Chapter 841: Each Robber Shows Their Skills
Seeing Lu Chuan turn the corner, Li Donglin and the others followed.
The manhole cover, which should have been perfectly aligned, was now misaligned.
"Director Li, over here."
Lu Chuan pointed at the manhole, indicating that there might be an issue here.
Once entering this alleyway, although it wasn’t a dead end, if the robbers entered the sewage manhole between two houses...
With gloves on, Lu Chuan and Wang Song moved the manhole cover aside.
Sure enough, there were clear marks on the ladder leading down.
"Captain Lu, shall I send someone down to take a look?"
Gao Xiang considered the situation in the manhole and wanted his people to go down.
Moreover, during yesterday’s inspection by the Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team, they indeed overlooked this aspect.
So, it was proper for them to send someone down.
But Lu Chuan shook his head, "I’ll go down. Whether the robber is hiding in there temporarily to evade your pursuit, or if they escaped from inside and went out through another manhole, it’s possible they’ve left traces. I’ll go down to do some examination."
Gao Xiang saw this and couldn’t say anything.
Lu Chuan grabbed a flashlight and descended the ladder of the sewage manhole.
The smell inside was a mix of excrement and grease, pungent and nasty.
Lu Chuan nearly couldn’t breathe as soon as he got down, his eyes burning.
Fighting the urge to vomit, Lu Chuan turned on the flashlight and searched around the bottom of the hole.
The space inside wasn’t large, and the diameter of the pipeline connected to the manhole wasn’t enough for a person to pass through.
Without needing to enter, just by looking around, he determined that the suspect must have hidden down here at the time, but didn’t follow or couldn’t possibly escape through the sewage pipe.
This isn’t a movie; it’s reality.
Compared to other pipelines, though the diameter of the sewage pipe is somewhat larger, this is an area of old self-built houses.
The underground corridors were built decades ago, according to the design standards of that time. The pipes inside were very narrow, simply incapable of allowing a person to crawl through.
So, the suspect was just hiding under this sewage manhole, waiting for the police to search nearby, and after they checked, he boldly left the area.
Not only that, but in the manhole’s corner, two already opened cash boxes explained everything.
The sewage manhole wasn’t deep, and Li Donglin and the others above could roughly see the situation inside.
"Director Li, first take these two cash boxes up. I’ll conduct some investigation down here and see if I can find any clues."
Wang Song and Song Mingguang lent a hand, not allowing Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team’s involvement.
To be honest, from their perspective, the Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team didn’t do a good job this time.
The first person was hiding on the rooftop, right under their noses. Once they left, he broke open the cash boxes and left with the money.
The second person did the same, standing right beneath their feet in the sewage manhole, waiting until after the search to break open the cash boxes and leave boldly from the scene.
Although, putting themselves in their shoes, they might not have thought of these points either, there were still obvious loopholes.
Otherwise, how could Lu Chuan see it at a glance?
"Captain Gao, the task now is to check the surveillance."
"From the time you withdrew last night until we arrived today, I want all surveillance footage in the vicinity."
Li Donglin began deploying tasks for the Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team: "When they robbed the bank, they were fully armored, including covering their faces completely. The clothes they purchased should be quite distinctive."
"Such mice are very peculiar and targeted, so after leaving the hideout, they must have changed out of their original clothes."
"Moreover, although they broke open the cash boxes, each took over two million in cash, which is considerable even if placed in a backpack."
"Check the nearby surveillance closely to see if there are any similar individuals."
"Yes!"
Gao Xiang immediately went to make arrangements.
After last night’s and today’s searches, they knew where there was surveillance at least.
Lu Chuan’s crime scene investigation didn’t last very long.
Although the suspect stayed here for a considerable time, the environment was quite complex. Even if the suspect left some biological information, it would be difficult to extract.
Additionally, the suspect must have been extremely cautious while acting. There’s little chance of finding their fingerprints on the cash boxes.
When watching the robbery video, Lu Chuan noticed they all wore gloves.
But what should be collected must be collected, just in case the suspect really left fingerprints.
After figuring out how the second robber left, the task force continued tracking the escape route of the third suspect.
This person left by directly crossing the road in front of the bank.
According to a witness questioned by Gao Xiang yesterday, the person entered an alley over two hundred meters on the right side across the road.
The group quickly reached the mouth of that alley.
Similar to the second suspect, once the person entered the alley, they disappeared.
Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team asked many people in the alley yesterday, but all claimed they hadn’t seen the suspect.
The situation in this alley was similar to the one with the second suspect, with self-built house doors lining the alleyway.
So, the person wasn’t likely to hide on any rooftop like the first suspect.
As for hiding in the sewage manhole like the second suspect, it wasn’t really possible either.
Because the sewage manholes here, unlike those in the previous alley, were along the middle of the road.
The second suspect could secretly hide in the sewage manhole because it was concealed, located in the gap between two houses.
The suspect entered the gap between the houses and then went into the sewage manhole, which is why no witness saw the second suspect.
But if the third suspect did the same, they’d have to enter the sewage manhole in broad daylight, in the middle of the alley.
That’s impossible.
Someone would’ve seen them.
So, where did this person actually disappear to?
After the group entered the alley, walking the 300 meters from one end to the other, there were still no major findings.
You can’t fly or burrow, and there were no opportunities. Where exactly did the suspect go?
"Captain Gao, did you check all the courtyards?"
"Checked them all."
Gao Xiang replied confidently, "After the incident occurred yesterday, we immediately deployed police to seal off the nearby roads."
"Then we conducted a thorough search in all directions the suspect may have fled."
"We’ve checked every house, every room, cellar, basement, even under beds in empty rooms, you could say... aside from the rooftops and sewers, we turned it upside down."