Diary of a Criminal Investigator

"I’ve seen this person, with a woman and a child."

"Just this morning, I bought him slippers, he bought a pair."

Is there a transaction record?

Wang Zhaokai was delighted, "How did he pay?"

"Cash."

Cash?

Then we can’t trace any banking information.

"Remember the note?"

"Swap it out."

The small vendor took out a few cash notes, "I only received three 10-yuan bills today, but I don’t know which one it is."

"Give them all to me, I’ll exchange them for you."

Wang Zhaokai wrapped the three bills with gloves, planning to take them back for Lu Chuan to examine. Perhaps they could extract the other party’s fingerprints.

"Did they enter the station?"

"I didn’t see them at the entrance, but they headed in that direction."

The direction the vendor pointed was precisely toward the ticket hall.

With a certain target, the follow-up debate and inquiry by Wang Zhaokai brought more clues.

Although the square in front of the train station looked chaotic, with vendors and people attracting customers for accommodation, there seemed to be many people.

In fact, each person had their own activity range.

People wouldn’t easily enter others’ activity ranges; this was a long-formed tacit understanding.

So from the slipper vendor, the vendors or people attracting accommodation customers along the way to the ticket hall were basically fixed.

"Some impressions, but they didn’t buy from me."

"Seems like two people, a man and a woman, with a child."

Wang Zhaokai had people from the Station Police Station assisting in the investigation, and these vendors were quite cooperative.

"Captain Wang, walk further ahead."

The deputy director of the Station Police Station, Ding Shaozhong, was a veteran cop here.

Since joining the police force, Ding Shaozhong had worked at the Station Police Station and even joined the anti-pickpocket team.

He was particularly familiar with the square in front of the station.

Most of the fixed store owners knew Ding Shaozhong, and many mobile vendors also recognized him.

This was the result of decades of accumulation.

"The person selling pancakes ahead is Fourth Wang, don’t be fooled by his age; he has an exceptionally good memory. From the people who walked past him within three days, he can tell you what they wore and their expressions."

"So impressive?"

"Fourth Wang is practically our Station Police Station’s medical insurance, and he aligns very well with us."

"In recent years, the security environment has improved, reducing petty thefts, but other crimes are still quite prevalent."

"Our Station Police Station often cooperates with other departments to conduct various tasks."

The once renowned anti-pickpocket team was disbanded over a decade ago.

Nowadays, most people use digital payment methods, rarely using cash, so petty thefts have practically vanished.

"Fourth!"

Fourth Wang looked up while flipping pancakes, "Director Ding?"

"What brings you here today?"

"Up for a pancake?"

"Got some business, leading some officials around. Get nine sets of pancakes with two eggs and a grilled sausage each."

Fourth Wang grinned widely upon hearing Ding Shaozhong order nine sets of pancakes.

"Thank you for supporting my business, Director Ding!"

It wasn’t a meal hour, so everyone must not be hungry, but Ding Shaozhong still ordered nine sets of pancakes to support Fourth Wang’s business.

Fourth Wang was used to it.

Whenever Ding Shaozhong came by, he’d always support him.

"Fourth, hold off on the pancakes for a moment, take a look at this photo first."

Ding Shaozhong handed Fourth Wang a photo of the driver’s face taken by the Construction Road North Fifth Lane surveillance.

"There was a child abduction in Beidou Village this morning, this person was the driver then."

Ding Shaozhong pointed toward the slipper vendor, "The person selling slippers in front said they saw them buying a pair there."

"But not sure if they entered the train station, only saw them heading towards the ticket hall."

"Help ask around, see if anyone has seen this person."

Fourth Wang set down his spatula and took a closer look at the photo.

"I saw them!"

"This morning, around 10:30, this guy bought two sets of pancakes from me."

"Paid cash, didn’t use a mobile payment code."

"The man bought a ticket first, but I don’t know where to; he went directly into the station after coming out."

"The woman had a slender oval face."

"She was holding a child who was asleep at the time."

"Oh, right, the woman had a red birthmark on her left cheek."

Fourth Wang had cooperated many times before, so without further questioning from Ding Shaozhong, he shared all the information he knew.

"The man was about 1.8 meters tall, medium build, wore gray pants, white sneakers, Nike ones."

Fourth Wang described the male suspect’s lower body characteristics, as the photo Ding Shaozhong provided was only of the upper body.

"The woman seemed to be around 30 years old, face quite tanned, probably from farming."

"Her hands were quite rough too, wearing a red top, black pants, blue sneakers."

"Has the sketch artist arrived? I can describe it and see if they can sketch the woman."

"What about their accent?"

Ding Shaozhong pursued, "Could you determine their accent’s origin?"

"The woman was following the man holding the child without speaking. The man’s accent didn’t sound local."

"It was somewhat from Sichuan Province, but not pure."

Fourth Wang had done business at the train station for years, so he was familiar with regional accents.

He could tell the man had somewhat of a Sichuan accent but wasn’t fluent.

"He seemed to have learned some of the accent while staying in Sichuan, not being a native."

The information Fourth Wang provided was vital.

From the current perspective, it’s largely presumed the suspect quickly bought train tickets and left Haizhou City by train.

However, due to the uncertainty of the ticket buyer’s identity, it’s unknown which train ticket they purchased.

The most important task now is confirming the identities of these two.

Zhabei Mine.

All workers underground had halted operations and came up for recognition.

Since getting the underground workers up took some time, they started with the Zhabei Mine’s office department.

Just to be safe, Chen Jiang personally supervised the recognition process.

"Match the names to the payroll to ensure no one is overlooked."

"Yes!"

"Haven’t seen him."

"Don’t know him."

"Don’t know him..."

About half an hour later, all office personnel were identified, but no one recognized this man.

Now, the focus shifts to the workers below the mine.

"Captain Chen, most of the workers underground are long-term employees, constantly working here, with no recent shifts in personnel. This person might not be the one you’re referring to."

"Regardless, recognize then comment after!"