Chapter 804: Chapter 428: Clues Assembled, Preparations for the Breakthrough
This sentence immediately put Wan on edge, each word pricking his nerves like a needle.
His body instinctively leaned forward slightly, his voice lowered but carrying an unavoidable urgency: "Try to remember carefully, that friend—do you still remember what he looked like?"
"Or did you hear how they addressed him?"
The waiter frowned, trying hard to recall, but finally shook his head, "I really don’t know his specific name, just an ordinary middle-aged man wearing a somewhat old but not new gray coat."
Wan suddenly remembered he had a photo of the suspect Li Xiang on his phone.
He quickly unlocked the screen, pulled up the slightly blurry but distinct photo, and held it up to the waiter: "Please take a careful look, is this the person?"
The waiter took the phone, squinted at it for a few seconds, then nodded confidently: "Yes, that’s him!"
"Even though he was wearing a baseball cap that day, pulled down quite low, I remember this face shape, this corner of the mouth... clearly."
Wan suppressed the excitement that almost burst out, steadied his tone, and continued to ask, "How was the state of the three of them at the time? Was there any unusual behavior?"
"Now that you mention it, I do remember,"
The waiter slowly said as she recalled, "the male owner seemed dead drunk, slumping around, couldn’t even speak clearly."
"But when they first arrived, actually only the female owner was having dinner with the male owner, and the friend in your photo—was sitting alone at the next table, resting with his head down, barely touching his food."
She paused, as if suddenly capturing some overlooked detail, her tone also became vigilant.
"Oh right, I remembered finding it a bit strange, even though there were only two people dining, three sets of dishes were laid out."
"I casually asked the female owner about it, and she said not to worry about him, he drank too much at noon and was just resting with some water in the evening."
"Since the male owner was particularly drunk, he was lastly helped out by someone, so it left a strong impression on me."
Hearing the detail of "three sets of dishes," Wan’s mouth twitched slightly involuntarily.
His deduction pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle—Li Xiang was highly likely not only to be a participant in the case but also a key planner of the entire scheme.
"Is there surveillance indoors?"
"Yes!"
"Great, please take me to see it!"
At this moment, in the task force office, Jiang An’s phone suddenly vibrated.
He glanced at the screen, and the caller ID showed "Mr Li."
As soon as he connected, the director’s slightly heavy voice came through the receiver: "Jiang An, how is the case progressing?"
"The people above have been pressing multiple times, all the pressure is on me. Do you have any substantial breakthroughs over there?"
Facing this tricky question, Jiang An paused slightly, organizing his thoughts.
To be precise, the three groups of investigators he sent out have not yet returned with the latest investigation progress.
Nonetheless, he decided to first report the basic situation of the recent interrogation to Director Li Jian.
After all, Mr Li was no outsider. When Jiang An first joined the police force, Li Jian was already the head of the criminal investigation team. They had worked together for many years, sharing mutual respect as superiors and subordinates, as well as the camaraderie of old comrades.
Jiang An cleared his throat and reported calmly: "Mr Li, based on our initial interrogation of the criminal suspect, his suspicion of committing the crime is indeed very high."
"However, this person has a strong anti-investigation awareness, and he remains tight-lipped. We haven’t yet extracted any key information from him."
"I am thinking, if this case doesn’t have solid objective evidence, relying solely on a breakthrough in interrogation, even if we temporarily secure a confession, once it reaches the courtroom stage, he is very likely to recant in court, leading to the failure of the entire prosecution and even the case collapsing."
He paused momentarily to continue articulately, "Therefore, we have currently formulated three strategies for collecting objective evidence."
"First, we will conduct visits around the area where the involved vehicle was discovered to find possible eyewitnesses or surveillance clues."
"Second, we will investigate the victim’s family and social relations to reconstruct the victim’s specific activities on the night of the incident."
"Third, we will conduct a more detailed examination of the involved vehicle, striving to extract valuable biological traces or physical evidence from inside the vehicle."
On the other end of the line, Li Jian listened attentively, occasionally the sound of note-taking could be heard.
After Jiang An finished reporting, he approvingly said: "Your analysis just now is very sensible. We cannot rely solely on confessions when handling cases now."
"If the criminal suspect later recants, all our initial efforts may go to waste."
"The current focus is not to rush the case to the prosecutor’s office, but rather to solidly collect and fix key evidence."
"Only by firmly holding irrefutable evidence in our hands can we be fearless of any uncertainties in court and the lawyers’ verbal sparring."
"This has always been the principle I emphasize in handling cases—evidence is king."
Li Jian’s tone turned serious as he continued, "The leadership above attaches great importance to this case and demands us to solve it as soon as possible."
"Some media outlets are also closely following this case, and any carelessness could trigger a public opinion storm, adding extra pressure to the investigation."
"So while we need to speed up, we must also ensure the quality of the case handling, aiming for stability, precision, and decisiveness."
Jiang An immediately responded, "Understood, Mr Li."
"Rest assured, our task force will do its utmost to find a breakthrough as soon as possible."
