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墨書 Inktalez
"Are there ghosts in this world?" Old Shao glanced at the crowd.
Jiang He spoke up, "Based on my analysis, I have a ninety-nine percent probability that there are no ghosts in this world."
Old Shao looked toward the nearby Big Huai Tree and said, "If the killer is human, we catch a human. If the killer is a ghost, we catch a ghost. Put on your raincoats; it’s really coming down. Drive the cars under the Big Huai Tree, and shine the headlights at the house on the right; it’s too dark here. Captain Li, notify Xu Yiman and the Forensic Science Division to come over and see if there are any useful clues."
Captain Li nodded.
Everyone donned their raincoats while the Detective parked the car.
The headlights of several vehicles illuminated the shop on the right, finally dispelling some of the darkness.
Under the beam of light, a body lay near the entrance of the shop, though what was left of the door was gone. The interior of what used to be a shop was in disarray, filled with scattered belongings that hadn’t been removed and some household garbage, along with plenty of animal droppings.
The shop was divided into a front hall and a back room, not very spacious.
Although no one had been here for quite some time, the continuous heavy rain had washed the street and the area near the entrance clean; there were no footprints left on the ground. It seemed that trace evidence technicians would have a hard time finding any fingerprints or footprints.
It was uncertain whether this was coincidental or if the killer had deliberately chosen to act during heavy rain, knowing that it would wash away much of the evidence.
Old Shao hurried a few steps forward and picked up a phone from the ground.
He pressed it, and the screen lit up, but it required a password.
Old Shao crouched down and used one of the corpse's fingers to unlock it.
The phone was unlocked.
After browsing through it for a moment, Old Shao discovered the identity of this person.
"That person is also a student from Fourth Middle School," Old Shao said. "He has many selfies, including some where he is wearing a school uniform. It seems that the victims share a common trait—they are all students of Fourth Middle School. However, each time, the killer takes the victim's phone, but this time they didn't. What does that mean?"
No one answered; everyone was staring at the shop.
"Call the principal," Old Shao instructed. "Find out who this person is."
The scene was too chaotic, filled with a lot of useless information, and Jiang He had no way of knowing what was left by the killer and what was left by others. Therefore, Jiang He focused on the body.
The body’s head and shoulders were outside the shop, while the rest was inside. Due to the heavy rain, Jiang He did not find any blood on the ground; after such a long time, the rain had diluted the blood, washing it away completely.
The heavy rain had even caused the face of the corpse to turn pale. Near the right temple, the skull was shattered and deeply sunken, revealing the brain matter inside.
"Half of his brain has been washed away by the rain," Old Shao squatted down to examine the wound and remarked.
"The wound's markings are very similar to those on the previous body," Jiang He said. "I have a seventy percent probability that this was caused by the same weapon."
Captain Li stepped forward and said, "I've already notified them; they are on their way."
"Fear," Old Shao stood up. "The expression on the corpse is twisted, with its mouth wide open. It's clear that before death, he was very afraid. At that moment, he was bludgeoned to death. A forensic doctor once told me that this is called cadaveric spasm. When a person is under extreme stress or fear, or suffers a brain injury, they may freeze their last expression or action before death."
Jiang He listened intently.
Old Shao continued, "Previously, a hacker infiltrated the police department's computer and played a recording of a conversation between the victim and the killer while they were on a call. In that garbled conversation, there were many parts we couldn't hear clearly, but from snippets of dialogue, we can analyze an established fact."
Old Shao glanced at Jiang He. "The victim believed that the killer was a ghost and did not want them to come closer. In their conversation, it seemed like they had done something wrong to the killer in the past. If that's true, then these three individuals must be connected and must have done something together; otherwise, who would meet in such a dark street?"
Although Jiang He did not agree with Old Shao's conclusions, he did not refute them either. Jiang He always believed that drawing conclusions based on someone's emotional expressions was pseudoscience. The traces left at the scene were different; they were evidence that could not lie or deceive.
The victim lay at the entrance with his legs bent and his arms resting at his sides.
From this action, it could be analyzed that the victim was facing into the store before death.
Jiang He expressed his thoughts: "The victim was facing into the store, which means the murderer was inside. The murderer was wearing a red outfit, and in such a dark environment, red clothing stands out. However, the victim did not notice it at first. I have an eighty percent probability that the murderer was hiding in the store's partition beforehand."
With that, Jiang He walked into the back room. He crouched down to observe closely and indeed found traces of rainwater on the floor.
Jiang He turned on his flashlight and looked at the ceiling; there were no signs of leaks, indicating that the rainwater must have been brought in by someone.
Seeing the rainwater further confirmed Jiang He's speculation.
He exited the back room and said, "After seeing the victim arrive, the murderer came out from the back room. The victim fell to the ground, using both hands to crawl outward. The murderer approached the victim, and as the victim grabbed onto the murderer's clothing, the murderer struck down with a hammer at the victim's temple."
"The question is," Captain Li interjected, "was the murderer really wearing red? It’s not good to make assumptions."
Jiang He shook his head and walked over to the victim. Wearing gloves, he lifted one of the victim's hands.
Under the bright light, the victim's hand was clearly visible.
Jiang He pointed to one of the victim's fingers and said, "Do you see anything under the nail?"
Captain Li leaned down to take a look and noticed a thin red thread under the nail of the victim's right index finger.
Jiang He remarked, "So what that police officer saw wasn't wrong; that red shadow was indeed the murderer fleeing. Take me to where that shadow disappeared."
The police officer nodded in agreement.
Old Shao spoke up, "Let's get the body onto the vehicle."
A few people helped lift the body while that police officer led Jiang He and Old Shao to where they had seen the shadow.
The Big Huai Tree stood in the middle section of Dahuai Tree Street, with vehicles approaching from the south and shadows disappearing to the north.
As Jiang He walked northward, he observed his surroundings and the ground beneath his feet. The asphalt road made it impossible to leave footprints. At that moment, Jiang He hoped to find some trace left by the murderer; it was the key to solving the case.
After walking for more than ten minutes, they reached the north side of the road.
Continuing north from this position would lead them out of Dahuai Tree Street.
A police officer pointed and said, "It was here in this alley that he flashed by."
When the flashlight illuminated the alley, a smile clearly appeared on Old Shao's face. He noticed that in this muddy alley, there were clearly dozens of footprints connecting one end to the other. Rainwater had already filled the impressions, creating ripples within them.
Old Shao smiled and said, "With so many footprints, even if some have been washed away by the rain, we can still compare them to identify the shoe patterns and deduce the person's height and weight."
At this point, Old Shao said, "Notify Captain Li to set up umbrellas in this alley to prevent the rain from washing away the footprints."
He looked up; it seemed that the rain would continue for a while.
After Captain Li arrived with his team to protect the alley, Xu Yiman and the Trace Examiner also rushed to the scene.
Xu Yiman glanced at the body already placed in a body bag and said, "While you were responding to calls, another report came in about a body part being found. This time it was a large thigh discovered inside what should have been a guitar case. According to DNA testing, this thigh also belongs to Song You."
Captain Li replied, "We've only found a few parts; a significant portion is still missing."
Xu Yiman nodded. "The murderer may have discarded body parts in various corners of the city; it won't be easy to find them all. However, we have confirmed the identity of that highly decomposed corpse. Through coordination with the school and hospital, we found blood belonging to Zhuang Ziming during his college entrance examination blood test. After comparing it with the DNA of the decomposed body, we confirmed that the deceased is indeed Zhuang Ziming."
"We've notified Zhuang Ziming's parents; they should be back this afternoon," Xu Yiman shrugged.
"What about the fingerprints?" Jiang He asked. "The clear fingerprint found on the cabinet."
Xu Yiman shook her head. "There is no record of this fingerprint in the database. According to our analysis, we found that it is a fingerprint from the right index finger. Normally, we only collect thumbprints. So this person has no criminal record and has not committed any crimes before."
Captain Li walked over. "We have confirmed that the deceased's name is Shih Wenshan. He is indeed a student from Anxiang District Fourth Middle School, specifically from Class 8. Teacher Gu mentioned that Shih Wenshan was quite timid in class and didn't have much presence. It's hard to understand why such a thing would happen."
Old Shao looked at Captain Li. "Can we take casts of those footprints?"
Captain Li nodded. "There are plenty of samples; we can do that. However, a ghost wouldn't use a hammer, nor would they leave footprints in an alley."
At that moment, Captain Li's phone rang.
Shao the Elder said, "The three deceased individuals were all classmates from Class 8 at Anxiang District Fourth Middle School. I wonder if there will be another victim. What could these people have done to bring about such misfortune?"
Everyone fell silent.
At this time, Captain Li, having hung up the phone, looked at everyone and slowly spoke, "It's not three who have died; it's four."
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