The footprint identification expert is an old man in his sixties, about 170 cm tall, with gray hair and a pair of old eyes. This person's name is Wang Pengdiao, although his appearance is not good, but I have heard of his deeds. In the past few years, he cracked the Huangjiaoshu corpse dumping case and the gas station arson case, and his method of solving the case was to determine the physical characteristics of the suspect by virtue of accurate footprint identification, and finally arrested him through investigation and deduction. I remember that Lao Lu once mentioned him, saying that as long as there are footprints at the crime scene, then the criminals will not escape.

Old Man Wang walked up to Lao Lu and said, "Xiao Lu, I've worked hard for you these past few days, where are the footprints?" Take me to see it. ”

Old Lu snorted, so he brought Old Man Wang to the footprints, Old Man Wang nodded, asked Lao Lu and I to wait aside, he took out a magnifying glass and a tape measure and began to observe and measure.

After about ten minutes, Mr. Wang stood up and said: "One of these footprints was left by a man who was 180 centimeters tall and weighed more than 85 kilograms. The other person is left by a short man who is about 160 cm tall and weighs less than 50 kilograms, this person has very weak steps and looks like a woman's footprints, but I know that this guy is a habitual thief, so he habitually tiptoes when committing crimes. ”

I listened to Mr. Wang's words and found that his judgment of the size of the owner of the complete footprint was exactly the same as mine, except that he had a more accurate description of his walking posture. However, I don't know how he determined the owner of the single mutilated footprint. But when he said this, he suddenly reminded me that if he is a habitual thief, then his modus operandi must be skillful. I hurried over to the door and carefully checked the locked lock.

This door lock is said to be pried open, in fact, it is not very accurate, from the cat's eye, keyhole and some scratches on the door lock can be seen, this is opened with special techniques and special tools. The method is to open the cat's eye of the security door, through an L-shaped special metal rod, through the cat's eye, hook the handle inside the door to open it. This method is suitable for doors without anti-locking, if the door is anti-locked, it will have no effect, but a professional locksmith can unlock the anti-lock door and then open the door in this way. It can be seen that one of them has a very professional knowledge of unlocking in this theft.

I hurriedly expressed my idea to Lao Lu and Mr. Wang, and both of them looked at the door lock and agreed. And Mr. Wang made a conjecture, he thought that the person who picked the lock was a locksmith, and he said that in his police career, he arrested several burglars, all of whom had professional lockpicking skills. Most of these people are now well-off and have started a business of helping people pick locks. But at the same time, Mr. Wang felt that the possibility of these people doing the old business of stealing again was extremely low, because it was lucrative to help people open locks, and they had a serious career, who would still engage in the business of stealing chickens and dogs?

After Mr. Wang expressed this opinion, I said: "There is a possibility, that is, it is instructed. ”

Lao Lu clasped his hands on his chest and nodded, "Well, it's possible." ”

I said, "Now I understand." Why was the deceased's house smashed and stolen when it appeared, because these were two people who did different crimes at the same time. According to my previous inference, the smashing was to cover up the computer being smashed, so there were obvious traces of theft, which was related to the habitual theft that Mr. Wang said. I assume that the person who carried out the smashing hired a locksmith to pick the locks for him, and the locksmith was a habitual thief, and when he entered the house, he saw that his employer was wantonly destroying the furnishings in the house, so he himself had itchy hands and committed the theft. And his move added a layer of fog to our case. If this assumption is correct, then the burglary is more closely related to the deceased. We can ignore the theft of property in the Clock Tower murder case and focus on the stolen laptop and the restoration of desktop computers. ”

Lao Lu said: "That's right, now I will organize people to investigate the properties in the community first. ”

When Lao Lu and I were about to start the investigation, Old Man Wang spoke: "Do you suspect that the thieves are among the property personnel in this community?" ”

I nodded with Lao Lu.

Old Man Wang smiled: "That's easy to do." Gather all the staff of the property and let them walk a few steps one by one, and I can determine if the 180-centimeter-tall thief is among them. ”

As soon as I heard this, I immediately became interested, because I knew that there was a footprint detective named Wang Qingju, who had also solved many cases in this way, and today, I can finally see this magical method of solving cases with my own eyes.

Under the supervision and investigation of public security personnel, a total of six people from the property and security departments of the community meet the height requirements, and one of them is also the general manager of the property company, Xiang Bo, who is tall and fat, which is closest to the physical signs of the criminal described by Mr. Wang. And when Xiang Bo received the investigation notice, he was extremely uncooperative, saying that it affected the property and security work of their community, but under the deterrence of Lao Lu, this kid also had to cooperate with the investigation.

The investigation is very simple, in the fitness square of the community, Mr. Wang sat on a wooden bench and asked the six people to walk a dozen steps one by one, of course, we did not tell them why they walked up to a dozen steps, just let them walk.

The property manager, Xiang Bo, has always shown a very uncooperative appearance, and has been calling on the side, his voice seems to be angry. In short, I think this kid is not far from ten, and his performances are just covering up the fear in his heart.

However, Lao Lu and Old Man Wang remained silent, followed the procedure step by step, and arranged Xiang Bo to investigate last.

After the five people in front of Mr. Wang walked one by one, Mr. Wang said with certainty that there was no problem, so let this Xiang Bo go in the end.

Xiang Bo was still on the phone, Lao Lu walked up to him, and said politely: "Manager Xiang, it's your turn, just take a few steps, and I'll let the brothers go home." ”

Xiang Bo was still on the phone, saying some inconsequential words, and he didn't respond to Lao Lu's words, just glanced at Lao Lu, and then walked a few steps on the square with a crooked grin.

"You bastard, cuff me!" Just after taking a few steps to Xiang Bo, Old Man Wang suddenly stood up, was furious, and said loudly like a lion's roar.

This voice calmed everyone in the audience, and Xiang Bo, who was pretending to call casually just now, was also standing in the square swallowing saliva at this time, looking trembling.

Lao Lu took out the handcuffs as he stepped forward, and then snatched Xiang Bo's mobile phone and buckled him with his backhand.

Xiang Bo did not resist physically, nor did he have verbal quibbles, it seemed that he was already planning to subdue the law.

After that, he escorted Xiang Bo back to the bureau for interrogation, and the Public Security Bureau happened to be in Jiangnan New District, not far from this community, and I also followed Lao Lu to observe the interrogation.

During the interrogation, Xiang Bo's confession attitude was very good, he said that last night, because he lost a lot of cards and was in a bad mood, he drank some wine, and he was bold after drinking, thinking that Qin Wenyuan, who lived alone, had just died and there was no one at home, so he wanted to go to his house to make a profit. So he used his authority to cut off the electricity in the community, and asked the locksmith Li Mazi to steal Qin Wenyuan's home, but Qin Wenyuan's family did not have cash, and Xiang Bo, who was originally at odds with Qin Wenyuan, smashed Qin Wenyuan's house in a fit of anger.

For this confession, I just laughed, this Xiang Bo obviously deliberately concealed the truth.

So I said to Lao Lu: "Bring Li Mazi to the bureau and let me ask him a few questions, and I can expose Xiang Bo's lies." ”

The work of the public security was very efficient, and about two hours later, Li Mazi was taken to the bureau with a sad face.

This Li Mazi's nickname is very consistent with him, with a full face of pockmarks, a sparse small flat head, sharp-beaked monkey gills, no more than 160 cm tall, and an extremely thin body, this body characteristics are completely in line with the inference of Old Man Wang. I silently admired it in my heart, and made up my mind that I must ask Mr. Wang for advice on this trick of solving cases.

In the interrogation room, Li Mazi was handcuffed, sitting on the interrogation chair, trembling all over. Lao Lu stood aside, looked at him sternly and said, "Li Yunming, you are a person with a criminal record, and you don't do serious business, why did you do this business again?" ”

Li Yunming's mouth was hesitant, he didn't know what to say, and it seemed that he was frightened.

I coughed dryly, sat down opposite Li Yunming and said, "Xiang Bo has explained all the facts of your crime, but I have a few detailed questions, you have to answer honestly, confess leniently, resist strictly, understand?" Li Yunming kept nodding like a chicken pecking rice.

I asked, "What else did Xiang Bo steal last night besides stealing his laptop?" ”

Li Yunming said: "He stole a laptop, as if he didn't steal anything else." By the way, he smashed all those things, and if you want to pay for them, you have to let him pay for them, but it's none of my business, I just opened the lock. ”

I asked, "Do you know who to steal?" ”

Li Yunming raised his handcuffed hands, scratched his head, and said, "I don't know." I didn't even know it was stealing at first. ”

"How did you meet Xiang Bo?"

"Boer is the property manager of the community, and which owner of their community has a problem with the lock, they all asked me to solve it, and I met in this way."

"How did you meet for this theft?"

"Comrade police, I was wronged, last night he said that there was an owner who locked the door without a key, and asked me to open the door, it was more than one o'clock in the evening, I didn't want to go, but Boer is my big customer, and I was not embarrassed to refuse, and he said that this time the lock gave me 2,000 yuan, and I couldn't refuse. It's just that after opening the door, he stole the computer and smashed things, and I was also confused. ”

I nodded, looked into Li Mazi's eyes and said, "If you can control your hands, maybe you can go back at this time." ”

When Li Mazi heard this, he trembled, looked at me, then at Lao Lu, and said tremblingly: "I just took an Apple phone and a watch, I handed these over, can you let me go, I have been washing my hands for more than ten years, this time I am confused, can you give me a chance, please!" ”

Lao Lu looked at Li Mazi and said: "Hurry up and bring the stolen things to the bureau and record a confession, you are not allowed to do this again in the future, otherwise you will have good fruits to eat." ”

When Li Mazi heard this, he was about to cry, knelt down from the chair to the ground, and said with a crying voice: "Thank you, Lord Police, you are a good person, you have a good reward, you will live a long life, you will live a long life." ”

Watching this play, I feel funny, but I also see the helplessness and hesitation in the hearts of these former criminals. It's like quitting smoking, you quit all the time, meet the right person in the right place, he hands you a cigarette, and you smoke again.