A group of people each had their tasks, instantly clearing out more than half of the office.
The personnel from Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team and Cao Chujun’s Third Brigade added up to about 60 people, but pursuing several targets in one go left them barely enough manpower.
Of course, this was also the staffing for a major case, and even in the early stages it was ; if needed later, increasing personnel was naturally expected.
Liu Jinghui stood up to straighten his police uniform and asked Jiang Yuandao, "Do you want to go take a look together?"
"Which area do you want to investigate?" Jiang Yuan asked as he stood up.
As the King of Deduction, Liu Jinghui usually spent most of his time in the office handling cases through paperwork, and his frequency of field investigation was even less than Jiang Yuan’s.
Liu Jinghui was satisfied with the compliance of the giant dragon, then said in a mature middle-aged tone, "I want to see if there are any signs of a struggle at the scene. Hmm... although I mentioned starting with the easy ones, from the current investigation, the probability of it being a robbery-type of heat of the moment murder is increasing."
"That’s true, then let’s go check it out again," Jiang Yuan replied, using the word "again."
Liu Jinghui was quick to respond, "You’ve already checked the point where the fall into the water occurred?"
"I didn’t look closely. At the time, when collecting diatoms, I roughly inspected along the riverbank. I walked along the river, and near the river edge, I didn’t see any chaotic footprints. But now that we’ve determined the point of falling, thoroughly checking the surrounding area is a good idea," Jiang Yuan also realized that Liu Jinghui’s idea was a good one.
He said he collected diatoms along the Tai River, but actually, other scene examiners collected along the river, roughly taking samples every 50 meters over 8 kilometers.
And Jiang Yuan himself took a walk along the river as well but didn’t finish it, mainly taking a cursory glance. The focus was to see if there were any signs of struggle on the riverbank dikes, the road surfaces along the river, and the surrounding greenbelts.
Because many of these places are paved surfaces, on the grass no footprints would be left, and traditional methods like using static electricity to collect footprints weren’t used here, so only particularly obvious changes would catch Jiang Yuan’s attention. With this kind of observation, even for Jiang Yuan, only very apparent traces would be found; thoroughness was certainly out of the question.
But based on Liu Jinghui’s previous idea, now that the point of falling has been determined, it’s clearly meaningful to thoroughly survey the surroundings once again.
Even if the deceased had committed suicide by drowning, there might still be traces of passage left behind.
If a robbery or similar situation occurred, and the deceased’s body bore obvious injuries, then a confrontation or altercation between both parties might have taken place near the point of falling, leaving behind traces such as chaotic footprints or trampled plants.
Although the probability isn’t very high—mainly because there are cleaners who sweep the area daily and landscaping maintenance workers nearby...
Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan immediately reminded, "Try asking the sanitation department or someone if there’s been any repair work on the greenbelt near the point of falling in recent days."
"I’ll call them." Wang Chuanxing immediately took on the task.
Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui then took a car to the confirmed location where the deceased fell into the water.
The Level 6 drowning-related plankton detection enabled Jiang Yuan to determine the location where the deceased fell into the water in just a day’s time. Given that samples were taken every hundred meters, the location of the fall was narrowed down to within a 200-meter range.
Two hundred meters—running like Bolt would take only 20 seconds, but walking normally would take about 5 minutes, and to carefully inspect it would take at least half an hour to thoroughly cover.
This section near the Changyang Science and Technology Vocational School on Binhe Road ranges from a stone river dike about two meters wide closest to the Tai River, followed by a greenbelt varying between two to three meters wide, then a walking path about two meters wide, an asphalt road with two lanes, and then again a walking path with a large greenbelt about seven or eight meters wide. On the outer side, there’s scattered buildings, open spaces, and small hills.
Buildings near the point of falling include a restaurant, a teahouse, and a small park, all very far from the point of falling. The restaurant also has its own landscaping in front, with no public transport nearby; diners either live nearby or drive in and out, mostly overlooking the Tai River from private rooms upstairs tens of meters away. To see the situation on the riverfront, one would have to cross the road on foot.
Overall, this riverbank route is just an extension of the Changyang South Suburb, with visitors mainly comprising students from the nearby schools and residents of two small residential complexes.
Police officers had already started visiting people nearby and collecting surveillance footage, but nothing had been discovered yet.
Liu Jinghui brought Jiang Yuan here in hopes that Jiang Yuan could find evidence of a crime near the point of falling, not even holding out hope for finding the suspect’s footprints.
The river was lined with sanitation workers sweeping the area, several days had passed, and even if Jiang Yuan personally checked, Liu Jinghui didn’t have high hopes of directly finding traces of the suspect.
Jiang Yuan had walked mainly along the river dike earlier, and this time, he walked the 200 meters of the dike once again.
Sanitation workers rarely clean the river dike, at least not daily or even every other day, so theoretically, the stone dike could provide some clues.
For instance, finding the footprints of the deceased, Zhang Xianyao, would help in assessing his state on that day.
In reality, it’s almost impossible to find anything. Footprints on the stone dike are barely visible during the day, and examining with a flashlight at night simply reveals a multitude of chaotic footprints. Analyzing them one by one... frankly, isn’t practicable.
After several days, the strong wind and high humidity on the dike, along with decomposers continuously supplied by the adjacent greenbelt, rapidly eroded the footprints, causing significant deformation.
To sweep the entire 200 meters of such footprints, even Jiang Yuan struggled to do so, at least meaningfully.
Surprisingly, the greenbelt proved to be the most promising; Jiang Yuan hoped to find bent branches, deeply imprinted footprints, and the like—if a conflict and fight occurred and extended to the greenbelt, this would be the most likely evidence to emerge.
Half an hour later, Jiang Yuan could only spread his hands to Liu Jinghui.
"Nothing?" Liu Jinghui wasn’t exactly disappointed; he just hadn’t seen any hope.
"Couldn’t find any matching traces. What about the sanitation department?" Jiang Yuan asked.
"Nothing. I spoke with the sanitation workers who cleaned this section, and they didn’t notice anything unusual," Liu Jinghui frowned, glancing around again, "Guests with spending records at the restaurant and employees there also didn’t see anything."
"Alright, okay," Jiang Yuan was used to situations with no findings, as this was often the case in investigations.
Liu Jinghui could only shake his head, "If it’s not robbery or a conflict, this case is going to be tough..."
"Let’s take a look ahead," Jiang Yuan suddenly pointed forward, "The point of falling is here, but it doesn’t mean that’s where it happened."