Chapter 113 - 108: The First Chain of Reasoning! Problematic Files

Xu Huo had said it before: if you want to commit the perfect murder and escape the law, it’s better to prevent a case from being opened in the first place.

Once a case is opened, there’s always a chance it will be solved.

Even if it isn’t solved quickly, as personnel improve and technology advances, the odds of solving these cold cases increase.

But the cases that do get solved are usually the ones that had some basic information to go on from the very beginning.

If a case is opened based on a single skull with no other information, it’ll never be solved, not even in your lifetime.

"He can’t guarantee a case won’t be opened."

"After all, throw a body in the water and a fisherman might find it. Bury it, and a treasure hunter might dig it up."

"But as long as it isn’t found before it decomposes, he’s in the clear."

Xu Huo watched the bodies being bagged and carried away, then said slowly,

"Once it’s decomposed to the point where an ID can’t be made, the investigation is basically a dead end."

The bodies were clearly moved here. Even if the police canvas the area, they won’t find any leads.

Under these circumstances, if the faces were truly decomposed and the rest of the bodies couldn’t be found, the case would basically be sent to the archives and stamped with the two words "cold case."

’But...’

"He didn’t do that, though."

’Is he trying to expose himself?’

Xu Huohu then retorted with a question, and the others found their thoughts following his lead.

Instead of hiding it, he placed the head somewhere so obvious that the orchard owner was guaranteed to find it the next morning!

So was he trying to give himself away?

"Who kills someone and then, without turning themselves in, leaves a ton of clues for the police to come and arrest them?"

Qian Hua found it a bit absurd.

People who give themselves away usually want to be arrested. The most direct way to do that is to just surrender.

But in this case, the perpetrator seemed to be both giving himself away and covering his tracks...

It left Qian Hua completely stumped.

"The radio station case?"

For a moment, Li Jianye seemed to recall something. His brow furrowed as if he’d thought of something unpleasant.

There had once been a case in Jiangsan City known as the Night of the Soul’s Return.

Xu Huo had been the one to crack it, so he knew all the details.

The killer had murdered someone and deliberately sought exposure, all for the sake of fame...

"But this doesn’t fit the profile for a fame killing."

Li Jianye immediately dismissed his own theory.

The murder, the attempts at concealment, the crime scene—none of it fit the typical profile of someone killing for fame.

’Then what...’

’...was he after?’

"We’re not going to find any more clues at the crime scene."

After a moment, Xu Huo shook his head.

This was all the scene had to offer.

All the information was obscured. The only visible clues were the few wounds on the three heads and the staples from a stapler.

Xu Huo could just make out a sense of rage from the killer toward the victims.

’Well, you could call it rage.’

Beyond that, there were very few clues about the killer.

’However...’

"But on the other hand, if a killer buries a body for several months, there’s only a small chance of ever identifying it."

"Conversely, that means..."

Xu Huo paused, then continued,

"Right now, given the condition of the bodies, there’s a good chance we can get an ID!"

At this, both Xu Huo and Qian Hua turned in unison to look at Li Jianye.

Li Jianye’s heart skipped a beat, but he maintained a stoic expression and took a step back.

"What are you looking at me for?!"

"Captain Li, you have great skills. You’re top-notch in this area!"

Xu Huo sidled up, his face full of admiration, and said with a grin,

"This business of canvassing and checking files... we’ll leave it to you."

Li Jianye: ???

"Damn it all."

He was just about to curse them out when Qian Hua cut in.

"I’ll take charge of tracking the killer’s movements."

Qian Hua had clearly assigned himself a task.

"I’ll be in charge of the K-9 unit and the crime scene. I’ll take the dogs and walk the riverbank, searching for any suspicious clues related to the killer."

He didn’t have any particularly specialized skills, so taking on this sort of physically demanding work was a perfect fit for him.

"I’ll head back to the office to coordinate the case, sort through the information, and work on projecting our next steps,"

Xu Huo quickly added.

Li Jianye: ...

Sometimes, a man just gets the inexplicable urge to die.

Li Jianye was speechless. So, they had it all figured out, leaving the grunt work for him.

"Fine."

He grunted, letting out a breath.

"Don’t worry," Xu Huo quickly tried to soothe the nearly fifty-year-old, irascible little man. "The victim’s body is just a head. We might not get clues from the head itself, but for a records search, a head is a massive source of information!"

"I’ve examined the heads."

"The three victims were all very young, around twenty years old. Young and beautiful."

"Their skin is fair and soft, and their hair is well-cared for."

"If you ignore the metallic smell of blood, you can still catch the faint scent of perfume."

"Mm, these were very well-put-together young women."

"You can probably skip the rural areas and focus the search on the city."

"Prioritize places like schools."

Xu Huo added, considerately.

In this day and age, people in the countryside weren’t "well-put-together" enough to be using perfume.

It wasn’t even common in his past life.

Most of them spent their time tilling fields and tending crops. The long-term exposure to wind, rain, and sun, combined with intense physical labor, made it impossible to maintain one’s looks.

They couldn’t even maintain a basic physique.

Middle-aged women in the countryside were often heavyset. The immense amount of physical labor required a high-calorie intake, with no shortage of oil, salt, and sauces.

If you wanted to control your weight, you wouldn’t have the energy to work. If you wanted to earn a living, you had to accept being heavyset.

Therefore, based on the information gathered from the three heads, they could try to bypass the countryside to reduce the workload.

Besides, if the three weren’t related by blood, but were well-groomed young women from three different families...

It all but confirmed they were from the city!