Zhou Ning opened his eyes and spoke subconsciously.
"No, the sequence is wrong."
Liu Yongxin turned his head to look at Zhou Ning, aware that Zhou Ning was accustod to reenacting all traces in his mind, but as to what exactly was wrong, he was confused.
"What sequence is wrong?"
"I have always thought that the victim knew the killer, and during a conversation or gathering, was suddenly attacked, and subsequently died of suffocation or drowning.
If the victim was standing or sitting when attacked, even if there was no resistance, on falling over, the side opposite to the attack would suffer from the impact, resulting in counter-coup fractures. But you see, the other temporal side of the victim is intact, which doesn’t match our analysis.
So, looking at the wounds from the attack, it’s likely that the victim, Zheng Chuguang, was lying on his side when he was knocked unconscious, then strangled to death, his neck was severed to let the blood out, and only afterwards was his body cleaned and clothed."
Having said this, Zhou Ning paused for a mont, then looked towards Zhu Xingxing and waved at her.
"Zhu Xingxing, go check the autopsy reports for all three bodies for blood traces on clothing, especially on the innermost layers."
Zhu Xingxing dashed out, leaving everyone montarily stunned, unable to make sense of her reaction and wondering why she had run off since all the reports were available in electronic format on Mr. Qu’s computer. Before Zhou Ning could say more, Zhu Xingxing had already returned, pushing a whiteboard.
Mr. Zhao’s cheeks twitched, holding back a laugh, and he hurried over to help.
Out of breath, Zhu Xingxing adjusted the whiteboard and pointed to several areas saying:
"The victims’ clothing is intact and there’s no sign of extensive blood spatter, but there are rub-like bloodstains on the most inner layer of the clothing.
Additionally, as the photos show, the blood on the shirt sleeves of Victim Number One was gathered at the elbow. I rember Doctor Bai ntioning that the victims’ clothing and related physical evidence were kept in the evidence room here."
Having said this, and seeing Zhou Ning looking at her, Zhu Xingxing intelligently raised her hand imdiately.
"I’ll get Doctor Bai to bring the physical evidence. We previously ntioned we needed the physical evidence from this series of murders, but we were too busy with other matters at the ti and it was put aside."
As she spoke, Zhu Xingxing was already out making a call. In just a mont, Bai Hua arrived carrying a box, followed by two detectives. Bai Hua put down the box and turned to Zhou Ning to explain.
"Last ti at the eting, it was ntioned that we needed to organize the physical evidence. I have sorted them out individually. All the physical evidence found at the scenes is here, all re-photographed, and suspected bloodstains on the plastic cloth and clothing have been sampled.
Regarding the plastic cloth, I have already sent it to the forensic departnt to see if we can use the latest thods to extract fingerprints. After all, the technology back then was limited. Director Zhou, if you are in a hurry, I can contact Mr. Cui right now."
Zhou Ning shook his head, appreciating Bai Hua’s diligence. It was clear she had been busy and hadn’t been able to pay much attention to their work, but the fact that she managed to keep up and had already sent items for testing was comndable.
"Thank you; Mr. Zhao and Yang Xuetong, check the victims’ clothing, starting with Zheng Chuguang."
The two got to work, and Liu Yongxin had already dialed Cui Lili’s number, speaking in a low voice. Cui Lili on the other side was quite polite, prompting Liu Yongxin to hang up the phone.
"The test report has been sent to the email, Mr. Qu, take a look at it. In addition, Cui Lili used many thods to try to extract fingerprints from the plastic cloth, eventually using sothing with 8-hydroxyquinoline which found a few, although incomplete, it’s sent over, but there is enough for comparison."
Zhou Ning breathed a sigh of relief. Mrs. Cui was always tily in her assistance. The extraction of old fingerprints was not easy. Each victim was found lying on plastic wrap for so reason Zhou Ning didn’t know; perhaps to wrap up bodies to prevent the killer from getting blood on themselves?
Unable to figure it out, Zhou Ning didn’t dwell on it. Mr. Qu had already printed the report, and Sun Gaotie hurried over to receive it and passed it to Zhou Ning.
Zhou Ning glanced at it, and saw that three of the victims had bloodstains on their undershirts or vest, all belonging to themselves. Blood traces on the outer layers of clothing were rare. After another look at the clothing photos, Zhou Ning was even more convinced that the victims were clothed after being decapitated and bled out.
At the end of the report, he noted that the fingerprints were indeed incomplete, varying in shape with murky edges, but still, about 70% were clear enough for comparison, just as Cui Lili had said. They wouldn’t help to search for a suspect, but they were more than adequate for identification.
"Mr. Qu, compare these, Li Hua, Zhu Yufen, Ai Qingsong, Fang Guoying, Li Hua’s husband Chen Guoqing, the three classmates who ca before, and Zhu Yufen’s ex-husband. You need to search for that information; I don’t know the ex-husband’s na."
Mr. Qu gave an OK sign and got down to work.
Zhou Ning inspected the remaining victims’ skulls. Like Zheng Chuguang’s, they did not have counter-coup fractures. The only difference was that Yu Guangyao’s injury was on the occipital bone, and the force had been excessive, with shattered bone.
Zhou Ning picked up the fragnts and compared them. They could be perfectly pieced together. However, the wound was not caused by the ax’s blade; it resulted from a blow with the squared back end. The forehead still showed no counter-coup fractures.
It was unfortunate that only the skulls were available; if there had been brain tissue, it would have been easier to assess the extent of the damage.
Mr. Zhao had finished his task and arranged the selected items on the table. Zhou Ning took a look: in addition to three axes, there was green nylon rope of the sa material used to bind the three people and a wooden tag.
The axes were almost identical in material and style, with slight size variations. The blade, square hamr side, and handle all had bloodstains, and to Zhou Ning’s surprise, they were wrapped in plastic cloth. Mr. Zhao wanted to clean the soil off, but Zhou Ning stopped him.
"Don’t open it; send it as it is, box and all, to Mrs. Cui. Although buried in the ground, it is wrapped in plastic, creating an environnt with little variation in temperature and humidity. Perhaps sothing can be extracted from it.
All the victims were knocked unconscious before being killed and decapitated, have you considered why?"
Mr. Zhao blinked.
"We don’t even have to think about it. It’s a torture killing, isn’t it? Isn’t this about taking revenge for Cui Yushang?"
Liu Yongxin gave Mr. Zhao a dismissive look and pushed him away.
"Deadweight, I ask you to use your brain for once and you just can’t be bothered to think harder. Based on our previous analysis, the murder and disposal of the body must have been a two-person job that went on for nineteen years. Just for bullying a dummy big guy? Could they really do all this just for a simpleton?"
Such reasoning stunned everyone present. Zhou Ning smiled at Liu Yongxin; the master’s thought process was truly one that ordinary people could not keep up with.
"Do Mr. Liu and the boss an to say that the murderer deliberately led us to investigate in this direction?"
Hearing Zhu Xingxing’s words made Zhou Ning nod his head.
"Not precisely, but it certainly plays that role. Childhood bullying can have a lasting impact on a person, but that’s provided that the main object of hatred is still alive. If Cui Yushang were not dead, then in today’s case, we might consider Cui Yushang a suspect.
Whether they are relatives or friends, they tend to forget all this hurt over ti. So I think among these people, there must be soone who was hard by these three, perhaps this kind of harm lasted many years.
Let’s wait for the investigation results from Director Xu’s end. I think we’re close to finding the primary cri scene. However, I still have one suspicion, but that needs to wait for the results from Director Xu’s end."
Mr. Zhao scratched his head.
"So you’re playing your cards close to your chest, huh!"
"It’s not that at all. Director Xu and Tao Da previously analyzed the center point of the location where the body was discarded and found that it coincides with the forr Hongqi Road Community, a demolition area that has been in dispute for several years now due to holdout residents. It has been left vacant, making it a very likely primary cri scene."
"Why didn’t we get called to follow along?"
"No rush, let them take a first look."
Zhou Ning picked up the wooden tag and examined it carefully. It seed to have characters on it. Mr. Zhao brushed off the loose soil with a brush, revealing so remnants of paint at the center of the tag. Squinting from a distance, Mr. Zhao was the first to exclaim:
"I was wondering why this looked so familiar. It’s an address plate, wooden ones just like this from the ’80s. They used to have the street and number written on them in paint, but it’s all flaked off now."
Mr. Qu raised his hand.
"Give the tag to look at. I’ll take a photo and use software to scan and sharpen the image to see."
Mr. Zhao briskly brought the tag over.
"No results from the fingerprint comparison?"
Seeing Zhou Ning’s puzzled expression, Mr. Qu hurriedly pointed at another computer.
"It’s being analyzed. After all, the fingerprints aren’t clear. I just finished processing the images of these fingerprints. It’ll be done in ten minutes."
Zhou Ning walked over and watched as Mr. Qu processed and analyzed the scanned images. His fingers danced on the keyboard as the image of the tag turned black and then red on the screen. Finally, under a high-contrast light, so inscriptions beca visible.
"Hongqi Road No.29? What place is that?"
Mr. Qu quickly searched for a map from the nineties and located Hongqi Road No.29. It was precisely a courtyard at the south gate of Hongqi Road Community, but the map didn’t indicate what that place was.
Bai Hua ca over to look. Everyone stepped aside to make room for her, as she was a local. After a bit of thought, Bai Hua had a realization:
"Let think, I’ve walked past there before. It seems like it was so kind of factory; the kind with the gates always shut, perhaps so auxiliary business of an old state-owned enterprise or sothing else. But the gate was still intact. I’ll ask my dad; he’s retired from the construction bureau."
Bai Hua quickly made the call, then imdiately looked up to relay the answer.
"My father says that the spot used to be a printing factory’s property. When Hongqi Road Community was under construction, it was re-planned, and there was an office building shaped like the character ’concave.’ At that ti, it served as Haichanglong’s office area. But after Haichanglong moved to their tower around the nineties, the place was left idle and wasn’t sold off."
"Don’t hang up, ask your dad if the Haichanglong real estate is behind the construction project involving the demolition that’s been dragging on for years?"
After asking, Bai Hua nodded.
"Yes, that’s right."
All the pieces were slowly starting to form a clearer picture when suddenly, the computer next to Mr. Qu beeped twice. Mr. Qu looked excitedly at the screen and shouted:
"Director Zhou, co quickly, the fingerprint comparison results are out!"
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