The early autumn in Hong Kong was really humid and hot, and anyone passing by outside was drenched in sweat.
Yi Jiayi sat by the window, organizing files while wrestling with her thoughts.
Ten minutes later, overcoming her fear, Yi Jiayi sorted out the files Qiu Sushan had asked her to retrieve and also pulled out the file on the King’s Park Murder Case discovered by the forensic officer, mixing it with three other cases and delivering them all to the Major Crime Team B office.
Liu Jiaming, seeing the four files, groaned instantly. He hadn’t even finished the report on the last case, and here were more.
“These are old cases, very hard to investigate. If they couldn’t be solved before, they just couldn’t be broken,” he muttered as he briefly looked through the cases, including one from six years ago. “How are we supposed to investigate this?”
“Maybe we can solve them now. The fingerprint database has been updated, and we can now analyze DNA. Maybe these new technologies can provide a breakthrough to solve these old cases,” Lin Wangjiu mused as he opened the first file and muttered:
“The police department needs to solve a certain number of cases. Say 20 new homicides occurred this year, and we solve 20 cases including old ones, then our solve rate would be a hundred percent, right?”
“Can we really calculate it like that?” Liu Jiaming was shocked.
“Who knows,” Lin Wangjiu shrugged.
Fang Zhenyue distributed the case files. “Let’s all take a look.”
Yi Jiayi was relieved that Sir Fang did not notice immediately.
But she couldn’t rest easy just yet, keeping a close watch over the next few days, ready to be discovered at any moment, to sincerely admit her mistake, and to never deny it.
…
Team B was fortunate; among the old cases assigned, they reexamined the fingerprints of the first case, asked the forensic science department to use new technology to enhance the previously blurry fingerprint images, and actually found a match with the fingerprints left by the murderer.
The murderer was a first-time offender at the time of the crime, with no fingerprint record in the police system.
In the following two years, due to brawling and theft, he was caught twice, leaving records in the Kwai Chung fingerprint database, which matched perfectly upon review.
Fang Zhenyue obtained the murderer’s address and other information from the Kwai Chung Police Station, and together with Gary and Liu Jiaming, easily arrested the murderer from his bed and brought him back to the police station.
The fingerprint evidence was conclusive. By investigating the suspect’s social relationships and behavioral trails from two years ago, more and more evidence accumulated. Fang Zhenyue directly deduced the murderer’s motives and methods. The murderer had no choice but to confess.
Team B had solved several homicide cases in succession, their momentum was unstoppable, and the detectives in the team walked through the police station with straighter backs than before.
In such a scenario, Fang Zhenyue turned to the second case in the file: the King’s Park abuse murder case that had caused quite a stir six months ago.
The victim was a 15-year-old schoolgirl with good grades, well-behaved according to her teachers, family, and friends, and had no strange social connections.
She was murdered in King’s Park, and her body was found the next morning. It was presumed to be the toughest kind of case to crack—an act by a stranger. Major Case Team A continued investigating for over three months without success, and the case was temporarily shelved due to other ongoing cases.
A month later, with no new leads, the case was labeled as a cold case.
Half a year had passed, and now old cases were being reopened, even those from earlier in the year?
Moreover, unresolved past cases were usually handed over to others if the detective originally in charge had been promoted, retired, or transferred.
Otherwise, the original team would continue the investigation, as they were more familiar with the case details, and to prevent the embarrassment of having the case solved by someone new.
Thirdly, the new detective might feel that since no one else had solved it, it would be normal for them to fail as well, leading to a lackluster effort and ultimately reporting it as a cold case again.
Fang Zhenyue was puzzled why Qiu Sushan had handed him this case.
Was Inspector Qiu finally showing her true colors, no longer pretending to be a benign and honest person? Was she preparing to declare war on other teams and aiming to become the most incisive inspector in the Hong Kong police force?
Fang shook the document, thinking of Qiu Sushan’s usual sense of the bigger picture, and chuckled lightly.
Since she had started to act wildly, he, known for his bad temper and lack of camaraderie, certainly wouldn’t hold back madam.
He had long been fed up with the tedious rule that if one touched a case, others couldn’t easily get involved.
How so?
This world’s justice—if you can’t provide it, do you forbid others from doing so?
A detective’s goal is to solve cases. The nonsense of ‘your case’ and ‘my case’—whoever can solve it, should solve it. If not, just admit defeat. Why all this face-saving and turf-protecting canine behavior?
Sir Fang never expected that someone in the police station would dare play tricks like stealing beams and substituting pillars, or the old switcheroo, with him, Fang Zhenyue. After distributing the documents to his detectives, he began to familiarize himself with the details of the case seriously.
To him, the rules and the unspoken ones didn’t matter; if there was a case, it was to be solved. The logic of his job was just that simple.
The next day, because Fang Zhenyue went to the forensic science department to retrieve old evidence from the King’s Park case and requested a reexamination of the fingerprints and some evidence, Inspector Zhang of Major Case Team A discovered this.
Inspector Zhang immediately made a phone call to Qiu Sushan’s office and questioned her.
“All cases in the department can be reopened by any detective once they are designated as cold cases. What? Does this system not apply to our Team B? Then I need to ask Officer Huang if our policies have changed here.” Qiu Sushan thought that Fang Zhenyue intended to take over the case. Although she internally cursed Sergeant Fang for his recklessness, she still staunchly defended her team member without showing any fear, and boldly countered Inspector Zhang’s questioning from Team A.
“Do you think I’m incompetent and are trying to embarrass me on purpose? Inspector Qiu, have I ever wronged you?”
“Inspector Zhang, that’s not the point. Looking at the same case from a different angle with a different person might lead to new insights and possibly a breakthrough.”
“If Team B also fails to solve it, then you’re just wasting police resources for nothing! Don’t end up losing what you can’t afford to lose.”
“Inspector Zhang, you’re being too harsh. I just think Team A and Team B are different, that’s all. I didn’t say we were better. Please don’t get so angry unless you lack confidence.”
Inspector Zhang was so angered by Qiu Sushan that he ended the call with, “I won’t stoop to arguing with a woman.”
Qiu Sushan smirked and muttered disdainfully, “Team B has been cracking cases continuously. Team A isn’t that impressive, are they? How come you, as a Team A inspector, are more arrogant than me? Always using ‘women’ and ‘men’ to insult people, so tasteless.”
Alone in her office, she spat in disdain, then straightened her posture and furiously called Fang Zhenyue to her office.
As soon as Fang Zhenyue sat down opposite her, she frowned and lectured him.
“I’ve backed you up, and my reputation is all on the line with this case. You decide if you can solve it when you reopen this case,” Qiu Sushan said sternly, then slammed her hand on the desk and glared threateningly at Fang Zhenyue.
Fang Zhenyue leaned back in his chair, silent since he entered the office.
Now he understood Qiu Sushan’s words, his gaze dropped to the edge of the desk, his eyebrows tightly furrowed.
Qiu Sushan was unaware.
It wasn’t madam who assigned it, so who handed the file to Team B?
Fang Zhenyue thought casually, and the name ‘Yi Jiayi’ clearly emerged.
He rubbed his fingers unconsciously and said, “I know, don’t worry, madam,” then stood up and walked out of the office.
Qiu Sushan stared at the back of his head, really wanting to touch it to see if he was naturally defiant.
After the office door closed, she quickly pulled back her hand that had been slamming on the desk, gently rubbing it.
Slamming the desk in anger, it was actually quite painful.
….
Author’s Note:
Hong Kong established a DNA database in 2001, which is connected online for accessing recorded DNA data. However, DNA technology was already introduced to the police force in the early 1990s and was supported for use as evidence in court. Some samples required examination by a professional biochemical team, and occasionally, important samples had to be sent to the UK for analysis.
ngl cant wait this case solved, rpists and pedos 🤬