620: Chapter 564: Ti of Death 620: Chapter 564: Ti of Death Knock knock.
In the early morning, two police officers, led by a staff mber of the Qingtong Factory, knocked on the door of the experts’ building.
“Director Yang, two officers would like to ask about the details of a past case,” the staff mber introduced.
Director Yang had retired almost ten years ago, but he still dressed as though he was going to work, wearing a shirt that was neatly ironed with the sleeves rolled up to reveal the tal watch on his wrist.
Holding a rolled-up newspaper, he gently tapped it on his other hand and said, “Then co in.”
The two officers looked at each other, apologized, and then entered.
The factory worker smiled and said, “I’ll wait outside,” and didn’t enter.
Director Yang’s living room still had the style of the old era, with a large, plush leather sofa, a wide-screen television, and a low coffee table set between the sofa and the TV…
“Would you like so tea?” Director Yang asked.
“No, thank you,” the police officers declined with a wave of the hand, then continued, “Director Yang, we are here to investigate the Jingyang Line triple murder case.
On April 18th and 19th of that year, do you rember anything that can help us?”
“It’s been nearly 20 years, how can I rember what I did that day?” Director Yang shook his head in response and asked, “Do you rember what you did that day?”
“I was still in elentary school then,” the leading officer laughed.
Taken aback, Director Yang sighed deeply, “Ti really flies.”
“Director Yang, is your wife here?
We have a few questions, it would be better to ask you separately,” they proposed.
“Oh, she’s at my son’s place, looking after my grandson,” Director Yang shook his head, asking, “What does this have to do with her anyway?”
“We suspect that the couple who was walking nearby at that ti were you and your wife.
We wanted to ask both of you,” the police officer said, hinting at their reasoning, seeing that Director Yang was not very cooperative.
Compared to assessing a single person, it’s relatively easier to match the age, height, and gender of two people and find them on various lists.
Jiang Yuan didn’t just have the records of several factory personnel and most of their families; he also referred to the transcripts from previous investigations.
The triple murder case was too complex and wide in scope.
The previous investigators had made thousands of transcripts with over ten thousand nas listed.
Jiang Yuan used footprints to screen and narrow down the list, and then the Bald Strike Team, along with the Qingbai City Bureau, brought over about twenty or so people for comparison.
Finally, they went door-to-door.
Director Yang, unaware of the machinations behind the scenes, was stunned for a mont, “My wife and I took a walk together, how would you know that?
There were no caras back then.”
“So it was indeed you and your wife who took the walk together, right?” the officer smiled, still not disclosing the source of their information.
After deep thought, Director Yang asked, “Is soone accusing ?”
The officers chuckled at his guess but still did not reveal the reason, simply asking, “Can you confirm which day you went for a walk outside?”
“I’ve already told you I can’t rember clearly, you go first, then I’ll try to recall,” he replied.
“Director Yang, the day of the incident, there was a fatal train track accident, the Jingyang Line triple murder case.
How could you not rember?” the police officer reminded him.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Director Yang grew serious, pondered his words, and said, “I wasn’t trying to hide anything, but…
there’s nothing wrong with saying it now.
My wife and I did indeed pass through the area where the incident occurred.
However, we passed by in the afternoon, which does not coincide with the ti when the victims were found at night.”
“What were you doing at the ti?” the officer asked.
“I knew it…” Director Yang said: “Back then, my wife and I opened a small retail space secretly in the nearby market.
It wasn’t illegal, we just didn’t want people to know.
That afternoon, we were going to check on the store and collect so of the day’s earnings.”
The two officers fell silent for a mont, as this was a new developnt for them.
However, this result was not bad; new information and leads were always better than none.
Regaining their focus, the two proceeded with their questioning.
…
Series of interview reports accumulated in this manner, eventually making their way back to the office at Qingbai City Bureau.
The City Bureau had specially cleared out a large office, which still appeared quite cramd.
Despite this, the officers’ enthusiasm was steadily growing.
“There really are so new leads,” they noted.
“Things that were difficult to discuss 20 years ago are now coming to light.”
“The key is, I didn’t expect we could actually use footprints to find soone,” they realized.
“That’s Ningtai Jiang Yuan’s trademark move,” they acknowledged.
In the small office next door, Zhang Shizhong was similarly invigorated.
He had transferred from a criminal detective to a cybercop several years ago, but as he reminisced, it was clear that the stories from his ti as a detective were more thrilling.
“There might really be a chance,” Zhang Shizhong murmured, feeling a surge of confidence as he listened to the report below.
He had not expected that Jiang Yuan could locate a pedestrian from 20 years ago who had never been found.
Although it was not yet a breakthrough in the case and there was no direct evidence pointing to the murderer, this start was still quite astonishing.
“Captain Jiang is back,” a chatting officer reminded him.
Zhang Shizhong looked out the window and saw Jiang Yuan getting out of the car accompanied not only by Huang Qiangmin but also a senior police officer in plain clothes.
Before long, Jiang Yuan led them up.
“Let introduce you, this is Senior Inspector Liu Jinghui,” Jiang Yuan stepped aside to make room.
Zhang Shizhong imdiately rembered and said eagerly, “Director Liu, I know of you.
We often hear about the cases you’ve solved; they’re even used as study materials for us.”
Liu Jinghui, listening to the familiar small talk, smiled and said, “If we’re talking about achievents, Jiang Yuan is right here.
How’s the case progressing?”
“It’s going according to plan,” said Jiang Yuan, who had already briefed Liu Jinghui about his “little-by-little” plan during the ride.
“Alright, I’ll review the case files first,” said Liu Jinghui, who naturally didn’t have a clue either and decided to read the materials first.
Jiang Yuan thus set Liu Jinghui free to review the case on his own and began to ponder which pawn to push today.
Jiang Yuan’s choice was…
Ti of Death Identification Level 6.
A Level 6 identification of the ti of death was already quite excessive, and with an additional temporary skill boost of 1, without the need for advanced mathematical skills, one could tell that this was Level 7.
To be honest, Jiang Yuan hadn’t really experienced Level 7 skills before.
Seeing that there was no task to push a pawn today, Jiang Yuan left Liu Jinghui to his work, activated the skill, and started examining photos.
This ti, he was looking at the photos of the corpse from the second case.
The first and third victims in the triple corpse case had been alive when struck dead.
Only the victim in the second case was dead when hit.
A victim already deceased ant that they had been killed before, and the ti of death beca a key point.
However, unlike a standard corpse, the second victim had been shattered by a train while already dead, which made determining the ti of death very challenging.
The reports Jiang Yuan saw indicated a ti of death range spanning 20 hours, pretty much just short of writing “in the past two days” inside.
Even with a Level 7 assessnt of ti of death, Jiang Yuan did not feel it was going to be particularly easy.
This was purely difficult territory.
Actually, if the ti since death had been a bit longer, say a week or more, the requirents for pinpointing the ti of death would have been lower, making a 20-hour span or even a two-day tifra not too excessive.
But the issue was that the corpse hadn’t been dead for very long, which significantly increased the difficulty of the assessnt.
Jiang Yuan took out the photos one by one, flipping through them over and over.
In the photos, there was the shattered skull of the corpse, intestines scattered over the ballast, ghastly white bone fragnts, and peeled-back skin…
Jiang Yuan inspected them with extre attention to detail.
When the second body was discovered, the triple corpse case had yet to be identified, and the remains were eventually cremated, leaving only photos to examine.
Of course, even if the bodies had been preserved until now, they would not have been of much use.
At most, only the bones would have been available for inspection.
And back in those days, forensic doctors who kept bones were few.
“How’s it going?”
After an indeterminate amount of ti, a weary Liu Jinghui from reading files ca over.
“Died 6 to 8 hours before,” Jiang Yuan put down the photos and said.
“It’s hard to get any closer than that.”
Liu Jinghui raised an eyebrow.
“That’s already quite accurate, but the difference between dying 6 to 8 hours ago and about a day ago is substantial,” he remarked.
“How so?”
“Transporting a body weighing around 100 pounds onto the railroad tracks isn’t easy.
If the victim was killed only six or seven hours earlier, it ans the murderer would have had to start disposing of the body imdiately, that kind of psychological state…
the thod for disposing of the body would also be difficult to handle…” Liu Jinghui stroked his chin, deep in thought.
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