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

Chapter 1203 Discoveries on the Mining Route

“My nephew went to play in the mountains with his classmates. After dark, he couldn’t find his way down, so I drove up to pick him up. I picked him up at 9:50 p.m. and went straight down the mountain. Many people in the village know about this.” By verifying the testimonies of Zhang Hai’s nephew and his classmates, as well as the mobile phone location records, the two were also ruled out as suspects.

The team then went to Xigou Village and found Wang Qiang, the owner of the red motorcycle. Wang Qiang is a village doctor, and a medical kit was still on the back of his motorcycle. "I went to Old Wang's house in the mountains to see him around 8 p.m. on the 18th. Old Wang has high blood pressure and suddenly felt dizzy. His family called me, so I rode my motorcycle over there." Wang Qiang took out a medical record, which recorded that at 8:50 p.m. on August 18, he measured Old Wang's blood pressure, prescribed medicine, and left after staying for one hour. Old Wang and his family could all testify to this, and the motorcycle's route matched the surveillance footage perfectly, ruling out any suspicion.

Finally, the team found Zhao Liang, the owner of the white van, in Donghe Village. Zhao Liang is a scrap metal collector, and some old cardboard boxes were piled up in the van. "I went up the mountain to collect scrap metal at 9 pm on the 18th. I had arranged to meet with Old Zheng on the mountain beforehand; he had a bunch of old appliances to sell." Zhao Liang showed them the purchase record, which stated that at 9:20 pm on August 18th, he purchased one old refrigerator and one old washing machine from Old Zheng, weighing approximately 150 kilograms. This matched the "heavy objects covered by canvas" feature seen in the surveillance footage. Old Zheng also confirmed Zhao Liang's statement, and the white van was ruled out as the suspect.

At 6 p.m., Xiao Wang returned to the Criminal Investigation Detachment with his team. The investigation log in their hands showed that all five suspicious vehicles were marked "excluded from suspicion." "All five vehicles are daily transportation tools used by nearby villagers. The owners all have clear alibis, and their purpose and routes match the surveillance footage and witness testimonies," Xiao Wang said wearily, sitting in the meeting room. "The black sedan isn't a Volkswagen Lavida, but a Geely Emgrand; it's just a similar model. The red motorcycle is a regular 125cc model, and the driver is a village doctor, which doesn't match the suspect's description. The white van and the two silver sedans are also vehicles used by villagers for work or daily life; there's nothing unusual about them."

Team member Xiao Chen frowned as he reviewed the investigation records: "Did the suspect avoid all the monitored areas? Or did he walk up the mountain instead of driving?" Xiao Wang shook his head: "There are only four main roads leading up Beishan. The others are all inaccessible paths. Walking up the mountain would take at least two hours. It's unlikely the suspect would choose to walk to move the body." He took out a satellite map of Beishan and pointed to a grove of trees west of the brick kiln: "There's an abandoned mining road in this grove. There weren't any surveillance cameras installed before. It might be the suspect's route."

"Should we go investigate that mining road tomorrow?" Xiao Chen asked. Xiao Wang nodded: "We must go. At the same time, we should contact the municipal department to install temporary surveillance cameras at the entrance of the mining road to prevent the suspect from using this route again. In addition, we should expand the scope of the surveillance investigation and retrieve private surveillance footage from the villages at the foot of the mountain to see if we can capture the suspect's vehicle stopping outside the villages."

The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the screen in the monitoring room was still playing the video of the uphill road on a loop. Looking at the villagers' vehicles shuttling back and forth in the footage, Xiao Wang knew that although this investigation had eliminated 5 suspicious vehicles, it had also narrowed down the scope of the investigation—the suspect was likely familiar with the terrain of Beishan and knew how to avoid surveillance by choosing abandoned mining roads or other hidden routes to go up the mountain.

At 8 p.m., Xiao Wang reported the investigation results to Li Ming. "All five suspicious vehicles belong to villagers, ruling them out as suspects," Xiao Wang handed over the investigation records. "The next step is to investigate the abandoned mining road and retrieve private surveillance footage from the village to find other possible routes." Li Ming nodded: "Thank you for your hard work. The investigation of the mining road should be done in conjunction with Xiao Yang and his team. Be careful, be thorough, and don't overlook any clues."

The lights in the Criminal Investigation Division were still bright. Although Xiao Wang's surveillance investigation had yielded no results for the time being, a new direction for the investigation had been identified. Sitting in his office, Xiao Wang organized tomorrow's investigation plan, silently thinking, "No matter how well the suspect hides, we will eventually find his trace." He firmly believed that as long as he persisted, he would eventually uncover the truth behind the Beishan abandoned brick kiln corpse case.

The temperature control system in the Criminal Investigation Detachment's autopsy room kept the room at a stable 20°C. When the male corpse from the abandoned brick kiln in Beishan was pushed into the entrance, a complex odor, a mixture of earth, withered grass, and slight decay, instantly filled the air. Zhang Lin, wearing a double-layered gas mask, lightly touched the surface of the corpse with his fingertips wrapped in latex gloves—the skin was cold and stiff, covered with reddish-brown soil and brick dust. The collar of his dark blue work jacket was torn and deformed, and the left breast pocket was turned inside out, revealing the worn edge of the fabric inside. Assistant Xiao Lin had already arranged the autopsy instruments in order on a stainless steel tray. The scalpels, hemostats, skull saws, and other tools gleamed coldly. The label on the edge of the tray read, "Unidentified male corpse from Beishan, autopsy date August 19th."

"Let's start with a physical examination and record the basic characteristics of the body." Zhang Lin's voice came through the mask, carrying a slight muffled sound. Xiaolin picked up a measuring tape and squatted down beside the body: "Male corpse, preliminary age estimate 38-42 years old, height 172cm, weight approximately 60kg, hair length 8cm, black with a small amount of yellow hair, dry and brittle. Wearing a dark blue cotton-blend work jacket, with a 5cm tear in the left breast pocket, and 3 ripped creases at the collar, about 2cm apart; black cotton sweatpants, the cuffs are covered with a large amount of reddish-brown mud, mixed with brick fragments and dry grass fibers; white canvas sneakers, the sole pattern is clear, the heel wear depth is 0.4cm, and there are fresh scratches at the toe, consistent with long-term walking or running." She paused, pointing to the body's wrists, "Both wrists have circular pressure marks, the left mark is 0.9cm wide and the right mark is 0.8cm wide, the edges of the marks have peeling skin and local bleeding, consistent with restraints before death, the restraints are presumed to be thick hemp rope."

Zhang Lin took the magnifying glass and carefully examined the wrist indentation: "The indentation is irregular in shape, with fibrous residue at the edges, and fresh bleeding at the site of epidermal abrasion, indicating that it was formed before death. The deceased still had vital signs when bound and had clearly struggled." He gently pricked the skin at the indentation with a dissecting needle, "and extracted a small amount of grayish-brown fibers, which initially matched the composition of the half-section of hemp rope found in the previous on-site investigation, further confirming that the binding material was that hemp rope." He added, "The indentation reached the dermis, and there was local tissue edema, indicating that the binding force was relatively strong, which may have caused circulatory problems, but judging from the shape of the indentation, it was not the cause of death."