe everyone’s level here is elite." Jiang Yuan had made his selection according to those with Level 2 skills and above.

When he was working on cases across different regions, what he came into contact with the most was trace detection. Speaking of which, Level 2 trace detection technology is not particularly strong, but in any given unit, a technician of this skill level is already considered a city’s elite, and could even be said to be a city’s top technical talent.

Even stronger and more formidable Level 3 technicians either are long-established experts or are rising stars showing their aptitude. This time Jiang Yuan actually brought in 5 crime scene investigation technicians capable of reaching Level 3, but they are those with rather biased skills, and the stronger technicians usually would not do such basic work and are unlikely to be called upon for such fundamental tasks.

Nevertheless, the 17 technicians present were sizing each other up.

"My personal endorsement," though it sounded like a jest, considering Jiang Yuan’s status today in the field of criminal investigation in Shannan Province, even a fart from him would qualify to be collected for Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry analysis.

Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature and no second in martial arts; many technicians become arrogant due to reigning supreme in small places.

At this moment, although some recognized acquaintances, it was not guaranteed everyone would agree that they were of equal skill—not unlike how 90% of people consider themselves to be above average in looks, most technicians also consider their skills to be above average, and those with a bit of skill would think themselves top-notch.

"Next, everyone must be extremely careful and cautious when conducting the crime scene investigation. Additionally, if you have the spare capacity, take the opportunity to observe your fellow technicians’ skill levels. You can also assess the level of Jiang Yuan’s endorsement," Jiang Yuan said with a smile, before adding, "Of course, because of the working hours and the nature of work of some forensic technicians, I wasn’t able to invite all of the elite trace detectives. But everyone here represents half of the essence of Shannan’s forensic detectives."

"So, it’s like if a bomb were to drop, it would set Shannan’s forensic work back three years?" Li Rui, who often chatted with Jiang Yuan in group chats, asked the question with a casual humor.

Jiang Yuan shook his head: "At least ten years back. Some cities’ case clearance rates might even plummet by more than thirty percent."

Many of the trace detectives present nodded in agreement.

Just like how in Ningtai County, the two trace detectives, Yan and Wang Zhong combined did not match up to Level 2; in many districts and counties, due to luck, obtaining or training a Level 2 trace detective could basically ensure a basic case clearance rate.

But this kind of thing, the leaders understand, the police understand, the technicians understand, but understanding the technology is one thing, and it’s useless if the police understand. If the leaders pretend not to understand, everyone just muddles along.

Jiang Yuan gestured and took the lead into the factory building.

Jiang Yuan was holding yellow and red markers, placing them throughout the factory.

The markers are simply placed beside the evidence to indicate the sequence number of the evidence, starting from 001 and counting upwards.

Every time Jiang Yuan placed a marker, the photographer following him would take a set of photos.

Then, the follow-up technicians would enter the scene to extract the evidence and meticulously inspect it.

Jiang Yuan didn’t place markers by every footprint or trace; he used red markers for those from the past three months and yellow markers for evidence dating within half a year. Theoretically, if Yellow Crystal left any traces, they should also be from this period.

Of course, adding the element of time to the footprints and traces elevates the difficulty by a level, and it is with Jiang Yuan’s Level 6 Crime Scene Investigation and Level 5 Footprint Analysis that one can more easily cover them.

Actually, without having to temporarily add +1 to skills, dual Level 5 skills could clean to sweep a factory; it would just take more time and effort. However, if it were dual Level 4s, it might require much serious and meticulous sweeping, and it might take several times longer to reach the same level of accuracy. A single Level 4 would be somewhat strained and might need to expand the scope a bit to ensure all the necessary footprints are covered.

As for dual Level 3 skills, it would probably not be advisable to add the time factor. It would be more appropriate to pull all footprints from the entire factory. Although sweeping the factory would be thorough, the subsequent identification of footprints would turn into an exclusion process, costly and less effective.

But no matter what, for this mission, as long as it reached the Level 4 Crime Scene Investigation, there would be no problem, even Level 3 could do it, but it would mean resources would soar to the level of Ya Xuting.

As for other footprints and traces, other trace detection technicians take care of the extraction and investigation, which would also not pose any problems. A Level 2 Crime Scene Investigation is surely adequate for specific traces. Unless the traces are very special, their discovery and extraction are considered basic operations.

Among the 17 forensic personnel other than Jiang Yuan, as he said, they meticulously inspected while carefully observing the actions of others.

Most of the people here were from the same circles or had heard of each other. However, Level 2 trace technicians seldom leave their own city to work elsewhere.

Their skills are certainly strong enough; they are undoubtedly the backbone of the city and county levels. But to support other cities and counties, it is mostly coordinated by the province, just like Jiang Yuan’s request this time.

However, other coordinated actions rarely bring so many trace technicians to work like an exam in the same area, doing similar work.

The technicians who rule their own districts on weekdays, how could they resist comparing themselves with others?

Accordingly, knowing that they are being judged by other technicians, how could they relax easily?

Sweeping inch by inch through the 5000 square meter factory, there were no small number of traces found.

The most common were traces of vagrants, and perhaps some from young people who had come to play. But in Jiang Yuan’s view, these do not have too much impact.

Yellow Crystal is a confirmed individual, with a relatively certain height, a more definite age, plus a standard range of weight and health level, which already excludes most vagrants, drug users, or adventure campers.

Jiang Yuan placed yellow and red markers one by one, moving much faster than others. In just over an hour, he reached the mezzanine.

Only half a flight of stairs without a handrail remained to the mezzanine, and one had to climb up by jumping.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan was already more than halfway assured. frёewebηovel.cѳm

After placing all the necessary markers and taking all the requisite photos, Jiang Yuan personally collected a few traces and then climbed onto the mezzanine using his hands and feet.

Turning on the light and scanning once over, Jiang Yuan then waved his hand and called out, "Lights."

A trace and footprint searchlight was hoisted up, and after searching the ground for a while, Jiang Yuan confidently stated, "There are no recent footprints."

Yes, no one had been on this mezzanine recently. In other words, what the geomancer mentioned about meeting and conversing with Yellow Crystal in this factory did not exist.

Although this was still some distance from proving that the geomancer was Yellow Crystal, criminal investigation is not purely a science.

Jiang Yuan, while on the mezzanine, made a call back and succinctly relayed the situation to Song Beishou.

Over the phone, one could hear Song Beishou’s delighted laughter.

"Good, good, good. Now I can rest easy, I can rest easy," said Song Beishou as he put down the phone, his eyes narrowing in contentment.