Memory inheritor

Chapter 42 The Beginning

"What's wrong with the music store?" Zhang Shengyong asked tentatively. He had worked with Wei Hongbo for many years, and just by looking into the other man's eyes, he knew that his words contained an important clue.

"Director Xin conducted a preliminary autopsy on Li Yunxiang and speculated that she had studied violin during her teenage years and had practiced it for the past six months." Wei Hongbo said as he walked to the office door and called out to the lobby, "Sister Wu!"

"Coming!" A policewoman in her forties walked over quickly. "What's wrong, Wei Da?"

"Please contact Li Yunxiang's parents to confirm whether she has studied the violin."

"good!"

The policewoman, named Wu Yuhong, was mainly responsible for document work. She was very skilled at interpersonal communication and emotional support, so she was the one who handled most of the contact with the victims' families.

After instructing Wu Yuhong, Wei Hongbo said to Zhang Shengyong, "Let's go find Yu Zhi."

Zhang Shengyong nodded and followed Wei Hongbo out of the brigade's office area.

Yu Zhen was sitting on the sofa eating a boxed lunch when he saw Wei Hongbo and Zhang Shengyong come in. He put down his chopsticks and asked, "A breakthrough?"

Less than an hour ago, Wei Hongbo had just reported the case's progress to him. Now the two of them came over together, looking very serious, which meant something must have happened. At times like this, as his superior, he had to present the situation in a positive light.

"We've identified this person as a prime suspect, but we can't pinpoint his whereabouts yet. We need to take precautions to prevent him from fleeing!" Wei Hongbo said, handing over Mu Jie's file.

Yu Zhen took it and looked at it, then asked, "Are you going to issue a notice for assistance in the investigation?"

"It doesn't matter what form it takes, the main purpose is to prevent him from escaping," Wei Hongbo said quickly. "If we find any trace of the suspect, we should try our best not to disturb him, in order to prevent him from dying an unnatural death."

Yu Zhen hesitated for a moment, then picked up his phone and made a call.

Without evidence of a crime, the police cannot issue an arrest warrant. They usually use methods such as "notices for assistance in investigation" or "missing person notices" to set up checkpoints and control the situation. This requires cooperation from multiple departments, including transportation and railways, and the process is quite complicated.

Fortunately, Yu Zhen has already reported the case to the provincial level. Although handing over command authority will affect some autonomy, it will also greatly enhance the resources that can be mobilized and coordinated.

While Yu Zhen was on the phone, Zhang Shengyong also went out to make a call, asking his team's officers to compile information about Mu Jie into a personnel assistance notice format and send it over, then forward it to Yu Zhi after receiving it.

After handling the relevant matters, Wei Hongbo and Zhang Shengyong both breathed a sigh of relief.

Yu Zhen said, "Tell me, what have you found out?"

"Shengyong, let me introduce it," Wei Hongbo nodded to Zhang Shengyong. "I don't know the specifics either."

Yu Zhen couldn't help but click his tongue. Previously, fearing delays and trusting Wei and Zhang as always, he had done the work according to their requests. He hadn't expected Wei Hongbo to be just like him, rushing over before even understanding the situation.

Wei Hongbo guessed what Yu Zhi was thinking, but didn't offer any further explanation.

Zhang Shengyong said, "This afternoon, I reconstructed Peng Jun's movements during several specific time periods..."

……

……

When they first got involved in the case, Wei Hongbo and Zhang Shengyong spent a lot of time investigating the circumstances of the two victims, with the core goal of finding out their motives for participating in the case.

However, after investigation, nothing unusual was found. Li Yunxiang and Peng Jun's work and daily routines were no different from those of ordinary office workers, and no valuable clues could be found.

In criminal investigation, the motive is one of the most crucial clues, determining the direction of the investigation, narrowing its scope, and identifying key suspects. This is precisely why crimes without a motive are among the most troublesome for the police.

Wei Hongbo was initially quite troubled by this. Fortunately, Wei Hongsi came over at noon and provided new clues and ideas, and he and Zhang Shengyong immediately adjusted their investigation direction.

They repositioned Li Yunxiang and Peng Jun in this case from participants to "tools," intending to trace their movements to find the intersection between them and the mastermind behind the scenes.

According to Wei Hongsi's analysis, Peng Jun had multiple contacts with the mastermind behind the scenes, and the time frame was relatively clear, so mapping his whereabouts naturally became the first choice.

The vast majority of premeditated criminals are aware of counter-surveillance measures when committing crimes, such as avoiding surveillance cameras, concealing their faces, hiding their tracks, and turning off their mobile phones. Perhaps influenced by crime dramas and novels, some are even quite professional, significantly increasing the difficulty for the police in solving cases.

But this problem didn't exist with Peng Jun, which even gave Zhang Shengyong a sense of sudden enlightenment.

An ordinary person living a normal life in the city has almost transparent movements; almost every action leaves a trace.

Mobile phones have location tracking, consumption records are kept, navigation tracks are tracked, ride-hailing is monitored, and even riding shared bicycles is no exception.

For the police, the challenge lies in coordinating the acquisition of various types of information and then selecting the valuable parts. If a long period of time has passed, some information may be overwritten, requiring the use of other information to supplement the description.

Through trajectory mapping, Zhang Shengyong identified several locations where Peng Jun was suspected of contacting the mastermind, with a restaurant-style bar called JESS being the most suspicious.

During the time periods marked by Wei Hongsi, Peng Jun left spending records at that bar, which is the only one among the suspected locations that completely matches.

However, this situation made Zhang Shengyong somewhat hesitant.

Doesn't the person behind this know how to cover it up at all? Couldn't they even change the location? Or is this just Peng Jun's personal habit?

Zhang Shengyong asked Wei Hongbo for help in obtaining relevant video surveillance footage, which completely reconstructed Peng Jun's whereabouts on May 26. It was confirmed that after leaving the film set at the amusement park, Peng Jun first went back to his residence, then went to JESS Bar, stayed there until 2 a.m., and then went straight home.

With this clue, the bar owner, Mu Jie, is clearly more suspicious.

So Zhang Shengyong began searching for Mu Jie's whereabouts, preparing to monitor him.

Then he discovered that Mu Jie had left his residence around 6:30 pm the previous night, taken a taxi to a shopping mall, and then disappeared without a trace. He had tried all the usual technical methods, but he still couldn't find him.

Peng Jun fell to his death at 6:07 PM last night. Not long after, Mu Jie consciously concealed himself, and nearly 24 hours later, he left no trace on the city's internet.

No matter what coincidences might occur, they couldn't stop Zhang Shengyong from listing Mu Jie as the prime suspect, and he immediately went to Wei Hongbo to report the situation.