Chapter 1076 - 551: I Really Admire You!

After a long while, Director Hou gently patted Jiang An on the shoulder, offering comfort: "Mr. Jiang, sometimes the way we handle criminal cases is different from what we anticipate."

"We think things should be like this, but the truth often hides in the corners of ’that’."

"I’ve been doing on-site investigation and examination work for so many years, handling at least a hundred cases, but even so, I often feel a deep sense of powerlessness."

"Clearly, the clues are right in front of us, yet we just can’t grasp them."

After a slight pause, he suggested, "Why don’t we head back and reorganize our thoughts? See if we can take a different direction and find a breakthrough from the testimony?"

However, Jiang An turned around, and the first thing he said was: "Director Hou, I want to try one more time."

As soon as he finished speaking, several young officers beside him were taken aback.

It’s important to note that they had already spent an entire hour in this narrow cockpit, examining inch by inch, pondering again and again, yet they had found nothing.

Just then, Jiang An spoke again: "Please wait a moment—like this," he turned to a young officer wearing glasses next to him, "go check nearby for a hardware store and buy me a few wrenches, preferably of different sizes."

The young officer instinctively adjusted his glasses, his face full of surprise: "Wrenches? Now, you want wrenches...?"

"Yes," Jiang An’s tone was very certain, "I want to remove the screws from this spot and check for any bloodstains in the gaps."

Saying that, he pointed to a very inconspicuous seam on the side of the console.

Everyone’s gaze focused on it—it was indeed a seam, at most about two centimeters wide, narrow and tight, with almost no light penetrating.

Director Hou frowned slightly, doubt rising in his mind: Could such a hidden place really be related to the case?

Is he being a bit too persistent?

Jiang An quickly crouched down, pointing to the seam and explained: "Director Hou, look, the structure of this seam, from its shape and size, I think it could definitely cause specific hand injuries."

As he spoke, he extended his right hand, compared it with the gap, and moved his fingers a few times, "I don’t know the exact width and thickness of the deceased Li Xu’s fingers, but at least my fingers fit quite well with the gap.

If his fingers were thicker, with more prominent joints, then under some kind of external force being squeezed in, it could very likely form the kind of localized abrasions and subcutaneous bleeding we saw on his hand."

Listening, Director Hou’s expression showed a trace of surprise but still with confusion: "But... why would he put his fingers into such a place for no reason? It doesn’t make sense."

Another young officer nearby also whispered in agreement, "Yes, it seems totally unnecessary to reach into such a place, it’s very strange..."

Just when they were stuck in a dilemma, puzzled by the clues before them, Jiang An glanced at everyone present and said: "Maybe you find the situation before your eyes hard to imagine, even somewhat unreasonable, but we can’t ignore a very critical detail—I had already clearly noticed this when interrogating Li Xu.

At that time, I repeatedly questioned the cause of his hand injury, and he obviously lied when describing how he got hurt.

So, why did he hide the truth on such an insignificant detail?"

After a brief pause, he continued analyzing: "If his hand injury really had nothing to do with this case, he wouldn’t need to conceal it deliberately;

Since he chose to lie, it indicates that this injury is far from accidental and is very likely to have some connection with the case itself.

Even more noteworthy, when I specifically asked how he got injured, his eyes clearly dodged, not daring to meet mine.

This subconscious avoidance often reflects an attempt to cover up a fact."

Jiang An walked to one side of the cockpit, lightly tapped the metal plate with his fingers, "Therefore, if we reverse trace from the result of ’why he concealed the hand injury’, combined with his abnormally expressive demeanor at that time, I speculate he most likely got injured at this place.

Although we have carefully inspected the entire cockpit earlier, superficially it seems there are no structures that could cause such injuries, but please pay attention—"

He paused, his fingers landed on a seemingly unremarkable seam, "The place that could truly have injured him might only be this overlooked corner."

His words were clear and logical, progressing step by step.

Instantly, everyone present had a moment of clarity, realizing that the underlying reasoning was a possible path reconstructed from subtle shifts in demeanor and breaches in deceit.

While a few people were quietly discussing this hypothesis, the young officer with glasses from before came running in from outside, holding two wrenches, slightly panting but speaking excitedly:

"Mr. Jiang, there’s a hardware store right at the entrance, I bought two adjustable wrenches, see if they’re suitable?"

Jiang An took the tools, weighed them in his hand, and nodded.

He immediately bent down, getting close to the mechanical structure under the driver’s seat, instantly transforming into a seasoned mechanical technician.

He adjusted the wrench size, aligned with the screw threads, and began to turn with a stable and strong wrist.

After a short while, the narrow working space echoed with the sound of metal friction.

In less than 2 minutes, the four screws were removed one by one.