Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Chen Bing spoke while eating a steamed bun, "There aren’t many clues left. Back then, half a fingerprint was found on the murdered girl at the theft scene."

"Also, a surveillance camera captured half of the suspect’s face, with a mole at the right corner of their mouth."

Lu Chuan passed a piece of braised bone to Chen Bing, "Here, bro, try this. It’s braised big bone from our cafeteria, even the bureau chief praises it."

Fearing Chen Bing would be polite and hesitant to eat on the road, he took a piece for himself and put it in his bowl.

While talking, he picked up a pair of transparent plastic gloves from the side, handed one to Chen Bing, and wore one himself to gnaw at the bone.

"Bro, I just heard you say you have the fingerprint and that half-face photo on your phone, right? Show it to our Captain Lu."

Chen Jiang suddenly chimed in, "Our Captain Lu used to be the head of the Crime Scene Investigation office of our city’s Criminal Investigation Team. He is a registered top-notch CSI expert at the provincial office."

Chen Bing looked at Lu Chuan with some surprise.

When Chen Bing first met Lu Chuan, he was very surprised that someone so young could become the captain of the Criminal Investigation Team, which is quite extraordinary.

He didn’t expect Chen Jiang to say that Lu Chuan was also a CSI expert and registered at the provincial office.

So impressive?

As for lying, Chen Bing didn’t suspect it, as there’s no need to lie to a retired detective like him.

Seeing Lu Chuan nod, Chen Bing took out his phone.

Opening the gallery, Lu Chuan saw that the top pictures were two photos.

"The first photo you have is the half fingerprint left by the suspect back then, and the second photo is the half face captured by surveillance at the community entrance."

Lu Chuan removed the glove he used for gnawing the bone, grabbed a tissue to wipe his hands, and then took Chen Bing’s phone.

The first photo was very clear. Although it was only half a fingerprint and quite unusual, the photograph was not bad.

"Was the fingerprint found on the skin of the corpse?"

With Lu Chuan’s current level of expertise in fingerprint identification and analysis, he could tell at a glance what material the fingerprint was collected from.

Chen Bing nodded, not thinking that Lu Chuan deduced this, as he had just mentioned it was found on the corpse.

In Lu Chuan’s view, the fingerprint collection effect was average.

The entire fingerprint was only half the size of a normal one, and its shape was somewhat distorted.

Additionally, the fingerprint contained many breaks, making it difficult to identify characteristic points, not to mention that identifying and analyzing the fingerprint, given it’s only half, would be very challenging.

However, this fingerprint...

gave Lu Chuan a familiar feeling, a sense of déjà vu, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

Just that it might have been a long time ago, so Lu Chuan wasn’t particularly sure.

Setting aside this half fingerprint, Lu Chuan swiped to the next photo, which was the one capturing half the suspect’s face from surveillance.

Having any surveillance footage from over a decade ago was already quite fortunate.

Therefore, there was no need to be picky about the quality of the surveillance.

The suspect was wearing a hat, with half a face vaguely visible, a mole at the corner of the mouth, but the specific features weren’t clearly discernible.

Both Chen Jiang and Chen Bing watched Lu Chuan study the photos without speaking.

After a while, Lu Chuan returned the phone to Chen Bing.

"I’m quite familiar with this fingerprint, feels like I’ve seen it somewhere. I’ll look through the fingerprints I’ve reviewed before in the coming days to see if there are any leads."

Lu Chuan’s words were actually just a personal favor.

After all, this case was Beizhou City’s case, and it wasn’t clear if the suspect was even in Haizhou City now, and not even Chen Bing could provide a definitive answer.

This person used to be an air-con repairman, and over the years, during Chen Bing’s investigation, clues were found in some air-con companies or communities, indicating the suspect hadn’t changed professions and was still in this line of work.

After retiring, Chen Bing occasionally roamed around air-con manufacturers or wholesalers gathering information, and that’s how he got this tidbit.

It was said that the suspect seemed to have come to Haizhou, so he followed the lead here.

But whether the person was in Haizhou couldn’t be confirmed.

Therefore, it was impossible for Lu Chuan to assign the Criminal Investigation Team to assist or even directly help trace this work.

Before leaving, Lu Chuan arranged with Chen Jiang to set up a bed in the Criminal Investigation Team’s dormitory in the High-tech Zone for Chen Bing to use.

As long as the suspect was in Haizhou City, the place to stay would be at the Criminal Investigation Team in the High-tech Zone.

Meals would also be at the cafeteria there.

This was the maximum Lu Chuan could do.

After returning to his office, Lu Chuan opened the fingerprint identification and comparison analysis system.

After logging in, Lu Chuan started reviewing the fingerprints he had previously studied.

The current fingerprint identification comparison systems are quite intelligent, not only growing in data volume but also logging historical records of fingerprints each user has studied.

It’s equivalent to each user’s system establishing a historical database for that user, making it easy to access previously studied or viewed fingerprints.

Lu Chuan had just checked, the half fingerprint given by Chen Bin always gave him a familiar feeling.

It felt like he had seen it somewhere, but the impression wasn’t particularly deep.

Given Lu Chuan’s previous accomplishments in fingerprint identification and analysis, most of the fingerprints he focused on are those for which the owners couldn’t be identified after capturing a suspect.

Thus, this fingerprint couldn’t be from those suspects he had already caught, or else he would recognize it at a glance.

Fingerprint patterns might look generally the same at first glance, merely a few lines, but each person’s fingerprint is unique like each person has a different face.

Experts like Lu Chuan in fingerprint identification and analysis have an impression of every face they’ve seen. Though they may not remember or sketch each face entirely, they certainly recognize if they’ve seen the face before when encountering it again.

The half fingerprint from Chen Bing seemed a bit vague, making Lu Chuan feel he had seen it somewhere, but not from someone particularly familiar; it should be one paired during a focus fingerprint comparison...

Knock, knock, knock.

Just as Lu Chuan was engrossed in his work, someone knocked on his office door.

"Captain Lu, these are the participants for next week’s publicity training at the sub-bureau. Please review and sign it."

As the head of the Criminal Investigation Team, Lu Chuan’s work was intricate and busy, so it’s not feasible to dedicate all his time just to matching one fingerprint.

See, he got interrupted after reviewing fewer than fifty fingerprints.

And how could the previously seen prints be limited to just 50 or even 500? So, if he wanted to review them all, it would take quite a while.

But it ultimately doesn’t matter; this case has been cold for 15 years anyway.

If any clue can be found, an extra day or two won’t make a difference.