Chapter 349: The Fruit Knife (2/2)

”Look, as you can see, there aren’t any more clues,” Xiaotao pointed.

”Any remaining clues will not be visible to the naked eye,” I explained. “Mr. Ding said he washed the receipts down the sink. Let's find out if he’s lying!”

We put on shoe covers and went into the kitchen. The water pipes under the sink, like most homes, were U-shaped. Wearing my rubber gloves, I unscrewed the nuts at the bottom of the pipe and out splashed sewage, dirtying my clothes.

I found bits of eggs, vegetable leaves, rice grains and some greasy remains which looked disgusting. Most importantly, the pieces of paper that we were looking for were there.

I asked Bingxin for a pair of tweezers and carefully picked up each piece, but these were only part of a bigger sheet and didn’t reveal much information. I placed one of the fragments under the light. ”This is thermal paper used for printing bills. It should be a receipt!”

”But you can’t prove that it was washed down the sink at the time,” argued Xiaotao.

”That’s simple to prove,” I grinned. “Bingxin-meimei, can you test for the amount of time a piece of paper has been soaking in water?”

Bingxin nodded, ”Although there isn’t an exact test for this, we can soak the same type of paper in water and note the time and changes to the paper.”

”That’s great!” I laughed. “We finally have some evidence!”

Xiaotao immediately poured a bucket of cold water over me, ”But this isn’t direct evidence. Whether or not the receipts were destroyed after the crime doesn’t directly prove Mr. Ding’s innocence!”

”Then let's keep looking!” I suggested.

When we returned to the living room, I scanned my surroundings, eyes widening in surprise. ”Wait a minute, there’s a huge flaw in the living room! Do you see it?” I asked.

Bingxin looked around. ”Do you mean the victim’s position?”

”Song Yang, stop making us wonder,” Xiaotao said bluntly. “I don't see anything out of the ordinary.”

I pointed to the fruit on the ground, ”These were previously on the coffee table, right? Take a closer look at the fruits.”

There were bananas, oranges and lychees. It suddenly struck Bingxin, ”None of these needs peeling.”

”Exactly!” I concurred. “The fruit knife shouldn't have been on the coffee table!”

”That’s too far-fetched,” Xiaotao shook her head. “It’s normal for people to leave a fruit knife on the coffee table. My dad even has a Japanese sword hanging in his bedroom!”

“Does your father often dream of killing people?” I joked.

Xiaotao laughed, ”Don't change the subject! Let’s get back to the case!”

I pointed to the bookshelf and the CD rack. ”The CDs are all arranged in alphabetical order, and the books are arranged according to their categories. This shows that the wife cares very much about order and might even have a slight Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. People like this usually put away items immediately after they’ve used them. Let's go to the kitchen and have a look!”

There was indeed a knife missing from the knife block. ”Someone took the knife from here!” I remarked.

Xiaotao was still unconvinced. I picked up a knife, holding it close to my nose as I sniffed. ”This is a meat knife... This one’s for bones... And this is for cooked foods...” When I picked up the smallest knife, I caught a whiff of apple peel on it. A quick check of the trash can confirmed my conjecture. There were apple cores and peels in the garbage that hadn’t been removed. ”This is the real fruit knife,” I stated, holding up the small knife.