After finishing the hotpot al, everyone returned to the office and started working overti as a matter of course.
The officers who missed the hotpot because they couldn’t make it were slightly annoyed, but no one left at that mont. They could only bring out their assignnts and begin investigating the route of climbing the exterior wall.
With the change in direction, the evidence to be collected and the content to be investigated would change significantly.
Take climbing the exterior wall, for instance. A regular person might think that the surrounding surveillance should have been checked long ago. In reality, the word "surrounding" can lead to despair if not limited.
The surveillance that could capture the exterior wall of Avi’s Apartnt may not be plentiful, and may not necessarily be official monitoring. It could be private installations by businesses or individuals. Of course, the more likely scenario is that no surveillance captures the exterior wall of Avi’s Apartnt, and even if portions are captured, they may not show any people.
If we were to draw a line for the flow of people around Avi’s vicinity, just using the nearest four intersections as a standard, the involved surveillance caras would number in the dozens. Going through each one, even with Jiang Yuan involved and tight ti constraints, would require thousands of police hours.
If the determination of the ti of death is relaxed a bit, such as changing it to "nightti death," the manpower cost for checking the surrounding surveillance would skyrocket.
Of course, as the difficulty of this case gradually increases, so does the input of resources. The manpower brought in just by Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team can adequately supplent the personnel shortage at the Zhengguang Bureau.
Besides gathering surveillance videos and reviewing footage, conducting more detailed and pressing interviews with the personnel inside Avi’s Apartnt is also a heavy task.
Dealing with foreign affairs always requires caution, in other words, it’s inevitably slower.
The next morning, Jiang Yuan returned to Avi’s Apartnt to begin a survey of the whole building and parts of the courtyard wall.
Avi’s Apartnt is designed as a single building surrounded by a large courtyard. The courtyard wall is not high, around two ters, aning an ordinary person couldn’t climb it, but an expert could easily vault over with a running start.
The apartnt building itself isn’t large, totaling six floors, with five to eight rooms per floor of varying sizes.
Compared to Beijing’s scale, apartnt buildings or complexes like this are considered quite small. However, checking each door and window for signs of tampering is a heavy task.
Tao Lu pulled Huang Qiangmin aside, catching Jiang Yuan before he started arranging the survey direction, and said, "Jiang Yuan, if we can avoid entering premises, let’s do so and find the room the murderer visited before searching inside. That would be better."
Jiang Yuan looked towards Huang Qiangmin.
Huang Qiangmin, having served as the chief officer of a criminal police team himself, understood Tao Lu and simply shrugged at Jiang Yuan: "It also avoids the hassle of foreigners asking you for a search warrant."
"Then let’s have everyone vacate the apartnt. We don’t need to tell them what we’re doing," Jiang Yuan, experienced in handling many cases, had his ways.
Tao Lu suddenly felt like he was being set up by Jiang Yuan, quickly saying, "If we let people out and search inside, there’ll be many follow-up issues, especially with such a large-scale search. We should avoid it if possible."
"Let them out; we’ll not search inside at first." Jiang Yuan paused, then continued, "We’ll survey the exterior first. However, once I start checking the courtyard wall and building, I’m worried the suspect will wise up and wipe away any traces from the windows."
Tao Lu frowned, "The residents have been cleared as suspects, haven’t they?"
"Even victims can have all sorts of thoughts. Foreigners’ thoughts are unpredictable," Liu Jinghui, originally there waiting for evidence, said at this mont: "Residents might be unaware of the situation, and upon seeing our extensive search, might turn to so resident for help or sothing..."
Tao Lu looked sharply at Liu Jinghui, "You think the residents are still involved?"
"We’re discussing a possibility," Liu Jinghui smiled. "This case involves so many people. Frankly, anything can happen. Since the victim is a foreigner, we find it hard to investigate her relationships and don’t know if there were any deadly economic dealings, which ans we don’t know why she died. But..."
Liu Jinghui paused out of habit after saying "but," then continued after two seconds, "Actually, the way the murderer posed the victim in a state of sexual asphyxiation suggests the murderer was likely familiar with Matina, and those familiar with Matina might sohow be linked to the residents here. Hence, even if a resident has been excluded as a suspect, we should treat all residents as suspects."
"You’re not entirely wrong..." Tao Lu pointed at Liu Jinghui with his hand.
No one delved further into the topic, but Tao Lu arranged things according to Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui’s requests.
For the police, the suspect or witness or involved groups represent complex dynamics. Tao Lu felt Liu Jinghui was still trapped in an "Eastern Train" murder case mindset, presuming there’s a possibility of everyone in the apartnt being guilty, or many being involved.
If such a scenario were to actually occur, it would be too terrifying. But Tao Lu must admit Liu Jinghui’s conjecture held so weight.
Many tis, individuals like Matina, with wide fa and many friends, also increase enemies in corners.
Lust leading to murder isn’t unusual. Moreover, it is already known that two residents in the apartnt complex had affairs with Matina. It implies she was a popular yet envied mber within the entire apartnt.
In such an environnt, the killer entering the apartnt could have an accomplice or could capitalize on so resident’s psychology, or even get unexpected help from a resident—"Helping the righteous while the unrighteous is isolated" might not be entirely suitable, but to police, many murder cases do happen this way: surrounding people intentionally or unintentionally aiding and indulging, surrounding people’s intentional or unintentional coldness and leniency...
Due to recent events, there weren’t many residents in Avi’s Apartnt to begin with. Though there were so argunts during clearance, with assistance from Avi Airlines and embassy staff, the clearance was quickly completed.
At this point, Jiang Yuan began inspecting the surroundings outside the apartnt.
When he did this, not only the residents but even so journalists waiting outside noticed the change.
The journalists stationed outside Avi’s Apartnt included several Chinese reporters, but mostly foreign reporters.
A journalist from Yibenli quickly charged over, holding a microphone and asking, "Does the police believe the murderer entered Avi’s Apartnt from outside?"
For them, a murder committed by one of their own and one committed by an outsider are evidently two different concepts.
The officers present naturally did not answer the reporter’s question, simply pushing them further away.
Jiang Yuan had previously circled the courtyard wall but found no obvious traces.
This ti, circling around again, he found several dubious signs, but could not be sure. The wall is too short, and its material doesn’t easily hold marks. Over a few days, Beijing’s dust has begun to obscure the evidence.
Jiang Yuan had to exert a lot of effort to carefully discern these points and only stood up after looking for quite a while.
"How is it?" Cui Qishan asked impatiently.
"It’s indeed a climbing point," Jiang Yuan nodded, then slowly said, "There’s evidence soone entered through climbing... Bring the lift in."
To examine the exterior wall traces, it was naturally necessary to observe closely against the wall. At this point, tools like lifts and cranes were needed.
Previously, this wasn’t done because the operation was too conspicuous. However, for an already established task force, as long as there is a definite direction, using so equipnt becos a minor matter.
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