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墨書 Inktalez
"Is there someone else in Gao Rui's house?" several people asked in confusion.
I nodded and said to everyone, "That's right. I don't know if you noticed that bottle of red wine. Judging by the marks on the cork, this bottle has been opened for the first time. However, looking at the remaining wine inside, only two-thirds is left. Even if Gao Rui filled the entire goblet, it wouldn't account for this much missing."
Guan Zengbin's puzzled expression turned into shock. "So, that means Gao Rui wasn't the only one drinking. At that time, there must have been another person drinking with him!"
I snapped my fingers and replied, "Exactly. So Gao Rui died after finishing the wine with this person, which means this person should be someone familiar to him."
"By the way," I turned to Gu Chen and asked, "did you find anything from the outside cameras?"
Gu Chen shrugged and tilted his head. "Someone tampered with the surveillance. When the police station sent someone to investigate, they discovered it."
I couldn't help but furrow my brow; this case might not be so simple.
Guan Zengbin kept circling around a chair, saying as she walked, "But think about it—if it was homicide, how could Gao Rui let someone inject drugs into his veins? I didn't detect any sedatives in his body, and the amount of wine wouldn't have made him incapable of resisting."
Stopping in place, Guan Zengbin said, "Given the current situation, I still think it's suicide."
I pinched my head with my fingers, deep in thought. I actually believed that suicide was more likely, but since someone had been in Gao Rui's room before, could this person have somehow coerced Gao Rui into committing suicide? Perhaps by threatening him with something?
It wasn't impossible.
"Let's start from the point of Gao Rui's acquaintances," I said to the two of them. "In previous cases, Gao Rui sheltered criminals and interfered with investigations. Although we pleaded for him, he definitely couldn't keep his job. He surely can't enter the school laboratory anymore; so where did he get those drugs from?"
At dusk, we arrived at Yucai High School to look into this matter.
To be honest, Gao Rui was quite popular; after all, it's rare to find someone who is both handsome and talented. However, even though he had good connections, if he were to ask someone for drugs, it would likely raise immediate suspicion. After all, this is a high-risk chemical; obtaining it from a laboratory would certainly leave a record unless it was stolen.
Inquiries revealed that no one had ever heard of Gao Rui's request, nor had they seen him.
We reviewed the records of chemical substances in the school laboratory, and there had been no applications in the past three months. Moreover, the quantity of substances in the lab had not decreased, ruling out the possibility of theft.
I looked at another building corresponding to the high school and asked a teacher, "Is that the Middle School department?"
The teacher nodded. "Do you think it's the Middle School department?"
Inside the Middle School laboratory.
"This... someone really has stolen substances." The young female teacher in charge of the lab was sweating profusely.
A small amount of the substance could poison an adult in a short time, and the amount stolen was enough to kill ten people.
"Surveillance," I said calmly.
"There is no surveillance," the female teacher replied.
Gu Chen looked helpless. "Such dangerous materials are so easy to steal?"
"The problem is that this school has been established for decades, and no one has ever stolen anything. Why is it happening just as I arrive..." The female teacher began to cry.
Guan Zengbin hurriedly stepped forward to comfort her.
If it wasn't Gao Rui who stole the substances, then it must have been someone from Yucai School. This person must have known that there were no cameras in the Middle School laboratory, which is why they dared to act. The most likely scenario was insider theft. I looked at the young female teacher in her twenties and couldn't help but imagine a melodramatic love story unfolding in my mind.
Could it be that someone who secretly admired Gao Rui gave it to him?
"Let's check it out." I shook my head helplessly. "One by one, take their statements."
With no leads on this case, we could only follow the usual procedures: check the surveillance footage and record testimonies.
Just as we were about to get started, Liu called me. "Hey, Wu Meng, where are you guys?"
"We're investigating the case. What's up?" I replied.
"Another suicide has occurred. The style seems a bit similar to the Gao Rui Suicide Case," Liu said. "The address is on Yanghao Street. You'll see the police cars as soon as you get there. I'm heading to the scene myself."
Hearing Liu's words, I quickly interjected, "Don't go to the scene. Take a few people and investigate the missing items from Yucai Middle School Junior Division. This is a major task, and I'm assigning it to you!"
"What? Why do you always give me the tiring and boring jobs? Last time..."
Before Liu could finish, I hurriedly said, "Liu, my signal is bad. What did you say?"
I quickly hung up the phone and turned to Guan Zengbin and Gu Chen. "Let's go!"
In truth, we shouldn't be handling the suicide case since our primary mission was still to track down Zhao Mingkun. However, since this case involved Gao Rui, it was impossible for me to ignore it. Although I had known Gao Rui for a short time, sometimes friendship isn't measured by the length of time spent together.
Yanghao Street is located in Dongxing City's Old Town District, where buildings from the last century still stand. Unsurprisingly, there were no surveillance cameras along the street. There was only one suicide case between this one and Gao Rui's, and they weren't far apart. According to Liu, even the styles of the suicides were quite similar; otherwise, he wouldn't have notified us.
By the time we arrived, it was already completely dark.
We entered the old building, but the motion-sensor lights were all broken. If someone hadn't spoken up to remind us, Gu Chen would have likely stomped down the stairs.
As we made our way upstairs, our colleagues from the police station briefed us on the situation.
The deceased was named Wang Yiman, thirty-two years old, female. Wang Yiman's husband had died in a car accident five years ago, along with their four-year-old daughter at the time. After her husband's death, Wang Yiman secluded herself in her home, rarely interacting with others.
She was recently found hanged in her house, but it seemed she had been dead for some time. If it weren't for the foul odor that permeated the air, it’s likely no one would have discovered her.
The first to find the body were the police. They received a call around seven o'clock reporting a foul smell coming from Wang Yiman's home. A neighbor had knocked on the door but received no response, prompting them to call the authorities. The officers from the Police Station initially thought it was a civil dispute, but when they entered the house, they discovered the body.
By this time, we had already ascended the stairs.
As we opened Wang Yiman's door, a corpse appeared before us.
Wang Yiman was dressed in a wedding gown, the long train trailing on the floor.
"Move in!" I snapped my fingers.
I stood beneath the body, my face directly facing Wang Yiman's. The corpse emitted a strong stench of decay, yet its surface did not appear overly decomposed. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that her face was made up. This woman had prepared herself before her death.
Thinking this over, I lifted her long skirt to examine her lower body. This was not due to any perverse inclination; rather, hanging is one of the methods of death most likely to result in loss of bowel control.
After death, due to muscle relaxation throughout the body, both the urethral sphincter and anal sphincter loosen, leading to natural excretion. The act of hanging adds gravitational factors that make it even more likely for signs of fecal discharge to be present.
In males, there can also be post-mortem erection and ejaculation due to similar gravitational effects. After death, blood circulation ceases and pools in the lower body, causing congestion; thus, semen may also naturally escape.
However, Wang Yiman's lower body was completely clean. This indicated that she had adequately prepared herself before dying; she must have emptied her bladder and bowels beforehand to maintain such decorum in death.
She must have been a woman who valued her appearance.
At this point, I would advise men: if you do not wish to be seen ejaculating after hanging yourself, it would be best to relieve yourself beforehand.
The height of the stool matched Wang Yiman's feet, but then again, it was reminiscent of those television dramas where the stool is placed on the ground, leaving a considerable distance from the deceased's feet. In reality, there are probably not many fools who would stage a Suicide scene like that.
"Lower the body slowly," I instructed a few officers.
The officers carefully set the body down while Guan Zengbin began a preliminary Autopsy.
"The doors and windows are all locked from the inside," Gu Chen said. "Was the door locked when you entered?"
One officer replied, "Yes, it was locked. We had to force the door open, and once inside, we discovered the body. We checked around, and all the windows were locked as well, with iron bars installed. If someone had committed murder and fled, the Murderer wouldn't have been able to escape."
"There are clear ligature marks," Guan Zengbin noted while performing the Autopsy. "There’s only one ligature groove, and the pressure is angled upward, which basically rules out the possibility of someone being strangled and then staged to look like a hanging. Based on the livor mortis and Corpse Stiffness, it seems she died about two hours ago. Considering the distance between her feet and the ground as well as the rope's position relative to the floor, this indicates a short-distance fall."
"What?" I asked. "What do you mean by short or long?"
Guan Zengbin shot me an exasperated look. "It means she must have been standing on the stool and then kicked it away for the Suicide. This qualifies as a short-distance fall, which is why her cervical vertebrae aren't fractured. Moreover, judging by the marks on her neck, it seems she deliberately positioned the rope at a specific angle. I think there's something off about this."
Deliberately positioned at a specific angle?
Guan Zengbin continued, "Even though this person died from hanging, there are actually many potential causes of death associated with hanging. For instance, compression of the Veins leading to cerebral hypoxia, or death from a broken cervical vertebra during hanging, or suffocation due to pressure on the Trachea, or even instantaneous death caused by pressure on the vagus nerve."
"I believe we can only determine this person's true cause of death once we return to the Autopsy Room."
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