Even upon discovering the old-style large cellphone, Jiayi dared not touch it. After marking its location with a small flag, she had to wait for the forensic team to conduct an environmental survey before they could professionally remove the evidence.
Uncle Jiu gathered the rope, and Jiayi pulled on it to climb.
Back on the road, she removed her gloves; indeed, her palms were rubbed red, and several fingertips were chafed as if bruised, bleeding slightly. At some point, her wrists and neck had also been scratched by thorny branches, causing small trails of blood, and pulling up her pant leg revealed points where thorns had penetrated and pricked her.
The wild brush was truly no place to carelessly wander through; all the plants were like assassins.
Approaching Uncle Jiu, she held out her hands towards him.
Uncle Jiu also took off his gloves and showed her his palms.
Both their palms were red with blood spots and abrasions. Both people, usually not the ones to do rough fieldwork, had been raised too delicately.
Jiayi looked up at Uncle Jiu and stuck out her tongue playfully; Uncle Jiu raised an eyebrow. Exchanging looks, the two teammates smiled at each other, flaunting their ‘badges’ of honor.
The PTU officers climbed up to the road as well, but only one officer discovered an area with splattered bloodstains; the others found nothing.
The PTU captain, Nie Chen, who had been ‘worried’ about Jiayi’s safety, walked to the other side with his rope, now it was his turn to descend the slope. Passing by Jiayi, he couldn’t help but stop and raise an eyebrow:
“You really are a lucky sharpshooter, everyone else found nothing, but you did.”
Jiayi was airing her palms towards the mountain breeze to lessen the burning pain from the friction injuries.
Hearing Nie Chen’s comment, she initially didn’t realize he was mocking her, instinctively thinking it was just casual talk. It wasn’t until Nie Chen had walked a couple of steps away that she realized his tone carried a hint of disdain.
She turned and glared at Nie Chen’s retreating figure, catching up a few steps, she argued with justification:
“Sir Nie, finding the old-style cellphone wasn’t just good luck.”
Nie Chen turned around slightly startled, “What?”
“I based it on the first piece of evidence found, analyzing the victim’s movement from the footprints left behind. Then, using the direction of the footprints and movement analysis, I drew an extended line. This conclusion came from logical analysis. If anything was thrown or dropped during the altercation, it’s most likely to appear along this line.”
“It was by focusing on the area near this line that I found this cellphone.”
Jiayi stood by the roadside, still with a rope tied around her waist, looking serious and earnest.
Nie Chen blinked, the policewoman was like a student who was unjustly accused and argued fervently. Normally not particularly outspoken, not overtly clever, but standing up now, she could astonish you like that student who stands out when it counts.
“Which extended line are you referring to first?” Nie Chen scratched his head, turning towards the slope, peering down.
“…,” Jiayi’s emotions vanished in an instant. She momentarily paused, bewildered, before stepping up to Nie Chen’s side. She first pointed out the location where the blood-stained suit was found, where forensic colleagues were gathering evidence.
After Nie Chen nodded, Jiayi gestured slightly to the left and explained, “There are many footprints there. The suit likely got snagged there during a confrontation. Standing here, we can’t see the footprints and other details over there clearly, but we can see that there is a gap in the shrubbery, right?”
Nie Chen nodded again, showing that he had seen it.
Seeing that he was genuinely eager to learn and not as dismissive and mocking as before, Jiayi then extended her finger to draw an imaginary line, pointing and speaking simultaneously:
“Imagine the movements of two people arguing. The joints and dynamics of a person dictate that when throwing something, one instinctively leans forward or backward. Although we can’t rule out the possibility of throwing things to the sides during a struggle, throwing forward can cover a much greater distance, whereas throwing backwards, to the left, or to the right, or if something gets knocked out of hands, the objects don’t travel as far.”
“So, when we search, we should focus on a longer distance in front of the suspect, while other directions don’t need as extensive a search area.”
“Other areas aren’t impossible, as real-world situations can vary wildly, such as if the crime scene is at the bottom of a slope. In that case, throwing something downhill can send it very far, regardless of which way the victim is facing.”
“However, we can still plan out the most effective search area based on the current situation.”
Listening, Nie Chen nodded, then squatted down to pick up a stone and drew a circle on the cement path, then sketched a long line in front of the victim before looking up and asking, “The most effective search area you mentioned, it’s like this, right?”
Jiayi also squatted down, inspected it, and then nodded in agreement.
Nie Chen patted Jiayi on the shoulder, stood up, and clapped his hands to draw the attention of all the PTU police captains and officers. He then gestured to outline the most effective search area, urging everyone to search there particularly carefully.
The officers all signaled their understanding. Nie Chen then cleared his throat and lowered his arms.
He turned around, seeing Jiayi focusing on his revised search plan, and smiled, “Officer Jiayi, you’re quite skilled, well spoken. You CID folks are really into criminal investigation, with strong logic, quite impressive.”
Saying this, he nodded, adjusted the rope around his waist to ensure safety, and then prepared to go downhill. Just as he took a step, he suddenly remembered something and looked up at Jiayi, who was about to leave to attend to other tasks, and called out, “Hey.”
Jiayi turned around, and Nie Chen, lifting the hand that was pulling the rope, extended his index finger and nonchalantly smiled, “I was a bit disrespectful just now, I apologize, sorry.”
“…” Jiayi stood there, his prompt and straightforward apology making her earlier reaction seem slightly overblown and petty. She twisted her lips awkwardly, yet felt somewhat pleased by the recognition, her smile involuntarily growing larger. Finally letting her genuine personality show, she grinned, showing her teeth, and waved her hand dismissively.
“Be careful, Sir Nie.”
Nie Chen nodded slightly and gripped the hemp rope with both hands. As soon as he loosened his grip, he slid down the slope and disappeared into the bushes.
When Jiayi returned to Uncle Jiu’s side, Uncle Jiu had just finished coiling the rope and asked with a smile:
“Did you teach them a lesson about how to behave?”
Jiayi chuckled and nodded, raising her eyebrows, “Let them see the professionalism of CID officers.”
“Haha.”
PTU officers expanded outward in a rolling-stone fashion to conduct a map-style search, quickly and efficiently.
Forensic colleagues collected and photographed details such as footprints around the suit and its location, then Fang Zhenyue and Sanfu took them up to the road.
After organizing the clues, marking them, and packing them away, they moved to the area where Jiayi had climbed up. Under her guidance, they climbed down to the vicinity of Brother Da Guangming, finding stable footing to collect new evidence and clues.
Jiayi walked around the roadside again, carefully observing the location where the blood-stained suit was found, then moved to where the large brother was discovered. She then took a spare flashlight brought by the PTU and shone it back on the curve of the road between these areas.
She bent down to examine the road surface, looking left and right, bending over to take a closer look at the edge of the road.
Fang Zhenyue, while tightly holding the chemist’s hemp rope, occasionally looked back to make sure Jiayi was within his sight.
When she suddenly squatted down, he asked:
“What did you find?”
The wind carried his voice to Jiayi, a few meters away, making it sound somewhat distant and even deeper.
Jiayi turned and said, “Brother Yue, there’s a cigarette butt here, but I’m not sure if it was dropped today. If we can determine the time it was discarded and it matches the time when the blood-stained suit and the large brother appeared, it might be from the victim or the suspect, and we might be able to collect saliva or other information.”
Junior chemist Ah Wei, standing on the road, heard Jiayi’s words and immediately looked over.
“Could you please collect the evidence?” Fang Zhenyue said.
“Yes, sir.” Ah Wei nodded and immediately went to collect the cigarette butt Jiayi had found.
“Ah Wei, do these look like tire tracks caused by braking?” Jiayi remembered when Brother Yue’s jeep came, it had slowed down before stopping, without any abrupt braking.
The scrape marks on the cement left behind were not covered by soil, nor had they been cleaned away by road maintenance or cleaning workers, suggesting they were newly made.
“I’ll take a photo.” Ah Wei hurried back to get the camera.
As Jiayi illuminated the road surface, Ah Wei clicked away with his camera.
“Can we determine the model of the vehicle from the tire tracks?” Jiayi suddenly looked up and asked.
“…” Ah Wei looked perplexed, huh? “No.”
“Oh.” Jiayi lowered her gaze, looking disappointed.
“However… I’ll ask Sister Teresa, maybe she can tell from these tire tracks whether it’s a large, medium, or small vehicle.” Ah Wei carefully examined the brake marks, which should give a rough idea of the distance between the front and rear wheels and the track width.
“That would be great. Let’s not trample around here; mark two warning barriers outside this area,” Jiayi suggested.
“Ye…okay.” Ah Wei almost instinctively shouted ‘yes, madam,’ remembering that the person in front of him was not his superior, and quickly corrected himself.
He turned back and took out four red warning barriers and a numeric marker for a clue extraction point from the things he brought. He set them up around the perimeter of the area with the tire tracks to remind the forensic officers not to contaminate or damage the clues here.
“It can be confirmed that the victim was in a car going downhill, with both the victim and the perpetrator in the same vehicle. Who was driving?” Jiayi raised her flashlight towards the direction uphill, where there were many luxury villas, the nearest being the Yiluan Villa Community, and above that, the Shixun Road Villa Community and other villa areas. With the current clues, it was still difficult to determine where the car came from.
But at least by looking at the tire tracks, it’s impossible to trace back to the starting point, unless something like fibers or materials unique to a certain villa area are collected from the tracks.
Forensic technician Ah Wei scratched his head, trying to organize his logic to keep up with Jiayi’s questioning: “If there were footprints, maybe we could match them.”
“Right!” Jiayi immediately affirmed and started bending over to search near the emergency brake tracks as Ah Wei smiled and pursed his lips.
Ah Wei also bent down to search. It was hard to leave discernible footprints on the concrete, and even using special methods to collect them would only result in a collection of uneven impressions of the earth’s surface.
But it was possible on the soil, and without planning, both followed the tire tracks to the edge of the road, crossing the roadside guardrail to examine the traces in the soil.
Sure enough, there were two sets of overlapping footprints extending towards the area where the suit was found.
“Quick, take photos, capture both the footprints and the broken branches nearby,” Jiayi hurriedly instructed, helping to light the area with her flashlight as she spoke.
“OK.” Ah Wei promptly did as told.
“Logically, the footprints in front should be the victim’s, so the ones behind would be the perpetrator’s,” Jiayi walked and snapped pictures with Ah Wei.
“Yes, unless further evidence points to another conclusion, it would be as you said,” Ah Wei nodded.
“Mm, capture everything, and later add all footprints, all clues, reports, and lab results for case analysis,” Jiayi directed towards the branches: “Also take pictures here. Hey? Is that a piece of flesh hanging on the broken tree trunk?”
“It seems like it.” Ah Wei raised his camera and snapped a photo.
“Could you help collect the evidence, Brother Ah Wei?” Jiayi said with a sweet smile.
“No problem, Sister Jiayi.” Ah Wei, feeling overly honored by such a polite address from Jiayi, reversed the formality by calling her ‘sister.’
Jiayi couldn’t help but laugh, thinking of Brother Yue and Uncle Jiu, where the titles of ‘brother’ and ‘uncle’ get amusingly mixed up in terms of seniority and respect.
Ah Wei returned to the car they had arrived in, fetched an evidence bag, and came back to gather evidence.
From a distance, Fang Zhenyue watched Jiayi and Ah Wei making their way around the corner, inspecting and collecting evidence, and couldn’t help saying to Sanfu:
“It’s only been a few minutes, and Eleven has already become well-acquainted with the noon shift at the police station and the PTU officers. Now she even has her own attendant.”
“Ha, Sister Eleven does have a bit of personal charm,” Sanfu replied, still holding the rope, pulling or releasing it as instructed by the lab technician below, while glancing over at Jiayi and Ah Wei.
He saw Ah Wei nodding in agreement under Jiayi’s guidance, occasionally turning to discuss with her, showing a harmonious and cooperative demeanor.
Meanwhile, the PTU officers, guided by Jiayi’s directions, were conducting a focused search in the indicated area. PTU Chief Nie Chen, having finished a sweep of one area, continued down the road and nodded in greeting as he passed by Jiayi.
Sister Eleven, with her cheerful demeanor, had everything in this section, involving dozens of people, organized clearly and efficiently.
Tsk!