National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1112 - 1043: Professional

Huang Qiangmin returned after the meeting and immediately came to Building 9.

Greeting Liu Jinghui, Huang Qiangmin asked, "Is someone really provoking the police? That’s quite foolish."

"It’s nothing new, right? Several major cases in our country have been about provoking the police. Just like that one case, it even escalated to killing police officers..." Liu Jinghui paused briefly and continued, "The psychological issues of the killer in this case are indeed worth discussing. Many serial killers might really need to be analyzed from a psychological perspective to deduce clues."

"Isn’t it all about deduction?" Huang Qiangmin joked halfway.

Liu Jinghui replied expressionlessly, "I’m deducing right now, and I’ve deduced a need for clues."

"Criminal psychology? Hardly anyone uses that stuff anymore." As a former frontline police officer, Huang Qiangmin only saw criminal psychology, criminal profiling, and lie detection as things to "look at," without much trust in them.

Liu Jinghui smiled and mentioned a name: "Li Haochen."

"He’s someone from the ministry." Huang Qiangmin considered upward management but hadn’t thought it would reach that high.

"Criminal profiling, it’s something he’d rarely encounter even at the Criminal Investigation Bureau. It’s quite rare."

"Shall we reach out?" Huang Qiangmin looked at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan shrugged, "I’m fine with that."

Having to enlist external help for their own case just shows that the sense of responsibility is a good thing.

As for Li Haochen’s criminal profiling, whether it’s useful or not, Jiang Yuan wasn’t very sure.

As the saying goes, with ten profiles, there are eighty angles; in the end, profiling can look like peaks from the side. If it’s like treating a dead horse as a living one, it’s not impossible.

Huang Qiangmin didn’t make a call immediately but instead asked Liu Jinghui, "So now, do you have any thoughts or directions?"

Liu Jinghui hesitated for a moment and said, "Honestly, I don’t have a direction at the moment. If my deduction is correct and the killer’s purpose is indeed to provoke the police, then his behavior patterns and methods are different from ordinary killers."

"And more difficult to investigate." Huang Qiangmin sighed, fully understanding Liu Jinghui’s meaning.

It actually involves some deeper issues, such as the investigation of murder cases, which for a long time has relied on relationships and interests.

This is evident in early British detective novels, where the so-called detective deduction is based on normal human relationships and interests. Assuming someone has no relationship with you, you wouldn’t kill them.

Killing without reason is hard for detective novels or deduction itself to accept.

Under normal circumstances, that’s true, considering the high risks and severe penalties associated with murder – who would kill without a motive?

Psycho!

A psycho doesn’t follow common sense, making it hard to deduce and judge. Of course, the modern society’s technological means are very advanced; fingerprints, DNA, surveillance footage, and mobile phones all bypass these deductive methods. But facing a well-prepared psycho, the difficulty in solving the case becomes extremely high.

"We need to communicate with both the provincial office and the ministry for this case." Liu Jinghui raised his eyebrows and said, "Regardless of whether we can solve it, having a murderer provoke the police with such brutal means is itself unacceptable."

Huang Qiangmin immediately understood. Indeed, with such a complex case, there’s no need for their own team to hold onto it alone. Fundamentally, this case isn’t a Ningtai County case, nor a Taihe Working Group case, but a secondary growth from Jiang Yuan’s accumulated reputation over many days.

In more specific terms, the funding for this case shouldn’t be entirely borne by Ningtai County; otherwise, it wouldn’t be reasonable. A hero shouldn’t have to bleed and shed tears.

Regarding whether the case, as Liu Jinghui said, would involve the provincial office and ministry sending staff to check it out, they could ascertain it when the time comes.

In fact, Liu Jinghui was from the provincial office, and Li Haochen was from the ministry, but that wasn’t enough.

Huang Qiangmin, being very familiar with this aspect, communicated briefly with Jiang Yuan and then went to make a call.

Liu Jinghui turned to Jiang Yuan and said, "So, the killer really has some professionalism?"

"Hmm..." Jiang Yuan had actually been considering this issue in recent days, and with Liu Jinghui around for discussion, he said, "His method can’t be confirmed yet, but I think he has definitely carefully selected his victims, at least made an in-depth study."

If the crime method in a serial killer case can be decoded, the probability of solving the case becomes very high, and the required information is also considerable.

Generally speaking, when encountering a serial killer case, the first attempt is to analyze the method.

What Jiang Yuan mentioned about selecting victims, on the other hand, falls into a somewhat obscure category.

Liu Jinghui became interested: "Why do you say that? How does he select his victims?"

Jiang Yuan organized his language and said, "Because the information exposed by the three bodies... How to put it – Body Two, we’ve discussed before, has only five fingers; there’s absolutely no need to throw it away. Although the hands of Body One were severely decayed, after obtaining fingerprints, there was no match found. This is quite special because the time the body drifted in the water is uncertain, and the killer couldn’t be sure whether we could obtain fingerprints; so why didn’t he cut off the fingers of Body One?"

"Maybe for the first victim, he hadn’t noticed this yet?"

"But the death times of Body One and Body Two differ by only three days; the killer must have thought it through before starting the killing, right?"

"You’re right. His handling of the first body shouldn’t essentially differ too much. So, do you think the killer intentionally left the fingers on Body One because he knew the fingerprints wouldn’t yield any information?"

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "He might have his reasons for leaving the fingers, but I think he left the fingers on Body One precisely because he confirmed the fingerprints wouldn’t leak any information."

Liu Jinghui’s expression became serious: "That’s an interesting theory... If this is a kind of ritual, the killer might have decided to leave Body One’s fingers first, and then confirmed the fingerprints wouldn’t reveal anything..."

"But Body Two only had fingers, and the fingerprints were matched..." Tang Jia, who was very interested in the case, was both making records and thinking simultaneously.

Liu Jinghui nodded, "The entire information from Body Two is just the fingerprints. From a serial killer’s mindset, doesn’t it seem more... deliberate?"

Tang Jia couldn’t help but frown, "If the killer was sure Body One wouldn’t reveal fingerprints, while Body Two’s fingerprints would definitely be matched...what kind of conditions would that require? Could it be... a fellow profession?"

Liu Jinghui remained silent for a few seconds, looked at Jiang Yuan again, and said in a low voice, "It’s not ruled out. But this idea, for now, is just an idea. Without concrete evidence, I suggest we don’t discuss this topic yet."

"The identity of the killer will directly determine the investigation route, right?" Tang Jia, of course, understood the field.

"Let’s investigate ourselves. Don’t make it public; just inform within a small range. Moreover, anyone with access to the intranet can possibly find relevant information." Liu Jinghui paused, then added, "Also, we must consider from the victims’ perspective. If the victims themselves haven’t been administratively or criminally processed, leaving no traces in the police system..."

"Then the killer must have known the victims?" Tang Jia’s eyes lit up.

Liu Jinghui coughed twice, "Not necessarily known. After choosing the target, just secretively investigate. Buying information on the dark web is not that difficult."

Tang Jia was undeterred and pressed further, "But if the killer could have offline contact with the victims, having some understanding before secretly confirming, wouldn’t it be simpler? Lower intensity than surreptitious investigation, that should be advantageous."

"Your viewpoint has some merit." Liu Jinghui did not refute again but instead said, "But to investigate through the victims, we first need to know who the victims are."

Both of them looked at Jiang Yuan together.