The person committing the crime at the bar was familiar with the environment; this handyman clearly wasn't.
Thinking this, I could only head to the information department. The only place likely to yield any clues now was surveillance footage, as the bar's cameras were functioning normally.
While Gao Mingqiang and others were assisting with the investigation, two cameras were discovered in the corridor of the maintenance restroom, each capable of clearly surveying the entire area to the left and right of the corridor. Anyone appearing in the maintenance restroom around the time of the victim's death would undoubtedly be a prime suspect.
However, we watched for a long time, replaying the footage several times around the approximate time, and found no one. In fact, there wasn't a soul passing by. It was already late at night, and although most bars stayed open all night, the period after 5 AM was the quietest. The killer was quite clever, choosing to strike at this hour. But he didn't move body parts in the corridor, likely considering the presence of surveillance.
"There's a window in the restroom; he probably crossed over from the back of the bar," I guessed.
Gao Mingqiang quickly interjected, "I checked the back of the bar, but found no footprints. There's a patch of mud back there, all dried up. There are flower beds nearby, but no clothes or other fibers were found. This guy has strong counter-surveillance skills and acted very cautiously, leaving no trace at the scene. This case seems more difficult to crack than previous similar ones; these criminals seem to be getting smarter."
"Perhaps it's because they know Guo Dafu and his wife were arrested, but they don't want to give up their previous criminal activities, so they continue doing what they did before."
"Exactly. If it were me, I'd go into hiding; that would be the safest."
"Mingqiang, that's because you don't understand criminal psychology. Why do many people re-offend so quickly after being released from prison? It's not because they're not afraid of the police, but because they feel that without committing crimes, their lives have no meaning. I've seen many such criminals. To put it bluntly, it's like an addiction to crime."
"You really understand criminals. It seems I need to study more about criminal psychology. But that will have to wait until I have time. It's likely we'll hit a dead end again with this case; it's tough!"
"Don't be discouraged. Haven't we encountered many similar cases before? We always managed to get through them!"
"You say that, but we do have unsolved cases. All that stuff about a 100% clearance rate in novels is just artistic license. How can real police officers achieve such a high clearance rate? Fifty percent would be good?"
Gao Mingqiang was actually right, but people nowadays are easily misled by things they see in movies or read in novels.
I was silent for a long time. The child was only 10 years old. Even if we restored the victim's face, it would be difficult to find his identity in the archives. After all, our country's regulations stipulate that citizens must be 16 years old to obtain an ID card. But we still had to try our best.
I transferred the child's body to the autopsy table. Using the He family's restoration technique, the victim's appearance was restored. It was a boy with a rather handsome face, fair skin with a rosy complexion, a straight nose, and a smooth forehead. His parents must have been good-looking too. Zhang Keying and others took photos in front of the victim. Now, we could only search through elementary school records. Based on criminal profiling principles, I asked He Xin and Shao Zhengzhi to investigate all elementary schools within a 10-kilometer radius of where the victim was found.
To speed things up, the provincial department deployed hundreds of technical police officers. They typed furiously on their keyboards, their eyes focused intently on the screens, unwilling to look away for even a second. Finally, with the help of facial recognition, we found that the victim frequently appeared at Guangming City Chinese-English Primary School. He must have been studying there.
Through the "Heaven's Eye" surveillance system, we also saw him being picked up by a black Volkswagen. From the way the person got out of the car and the child's actions, it was evident they were father and son.
Liu Yuning and I captured a screenshot from a frontal video and, holding the photo, went to this Chinese-English Primary School. Upon meeting the principal, she stared intently at the child in the photo. Since the face was quite clear, she quickly said, "Isn't this Huang Xingchao from our school?"
"Why did you recognize him so quickly? Is this student well-known at the school?"
"Yes, you don't know. His academic performance and moral conduct are excellent. He even spoke quite a bit on stage in front of many classmates. We all thought highly of him and believed he had a great talent for literature, so we wanted to nurture him well. Furthermore, he won first prize in many essay competitions in our city, so I have a very deep impression of this student. But what are you looking for him for?"
I didn't want to conceal anything, but Liu Yuning spoke one step ahead of me, "Huang Xingchao is dead! We are here to inquire about his case."
"Ah, no! Are you telling the truth? How could something happen to that child!"
"Of course, it's true. We police officers don't make things up." After Liu Yuning explained a bit, she got straight to the point: "When was the last time you saw Huang Xingchao?"
"It was during the last holiday. It's winter break recently, isn't it? I was planning to go home in a few days, and I never expected to hear such tragic news."
I remembered that the winter break had started five days prior for the elementary school, and Huang Xingchao died around this time. This meant he had been missing since the start of the holiday.
I asked the principal, "Did you see who picked him up that evening?"
"I didn't pay attention. At that time, I was usually in my office. You can try asking Huang Xingchao's homeroom teacher, Teacher Zhang; he should know more."
I said, "Okay." Fortunately, this Teacher Zhang had not yet left the school. Not long after we left the principal's office, we went to the teachers' office. With the principal's help, we identified who Teacher Zhang was.
"Hello, Teacher Zhang, are you Huang Xingchao's homeroom teacher?" I asked.
The other party nodded. "What is it?"
Judging by his expression, I knew he had no idea his student was dead.
I didn't beat around the bush and directly explained the situation. Upon learning of Huang Xingchao's death, Teacher Zhang was astonished and also appeared very sad. "How could this be? He was such a perfect child! If he's gone like this, what a great loss!"
"It's evident you liked Huang Xingchao as a student. Did you personally see him leave school five nights ago?"