National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 991 - 927: Capturing People, Closing Shop

Sheng Hong Building is located in the middle of a small business circle, with a food street composed of several alleys at the back and scattered commercial streets at the front, surrounded by similar commercial and residential buildings, as well as some small neighborhoods or courtyards formed by a few stand-alone staircases.

The appearance of the building is as old and outdated as the commercial street outside, with the interior decoration being in the same shabby and unrefined state. The elevators are small, broken, few, and yet overcrowded, giving Jiang Yuan a very familiar feeling.

Qinghe City and Ningtai County share the same standard, or rather, this is the standard for non-central business districts in fourth- or fifth-tier cities. It’s not that the people dislike high-end places; it is just that they prioritize affordability and then go for places with a high cost-performance ratio.

Compared to those strictly regulated pure office buildings, commercial buildings, or specialty malls, old buildings like Sheng Hong Building often become the kings of their environment because of their penny-pinching and annoying property management, flexible and irritating merchants, high turnover rates and tedious changes, and a dirty, chaotic, and cost-saving environment.

Jiang Yuan, following the chaotic crowd holding milk tea and starch sausages, entered the lobby of Shenghong Building and saw a security guard directing the crowd, having dozens of people lining up in front of four elevators, with everyone then looking at the slowly changing red floor numbers on the displays.

"We’re going to property management," Jiang Yuan decided upon seeing this and opted not to experience the elevator. It was unlikely that he would find any evidence inside the elevator anyway.

However, having reached this stage in the investigation, he still wanted to gather firsthand information, so Jiang Yuan instructed: "Yao Wei, continue to line up for the elevator. Once inside, take some videos, and then mark cameras on each floor in every elevator corridor. Also, label the stores on each floor. None of these should be overlooked in the lobby."

Jiang Yuan was too familiar with such environments. Despite the lobby’s attempt at having an impressive brass nameplate, such embellishments only lead to higher property management fees. Moreover, they require a production cycle. Many small shops and companies register and pay, only for their business to close down by the time the property management gets everything set. Then, property management profits once again!

Shen Yaowei responded affirmatively, "Then I’ll start from the top floor and work my way down, recording each floor."

"Alright. We’ll take the stairs. Stay in contact if anything comes up." Jiang Yuan turned and ascended the stairs through the fire door.

Mu Zhiyang quickly led the way and said, "Property management is on the fifth floor. Below the fifth floor, there are shops; a hotpot restaurant on the second floor, a buffet on the third floor, and an internet café on the fourth floor, though these shops have their entrances from the front."

Jiang Yuan made a sound of acknowledgment, simultaneously climbing the stairs and pondering.

Firstly, Chen Nuan entered this building on her own, most likely having arranged to meet someone. How did they set up the meeting?

Secondly, did Chen Nuan leave the building alive, or did she die within the building and get carried out and dumped into the Tai River a few kilometers away?

Based on the current evidence, both possibilities exist. There might even have been a scenario where she was moved while seriously injured, which is the trouble with drowned bodies; many pieces of evidence are erased by the water. Of course, the same is true for buried bodies, but burial requires much more physical effort.

"Captain Jiang," inside the property management office, the detectives from the Criminal Police Brigade who arrived earlier were examining their surveillance videos.

"Have you found the person?" Jiang Yuan asked straight away. This wasn’t the time to be considerate of emotional intelligence.

The leading officer knew what Jiang Yuan meant and shook his head, "The elevator videos here in property management are only stored for 14 days, so they’re gone. However, some company or shop cameras in the corridors, we’ve already sent people to request footage floor by floor."

"Make another round of inquiries, see if there are any eyewitnesses." It was merely luck if Jiang Yuan’s request could be fulfilled at this point.

"Yes." The leading officer immediately arranged for it.

"Do you have a list of shops and companies?" Although Jiang Yuan had Shen Yaowei checking each floor, it didn’t hurt to ask for another list from property management. Although the property management here might have a more comprehensive list, he did not place much trust in them.

The property manager hurriedly pointed to a large chart on the wall, "The companies listed here are more or less complete. This is for the tenants to see. Our boss owns some of the property himself."

An unaccommodating police officer from the local police station said, "Now find a piece of paper, and write down any companies that aren’t on this big chart, including any that have changed, and then sign it. If there are any issues later, I’ll come looking for you."

At this moment, all the police officers were unified in their distrust.

The property manager, not daring to offend the police, complied and began writing, muttering soft explanations all the while.

Jiang Yuan went through the listings one by one, only to see that beyond a few residential and company units, there were mostly restaurants, followed by all sorts of nail salons, beauty shops, murder mystery games... hmm...

Jiang Yuan’s gaze paused here, he thought for a moment, and then he saw an escape room venue.

So Jiang Yuan asked, "Do some of these escape rooms require cell phones to be handed over?"

The police officer from the police station immediately reminded the property manager, who muttered, "I’ve never played it...", while Tang Jia, who was beside him, coughed and said, "I’ve encountered places where phones are put inside a metal box."

The metal box acts much like a Faraday cage, effectively blocking signals, which is even better than just removing the SIM card.

Without needing any prompting from Jiang Yuan, Tang Jia then said, "Shall we look into the escape room venues?" freewebnσvel.cøm

"Pair up and get the surveillance videos from each venue," Jiang Yuan ordered, then added, "Send people to the murder mystery game venues as well. Do saunas require phones to be turned in?"

"It’s possible there’s no signal," the property manager replied, adding, "I go often."

The police presence was substantial. Currently, the case was short on clues, not manpower. Officers promptly started inspections, and even got a murder mystery game venue not yet open to have its owner called over.

Jiang Yuan and his colleagues were in no hurry to go back to brainstorm; they preferred to take over the property management office and conference room to watch the videos and search for evidence and clues right on the spot.

It was highly likely that Chen Nuan had spent her last moments inside the Sheng Hong Building. Otherwise, considering people’s reliance on cell phones, unless someone is preoccupied with something, they would almost certainly turn on their phone before doing anything else.

Chen Nuan’s phone was switched off minutes after she entered the Sheng Hong Building, and wasn’t turned back on until it was in the killer’s hands. It’s only that too much time has passed by now; otherwise, Jiang Yuan and the team were keen on thoroughly searching the closed Sheng Hong Building.

The head of the Criminal Police Brigade, Lang Heng, quickly arrived at the scene as well, and upon discovering promising leads, immediately made a call to bring over personnel from the two nearby police stations.

In such a commercial district, the utility of police station officers is extremely valuable.

The surveillance videos owned by the various shops were stored for a fairly long period of time, typically in a recycling mode, with the longest storage lasting three to four months. The hard drives of the intermittently operating murder mystery game venues were larger, with storage lasting up to half a year.

Jiang Yuan didn’t need to do the work himself; a group from Image Investigation, equipped with their own gear, diligently began checking the surveillance footage.

Soon enough, results came in: "We found the person."

"At the escape room. They entered together," the officer who found the footage said excitedly.

"Match the faces of the people who went in together," commanded the head of the Image Reconnaissance Brigade.

With a few snapshots, the information on the male companion jumped out.

"22 years old, male, technical school graduate, unemployed, with a business license, a sole proprietor..." a police officer read out the related information.

"There’s something wrong with this escape room venue," Jiang Yuan asserted, quickly scrolling through the video, then pointing at the screen, he said, "Is this NPC getting Chen Nuan to drink?"

"It looks like a bottle of alcohol..." an officer from the police station said from behind, his expression turning serious, he said, "I’ve handled a similar case before. An employee of an escape room venue, under the guise of game requirements, had female players drink alcohol, and they even had specially provided sweet alcoholic drinks. There was a case of a female player who wasn’t good at drinking being intoxicated."

"Arrest them. Close the venue." Jiang Yuan, having arrived with the task force, didn’t need to understand the intricacies. The evidence at hand was already sufficient for him to bring the suspects in.