Chapter 60 (1/2)

Translator: Lonelytree  Editor: Millman97

“You’ve found yet another murder case?” Inspector Lee’s tone on the other end of the phone was puzzled to say the least.

“Four years ago, a female student by the name of Zhang Ya jumped out of the building, but there is more to her death than suicide!” Chen Ge said firmly.

“Wait a minute, let me go look at the files first. If the victim’s family had asked for an autopsy, we should have the record of it somewhere.” Inspector Lee didn’t hang up as he turned on the lights of the records room to search for the files. He finally found something five minutes later. “Wait, why does Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy sound so familiar? Xiao Chen, get out of that school now!”

“I’m already heading for the gate, what’s wrong?”

“That school is just weird; I can’t explain it to you in just a few sentences, but I can give you a number. Six people committed suicide within the span of two weeks at that school, and their deaths were all very weird.”

The sound of paper flipping could be heard through the phone as Inspector Lee looked through the files.

“That sounds about right! That number fits what I’m thinking.” The school gate was within Chen Ge’s view—he could exit the place soon.

“Fits what you’re thinking? What exactly is happening over there?”

“Don’t mind that, check whether the name of the first suicide victim is Zhang Ya or not.” Chen Ge was in a hurry to confirm his suspicion.

Inspector Lee double-checked the records before replying. “Indeed, the name is Zhang Ya, but she did die from a fall. It is a suicide because the mortician did not find any other wounds on her body. On the day of the discovery, the police did visit the crime scene for investigation. The girl fell from the fourth floor’s dance studio; the window she fell from was undamaged, and the soundproof foam around it wasn’t showed no signs of cleaning. So, from this, we confirmed Zhang Ya jumped out of the building without outside influence.”

“Without outside influence? Inspector Lee, have you considered that she was forced to do so? If she didn’t jump, she would have been raped!” Chen Ge relayed the scenes he had seen in the mirror.

“We considered that as well, and there are testimonies from Zhang Ya’s roommates in the records. All five girls said that they didn’t know anything. Zhang Ya jumped off the building after their class was over, so Zhang Ya was inside the studio alone. According to their testimonies, Zhang Ya had always suffered from high stress, was prone to solitude, and was perhaps even mentally unstable. To confirm their testimonies, the police at the time even verified their accounts with the girls from the class, and everyone agreed.”

“Zhang Ya is definitely not the person they described; they all banded together to frame her!” Zhang Ya was feeling indignant on Zhang Ya’s behalf. He did not expect that the whole class would gang up on Zhang Ya; the girl didn’t even do anything wrong.

“What kind of person Zhang Ya was, you and I will never know, but the evidence doesn’t lie.” Inspector Lee didn’t understand why Chen Ge was so agitated. “In any case, get out of that school as soon as you can. We’re sending our men to come fetch you.”

“They were all lying! Take a closer look at Zhang Ya’s time of death, it should be before the class was over! They lied on the time of death, so those five girls were accomplices!” The volume of Chen Ge’s voice inadvertently increased.

“That’s where you’re wrong. Zhang Ya’s time of death was between 6 pm and 8 pm. Those five girls left school at around 5.30 pm, their usual time of departure.” Inspector Lee didn’t know how happened to Chen Ge at the school, so he stood from an outsider’s perspective to analyze the situation.

“Impossible!”

“It is indeed possible. The mortician conducted a detailed analysis based on livor mortis and rigor mortis. Zhang Ya’s time of death is indeed between 6 pm and 8 pm. The cause of death was a broken spine. Other than that, there were wounds to her skull, calcaneus, and hipbone, all common injuries suffered by suicide victims that died from falling.”