Chapter 39.2: Young and Fearless
“This is quite a lot of work, so don’t rush. Take your time.”
Liao Zhongsheng offered a word of encouragement. After thinking for a moment, he added, “Come to think of it, Old Li, is that the case you mentioned—the burglary and infant murder from three years ago?”
“Yes, yes, that one.”
Trace Examiner Li took the sandpaper his apprentice had just brought over and began sanding the brass padlock in his hand as he replied, “I think you’d only just arrived at the bureau back then, Chief?”
“That’s right. I joined that year.”
Liao Zhongsheng answered as he pondered the matter.
This case had been the second murder case he’d encountered after arriving at the bureau. Since it had never been solved, it still left a fairly deep impression on him.
“I remember we always suspected that someone from the family had committed the crime, didn’t we?”
“Wait.” Jiang Xia looked puzzled. “Didn’t you say the child was two years old? How did it suddenly become an infant murder case?”
Trace Examiner Li immediately realized the problem and explained, “No, I misspoke. The child was two by nominal age, but actually only a little over one year old. Still an infant, so it was classified as an infant murder case.”
So that’s what it meant.
Jiang Xia nodded in understanding.
Older people like Trace Examiner Li really liked counting age by xusui, or traditional Chinese age reckoning. She’d been misled by it too.
But come to think of it, leaving a one-year-old baby at home while going out… This family really was taking a huge risk.
Recalling what Liao Zhongsheng had just said, Jiang Xia couldn’t help asking further, “Then why did you suspect someone in the family instead of a burglar?”
The sandpaper in Trace Examiner Li’s hand rasped against the lock with a scritch-scritch sound. He shook his head.
“They were fairly sensible. They didn’t go rummaging through everything or make a mess of the place, so the indoor crime scene wasn’t badly disturbed. Only the two neighboring households went inside to take a look. There were quite a few footprints, but most of them were still clear. In the end, though, the footprints we were able to collect matched the family members and the neighbors. We couldn’t find any footprints belonging to a third person.”
No footprints from a third person?
Was this case really that complicated?
Jiang Xia frowned slightly. “If there were no footprints inside, what about outside?”
“Outside? There were people everywhere. They practically trampled the ground flat!”
Trace Examiner Li said helplessly, “Not only could we not find any footprints, but the burglar also seemed to be very familiar with the victim’s family. He even found the money they’d hidden beneath a loose brick under the head of the bed and inside the wall.”
“You tell me—no footprints, able to find money hidden in such a private place, and able to ‘normally’ unlock the door. Who wouldn’t suspect that someone from the neighborhood had done it?”
There was actually all that going on?
Jiang Xia’s brows drew together even more tightly. No wonder Trace Examiner Li wanted to examine the lock marks. Since they hadn’t found any footprints belonging to a third party, and the theft had been so specifically targeted, it was difficult to say that an outsider burglar had committed the crime—unless new evidence pointed them in that direction.
Even if they did confirm that there were scratches on the lock consistent with an iron hook, that would only establish that a burglar had committed the crime. It would move the investigation forward a little, but actually solving the case and catching the culprit would still be a long way off.
That was normal. Many times, the police could pour enormous amounts of effort into a case and still fail to solve it. But no matter what, someone would remember the case. As long as there was hope of solving it, they would keep trying. Even making the smallest breakthrough meant moving one step closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I have a question.”
Having listened this far, Huang Xueling raised her hand like a model student.
“The baby was only one year old and couldn’t be left alone at all. How could the grandparents have been so confident about leaving the child at home and going out?”
“It was just bad timing. Something urgent came up.”
Trace Examiner Li waved the screwdriver in his hand. Under the vigorous sanding, the lock he’d been working on had already lost its outer layer of paint, exposing the screw heads underneath.
As he unscrewed them, he explained, “The child’s grandfather had gone out to fish so he could come home and make soup. The child’s grandmother was still at home watching the baby. But while she was washing diapers, a friend came over and told her that a shipment of cloth had arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative and that she needed to hurry over and get in line if she wanted to buy any. If she went too late, there wouldn’t be any left.”
“The old woman was in such a hurry to buy the cloth that she locked the door and went to the supply and marketing cooperative to queue up. She figured she’d be back within a few hours and could take care of the child then. Who could have expected something like this to happen?”
Huang Xueling nodded in understanding.
She’d thought they simply didn’t care enough about the child. But that wasn’t the case. Once the cloth arrived, they had to hurry to buy it; who knew how long they’d have to wait for the next shipment? It was an urgent situation that couldn’t really be helped. They could only leave the child at home temporarily.
“So this would count as a crime of opportunity, then?”
Jiang Xia stroked her chin, having completely forgotten about picking the lock now. She pondered for a moment before slowly saying:
“Generally speaking, habitual burglars who specialize in breaking into homes aren’t familiar with their surroundings, so they’ll usually scout the area first and choose a suitable target. They’re often looking for households that have money, are in a convenient location, and have relatively predictable routines. Once they’ve figured things out, they’ll choose an appropriate time to strike, such as when everyone is at work and no one is home.”
“But the grandmother’s trip to buy cloth happened completely unexpectedly. There was no regular pattern to it at all. So for there to just happen to be a burglar nearby who noticed that no one was home and then went inside to steal… the chances of that are really quite low.”
“That’s right.”
Liao Zhongsheng glanced at Jiang Xia.
No wonder Captain Tan is so eager to get her.
She’d only listened to a few details here, yet what she’d said was almost identical to the analysis Deputy Chief Duan had made back then. And how many years had Deputy Chief Duan been doing this? How old was she?
“So we’ve always suspected that someone nearby committed the crime, but after questioning everyone, we couldn’t find any suspects. And we could never figure out exactly how the culprit got into the victim’s home.”
“Hmm… The lock was intact…”
Jiang Xia pondered for a moment before asking, “Did the family ever lose any of their house keys?”
Trace Examiner Li shook his head. “If they had, that would’ve been great, but no. They never lost any.”
If they hadn’t lost a key, then how had the culprit gotten inside?
It wasn’t as though the culprit had a master key.
Wait.
A master key?!
Three years ago, comb-shaped picks probably hadn’t been around yet, but they could have simply had a key duplicated!
Jiang Xia immediately asked:
“Trace Examiner Li, do you think it’s possible they had a duplicate key made?”
“Huh?”
Trace Examiner Li’s lock-picking motion froze, his expression going completely blank.
He remained stunned for several seconds before suddenly snapping back to reality. Gripping the screwdriver in his hand, he slammed it down on the table.
“That’s right! A duplicate key would work too! How did we not think of that back then?!”
“We can absolutely investigate that angle further!”
Liao Zhongsheng hurriedly stopped him.
“Wait, Old Li. Don’t get excited just yet.”
“First Squad and Second Squad are already swamped. If you go to them before you’ve even finished examining the evidence and tell them to investigate a lead about a duplicate key, do you think they won’t come after you?”
He paused, then added, “Besides, if I remember correctly, although the criminal investigators didn’t think of the possibility of a duplicate key at the time, they did thoroughly investigate how the seven members of the family carried and stored their keys. If I remember right, none of them had ever lent their keys to anyone. Not even once. So where would a duplicate key have come from?”
“Uh… That’s true.”
Trace Examiner Li sheepishly reined in his excitement. He pondered for a moment.
“In that case, we still have to examine the lock cylinder first.”
“Exactly.”
Liao Zhongsheng nodded. “First determine whether the lock was picked or opened with an original key or a duplicate. Once we have that additional piece of confirmed information, those two squads will definitely be fighting to investigate it.”
“Chief, that’s easy for you to say.”
Trace Examiner Li couldn’t help sighing. “But right now, there isn’t even a standard for determining lock-cylinder marks. When I went to the provincial bureau for advanced training last year, I never heard anything about it!”
“Huh?”
Huang Xueling looked confused. “Then what were you talking about with Jiang Xia yesterday, Master?”
“It was all theoretical. I was just using it to bluff Li Jinfu.”
Trace Examiner Li explained with a headache, “That ex-convict obviously wasn’t sincere. He was probably already thinking about committing another crime after getting out. I scared him a little, so he’d think the police had more advanced methods and wouldn’t commit another offense after his release.”
It was actually like that?!
Huang Xueling felt as though her entire worldview had been overturned. She never would have imagined that her master, who looked so honest and straightforward, could actually lie and deceive people.
So her master couldn’t be counted on for this case.
What about Jiang Xia?
Could Jiang Xia actually examine lock cylinders?
She hurriedly asked, “Jiang Xia, you weren’t bluffing Li Jinfu too, were you?”
Jiang Xia’s lips twitched into a slightly helpless smile.
“More or less… but not entirely.”
After experimenting and exploring over the past few days, Jiang Xia had discovered that the system treated different types of skills very differently.
For criminal skills, the rewards covered everything from ancient techniques all the way to modern ones. But for the legitimate skills she invested points in, although she gained mastery over the entire category and received all sorts of experience, it only covered techniques from ancient times through the present.
For example, with the skill of counterfeiting currency, she knew not only how to make counterfeit money using old-fashioned woodblock printing, but also how to print counterfeit bills with a printer and erase the records afterward—knowledge that clearly came from the post-1990s era.
But when it came to forensic examination, no matter how many points Jiang Xia invested, she couldn’t analyze bullet and firearm marks. The expert who would eventually make those breakthroughs hadn’t fully developed the field yet, much less brought it to the point where forensic technicians at the municipal level could master it.
Likewise, the field of lock-cylinder examination was currently a blank slate. Naturally, Jiang Xia didn’t know what marks were left by normal unlocking, lock picking, or a duplicate key, or how to distinguish between the three.
But one of the greatest advantages of being a time traveler was knowing the future.
Jiang Xia could be certain that the marks left by those three methods could indeed be distinguished.
It was just that, judging from the way Trace Examiner Li was looking at her, something seemed wrong.
“Jiang Xia, don’t tell me you’ve never heard of this either?”
Oh no.
He’d thought there had been some breakthrough in this field this year. Since Jiang Xia was studying in the provincial capital, perhaps she’d heard one of her professors mention it. At the very least, she might have some direction to offer.
But judging from what she was saying, apparently there was nothing at all.
A wave of indignation rose in Trace Examiner Li’s heart.
I’m old. Isn’t it perfectly normal for me to bluff someone when the opportunity presents itself? But how is it that even a young person like Jiang Xia knows how to bluff people?
Is there no trust left in this world?!
Seeing his expression, Jiang Xia immediately understood what was going on.
Trace Examiner Li had taken her earlier words seriously. That was why he’d decided to carry on with this investigation!
Then she couldn’t tell him the truth. Otherwise, he’d stop immediately, and there’d be no more lock-picking!
Jiang Xia decided to tell a small lie.
“I heard my teacher mention that there’s a very skilled forensic expert who can identify the marks left by scratches, but I’m not sure about duplicate keys. In any case, there still isn’t an established standard for determining that two sets of marks came from the same tool.”
“But that means there isn’t one!”
Trace Examiner Li’s confidence immediately deflated. “The marks left inside a lock are tiny. With my presbyopic eyes, just finding them is difficult enough. And there isn’t even a standard to follow. How am I supposed to tell them apart?”
He felt as though he’d wasted the entire morning.
Liao Zhongsheng also frowned as he listened.
There was clearly no prior experience to draw upon. So how were they supposed to examine the marks?
And without an official standard for determining whether marks came from the same source, their evidentiary value would be extremely limited. As evidence in court, they might even carry less weight than a bystander’s testimony.
Oh no. He’s lost his motivation again. Trace Examiner Li doesn’t want to continue.
Jiang Xia instantly regretted it.
She should have made the situation sound a little more promising.
But there was no point dressing something nonexistent up in flowery language—it still wouldn’t exist. Besides, she couldn’t exactly make up an entire field of forensic science on the spot.
But Jiang Xia wasn’t worried.
She simply said, “If there isn’t one, then there isn’t one. We can test it ourselves. We can establish our own standard for determining whether the marks came from the same source.”
Fortunately, locks weren’t expensive, so it wouldn’t cost much money.
It would just be a tiny bit labor-intensive for the forensic department.
What? Establish our own standard?
Hearing Jiang Xia say that, Trace Examiner Li’s eyes instantly widened. He looked up at her, his face filled with disbelief.
She really is young and fearless.
Sure, Jiang Xia was good at forensic examination, but observing marks and establishing a standard were two completely different things!
That meant starting from scratch, identifying consistent patterns in the marks, formulating a theory for those common patterns, and developing a criterion that could repeatedly be tested to determine whether two sets of marks matched.
Who knew how difficult that was?
And she thought she could just do it?
Was she dreaming?!