Chapter 4 The Informant 5

  The scene of the crime was on a deserted pier by the sea, because it was raining and the location was remote, if not for a pair of lovers who suddenly decided to come here looking for romance, I don't know when the body would have been discovered.

  Zhang Tong had just gotten out of the taxi when she saw that young couple who were scared stiff. The look of extreme fear on their faces was unmistakable. Their faces were pale and they were shivering all over. Zhang Tong furrowed her brow. She noticed a stain on the young man's pant leg, as well as a pile of something not far away that seemed to be emitting a sour, rotten smell.

  The rain got heavier and heavier. Pan Jian drove the work car over and arrived soon after. While organizing the toolbox, Pan Jian looked dejected.

  "What's wrong? Even with a corpse in front of you, I've never seen such a miserable look on your face. What happened?" Zhang Tong smiled slightly. In fact, she didn't need to ask and had already guessed it earlier. The young man had been dating recently. His rare day off was ruined by being called in. And to make matters worse, it was a gloomy rainy day. It's no wonder his mood was bad.

  Pan Jian dragged the heavy toolbox out while grumbling, "It's not easy to make Ah Cai laugh, and then this phone call comes and ruins it again... sigh..."

  "It's okay, you get used to it after a long time." Zhang Tong sighed and shook his head, pulling the toolbox as he was about to walk towards the dock direction. Suddenly, a head popped out of the forensic medical car: "Forensic Doctor Zhang, wait for me!" The door opened, and it seemed like he had been sleeping just now.

  It is Zhao Junjie.

  Zhang Tong furrowed his brow and turned around to glare at Pan Jian: "How did he come here?"

  Pan Jian shrugged his shoulders, a look of helplessness on his face: "Li Jue insisted that I bring him along, what could I do? He said something about maintaining good relations with the media, a whole bunch of nonsense."

  Zhang Tong stopped talking and ignored Zhao Junjie, who was busy looking for shoe covers and an umbrella behind him. He quickly walked towards the end of the plank road to the scene of the discovery.

  Because it had already been arranged over the phone to protect the scene of the body, Wang Yan called in four assistants. One person at each corner pulled a large canvas, set up a simple canopy to cover the body lying on the pallet.

  Although it was raining outside the tent, when I opened the tent and entered the scene, the strong bloody smell that came rushing towards me still made me feel nauseous. Wang Ya Nan stood beside the body, her face looking very bad.

  "What is this." He looked down, and Zhang Tong could hardly believe his eyes. On the rotten wooden floor of the dock, a large piece of bloody flesh was placed. No head, like a doll torn apart by a mischievous child, twisted at will and discarded on this desolate coastal dock.

  Wang Yanan didn't say a word, standing sternly on one side.

  Zhang Tong squatted down, opened the toolbox, put on gloves, and waved his hand to signal Pan Jian to take out the waterproof camera to take photos of the body at the scene as evidence.

  Zhang Tong had seen many corpses, all sorts of ways to die, but he had never seen anything as disgusting as the mess in front of him. Flies were already gathering around this "feast". Holding back his nausea, Zhang Tong carefully sorted through the remains of the deceased.

  A scream came from behind, followed by the sound of vomiting outside the tent. Zhang Tong furrowed her brow tightly. She knew that despite having seen many big scenes, Zhao Junjie, the great reporter, would absolutely not be able to withstand the hellish scene in front of him. Thinking of this, a slight smile rose at the corner of her mouth. The proud great reporter would definitely not be able to eat meat for at least a month.

  "How is it, Xiaotong? Are there any obvious clues?" Wang Yan's voice was a bit hoarse.

  "The murderer was too cruel. Only a pile of broken and fragmented flesh remained." Zhang Tong frowned and replied, "However, it can be confirmed that this is a dumping site, not a murder scene. Although it rained, there were no bloodstains on the wooden board under the body. It's clean."

  "This heavy rain is more of a hindrance than a help." Pan Jian couldn't help but interject.

  "What's missing besides her limbs and head?" Wang Yan's gaze remained fixed on the scattered pieces of flesh on the ground.

  "The internal organs have been hollowed out. And the bones." Zhang Tong replied without turning his head, using a tool to slightly flip through them.

  Bone

  "Yes. The human body is generally composed of two hundred and six bones. But the deceased didn't have a single bone left on her body. She had all her bones neatly removed." As a forensic doctor, Zhang Tong was very familiar with the location of every bone in the human body. So when Wang Ya Nan asked the question, she immediately blurted out the worry that arose in her mind. "Ya Nan, this person is very perverted. You have to be careful."

  Wang Yan nodded and frowned, cursing: "Perverted dog hybrid."

  On the way back to the bureau, Zhao Junjie was pale-faced and lying down on the back seat of the car, without even lifting his head once.

  Pan Jian drove carefully, occasionally sneaking a glance at the rearview mirror, praying in his heart that Zhao Dajournalist wouldn't throw up in the car.

  Zhang Tong gazed out the car window at the wet streets receding into the distance, her heart heavy with foreboding. She had a bad feeling about this. The jumbled mass of flesh in the black body bag in the back of the forensic van might be just the beginning. The devil who had taken all the victim's bones clearly didn't regard the dead as human beings. If someone saw others as less than human, then killing one person was no different from slaughtering a cat or dog. That would be a truly terrifying prospect. Zhang Tong hoped she wasn't about to face such a monster.

  There's no wall that can't be breached. Not to mention the existence of Weibo now. The first thing the young couple did after discovering the body and regaining their composure was to announce their major discovery on Weibo at the fastest speed before reporting it, regardless of whether others would feel nauseous or not. By the time Wang Yan took the phone from the boy who was half a head shorter than her, news of the coastal murder had already spread across the entire online world at an exponential rate. Coupled with that spine-tingling photo, despite the obvious trembling hands when it was taken, the bloodiness and cruelty were already visible.

  "Who allowed you to do this?" Wang Yanan got angry and made a gesture of smashing her phone.

  The boy got anxious and jumped up high: "That's an iPhone 4, it costs over 5,000 yuan! If you break it, I'll sue you!"

  "Do you know the consequences of what you're spreading?" Wang Yan stood with her hands on her hips, shaking the phone in her hand, scolding, "This is confiscated. Call your family to come and get it." She had already sized up the kid in front of her as no more than seventeen years old. Nowadays, these kids were all spoiled by their parents. She decided to give him a good scare.

  The boy looked at Wang Ya Nan's phone with a heartache. "Don't mess it up." He curled his lips, still full of resentment. "Besides, isn't this the era of press freedom? What law am I breaking by posting on Weibo?"

  After hearing this, Wang Yan couldn't help but let out a deep sigh: "If this news gets leaked, it will be very unfavorable for our police's case-solving efforts. Do you know that?" As she said this, she handed the phone back to the boy, watching as he quickly changed from worry to joy, immediately opening his Weibo app and clicking delete, completely disregarding his terrifying experience just moments before. Wang Yan shook her head helplessly, gesturing for her colleagues to come over and take charge, while she herself turned around and left.

  The influence of Weibo is far greater than Wang Yan thought. At this moment, Zhang Tong, who had just returned to the Public Security Bureau and put on his work clothes, was stopped by Director Li at the door before he could enter the autopsy room. Director Li's words were urgent and full of complaints.

  "Xiao Zhang, how did the case you just took on get leaked out? Now even people in the municipal government office know about it, but I'm still in the dark. Just now, Secretary Gu of the Discipline Inspection Commission called to ask about this matter. He said someone has already posted about it on Weibo and there are even photos from the scene. This is a mistake on your part at work. Where's Xiao Wang? Hasn't she come back yet?"

  Zhang Tong was in a daze. She made way for the wheelchair behind her, furrowing her brow as she said: "Director Li, I don't understand this situation either."

  "Then notify me as soon as you have any news on your end. I estimate the pressure from the media will arrive soon. By the way, where's Reporter Zhao?" Li said while glancing towards Zhang Tong's side.

  "Ah, him? He's been lying in the rest room since he got back from the scene, vomiting so much his face is green."

  Li Ju was just about to speak when she suddenly realized something and smiled awkwardly before turning around and leaving.

  "Zhang Fa Yi, you're really something. I've never seen Director Li lose his temper with you before. Even the biggest fire can't be lit when they see you." Pan Jian muttered as he and Zhang Tong worked together to move the body onto the stainless steel autopsy table.

  "It's not that I'm great, just do things with a sincere heart and no one will blame you. One day if you change your lazy habits, you won't have to be nervous when meeting Director Li again."

  Pan Jian fell silent. He quietly took out a set of tools that had been prepared in the sterilization cabinet and placed them next to the dissecting table.

  "Let's get started."

  Zhang Tong waved his hand and quickly opened the black body bag without even lifting his head.