On January 10, 2016, at 6:00 a.m., a major traffic accident occurred in the city. A long-distance bus fell into the water after breaking the guardrail of the bridge when it passed over the Nanluowan Reservoir Bridge.
Due to the complex hydrological conditions at the location of the waterfall, the vehicle salvage work is very difficult. Until the 8th day, the bus was salvaged from the water. With the bus ashore at the same time there are 22 victims of the remains.
Aftermath work then began, traffic police to investigate the accident, forensic investigation of the cause of death, everything is in order. This is the city since the founding of the city's largest casualties of a traffic accident, not only the government attaches great importance to, the media are also constantly following up the report.
Every day when I open my cell phone news client, the top spot in the city's news section has been the process of dealing with the crash. Scroll through it and all it says is the city's publicity department's release to the media.
"Families of the victims will receive no less than 500,000 dollars each ..."
"Driver loses control of vehicle due to fatigue, crashes into river after breaking bridge guardrail ..."
"Families of accident victims are emotionally stable and actively cooperate with the government ..."
The comments section was a flood of text trolling that bus driver, I scrolled through it, didn't make much sense, and backed out.
All the police in the city are more or less involved in this case, the superiors initially gave the CID detachment the task of cooperating with the Traffic Management Bureau to verify the victim's identity information and exclude the suspicion of a criminal case.
This order is a bit nonsensical. Nowadays, long-distance buses are all ID cards with real names to buy tickets, and when something goes wrong, we only need to verify the identity information; whether it is a criminal case or not, the responsibility lies with the forensic pathologist, and we can't do anything about it.
As expected, two days after the order was issued, the CID detachment was notified that it would no longer cooperate with the PTB.
As the year draws to a close, the 2015 year is wrapping up, and if it weren't for the crash, we probably could have taken a shift.
I had a dinner date with Zheng before New Year's Day, but he said he was too busy to come.
I asked him what he was busy with.
He said the crash on the news.
"Don't bullshit me, the crash didn't happen in your precinct, you're busy my ass."
Zheng said he was really busy, no shit. The city's traffic police drew backup, and he didn't get away with it.
Then he sent a photo of himself at the scene of the accident "directing the rescue", there is a line of watermarks under the photo, "XX News", which he downloaded from the Internet.
Zhengheng asked me if I was handsome in the photo, and I said, "Handsome my ass, old and ugly.
Feng can not be found around, call him, always said he was on the case, open the police platform to see the interface of the "small street" police station, but also did not find that they have any major cases recently.
Several times when I passed by the "small street" office, I went to the office to look for Feng, but I never saw him. Asked colleagues in the office, colleagues have reflected that Feng has not been seen and disappeared recently, not often appear in the office.
Can't figure out what's going on with these two guys lately.
Before the whole bureau work meeting, the bureau leadership conveyed the city government work requirements, "1-10 car accident" case must be closed before the Spring Festival in 2016, can not let the case across the year, at least the public security organs investigation link must be completed before the year.
The case indeed did not cross the year, the 2016 New Year's Eve, the Public Security Bureau announced that the "1-10 car accident case" officially closed.
From the closure report, it is indeed an ordinary traffic collision case, except that the number of deaths caused by the city's car accident history of the most.
I calculated that amount of buses belonging to the long-distance passenger terminal about how much money to pay out, half a day to calculate but did not come up with, only to know that it must be an astronomical figure.
After talking about the case, the leaders began to comment on the gains and losses during the investigation of this case. It was nothing more than praising some work activists, criticizing some old farts who were muddling along, and finally letting everyone learn a lesson to prevent major safety accidents from occurring.
I listened numbly to the leader droning on stage, mentally thinking that this year I would finally be able to spend the New Year at home in peace.
After a while, the leader adjourned the meeting. I leapt up from my seat, figuring out what I should do to celebrate as I walked away.
Walked to the door of the bureau office building, suddenly remembered Zheng that guy still owes me a few meals, he must have come to the meeting today.
I sought to find Zheng out and make him honor his solemn promise of a dinner invitation.
The car accident case is done, this guy should be idle, on his behavior, I do not take the initiative to find him, he will not take the initiative to find me.
Thinking about it, I turned around and walked towards the office building, thinking about what comes to what, just walked to the corner of the stairs, and just bumped into Zheng, who was nervously running towards the third floor holding a large bag.
The third floor is the office of the head of the Bureau, I rushed up to stop him, joking Zheng I can catch you, the case is finished, the meeting is over, what do you still do to go?
Zheng was impatient and said he had something to do with the leader.
I look at his hands holding a large bag, smiled and slapped him, said you have the guts to be really fat, now the above checks so strictly, you still dare to give gifts to the leadership?
Zheng shouted "fart" and walked around me to continue upstairs.
I followed him, pulling and pulling at the same time, saying Zheng you can think well, the anti-corruption bureau s resident office is also on the third floor, and you will be finished if you are caught.
He huffed and shrugged me off, saying don't fucking bullshit, why are you as broken as Feng now.
Hearing him talk about Feng, I hurriedly followed him and asked, "Where's Feng? Have you seen him? He's been disappearing lately, hasn't he?
Zheng stopped his feet and didn't take my words, instead he asked me with a puzzled look, Zhao didn't tell you anything?
He made me blink. I said, "What do you mean, what does Zhao want to say to me?
Zheng let out an "eep" and waved his hand, saying "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Zheng this reaction, I am even more strange, pulling him to continue to ask, but his tone is quite anxious, said LamLam, I really have something, you first wait, I will certainly contact you later, okay?
Having said that, I couldn't be bothered to pester him any further, so I let him go.
In the Spring Festival of 2016, I called Zhao to pay my respects, and he hung up with a curt thank-you, not asking back for a good New Year's greeting from his old leader - my father - as he had done in previous years.
In the past, every year on the fourth day, Zhao and his wife will come to my home to pay New Year's Eve, but this year on the fourth day, my father waited at home for a day, and did not see Zhao appeared, not even a phone call.
Zheng and Feng's side is even more excessive, the two are lost during the New Year, the phone can not be reached, WeChat does not return.
On the third day of the new year passed the "small street" police station, I went in to see if Feng on duty, he usually stay in the New Year's period, I did not expect the police said that this year, Feng asked for a vacation, said to go to the field to visit relatives.
Feng's family is out of town, New Year's visit to relatives is understandable, but not to leave without saying a word ah, and then go to find Zheng, his car is parked in the "Tangshan" traffic police brigade yard, but people do not know where to go.
The traffic police of the brigade said that Zheng had recently been as if he was possessed, either not seeing anyone or locking himself in the office, not even going downstairs for meals.
I had to tell that traffic cop to give me a call next time he sees Zheng.
Ghosts know what these people are busy, the father did not see Zhao, the heart of some loss, ask me side by side if I made any mistakes messed up Zhao, I think half a day, did not think, and even if I offended Zhao, but also not so much as Feng, Zheng also offended, we are the Iron Triangle ah.
"Maybe they do have something to do, you know, the police are often mysterious and do not know where to go", I had to be so perfunctory father.
Father finally did not hold back and called Zhao, I was a little uneasy to sit aside and listen, I did not expect his old man said a few words, carrying the phone into the bedroom.
It was a long time before my father came out of the bedroom, his face a little grave.
I asked him how his conversation with Zhao went and my father looked at me but didn't say anything.
In a lot of doubt in the Spring Festival over, 2016 the fifth night of the first month of the year, I was at home to help my mother pack dumplings "broken five", suddenly the phone rang, but only two rings on the hang up, pick up a look, it is Zhao.
I rushed to call back, I did not expect the handset just "beep" the other side hung up.
When I called again, I was still hung up. I thought that Zhao might have dialed the wrong number, or something suddenly came up, so I didn't care and just waited for him to dial me back.
Until bedtime, Zhao never called again, and when I sent him a WeChat, he didn't return me.
At two o'clock in the morning on the sixth day of the first month, I was sleeping in a daze when my cell phone suddenly rang, and I thought it was Zhao calling, so I hurriedly picked it up and looked at it, but I didn't expect it to be Zheng's number.
I thought to myself that this guy has been out of touch for a Spring Festival, how come he remembered to call me at this point, picked up and was ready to scold him, but before I could speak, Zheng took the lead:
"Lam, something's wrong, something's happened to Zhao!"
"What?" I hadn't reacted from my sleep, afraid I'd heard wrong.
"Zhao's been in a car accident, on a weird slope, see if you can hurry up and come over?" Zheng's voice was panting, I don't know if he was in a hurry or freezing.
I popped out of bed and said wait, I'll be right there.
By the time I arrived, my colleagues from the traffic police were processing the scene of the accident.
Zhao's Volkswagen overturned in the ditch on the side of the highway, the front part of the car was completely disfigured, all the airbags in the car popped, and there was a lot of blood on the driver's seat.
I screamed that it was not good and rushed to find Zheng, asking Zhao if he was seriously injured.
Zheng face is very cloudy, said he arrived when Zhao has been 120 pulled to the provincial hospital, look at the scene of the accident car look, Zhao is estimated to be injured enough.
The accident occurred on a long downhill stretch of road, known to the city as the "Strange Slope", which is about two kilometers in length.
The reason why it is "strange" is that that section of the road is a small downhill slope between two big downhill slopes. If an ordinary person drives here, the surrounding references will make him mistakenly think that he has encountered an uphill section and step on the gas, and the result will be that he loses control of his vehicle speed.
But I was wondering, this road is Zhao commute to work, walking for more than ten years, familiar with their own home staircase like, how could such a big thing happen?
What's more, it's so late and Zhao just got home from his unit?
As he was muttering in his mind, a familiar figure appeared in the noisy crowd at the scene, Feng.
I hurriedly called out to Feng, who was still a bit surprised to see me.
I said you calf is not home for the New Year, why suddenly come back? You didn't even say you were leaving or coming back. What's going on?
Feng laughed and said he was a bit busy and forgot.
I punched him and said, "I don't know what you've been up to all day." Then I pulled him along with me and Feng asked where we were going, and I said, "Where else? To the hospital.
Feng seemed to have something on his mind, not saying a word the whole way, bored as if he had taken sleeping pills.
When we arrived at the provincial hospital, Zhao was being resuscitated in the operating room.
I said Zhao how, a few colleagues who came early said that the situation is not very optimistic, rescued from the car has been unconscious.
I took the time to call my father, after all, they were old war buddies, and by the time I was done, I was sitting in a chair in front of the operating room with Feng sitting next to me, still not saying a word, preoccupied.
That day, Feng and I waited until dawn, and at 6:00 a.m., the lights went on in the emergency operating room and the doctor came out, all tired.
Those present immediately gathered around and asked the doctor, in a chorus of voices, how Zhao was doing.
The doctor shook his head, said the situation is not good, the accident is estimated to be too fast, Zhao body fractures, especially the head was hit hard, now the life is temporarily saved, but the person is in a deep coma, can not wake up, what time to wake up are not sure.
There was silence as Zhao's family cried on the sidelines.
My heart is disturbed, very difficult, on the one hand, Zhao is a good leader, now suffering from this disaster, my heart can not bear, on the other hand, I vaguely feel that Zhao this car accident, out of the special fishy.
Zhao is a veteran driver with more than 30 years of experience, and he's been driving that road for half his life and has never heard of any accidents.
What the hell happened early this morning, and how did zhao get over 100 yards on that notoriously accident-prone road?
I turned my head to find Feng to talk about my confusion, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone, and the call surprisingly prompted a shutdown.
This guy is fucking weird!
I asked around if I had seen Feng, and a coworker said he had just seen him leave in a hurry, but didn't know where he had gone.
I don't know what this guy is up to, so I just stopped caring about him.
I was in a bit of a trance because I hadn't slept all night, so I decided to go back to the precinct to rest first.
When I woke up, it was 2:00 p.m. I flipped through my cell phone and it showed 22 missed calls from Zheng. Thinking about it, when I was in the hospital last night, I put my cell phone on mute, and then in the heat of the moment, I forgot to turn it back on.
I hurriedly dialed Zheng back, and before I could speak, his impatient voice came over, "Lam, you finally called me back, where are you, something happened to Feng too!"
I was shocked and quickly asked Zheng, what's the situation, did Feng get into a car accident too?
Zheng said it wasn't a car accident, it was a break-in.
"He pried Zhao's office door early in the morning and ....." Zheng didn't finish his sentence.
"Still what?" I was anxious.
Zheng, however, said, "Lam, let's meet.
After meeting with Zheng, I realized what trouble Feng had gotten into.
At 7:00 a.m. this morning, Feng went to the Public Security Bureau office building and pounded open Zhao's office door with a folding knife.
Feng was about to leave after some groping when he encountered two office building security guards who had sniffed him out.
He quickly got rid of the security guards, but just as he got downstairs, he encountered Chris, a civilian police officer on duty at the bureau.
Chris may have received a call from the security guard to arrive at the office building. He tried to stop Feng, but he did not expect Feng and him to fight. Not only did they fight, but Feng also pulled out a gun in the middle of the tussle and discharged a shot in the air.
It stands to reason that Feng was not on duty at the station that day, should not have had a sidearm, and that raising a gun at a coworker is something that no police officer would tolerate.
Feng's phone is no longer working and I'm wondering why he's carrying a gun. Did he already bring the gun with him when he was in the hospital with me last night?
It doesn't make sense. Why do you need a gun to go to the hospital? Or did you go back to the police station early this morning to pick up the gun?
I rushed to call the "small street" police station, heard me ask, the police answered the phone was very nervous, and kept explaining that the gun is not the Institute, the Institute's guns are locked in the third floor of the gun warehouse, a lot of them, and that today Feng
Not on duty and never asked a coworker to borrow a duty gun.
This is even weirder. Did Feng hide a gun from everyone?
Where did the gun come from and why did he do it?
"Any idea where Feng went?" I asked Zheng.
"I don't know, but the bureau chiefs are meeting to discuss this whole Feng pulling his gun thing, this whole fucking ... thing."
At six o'clock that evening, the head of the bureau called me and asked me to come to the bureau for a meeting.
By the time I got to the first meeting room of the bureau, the room was full.
Criminal investigation, technical investigation, cyber investigation, inspectors, and the disciplinary committee of the bureau were all assigned.
I found the leadership of the Bureau, said today are business units are responsible for, at least are the leaders of the department level, a water of "white shirts", I am a sub-bureau captain, the identity of some of the inappropriate.
But the leader said, Feng is the grass-roots cadres I brought up, and I am one of the few colleagues in the bureau who are close to Feng.
Now that Feng is in trouble, I need to fully cooperate with the Bureau, on the one hand, in order to find Feng as soon as possible, on the other hand, also to "protect me".
I understood what the leader meant. He said "protect me", but in fact he was worried that I was still in contact with Feng and would hinder their law enforcement work against Feng.
At that meeting, the city leaders characterized Feng's actions - a crime in office - and then asked all departments to do their best to find Feng.
Instead of searching, it is better to say "arrest", only the leadership of the Bureau out of the face of the same unit of the police, do not have the good sense to say the word "arrest" directly.
After the leader's speech, the heads of the business departments present at the meeting began to criticize Feng one by one, some even brought up the things he did when he joined the police, saying that he was a "disorganized and undisciplined, contempt of leadership and boldness".
I sat in my seat and listened quietly, not wanting to say a word.
Feng is the backbone of criminal investigation that I brought up, I think I know his character very well, and I firmly believe that he can't do those things without any reason, but so what?
He literally broke into Zhao's office and literally raised his gun at a coworker and fucking fired a shot! Even though the shot was fired towards the sky, it was enough to send him to hell.
In the middle of the meeting, I interrupted the discussion several times to say a few words on behalf of Feng, or at least to find out where his people were and find out what he was doing this for before discussing what to do with him.
But everyone told me that Feng's behavior was already suspected of a crime, and as for the motive, it might be a way to understand him, but never a reason to forgive him.
I looked to the podium several leaders, many of whom had praised Feng's ability to work, but none of them said a good word for Feng, the only one who may say a good word for Feng Zhao is still lying in the hospital, life and death is uncertain.
After the meeting, Martin, who was temporarily in charge of the entire bureau's criminal investigation work in place of Zhao, stopped me and conveyed the spirit of the meeting again.
I listened absentmindedly, nodding my head from time to time in response, thinking to myself that you should hurry up and finish your sentence.
Until he said that, in view of my consistently excellent work performance, he recommended that I go to Shenyang to participate in the training of the Criminal Police Academy, and that I would have to take on a heavier workload in the future.
I was so confused that I thought I had heard wrong and asked Martin if he was sure about this.
He said sure, you've been good for so many years, you should have gone out to study and then promoted to the city's criminal investigation detachment.
My heart is like 10,000 grass mud horses running through, this file sent me to study, anyone with a brain knows exactly what you mean!
I wanted to be angry, but on second thought, it was not right, so I had to suppress my anger, smiled and told Martin, can we go next time, it's just after New Year's Eve, and there are still some work at hand that I haven't finished.
Unexpectedly, Martin directly face: your work immediately go back to hand over, this is the city party committee's findings, do not allow you to bargain!
Zheng asked me what time I was leaving and I said two days later. I'll say goodbye to you today and say a few words.
He said, "Why are you in such a hurry?" I said, "How should I know? The leader explained, you ask him to ask!
After a moment of silence, Zheng sighed and said This is obviously the bureau trying to branch you out.
I said even a fool understands this, but why? Because I'm close to Feng? Then you're close to him too. Why don't you get out of the way?
Zheng lit a cigarette and said that if you can go, just go away, don't get involved, it's not necessarily a bad thing, the ones that go away are not necessarily hidden, and the ones that stay are not necessarily visible.
This is too strange, I hurriedly asked him, Zheng you do not pretend to be, make it clear, what do you mean by "those who have gone away may not be able to hide, those who remain may not be able to see clearly? What do you mean? See what?"
Zheng smiled bitterly and shook his head, said Lam, you don't ask anything, go to Shenyang to study hard, don't break contact with the brothers.
When he said that, I couldn't "not ask anything".
I sat on my butt on the sofa in Zheng's office, lit a cigarette, and said Zheng, I think you have something to hide from me, we have been friends for the last ten years, if you really think I am a brother, don't hide it.
Zheng said, "Lam, you're overthinking it. I'm not hiding anything from you. I just feel that the Bureau is treating Feng a bit thinly, so I'm just complaining.
I said don't you think it's suspicious about Zhao and Feng. when Zheng heard that, he didn't say anything.
That day, Zheng's office and I, confronted him for more than an hour, smoked all the cigarettes of the two of them, but he died without saying a word.
In the end, I saw that it was getting dark, and I had to go back in the evening to prepare for the next day's handover, so I didn't have time to spend any more time with him.
I stood up and said you old rod just talk tough.
Zheng hee hee smiled, said Lam you really want too much, go to Shenyang on the road slower, arrive there as a vacation for themselves, do not think all day long.
Before leaving, Zheng escorted me out the door, clutching my hand and telling me again, Lam, be careful on the road.
I looked at him and said, well, you be careful too.
Zheng nodded meaningfully.
On the afternoon of March 4, 2016, I came to the west station of high-speed railway in the provincial capital, and the bureau office bought me the G1258 high-speed railway to Shenyang.
With an hour to go before the drive, I sat in the waiting hall, clutching my luggage.
At three fifteen, the station radio announced the start of ticket checking for train G1258, I stood up, stretched and carried my luggage to the ticket gate.
The cell phone rang at an inopportune time.
With a rush of hands and feet, I pulled out my cell phone and saw that it was an unfamiliar number.
The other party claimed to be a police officer from the "Tangshan" traffic police brigade. I was a bit surprised. What did the "Tangshan" traffic police want with me? But what he then said shocked me.
Lam, something happened to Zheng!
Another car accident, but Zheng lives.
At 1 p.m., he was on a DUI operation when an unlicensed van suddenly broke into traffic.
Seeing that he was going to crash, Zheng was pushed away by his colleague, and the van knocked that traffic policeman off his feet while Zheng rolled on the ground a few times.
I hurriedly left the train station and rushed to the hospital, where I found Zheng sitting on a hospital bed next to two police officers taking his accident statement.
Zheng was full of anger and said that there must be something wrong with that driver or he wouldn't have driven the car so fast.
I thought I couldn't go to Shenyang, so I called the person in charge of picking up the station at the Criminal Police Academy that night and said that I was not feeling well and had to go to the hospital right away, and that I would report to the hospital on my own afterward, so I didn't have to pick me up.
After the two police officers finished their statements and left, I said Zheng, how is the injury. He said it was fine, a little skin wound, wipe some medicine will be fine.
"Check a DUI and almost folded himself in, thanks to your life, or what to do with his wife and children. "
Zheng is also sighing, saying it's a shame about the coworker who saved him.
I said yes. Did the driver get caught?
"Did not stop, the car is too fast, even people with the car ran away, but rest assured, the road is full of surveillance, can not run him."
I mean, you're a precinct commissar, why would you do a DUI check yourself?
Zhengheng said that it was the leaders who explained that there were many drink drivers after the New Year, and that enforcement should be stepped up, and that the chief business officer should personally lead the team on the battlefield.
As he spoke, someone pushed the door in, and Zheng hurriedly asked how the civilian police officer who pushed him away was doing.
The visitor said heavily that the injuries were too severe and the man was gone.
Zheng eyes red, after a while, choked and said that the colleague who pushed him away just joined the workforce, only 23 years old this year, he did not know how to explain to the parents of that colleague ... I don't know what to say, sighed, the heart is very bad taste.
Zheng also asked that the driver caught yet, the person said the vehicle was found five kilometers away, the set of cars, the driver ran away, I do not know where to go, the precinct has been filed.
I quickly interjected that the city has now built a "sky network", cell phone base stations are everywhere, from the abandoned car to flee the place to start tracking, all the way to find along the video surveillance, with the cell phone base station is not to find the person, how can "do not know where to go"?
But the man said that the place where the perpetrator abandoned his car seemed to have been carefully chosen, and that the local Skynet cameras just happened to be on their annual inspection and were turned off.
Cell phone base stations were also checked, and no suspicious cell phone signals were present during that time period.
I said what about the probes along the route, did they capture any images of the perpetrator driving?
The man said Zheng accident place in the 104 national highway in the urban and rural areas, 200 meters to the east is the rural fork of the road, no monitoring, along the road is six administrative villages, out of the village is to abandon the car.
This is unbelievable. I turned to Zheng and asked him, "Why the fuck are you checking for DUIs in the village? What's there to check in that place?
Zheng said the points were all set by the higher traffic authority this time and he was surprised.
In front of outsiders I can not say anything, can only shut up for the time being, Zheng asked the police officer a few more sentences, then let him go.
With only the two of us left in the room, I couldn't help myself and pressed Zheng.
"You really don't think that there's anything fishy about the crash?"
"You're right," Zheng finally said coldly after a moment.
Zheng finally spoke, and before he did, he handed me his cell phone and showed me a ripped video.
The video, which Zheng flipped the law enforcement recorder with his cell phone, is the very same video of his car accident.
In the picture, Zheng is standing on the outside lane, about three or four meters away from the police who are checking the car and inspecting it.
A van came from the inside lane, the picture compared to other vehicles to see, then the speed is not fast, but about a dozen meters from the checkpoint, the van suddenly changed lanes and accelerated towards Zheng.
Just as he was getting close, there was a loud thud, and the camera rotated and ended up on its back - Zheng was now being pushed out of the way by the police officer.
Is this coming at you on purpose?
He nodded and said he'd read it a dozen times and it should be the same as I said.
I didn't say anything and waited for Zheng to continue.
"Lam, don't blame me, there's a reason I didn't tell you anything before."
Zheng said that he and Feng had indeed been secretly investigating a case recently, under the direct command of Zhao.
The reason why I was kept in the dark was because Zhao had said that this case was not to be divulged to anyone within the Public Security Bureau except for him and Feng, and that included me.
Secondly, because out of brotherly love, they both didn't want me to get involved.
But now that Zhao has been in a car accident and Feng is inexplicably nowhere to be found, along with this fishy car accident, he feels compelled to tell me, whether out of brotherly love or a work relationship.
The origin of the matter, but also traced back to the year before the case has been closed "1-10" coach overboard case.
In fact, that case, nominally, the Public Security Bureau closed the case in order to hurry up the compensation process afterward, but in fact, there is still a doubt that has not been investigated.
Suspicion lies with one of the victims, Yancy, a police officer who was then a member of the "Huaxi" branch of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.
I was stunned. I hadn't heard that any of our coworkers were among the victims.
"Yes, it was kept quiet because Yancy died in a very strange way."
On January 28, after the vehicle and the victim's remains were out of the water, the Forensic Medical Center conducted a forensic examination of the remains of the 22 victims; 21 died from drowning, which basically ruled out the possibility of a criminal case, except for Yancy's remains, where the cause of death was in doubt.
First, he was injured more than the other victims.
There was no shortage of traumatic injuries on the 21 remains, mostly caused by collisions with equipment in the vehicle when it crashed into the river, and two or three had relatively serious traumatic injuries, such as fractured thighbones and broken ribs, but Yancy had nine fractures.
Second, during the autopsy of the remains, only a small amount of drowning fluid was found in Yancy's respiratory tract and alveoli, and there was very little river water algae content in the body, which is not quite consistent with the basic characteristics of drowning.
Thirdly, most of the other 21 bodies were carrying various kinds of luggage or documents that could prove their identity, but only Yancy, who had neither luggage nor documents, did not know whether they were washed away by the water or simply did not have any.
I said, "Then how was Yancy identified?" Zheng said, "He was treated as a John Doe at first.
While waiting for forensic identification, Louis from the forensic center had worked with Yancy before and recognized him instantly at the morgue.
The Public Security Bureau notified the "Flower Creek" precinct and Yancy's family, who eventually identified him.
"How dare you close this case? Obviously there are doubts, in order to have a whole year, even the norms of handling cases are not cared about?"
Zheng said that the reason for disregarding the procedural norms was that the social impact of the "1-10 case" was so great that the municipal government had come with five groups of people who had been pressing for the closure of the case, and other victims were also pressing for the closure of the case, because the case could not be closed without going through the subsequent compensation procedures, so the Bureau closed the case superficially first.
Meanwhile, the coroner's side sees things differently regarding Yancy's cause of death.
There is a theory that the injuries are heavier than the other victims because the car fell into the water from a dozens of meters high bridge crashed through the guardrail, many factors will lead to different injuries, such as the position of the passengers at the time of the high fall, the placement of items in the car, etc., this is no one can say.
The insufficient amount of drowning fluid in Yancy's respiratory tract and alveoli was due to the fact that he suffered from "dry drowning", i.e., the difference in height of the fall and the temperature of the water triggered the deceased's cardiac arrest, and the deceased died before his mouth and nose entered the water.
With water temperatures of only two or three degrees in the reservoir in January, this is highly likely to happen.
The above explanations seem to justify Yancy's death, and most people recognize them, but there is only one person who expresses disagreement: Zhao.
Instead of agreeing, he finds Yancy's death suspicious.
Yancy was assigned to investigate a case at the time, and it was Zhao who authorized him to do so.
Prior to this, Yancy's status had been normal, until three days before the car accident, Yancy suddenly lost contact with his workplace and his family could not find him.
Three days later, he died in the "1-10 River Crash".
Once Yancy is dead, it means that the thing Zhao asked him to investigate is going to end without a trace.
What kind of things is he investigating? I asked Zheng.
Zheng said he was investigating the "8.12" Jianhua District "broken body case" in 2003.
The case I remember, August 12, 2003 at noon, the city's "Jianhua District," Building 3, Room 401 tenant Mary was found dead in the house, the body was disassembled in a large suitcase.
Back then, that case caused a stir in the city because the murderer's methods were too brutal, and all kinds of rumors circulated.
The Bureau formed a special investigation, the Criminal Investigation Bureau sent experts, the branches also drew off the elite force, the Bureau leadership had asked for a deadline to solve the case.
At that time I just joined the work not long ago, not directly involved in the case, but responsible for some of the peripheral work, and then has been concerned about the progress of the case, the strange thing is that the case of split body bombarded more than three months, but has not been found out the results.
Not only were there no results, but the Public Security Bureau also had a major incident. A forensic scientist destroyed the test report and disappeared with important evidence in the case, and has not been heard from since.
If I remember correctly, the "important evidence" should be a condom filled with semen seized from the scene of the murder.
Later on, through other means, the police realized that Mary's murderer was her husband, a man named Hugo.
The missing forensic scientist, on the other hand, is Hugo's brother, Wade.
But the police were unable to catch Hugo either. After the body-shredding case, Hugo disappeared into obscurity, as did his forensic brother, a brother whose name, to this day, still hangs on the Public Security Bureau's fugitive platform.
I asked Zheng why Zhao suddenly wanted to look into this case, and to find someone to "secretly investigate".
Why did you go to Yancy? What did Yancy find out? And why did you and Feng go to investigate Yancy again?
Zheng said, "Don't worry, there are so many questions, I have to tell you one by one too.
Zhao reopens an old case and gets someone to secretly investigate the 2003 body-shredding case because half a year ago, he received an anonymous tip-off letter stating that the murderer of that year's body-shredding case was not Hugo, but someone else.
I said we should follow the normal procedure, right? Since the body-smashing case is still on the platform, theoretically it's still an active investigation, so just reopen the investigation, why do we have to conduct a "secret investigation?" What does Zhao think?
Zheng shakes his head and says that he and Feng are similarly confused and have mentioned it to Zhao, but Zhao ignored them both.
"You can't guess what's in the leader's mind, he asked you to secretly investigate, can you say no?"
There are indeed precedents of "secret investigations" by public security organs, but mostly for special reasons.
For example, when the case involves the interests of insiders who may encounter resistance, or when the results of some investigations are inconvenient to the public and even insiders have to recuse themselves.
Although a forensic pathologist from the Public Security Bureau was involved in that case, there was no "covert investigation" 13 years ago, so is there a need to conduct a "covert investigation" now?
Is one of us involved? Or does Zhao know something "secret" that he can't publicize?
I asked Zheng why Zhao chose Yancy for his "covert investigation" out of all the cops in the department.
Zheng said Zhao approached Yancy based on two considerations.
First, Yancy is the backbone of the police involved in the investigation of broken bodies in 2003, he still remembers a lot of the circumstances of that year, can save follow-up a lot of trouble;
Secondly, Zhao was then the detachment chief of the criminal investigation detachment of the Municipal Bureau, and Yancy was the deputy brigade chief of the direct investigation brigade, who was very competent, and Zhao had a deep impression of him.
"So what exactly did Yancy find out before her accident?"
"You'll have to ask Feng about that, Zhao told the two of us to split up the work, I'll look into Yancy's car accident, and Feng will look into that shredding case that Yancy was looking into earlier."
I said then tell us about Yancy's car accident.
Yancy, then 47 years old, former chief of the criminal police brigade of the "Huaxi" precinct, resigned from his post as chief four years ago in the context of the reform of the police service, and became a second-level sergeant and a deputy division-level investigator in the "Huaxi" precinct.
According to Zhao's arrangement, Yancy's covert investigation has two tasks, one is to investigate the "real culprit" of the murder case mentioned in the anonymous letter, and the other is to investigate the sender of the anonymous letter.
According to the agreement, Yancy to Zhao once a day to report the progress of the work, before all normal, but just three days before the "1-10" vehicle crash, he lost contact.
Yancy's wife passed away many years ago and he has been living alone ever since.
Afterward, Yancy's father said his son hadn't noticed anything unusual lately except that he was busy.
Doing criminal police, originally three more busy five more chaotic, out of the mission three or five days do not contact with the family is also very normal.
Yancy died in the "1.10" automobile accident, strangely enough, the station has no record of his purchase of tickets, nor did he leave any record of his accommodation or activities at the vehicle's originating station or in the districts and counties that he passed along the way.
According to Zhao, Yancy had not previously stated that he was going to the field to conduct the investigation.
I said in that case, you could have excluded Yancy from the list of crash victims and disposed of him separately, so why did you have to make him a member of the fallen car?
Zheng said the station did not have a record of Yancy's real-name ticket, but there is no direct evidence to rule out that he rode that bus, and on the other remains, not all of them were found with a ticket, so it can only be dealt with temporarily as a car accident overboard.
I said there is now a real-name ticketing system and on-board monitoring, you traffic police check it will not know?
"Checked, it didn't work."
The city does have a real-name ticketing system for long-distance buses, which is also implemented for long-distance buses of the city's household registration.
However, the Municipal Transportation Office is apparently not enforcing this for vehicles of foreign registration.
Many long-distance buses originating in foreign countries do not go to the implementation in order to circumvent the ticket division of the station, and there is no strong intervention by the foreign transportation authorities.
These drivers on the road to pull some casual passengers, fares cheaper than the station two to three percent, in order not to be captured by the car monitoring, the driver secretly installed a switch on the monitoring circuit, once out of the station to turn off the monitoring.
The car that was involved in the accident happened to be an out-of-state domicile car.
According to the originating station record of this accident car, real-name ticket information is only eight people, Zheng are implemented to the work unit.
The reason they purchased the tickets under their real names was probably to claim the tickets and then go back for reimbursement.
There is no surveillance information in the back office of the bus station, and the on-board surveillance should have been turned off by the driver. Now that the driver is also dead, there is no way to find out where and when Yancy and the other 13 passengers got on the bus.
"So have you chased the car along its tracks to see if you can look for clues in the road surface surveillance?"
Zheng said the accident coach is from L city, through the province of five counties and cities, a trip of more than 400 kilometers.
He roughly adjusted the trajectory of the car, found that the driver in order to save money, but also in order to pull more casual customers on the road, sometimes on the highway, sometimes take the national highway, the national highway dozens of kilometers are not necessarily monitoring, can not check.
Zheng just said this, my cell phone rang, it was Martin, I think he got a call from the criminal police academy and came to ask me for a favor.
I signaled Zheng to keep quiet while I dealt with him.
Martin asked me why I didn't report to the criminal police academy as required, and I said that I really had a medical problem and needed to see a doctor.
He asked me where I was, I said in the hospital, he chased and asked in which hospital, Shenyang or local? I said the local hospital.
Martin was silent for a while and said that since he was not feeling well, he should lie down in the hospital and get well, and not run around.
I said okay, okay, okay, okay, and finally got him to deal with it.
Seeing that it was getting late and Zheng's injuries weren't too bad, I asked him if he wanted to have dinner together.
Zheng said no, he had to hurry back to the "Tangshan" traffic police brigade, there were still a lot of things to do.
I thought he was polite, and strive for a bit, but Zheng still waved his hand, said really don't need, Zhao car accident thing is not finished, this time the truck broke into the van and killed the police, he as a unit of the main official, this period of time may have to be busy to death, the dinner later.
"How is Zhao doing now?"
Zheng shook his head, saying it wasn't good, and was still in a deep coma.
But then, he suddenly woke up like a dream, patted his head, said fuck, I give busy forget, tonight you are free, come to my brigade office, I have something to show you.
At eight o'clock in the evening, I came to Zheng's office, and what he wanted to show me, was a video surveillance.
The time shown on the video surveillance is 2:08 p.m. on February 13, 2016, and the image is of the city's outer ring road.
At 2:10 a.m., a black SUV sped by, monitoring speed measurement shows a set of characters: 132KM / H, speeding.
3 seconds later, another black car also passed at high speed. Monitoring speed measurement also shows a set of characters, 141KM / H, speeding.
I recognized the black car behind me, Zhao's old Passat, impression of the outer ring speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour, Zhao has what is urgent to drive the car so fast?
Zheng opened the second video file, the same or a set of surveillance video, still the black SUV in front, Zhao's Passat in the back, this time the speed of the two cars is still as high as 160KM / H. The two cars are still as high as the speed of the car.
In the third video, the black SUV is occupying the center lane, and Zhao's car is speeding in the right lane and has its left turn signal on, looking like it's trying to merge to overtake.
In the fourth video, the black SUV braked suddenly in the outbound lane, and Zhao braked in the inbound lane as well, but the brakes were probably ineffective, and the black SUV was four or five car lengths out in front before coming to a stop.
Zhao tilted his front end outward toward the driveway, but the black SUV swerved around Zhao's car with one acceleration and continued on its wild ride.
There were a few more video files after that, Zheng opened them one by one, and the contents were almost the same as the first two videos.
Although the road sections are different, Zhao's car has been tangling with the black SUV - either following the black SUV at high speed, flashing his turn signal in the next lane to request a merge, or stopping and going in circles with the SUV.
See the problem, Lam?
I looked at the screen while saying, how can you not see the problem when it's so obvious?Zhao was chasing the car, trying to stop the black SUV, but never succeeded.
Zheng said yes, before Zhao's accident that early morning, he was chasing that black SUV all the way.
"But why is he chasing the car?Is it necessary for zhao to chase the car himself?"
This is indeed strange, an executive deputy director in charge of criminal investigation, has the power to mobilize any resources of the whole bureau, if he thinks that the car is suspicious, it is perfectly possible to note down the license plate number, and then call the traffic police to stop it, and to go after the car himself, is both unnecessary and out of character.
Zheng also said that Zhao's cell phone was found at the scene, but it was damaged during the crash, and the traffic police followed the procedure of accessing the call records at the time of the accident, and did not find that he had made a call.
"Is that how Zhao got into the accident while tangling with this car?"
Yes, 27 kilometers into the South Outer Ring Road, Zhao accelerated once again, probably still trying to cut off that car.
But the 27-kilometer mark is a sharp downhill curve on a strange slope, and the black SUV practically drifted through it, while Zhao's car went out of control at too high a speed and went off the roadbed.
Surveillance footage shows that Zhao was driving very fast at the time of the crash, and as he passed that sharp downhill curve, the car appeared to show no signs of slowing down and flew directly off the highway at the turn at the end of the ramp.
"No brakes?" I looked at Zheng in surprise, and he nodded, saying that indeed no brake marks were found at the accident scene.
I asked him again if he had found out about the black SUV, and he said not yet, but that he must find it even if he had to take it apart for parts.
"There's a car recorder in Zhao's car with a memory card, did you guys get it? Let's see if there's any useful information captured on it."
I didn't expect Zheng to hear me say this, all of a sudden glaring round eyes, he said Lam are you sure the car recorder in Zhao's car still works?
I said yeah, I just bought it for him a while ago and drove his car to the aftermarket spot to install it when it arrived, so what's up?
Zheng slapped his thigh, "Bad, the card's been taken!"
I was also shocked for a moment and said Zheng you say it more clearly.
Zhao's car accident occurred in the "Tangshan" traffic police brigade area, initially their police officers out of the police, the scene investigation is also done by their accident section, but then the Bureau because the case involves the executive deputy director, Zheng will be required to transfer the case to the higher traffic management bureau to handle.
Therefore, the first scene of the accident was handled by the "Tangshan" traffic police.
When Zheng received the police report, he did not yet know that the accident was Zhao, and he arranged for the responding officers in accordance with the general procedures, and specifically asked them to make sure that they got back the CarLog of such major traffic accidents.
However, the police who went to investigate told him that although the car was equipped with a car recorder, no memory card was inserted in the car.
This situation is not rare, especially like the age of more than ten years old car, not installed car recorder or car recorder failure is very normal, Zheng did not rest assured.
Later, after knowing that it was Zhao's car, he felt that according to Zhao's habits, it should be installed recorders, so he sent another person to count the property involved, and even ran to the Traffic Management Bureau parking lot to re-check the vehicle, or did not find the memory card.
As soon as he heard me say that today, Zheng felt bad, and he suspected that someone had tampered with Zhao's car.
"You were the first on the scene to respond to the police, and it's logical that the first people to come into contact with the accident vehicle would be your people, too, isn't it?"
I didn't have the heart to finish my sentence, because if I continued, it would be "Someone did it, and it was your people, or did Zhao hide it himself before he passed out?"
Zheng heard what I was saying and picked up on it directly. Looking at it this way, it's really necessary to check out the people inside the unit first.
I rounded up and said, "Don't be too sensitive, I'm just saying, or maybe Zhao removed the card himself before?
This kind of car recorder has two kinds of storage methods, cloud and memory card, the cloud has a lot of space and can store a lot, the memory card has a limited space, and the biggest memory card can only store about ten days of HD video.
Some older people don't use cloud storage and are used to taking the memory card out periodically to copy videos, maybe Zhao just happened to take the memory card out one of these days and forgot to put it back in again .....
Zheng smiled at me and asked me if I was embarrassed by this explanation, which can only be called "hardcore comfort". I can't help but laugh, this kind of explanation really can't even fool myself.
Zheng said that there was an incident in the traffic police before, he did not pay much attention to it at that time, but this moment when he thought about it, he also felt that there is a problem.
I asked what ah, he said or that "1-10" vehicle fall from a bridge case.
"1.10" car accident case in the initial investigation of the process of an incident, the accident scene investigation, the accident section of the police to take photos of the scene also lost once.
The reason why it is called "lost once" is that it was later recovered by Zheng.
January 10, when the accident car out of the water, "Tangshan" traffic police brigade accident section of the first time to take a number of on-site photographs, these photos are first-hand information on the accident is extremely important to the disposal of the accident, but all were erased.
January 11, the team is ready to upload the scene photos to the Traffic Management Bureau FTP, but suddenly found that the camera stored with the photo is missing, Zheng mobilized the entire brigade of police to look for, and ultimately in the third floor of the miscellaneous room to find, but found, the camera memory card is empty, which is a photo are gone.
At that time Zheng head big, these photos to lose, "1-10" case also do not have to do, he this brigade political commissar also do not have to do.
He questioned the police officers of the Accident Section who took the photographs at the time why they had thrown the camera in the utility room and where the photographs were.
Accident section of the police were also confused, said he went back to the brigade, the camera is resting on his desk drawer, do not know how to run to the utility room.
"And how was the photo found later?"
Zheng laughed and said that he was probably lucky that the photos came back that afternoon.
That afternoon, he took the blank memory card to the technical department of the Public Security Bureau, trying to find someone to repair try, but the technical police opened the memory card, said the photo is still inside it.
Zheng was taken aback when the technical police pointed to a batch of files on the card with the suffix .NEF and said, "Plug the memory card into your computer and click on it to see those photos.
We use the same DSLR in the CID, so it made sense right away.
DSLR camera will leave two formats of files after shooting, people who are not familiar with this camera, if you choose to delete the photos on the camera, you can only delete the JPG format files, and the NEF format files will be hidden on the card, and you can only delete them all on the computer side.
"And have you since found out who deleted the photos?"
"I was too busy thinking that the photos weren't lost, so I didn't specifically look into the person who deleted the photos and just thought about closing the case."
Zheng said, ready to find the accident brigade police to talk, both accidents they are the first out of the scene.
After thinking about it, I don't think it was the accident brigade police who did this.
One is because there is no need to get yourself in trouble, we all know that when this happens, the accident brigade will bear the brunt of it.
Stem;
Secondly, from what you said before about that photo deletion episode, it shouldn't have been done by someone who commonly uses a law enforcement camera, or else why would they leave a .NEF file base for you to check?
But there's still one thing I haven't figured out... What kind of sensitive stuff did those photos capture?
"It doesn't seem to be there, or should I take a closer look sometime"?
I said to be on the safe side, hurry up you.
Zheng sighed and said that his mind is in a mess right now, Zhao had a car accident, Feng is missing, and someone ran into a truck and killed a coworker.
There is also that Zhao accounted for him and Feng investigation of Yancy, and even before Yancy secretly investigated the broken body case, all things together, he did not know what to do.
I said I'd suggest you do one thing first - get that car accident of your own sorted out first, all the other cases are buried in the ground and only your car accident is floating on the surface.
Zheng was a little confused and I explained to him that Zhao's car accident was taken over by your higher authority and you couldn't find out.
Feng's disappearance is being investigated by the Bureau as a criminal case. You're a traffic cop, you're not authorized to get involved.
Yancy's case has been led by Zhao before, and now he's in a coma and hospitalized, so look, besides your own car accident, what else can you look into?
Besides, a colleague from this organization was killed in the accident, so it's only logical that you should start first, isn't it?
Zheng sighed and said it would have to do.
Look at him a little reluctant, I said you first check, Zhao, Feng and you three people seem to be independent of each other, but I always feel as if there is a line holding, perhaps you find out one, the other two will have clues along the way.
"Okay, listen to you. What are you going to do after that, are you still going to Shenyang for the training?"
I said I didn't want to go. If you need something, I'll come over and give you a hand.
I thought that Zheng must be very happy to hear me say that, but to my surprise, he was silent for a while, "Lam, you'd better pack up and go to Shenyang, after all, that's something decided by the Party Committee of the Public Security Bureau, and it's not good for you to defy it."
And ..... ...Zheng paused before continuing, I always feel that if you still stay local, you will soon encounter something inexplicable.
What? Why?
Lam, have you ever wondered who Zhao should trust more than you and Feng?
This question actually pokes at my sore spot, and I wasn't too happy when I initially heard that Zheng and Feng were drawn by Zhao to look into Yancy's case.
I am conscious that I am closer to Zhao, and I am still Feng's leader in rank.
Besides, in terms of business ability, I think I'm more mature than Feng, so how come Zhao chose Feng but not me?
Zheng said he hadn't thought about it before, but in hindsight, Zhao might have realized that something would happen later on, and because he and I were closer, especially since he and my father had a bond from back then, he didn't want to get me involved.
Zheng this statement, I can not comment, but I always feel that this speculation Zhao is a bit narrow-minded - if you know that the case may be investigated in the future, why do you want to find someone "secret investigation"?
Sacrificing other police officers to protect me? That's not his style.
Zheng advised me to obey the newly appointed Martin's request to go to Shenyang for training first, the new official has three fires, don't mess with anyone but him first.
Besides, even if I stay here and can't help much because Feng has stirred up such a big mess, what awaits me if I don't leave as the leader in charge could be a suspension.
"Lam, I have a feeling that the people we're dealing with this time seem to be coming from around us. As the saying goes, 'a bystander is a bystander', you'd better be a 'bystander' first, and help us observe the situation from the periphery ..." Zheng said.