Mystery Hunter

Translator: Ca5 Editor: MadHatter

Captain Wang extended his hand and shook Xu Yiman’s hand, saying, “My name is Wang Chao, and I’m the captain of the Jinlun Road Branch’s criminal police squadron.” ”Hello, my name is…”

Captain Wang only wanted to introduce Jiang He to her but soon realized that even he himself was not truly aware of who the person next to him was.

Jiang He, likewise, was observing Xu Yiman at the time. He was specifically regarding the woman’s hands. Her long fingers and fair skin were irrelevant. What Jiang He noticed was the slightly yellowish calluses on both of her hands; index and middle fingers in addition to her thick-strong joints, neatly trimmed fingernails and her hands didn’t waver at all when she lifted them.

With the faint smell of formalin lingering on her body, Jiang He recognized the person before her as a surgeon who performed operations frequently. He was aware that she was a woman who had transitioned from surgery forensic medicine. And this woman was just escorted out of the autopsy room.

Xu Yiman looked good in clean clothes, spotless shoes, and without makeup. He recognized this woman’s strong sense of responsibility. The cartoon rubber bands in her pigtails, though, exposed her inner sensibility.

“So you are the city bureau’s forensic doctor.” remarked Jiang He before continuing, “First, go and examine the condition of the two corpses. Inform me of the situation afterward, particularly whether the woman at the door is still alive. Some drugs and sleeping pills can cause coma symptoms.”

Jiang He’s commanding tone made Xu Yiman feel uneasy; she had always been more sensitive. In reality, the majority of men did not speak to her in this manner because they wanted to protect women. Xu Yiman observed Jiang He, and she quickly formed an opinion of Jiang He from a female perspective.

The first impression that Xu Yiman had of Jiang He was that he was sloppy and ungentlemanly.

“Okay.” Xu Yiman shook his head.

“Then, you’ll have to work hard.” “But wasn’t the forensic from before Lao Li?” asked Captain Wang.

“Ol’ Li Guangrong has retired,” Xu Yiman said, nodding. “We may have more contact in the future.”

Xu Yiman exited the bedroom while speaking.

“Are you suspecting that Wu Guifeng was drugged by someone?” Captain Wang questioned as he shook his head.

Jiang He gave a nod and said, “Yes, I want to determine a few points, find the person who reported the crime, and the security guard who knocked on the door and came in.”

“How do you know he entered through the front door?” Captain Wang questioned, setting up a detective to search for it.

“Through observing. Didn’t you mention that you spotted a bloody handprint on the doorknob?” said Jiang He with his eyes doing the gesture. “On the surface of this bloody handprint, we can deduce the reason behind the bloody handprint. This is an old-fashioned door lock. The lock head and the door frame next to it are obviously damaged by physical means. After going down, the door is evidently locked.”

“So there would be a problem with that,” Jiang He expressed his doubts. “The door was locked, and it was locked by Wu Guifeng, The question then becomes why did Wu Guifeng lock the door?”

“Locking the door?” Captain Wang asked, “I usually would lock the door when I am at home. Isn’t that a given?”

Jiang He shook his head: “The time to reverse the lock is wrong.”

When Jiang He and Captain Wang emerged from the building, they noticed a junior high school student and a security guard standing outside.

Captain Wang examined the situation. Xu Yiman was performing a simple autopsy at the time, while the rest of the detectives were searching the house for fingerprints and other traces.

“Go outside and talk; don’t interfere with other people’s work,” he said.

Jiang He did not ask for trivial information like a regular police officer, and got straight to the point. In Jiang He’s thoughts, each and every factors that can affect the probability of the truth should be analyzed little by little attentively, but he was not interested in knowing factors that had no effect on the case.

He, therefore, did not care about the two people’s names, and asked them, “”When did you spot the bloodstains?” instead.

Even as the junior high school student faced such a commanding officer, he betrayed no hint of fear. Jiang He easily analyzed that this junior high school student was typically rather independent. Furthermore, this junior high school student couldn’t provide Jiang He with a very accurate time: “Anyway, I go home from school every day. I estimated that it transpired between 1:00 and 1:30. As soon as I returned from school today, I noticed a pool of blood at the door.”

“I wasn’t certain of what that was initially, so I leaned over to have a look at it.” Sheng recalled. “After that, there was the scent of a bloody substance. I yelled twice but received no response, so I headed down to the property.”

Jiang He turned to face the security guard standing next to him.

“Yes, the kid went downstairs and said something was amiss,” said the security captain. “By the time we arrived, blood was discovered on 601 household’s door. We knocked on the door afterward, yet no one answered. Since we were afraid that an incident might have happened, we slammed the door open.”

“What happened after slamming your head into the door? What did you do?” Jiang He’s questions persisted.

The security captain scratched his head and said, “After slamming into the door, I found that the a person was leaning against a shoe cabinet, and blood was flowing out of her.”

“Was the victim still bleeding?” Jiang He inquired once more.

After a brief pondering, the security captain stated, “The person seemed to have stopped bleeding. In any case, we rushed over and discovered that this person had succumbed, and there was another victim in the bedroom which was already beyond salvation. We considered flattening the body, but the second team of the security guards said that since the TV was on, it would be best not to destroy the scene right now, so we let the second team to inspect the scene and call the police.”

“Has anyone showed up ever since?” Jiang He inquired.

The security captain stated unequivocally: “No, the other two security guards had been on alert before the cops arrived, and no one showed up.”

A nod was given by Captain Wang after hearing the security captain’s words and replied, “Yes, compared to the security guards in some high-end residential areas, your quality is much higher than theirs. It would seem like the security in the community is not so bad with you here.”

The security captain was also a straightforward individual. “This is really not good,” he said. “Our neighbourhood has been around for a long time. All of the doors and windows are made of wood. Recently, it appeared that a few thieves have been eyeing this neighbourhood and have stolen a few items. Fortunately, there wasn’t much damage; at least, no one was present when they stole things.”

Embarassed, Captain Wang coughed twice and his words ended there.

Jiang He was keenly intrigued by this subject and asked again, “Has this family recently lost anything?”

“I have never heard anything of that matter,” stated the security captain.

“All right, that’s it for now.” Jiang He stated.

They took a step back.

Jiang He headed into the room again, and Captain Wang asked, “What did you find?”

“Hasn’t Li Weiyi returned yet?” Jiang He inquired.

Captain Wang responded, “According to preliminary information obtained by An Jinzhong, this Li Weiyi works as a salesman in a city rubber factory. It takes about two hours to get from here to work, but if you’ve keep track of the time, he’ll be back soon. An Jinzhong arrived on the scene and immediately informed Li Weiyi.”

“The simple autopsy results were uncovered.”

“The body has just entered the first phase of rigor mortis,” Xu Yiman described as she rose. “Rigor mortis has manifested in the occlusal muscles of the jaw joint and the neck, of the younger deceased. It had spread to the upper limbs. The pupils of both corpses were dilated, but the degree of corneal turbidity was low, indicating that they died quickly. I just did a super-reactive experiment on the two corpses and discovered that the muscles can still grow under mechanical stimulation.”

[TN: Turbidity is the measure of relative clarity of a liquid]

“According to my guess, the time of death of the two corpses is between two to three hours,” Xu Yiman spoke after mulling over momentarily. “Based on the positions of the corpses, the younger deceased died rather slowly, probably not taking longer than two hours in the middle while the older deceased perished more quickly.”

Jiang He and Captain Wang listened eagerly.

Xu Yimain recorded in her small notebook and said: “From the outside of the corpse, the fatal injuries are all stab wounds. The initial estimate for the cause of death is inflammation caused by gastric juice flowing out of corroded organs, and excessive blood loss. Unfortunately, both corpses’ abdominal arteries are still intact. If the treatment was timely, they would’ve been able to survive. As for the drug, I can’t find it now.”

Jiang He nodded, possibly convinced why the blood did not form a jet shape.

Despite Jiang He always using pigs for experiments, he was aware that he could not be as professional and thorough as Xu Yiman until he has received professional studies. All Jiang He can do was to compare his pig experiments to human experiments.

Captain Wang uttered, “This case is practically clear to me now. First and foremost, the room’s door is locked, and there are only these two people inside. In other words, what was going one with the two people right now or why were irrelevant. In short, it’s about these two people.”

“Secondly.”

Captain Wang glanced at everyone: “We initially knew that He Huijuan died first, and then came Wu Guifeng’s death. On top of that, the fatal injuries were all knife wounds.”

“As of now, it is impossible to draw such conclusions,” spoke Xu Yiman. “Only after the autopsy can specific conclusions be drawn.”

“I know.” He abruptly looked at Jiang He after saying this, a strange feeling invariably overcoming him.

“What’s the problem?” Xu Yiman questioned.

“Nothing,” enunciated Captain Wang, “So, the case is basically that Wu Guifeng murdered He Huijuan before committing suicide. The investigation should continue for uncovering the reason for the suicide.”

Xu Yiman shrugged, asking, “Then all photos of the scene have been taken. Send the body to the funeral parlour after the shooting. Only after dissecting it can the conclusion be reached.”

A number of police officers in charge of the criminal investigation nodded and proceeded downstairs to prepare the body bags.

Nonetheless, Jiang He stood at the door, preventing them from leaving.

They wanted Jiang He to let them go, but when he appeared, several people were frozen in tracks.

Jiang He’s brows were tightly knitted, he was tugging at his matted hair as if he were driven insane along with his entire expression being distorted and agonizing.

Jiang He pulled a lot of his hair down in this way, and everyone who witnessed it was shocked.

They were oblivious what was going on with Jiang He who was fine earlier.

“What’s the problem?”

Captain Wang took a brisk step forward and examined him.