Phi-Fic Chapter 1005: Nothing Gained, Clues Gone.
Chapter 1005: Nothing Gained, Clues Gone.
However, good luck did not come. As the investigation deepened, more white vans came into view, only to be ruled out one by one. One van had even appeared in the vicinity multiple times during the time of the incident, but the owner was just a night-shift taxi driver picking up passengers in the area that night.
That day, they focused on a white van. The owner was a fruit vendor who had indeed been driving around the area around the time of the incident. When Xiao Wang and his team arrived at the fruit stall, the vendor was busy weighing oranges for customers.
"I was indeed there that night," the stall owner wiped his sweat, "but I was looking for a place to unload my truck. Look, all my goods are here." He opened the trunk of his van, which was piled high with fresh oranges.
The team members carefully inspected the vehicle but found no suspicious traces. Undeterred, Xiao Wang inquired with nearby merchants, who all replied that the stall owners had been busy unloading and selling goods that night.
Back at the police station, Xiao Wang slumped into a chair. New leads about the white van kept popping up on the computer screen. He knew these leads were likely to be futile. The rain outside continued to fall, mirroring his gloomy and heavy mood.
"Perhaps we should change direction," he muttered to himself. However, deep down, he knew that criminal investigation work was like this, full of countless setbacks and disappointments. But as long as the murderer remained at large, they could not give up. Even if hope was slim, even if the road ahead was long, they would continue to search for that glimmer of light in this fog.
After failing to find any valuable clues with the white van, Xiao Wang immediately led his team to another lead: the investigation into the deceased's teeth, which Li Ming had arranged.
According to the results of Zhang Lin's autopsy, the deceased's teeth showed signs of molar filling.
Since no clues have been found about the deceased's identity at this stage, Xiao Wang has no choice but to investigate all dental clinics and hospitals in the city that can perform fillings.
The dampness of the autumn rainy season, mixed with the smell of disinfectant, clung stickily to Xiao Wang's police uniform. As he pushed open the glass door of "Chenguang Dental Clinic" for the third time, the receptionist was wiping the table with cotton balls using tweezers; the clanging of metal was particularly jarring in the empty consultation room. "Officer, I just checked the resin filling records from 2015 onwards last month..."
"This time, we're checking handwritten files from 2013 to 2015." Xiao Wang pushed over a photo of a molar fragment from the evidence bag; the fluorescent agent in the photo gave it an eerie bluish-purple hue. "Zhang Lin, the forensic expert, recently discovered that this material wasn't used on a large scale until 2015, but small clinics may have stocked it up beforehand."
The nurse's face paled instantly. She turned and opened the iron door to the storage room. Moldy cardboard boxes were piled almost to the ceiling. Xiao Wang, wearing latex gloves, pulled out a registration book, cotton balls and cotton wool scattered among the pages with a soft rustling sound. "July 2014, Chen Gang, 36 years old, right upper molar treatment..." Team member Xiao Liu suddenly lowered his voice. Everyone gathered around, but their spirits sank when they saw the patient's photo—the man in the photo was missing half an ear, bearing no resemblance to the reconstructed image of the deceased.
The streets gleamed in the rain, and Xiao Wang's leather shoes splashed through puddles, wetting his trouser legs. His phone vibrated in his pocket; it was a message from Li Ming: "The provincial department's assistance letter has been sent; dental clinics in the three surrounding cities are being investigated simultaneously." He stared at the cursor on the screen, typed "Received" in the chat box, but hesitated to send it.
"Team Leader Wang, there's an unlicensed dentist's stall in the alley ahead!" Team member Xiao Chen's voice came through the walkie-talkie. The group turned into the narrow alley. Yellowed newspapers were piled on a rusty iron-framed bed, and cobwebs covered a sterilizer in the corner. The wrinkled old dentist was using rusty tweezers to handle cotton. Seeing the police uniform, he immediately raised his hands: "I quit a long time ago! I threw all those tools away!"
"Around 2015, did you fill any molars for men aged 35 to 40?" Xiao Wang lifted the woven bag under the bed, and a musty smell mixed with the stench of rotting flesh hit him. The old dentist pointed tremblingly to a tin box in the corner: "They're all over there..." On a yellowed note inside the box, scrawled in crooked handwriting, "November 2014, Zhao San, filling," there wasn't even a contact number. When the group found Zhao San's temporary address, the landlord said that this man had committed a crime and gone to prison five years ago.
In the dead of night, the fluorescent lights in the records room of the criminal investigation team hummed. Xiao Wang rubbed his throbbing temples, zooming in on the surveillance footage for the umpteenth time—the footage showed a man wearing a baseball cap walking into "Renji Clinic," the date displayed as March 12, 2015. "Retrieve the medical records for that day!" His voice startled Xiao Li, who was dozing at his desk. The young man hurriedly typed on the keyboard, the blue light from the screen reflecting the heavy dark circles under his eyes.
"Found him!" Xiao Li's voice was filled with joy. "Zhou Qiang, 38 years old, resin filling in his upper right second molar." However, when the household registration photo was brought up, the office fell into a deathly silence—the man in the photo had a hideous scar on his left cheek, completely different from the deceased. Suddenly, someone's phone rang with the song "Wishing You Peace," sounding particularly abrupt in the silence.
On the seventh day, the torrential rain poured down. Xiao Wang led his team into "Kangjian Dental Clinic." The clinic owner, with a pained expression, opened the safe: "These are old ledgers from 2013, before the internet was connected..." Receipts tucked inside the ledgers were scattered all over the floor. Xiao Wang squatted down and sorted them one by one, when he suddenly touched a sticky piece of paper—June 15, 2014, "Sun Wei, filling, 300 yuan," with the remarks section stating "using imported resin."
The group braved the rain to reach the address Sun Wei had registered, only to find it was a scrap metal recycling station. The proprietress, cracking sunflower seeds, pointed to a corner: "That guy moved away a long time ago. I heard he went south to trade seafood, and last year he got his leg broken because of unpaid debts." Xiao Wang opened the body camera footage, watching Sun Wei limping in the video, and suddenly slammed the device on the table: "What kind of mess is this?!"
By the time they reached the 137th clinic, the team members' steps had become heavy. At "Aiya Dental Clinic," the person in charge held up files that were almost half a person's height. Xiao Wang, wearing a mask, squatted on the ground, sweat dripping from the edge of the mask onto the pages, blurring the registration record from January 2015. "Wu Ming, 39 years old, molar treatment..." His fingers trembled slightly, but when he saw the patient's occupation column "University Teacher," he completely deflated—the autopsy showed that the deceased had obvious characteristics of manual labor.
The streets were deserted at two in the morning. Xiao Wang sat in the back of the police car, watching the streaks of rain winding down the window. Suddenly, the walkie-talkie crackled with static: "Team Leader Wang, feedback from a neighboring city: they've found a case where the age and treatment duration match..." He sat bolt upright, his heart pounding in his chest, but upon hearing the news that "the patient died in a car accident three years ago," he slumped back into his seat.