Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 266: Secretly Recorded Video

This discovery brought a bit of surprise to Lu Chuan.

Installing hidden cameras in hotels is something that’s frequently reported in recent years.

Some people even make a living by selling secretly recorded footage from hotels.

Some illegal overseas websites have dedicated channels for collection.

Where there’s hidden filming, there’s counter-surveillance.

There are many methods and devices or apps online for detecting hidden cameras in hotels.

When Lu Chuan was in college, he studied cases related to this.

Hidden cameras in hotels are generally installed in bedrooms and bathrooms.

The installation positions are often very concealed, such as smoke detectors, power strips by the bed, decorative paintings, wall lamps, fire sprinkler heads, and phones.

The most common detection method is to turn off all the lights in the room and scan the entire room with a mobile phone flashlight.

Although pinhole cameras are very small and hard to spot with the naked eye in hidden places, they will reflect light when exposed to strong light.

Just like earlier, when Lu Chuan used a UV light to scan for biological traces and accidentally swept over a mural, he discovered a reflection point.

That’s how he unintentionally found this pinhole camera.

"Master, come look at this!"

Liu Guodong was busy working on the bathroom drain when he heard Lu Chuan calling. He entered the bedroom.

"Did you find something?"

Liu Guodong knew that if Lu Chuan was calling him over, he must have found something.

However, he had already checked the bedroom and found nothing special besides the book on the pillow and the charging phone on the bedside table.

"Here, this mural."

Mural?

Liu Guodong approached the mural and observed it for a while: "What’s the issue?"

Without illumination, Liu Guodong couldn’t spot the camera with the naked eye either.

Lu Chuan turned on the UV light and shone it over: "Take another look now."

The purple reflection point was very distinct, and Liu Guodong immediately noticed the nostril of the character in the mural.

"This... is a pinhole camera?"

Liu Guodong had only heard about them but had never actually seen one.

Even though such cases are not uncommon in recent years, happening almost daily,

99% of them are handled by local police stations.

The involvement of the Criminal Investigation Team is rare, let alone the main Criminal Investigation Team.

Nonetheless, discovering a pinhole camera is always a significant find.

If this camera has been operational, it could be a major breakthrough in last night’s disappearance case of Liu Bai.

"Take it down!"

The camera was well-hidden but not difficult to remove.

Also, hidden cameras in hotels generally do not have the capability to transmit images remotely.

They record on the spot and store the footage locally because transmitting remotely would require a much larger device.

The high energy consumption would also demand a high-capacity battery.

This is why most hidden cameras in hotels are installed by hotel staff.

Because it’s not convenient for outsiders to retrieve the videos easily.

As expected, once the pinhole camera was removed, it included a small battery and storage device.

It was just an ordinary SD card.

"I’ll get a computer, be right back."

Reading data from this type of card is easy; no converter is needed, and many laptops have slots to read it directly.

Liu Guodong returned in less than 10 minutes with a laptop borrowed from the hotel front desk.

Lu Chuan inserted the memory card directly.

He opened the folder.

It was a video file over ten gigabytes in size.

"With such a large file, this pinhole camera has been here for quite some time."

Such simple recording devices do not have features to automatically detect whether someone is in the room.

They’re usually set on a timer.

Most start recording after 8 PM and stop around 1 or 2 AM.

"The memory card isn’t full yet, let’s see if the battery has juice left."

He tapped the play button, and an indescribable scene appeared.

Lu Chuan and Liu Guodong exchanged glances.

Lu Chuan quickly dragged the mouse to the end of the video.

"Got it!"

The last section of the video was precisely the footage from last night.

"Adjust the timeline."

Liu Guodong’s expression was one of excitement.

It was unclear if it was due to the earlier scenes or because they finally had footage after Liu Bai checked in yesterday.

"Master, over here!"

The surveillance video, though silent, captured the entire process after Liu Bai returned last night until his kidnapping.

"Excellent!"

This pinhole camera wasn’t equipped with a microphone for audio recording, so the video was silent.

However, the process wasn’t missing.

"I’ll call Captain Qin!"

Ten minutes later.

In a conference room prepared by the hotel, Qin Yong and others gathered around the computer, carefully watching the video.

At 8:50, the room’s lights turned on.

Although Liu Bai wasn’t visible in the video, they could confirm that he entered the room and turned on the lights at that time.

This matched the timing Qin Yong and the others saw in the monitoring room earlier.

The hallway surveillance showed that Liu Bai opened the room door at 8:49.

The footage remained static until 9:18 when Liu Bai finally appeared in the bedroom.

He charged his phone and changed into sleepwear before leaving the bedroom.

At that time, it was 9:22.

Even without sound, they could guess Liu Bai was probably freshening up.

At 9:34, Liu Bai reappeared in the bedroom.

At that point, he was holding a book.

It was the same book Lu Chuan and others found on the pillow.

After that, Liu Bai remained in bed reading the book.

Until 10:03, the scene changed.

Liu Bai looked up towards the bedroom door, as if he heard something.

Then he put down the book, seemingly intending to get up and check.

Just then, two figures suddenly burst into the bedroom.

"You guys..."

Even though the footage was silent, from Liu Bai’s mouth movements, you could tell he was calling out.

But the person coming toward him took out a spray and sprayed it directly at Liu Bai.

Before he could shout a complete sentence, he passed out on the bed.

The two individuals seemed to speak no words; one approached while the other turned and left, briefly returning with a luggage cart and a large box on it.

In a matter of moments, they packed Liu Bai into the box, loaded it onto the cart, and vanished from the scene.

The entire process took less than ten minutes.

The video ended.

Qin Yong looked at Ren Qiang: "Arrest them first."

"Yes!"

One of the two individuals in the footage, dressed in black, was unknown to everyone.

However, the one in a suit was familiar to all.

Because the person who had just led Qin Yong to inspect Liu Bai’s room was one of the people in the video.

Haotai Hotel’s room manager, Song Hui!