Chapter 860: Battling All Night

Translator: Azza

At 1:00 in the morning, the large office was still brightly lit. From time to time, police officers would raise their heads from their computers, put some eye drops into their eyes, and then continue to work on their screens.

It was drizzling outside.

There were footsteps from the corridor, and Lin Qiupu greeted them. Two policemen rushed back from the outside. They were soaked. They said, "Several flour mills nearby have been checked. There are no suspicious people."

"Got it. Go and dry your bodies and take a break!"

"No need. Is there anything we can help with?"

"Then look at the surveillance footage!"

The two policemen agreed to join the surveillance investigation. Although they were exhausted, everyone was full of drive.

Lin Qiupu was considering whether to expand the scope of the search. He asked for Chen Shi’s opinion. Chen Shi said, “I don’t think it’s necessary. It has been determined that the people went missing at 3:00PM, and the mobile phone was delivered at 5:00 in the afternoon. Based on the traffic conditions every afternoon, the place where they detained them wouldn’t exceed 20 kilometers away from the place they went missing from."

Lin Dongxue raised an objection. "What if the kidnapped people were still being moved when the mobile phone was delivered?"

Chen Shi pondered. "Right, I didn't think about this… How do you think this life and death decision will be realized? Would it be through remote-controlled bombs?"

Lin Qiupu answered, "There’s a high probability that it’s like that. On this Nokia, the 1 and 2 buttons are set as speed dials, and the two target numbers are traced to two unowned phones that were registered by mailing a card in. They may each control a separate bomb."

"Can you track their signals without making a call?" Chen Shi asked.

"It can be tracked by their mobile phone pin codes." Lin Qiupu said, but his tone was one that didn’t hold much hope. "Actually, I’ve tried it already. Those two phones aren’t turned on at all. They may not turn on until the deadline."

"That's too cunning!" Lin Dongxue exclaimed. "If it’s really a bomb, it will definitely be placed in a secluded place, right?"

"No, no, don't think of them as kind people. They won't avoid hurting civilians."

"How about tracing the explosives?" Lin Dongxue said.

"It’s too slow. It’ll be too late." Lin Qiupu shook his head. He had already rejected this idea long ago.

Chen Shi said, "You may not be able to find it even if you investigate. A bomb that can kill doesn’t require much power. It can be made with some daily necessities. Zhou Xiao should have this knowledge."

"How do you know?!" Lin Qiupu asked. "Zhou Xiao is a serial killer and Ling Shuang is a psychologist. How do you know that they have this skill?"

"Intuition." Chen Shi shrugged. "I'll go out and make a call."

Chen Shi called kk and Sun Zhen and asked them to help find them. More manpower meant more hope. It’s hard to find shortcuts to finding someone. It was nothing more than a lot of energy input which simply meant a fight until the death.

It was 4:00 in the morning. Some policemen were so sleepy that they used cigarettes and coffee to forcefully lift their spirits. Others slept on their seats momentarily. Lin Qiupu stared at the screen with red eyes. He was watching the surveillance footage around the Public Security Bureau. The suspect had been close to this place at least twice when they planted the 'diagnosis record' and sent the mobile phone for the second time.

A suspicious person was indeed recorded in the surveillance footage. The person wrapped themselves up so tightly that he couldn’t even distinguish whether they were a man or a woman. Lin Qiupu chose the clearest picture and printed it out.

"Ai!" Someone stretched their body.

"Don't sigh!!!" Lin Qiupu reprimanded loudly. "Do you know how depressing a single sigh can make everyone else feel? Please be more energetic and positive!"

"Okay… yes, Captain!"

"Where’s Chen Shi?"

"He went to Captain Peng’s area."

Chen Shi was being lazy. He was almost crazy from watching surveillance footage all day, so he went to Peng Sijue’s for a cup of coffee and to empty his head. At this time, the forensics team was already off work, and only Peng Sijue was still facing the equipment and the test tube verification objects. The room was quiet and only the sound of the rain outside the window and the hum of the equipment could be heard.

The reagent was taking effect. While waiting, Peng Sijue came over to pour himself a cup of coffee. He sat opposite Chen Shi and watched Chen Shi yawn. He asked, "You used to be a night owl. When did you change your work and rest habits?"

"No matter the night owl, they wouldn’t be able to stand such intensive use of their brains… How have you and Miss Gu been doing?"

"Starting to inquire about personal matters again?"

"I care about you."

"Thank you for your concern."

There were footsteps in the corridor, and they knew it was Lin Qiupu from the sound of his footsteps. He appeared at the door, glanced at Chen Shi who was holding a coffee cup, and said, "Captain Peng, I'm sorry that you can't leave work all night."

"It's okay. Just doing my part. I don't want anything to happen to Old Zhang's family."

"Are there any results?"

"Wait a minute!"

Lin Qiupu sat down opposite Chen Shi, and Chen Shi said, "Don't glare at me. I’m not your subordinate. I really am tired today."

"When we need your inspirations, you actually aren’t contributing at all."

"Haven’t you experienced how hard it is to find someone?"

"I have a deep understanding of that!" Lin Qiupu remembered the past.

Peng Sijue turned around from the test platform and asked, "Would you like to use criminal geography for analysis? The Material Evidence Center has such experts."

"That's useless. The suspect kidnapped them purposefully and the range predicted by big data can't be searched within 24 hours." Chen Shi said.

"I think we need more manpower. Early tomorrow morning, I’ll contact the SWAT team and the nearby police to help us." Lin Qiupu said.

Peng Sijue stared at the results of the analysis from the mass spectrometer on the computer. "The particles brought back from the scene today are still flour and limestone debris."

"The suspect's hiding place is in contact with these two things." Lin Qiupu thought.

"If this clue was left behind by them deliberately, it would be like the abandoned car from today." Chen Shi said.

"At the moment we have no clues at all. There’s no room to play this kind of psychological game. Any clues must be traced to the end. Whether it’s proof or falsification, it’s still a kind of progress!"

"Flour, lime…" Chen Shi muttered, "Not only flour mills have these two things, but also small workshops, noodle restaurants, and warehouses. They need to use a car. There must be a parking space there, and it shouldn’t be easy to be suspected."

"In fact, there’s also some salt, but this ingredient is far too common." Peng Sijue said.

"Is it edible salt?"

"Based on the iodine content, it belongs to the category of industrial salt."

"Many of the non-staple foods use industrial salt because it’s cheap. It may be a non-staple food workshop… By the way, if they hide there, would they pretend to be workers there? Someone may have witnessed people wearing this kind of work clothes at the crime scene…" Chen Shi stood up and prepared to go out.

"Where are you going?" Lin Qiupu asked.

"Returning to the car and going to sleep. I'll go back to the scene tomorrow morning to investigate… You guys should go to bed too. You’re really treating yourselves like robots!" Chen Shi said as he left.

Lin Qiupu glanced at his watch. It was already 5:00AM. It should be time for him to let everyone rest. It would be a tough battle tomorrow!