Chapter 783: Chapter 418: All Three Paths Advancing Together!
At this moment, Wan is leading a team to carry out a surveillance equipment inspection task.
The police car smoothly drove south along the winding road, with the street scenes outside the window flowing backward continuously.
Wan tightly gripped the steering wheel, his eyes sharp, constantly scanning the buildings and greenbelts on both sides of the road, not missing any corner that might have surveillance installed.
The officer in the passenger seat leaned slightly forward, focused on checking the facilities along the way, while the colleagues in the back seat also stared intently out the window.
The three formed a kind of tacit cooperation, like an invisible investigation net quietly cast over every detail of this area.
Time was ticking away, and the police car had been driving for nearly fifty minutes without finding any trace of surveillance equipment.
Just as the road was about to end, Wan was about to turn the car around to conclude this inspection.
His sight was suddenly drawn to a large tree by the roadside—a seemingly inconspicuous metal reflection point was hidden behind the dense leaves.
Wan instinctively slammed on the brakes, and the tires made a slight friction sound with the ground.
The officer in the passenger seat leaned forward due to inertia, and the seatbelt tightened abruptly.
Wan shouted excitedly, "It’s a surveillance camera! Look, behind that plane tree!"
Behind a lush plane tree, a somewhat old surveillance camera was faintly visible.
Its installation location was quite concealed, and with the trees growing over the years, the thick branches and leaves almost completely covered the lens.
If not observed from this specific angle, it would be easily overlooked.
The two officers in the back seat simultaneously leaned forward, carefully identifying it, and showed expressions of admiration.
One young officer smiled and said, "Wan, your observation skills are truly sharp!"
"With the car going so fast just now, you still managed to spot this completely hidden camera."
"If it were us, we might have missed it."
Wan smiled slightly, his gaze still resting on the camera hidden in the tree’s shadow, humbly saying, "Maybe it’s the favor of Lady Luck."
"Just at the moment I turned my head, the sunlight happened to hit the metal casing of the camera, reflecting a faint light."
"If it were a second earlier or later, we might have really missed it."
As he spoke, several officers quickly got out of the car and swiftly surrounded the roadside surveillance camera.
Everyone carefully confirmed the specific location of the camera installation and meticulously recorded key information like the serial number.
At this moment, someone suddenly noticed that the camera’s indicator light was still faintly flashing, emitting a weak blue light.
Wan clapped his hands with a hint of relief in his tone, "The indicator light is still on, it seems this camera should still be working normally."
He then took out his mobile phone and skillfully dialed the traffic control bureau’s duty phone.
"Hello, I am Wan Junjie from the Zhang Criminal Investigation Team."
He said in a steady voice, "We are investigating a criminal case and need to urgently retrieve surveillance footage from one location. Please assist in checking the status of this camera."
The duty officer on the other end quickly responded, "Alright! Mr. Wan, please provide the specific location and number of the camera, and I will verify it immediately."
Wan quickly walked to a nearby utility pole, looked up to carefully identify the information on the nameplate, and clearly reported the number and road name word by word.
After about a minute, a reply came from the other end of the phone: "This camera is indeed operating normally at the moment, but its monitoring range is quite limited."
"According to the system display, it might be because the nearby trees have grown too dense, with branches covering part of the view."
Wan looked up carefully, indeed noticing that the branches above the camera had stretched in front of the lens.
He couldn’t help but say, "That’s true."
"I suggest you arrange for someone to trim these branches as soon as possible, or the camera’s effectiveness will be greatly reduced."
"If the shooting angle deviates a bit more, I’m afraid it won’t be able to capture the specific situation on the road at all."
"Thank you for your reminder, Mr. Wan."
"We will notify the landscaping department for handling as soon as possible," the duty officer replied.
After hanging up the phone, Wan turned to his colleagues and said, "This camera is still usable, but indeed has a limited shooting range."
"Let’s go to the Traffic Control Bureau’s Second Team now and check the surveillance footage in person to see if we can find any valuable clues."
The three quickly got into the car, and the police car, with its lights flashing, headed towards the direction of the Traffic Control Bureau’s Second Team.
Meanwhile, Qin Feng, leading the special investigation team members, drove to the villages where the two victims lived.
Before even entering the village, they saw many villagers gathered in twos and threes by the roadside, under the shade of trees, or at the entrance gates, whispering and discussing.
Although the murder case cast a shadow of unease over this simple village, people spoke of being "scared" and "worried about safety."
But upon closer observation, unlike the initial genuine panic when the case first occurred,
the murder case had become a topic worth chewing over repeatedly, even being brought up again and again during leisure time after meals.
The police car stopped steadily in the open space in front of the village committee.
Qin Feng pushed open the car door, his gaze sweeping over the clusters of discussing people not far away, said calmly to those behind him, "Let’s go, we’ll conduct visits in groups, focusing on investigating the recent whereabouts and social relations of the two deceased."
The trainee officer Chen beside him, taking a notebook while getting off the car, said somewhat optimistically, "Brother Chen, look at how eagerly they’re discussing, they must be particularly concerned about the case."
"Maybe we’ll receive a lot of clues later!"
