Chapter 300: Justice
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The day grew increasingly hot. The Team A office's air conditioning was already on the highest setting, but all the investigators were still sweating buckets, all agitated by the heat.
At the moment, all the investigators were crowded around many whiteboards. All of them were completely focused on analyzing the case information regarding the Bank Hidden Corpse Case.
Way before making a bet with Wang Shengyao, Zhao Yu was already worried. Could Wang Shengxiao and the others have already found key evidence, and that was why they would dare speak so boldly, and confidently bet against Miao Ying? Unfortunately, Zhao Yu did not have any listening devices left. Thus, he could only take a risk and mess around in the special team's office.
In the end, when he looked through their investigation information, he saw that other than finding the new corpse, there did not have any suspects. That was why he had not been worried when he made Miao Ying accept Wang Shengxiao's bet. But, even so, the Key Case Investigation Unit members were very worried. They were worried that they could not win, and would end up being humiliated.
Thus, just as they returned to the office, nobody took the time to celebrate solving the Bank Robbery Case. Instead, they immediately took out a whiteboard and started sticking information on it, entering another work cycle.
According to the information Zhao Yu took, the sixth victim was found within a safety deposit box in Qinshan Bank's Qiefang Street branch. They also found the corpse of the third victim, Tong Yun, in this bank.
Wang Shengyao and the others were quite impressive. They did not use police hounds or trackers to find the body. Rather, they found the body based on how the culprit rented out and paid for the safety deposit boxes from banks. They noticed that the way the culprit opened each safety deposit box had a repeatable pattern - he or she normally paid ten years in advance, and then disappeared!
In the safety deposit box business, there was rarely anyone who would pay ten years in advance, even among the richest people. Thus, using the payment records, they quickly found their targets! Then, they also looked through all safety deposit box services in Qinshan to see if there were any other suspicious boxes.
After the autopsy, the forensic analysts already discovered the cause of death. The sixth victim was killed in the same way as the others—starvation. The autopsy results also came out. The victim's name was Zhang Hongran, male, thirty-eight-years-old, a truck driver. Two years ago, he disappeared during a ride. While they managed to find the car, he was missing. The autopsy also showed that this man died two years ago.
By now, the group started to gain a clearer picture of when the culprit committed the crimes. Starting from Duan Dacheng seven years ago, to Zhang Hongran who was killed two years ago, every year the culprit used the same cruel method to killed someone, then deposited the corpse inside a bank's safety deposit box.
With such a methodical method, the culprit would most likely strike again this year! Even though the culprit's timeline, it was already past June. If they did not quickly catch the criminal, then most likely there would be a new victim!
"We've looked for a long time, and we have not found any similarities between the time of death. Other than the couple, none of them were related either!" Miao Ying said. "Thus, it's highly possible that the culprit picks their target at random! We can only base our investigation off of people going missing, as well as the security footage from the banks!"
"Indeed!" Peng Xin said, "I've heard from my seniors, the worst cases for investigation are these random victim cases! The culprit doesn't have much to do with the victims, so we wouldn't be able to use any regular method to investigate!"
"Yeah!" Liu said, "From the way the culprit committed the crime, this person is very careful and calm. The amount of evidence left behind is minuscule! It is truly difficult to investigate!"
"Team Leader Miao!" Zhang Jingfeng said, "I've already talked with the missing person's department's experts. They said that the culprit on the surveillance camera dressed too carefully, so they can't make a portrait of them like they did for the Bank Robbery Case! It'll be difficult to use surveillance videos!"
"I've also checked the culprit's clothing!" Liu said. "He was dressed too plainly, all street brands, it would be difficult to pinpoint them!"
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"Then…what about the luggage that they put the corpses in?" Miao Ying asked.
"I've also looked into that!" Liang Huan immediately replied, "All the suitcases were different brands, and none of them were name brands. I've already sent out a picture of all the suitcases! The police will take them to all the large department stores or flea markets to compare, but it will take some time!"
"Mm…" Miao Ying furrowed her brow, then, out of habit, looked at Zhao Yu. "Zhao Yu, you made the bet. Don't tell me you have no ideas at all?"
"I do!" Zhao Yu spoke sternly. "My thought is, we should send someone to pay attention to the other team's every move. If they find the culprit, then I'll go fight them, and drag them back, so you guys can go and capture the criminal first, and we win! How about it?"
Holy… All the investigators present nearly fell over in exasperation.
"You can still joke at a time like this!" Miao Ying spoke angrily, "I'll tell you now, if we lose this bet, then I'll take the three punches I'm saving for Wang Shengyao and use them on you instead!"
"Nonono…" Zhao Yu shook his hand hurriedly and said, "I feel like in some way, the culprit really does as he pleases, and it didn't seem like they were too careful. So, I think there should be some slip-ups! We should look carefully!"
"Such as?" Miao Ying asked.
"Such as," Zhao Yu pointed at the whiteboard, "six corpses, one in Tongchuan bank, two in Jiefang Street Branch, and the rest were all in Yuhualu Bank! This…doesn't have any pattern. It seemed like the culprit picked randomly! Think about it, if he had taken all six corpses and put them in different banks, wouldn't the chance of being exposed decrease?"
"No!" Li Beini suddenly interrupted, "Senior, it's the opposite! I've analyzed this carefully. The culprit didn't plan on changing the places he put the corpses often since there weren't many banks in Qinshan that matched his requirement for depositing the corpses! Look…"
Li Beini pointed at the whiteboard. "Other than Tongchuan Bank's corpse, all the other ones were all saved in the safety deposit boxes belonging to Qinshan Bank! This means that the culprit thought this over carefully! Out of all the banks, Qinshan bank had the laxest system!
"Take Tongchuan Bank for example. Their regulations were clearly stricter than Qinshan Bank. They had to show ID to register, and they even kept their surveillance videos! After the culprit stored one corpse there, he didn't dare do another!
"Also, look at Dajiang Bank. Their safety deposit box regulations are even more strict. Any items that are going to be stored need to be X-rayed first! The culprit wouldn't dare store a corpse there!"
"Oh…" Hearing Li Beini's analysis, Zhao Yu seemed to have realized something. As it turned out, the culprit had not really planned to separately store the bodies, but rather, many places simply did not work for them!
"This time, Qinshan Bank will take huge responsibility!" Liu Xueshan sighed. "It was exactly because of the flaw in their system that the criminal had the chance to take advantage of it! Not only did the criminal use it to store a corpse, but it was even used for an underground black market! The bank will face huge difficulties for sure!"
"You're right, there was no way that the bank's higher-ups didn't know about those flaws!" Li Beini took out a document. "But only by ignoring it could they make money! Based on statistics, Qinshan Bank's safety deposit box service made the most money out of any bank! Every year their profit was in the millions! This is an unimaginable amount of income!"
"If you ask me, we still have to thank the bank robbers for this!" Dafei spoke emotionally, "If it wasn't for them accidentally cracking these boxes open, we wouldn't have found these corpses! If we discovered them decades from now, then there would be no way to solve this case!"
"Yeah, this was destiny!" Miao Ying said. "Everyone will pay for their sins! Because of this, we have to try our best to catch this psychotic criminal, and get justice for the victims!"