Chapter 179 136: Found It! The Missing Fingerprints

'It's the same idea, just approached from a different angle.'

'The more the killer cared about the fingerprints, the more certain it was that the victim, Zhao Qiao, had used his hands for something crucial!'

"The source of the fingerprints in the police's internal system..."

Looking at the expressions of the officers around him, Xu Huo paused, then said slowly,

"I don't need to spell it out for you, do I?"

How exactly were fingerprints collected for the police department's internal database?

With fingerprint scanners, of course.

For example, if your ID card expired or you lost it, you'd go to the police station to get a new one. The police would then have you record your fingerprints on a scanner.

Afterward, those fingerprints would be used for processes like customs verification when you travel abroad.

But!

'But that was in my past life, when technology was far more advanced!'

'In this life, in '03...'

Let's put it this way.

Right now, when the police compared fingerprints for an investigation, they relied on the naked eye.

That's right. Those intricate whorls weren't analyzed by a machine. They were printed out or displayed as an image on a computer, and then someone would examine them by eye!

Linking fingerprints to ID cards?

It was unheard of. The database didn't have fingerprints for the vast majority of citizens.

'That system wouldn't even be proposed until 2012 and wouldn't be implemented until 2013.'

Right now, ninety-nine percent of the prints in the database came from...

"Criminals."

Xu Huo uttered a single word.

"The source for the fingerprint database is criminals."

"Thieves, murderers..."

"If any of them break the law again and police lift their prints, they can be identified immediately!"

That's right. In this era, the fingerprint database was populated with criminals.

"Look into Zhao Qiao's criminal history."

"There were no prints at the scene, so we can't pull anything from the database."

"Try pulling his records from the courts."

'There was no facial recognition database in '03, so they probably wouldn't be able to identify the killer's face.'

But...

Then again.

The people in this era who compared criminal fingerprints did it all by eye!

'They all have eagle eyes!'

'Just give them a direction, a lead, and you can count on them to handle any task that requires sheer manpower.'

"Search!"

The order was given.

Everyone sprang into action.

...

...

「December 4th.」

「Noon. 11:30 AM.」

Following Xu Huo's order, every detective in Linlan City—even the local precinct officers—was mobilized.

Officers went person by person, asking about Zhao Qiao's appearance.

Meanwhile, the criminal records department pulled up countless files for offenders named Zhao Qiao.

Until...

"We've got something!"

"We contacted the courts and went through their archives. We finally found a group case from six years ago."

"The victim, Zhao Qiao's, name was in the case file. We confirmed his identity through a photo comparison."

"After running comparisons, we've also confirmed the identities of the other victims."

"They were all part of the same crew!"

At 11:40 AM.

The news was a jolt of energy—the first real break in the case, strictly speaking.

But it was also baffling.

The three victims... were three criminals!

The turn of events was stunning.

Countless questions flashed through Xu Huo's mind.

'At the first crime scene, the victim was thrown into a vat of boiling oil...'

'At the second, chunks of flesh became fertilizer for a vegetable patch, greedily absorbed by the soil.'

'At the third, the killer made the victim feel death's slow approach, frozen into an ice sculpture...'

'The three murders all had a bizarrely bureaucratic air to them...'

'And then there was the victim's masterful lock-picking ability, plus a killer who was practically a professional...'

'What the hell happened here!?'

'So far, it seems the conflict between them stemmed from their professions and personalities.'

'But this putting on of official airs... what kind of person is the killer!?'

'If he's just some ordinary security guard, that's one thing. But if he's really...'

At this thought, Xu Huo's heart sank. He looked up at Qian Hua and asked gravely,

"These three victims..."

"What were their real identities!?"