Chapter 405: Chapter 333: Legal Infiltration
Stakeouts were tedious and boring, a dual torment for the bladder and the spirit.
Especially when the target wasn’t even home.
That’s right, it was Wednesday. The target had gone to work and wasn’t home at all.
He lived alone and wasn’t married, so the villa was completely empty.
The team was left staring at thin air.
Then again, the fact that they were doing this at all was indirect proof that this was no ordinary case.
It was lunchtime. Shen Xin held his boxed meal, silently piecing together the limited information he had.
There were six people on this team.
Gu Dawei was the team leader. Of the other five, one was Zhang Songhao’s subordinate, one was Gu Dawei’s own man, and another was from the local Songpu force.
Plus one from the technical investigation department.
That department was considered one of the most mysterious in the entire police system.
In a place like Nanjiang, for example, only the Municipal Bureau had such a department. It was a small group, all of them top experts, capable of providing services like cell phone tracking and network surveillance.
And the last one was the pest Zhang Songhao had mentioned: a grade-one prosecutor from the Second Branch of the Songpu City Procuratorate.
That was no low rank.
Shen Xin had seen him earlier when they were getting their meals.
He wore a crisp white shirt and shiny leather shoes. His hair was parted to the side, he wore narrow-framed glasses, and his face was a little long and unsmiling.
Based on his looks and demeanor, you could tell at a glance that he was the scholarly type.
’It makes sense.’
Judging by his skin, Shen Xin guessed he was only about thirty.
’He’s a grade-one prosecutor at the Municipal Procuratorate, so he probably has a Ph.D. and was hired right after graduation.’
’A real top-tier talent, no doubt.’
The fact that he took his boxed meal and returned to the MPV to eat alone was a clear sign that the others really couldn’t stand him.
It wasn’t just the natural distance between people from different agencies. It was probably just as Zhang Songhao had said: he interfered too much, always saying, "you can’t do this, you can’t do that."
Zhang Songhao had said before that the prosecutor was all about the rules, all the time. He’d been backed into a corner, which was why he’d come up with the idea of using a cat for reconnaissance.
And with that, Shen Xin understood why Zhang Songhao had sought him out.
Jiang Qi had reported something that happened five years ago. With so much time having passed, clues were scarce, and the investigation was bound to hit a wall.
Under these circumstances, the procuratorate’s involvement was to ensure procedural justice and prevent any missteps.
This, in turn, made Zhang Songhao and his team feel like their hands were tied.
So it was only natural for their frustration to be directed at the procuratorate.
It was like when the chain of evidence wasn’t quite complete, but the suspect was about to make a run for it.
If the procuratorate refused to approve an arrest warrant, the detectives would definitely be fuming.
But in this kind of situation, neither side was truly in the wrong. One side wanted to solve the case, while the other wanted to guarantee procedural justice.
So Shen Xin could understand where the man was coming from.
Shen Xin still didn’t even know his name.
Then there was the case itself.
’I don’t know who the target is. We must be Team Two, which means there’s another team staking out the target’s workplace.’
But Shen Xin noticed something: the prosecutor hadn’t gone with Team One.
’That means the key to this whole thing is here, with Team Two.’
’Specifically, inside that villa.’
Zhang Songhao had mentioned before that they’d locked onto a suspect. They thought he was dirty and suspected he was holding on to some evidence.
And there was a villa they couldn’t enter themselves, which was why they wanted a cat to go in and take a look.
’So it’s obvious the evidence is in the villa.’
’And because of procedural justice, you can legally track and monitor a suspect’s phone and network.’
’Those are all legal methods of technical surveillance.’
’But to legally enter a suspect’s home to collect evidence, you either need a warrant based on solid proof, or you need to be in what’s considered an exigent circumstance.’
’An exigent circumstance is when a suspect is about to destroy evidence and flee—a situation where if you don’t go in, the evidence will be lost forever.’
’So, without those conditions, any evidence obtained by secretly entering the premises would be procedurally flawed.’
And in a major case like this, any procedural error, no matter how small, could potentially impact the final verdict.
That’s why this prosecutor was here, specifically to "accompany" everyone as they stared at thin air.
He was here to prevent them from sneaking into the villa.
And that was the exact reason Zhang Songhao had come to him.
’You, a person, can’t just sneak in. That would be invading private property without probable cause.’
’A cat, however, is different.’
’The law has no clear stipulation—or rather, no precise definition—of whether a cat entering a villa constitutes an invasion of private property.’
Because before Shen Xin came along, a case like this had never happened, nor could it have.
That’s why Han Shicheng had said Zhang Songhao was exploiting a loophole.
Now Shen Xin also understood why Han Shicheng had gone straight to the task force after they arrived in Songpu.
’He’s probably over there arguing the feasibility of this whole plan.’
Shen Xin took a vicious bite of his chicken leg. ’If that’s the case, we’re in for a long wait.’
’They’d probably have to dig through mountains of legal documents and argue themselves blue in the face.’
Shen Xin put his empty meal box into a plastic bag, then stood up to stretch. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept his gaze fixed on Villa No. 8 in the distance.
’What’s really inside that place?’
’If there’s evidence, what kind of evidence is it?’
’After five years, why hasn’t the owner of the villa destroyed it?’
’Is he keeping it as an insurance policy?’
The problem was, Shen Xin didn’t know the details of the case. To this day, he didn’t even know what Jiang Qi had reported.
He couldn’t make sense of it, so Shen Xin decided to stop trying.
’It’s not my case, anyway. We’re all on the same side, so if I can help, great.’
’If I can’t, it doesn’t affect me in the slightest.’
Zhang Songhao fiddled with his phone, anxiously awaiting word from Han Shicheng.
Shen Xin sat on the roadside with Gu Dawei and the others, chatting idly.
Apparently, they had already seen the news reports about Tian Kui.
Tian Kui was a huge deal.
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