Chapter 1102 - 564: First Direct Contact

The original 1,006 case files were reduced to 10, and now those 10 have been reduced to 2.

At this moment, many officers finally felt the weight lifted off their shoulders.

However, what everyone was thinking in their hearts was not exactly the same.

Compared to Jiang An’s optimism, Qin Feng was not very optimistic about this result.

His gaze stayed on the clinic fire case for a few seconds, then he said, "Mr. Jiang, I have a rather deep impression of this case that happened in the village clinic."

"Back then I was the first one to go to the scene to take a look in person, and I’m very familiar with the scene conditions."

Although Jiang An was inwardly more inclined to believe there was something wrong with these two cases, they were now in Guangling after all, and he still had to give the new criminal investigation team captain Qin Feng some face.

He asked, "Mr. Qin, we’re discussing the case now, and what I say isn’t necessarily correct."

"Besides, in the six previous attempts to reopen the investigation, we never managed to get the case clear; it shows how difficult this case is."

Mr. Qin smiled and said, "Mr. Jiang, what you just said made a lot of sense. I’m only talking about my personal view from the standpoint of practical case handling.

I remember that after the firefighters put out the fire inside, I went in to check.

Because at the time there were two wooden beams above that just happened to pin down the victim, Li Ailing, on her head and perineal area.

As a result, the degree of burning at those two spots wasn’t severe.

The other parts, because they weren’t shielded by heavy objects, were burned much more severely.

If those two things hadn’t fallen onto the body at the time, it’s very possible that the entire corpse would have been burned to ashes."

After listening, Jiang An nodded, signaling him to go on.

Qin Feng went on to add, "I remember that her husband, Zhang Xiang, was crying very hard at the time.

The two of them had been married for less than three years, and they didn’t have any children yet. You could say it was truly heartbreaking.

So we treated this case as an ordinary case right from the start.

Back then the Guangling Women’s Federation even came specially to offer their condolences. After all, Li Ailing died in a workplace fire, and the civil affairs department helped them secure some compensation money."

Here, Qin Feng paused for a moment, then continued, "To say it was a ’switched corpse’ trick, that possibility seems way too small, doesn’t it?"

"Besides, as far as I know, the relationship between the two of them as husband and wife was fairly harmonious. Something like that shouldn’t have happened."

"If it were someone else committing the crime, there’d be absolutely no need to do that."

Hearing this, Jiang An asked, "After his wife died, did this Zhang Xiang ever remarry?"

Qin Feng replied, "I’m actually not too sure about that."

"But last year, when I went to the local police station once, I dropped by the clinic to get some medicine from Dr. Zhang. He was still working alone then; there was no assistant."

"He lives a rather simple life. He basically just works at the village clinic and only goes home once on weekends."

Hearing this, Jiang An had formed a preliminary understanding of the overall situation of the case, but for the detailed circumstances, he still needed to dig deeper.

Right then, another officer spoke up: "If a killing really was carried out, then what was the reason?"

"Behind any case there must be a motive. Once it escalates to the level of homicide, that motive has to be very strong."

After everyone had discussed for a while, Jiang An glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and said, "It’s getting late. I want to go see that village doctor, Zhang Xiang, tomorrow and find out if he’s still working there."

Qin Feng nodded and said, "Under normal circumstances, he should be there at work. I’ll go with you tomorrow."

Then Jiang An continued, "Of course, the other two cases can’t be relaxed either. For now, I think there’s a high chance there’s something wrong with this case, but that doesn’t mean the other cases are fine—especially Case No. 9, which involves a fireworks explosion. That one involves a huge payout on a life insurance policy."

After he finished, Qin Feng asked, "So what about the other eight cases? Some involve White Bone remains, some involve bodies recovered from water. Do we need to go over them again?"

Jiang An said, "No need for now."

"Because in the other eight cases, although the remains are still incomplete, aside from the head and abdomen, the rest of the torso is present. Obviously, it’s impossible for one body to have two identical bones."

The next morning, just after work started at 8:30, Director Hou and Jiang An arrived together at the temporary office of the Guangling City criminal investigation team.

To create better conditions for handling this case, Vice Director Chen had specially cleared out an office for Director Hou and Jiang An to work in independently.

As soon as the two of them entered the office, Director Hou took one look at Jiang An and asked, "Mr. Jiang, why do you look so worn out? The bags under your eyes are really deep. Another sleepless night?"

Jiang An smiled, picked up his teacup, brewed himself a cup of black tea, and said, "Not insomnia, just that we discussed the case with them pretty late last night."

Director Hou asked, "Oh? You went over the old cases last night?"

Jiang An nodded. "Last night, Mr. Qin and his people carefully combed through all the cases that occurred within two years of that one."

"There were 1,006 files, and from that many we narrowed it down to two target cases."

Hearing this, Director Hou was momentarily stunned.

Then he said, "Mr. Jiang, you’ve worked hard! I didn’t expect their efficiency to be this high."