Chapter 5 The Bone Collector 5

  "Director Li, here are today's newspapers." The secretary of the director's office nervously placed several influential newspapers such as Tianchang Daily and Tianchang Metropolitan News on one corner of Director Li's desk.

  Director Li did not raise his head. He continued to carefully examine the documents in his hand. However, his gaze involuntarily lingered on those few words he had seen before the secretary came in. But it never moved forward again. His mood became increasingly irritable. Finally, Director Li let out a deep sigh and compromised. He leaned back against the chair and looked up at Secretary Zheng who was still standing in front of the desk. "It's okay, Little Zheng. You can go now. I've been in a bad mood these past few days."

  The secretary nodded and turned around to leave the office.

  Li's mood has been bad for the past few days. He didn't need to look at the newspapers in front of him to guess the headlines on the front page... "Bone Collector" strikes again, Tianchang Public Security Bureau may have encountered a serial killer, who will guarantee our safety... The most deadly thing is that the media actually published a photo of the remains of the first victim found at the scene. Although the image was not clear, it was enough to cause panic.

  Every word and sentence in the newspaper seems to be describing the cruelty of a murderer, but the spearhead is clearly pointing directly at the incompetence of the Tianchang Municipal Public Security Bureau's handling of the case. Director Li doesn't even dare to casually open the bureau's publicly released Weibo page now. The overwhelming accusations have put him under an unprecedented amount of pressure.

  The reward amount for collecting eyewitness clues in the neighborhood has been increased to 100,000 yuan. The three reporting phone lines are almost always busy 24 hours a day. The phone indicator lights flash constantly. The phone rings incessantly. However, despite this, truly useful clues have still not been found.

  Thinking of this, Director Li couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Is it really that difficult to catch such a scoundrel? Man proposes, God disposes. The heavenly net is loose yet nothing escapes. Director Li gritted his teeth and slammed his palm heavily on the office desk, cursing: "I don't believe it."

  "King team, this is all the data of suspected Huntington's disease patients in the entire city, including three affiliated counties."

  Wang Yan nodded, took the folder from her assistant Zhao Yun's hand, and pointed to the chair beside her: "Sit down and take a look with me. There's too much information, I'm afraid we won't have enough time. We need to catch him before the killer finds his next target."

  At this moment, the phone rang. Wang Yan immediately picked up the phone.

  "Who?"

  "It's me, Wang Yan. The forensic team has the results. The victim died two days ago, to be exact, between 45 and 50 hours ago. So calculated, the body we found in the abandoned aluminum factory is the first one. The one by the sea should be the second." Zhang Tong's voice was a bit hollow, sounding like he was talking above his own head. Wang Yan knew that this kind of tone could only come from being in the autopsy room again, and Zhang Tong must have been searching for clues on the body again.

  It's almost eleven o'clock now. This case has gotten everyone deeply involved.

  He carefully touched the cold corpse on the dissection table with his fingers, describing it one word at a time: "The second incision is 29 cm long, cutting from right to left on the left thigh; The third incision is 31 cm long, also cutting from right to left on the right thigh. Neither of the two wounds penetrated the body. The purpose was obviously just to facilitate the extraction of the femur."

  "Sectional forensic medicine. What makes you certain that the killer cut from right to left? I don't see it." Zhao Junjie leaned in close to the autopsy table, carefully examining the wound on the leg with a magnifying glass.

  "This is simple. Look at the knife marks carefully. The deep ones are where the knife started cutting, and the shallow ones are where it stopped. It's like when we normally cut things, we use more force at the beginning to break through the skin and fat layers; but when we're finishing up..." Pan Jian said, extending his right hand, which was wearing a glove, and elegantly drawing a circle in the air. "it becomes much easier. You just pull out and that's it. So the final force will be relatively weaker, and the marks will become shallower too. Don't you understand this principle?"

  "Alright, stop pretending. Hurry up and get things done." Zhang Tong couldn't help but lightly scold him.

  Pan pouted and didn't make another sound.

  "Take note. The perpetrator is accustomed to using a knife with their left hand. A southpaw." Zhang Tong continued to examine the body below. "The victim's kneecap, fibula, and tibia are all missing. The soles of the feet are also gone. There are cutting scars at the joints of each bone." She stood up straight, furrowed her brow, and thought for a moment. "He is extremely careful with bones. His knife skills are very skilled."

  "What does he want the bones for? Is he really going to collect them? How many will it take for him to be satisfied?" Zhao Junjie's unintentionally blurted question suddenly dropped the temperature in the autopsy room to freezing point.

  "What's this." After a while, Zhang Tong inadvertently raised her head. The scene in front of her caught her attention. She pointed behind Pan Jian and said seriously, "When we first did the full-body X-ray scan, how could we have overlooked this part?" As she spoke, she quickly walked to the X-ray display box behind Pan Jian. "You guys take a look, carefully examine the deceased's shoulder."

  Indeed. On the X-ray film in the light box, there were three small black dots embedded in the muscles of both shoulders of the deceased, which were easily overlooked.

  "Round. Diameter about 0.1 cm."

  "What will this be?" Pan Jian frowned and asked.

  Zhang Tong didn't have time to respond. After determining the approximate location, she returned to the body and took over the autopsy knife handed over by Pan Jian. She carefully cut open the cold shoulder muscles of the deceased.

  Not long after that, six small black objects were taken out from the deceased one by one and put into a tray on one side.

  No matter how people identify them, they cannot recognize the true face of these black substances.

  Zhang Tong suddenly thought of another body found on the beach that was in the morgue. Although the body had been severely damaged and was unrecognizable, it did not affect the search for substances inside the body. Thinking of this, she walked straight to the morgue at the back of the dissection room.

  More than half an hour later, six more black substances were also found.

  "Hurry up and take it to the trace evidence lab. I want to know the results immediately." Zhang Tong had a hunch that these unexpected discoveries might be the crucial key to unlocking the murder mystery before them.