Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 305: Reviewing Surveillance Footage

Inside the Half Past Eight Supermarket, there are two cameras, one in the corner by the stockroom door and one on the left side corner of the entrance.

The two cameras form an angle, perfectly capturing the entire view inside the supermarket.

The camera by the stockroom door faces the supermarket entrance, allowing a view of the outside.

At 6:18 PM three days ago, Zhou Yang and his father were seen standing to the left of the supermarket entrance on surveillance.

Due to the angle, Zhou Yang is fully visible on camera, while only half of his father’s face is visible.

Based on information provided by Zhou Yang’s father, Zhou Yang’s mother was also present when he was given money, but she is not visible on the footage due to the angle.

This is a franchise supermarket with uniformly customized equipment, and the clarity of the surveillance footage is quite high.

"This, right here, Zhou Yang’s father is giving money to Zhou Yang."

In the surveillance video, Zhou Yang’s father can be clearly seen handing a wad of cash to Zhou Yang.

Before handing over the cash, Zhou Yang seemed to have spoken with his father for about five minutes.

During the conversation, the movements of their hands kept changing, and Zhou Yang appeared quite agitated.

"Heh, this Zhou Yang... his father said they had an argument at the time, urging him to find a girlfriend and settle down, and to visit home more often."

Although the video does not capture their conversation, Zhang Hui focused on understanding this interaction with Zhou Yang’s father.

"Zhou Yang didn’t listen, he just asked his dad for money, see, took the money and left straight away."

In the video, after receiving the money, Zhou Yang didn’t say another word to his father and immediately turned and left.

The video continues to play, and they keep watching.

Zhou Yang’s father seemed to be in a daze for a few seconds before he turned and left.

Bump.

However, the moment Zhou Yang’s father turned in the opposite direction, he bumped into a stranger walking towards him.

Zhou Yang’s father quickly apologized, and at this time, a middle-aged woman, Zhou Yang’s mother, appeared at the other end of the screen.

The person bumped into by Zhou Yang’s father did not say anything, waved a hand, and left directly.

"Brother Hui, replay this section of the footage."

Zhang Hui looked at Lu Chuan: "Zhou Yang’s father remembers this person, after apologizing the other party didn’t say anything and just left."

Lu Chuan nodded, having seen it himself in the video earlier.

The man simply waved a hand and quickly walked away.

However, Lu Chuan’s focus wasn’t on what this person said or didn’t say.

Zhang Hui rewound the footage, and Lu Chuan took over: "Brother Hui, let me."

Zhang Hui had a thought: "This person... is suspicious?"

"Not sure yet... let’s take a look at this..."

The video froze at the moment of the collision between the two men.

Lu Chuan used the computer’s screenshot tool to capture a frame from the video.

Then he used the built-in photo viewer to zoom in on the man’s shoes in the image.

Black leather shoes, somewhat worn-out, Lu Chuan focused on the worn edges.

"Brother Hui, this person... the wear on the edges of his shoes is about the same as the footprints we found at the scene!"

"You mean... this person is the perpetrator?"

"That’s still uncertain, the video only shows the side edges of the man’s leather shoes, the wear level is similar to the footprints at the scene."

"But the tread pattern on the soles can’t be seen in the video, so it’s not very certain."

"However, considering the timing in the video, this person should have seen Zhou Yang’s father giving him cash."

"If this person had any intention for the money, could he have followed them at this point?"

Zhang Hui wasn’t entirely sure about Lu Chuan’s judgment, but there were no other leads anyway.

"Let’s go, there are more cameras nearby, we’ll go check them out."

"Alright."

They copied the relevant footage from the supermarket and instructed the cashier on some precautions before leaving.

"Don’t touch the surveillance video’s computer for now."

"Don’t worry, we definitely won’t touch it, but aren’t police salaries particularly high now?"

Zhang Hui frowned, as he hardly ever hears about high police salaries during investigations: "Why say that?"

The clerk gestured toward a Cayenne outside the supermarket: "Driving that car to handle a case, isn’t the salary high?"

Zhang Hui turned to look at Lu Chuan starting the car, and sighed.

"Brother, do you think this is something you can buy on a salary?"

Even ten years of not eating or drinking wouldn’t be enough for such a car.

After getting in the car, Zhang Hui couldn’t help but sigh.

"What’s up Brother Hui, you should be happy we found a lead."

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, happy, happy."

Lu Chuan was very enthusiastic; as a crime scene investigator, he often goes to crime scenes, but getting to work on a case was rare.

This time in particular, even though Zhang Hui was leading the team, the deductions and commands were mostly spearheaded by Lu Chuan.

"Brother Hui, there’s a hotel opposite us, there should be cameras at the entrance, shall we go check it out?"

"Alright, let’s go check it out."

The car started, took a turn, and arrived at the hotel diagonally across from the supermarket.

Following the same procedure, with Zhang Hui showing his badge, the hotel staff was very cooperative.

The hotel front desk manager was very talkative.

"Officers, our hotel has just been renovated, and the equipment is top-notch."

"The surveillance at our entrance is a wide-angle camera and it’s in HD, I’ll have security assist you."

"Alright, thank you very much for the trouble."

"No trouble at all, collaborating with law enforcement is every citizen’s duty."

Shortly after, they reached the surveillance room.

"Hello Manager Sun!"

The security guards were well-trained; upon seeing the manager enter, they immediately stood at attention and saluted.

"Hu, these officers are from the police department, they need to review surveillance footage, assist them."

"Yes, sir!"

Zhang Hui directly instructed the security operating the surveillance video to rewind to 6:18 PM three days ago.

The person operating the video was skillful, and as Manager Sun mentioned, the hotel’s hardware was indeed excellent.

When the security officer was searching for the footage, he was very quick.

In fact, few surveillance systems can manage such speed.

Surveillance video processing is typically slow due to large storage volumes requiring extensive computer resources.

Plus, many surveillance systems, to cut costs, use large hard drives with low computer configurations.

This results in slow search speeds and frequent video stalling.

Two minutes later, the security officer stood up: "Manager Sun, it’s ready."

Zhang Hui and Lu Chuan moved closer to the computer: "Here, it’s visible!"

The top left corner of the surveillance footage is facing the entrance of the Half Past Eight Supermarket.

In the video, Zhou Yang’s father can be seen giving money to Zhou Yang.

"Look here, on the side of the supermarket."

In the footage, Zhang Hui saw a woman standing on the right side of the Half Past Eight Supermarket, and not far behind her was the man who had collided with Zhou Yang’s father.