CHAPTER 1264: CHAPTER 1191 DIFFICULTY

"I’ll go around one more time."

Jiang Yuan said as he returned to the crime scene and began to inspect it again.

Soon, Jiang Yuan stood in front of the broken glass, scrutinizing it bit by bit.

To confirm whether the materials in the warehouse were really missing, the warehouse manager called many people over, which resulted in the scene being filled with footprints, to the extent that they were unusable.

The only thing relatively well-preserved was this area of broken glass.

Even though the people at this factory hadn’t thought about preserving the crime scene, due to the broken glass, this area was the least damaged—though still quite compromised.

Based on footprint analysis, Jiang Yuan quickly concluded that someone wasn’t afraid of getting cut and actually stood on the glass! Some even managed to crush it!

Thus, the positioning of the broken glass had been altered.

Therefore, estimating the actions and force involved in shattering the glass, or even the intent of the tool used, became exceedingly difficult.

Liu Jinghui, watching Jiang Yuan standing there for a long time, felt like their dragon was getting ready to spew fire, so he approached and asked, "How is it? Can you determine the suspect’s height and weight? What tool was used?"

"Can’t tell." Jiang Yuan answered quite seriously. He really wanted to find out, but all he saw was the enthusiasm of the onlookers and the force underfoot.

"What a pity," Liu Jinghui smacked his lips, "If we could use height and weight to screen the list of suspects, the workload would be much smaller. Even a rough range would be helpful."

"It’s pointless. The offender hit the glass several times; look at the shards by the window. The people who came afterward kicked the glass around too, but the offender definitely climbed in through the window. There are marks on the window sill."

The offender climbing through the window ruled out the possibility of having a key and pretending it was a break-in, which was somewhat of a clue.

"It seems we can’t sweep in with a direct attack," Liu Jinghui lamented.

"Let’s go out and take a look." Jiang Yuan had circled the warehouse twice already and went outside to wander through the factory area.

The factory had already ceased operations for the day, but the workers weren’t off; they strolled in groups or stayed to do odd jobs.

It was clear that the factory manager was reluctant to halt operations, but the toxic chemicals were regulated, and a report was mandatory if they were missing; otherwise, he might not have reported it.

The factory was small, with an even smaller area than traditional large state-owned factories. The production equipment didn’t seem modernized at all, and there were indications of makeshift solutions everywhere.

Although the factory’s products included toxic compounds, considering the investment, profit, and management capacity, what was visible to everyone now was the best they could sustainably maintain.

The factory manager, in his fifties, was an old-school entrepreneur forced into commerce, with limited management skills, just barely keeping the factory afloat. The money he earned from early opportunities gradually went into the factory over two decades, amassing a factory valued at several tens of millions and loans over one million, fairly decent for a small factory owner.

His middle management included both contemporaries who had built the business together and a few junior college graduates recruited later. At that time, private factories couldn’t hire legitimate bachelor’s degree holders, unlike now when even some of the workers were junior college graduates, though no management positions were available for them.

Jiang Yuan circled the factory area twice and finally stopped by the main gate, before heading out of the factory area and walking along the road.

"Looking for surveillance?" Liu Jinghui immediately knew what Jiang Yuan was thinking.

Jiang Yuan nodded, saying, "The surveillance within the factory is useless, the warehouse’s cameras are broken, and the factory’s cameras are old and worn; everything is invisible at night, and their placement isn’t right. We’re broadening the search."

"It’s a decent approach. However, this area is a link between the national highway and the expressway; there are too many vehicles to determine the suspect’s vehicle easily..." Liu Jinghui paused, raised his hand, and said, "The suspect vehicle probably wouldn’t get on the highway; too much trouble, plus entering and exiting the highway means getting photographed."

Liu Jinghui slashed his hand through the road in front of them, saying, "The offender likely drove here, stopped to load, then turned around to go back?"

Liu Jinghui’s eyes lit up, his Dragon Knight conviction making him seem to glow with confidence, "That must be it. We can find a place up ahead suitable for turning around, see if there’s surveillance, and check vehicles turning on the day of the crime. I think we’ll find a clue."

"Makes sense," Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement.

"Reasoning at this level is no big deal," Liu Jinghui recalled arranging tasks for technical staff, inexplicably feeling a resurgence of vigor.

Jiang Yuan just smiled and continued walking forward along the road.

There were many surveillance cameras along the road, but also could be very few capturing the right footage.

Jiang Yuan walked for a little over a kilometer and said, "That’s about it. Let’s see how much we can gather."

Along the way, there were quite a few places to turn and reverse, but not every place had a camera.

But for now, they couldn’t worry about that. Gather the video footage first, and then there’d be room for further discussion.

They were still using the Changyang City Bureau’s own image investigation unit.

The image investigators, who were under Jiang Yuan’s command checking on the academician case just minutes ago, were now reassigned to investigate dangerous chemicals, leaving them somewhat bewildered.

A small group of image investigators was dispatched to collect surveillance footage, while the rest began reviewing the footage already gathered.

Changyang City Bureau’s own case, compounded by the time-sensitive demand, caused Jiang Yuan to immediately allocate two brigades, over forty people, to review the videos.

Wei Shikan, who had been stuck in the command room dumbfounded by the data, quickly joined in, pretending to be part of the research, and began watching the videos too.

The slightly surprising thing was that the task Jiang Yuan assigned didn’t take too long, and in fact, before many image investigators got thoroughly into the task, a suspicious vehicle showed up on the surveillance footage 300 meters away from the crime scene, in front of a repair shop.

"The surveillance at the repair shop mainly focuses on their garage doors, but a vehicle can be seen circling and turning in front of the garage."

"The vehicle passed the company’s perimeter wall at 4:10 AM but didn’t turn until 4:50 AM, which aligns with the suspect’s crime time frame."

"The problem is the lack of lighting; not only the license plate couldn’t be captured, but even the vehicle’s features are indiscernible."

"Next, we’ll shift our primary focus to determining the vehicle’s information..."

The Chief of Image Investigation quickly reported this information and began assigning tasks to himself. In a short period of time, collecting so many clues easily bred confidence!

Liu Jinghui was similarly filled with anticipation.

Then...

Time seemed to come to a standstill, with no new leads emerging.

This link connects the national road and the highway, with most vehicles coming from other cities and provinces. Each vehicle had to be checked slowly, and the link itself had no vehicle checkpoints, leaving not even a trace of a suspicious vehicle.