The commercial street in Ningtai County was built to imitate Nanjing Road.

Of course, the level of prosperity and scale between the two is not proportional, but the leadership's determination is commendable.

In general, the most central commercial street in Ningtai County is a road that has been closed off, with shops on both sides opening up and a few buildings being demolished to expand the commercial space.

At the same time, there are constantly connecting alleys and intersections in the middle of the commercial street, gathering and dispersing the crowd.

Before online shopping became popular in the county, the density of people on the commercial street was comparable to that of Changyang City, the provincial capital.

Jiang Yuan and the others found a discount store located at the corner of a small alley and the commercial street.

And it was a blind spot for surveillance cameras.

"This person has a thorough understanding of surveillance." When they left the police station, Wen Ming frowned.

He had been a criminal detective for several years and had never encountered such a difficult criminal.

Before this, the problems he encountered were mostly legal or procedural issues, sometimes from the victims' families or trouble from superiors.

The feeling that Wen Ming got from this criminal was completely different. It was like going fishing with a lure. You think there are black fish in the pond, so you bait it with a fake frog, imitating the movements of various crawling animals. But whether there are black fish in the pond is unknown until you catch one.

Jiang Yuan comforted Wen Ming, who had more experience, and said, "At least we got the shoe pattern. We can go back and check other surveillance footage to see if there's anyone wearing shoes like this."

The two discount store employees also provided some descriptions of the killer's appearance, but compared to the average middle-aged man, their descriptions were ordinary and difficult to use as a basis for capture.

Although Huang Qiangming had applied for a sketch artist from higher authorities, no one had much hope for it.

There were currently only two sketch artists working in the entire Shannan Province, and their workload was gradually decreasing.

The issue with sketches was not whether they looked like the suspect or not, but rather it was difficult to use sketches to find the culprit. They were mostly used for confirmation after apprehending a suspect.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "p𝑎wread.com".

But in the presence of eyewitnesses, this method was redundant and unnecessary.

Some units even believed that sketches interfered with investigations...

The Baiyin case can still be used as an example--

The reason why this case became famous nationwide was because it exhausted all kinds of criminal investigation methods, but none of them worked. It had fingerprints, but they didn't match; it had DNA, and they collected DNA samples from all the men in the city, but it still didn't match; it even had a sketch, and it looked quite similar to the suspect after they caught him, but it still didn't match during the investigation.

After the case was finally solved, 5 people in the province received first-class honors, 12 people received second-class honors, 19 people received third-class honors, and 24 people received commendations.

Some police officers had dedicated their entire lives to this case.

Some might say that in the Free Lighthouse country's movies and TV shows, sketch artists are portrayed as amazing.

That's because they are an immigrant country.

In immigrant countries, there is a higher degree of distinction in appearance, making it easier for sketch artists to capture characteristics.

In many small places, there may only be one person with a certain gene expression. For example, a round face, small eyes, a flat nose, or black hair. After searching the entire town, there might only be one person like that, and there won't be many more.

In countries where genetic blending is more prevalent, the work of sketch artists becomes more difficult.

And if they are not trained early on, by the time their skills improve, surveillance cameras will have been installed all over the country.

In contrast, in the Free Lighthouse country, people are unwilling to give up their privacy rights to the government, so the installation of surveillance cameras is limited.

Different national conditions result in vastly different police operating methods.

Out of respect for the homicide case, Huang Qiangming invited a sketch artist from the province.

But the focus of their work was still on scanning surveillance footage.

Over a dozen people were identified and started scanning surveillance footage in the video office.

The surveillance footage around the commercial street and the surrounding Wanghe Building were all part of the same area, but when you add up the footage from many days and different departments, it becomes a huge amount.

This is also the core reason why various places have established large-scale video investigation teams.

With the video investigation teams, the main advantage is the ability to consolidate the usage rights of surveillance footage from various departments, reducing unnecessary internal conflicts.

As for image enhancement and other work, video investigation departments outside the provincial capital do not pursue it.

They can't hire people, and even if they do, they can't retain them.

Jiang Yuan also searched the footprint database using the shoe sole pattern, but didn't get any results. This indirectly indicated that the suspect had indeed bought a new set of clothes from the store before committing the crime.

This also indirectly indicated that the suspect had a strong purpose and had planned the crime.Thus, following the traditional method, the veteran detectives who were adept at navigating the intricate web of human relationships and grudges, began to perk up.

There must be a reason for premeditated crimes, indicating a motive.

If they could find the motive, or rather, find the person with a conflict, wouldn't they have found the murderer?

The victim was a young man with limited social interactions. Even if his family conflicts were taken into account, there weren't many suspects.

Several veteran detectives immediately set off to investigate.

Jiang Yuan was not optimistic about this approach.

The reason was clear. Although it was a premeditated crime, those who wanted to kill due to grudges were usually ordinary people.

However, the suspect in this case was not ordinary.

At the very least, he knew how to avoid surveillance.

This skill, while not difficult, definitely required learning and practice.

The surveillance cameras on the streets were not hidden, they were blatantly displayed. Even so, ordinary people or first-time offenders could not possibly avoid them all.

Even the surveillance at Wanghe Building was avoided by the murderer, who bypassed the main entrance and lobby, probably entering through an employee passage.

Without surveillance footage, there was no chance for image enhancement.

No footprints or fingerprints were found.

Jiang Yuan took out the autopsy photos taken by his master and looked at them several times, but gained nothing.

After a few days, people began to question again whether it was murder or suicide.

At this time, the first batch of trace evidence sent to Changyang City was returned.

Not only Jiang Yuan, but half of the forensic team gathered to study it.

Trace evidence often proves the existence of certain substances. As for what they represent, it still requires everyone to analyze and research.

Each trace evidence report was sealed in a brown paper bag.

Inside were a few sheets of A4 paper, with tables, data, and analysis conclusions.

Jiang Yuan opened one, read it, and passed it to the person next to him.

Lu Jianfeng, the team leader who personally brought back the reports, sat next to Jiang Yuan and sighed, "Look at the service of the lab, one report in one bag, the few hundred yuan is well spent."

Everyone could only respond with a faint smile.

The pressure of the case had reached everyone.

At this point, spending a few hundred yuan on trace evidence was nothing.

Jiang Yuan opened the first report and silently passed it to the person next to him.

The person next to him read it and passed it on.

Everyone was silently passing it around.

Trace evidence from different locations might be meaningful, or it might be meaningless.

Interpretation was also important.

However, the focus was on those substances and quantities that could not be explained by common sense.

Jiang Yuan frowned, quickly going through half of the brown paper bags.

Just as he was feeling a bit down, the conclusion in a new brown paper bag caught Jiang Yuan's attention.

"They found wood shavings in the trace evidence from the victim's chest," Jiang Yuan pointed out, his eyes slightly brightening.

Lu Jianfeng immediately took a look, specifically looked at the picture, and gestured on Wang Zhong's chest, "The location is interesting, did the murderer use a weapon?"

Jiang Yuan turned to Wu Jun, "Master, did you notice the swelling here?"

"The chest area? There is indeed a bit of swelling. I took a photo." After answering, Wu Jun also took the trace evidence report to study.

As he was looking, a thought suddenly struck Jiang Yuan:

"It's a mop handle."

Jiang Yuan muttered a sentence.

At this, everyone's thoughts connected.

"Very likely." Lu Jianfeng slapped his thigh, gesturing with his hand, "Take a mop handle, jab it at the victim's chest, and you can push him off. Look at the position of the shoes in the video photo, is the distance just right?"

The photos were right in front of them, everyone spread them out and nodded in agreement.

"But why would the victim just stand by the window and let himself be jabbed? And why climb the window?" Gao Jiansheng from the imaging office gestured the distance and raised a question.

"A normal person climbing a window is either for money, or they've been wronged, or they've been bullied?" Wu Jun analyzed one by one.

"In that case, the other employees in the victim's company are suspects." Lu Jianfeng pondered.

Jiang Yuan naturally followed this line of thought, reminding, "We need to find this mop handle! It's the murder weapon now."

———Author's Note———

I've been staying up too late these past few days and I'm a bit worn out, so there's only this one update today.