The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1432 Discoveries from Surveillance Footage

A tenant suddenly remembered, "He wrote 'Zhang Qiang' on the package he left at the door before, so that must be his name. I also saw him receive packages from out of town, it seems to be from a neighboring city." Xiao Wang immediately wrote down the name "Zhang Qiang" and then contacted the courier company to check Zhang Qiang's package delivery records. After checking, it was found that Zhang Qiang had received a total of 6 packages in the past 3 months, all from a furniture factory in a neighboring city, with the sender listed as "Manager Li".

"Immediately contact the furniture factory in the neighboring city to verify Zhang Qiang's identity and employment information." Xiao Wang immediately made arrangements, sending team member Xiao Liu to the neighboring city to investigate. Meanwhile, Xiao Wang and Xiao Liu continued their visits to the urban village and collected another important clue: "Three days before Zhang Qiang disappeared, a strange man came to see him. The two talked for a long time at the entrance of the rented room, seemingly arguing, before the strange man left angrily." "What did that strange man look like? Did he have any distinctive features?" Xiao Wang pressed. "He was about 1.8 meters tall, thin, wearing a brown jacket and a black hat. I couldn't see his exact appearance because he kept his head down," the tenant recalled.

At noon, the technical department reported that the DNA sample taken from the rental house in the urban village did not match the deceased's DNA sample, ruling out the possibility that Zhang Qiang was the victim in this case. This result left Xiao Wang slightly disappointed, but he was not discouraged: "Although Zhang Qiang is not the deceased, a strange man had contacted him before his disappearance, and the two had an argument. We cannot rule out the possibility that his disappearance is related to other cases. We will continue to follow up on Zhang Qiang's leads, while also not relaxing our investigation into the identity of the victim in this case."

At 2 PM, the surveillance investigation made new progress. Xiao Li, in a surveillance video from a residential area near the west entrance of Nanhu Square, captured the suspicious man again, this time from around 4:20 AM. This camera was about 50 meters from the west entrance of the square. Although the fog hadn't lifted, the image quality was slightly better than the camera at the square entrance, clearly showing the man dragging a black suitcase and its features—similar in height to the black hard-sided suitcase found at the scene, with a clear brand logo outline, albeit blurry, but clearly a circular logo. "Captain Wang, look at the logo on this suitcase! It looks very similar to the brand logo residue we recovered at the scene!" Xiao Li said, pointing to the surveillance footage. Xiao Wang immediately instructed the technical department to enhance the surveillance image in an attempt to recover the brand logo, but due to the heavy fog and the limited resolution of the camera, they were unable to do so.

“Continue tracking the man’s movements before this surveillance point,” Xiao Wang said. Xiao Li and Xiao Zhang immediately retrieved the previous footage from the community’s surveillance cameras and discovered that the man came out of a small alley on the north side of the community and walked along the sidewalk towards the west entrance of Nanhu Square. “This alley is a dead end, with residential buildings and small shops on both sides. We need to conduct a detailed investigation of this alley and the surrounding area to find out where the man came from.” Xiao Wang led his team to the alley and interviewed the residents and shopkeepers on both sides.

At a small supermarket in the middle of the alley, the owner reported, "Around 4 a.m., a man dragged a large black suitcase past the supermarket entrance. I was organizing the goods at the time and saw him walk towards the square. He was wearing a black down jacket, a mask, and a hat, covering himself up very well, so I couldn't see his face." Xiao Wang asked the owner to identify the suspicious man from the surveillance footage. The owner said that because the man was so obscured, he couldn't confirm if it was the same person, but the suitcase looked very similar. "Is there any surveillance footage at the entrance of this alley?" Xiao Wang asked. The owner shook his head: "There's no surveillance footage at the entrance of the alley, but if you go further ahead to the intersection, there's a traffic camera."

Xiao Wang immediately led his team to the entrance of the alley and located the traffic surveillance camera. After coordinating with the traffic management department, they retrieved the footage from 3:30 AM to 4:30 AM. Because the traffic camera was a high-definition camera and installed at a high position, it was less affected by the fog and could clearly capture people and vehicles at the intersection. "Found it!" Xiao Zhang shouted, pointing to the surveillance footage. The footage showed that at 3:58 AM, a man dragging a black suitcase got out of a black sedan parked at the intersection and then dragged the suitcase into the alley. The man was also wearing a black down jacket, a mask, and a hat, making it impossible to see his face clearly, but the characteristics of the suitcase were completely consistent with the suitcase found at the scene and the suitcase in the previous surveillance footage.

"Immediately check the license plate number of this black sedan!" Xiao Wang ordered. Xiao Li immediately zoomed in on the black sedan in the surveillance footage. Because the car was parked in the shadows at the intersection, the license plate was partially obscured, and only the first two letters and the last three digits were visible. "Immediately report the partial license plate information to the branch's technical section, requesting that they use the traffic monitoring system and vehicle management system to investigate and pinpoint the vehicle's specific information and driving trajectory," Xiao Wang said. After receiving the order, the technical section immediately began the investigation, but due to the incomplete license plate information, the investigation was quite difficult and would take some time to produce results.

At 4 PM, Xiao Liu returned from his investigation in the neighboring city and reported the findings regarding Zhang Qiang to Xiao Wang: "The furniture factory in the neighboring city does indeed have a manager named Li. He stated that Zhang Qiang was an installer at the factory and was dismissed a month ago due to a work error, after which there was no further contact. According to Manager Li, Zhang Qiang is 41 years old, 176 cm tall, of medium build, from out of town, has no relatives in the neighboring city, and is usually quite withdrawn and rarely interacts with others. We also retrieved Zhang Qiang's employment information at the furniture factory and found that his identity information is authentic and valid. Furthermore, his DNA sample has been entered into the national population database and does not match the DNA sample of the deceased in this case, further confirming that Zhang Qiang is not the deceased. As for Zhang Qiang's whereabouts, he has not yet been found. We have already reported his information to the national missing persons information system to assist in the search."

At 6 p.m., Xiao Wang led the investigation team to summarize the day's findings: the surveillance footage revealed three clips related to the suspicious man, which preliminarily identified the route the man took to dispose of the body and the black sedan he was in. However, due to the man's heavily obscured appearance and incomplete license plate information, his identity has not yet been confirmed. The interviews collected 28 leads and identified two missing persons, both of whom have been ruled out as having any connection to the deceased in this case. Zhang Qiang, a missing tenant in the urban village, has also been cleared of suspicion.