Chapter 53: The Vow of Justice (1/2)

When I saw the tiny cat paw prints, I applied more soot and found more paw prints on the right arm of the deceased.

This discovery shocked people in the room. Luo Weiwei said, “I remember that the victims did not have a cat at home. Where did these paw prints come from?”

“I’m afraid that’s the key to solving this case!” I proclaimed.

“What? But they’re just cat paw prints!” Luo Weiwei interjected doubtfully. “What can these paw prints prove? That the murderer was a cat? Maybe these were made by a neighbor’s cat after all!”

I pointed to the paw prints and said, “Look carefully, these paw prints are very clean.”

“How is that strange?” asked Luo Weiwei. “Aren’t cats known to be very clean? My own cat at home likes to lick her paws clean all the time.”

“I got it!” exclaimed Huang Xiaotao. “The victims were all in a pool of blood when they were found, but these paw prints weren’t stained with blood at all!”

“Finally! Someone got my point!” I said with a smile.

But Luo Weiwei was still unconvinced. “Maybe it was left before?”

“The paw prints were on the bodies themselves,” I explained, “indicating that the victims had already fallen to the floor, so they must’ve been left after their deaths. Instinct tells me that these paw prints are very important to the case!”

Luo Weiwei was still skeptical.

“Why are you still standing there? Take pictures of the prints!” I ordered the police officers there. They nodded and rushed out to get their cameras immediately.

Now that the autopsy was over, I pulled out a stash of yellow joss paper and divided them into three smaller stacks. I found a copper pot and burned them there while chanting the reincarnation mantra.

“In the name of my ancestor the magistrate Song Ci, I, Song Yang, vow that I will clear your names and bring those who are responsible for your deaths to justice. So please pass on to your next lives in peace.”

Just as I finished saying that, the flame in the copper pot swayed strangely, as if something was responding to me. Luo Weiwei was stunned.

After a short time period, the police officers came back with their cameras and took photos of the paw prints on the bodies. After that, I told them to gather everyone here.

Once everyone arrived, I said to Huang Xiaotao, “Supervisor Huang, I’m overstepping my boundaries!”

Huang Xiaotao froze in puzzlement for a while before she reacted. She smiled and said, “Go ahead and give the commands. I’m not here as your superior. All three of us are here to help you.”

Thus, I asked them to print out the photo of the cat paw prints. One person was asked to visit the scene of the murder case to see if there were any cats in the vicinity, or if there were stray cats there, and if there were, to compare the paw prints.

To be honest, I didn’t have much hope that doing this would result in much. But anyway, there were so many police officers that could be dispatched this time, and crime investigation worked a lot like combing hair—it took a little bit of filtering to find clues.

After assigning the task, I asked a policeman, “Where is Bai Yidao?”

“He… He went home.”

“That’s outrageous!” I yelled. “Tell him to come back soon, or else he’ll be kicked out of this task force!”

After the incident in the morgue, the policemen were a little bit afraid of me. Hearing what I said, the policeman said that he would call Bai Yidao immediately, but I told him to do that later and just focus on the assigned tasks for now.

Huang Xiaotao smiled and said, “Not bad at all, Song Yang! You’re quite the authoritative figure!”

“Haha, well I’ve been interacting with a certain bossy officer a lot lately, and she’s rubbing off on me.”

“Bossy? Who are you calling bossy?” Huang Xiaotao threatened me with a clenched fist.

“No, no, I didn’t mean it in a bad way!” I denied, waving my hands repeatedly.

I put the white sheets back on the dead bodies and turned to Luo Weiwei, “Can you take us to the evidence room?”

“Okay, follow me,” nodded Luo Weiwei.

When we got out of the morgue, it felt like walking from the North Pole to the tropics. Huang Xiaotao took off her coat and said, “Oh my god, it was freezing inside! It’s not easy being a coroner!”

“That’s right,” agreed Luo Weiwei, “Many coroners develop arthritis and rheumatism because we work in this type of environment all year round.”

But it was still a much better environment than what coroners in the past had to deal with, I thought to myself. There was no refrigeration technology in ancient times, so the dead bodies had to be kept in a cold room or the cellar, and even then, the dead bodies would still decay pretty quickly. Things got even worse when the weather was hot. Traditional Coroners had to wear a clean suit that wrapped their bodies tightly, which caused them to profusely sweat in hot weather, and couple that with having to examine dead bodies in a stinking room with flies flying around, it was no wonder that many coroners in the past contracted lung and skin diseases from the work that they did—now that was a truly hellish work environment!

Our group soon arrived at the evidence room. Luo Weiwei and the officer guarding the evidence room greeted each other briefly and we went straight in. Huang Xiaotao asked in confusion, “You’ve got pretty lax security here. How could we enter such an important place so casually? Shouldn’t our identities be checked first?”

“We’re all internal staff anyway,” answered Luo Weiwei. “No one here would steal the evidence.”

“That’s not necessarily true, though,” said Huang Xiaotao. “Missing evidence is a very troublesome thing to deal with! You should take more precaution against it. I’d suggest that you discuss this matter with your director.”