The heavens set sail from the courtyard

Chapter 1360: Detective and Nails

Zhou County is located on the outskirts of Ningyang. It is a very small county town, or more accurately called a village. It takes an hour and a half to drive there.

Sitting in the car, Han Bing briefly explained the case to Wang Gang.

A month ago, a murder occurred in Zhou County. The victim was a woman in her early twenties. She died in her home and was accidentally discovered by her neighbors.

The deceased was in disheveled condition, with bruises all over her body and signs of rape. The cause of death was suffocation.

Due to the serious nature of the crime, the local police station transferred the case to the criminal police team and assigned it to Han Bing.

The criminal police team is short of staff, so although Han Bing is the leader of the action team, he actually also has to take care of the investigation duties.

After Han Bing's investigation, the suspect was initially identified as the deceased's cousin Zhou Qing.

Because witnesses said that on the day of the incident, Zhou Qing had been to the deceased's home and had a conflict with the deceased.

When Han Bing wanted to bring Zhou Qing back for interrogation, he didn't expect that Zhou Qing had left Ningyang first, which was very consistent with the sign of fleeing for fear of crime.

Now that the person had escaped, the case came to a standstill. Han Bing could only ask the local police station to cooperate and immediately notify the criminal police team if they found Zhou Qing returned to Zhou County.

At the same time, Han Bing also asked the railway department to cooperate in finding Zhou Qing's whereabouts, but due to the limitations of the technology of the time, it was difficult to find a person. If Zhou Qing forged his identity and fled to another city, it would be even more difficult to find him.

Wang Gang now understands why Han Bing has such a bad temper. The criminal police team faces serious cases all day long and is faced with the evil of human nature. They have long working hours, low wages, and also have to face pressure from all sides when handling cases. People with low emotional intelligence cannot adapt to this.

After the car arrived in Zhou County, the local police station sent someone to pick them up and took Wang Gang and his friends directly to the downstairs of Zhou Qing's house.

According to the neighbor's report, Zhou Qing returned home at eight in the morning and has not gone out since. The police station was afraid of alerting the suspect, so they sent people to keep an eye on him and did not dare to break in rashly.

Wang Gang found it strange. After killing someone and running away, why would he go home? And why would he go home in broad daylight? Wasn't he afraid of being seen?
Han Bing didn't care about that. He called people, took out his gun, and forced open the door of Zhou Qing's house.

Wang Gang rushed into the house and found that the suspect Zhou Qing was leisurely eating noodles with soybean paste at home. When he saw a large group of police rushing in, he did not run away but shouted something.

"Who are you and why did you break into my house?"

Han Bing pushed Zhou Qing to the ground without saying a word.

Wang Gang felt that Han Bing was a bit reckless, but seeing that his colleagues around him looked accustomed to it, he fell silent.

"Take him back to the team for interrogation."

Han Bing called two people and carried Zhou Qing away.

"Why are you arresting me? Help! Someone is kidnapping me." Zhou Qing was arrested and kept struggling violently and shouting.

"Shut up. Don't you know why we arrested you?" Han Bing said to Zhou Qing impatiently.

Zhou Qing was taken into the car and then to the criminal police team.

In the criminal police team, Han Bing personally interrogated Zhou Qing, but Zhou Qing kept saying that he was wronged, that he did not kill his cousin Li Yuanyuan, and that he only learned today that his cousin was dead.

The previous month, he was not absconding for fear of crime, but was on a business trip.

Wang Gang borrowed the case file from his colleague, and after reading it for a while, he called Han Bing out of the interrogation room.

"Xiao Wang, why did you call me out?" Han Bing interrogated for a long time but got nothing, and he was getting angry.

"The guy inside is too stubborn and refuses to confess."

"Team Leader Han, is it true that he was not the one who killed Li Yuanyuan?" Wang Gang asked.

"How could it not be him? Li Yuanyuan had no grudges against anyone during her lifetime. Someone also saw her arguing with the suspect Zhou Qing on the day of her death. Zhou Qing shouted that he wanted to kill her." Han Bing said:
"He's just being stubborn. Give me a few more hours and I'll definitely be able to pry his mouth open."

Wang Gang pondered for a moment, opened the file, and said to Han Bing: "When the victim was first found, was there a half-piece of nail fragment left on her neck?"

"Yes! Isn't it written in the case file?" Han Bing frowned and asked, "You called me out just to ask this?" Wang Gang explained, "The deceased died of suffocation. There are obvious marks of strangulation on the neck. The murderer must have strangled her neck and suffocated her to death. I have reason to suspect that the half nail belongs to the criminal."

"I know!" Han Bing said in confusion: "What do you want to say?"

"When I arrested him just now, I found that Zhou Qing's fingernails were intact." Wang Gang said seriously: "He may not be the murderer."

Han Bing blinked his eyes, looked at Wang Gang as if he was a fool and said: "You know that nails will grow back! It has been a month since the incident, and the broken nails will grow back."

Wang Gang sighed and said, "Maybe the criminal police team still has that piece of armor. If we take it out and compare it with Zhou Qing, everything will be clear."

Han Bing looked at Wang Gang with even weirder eyes.

"Comparing fingernails, what are you comparing?"

"Compare the nail texture!" Wang Gang said in amazement: "The vertical lines on everyone's nails are different, just like fingerprints, unique."

Han Bing was surprised and said: "How come I didn't know about this?"

Wang Gang realized instantly that it was only 78, and no one in China or abroad had the concept of unique nail texture, let alone applied it in solving cases.

"Captain Han, there are vertical lines in our nails. If you put them under a microscope, you can see more than a hundred densely packed fine lines.

These textures vary in thickness and spacing, just like fingerprints, they are all unique. Just cut Zhou Qing's nails, put them under a microscope, and compare them with the half-piece of nail, and you will see clearly. "

Han Bing hesitated and said, "Will it work? I have never heard of handling a case this way."

Wang Gang said confidently: "Whether what I said is right or not, you can just find someone to experiment with it. You can find more people's nails for comparison."

Han Bing was skeptical, and then went to discuss it with Captain Chen. It turned out that Captain Chen had never heard of nail texture, so he called Wang Gang over.

"Xiao Wang, is the nail texture you mentioned reliable?"

"We'll know whether it's reliable or not after doing an experiment. It won't take much time anyway." Wang Gang said with a smile.

Team leader Chen asked again: "How did you find that the nail texture is unique?"

Wang Gang said: "I discovered it by accident when I was painting nails."

When Captain Chen heard this, he became even more nervous and felt that Wang Gang was somewhat unreliable.

Wang Gang also knew that there was no precedent for this matter and it would be difficult to get Captain Chen's support.

"Captain Chen, if you're having trouble, just pretend I didn't say anything. Murder is a very serious crime after all, and we don't have any evidence of Zhou Qing's guilt right now, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a try!"

Captain Chen gritted his teeth and said, "I need to discuss this with the higher-ups first. I can't guarantee whether it will work or not."

Wang Gang turned to look at Han Bing and said, "Captain Han, did you check the people around the deceased Li Yuanyuan, especially those with broken nails?"

"Of course there are." Han Bing said confidently: "But among the people Li Yuanyuan knows, there is no one with broken armor."

Wang Gang asked again: "Is there anyone who has just cut his nails?"

Han Bing was about to say no when he suddenly remembered that the neighbor who had identified Zhou Qing seemed to have had his nails trimmed.

"There is one person, but I have seen his nails, and they are not consistent with the broken nails."

Wang Gang laughed and said: "Nails can be trimmed, but the texture cannot be changed."

Han Bing said gloomily: "I will bring him back to the team for interrogation immediately."

"Bring more people with you." Seeing Wang Gang's confident look, Captain Chen said worriedly, "Remember to bring guns."