stjorthotic Chapter 69 Searching for Him Among the Crowd
Chapter 69 Searching for Him Among the Crowd
"If we can find this person, things will be much easier."
Qian Hao is now able to remain calm and collected because he knows that the Third Squadron does not have decisive evidence, while he has sufficient alibis.
But what if we find the person who killed Li Hao with their own hands?
Let the two meet one more time, so they know that they have both been captured.
In the prisoner's dilemma, whoever tells the truth first and tries to gain merit may get a suspended death sentence instead of having to eat the peanut.
Does Qian Hao have the confidence that the other party will keep his secret to the end?
Or perhaps the person who helped Qian Hao commit the murder was confident that Qian Hao wouldn't betray him?
Wu Song took a sip of water and continued, "My master and I have investigated all the people who are close to Qian Hao, but we haven't found the murderer."
This means that the murderer and Qian Hao were not very close, and there was no trust between them.
If we can find this person, the case can take a turn for the better!
"Hmm, that makes sense!" Xu Bin nodded. "Let me add something. We can first try to figure out Qian Hao's activity trajectory within the four-month period. The murder case in Gotham City will naturally be fully investigated, but outside of Gotham City, we can consider whether Qian Hao had the opportunity to commit the crime. This way, we can be more targeted! Xiao Song, you can be less busy."
During this period, Wu Song was the one running around the whole time, mostly with Cao Dahua, and sometimes with Ma Dazhi or by himself.
But no matter how they are arranged, Wu Song must be included.
There was no other way. If it were before, it wouldn't matter who went to investigate; all you needed was an experienced criminal investigator.
Since Wu Song has an amazing intuition that he knows who has committed murder, and the astonishing accuracy of this intuition has been verified in several cases solved by the Third Squadron, then no matter how unscientific this matter is, he has to believe it in order to solve the case.
Therefore, Wu Song is indispensable when investigating and interviewing suspects.
It's simply a matter of assigning him an experienced criminal investigator to fill in the gaps, in case Wu Song's intuition ever fails, hoping that the experienced investigator might be able to find some clues.
After running around for so many days, Xu Bin felt he had been pushing Wu Song too hard and took the initiative to lighten Wu Song's load.
"That makes sense!" Cao Dahua nodded in agreement. "For example, if he was in class at that time and no one covered his classes, then it's impossible for him to have committed murder in Gotham City. Cases in other cities where the time of death is outside of that period can be ruled out."
"Xiao Song, you should rest for a while. We'll go and visit them again to get a clear picture of Qian Hao's activities. We also need to report to the Municipal Bureau and ask them to help coordinate. There's no rush."
According to the principle of territorial jurisdiction, Wu Song can only handle cases in the Chengbei District; he does not have the law enforcement authority in other districts.
Not to mention investigating cases in other districts.
Similar to the last time I went to Shanghai to investigate Li Ailian's case, I had to go through the cooperation procedures.
The only advantage over going to Shanghai is that we all have the same superior and are under the jurisdiction of the Gotham City Police Department, so all procedures can be done faster.
……
It took three days.
After interviewing Qian Hao's colleagues, doctoral and graduate students, undergraduates he needed to teach, and relatives and friends, the other members of the Third Squadron created a map of Qian Hao's activities over the past four months.
They then created a timeline, stipulating that the person responsible for the case had to be found to have been murdered within that timeframe.
At this time, news also came down from the Municipal Bureau.
"Within four months, there have been no cases in the city that meet our investigation requirements."
After meeting with his old classmate Zhao Xilai, the head of the criminal investigation team, Xu Bin gave this reply.
"In total, there were four murders in other districts during this period. One of them was a family massacre committed on New Year's Eve because the boss refused to pay wages. The murderer then committed suicide."
One case involved a wife who killed her husband in self-defense after being subjected to domestic violence.
Two vendors got into a fight over a stall, and in a fit of anger, one pulled out a knife.
The only murder case was a burglary that turned into a robbery and murder. The murderer has been caught. Because there were signs of a struggle, the murderer's DNA extracted from the victim's fingernails matched the murderer's.
Extending the timeframe to six months, three more murders were discovered: one involved a villager killing the village chief; another had a suspect identified, though the perpetrator is still at large; and the third, while the killer hasn't been identified, is believed, based on shell casings found at the scene, to be the perpetrator of a series of armed robberies and murders operating across multiple provinces.
Xu Bin recounted the results, saying, "Xiao Song, if your judgment is correct, then it means that the person who swapped kills with Qian Hao might not be in our Gao Tan!"
"Is it necessary to extend the deadline to one year?" Liu Shutong asked.
"It's unlikely. If they had a good relationship before, we've already checked all the people Qian Hao is close to, and Xiao Song didn't find that person. That means the other person's relationship with Qian Hao is probably just so-so."
If you were in that situation, and you made a deal with someone you weren't that close to to exchange murders, and you killed someone for them, and they killed someone for you a year later, would you do it?
There is no foundation of trust between you.
"I have a bad feeling." Wu Song sighed softly, and this sigh drew everyone's attention to him.
"That person might not even be in Canglan Province!"
Slowly stating this conclusion, Wu Song said in a deep voice, "Think about Qian Hao's previous behavior. He couldn't be unaware that his actions were practically telling us openly that his wife's murder was related to him."
He was also an associate professor of criminal law, and he knew that falsely accusing someone of torture to extract a confession would successfully enrage our entire criminal investigation department and lead us to investigate him at any cost.
But he did it anyway!
It's easy to imagine how confident he was in his plan!
"If it's outside the province, then it's even more complicated!" Cao Dahua said with a wry smile. "We can't exactly contact the ministry and ask them to find all those cases, can we?"
"Let's search within Canglan Province first. If we can't find it there, we'll try contacting the four neighboring provinces. If we still can't find it..."
Xu Bin's words stuck in his throat for a moment.
Suddenly, I smiled with relief.
"We've looked into the relevant cases in these four provinces, but we don't know how long it will take. We'll deal with the rest later. This might be a long battle."
"Keep looking, you'll find it eventually!"
"That's right, we can get it wrong a thousand times, but if we get it right just once, Qian Hao is finished!"
……
The incident involving the Third Squadron being accused of using torture to extract confessions has caused quite a stir.
Although the investigation revealed it to be a false accusation without any evidence, the media and public opinion simply did not believe it.
The court also wanted to finalize the Qian Hao case as soon as possible to quell the controversy.
So, after waiting for a week, all the matters related to the investigation with other prefecture-level cities in Canglan Province were completed.
Wu Song and Cao Dahua then began to live a life of frequent business trips.
They went to other city police departments to review relevant case files, selected homicide cases that met the criteria within that time period, and then made a judgment.
Feeling suspicious, he went to meet the other party.
Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.