Diary of a Criminal Investigator

When dealing with the bloody fingerprint, Lu Chuan spent even more time.

In more than an hour, he merely restored the original fingerprint, yet the lines still remained unclear, making it difficult to mark characteristic points.

Afterwards, Lu Chuan successively used gradient methods, operators, high-pass filtering, mask matching, statistical difference methods, and so on, to enhance the image, eventually obtaining a fingerprint that could allow characteristic points to be marked.

And during this whole operation, those behind Lu Chuan were already dumbfounded.

It wasn't until the fingerprint comparison success alert, prepared specifically for the fingerprint campaign, sounded, that everyone snapped back to attention.

Another match!

Moreover, it was another murder case!

Sun Miao, who was just smoking with Lu Chuan outside the building, was a detective from the High-speed Rail New District Criminal Investigation Team.

Originally, Sun Miao was a frontline detective, but because of his talent in fingerprint identification and analysis, he also served as a crime scene investigator and fingerprint identification detective in the Criminal Investigation Team.

Four years ago, there was an extremely heinous home robbery case in the High-speed Rail New District.

The homeowner was an elderly person living alone, who was brutally hacked to death with a kitchen knife from the victim's own home by the killer.

The crime scene at the time was examined by Sun Miao, and the only bloody fingerprint was also collected by him.

So, when Sun Miao saw that Lu Chuan selected a case from their jurisdiction, he was incredibly excited.

Despite his excitement, he also knew how challenging the analysis of this bloody fingerprint was.

Not just him—by the second year after the crime, this bloody fingerprint had already been entered into the provincial fingerprint campaign database, yet it had gone unmatched twice in a row.

Sun Miao had no idea how many fingerprint analysis experts there were in the province, but those organized by the provincial department were certainly all elite experts.

The Haizhou City Public Security Bureau's past entrants could only tie for last place.

And Liu Guodong's level, in Sun Miao's eyes, was already at the peak.

However, even Liu Guodong back then didn't even attempt an analysis when facing this fingerprint.

In his words, there's no use trying; it's a waste of effort.

Because it's simply unyielding.

Yet, Lu Chuan matched it in less than two hours?

Before the murder during the home robbery, there had been a series of home burglaries within the High-speed Rail New District's jurisdiction.

The techniques for breaking in were similar, and after analysis, it was believed that the killer who committed the robbery murder was likely the same person as those behind the home burglaries.

As for so-called burglaries and robberies, the key difference wasn't about the killer.

It was about whether there was anyone at home.

If there was no one, it was called burglary; if there was, it was called robbery.

Of course, there were special circumstances. For example, if someone was at home but asleep, not confronting the thief directly, it was also considered burglary.

Brushing past with his colleagues, Sun Miao struggled to get behind Lu Chuan.

"Let me see! Let me see!"

Compared to others, Sun Miao was even more eager to know who the killer really was.

On the screen, after a string of bright red letters, was the identification and analysis report.

"Hu Yong?"

Sun Miao's voice rose eight octaves!

"This is impossible!"

Lu Chuan's neck was a bit stiff as he turned to look at Sun Miao.

Hmm, someone from the High-speed Rail New District, must be familiar with this case.

"This Hu Yong... what's his background again?"

Sun Miao regained his senses and explained to Lu Chuan: "Hu Yong was the victim's neighbor and the one who reported the crime at the time!"

The one who reported the crime...

That would mean playing thief while catching the thief.

Before comparing the fingerprints, Lu Chuan hadn't looked at the case files in detail; he had only studied the fingerprints.

So he wasn't fully aware that the officers at the time had pinpointed the suspect as a transient perpetrator.

The direction had shifted, no wonder the case couldn't be solved and the suspect couldn't be caught.

Two hours can be enough to accomplish a lot.

No. 72 Cuiping Road, Sunshine Happiness Low-rent Housing District.

Block two, unit three, room 1008.

A large group of fully equipped detectives was now escorting a middle-aged man clad only in shorts.

The man was bewildered, pressed flat against the floor.

"What's your name?"

"Li Zhi."

"Do you know why you're being arrested?"

The detained Li Zhi was pale.

"I don't know, I haven't committed any crimes, I'm just a janitor."

"Yes, what's going on! Why are you arresting my husband?"

Li Zhi's wife, watching the numerous police officers in horror, didn't know what her husband had done to bring so many people.

"No crime? Huh! Have you forgotten about the Culture Park incident seven years ago?"

Culture Park?

Li Zhi's face turned even paler, and his resistance suddenly waned.

"You all... finally found me..."

Li Zhi was indeed a janitor in the Culture Park area back then, but he wasn't on duty at the time of the crime.

Yet even so, Li Zhi was a primary focus during the investigation back then.

But due to the sole piece of evidence—the unmatched half fingerprint—they couldn't pinpoint a suspect.

And the reason Li Zhi eventually vanished from the investigators' radar was his wife's testimony that Li Zhi was at home at the time of the crime.

Now it seems obvious that Li Zhi's wife provided a false testimony.

Providing false testimony, aiding a crime: "Bring Zhang Guiqin in as well."

Zhang Guiqin, Li Zhi's wife.

Sunshine Happiness District was a low-rent housing area just built and put into use five years ago.

To accommodate more residents, the building was designed as a tube-like structure with over twenty households in one unit.

Those who moved in with Li Zhi were largely janitors or old neighbors from back then.

Compared to regular commercial and residential buildings, the neighborhood relations in low-rent housing are somewhat tighter.

At this moment, practically every apartment door was open, with dozens of people gathered to watch.

"Old Li is in trouble?"

"I don't know, it seems like a murder case!"

"Murder? Old Li? Don't be ridiculous, Old Li is famous for being honest, he doesn't dare kill a chicken, let alone a person?"

People cannot be judged by appearances, nor can the sea be measured with a ladle.

In the car heading back to the bureau, Zhang Guiqin confessed everything.

"Our son goes to college... We really had no other choice, Old Li didn't mean to kill her, really... sobbing... we didn't mean to..."

Wang Kai sighed deeply.

He looked at Zhang Guiqin and Li Zhi: "You committed robbery and murder for your child's education?"

"Do you know that the person you killed was just a month pregnant?"

No one has the right to take another person's life for any reason.

Today's educational assistance programs are well-established, and applying for a student loan would fully cover Li Zhi's child's university education.

And the money shortage that Zhang Guiqin mentioned wasn't even for her son's school fees.

Back then, the iPhone was the most popular.

When it first came out, one phone cost over ten thousand.

Li Zhi's son wanted an iPhone, claiming that without this phone, he would be looked down upon at university.

That's what led to the subsequent events.

"You... prepare for the justice of the law!"

This case, due to the victim's special condition, was one Wang Kai kept personally following.

Whenever possible, he would take out the case to study it.

Back then, the investigation was thorough.

The pregnancy of the victim was discovered during the forensic autopsy.

Neither the victim nor the victim's family was aware.

Otherwise, the victim's ordeal would have been even more excruciating.

Heaving a long sigh, Wang Kai leaned wearily against the backrest.

The recent brief questioning seemed to have drained all his energy.

As a police officer, facing different dark facades of society is inevitable.

Some criminal motives of suspects are beyond comprehension.

For instance, Li Zhi's motive for robbery and murder was simply to buy his son a phone!

A phone!

Two lives lost!

He... deserves to die!

Ding!

The phone's message alert sounded, and Wang Kai instinctively pulled out his phone.

One look was enough to immediately tense up Wang Kai's just-relaxed nerves!