Chapter 114: You’re the Murderer! (2/2)

Another file she sent was a report from the auto repair shop. The brake cable of that car was indeed broken, not deliberately cut. I made a conjecture that Zou Wei changed an old brake cable in advance, but it was only a conjecture after all, and the car had already been discarded.

There was no progress in the next few days. This was a simple case, and yet there was no breakthrough at all, which made it that much more frustrating and stressful!

About a week later, Wang Yuanchao made an amazing discovery. The body of the deceased Ma Xiaoli was not cremated. She agreed to donate her body to a medical school before her death, so that was where it was kept right now.

I was excited after hearing the news and decided to meet with Xiaotao and Wang Yuanchao that very night. In order to stay covert, we met near an isolated garbage dump to avoid being seen. Wang Yuanchao opened the trunk of his car, and when we peered inside, we were shocked to find that there was a skeleton inside!

“What—How did you get that?!” asked Xiaotao, covering her mouth with her hand in disbelief.

Wang Yuanchao calmly lit up a cigarette and replied, “The victim’s body was damaged beyond recognition, and her organs were no longer usable. So, the medical school turned her body into a skeleton.”

Some bones had been fractured, but it was obvious that the damage was done by the car crash, not the murder itself. There were even signs of the bones being glued together to turn it into a complete human skeleton. It was also covered with a layer of antiseptic liquid, and the periosteum, a layer of connective tissue that covered the bones, was completely peeled off.

“Can you glean anything useful from it at all, Song Yang?” asked Xiaotao.

Even the most seasoned coroner would’ve shaken his head. I stared long and hard at the skeleton without saying a word. Xiaotao had to call my name a few times before she could get my attention.

“Song Yang! Is there anything that you can do at all?”

“If the murderer killed the victim by slicing her throat with a sharp fragment of glass, why didn’t she resist?”

“Perhaps she was bound?” Xiaotao suggested.

“No,” I said. “That would leave signs on her body. Zou Wei was smart enough not to risk that. She must’ve inhaled some kind of anesthetic substance that is difficult to detect.”

“If that’s true, wouldn’t it be even more difficult now, since the organs are all gone?” lamented Xiaotao.

“Traces of the drug must still be in the bone marrow,” I replied. “I have a way to detect it, but I would need some things.”

“That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear!” exclaimed Xiaotao. “Tell me what you need. I’ll go buy them right away.”

“White vinegar, wormwood, alcohol, shovel, and a straw mat!” I quickly listed.

In no time at all, Xiaotao managed to bring back all these items. I told her we couldn’t examine the skeleton here. We needed to find an open empty place away from people’s eyes. So, we ended up at a wasteland on the outskirts of the city. I asked Wang Yuanchao to dig a hole that was two meters long and one meter wide.

Wang Yuanchao dug out the pit. I was surprised at how quickly he managed to do it.

“I dug dozens of meters of trenches by the mountains alone when I was fighting at the border,” he said. “The soil here is as soft as tofu compared to that.”

Xiaotao clapped her hands excitedly and remarked, “We might be only a few people here, but we’ve got some extraordinary talents!”

I poured the alcohol at the bottom of the pit and set it on fire. As the raging flames burned, it looked very imposing in contrast to the boundless wilderness.

“If I saw this flame from afar,” commented Xiaotao, “I would’ve thought that someone was burning a corpse!”

I laughed. “That’s just like you, always thinking like a police officer.”

Once the fire had gone out, the entire pit glowed red. I asked Wang Yuanchao to help me spread the bones at the bottom of the pit and I sprinkled a layer of white vinegar over it. Once the white vinegar hit the hot soil, it immediately evaporated, filling the air with an acerbic smell. Before all the vinegar steam evaporated, I quickly covered the pit with a straw mat and pressed it down with bricks and stones.

After a while, I uncovered the straw mat. There were no changes in the bones at all.

“It’s useless, Song Yang!” Xiaotao sighed hopelessly.

“No, be patient,” I replied with confidence. “This is the Thrice Steaming Bone Test. Let’s continue!”

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