Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 303: Brainstorming

The morning of the third day after the incident, in the Criminal Investigation Team’s meeting room.

Qin Yong looked exhausted.

This sudden murder case drained everyone’s energy.

Qin Yong had only slept seven hours in three days, and the frontline detectives hardly made it back.

Zhang Hui had already spent two nights roughing it in the car.

"First, let’s hear reports from each team."

"Sun Jun, you go first."

Sun Jun wore the same extremely fatigued expression on his face.

His team was mainly responsible for checking the information of the people inside the apartment building.

"We investigated everyone who swiped cards to enter the apartment building from the night before the incident to eight-thirty in the morning of the incident." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"We verified everyone’s information and conducted a focused investigation on adult males within the footprint identification and analysis range done by Lu Chuan."

"We even asked all adult males within the height, weight, and age range to take off their left shoe for confirmation."

"The killer is most likely... not inside the apartment."

Sun Jun’s team reached this conclusion with much difficulty, having scrutinized everyone suspicious within the apartment over two nights and three days.

However, looking at it now, they had essentially ruled out the possibility that a resident inside the building committed the crime.

"How about the investigation into Zhou Yang’s social relations?"

Ren Qiang shook his head: "We interviewed Zhou Yang’s parents and friends who were relatively close to him."

"Zhou Yang didn’t have a stable job; he generally lived on the money his parents sent him each month."

"We also checked his bank account information and found bad online loan records."

"Zhou Yang’s social circle was quite complicated, with him often associating with idle and aimless social drifters."

"From what Wang Zhi, Zhou Yang’s childhood friend, explained, Zhou Yang didn’t have a steady girlfriend but had a few sexual partners."

"From Zhou Yang’s financial condition, we don’t believe the motives were monetary gains."

"As for revenge, even though Zhou Yang didn’t listen to his parents at home, he was essentially just a follower in his own circle."

"They would gather to drink and play games, without any criminal record."

"Revenge-seeking enemies... especially those capable of murder, seem unlikely."

"Regarding a crime of passion, we focused our investigation on several women connected to Zhou Yang."

"There are four in total, none of whom have steady jobs, generally mingling among idle social individuals and sometimes dancing or selling drinks at bars."

"These four women don’t have steady boyfriends or marriages, and they have numerous male associates."

"Currently... the possibility of a crime of passion is mostly ruled out."

Action Group One and Action Group Two, consisting of dozens, had been working non-stop these past days, focusing intensely on Zhou Yang’s relations.

But judging from the current situation, none of the specific individuals in Zhou Yang’s social circle seem to possess the motive to commit the crime.

"Does anyone have any thoughts? Let’s hear them."

It was time for brainstorming and gathering everyone’s ideas.

Solving a murder case works this way; sometimes major clues don’t necessarily solve it.

But when it seems like there are no clues or all found leads are dead ends, the case might suddenly get solved due to some unexpected breakthrough.

"Captain Qin, first of all, it’s likely that the killer is either a repeat offender or premeditated the crime."

Zhang Hui was the first to express his view.

"Explain your reasoning."

"The crime scene investigation didn’t gather the suspect’s fingerprints, and the ones on the aluminum door handle are already confirmed to be from cleaning staff and patrol security."

"The presence of fingerprints without wiping indicates the suspect wore gloves during the act."

"Moreover, there was an effort to obscure drag marks; the suspect disposed of Zhou Yang into the Bailan River from the rooftop and deliberately handled the drag marks."

"The killer managed to clean the scene so thoroughly, which indicates two things: either they premeditated the crime and planned every aspect of the murder, or they are experienced, having killed before, and are cautious and meticulous."

"I even suspect that the killer knew the surveillance in the apartment was malfunctioning, which is why they chose this timing for the murder."

Some detectives nodded: "I agree with Zhang Hui’s analysis, but there’s a fundamental issue: why did the killer commit murder?"

"Our inspection of Zhou Yang’s bank account revealed he only had a little over a thousand bucks in savings. Murder for financial gain?"

"For just a thousand bucks?"

"Concerning a crime of passion, as Group Leader Ren just explained, that’s also quite unlikely."

"So, our main focus now should be figuring out why the killer wanted Zhou Yang dead."

"Old Hu, that’s not necessarily correct. There may not always be a reason for a murder motive, and committing a crime for a thousand bucks isn’t out of the question."

"Remember three years ago, the case by the seaside, where someone killed an old man collecting scraps for fifty bucks?"

When it comes to directions for the investigation, everyone voiced their opinions.

Qin Yong carefully listened to everyone’s theories and reasoning.

Suddenly, Qin Yong turned to look at Liu Guodong and Lu Chuan, who was sitting next to him.

"Lu, do you have any thoughts?"

Once Qin Yong spoke, everyone stopped their discussions.

More so, everyone turned to the somewhat surprised Lu Chuan.

Lu Chuan was in crime scene investigation, a technical detective, with little frontline experience, and personally, Lu Chuan wasn’t great at reasoning either.

Detective reasoning is about understanding human nature, which comes from handling numerous cases and gaining insight into and dissecting the suspects’ psychological activities.

What everyone discussed earlier was based on things they encountered during previous cases.

Each viewpoint seemed to rest on a foundation of past case-handling experience, while some opinions appeared absurd but had actually occurred before.

Lu Chuan attended the meeting today because he had questioned the nature of the death initially; now, he’s part of the special task force.

Lu Chuan had been providing technical support from start to finish.

Unexpectedly, Qin Yong asked for his views on the case reasoning during the analysis meeting.

"Captain Qin, I still think there’s a possibility for a financial motive."

"Oh, why do you think so?"

Indeed, the prior discussion mainly revolved around why the killer targeted Zhou Yang, be it a crime of passion, financial gain, or revenge?

"There were only slightly over a thousand bucks in Zhou Yang’s bank account, and there are online loan records, indicating he was in poor financial condition."

"Anyone familiar with Zhou Yang should know that he relied on his parents’ monthly allowance."

"I reviewed Zhou Yang’s father’s interrogative transcript; he gave Zhou Yang 3560 bucks every month, and not through transfer."

Zhang Hui nodded, in full knowledge of this point.

He was the one who interrogated Zhou Yang’s father.