Chapter 1071 - 548: The Intuition of Two Detectives_2

"Don’t worry, there’s no trickery. Everything is conducted according to the law and procedure," Chen Guan responded sternly.

At this moment, everyone’s eyes were focused on Mr. Li’s hands.

He skillfully and swiftly collected Li Xu’s clear fingerprints from all ten fingers.

Afterward, the group exited the interrogation room and came into the hallway.

The air seemed to condense with a tense silence, everyone involuntarily held their breath, their gaze closely following the two fingerprint cards in Mr. Li’s hand.

In his left hand was the fingerprint sample previously extracted from the excavator cab, and in his right hand was the freshly collected fingerprint card from Li Xu.

Time ticked away second by second, each second stretched extraordinarily long.

Mr. Li raised a magnifying glass, his body slightly leaning forward, concentrating fully on comparing the two sets of ridges, carefully examining each characteristic point.

Two minutes later, Mr. Li slowly lifted his hand to adjust the reading glasses on his nose. Behind the lenses, his gaze lingered on the identification report for a moment, then he took a deep breath, exhaled loudly, as if to release the heaviness in his chest.

He looked up, glanced at Mr. Chen, and said in a low, clear voice, "Mr. Chen, I’m really sorry—after careful comparison, these fingerprints... indeed are not Li Xu’s."

As the words fell, everyone present was momentarily stunned, the few bits of happiness that arose from hopeful clues completely dissipated at this moment, replaced by a pressing silence.

After a while, Qin Feng leaned slightly forward and spoke in a tone as calm as possible: "Mr. Li, do you want to... verify again?"

Despite the polite wording, the unspoken urgency and suspicion were clear to everyone present.

Mr. Li was not surprised by the suggestion, simply shook his head, his expression candid: "No need to verify again, before speaking up, I’ve already double-checked three times myself."

He paused, a trace of a bitter smile at the corner of his mouth, then continued, "Honestly, if the comparison had succeeded, we could all breathe a sigh of relief, and I might even get some credit and a commendation.

But the fact is the fact, the identification result does not match, and I can’t close my eyes and claim a misaligned match just to fill up ’case volume’."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Chen nodded solemnly, taking over the conversation with gravity: "Mr. Li is right. In our case handling, everything must be based on facts, with scientific identification as the criterion, absolutely not using unsound evidence for the sake of speeding up case resolution. This is a matter of principle."

At this moment, everyone’s face revealed signs of despondency.

However, amidst the pervasive mood of disappointment, Jiang An appeared unusually calm.

He was not too surprised by the conclusion, in fact, it could be said that it didn’t stir much inside him.

He was pondering a detail he noticed earlier: Li Xu’s right hand had a visible trace of abnormal healing on the ring finger, with stiff distal interphalangeal joint, seemingly losing normal functionality.

This clearly wasn’t an ordinary old injury from manual labor, its shape and position appearing quite unique.

Though he couldn’t determine what kind of relationship this anomaly might have with the case at hand, his experience in criminal investigation told him: during case solving, especially those involving direct bodily actions, any abnormal condition of the hands warrants close attention.

Jiang An mused silently: During the crime execution in this case, the murderer did not have close bodily contact with the deceased, but instead committed the crime by manipulating the boom.

And operating the boom precisely requires the coordination of both hands.

Then, assuming Li Xu is indeed the murderer, would the dysfunction in his right hand’s ring finger leave some kind of special mark in operating the boom?

Of course, all this was merely an ephemeral speculation in his mind, lacking any evidence.

Jiang An understood, every judgment and action by a detective must be evidence-based, working by intuition alone is neither professional nor reliable.

He himself never believed in the so-called "sixth sense," considering investigation work as a conscious process that combines rigorous logical deduction and solid evidence chains, which should never rely on vague intuition.

But this time, that vague sense of "something’s off" hovered inexplicably in his mind, stubbornly refusing to leave.

Jiang An gently shook his head, trying to suppress this baseless association.

Until further clues are obtained, it can only remain a silent footnote, waiting in the dark of thinking for the moment light shines through.

At this moment in the corridor, everyone felt weighed down by a heavy stone.

This case has reached today after much turbulence and breakthroughs, everyone was well aware.

However, the present predicament is real and sharp: if the crucial evidence against Li Xu cannot be found, regulations dictate that they can only watch him leave.

At this moment, Qin Feng repeatedly recalled every expression and statement during Li Xu’s interrogation.

Although on the surface, Li Xu responded fluently, nearly impeccable, years of honing in criminal investigation gave him a faint hunch that something was amiss.

He always believed that while speech can be meticulously woven, minor expressions and fleeting eyes often inadvertently reveal the truth.

While answering certain questions, Li Xu’s fleeting hesitation and subconscious twitch at the corner of his mouth sounded alarm bells in Qin Feng’s heart—this person must be hiding something.

But feeling is ultimately just feeling, evidence remains the only ticket.

Where is the breakthrough? Qin Feng stared at the window at the end of the corridor, thoughts tangled but without a lead.

After a long while, Chen Guan turned around, looked at Director Hou, his voice steady yet weighty: "Director Hou, you see the current situation.

I suggest the special task force temporarily adjust pace, everyone should go back and sift through the material at hand once more, calmly consider if any detail has been overlooked or potential direction missed. Let’s stay in touch."

He raised his wrist to check his watch, "Less than four hours remain until Li Xu’s release."

"These four hours represent our final opportunity window."

Director Hou exchanged a glance with Chen Guan, their eyes meeting, held a wordless consensus and pressure.

This case has reached such a point, already into the last phase of fortifying the position, akin to a prolonged battle reaching its most critical hilltop, whether breaking through in the final moment tests not only perseverance but also wisdom and luck.

After a brief verbal exchange, Chen Guan and Director Hou took a part of the team and left.

In the now deserted corridor, only Qin Feng, Jiang An, and two other officers remained.

Qin Feng fished out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and habitually offered it to Jiang An beside him.

Jiang An waved it off, his tone was calm: "I’ve quit."

Qin Feng didn’t say much either, putting the cigarette in his mouth, the lighter clicked, igniting the flame.

After a long pause, he gazed at the tightly shut door of the interrogation room, his voice somewhat hoarse as he opened up:

"Mr. Jiang, this case... we’ve really exerted all our efforts. However, till now, the breakthrough feels hidden within the mist, visible yet out of grasp."

He paused for a moment, his tone turning resolute, "Still, the suspicion on Li Xu has never disappeared in my mind."

Jiang An nodded subtly and replied, "Mr. Qin, I trust your judgment."

"But, lately I’ve had an indescribable feeling myself."

Upon hearing this, Qin Feng smiled slightly with fatigue.

Both were seasoned criminal investigation team leaders, typically discussing evidence and logic, now speaking of "intuition," was somewhat self-deprecating.

He flicked the ash off his cigarette, half-jokingly asked, "Mr. Jiang, are you bringing up intuition to comfort me?"

"It’s not consolation," Jiang An turned his head with clear eyes, "I genuinely want to return to the interrogation room, to verify a detail."

"Oh? What detail?"

"I keep sensing, Li Xu’s old injury on the ring finger of his right hand—the abnormal healing look may somehow relate to the case."

Upon hearing this, Qin Feng almost chuckled, with a mix of bitterness and jest: "Mr. Jiang, this comfort even includes a specific example?

Look at my pinky’s nail, it was pinched off by a door in childhood, and now it grows all crooked.

From childhood to adulthood, who doesn’t have old scars?

If every injury could be linked to a case, wouldn’t criminal investigation become mysticism?"

Jiang An’s demeanor remained unchanged, his tone only softer: "Precisely for that reason, I say it’s merely intuition, lacking any current evidence."

Qin Feng responded no further, took the final two puffs of his cigarette hard, discarded the butt on the ground, and crushed it.

After a moment, he reached out and patted Jiang An’s shoulder, as if making a decisive resolution: "Let’s go. Both of us are veteran detectives; let’s see if our intuition is accurate?"