Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 393: Signs Emerge

Lu Chuan ran back and forth three times before he finally moved everything in.

Upstairs, Shen Wansong and his wife watched Lu Chuan busy downstairs, their eyelids twitching.

This wasn’t just meeting the future in-laws; it looked like moving house.

"Hello, Uncle and Auntie."

After moving things from the hallway into the room, Lu Chuan quickly greeted them.

Lu Qiqiang had already instructed him to call them Uncle and Auntie, not by their titles.

"Oh, Lu, please come in. You didn’t have to bring so much, you’re being too polite."

Lu Chuan shook his head quickly: "Just some supplements, a small token of respect."

"Come in, Lu, have a seat, Shen, go pour some tea."

Poor Forensic Doctor Shen had never poured tea for anyone at home.

"Don’t be formal, Lu, have some fruit."

Shen Wansong and Lu Chuan had met before, but always in more formal settings.

This kind of occasion today was a first for both of them.

It was Lu Chuan’s first time as a son-in-law and Shen Wansong’s first time as a father-in-law.

Luckily, they were all in the police system, so they had plenty of common topics to talk about.

"You’ve been busy in the Criminal Investigation Team recently, right?"

Lu Chuan nodded: "The landfill case hasn’t made any headway. I just got back from a business trip to Huangzhou yesterday."

"Yesterday morning, Director Song even specifically mentioned this case at the morning meeting."

Shen Wansong poured Lu Chuan some tea: "You all must be under a lot of pressure. Qin Yong gave another specialized report yesterday."

"How are the leads now?"

"There aren’t many leads. While in Huangzhou, when investigating the first body from last year’s disappearance, we discovered some clues, but there’s only three photos and it’s not possible to do a facial comparison."

"You can’t rush the case, take it slow. Speaking of Huangzhou, the award for your last case is almost finalized. The province is approving the documents."

"Really?" Lu Chuan was a bit surprised.

A while ago, when he helped with fingerprint identification in Huangzhou, Li Donglin had even called him, saying it was a major case series.

He hoped for a personal second-class merit award, but he didn’t expect it to come so soon.

"Although the case hasn’t been completely solved, the Liangzhou Public Security Bureau has already outlined the main framework, but the related evidence still needs some time to be finalized."

"Alright, alright, it’s the weekend, let’s not talk about the case. Lu, come have some food."

Mother Shen had carefully prepared a table full of good food, inviting the two of them to eat.

"Sure, Lu, let’s eat first. Come on, try your Auntie’s cooking skills."

At the dinner table, Old Shen opened a bottle of Maotai he had been saving: "I don’t usually drink much, this was given to me by an old comrade ten years ago. Let’s have some today."

Lu Chuan certainly wouldn’t refuse. After all, there wasn’t anything specific to do at the unit, and neither he nor Forensic Doctor Shen had any specific work now.

With some drinks, he wouldn’t go back.

For now, the main focus of the case was on the investigation at the front line.

Glasses clinked, and luckily, Lu Chuan could hold his liquor well.

"Lu, try this braised fish... and this one..."

"Yes, yes, the braised fish your Auntie makes is exceptional, try the taste."

...

In the afternoon, Lu Chuan called for a designated driver and didn’t go to the unit.

The next morning, at the Crime Scene Investigation office.

"Lu, you went to Shen’s house yesterday?"

Hmm?

Lu Chuan looked at Old Bai in surprise: "Brother Bai, how did you know?"

"How did I know? Everyone in the team knows. You took a full trunk of ginseng, antler, and Maotai to your future father-in-law’s house, making three full trips."

"Shen’s family lives in the unit housing, a lot of people saw it. On our bus ride, everyone was talking about it."

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

Lu Chuan felt that although he had prepared a lot, it wasn’t worth the entire team discussing it.

"Everyone said you were moving house."

Yang Sen nodded deeply from the side: "Lu, what does that antler taste like?"

Antler taste?

Lu Chuan didn’t know either. At his age, he didn’t need antler or anything like that.

Bam!

The office door opened, and Liu Guodong walked in quickly. There was no morning meeting; it was a case briefing meeting.

"Old Liu?"

"Why are you in such a hurry, isn’t it about the landfill..."

Liu Guodong shook his head: "The landfill over there is still being turned over, and we haven’t found a third body yet. It’s about those three photos Lu Chuan brought back."

"The ones from Huangzhou?"

"Yes, those three photos from Huangzhou just matched the RV owner that Su Xiaochen was missing with."

...

Ten minutes later, in Conference Room One.

Lu Chuan and Zhang Hui were there, along with Zhang Zhifeng, who had gone to Zhangzhou to investigate Su Xiaochen’s disappearance case.

"Is it confirmed?"

"Not a big problem. Although it’s only half a face, the facial outline and details match."

On the projector was a photo of a middle-aged man without a hat, alongside the half-face photo Lu Chuan had brought back from Huangzhou.

Next to it was an introduction of the man’s information.

"Hu Zhigang, male, 36 years old, from Meizhou City, height 1.79 meters, used to be a cosmetic surgeon, started nationwide RV travel three years ago."

The person who clicked the photos was Zhang Zhifeng: "After Captain Qin’s arrangement yesterday, we tracked down the RV owner through the license plate information and found some personal information of Hu Zhigang in the household registration system."

"He appeared at the bar that Wang Lili once visited when she disappeared. Later, when Su Xiaochen disappeared, Su Xiaochen had boarded his RV."

"The distance between Huangzhou and Zhangzhou is not short, it’s unlikely it’s merely coincidental that he had interactions with both victims."

"I believe this Hu Zhigang should be the perpetrator."

Lu Chuan and Zhang Hui nodded frequently, as this person appeared at both Wang Lili and Su Xiaochen’s disappearance locations, surely it wasn’t a coincidence.

"Where is this person now?"

"Not confirmed yet. I just checked on the platform, and didn’t find any hotel check-in records for this person."

This is also expected, as Hu Zhigang travels nationwide in an RV, the chance of staying in a hotel is very low.

"Does Captain Qin know?"

"Group Leader Ren just reported it, he should be reporting it to the city bureau now."

Without any headway, the lead case suddenly turned clear in the morning.

Everyone’s mood was quite good, especially Zhang Hui, Lu Chuan, and Zhang Zhifeng.

The three were responsible for investigating the disappearance of two bodies last year, and unexpectedly, two not-so-important leads combined resulted in such a significant breakthrough.

As they were discussing, Qin Yong pushed the door open and walked in.

"The traffic police just checked, the suspect came to Haizhou City two months ago and stayed for more than a month, leaving Haizhou City in early June."

This means the suspect’s stay in Haizhou City matches the timeline of the body disposal.

Now, it’s just a matter of focusing efforts on finding where the suspect actually is!