National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 986 - 922: Nice Car

Chang Le City.

Highway service area.

"Captain Jiang. Jiang." Wang Chuanxing called softly.

Jiang Yuan opened his eyes and saw Wang Chuanxing’s bushy eyebrows and big eyes close to his own face, like his own Doberman.

Jiang Yuan pushed him away and frowned as he looked around, asking, "Are we there?"

"Ten more minutes and we’ll be off the highway. The head of the Changler Criminal Police Brigade is waiting for us at the highway exit," Wang Chuanxing stepped aside and added, "Do you want to freshen up, maybe wash your face?"

Jiang Yuan nodded, got out of the GL8, took a few steps, stopped, and asked, "How’s the investigation into Chen Nuan’s WeChat going?"

Investigating WeChat is relatively complex; in typical cases, police would go through the suspect’s phone directly. Now, without access to Chen Nuan’s phone, they had to synchronize from the server-end, which is a more troublesome and procedure-heavy step, generally reserved for major cases.

Wang Chuanxing was well-prepared and continued as they walked, "A large amount of content has been synchronized from the server-end and we’re still looking through it. So far it’s known that Chen Nuan frequently communicated with a few junior high school classmates, and she was active in several chat groups, but no obvious clues have emerged. In other aspects, the job she found in Chang Le City was as a restaurant waitress, and she lived in the dormitory provided by the restaurant. There’s a lot of chat every day in the restaurant group, but so far nothing suspicious has been found."

"Was the WeChat message about Chen Nuan wanting to work abroad sent by her?" Jiang Yuan emphasized this part of the inquiry.

Wang Chuanxing shook his head, "It’s highly unlikely. I contacted a forensic document examiner in Changyang City and asked her to take a look; she said the sentence breaks don’t match Chen Nuan’s previous habits."

Forensic document examination isn’t limited to handwriting analysis; it includes examination of language content such as writing style. Chen Nuan’s messages were not short, and there were several of them, which theoretically could be subjected to forensic document examination to draw some conclusions.

However, compared to technology such as fingerprinting, the reliability of forensic document examination is much lower. Jiang Yuan himself has a Level 3 skill in forensic document examination, but even he couldn’t analyze anything useful from just a few sentences.

The forensic document examination technology in Changyang City is probably not at Level 3, so it would be very difficult to come to a breakthrough conclusion.

As they talked, Liu Jinghui also caught up, motioning with his mouth towards the restroom, "Together?"

"Then let’s go together." Jiang Yuan followed Liu Jinghui into the restroom, as if they were back in their school days.

Liu Jinghui was the first to wash his face at the washbasin by the restroom entrance, sobering up as if bracing himself for a big challenge.

Wang Chuanxing hesitated for a moment and lagged behind.

Liu Jinghui hadn’t slept on the road and now shared, "According to the message from Technical Investigation, the victim, Chen Nuan’s phone has been without a signal for a long time. The last signal was on the 25th, when she sent a message to her husband; after that, it was likely turned off or the SIM card was removed."

Liu Jinghui paused, then said, "It seems to be the work of an old hand. We can’t rule out the possibility of a stranger committing the crime."

At this moment, Liu Jinghui wasn’t just following his own experience and abilities to suggest the most likely direction; they also needed to collectively cover each other’s oversights, filling in the less likely parts of the puzzle as well.

After all, in a high-profile homicide like this, it was impossible to focus only on a single lead.

Jiang Yuan, entering a state of brainstorming, asked, "How did they obtain the phone’s account and password."

"Torture?" Liu Jinghui entered the bathroom, found a urinal in a good position, leaned his hand against the wall, tilted his head back, and said contentedly, "The victim had been beaten before drowning. If a stranger committed the crime, it actually makes the origins and reasons for these injuries easier to explain."

"Hmm... that’s one reason." Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement. The victim, Chen Nuan, had many signs of being beaten before entering the water. If these marks were explained as a result of torture, it would indeed make sense and the explanation would be quite sufficient.

Liu Jinghui breathed out and swayed his body, speaking leisurely: "Following this line of thought, after Chen Nuan arrived in Chang Le City, she was targeted by someone for some reason. That person stole her mobile phone and other items, tortured her to get the passwords, and then killed and threw her body into the Tai River. The corpse floated downstream and finally ended up in our hands... ah..."

As he finished, Liu Jinghui’s voice trailed off: "However, the most likely suspect is still someone familiar. Otherwise, unless the suspect greatly values the time of death, there’s no need to send false messages to Jin Quan. It’s a waste of time and effort."

Liu Jinghui: "A familiar person might not even need to use torture to obtain passwords and other information from the mobile phone, so the beating could be due to emotional reasons. If it’s not for money, then it’s for romantic reasons. Nowadays, people mostly die over love, hate, relationships, and money..."

"Acceptable." Jiang Yuan gave a concise response, pulled up his pants, and left without looking back.

Liu Jinghui was stunned: "Leaving just like that?"

"Ah, I’m done. I’ll wait for you in the car." Jiang Yuan spoke.

With an "Oh," Liu Jinghui bowed his head and his face turned very serious. He muttered softly, "Who would have thought that a battle staked on reputation would silently arrive on such an ordinary day..."

"Are you talking about today’s case?" Wang Chuanxing entered and heard Liu Jinghui muttering about "staking reputation," and he casually added a question.

Liu Jinghui, with eyes closed as if meditating, gently "shushed" him.

After a short rest, the convoy hit the road again. Ten minutes later, after getting off the highway, they saw a large open space in front of the toll station, where four to five cars were neatly parked.

"Captain Jiang." The director of Changler City Bureau’s Criminal Police Brigade, Lang Heng, excitedly approached, shook hands with Jiang Yuan and the others, and individually introduced his team members from the Criminal Police Brigade.

"Director Lang is being too kind. We are just small-town cops from Ningtai County, not worth such a grand reception!" Huang Qiangmin said with a humble and cheerful demeanor.

Lang Heng looked at Huang Qiangmin’s Beijing-licensed A6 with an inscrutable smile and said, "In the world of domestic criminal police, speaking of Ningtai County Criminal Police Detachment, who wouldn’t give a thumbs up?"

"Hahaha, you’re too kind, too kind." Huang Qiangmin paused and then added, "Our visit this time is for an investigation that led us to Chang Le City, not to handle a case in Chang Le City. You don’t need to be nervous."

This was subtly indicating a status issue.

Lang Heng became a bit sheepish and chuckled twice, saying, "Since you’re already here... well, Commissioner Huang, how about joining me in my car, and we can have a meal together first..."

"That’s kind of you, but our main focus is the case." Huang Qiangmin declined.

"Then join me in my car, and we can discuss the details of the case." As Lang Heng took Huang Qiangmin by the arm, he whispered, "Our bureau chief and the secretary who oversees us will also come tonight. They mainly want to meet Jiang Yuan — give your brother some face..."

"Since you put it that way..." Huang Qiangmin sighed. When other detectives go out of town to handle a case, being hosted is always the best. Those who are savvy usually offer to treat the local police to a meal or a drink. With Jiang Yuan, there’s no need; instead, it’s the local police who invite them to dine, but that means it won’t be so easy to leave – one might even end up taking something home...

"Come on, come on." Lang Heng ushered Huang Qiangmin into his car.

Huang Qiangmin nodded and looked around: "Nice car you’ve got."