The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1021 Robbery and Murder

Xiao Zhou crouched down, trying to soften his voice: "Think carefully, did you lock the doors and windows before you left? Did anything go missing from your home?"

"Everything's locked up!" Wang Xiulan suddenly grabbed his wrist. "The cash was in the TV cabinet drawer, over 30,000 yuan, plus my gold bracelet, my treasured watch... it's all gone!" She suddenly broke down in tears. "We saved up for ten years!"

Meanwhile, Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun had already donned their investigation gear. Xiao Sun sprayed luminol on the floor, instantly filling the living room with a ghostly blue fluorescence. Drag marks were clearly visible from the entryway to the bedroom door. "The deceased was probably attacked at the door and dragged to the center of the living room." He crouched down and picked up a black fiber with tweezers. "It's made of nylon, probably from the killer's clothing."

Xiao Yang focused on examining the door lock. Under the magnifying glass, the pry marks on the metal surface were irregularly jagged: "The murder weapon was a homemade crowbar, and the technique was clumsy. He shouldn't be a professional criminal." He suddenly pointed to the top of the door frame, "Look at this, fresh shoe print, size 43. The murderer stepped on the door frame for leverage, and the tread pattern on the sole of the shoe is very special."

Li Ming bent down to examine the shoe print, noticing dark red mud smudged at the edges. "Notify the technical department to collect the shoe print and create a model. Xiao Sun, immediately analyze the soil composition and compare it with the city's soil database." He turned to Xiao Zhou, "Investigate Wang Xiulan's social connections, focusing on those with recent financial disputes. Xiao Wang, retrieve the community's surveillance footage and pay attention to all people entering and leaving between 2 and 3 a.m.

Xiao Sun suddenly let out a low cry. Under the ultraviolet light, half a bloody fingerprint appeared on the wall above the bed in the bedroom: "Left index finger, positioned relatively high, the murderer is at least 180cm tall." He took out the fingerprint sticker and carefully made a rubbing. "Moreover, the murderer wore gloves, and this fingerprint was accidentally left when he took off his gloves after committing the crime."

Xiao Wang rushed over with his notebook in hand: "The community's surveillance footage has been deliberately deleted! The administrator said that around 8 p.m. tonight, someone impersonated a property maintenance worker and touched the surveillance main unit." His face was grim. "But the side door surveillance camera of the next unit captured a suspicious figure wearing a black hoodie and carrying a hiking backpack. He entered the community at 2:17 a.m. and left at 2:45 a.m., which matches the time perfectly."

Li Ming stared at the bloody fingerprints on the wall, raindrops dripping from his hat onto the case file: "The murderer is quite adept at counter-surveillance, but the more he tries to cover it up, the more flaws he reveals. Notify all pawnshops and jewelry stores in the city to report any jewelry found that may be involved in the case immediately. We must identify the suspect in this case within 24 hours."

Li Ming illuminated the messy living room with his tactical flashlight, the beam sweeping over the twisted body of the deceased Li Baocun, lingering for a moment on the splattered blood on the wall: "Xiao Yang, Xiao Sun, the scene is yours. You must make sure every detail is clear." As he turned, his waterproof boots crunched over shards of glass, making a soft, crisp sound.

Xiao Sun was already kneeling beside the body. The blue light from the portable X-ray machine illuminated the deceased's skull: "Blunt force injury, the wound edges are stepped, consistent with the characteristics of being struck by an irregular metal object." He used tweezers to pick up the debris embedded in the wound. "The rust reaction is positive, the murder weapon may be a rusty steel pipe." Xiao Yang simultaneously operated the 3D scanner, the laser grid covering the entire living room, converting the bloodstain distribution and furniture positions into a digital model.

"Look at this." Xiao Sun suddenly shone a UV lamp on the ground, and pale blue fluorescent footprints appeared on the otherwise ordinary tile surface. "BHT fluorescent agent development. The murderer cleaned up the scene after committing the crime, but ignored the fluorescent reaction." He measured the stride distance. "Stride length 82cm. Based on the depth of the shoe prints, the murderer weighed between 80 and 90 kilograms."

Xiao Yang half-crouched in the entryway, magnifying glass pressed against the door frame: "The pry marks overlapped three times, indicating that the murderer tried three times before opening the lock." He took out a metallographic microscope to examine the metal cross-section: "The tool material has a carbon content of 0.45%, belonging to No. 45 medium carbon steel, a common material for homemade crowbars on the market." He suddenly reached out and pinched half a black fiber from the door crack: "Polyethylene terephthalate, a typical cheap workwear fabric."

The two worked together seamlessly to advance the investigation. Xiao Sun sprayed luminol on the wall, instantly illuminating a large patch of eerie blue fluorescence, like a strange nebula in the night sky: "The spray angle is 15 degrees, indicating that the murderer was 50-70 centimeters away from the victim when committing the crime." He suddenly pointed to the ceiling, "Look at that, the parabolic trajectory of the bloodstains shows that the murder weapon was swung at a height of more than 1.85 meters."

“Extract all blood fingerprints.” Xiao Yang unfolded the magnetic powder developing kit, and the fine powder, as fine as dust, attracted complete fingerprints on the cabinet door. “Right thumb, whorl pattern, with wear marks on the edges, the murderer may have been engaged in manual labor for a long time.” He switched to the vacuum metal coating machine, and another set of incomplete fingerprints appeared on the inside of the drawer. “Acetone fumigation had no effect, so 502 glue was used to accelerate the development.”

When the investigation reached the bedroom, Xiao Sun's multispectral imager suddenly sounded an alarm. He adjusted the wavelength, and pale purple writing appeared on the wooden panel inside the wardrobe: "March 15th, pay back the money." The writing had been deliberately obscured, but it was still clearly visible under the 1200-nanometer spectrum. "Near-infrared imaging—the killer used ordinary ink to cover the threatening content, but unfortunately, it's not sensitive to near-infrared light." He excitedly recorded the coordinates, "This might be the key to the motive."

Xiao Yang focused on the fibrous evidence on the bed. After the electrostatic adsorption device was activated, countless tiny fibers were sucked into the collector like silver snakes: "A mixture of cotton, linen, and polyester fibers, consistent with the characteristics of cheap bedding. Wait—" He observed with a stereomicroscope, "and found three long black hairs with intact cuticle structure, no perming or dyeing treatment, which do not match the hair of the deceased and Wang Xiulan."

"We found something in the drainpipe!" Xiao Sun suddenly lifted the bathroom drain, and a bright light illuminated a dark red patch on the pipe wall. "A trace of blood, dripping in the form of drops." He scraped a sample with a tissue sampler. "Based on the direction of the water flow, the murderer may have washed the murder weapon here." The portable DNA testing instrument in the crime scene investigation kit started operating, and the genetic map on the display screen gradually took shape.

Li Ming's voice came through the walkie-talkie: "How's it going?"

"We have collected 17 fingerprints, 3 types of fiber samples, and 5 bloodstains." Xiao Yang quickly reported, "Preliminary judgment indicates that the murderer is male, over 180cm tall, weighs about 85kg, used a homemade No. 45 steel crowbar, and cleaned the scene with a BHT-containing cleaning agent after committing the crime. He has basic counter-surveillance knowledge."

Xiao Sun added, "We found threatening text that had been covered up in the bedroom, and we recommend focusing on investigating the deceased's debt relationships. A possible murder weapon was extracted from the bathroom drain to clean bloodstains, and STR typing is underway." He held up an evidence bag containing long hair, "These fibers and hairs will be sequenced for mitochondrial DNA. Once they match the database, we can identify the killer."