Chapter 192: The Disfigured Corpse in a Red Skir (1/2)

Bingxin was here as the intern coroner, so I gave her the opportunity to use her knowledge and identify the victim. She studied the bones for a while, and concluded, “The victim was a male of about 35 years of age. He was about 1.7 meters tall. The thick joints of the hand indicate that he was engaged in manual labor all year round. Two of his phalanges are missing. It’s uncertain whether the bones were lost before or after his death.”

She then picked up the fragments of the skull and added, “The cause of death is an impact to the head with a heavy blunt object roughly triangular in size. The width of the object is probably about 50 centimeters. Could it be a hammer? But that’s a weird shape for a hammer…”

I considered it for a while and suggested, “Perhaps a clothes iron?”

“Yes!” Bingxin answered with glee. “A clothes iron! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Coroners do not need to explicitly identify what type of weapon was used,” I reminded her. “You only need to describe the shape and characteristics of the weapon. You could easily mislead the investigator if you name the weapon. It’s unprofessional.”

Bingxin stuck out her tongue and mockingly answered, “Yes, Professor Song!”

Then she picked up the tibia and examined it, and said, “After his death, the victim’s body was dismembered using a long jagged object. Then the remains were eaten and gnawed on by a type of carnivorous animal.”

“You can just say that the body was cut up using a saw and eaten by dogs,” I commented, slightly amused.

“But you told me not to name them!” Bingxin pouted.

I sighed and Xiaotao laughed.

“It seems that you need more practice, Miss Sun!” Xiaotao remarked.

“Continue with your analysis!” I urged Bingxin.

She picked up a bone and placed it under the sunlight. “Once the victim was dismembered, the killer cooked the corpse in a pressure cooker which caused the periosteum to peel off.”

“Oh no,” Xiaotao groaned. “Not another psychotic cannibal!”

It was too soon to jump to that conclusion. The killer might’ve boiled the body just so they could handle it more easily. Cooked bodies wouldn’t produce suspicious odors. They would not emit the signature stench of blood at all, even when discarded in the open. Judging from this, it followed that the killer handled the victim’s body quite professionally. I suspected that this was not the killer’s first victim.

Bingxin picked up a rib and studied it for a long time. Then she suddenly gasped and announced, “There’s a wound on the victim’s back, as if he was stabbed by a sharp and narrow object!”

“What’s the penetration angle?” I asked.

She acted it out and explained, “The killer probably attacked with a knife from behind, like this.”

“What about the wound on the skull you described earlier?”

She acted it out again and explained, “He was hit from the front, right on his forehead.”

I had a hunch that we’d stumbled upon a major discovery. I asked Bingxin, “Was the victim standing up or lying down when he got stabbed?”

Bingxin looked at the bone for a long time and finally shook her head defeatedly, crying, “I’m stumped!”

I took a closer look at the bone and stated, “He was stabbed while still standing up, because the knife was pulled out after it pierced the victim’s body. Look here. The scar obviously showed that the knife was pulled downwards here.”

Bingxin clapped her hands again and exclaimed, “You’re truly a genius, Song Yang-gege! Your analysis is much more thorough than my professors’!”

“Is this detail important, Song Yang?” asked Xiaotao.

“Very important!” I answered. “If the victim was lying down when he got stabbed, it could be that the killer hit him on the head to immobilize him before finishing him off. However, the victim was still standing when he got stabbed, and at the same time he was hit on the forehead. Which means…”

“The killer has an accomplice!” Xiaotao finished my sentence.

Xiaotao asked me if there was anything else to add. I re-examined the vertebrae, which were the bones that were most easily deformed. The joints clearly indicated that the victim was engaged in heavy physical labor, yet why were the vertebrae in completely normal conditions?