Chapter 7: Stripping Away the Truth 5

  Wang Yanan immediately dialed the bureau's phone number and applied for the trace identification group to send someone to the scene for investigation and verification.

  Two hours later, the investigation work came to an end. The trace identification group examined the trash bags used in the store and the bed sheets in the duty room. After comparison, they found that the fiber types of the trash bag and bed sheet used to wrap the corpse were completely consistent with those found on the body. Behind the store, near the cold storage room, there was a dog den. On the wall hung several dog chains, with a few hooks empty. Finally, the trace identification group extracted ice crystal samples from the pork in the cold storage room, which were consistent in range and size with the samples extracted from the girl's body after comparison.

  At that moment, almost everyone present had their hearts tightly gripped. Because everyone realized that the deceased was killed just a few hundred meters away from home.

  Two days later, the suspect Feng Ai Wu was arrested at his hometown in Anhui Province. He confessed to the crime of murdering Li Xiao: After a busy day, he had dinner and sat in the store as usual. Feeling bored, he opened his computer and watched pornographic videos online, which excited him abnormally. When he looked up, he saw the victim returning from school unexpectedly late at night. His heart moved, and he sneaked out of the store, looking around to make sure no one was watching. Under the cover of darkness, he committed the crime. However, due to the victim's strong resistance and loud screams, Feng Ai Wu strangled her in a panic. After his passion subsided, he looked at the girl's corpse and became afraid. He hastily dragged the body into the cold storage room and left it there for a while. The pig blood on the surface of the body was smeared on during this time because Feng Ai Wu had not changed out of his work uniform yet. On the night before the boss returned, he pulled the body out and used the store's meat cutting machine to dismember it brutally. Then, he put the parts in a garbage bag and drove his motorcycle to a ditch outside the city at midnight to dispose of them secretly. The next day, he quit his job and returned to his hometown, thinking that he had committed the perfect crime, destroying all evidence and cleaning up the scene. However, unexpectedly, he was caught less than two days later. In the detention center, this thin and ugly man kept muttering: "I didn't want to kill her... but she screamed too loudly... I couldn't cover it up... I didn't want to kill her..."

  As usual, after the case was closed, Wang Ya Nan had to invite everyone to dinner. But this time, at the dinner table, not a single person could muster up any excitement. There wasn't a hint of smile on anyone's face. Even Zhang Tong, who was used to seeing death all the time, felt particularly down. Human life is too fragile, and when it's gone, it's as light as a feather floating in the air. Suddenly, Zhang Tong thought of her father. She didn't know if he had any regrets when he jumped off the high-rise building without hesitation. Did he hesitate over his choice? After all, human life only comes once. How could her father bear to leave her and her mother behind? A glimmer of tears appeared in Zhang Tong's eyes.

  It was already eleven o'clock at night. The Wanlong community was quiet. Most people had already entered the dreamland. Suddenly, a black shadow flashed by the entrance of Building 18 in the deepest part of the community. He hurriedly slipped out from the quiet back door of the community and disappeared into the dark night soon after.

  Behind him, a wisp of smoke was slowly emerging from the gap under the door of a residential unit on the second floor to the left of Building 18, and it grew thicker and thicker.

  More than 20 minutes later, the milk delivery worker Old Wang who lived on the first floor was awakened by a strange noise. He sat up from bed alertly and his nose was already filled with a strong smell of smoke. He rushed out of the bedroom, opened the door, and searched everywhere for the source of the smell. Finally, he found the bathroom and after careful examination, he was shocked to discover that the smell was coming from the pipes upstairs. "Not good, there's a fire upstairs." He pulled open the door and rushed out, arriving at the door of 201 on the second floor. The smell of smoke grew thicker. Old Wang pounded on the door with all his might while shouting: "Is anyone in the house? Your place is on fire!"

  There was no sound coming from the room. Only smoke kept emerging from the gap under the door. The neighbors next door were also awakened. Everyone came out to see what was going on.

  "119? Quick! Our side is on fire!" A neighbor hastily dialed the fire alarm number.

  "Where is the address?" The telephone operator tapped on the computer keyboard skillfully.

  "Wanlong Xiaoqu 18th Building. You guys come quickly."

  After hanging up the phone, the operator immediately notified the fire brigade near the scene of Wanlong Community. About two or three minutes later, three fire trucks with ear-piercing sirens whizzed past on the road, speeding towards the scene.

  Upon receiving the request for fire scene body identification from the fire brigade, Zhang Tong did not delay and immediately packed his outdoor equipment.

  I heard it was a fire scene. Intern forensic doctor Deng Ran, on the other hand, had an air of nonchalance about him. He deals with all sorts of dead people every day here. Although every day is very difficult and long, but in his own words, at least he has made it through. So no matter who he sees, there's always a smile on his face.

  The scene was in a medium-sized residential area near the urban-rural junction, not very large, basically inhabited by relocated households. Zhang Tong and Deng Ran followed the guide, parking their car at the bottom of the innermost residential building. As soon as they got out of the car, they could clearly see that the window frame on the left side of the second floor was a bit unusual, with the window frames all charred black. That's where the crime scene was. The two people carefully carried their toolboxes towards the second floor, with water accumulated everywhere along the way, some of which were dark and murky, in disarray. Colleagues from the local police station had arrived at the scene before them. After showing their identities, he smiled casually: "Nothing to worry about, Dr. Zhang. Just a routine walkthrough."

  "Our forensic doctors have no say in this matter."

  Zhang Tong muttered a sentence, shook his head helplessly, and said that he was actually right. For scenes of accidents such as fires and earthquakes that result in casualties due to unexpected events, the work of forensic doctors is much simpler. However, "going through the motions" is absolutely not allowed. If you do it like that, it's irresponsible to your job.

  After entering the scene, the room was pitch black everywhere, filled with a strong smell of burnt offerings. Smoke and ash floated in the air and fell to the ground. On the sofa, there was a charred and twisted object - it was a human corpse that had been completely incinerated.

  The firefighters nearby quickly explained: "The fire started from this sofa. This is also the location where the deceased died."

  Zhang Tong furrowed his brow, something didn't feel right at the scene. Although the entire room was dark and messy from the smoke, only the deceased and the sofa under him were truly damaged by the fire. Moreover, the posture of the corpse was somewhat strange. Generally, in a fire, corpses are contorted with their hands and feet pointing towards the sky, and their faces are also facing upwards, which is an instinctual expression of the body's desperate search for air before death. Unlike this corpse, which was prone, with its entire face buried in the sofa, presenting a bizarre posture.

  "Have you guys moved the body before we arrived?" Zhang Tong asked while squatting beside the corpse.

  "No. If it's clear that the deceased has no signs of life, we won't touch anything. We'll notify you immediately."

  "I need to take this body back to the bureau for autopsy immediately. After determining the specific cause of death, I will send you the report. Also, please keep the scene intact for now and wait for my autopsy report before making any further arrangements. The cause of death is somewhat suspicious."

  He nodded and handed the folder to Zhang Tong: "Okay, sign here. I'll send someone to help you move it right away. I'll contact the police station over here."

  Deng Ran sneaked a glance at the serious-looking Zhang Tong, not daring to make a sound, and silently stood by to help her with the preparations. At this moment, the charred corpse had been placed on the cold autopsy table, its front side facing up, with its limbs still maintaining that strange climbing-like posture. This scene was a normal contraction reaction of human tissue after being exposed to a large fire, resulting in the disappearance of moisture. The entire autopsy room was filled with the smell of roasted flesh.

  "Director Zhang, isn't the deceased dead from a fire? Why are you making such a big fuss?" Deng Ran furrowed his brow. The foul smell and terrifying corpse expression made him feel somewhat uncomfortable in his heart.

  "You can't just assume the cause of death is related to the fire because it's a body pulled out of a fire scene. When handling this kind of death, we need to be even more careful, especially when there are obvious doubts. Many criminal suspects want to use the big fire to cover up their own murderous evidence. What we're looking for now are injuries other than burns."

  She took a 5ml blood sample from the deceased with a test tube and handed it to Deng Ran. "Send it to the laboratory next door immediately for examination of carbon monoxide residues in the body. Tell them that I must first rule out the possibility that the deceased died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the smoke from the fire."

  Deng Ran nodded and turned around to leave.

  While waiting for the test results to come out, Zhang Tong gestured to the cameraman to turn on the machine and start working on taking pictures.

  She first cut open the deceased's trachea and found no signs of charring, only a small part near the entrance of the throat, about 1.5 cm from the opening, had some black and gray discoloration. It was clear that the deceased had died before the fire occurred, because in a real fire accident, the entire trachea would be blackened, from the throat to the lungs.