Binjiang Police Affairs

Chapter 1551 - 311: Accent!

It was late at night, and the lights were bright in the meeting room of the Changhang Bureau.President Niu and Old Zhao, a detective from the Hanwu Branch, didn’t go to the hotel to rest; they were sitting around the meeting table, analyzing the case and waiting for news from the "front line."

During the day, the entire bureau had mobilized.

At night, only a dozen police officers were out investigating.

After all, the police are humans, not gods, and they’re not made of iron; nobody can endure without rest.

Political Commissar Dong Xiangyun, who had taken a nap on his way back, wasn’t very sleepy. He lit a cigarette and introduced the area around Wenfeng to President Niu and the veteran investigator Zhao Yongming from the Hanwu Branch.

"South Street is the city center of Binjiang, with several large shopping malls and a large clothing market; it’s the busiest place in Binjiang. There are many small restaurants around these malls. It’s quite normal for the victim to go for a bowl of noodles after shopping. I used to accompany my wife to the mall and have also eaten on the street behind Wenfeng."

"Old Dong, can Salted Fish’s cousin, his cousin’s wife, and the noodle shop boss lady confirm that the woman they saw yesterday afternoon is the victim?"

"We are in the process of confirmation."

"How are you confirming it?"

"Salted Fish has taken his cousin, cousin’s wife, and the noodle shop boss lady to the funeral home to identify the body; we should hear back soon."

Taking people to a funeral home to identify a corpse in the dead of night is chilling just to think about.

President Niu was silently thinking that Salted Fish’s cousin and his cousin’s wife probably wouldn’t sleep well tonight when Zhao Yongming suddenly asked, "Political Commissar Dong, the big malls should have CCTV surveillance. Have arrangements been made to review surveillance footage at these malls?"

"Yes, arrangements have been made. The comrades from the police team are, with the assistance of the South Street Police Station, reviewing them overnight."

"What about the lead regarding the victim’s dental treatment for cavities and teeth cleaning?"

"I’m responsible for that investigation. All the places in the city where we could inquire have been inquired, but there must still be many under-the-radar dentists we’re unaware of. It’s not easy to find these clandestine dentists with our resources alone, so we’ll have to ask our local colleagues for assistance." Political Commissar Dong flicked off the ash from his cigarette and added, "We’ve now expanded the scope of the investigation, and several district and county police departments are helping us check this out."

At this point, Director Qi, who had just finished assigning tasks to the officers resting downstairs, returned.

He checked his watch and suggested, "President Niu, Old Zhao, it’s getting late. Let me take you to the hotel for some rest. Solving the case can’t be rushed, and there’s no use in just waiting around here."

"Alright, but you don’t need to take us. Just arrange for a driver to take us to the hotel."

"I insist on taking you."

"Old Qi, you’re the head of the task force; your place is here!"

"Director Qi, I’ll take President Niu to the hotel; it’s on my way to go home and take a shower."

...

At 11:20 PM, Zhang Hongmei tightly gripped her boyfriend’s hand as they walked out of the morgue.

The morgue was eerie and terrifying; it was too scary!

The woman, fine just yesterday afternoon, was even scarier now, having turned from a living person into a cold corpse. Her abdomen had been cut open with such a long incision stitched up like a long centipede, making it hard to look at directly.

The noodle shop’s boss lady was also terrified, clinging tightly to her husband’s arm, afraid to look back.

Han Yu, who had been busy making and receiving calls and hadn’t gone inside, came up to them and asked, "Ai Dong, Hongmei, is it the person you saw yesterday afternoon?"

"Yes, it should be."

"And you, boss lady?"

The noodle shop boss lady, still shaken, nervously said, "It’s her. I remember her. I never thought a fine person could just die like that."

"You remember?" Han Yu asked softly.

"At my place, we have more customers at noon and evening; there’s not much going on in the afternoon. When they came for noodles yesterday afternoon, I was dozing off on the table, wondering why they couldn’t have come earlier or later, but just during our break."

"What else?"

"The woman was easy to talk to; she asked what noodles we had and ate what we had. The young man with her insisted on having the pork chop noodles even though we had run out of morning-braised pork chops by noon. After much persuasion, he agreed to have the large meat noodles."

"What did the man look like? Did he have any distinct features?"

"Just an ordinary young man; I really can’t say what he looked like. But from his accent, it seems he should be from our hometown."

"Did he speak with a Gaoru accent?"

"Yes, his accent was quite similar to our area of Jiuhua."

As soon as the boss lady finished speaking, the boss suddenly remembered a detail: "Director Han, that young man had a pager, one of those Motorola Chinese-display large-screen pagers."

Han Yu asked, "You saw it?"

"Yes, he was looking at his pager while eating noodles."

"Did he talk to the woman while eating?"

"Not much, that woman seemed to have something on her mind. She sat there, eating noodles with her head down, not saying much."

"Did the woman have a bag with her at the time?"

"It seemed like she had a bag, a black one."

Just as the questioning continued, Li Guangrong suddenly called.

Han Yu gestured to the driver to start driving while holding his phone to his ear.

"Director Han, I thought there were many cameras in the city so it would be easy to check. But after arriving, I realized not many of them actually save surveillance records. We spent over an hour and only retrieved two clips, totaling less than two minutes."

"Did you see the victim and the man?"

"I can only say that the features match, but your cousin and sister-in-law need to confirm if it’s really them."

"We’ll head over right away."

In the dead of night, first bringing them to the morgue to identify the body, and then taking them to the Traffic Control Center to view the surveillance.

It was easy to persuade his cousin and cousin’s girlfriend since they were relatives. But facing the owner and his wife of the small noodle shop, Han Yu felt a bit embarrassed.

After some courteous words, they rushed to the Traffic Police Team, arriving at midnight.

Just as Li Guangrong mentioned on the phone earlier, the two pieces of footage were very short. Upon seeing them, Xiang Aidong immediately confirmed: "Brother-in-law, it’s him, it’s that motorcycle!"

This footage was captured by the camera at the intersection of South Street and People Road. A young man, wearing a helmet and riding a Qianjiang 125 motorcycle, was carrying the victim, and turned left at the intersection toward People’s West Road. From the direction, it matched where the victim’s body was disposed of after the crime.

Han Yu was about to ask the traffic officer to replay it, but the officer, with an apologetic face, said: "Director Han, the camera that captured this footage is not HD, and the license plate on the front of the motorcycle is installed vertically. We can only see the person and the vehicle, but not the plate number."

"There are many traffic lights on People Road, each with a camera, were none of the other cameras able to capture it?"

"Most of our cameras here are for capturing traffic violations, they don’t record unless there’s speeding or running a red light."

"Is there radar, and does the radar trigger the camera for illegal departures?"

"Pretty much."

Just when they had a major discovery, the clue suddenly broke off again.

The only gain was that the day before, the victim was with a man in his twenties, of medium build, with an unremarkable appearance that left no strong impression, who had been to South Street, and eaten at a small noodle shop at the alley behind Wenfeng.

Han Yu thanked the comrades at the Traffic Police Team, left the building, and instructed Old Ding to take his cousin, sister-in-law, and the noodle shop owner and his wife home first. He then turned and said: "Director Li, the mall is still retrieving surveillance footage, why don’t we split up? You can watch over at the mall, and I’ll head to Gaoru overnight."

"Going to Gaoru?"

"It’s different here compared to Hanwu. We have a wide variety of dialects here, even a single county has several kinds." Han Yu took a deep breath and explained: "Although we don’t know what the man looks like, we can determine from his accent that he’s from one of the towns in Gaoru. Coupled with his Qianjiang 125 motorcycle and a Motorola Chinese pager, finding him shouldn’t be hard."

The dialects in Binjiang are numerous.

Li Guangrong comprehended, thought for a moment, then asked: "It’s so late, who can you find now? Are you familiar with the leaders at Gaoru Police Department?"

"Director Peng of Gaoru Police Department is an old leader of mine, he used to be the chief of Water Police Station. Besides, this is a murder case, even without this connection, they’d assist wholeheartedly."

"Alright, take car number 3."

...

At 8:30 in the morning, President Niu and Old Zhao finished breakfast in the hotel and were just about to call Director Qi when the office director of the branch arrived to pick them up.

The two hurried to the branch and, upon entering the meeting room, saw Director Qi on the phone.

"Great, you’re heading there now, right? Do you need us to send a few people to assist? Okay, okay, I’ll have Xiao Yu take a few people to support you!"

"Old Qi, are you referring to Liang Xiaoyu?" President Niu asked curiously.

Xiao Yu is only a nominal full department level officer at Binjiang Branch but is quite famous in Hanwu. When he was first transferred to Changhang Police Academy, he participated in the Criminal Investigation Corps organized water anti-theft activities. Afterward, he went to help rescue the leaders and students of Changhang Police Academy during flood control and rescue efforts.

The case investigation finally made a breakthrough, and Director Qi, elated with the development, couldn’t help but smile and say: "It’s Xiao Yu, he’s the most militarily competent in the entire branch. Letting him lead the team to support Salted Fish in the arrest is just right."

"Arrest?"

"We’ve identified the man!"

Director Qi signaled Political Office Director Ding Shuguang to give Xiao Yu the order while handing over a newly made phone record: "Salted Fish, based on the clues provided by the noodle shop owner and his wife, rushed overnight to Gaoru to seek assistance from local colleagues. The Gaoru Police Chief is an old leader of Salted Fish and Xiao Yu, very helpful, and organized several police stations to comb through the area overnight. The man’s identity was confirmed five minutes ago."

"What clues did the noodle shop owner and his wife provide?"

"The man’s accent."

Director Qi chuckled and added: "The man’s surname is Huo, Huo Zhaojun, 22 years old, lives in Gaoru City’s Jiuhua Town Qianjin Village, group six. He has a secondary technical education, graduated from Gaoru City Technical School, studied electrical repair, and now works at an electronics factory in Gaoru City’s Yangtze Town. He bought the motorcycle in June last year and recently purchased a second-hand Motorola pager."

President Niu asked in amazement: "Just based on his accent, you found him in such a short time?"

"Mainly thanks to the local colleagues’ help." Director Qi smiled slightly and continued: "Salted Fish suspects the victim also worked or lived in Yangtze Town. Jiang Youwei is on his way there now, and if everything goes smoothly, we should have answers by noon the latest."