Chapter 1003: Return to Haizhou City

Their statements basically matched up, and the whole course of the case was now pretty clear.

“Lu Chuan, Director Li’s having dinner later, what do you feel like eating?”

Wang Song was half lying in his chair, playing Dou Dizhu on his phone.

Both Wang Song and Song Mingguang had this hobby; whenever they were free they liked to play Dou Dizhu, and both of them were at a pretty high level.

“I’m fine with anything, whatever’s good.”

Lu Chuan didn’t like playing games. With nothing to do now, he was chatting with Forensic Doctor Shen on his phone.

He’d been away this long, he was starting to miss his wife.

Then, with nothing else to talk about, everyone circled back to this case.

Strictly from motive, the case wasn’t complicated. The killer’s method wasn’t especially brutal either; it was just that the way the body was handled was extremely disturbing to the senses.

Wu Haitao and Zhao Xue were interrogated separately.

They basically hadn’t had any chance to collude beforehand, and from now on they almost certainly wouldn’t have any chance to meet again.

Based on Lu Chuan’s experience handling so many cases, the odds of Wu Haitao ever walking out of prison alive were very slim.

By comparison, Zhao Xue might get a slightly lighter sentence for greed.

But that’s only a possibility. Even though Zhao Xue didn’t directly participate in the poisoning, the one who invited Wang Dezhi out for that meal was Zhao Xue.

The poison was put in by Wu Haitao, but the one who sat and ate with Wang Dezhi was Zhao Xue.

In other words, knowing full well there was poison in the food, Zhao Xue still coaxed Wang Dezhi into eating it, leading to his fatal poisoning.

Both of them held a major controlling role in causing Wang Dezhi’s death.

What’s more, the plan to kill Wang Haitao had been jointly plotted by the two of them.

Even if it was Wu Haitao who first brought it up, Zhao Xue never opposed it. She joined in the planning and took part in the execution, especially in the post‑dissection disposal of the body, which was basically carried out by Zhao Xue alone.

With the case having reached a stage conclusion, everyone in the Major Crimes Unit breathed a sigh of relief.

The last two days were mainly about organizing paperwork; there wasn’t much else left to do. The big provincial‑capital event hosted by the higher‑ups went ahead as planned. Although this case had caused some impact, cracking it so quickly actually boosted the public‑security image of the provincial capital.

Because of the outstanding investigation, the Major Crimes Unit was received by leaders from the Provincial Department.

Even though everyone had worked in Major Crimes for quite some time and handled plenty of cases, this was the first time they’d been formally received by higher‑level leaders.

But it was only a brief pep talk. As for the merit citations, Director Li Donglin would naturally take charge.

After staying one more day in the provincial capital, their wrap‑up work was basically done. The remaining matters of filing public prosecution were handed over to the Criminal Investigation Team in the provincial capital.

After all, this case should originally have been undertaken by that Criminal Investigation Team. It was only for some special reasons that the Major Crimes Unit took over immediately after the crime.

Of course, from investigation to arresting the suspects and finally initiating prosecution and trial, a homicide case like this takes at least three or four months, four or five months, or even longer.

But the Major Crimes Unit usually only handles the front‑end work. All the tedious paperwork and procedural stuff at the back end is done by the local Criminal Investigation Team.

After Lu Chuan and the others said their goodbyes, they went straight to catch the high‑speed train back to Haizhou City.

Back in Haizhou City, Lu Chuan first went to the Criminal Investigation Team.

For this operation to arrest Wu Haitao, he first needed to thank the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team.

In Qin Yong’s office, Lu Chuan conveyed Director Li Donglin’s thanks to Qin Yong.

“He’s a leader from the Provincial Department—why’s he thanking me? This is just what I should be doing.”

Qin Yong laughed, though despite what he said, Li Donglin was after all the director of the Administrative Division of the Provincial Department and concurrently head of the Major Crimes Unit. His position carried quite a bit of weight now.

And with Li Donglin’s current seniority and status, his chances of moving even higher in the future were pretty good.

Lu Chuan chatted with Qin Yong for a bit, then went over to talk with Zhang Hui, and after that sat for a while in the Crime Scene Investigation office, catching up with everyone, before heading to the Forensic Office.

Things weren’t all that busy for Shen Yan at the moment.

Just yesterday she’d finished doing bone‑density tests for a few colleagues.

Unlike the previous stretch, when they had a major case and were basically pulling all‑nighters in the Criminal Investigation Team and couldn’t go home, now that there wasn’t a big case, things were much better. Sometimes she could even leave a little early.

.After meeting up and spending some time with Shen Yan, Lu Chuan still had to go back to the Criminal Investigation Team.

On the way, Lu Chuan also called the chief of the High‑tech Zone sub‑bureau.

Being transferred back from the case team, he of course needed to report to his direct superior.

Chen Weiguo was well aware of the case cracked by the Major Crimes Unit; there had been internal police bulletins, so they had a general picture.

To be honest, a case like this would be tough no matter which Criminal Investigation Team it landed in.

Regardless, the brutality of the suspect’s methods had a very nasty impact, so the pressure during the investigation was definitely high.

But the Provincial Department’s Major Crimes Unit is the Provincial Department’s Major Crimes Unit—these are top investigators from across the province. Solving it in three to five days really was something else.

There wasn’t much going on at the Criminal Investigation Team these two days, just coordination on two small theft cases, which the local police stations quickly solved.

After Lu Chuan got back, he held a meeting to get a basic overview. Seeing there was nothing major, he went straight home to rest.

He’d been busy working the case at the Provincial Department for the last two days, nerves strung tight, and was really exhausted. Usually after coming back, Lu Chuan needed two or three days of rest to recover.

At the same time, the Huaguang Street Police Station where Yang Lin had once worked was handling a missing‑person case.

“This… doesn’t seem likely. Why does this case feel so weird to me?”

The ones filing the report were a pair of parents, saying their son was missing.

But the daughter‑in‑law who came along said the old folks were confused and that her husband wasn’t missing at all.

Whether he was missing or not was easy to check—just call him.

The call went through, but nobody ever picked up.

They didn’t open a case on this missing‑person report at the time, but the police did send people to look into it. After a week of checking, they realized the man might really be missing.

Yet this disappearance was a bit bizarre.

Everyone at the station was in a meeting.

“Chief, I think we should report this upstairs. This case… really is a bit strange.”

The Huaguang Street Police Station was formally under the High‑tech Zone sub‑bureau; if they reported it up, the case should go to the High‑tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team.

“That’s all we can do. We’ve been checking for a week and haven’t found a single clue…”

Following procedure, Huaguang Street logged the case into the system and submitted it, and the station chief called Lu Chuan directly to brief him on the situation.

A missing‑person case?

Over this past week, Lu Chuan had gotten his rest. These days he happened to be free.

“Alright, have all the related materials in your case file sent over today. We’ll go through them first and see what exactly is going on.”