National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 983 - 919: Three Routes

Villages with clinics are already considered big villages, moreover, they have to be ones where population loss is not severe.

Ningtai County has some level of small industry support, with the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries all still alive, managing to retain a population to some extent. Especially those over the age of fifty, many have returned home for retirement and work, which makes frequent clinic visitors out of them.

Such big villages or administrative villages were not originally the focus of the investigators’ inquiry. However, many from the surrounding natural villages often come to seek medical treatment and buy medicine. Asking from one household to the next, aside from the longer distances, is not too taxing.

"Women who’ve been beaten? Why don’t you ask the Women’s Federation?"

The person in charge of a certain clinic, who also acts as both physician and nurse, takes a drag from the cigarette offered by the investigator, examines the photo in hand carefully, and then makes a suggestion.

The investigator across from him, sipping tea to relieve fatigue, asks with a smile, "Does the Women’s Federation take care of such matters?"

"Whether they take care of it or not, whenever there’s a man in our village who beats his wife, the director of the Women’s Federation will report it. They always come by later to talk it out. Now, isn’t there a requirement to keep ledgers? There should be records. And in serious cases, they even ask you police to pay a visit. Wouldn’t there be records of that as well?" The clinic doctor watches TV, so he knows what the police are after.

The investigator can’t help but stand up, pondering aloud, "Your suggestion isn’t bad, it seems we can indeed give it a try."

The clinic doctor instantly feels flattered, laughing heartily.

The co-investigator asks at this time, "How does your Women’s Federation director report? Through paper reports or some other method?"

The simpler the reporting method, the more comprehensive it naturally becomes, but the more rigorous the process, the more credible it is.

Showing considerable initiative, the clinic doctor says, "Let me give the village head a call, you can ask him."

He makes the call in front of the two investigators, and by the time the conversation ends, the booming sound from the handset has already proactively relayed the information.

"Reported in a WeChat group? That could be used." The investigators hesitate for a moment, but still decide to report the information up the chain.

That’s how investigations and visits go; you utilize new information as it comes and report new findings immediately. Otherwise, there’s no point in dispatching someone to inquire and investigate.

Following the investigator’s report, Liu Jinghui immediately goes to find Huang Qiangmin, who then coordinates to start looking for related personnel within the whole county.

This time there’s no need to visit the scene again. Instead, the list of women who have recently suffered domestic violence, as collected by the Women’s Federation, is drawn up. Based on the addresses, photos are directly sent through WeChat to the women directors in the local villages to inquire whether the person is a local resident. They don’t bother inquiring in the city for now, as recognition might not be forthcoming, and moreover, the situation of not having a second-generation ID card is less common in cities.

In comparison, the more remote rural areas not only face situations where people do not acquire second-generation ID cards, but there’s also the possibility of selling their ID cards, as well as the theft and use of another person’s ID card. The possibilities are various, and primarily, problems have to be resolved through human intermediaries.

Liu Jinghui’s series of actions are ferocious, seemingly reducing the workload significantly, but he himself is quite exhausted. Especially the interaction with other departments, which is somewhat burdensome for him.

In just a few hours, Tang Jia has synthesized the information across the county and comes to report, saying, "Director Liu, based on the information we currently have, there’s no match. Additionally, the women directors in some places aren’t very cooperative; it seems as if they haven’t really collected information on the women who have been domestically abused."

"Then we continue to send people to investigate and visit," Liu Jinghui is not surprised at all. In a place like Ningtai County, it would actually be strange if everyone was compliant and easy to direct.

Tang Jia, with some of the romantic idealism typical of youth, huffs and says, "Such a simple task, and they can’t even do it properly. At the very least, they should ensure the protection of women and children’s rights, that’s the bare minimum. People have been domestically abused, yet they don’t even ask!"

"You can’t say they are indifferent, every place has its own different situations, right? Maybe the abused women themselves don’t want to make a big deal out of it. If you were the local women director, what could you do?"

"If I came across an abusive man, I’d stomp him flat with one foot!" Tang Jia clenches her fists and stamps her foot with force, apparently not just pretending.

Liu Jinghui clicked his tongue twice and said, "Then, you’ll be in charge of the canvassing for this area."

Liu Jinghui was basically conscripting strong hands. If there was any technical substance to this task, it involved interacting with different people, entailing a high social cost, which was also a burden for Liu Jinghui.

In addition, the investigation along the clinic’s route must also continue. Looking into two lines simultaneously is basic procedure for such a homicide case.

Tang Jia was stunned for a moment, but didn’t say anything and just accepted the task. She represented Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team, yet the main canvas force was not comprised of team members.

Over the next two days, Tang Jia ran around for over ten hours each day, having combed through every corner of impoverished Ningtai County, yet failing to find the woman in Jiang Yuan’s sketch. If it weren’t for Jiang Yuan’s gold-lettered signboard, everyone would start doubting the accuracy of the information.

On her way back, Tang Jia reported to Liu Jinghui again.

However, Liu Jinghui had not considered for a moment that there was a problem with the sketch provided by Jiang Yuan. Jiang Yuan had already claimed it was of forensic-level accuracy, and Liu Jinghui’s first judgment was, "Then that means she’s not from Ningtai County. Keep searching further up along the Tai River."

"The team that started canvassing earlier should have already covered some ground," Tang Jia paused and then said, "It wouldn’t be quite appropriate for me to take charge."

"That’s true, I’ll talk to Jiang Yuan," Liu Jinghui responded, then turned to find Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team was still quite small in scale, a unit of just over twenty people that was extremely flexible.

When Liu Jinghui arrived, he saw Jiang Yuan surrounded by a pile of case files, several computers set up in front of him, and three or four people attending to him, looking very busy.

Liu Jinghui felt a surge of joy and quickly asked, "Any breakthroughs?"

"Which case are you referring to?" Jiang Yuan looked up, confused.

Liu Jinghui was taken aback: "The drowning case."

"Oh, I’m preparing for that," Jiang Yuan mumbled and then counter-asked, "Any breakthroughs?"

Only because Liu Jinghui was logical, he immediately realized Jiang Yuan was working on another case, freeing up manpower for the drowning case, and he was asking about the progress of the drowning case.

Liu Jinghui then explained the situation and continued, "We need to extend our search a bit further, preferably covering an entire city at once for efficiency, making communication more convenient."

"That’s feasible," Jiang Yuan agreed. The cost of communication was indeed high; even for him, though he could relatively easily contact the local criminal police teams, they were still not as convenient as the local forces. Moreover, it was necessary to consider that the other party also had their own work and couldn’t let their officers waste too much time.

Liu Jinghui added, "We can use the experience from this time to divide it into three lines of inquiry. The first line, inquire with official village committees, like women’s directors, through reports of domestic violence to understand the situation. This can be done through online channels; the second line, visiting clinics, which requires offline work; and third, we still need to conduct widespread canvassing in the community, getting a grasp of the situation, focusing on villages closer to the Tai River, and targeting the poorer, more conservative villages."

The difficulty of the three lines of inquiry increased progressively, with the first being arguably the most cunning and the third being the most cumbersome. However, police who have been on the job for a long time know that cunning methods are not always clever, and cumbersome methods are not necessarily dumb.

At this point, the case had drawn the focus of both Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui, using nearly half of the Ningtai County Bureau’s police force, turning it into a case that must be resolved with full concentration. Any considerations to save on manpower or expenses would be misguided.

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly: "I’ve also called Director Xu... it wasn’t an invitation, just a query, discussing the strategy. He also believes that it’s time to trust the abilities of the grassroots police."

"Well said. I’ll spread the word among everyone," Liu Jinghui said with a laugh, then proceeded to write a WeChat message with a serious expression.