As soon as they got the news, they immediately announced it in the task - force's small chat group.
The team leader ordered the two of them to directly track down Li Ming's whereabouts.
"I'll take care of things at the station for you."
With the team leader's words, the two immediately rushed towards the station.
In the station's monitoring room.
Xiao Chen looked tense, staring at the monitoring screens menacingly. This was his forte—he could watch multiple screens simultaneously without missing any details. It was this talent that allowed him to enter the criminal investigation brigade right after graduating.
There were a lot of people on the screens. Lao Li's eyes were starting to feel a bit bleary. Seeing that Xiao Chen was still watching intently, he didn't have the heart to disturb him and quietly slipped out to buy food.
After a morning of running around, it was almost past the mealtime.
When Lao Li strolled back with two lunch boxes, Xiao Chen was extremely excited.
His face was flushed. He shouted at Lao Li, "Come quickly, come quickly! I've spotted them!"
Lao Li didn't care about the food in his hand and rushed forward in one stride.
Sure enough, at the part captured on the monitoring screen, although it looked a bit blurry at first, in such a short time, Xiao Chen had already enhanced the picture to high - definition.
It was clearly Li Ming and Wang Lin.
So many days had passed since the crime, and they finally saw the two of them again.
Lao Li was so excited that he almost dropped the food in his hand.
"Quick, have a bite first. After we finish eating, we'll immediately follow this lead and see if we can dig out anything later." Lao Li's eyes were shining. He handed the lunch box to Xiao Chen, unscrewed a bottle of water, and started eating in the monitoring room.
Xiao Chen was gradually getting used to the erratic eating schedule during investigations. He didn't complain and sat on the narrow table, gobbling his food.
To be honest, after such a long time, he really did feel a bit hungry.
"Xiao Chen, have you found out where these two are going?" Lao Li asked while picking up some vegetables.
Xiao Chen had so much food in his mouth that when he suddenly heard the question, he almost choked. After finally swallowing it down, he nodded and confidently said, "Yes, I checked the ticket - selling back - end system according to that time. Their IDs were fake, but the time couldn't be faked. At that time, at that window, the ticket seller said they only sold two tickets to Buhai."
Buhai was a key place.
The two looked at each other and read this message from each other's eyes.
Almost simultaneously, they decided to immediately head to Buhai.
There were few tickets left for Buhai at that time. Lao Li used a bit of his privilege to exchange for an earlier - departing ticket.
Once on the train, he quickly contacted the Buhai police through the team leader.
Buhai wasn't far from the city. Since it was near the sea, there seemed to be a faint smell of seawater in the air.
The air here was good, and the sky was blue. As a small city far from industrialization, the air was much better than in the city.
By the time they arrived in Buhai, it was almost dark.
After a whole day of running around, the two partners, one old and one young, were exhausted. Lao Li was okay as he was used to it, but Xiao Chen was struggling.
The local police had already sent someone to wait for them.
After the two sides met, they exchanged the information they had.
"Li Ming is probably just a small fry in the criminal gang behind this. He's the kind of person criminal gangs like to recruit—uneducated, with a low - paying job, lazy, and always dreaming of getting rich." Lao Li handed over Li Ming's photo.
The Buhai police also had a general understanding through the electronic materials sent by the X - city police brigade.
The experienced old detective who came to pick them up, the fatter one, said first, "When you were still in X city, Chief Wang told us about the general situation. We know the details and also that these criminals are extremely cunning. We must cooperate closely in our actions and never tip them off."
This idea coincided with Lao Li's. He rubbed his shiny forehead, feeling a bit excited. Based on his intuition, they would definitely make a breakthrough this time.
"So, has your department made any progress?" Lao Li asked politely.
"We've got this under control. Come on, let's go to the police station to talk." Considering they must be very tired, the other side didn't take them directly to the lead location.
Lao Li pushed Xiao Chen and replied with a smile, "Okay."
Xiao Chen was confused and didn't understand the situation.
Even when they got in the car, he didn't dare to voice his questions.
Why did Lao Li react like that? Was there something wrong here?
Finally, when they reached the police station, there was a surprise waiting for them.
Looking at the simple but sincere meal on the table, Lao Li reflected on whether he had been too suspicious.
They just wanted them to have a meal and rest, but he thought there might be an insider trying to tip off the criminals.
They ate the meal listlessly and were eager to continue the investigation.
"Don't be in a hurry, you two. I know you're working on a major case," the Buhai detective said after the meal. "Fortunately, we have the Sky - Eye system. According to the time sent by X city, as soon as we got the news, we immediately sent someone to the station to retrieve the monitoring footage. Sure enough, we found these two." He turned on the computer and projected a few screenshots on the wall. They were exactly Li Ming and Wang Lin.
In the pictures, it could be seen that Wang Lin seemed a bit uneasy. Maybe she sensed something was wrong, but she still followed Li Ming closely and thus missed her last chance.
They continued watching the monitoring footage. Finally, the two entered an abandoned warehouse and disappeared.
"That's roughly the situation. No matter how hard our comrades searched, there was no relevant monitoring footage. So we're not sure if this is the original crime scene." The Buhai police patiently explained.
Xiao Chen felt sad. If only Wang Lin had noticed the slightest something was wrong, would she have been saved?
From X city to Buhai, such a long distance, Wang Lin had narrowly escaped death several times, but in the end, she still couldn't escape the devil's clutches.
After the police had all the information, the two teams briefly discussed and unanimously decided to conduct a secret operation at the warehouse in plain clothes. The number of people shouldn't be too large. Lao Li and Xiao Chen counted as two, and the Buhai police would send three elites.
They didn't want to tip off the criminals by having too many people.
After all, it was an established fact that there was a big fish behind this.
Taking advantage of the night when there were fewer people and it wouldn't interfere with their operation, they quietly sneaked into the warehouse.