National Forensic Doctor

29: Chapter 29: Consolidation of Cases 29: Chapter 29: Consolidation of Cases Police Dog Squad.

Upon seeing Jiang Yuan, Dazhuang couldn’t even be bothered to bark anymore and just lifted his head as a form of greeting.

If the dog won’t initiate, Jiang Yuan can.

Walking forward, he called out, “Captain Li, I’m going to pet the dog.”

Li Li, who was hiding in the kitchen scrolling through her phone, didn’t even lift her head and simply shouted, “Dazhuang, let him pet you.”

Dazhuang grinned, muttering something unintelligible, but still lowered his head.

Jiang Yuan energetically stroked him for a while.

The dogs handled by female officers were generally clean and hygienic, making their fur even more pleasant to touch.

Once he had his fill of petting, Jiang Yuan proceeded to the kitchen to make fried rice, cracking eggs with a slap and explaining to Li Li, “Forensic specialist Yan Ge and Wang Zhong are coming over, and also Captain Wei from the Sixth Squad.”

“I thought you’d finally let go.

Fine, as long as they don’t pet the dog,” Li Li replied.

Far from being unhappy, she actually seemed quite pleased.

As a member of the police force, her police dog squad had always been on the periphery.

Although it was genuinely quiet, it was indeed boring.

Before long, the fried rice Jiang Yuan was cooking was ready, and Wu Jun and Wang Zhong arrived on time.

A short while later, a dark-faced veteran police officer came around from the other end of the courtyard wall.

Without saying a word, Dazhuang started barking enthusiastically.

“This dog…” The veteran officer cursed with a laugh, then waved to everyone.

“Old Wei,” Wu Jun greeted him and then, once he approached, introduced him to Jiang Yuan, “Captain Wei is our vice captain of the Sixth Squad, a real veteran…”

“Vice captain sounds impressive but it’s useless.

You can call me Old Wei or Wei Zhenguo.” From a distance, Wei Zhenguo’s face looked dark, but up close it was deeply wrinkled, with a somewhat chubby chin indicating years of fieldwork and recent signs of putting on weight.

“Captain Wei,” Jiang Yuan said, standing up politely.

In the county bureau, it was common practice to bestow the title of vice squad leader to older officers.

It held no real power, it wasn’t an executive position, and it didn’t even come with a pay raise—it just sounded better.

“Old Wei will do.

Recently, I’ve been hearing Doctor Jiang’s name everywhere.” Wei Zhenguo made a polite remark, then continued, “Are you looking into the greenhouse arson case in Wen Township?”

Wang Zhong quickly said, “We just wanted to consult Captain Wei on the case.”

“Do you have any leads?” Wei Zhenguo asked, half-opening his eyes and looking at Jiang Yuan.

He had spent half his life in the bureau and was crystal clear about the capabilities of the technicians there.

Yet, it was Jiang Yuan, despite being a newcomer, who had demonstrated impressive performance in two consecutive cases, which intrigued Wei Zhenguo.

Wang Zhong recounted the discussion from the previous day.

Wei Zhenguo’s expression turned serious, and he fell into deep thought.

“What do you think?” Jiang Yuan asked after waiting a bit.

“I understand what you’re thinking—you want to pinpoint a suspect, and then I bring him in for interrogation to see if he’ll confess?” Wei Zhenguo summarized.

Jiang Yuan and Wang Zhong glanced at each other and nodded.

“This is tough,” Wei Zhenguo said with a smile, but he shook his head and continued, “You’re not wrong to think that the culprit is likely someone from the area near the crime scene.

And, since we did collect fingerprints back then, scanning them again—even if we can’t pinpoint the suspect right away, there’s a good chance of scaring one up.”

Jiang Yuan and Wang Zhong nodded again.

“We did that already, found nothing,” Wei Zhenguo answered plainly.

Both were taken aback, and Wang Zhong couldn’t help saying, “I didn’t see that.

It’s not in the records…”

“With the way you went about it today, after you’re done, could you make a record?” Wei Zhenguo asked with a calm demeanor.

“Ah…

this…

ah!” Wang Zhong’s disappointment was clearly expressed.

This plan, which he had thought about for a long time, had already been attempted by others and proven to be a dead end.

It was at this point that Wu Jun looked towards Wei Zhenguo and said, “Captain Wei, you’re a veteran detective.

If you have any thoughts, just spit them out.”

Based on Wu Jun’s understanding of the criminal police, a veteran detective like Wei Zhenguo, if not brimming with cunning plans, certainly had plenty of accumulated methods for solving cases.

Moreover, Wei Zhenguo must have had some ideas about this arson case, or else he could have simply refused over the phone—there was no need for him to come to the K-9 unit.

Dazhuang wouldn’t be stroking his fur.

Wei Zhenguo tapped Wu Jun with his hand and broke into a smile, “Old Wu is always overthinking.

I do have an idea that I think we could try.”

“Go ahead,” Wu Jun urged.

Wei Zhenguo elaborated, “Arsonists usually don’t just commit one crime.

In my understanding, those who engage in this kind of thing have an addiction.

Some of them, even if they tell themselves not to commit crimes, once they start a fire, where it spreads and what it turns into—they often can’t control it.” He paused to let the others clear their thoughts, then continued, “Five years ago, when working on the greenhouse arson case, I organized a few nearby cases involving fires to see if they could be linked, but the conditions were not quite right…”

Wu Jun interrupted, “Cases that couldn’t be linked five years ago, can they be linked now?”

“Back then, I wanted to link the cases so that I could ask the provincial experts to compare fingerprints.

If Jiang Yuan can compare fingerprints directly, then we can arrest the suspect first and then consider linking the cases,” Wei Zhenguo said earnestly.

“Before I came here, I checked again.

Before the Wen Township arson case, there were three other small cases nearby, involving losses of just a few hundred to a few thousand, at most ten thousand yuan.

Some collected incomplete fingerprints, others didn’t collect any or didn’t collect usable ones.

None were matched to a person.

But I think these cases have something in common…”

Wei Zhenguo counted on his fingers as he listed, “First, Wen Township is an isolated place with few outsiders, and the crime scenes are all outside the town, which makes it very likely that the perpetrator is a local or at least someone familiar with the area.

Second, the number of arson cases in Wen Township and the surrounding area—three to four in three years—is significantly higher than in other towns and regions in our county.

Third, after the Wen Township arson case, no further arson incidents occurred there, which suggests that the suspect might have fled, explaining why the investigation couldn’t find anyone.”

“So, we solve other small arson cases to see if we can tie them to the Wen Township arson case?” Jiang Yuan rephrased Wei Zhenguo’s strategy.

Wei Zhenguo nodded and said, “My plan is actually similar to Xiao Wang’s, an indirect approach, a flanking maneuver.

However, investigating smaller cases is actually a bit simpler.

We have the cases, so procedures for arrests and interrogations are easier to follow.

Once we catch someone, we’ll have the small cases to pressure them into revealing more.

Even if my judgment is wrong, at least we will have solved some cases, right?”

Everyone seemed much more relaxed and nodded in agreement.

In fact, Wei Zhenguo’s strategy was far more sophisticated than Wang Zhong’s.

The old detective’s tactics indeed proved to be more mature.

“Let’s have some fried rice first, and after we finish, we’ll go back and look at the cases,” Jiang Yuan said spiritedly as he served fried rice to everyone.

Wei Zhenguo took a bowl of fried rice, stared absently at the orange-yellow grains, and remarked, “It’s pretty rare to treat someone to this.”