Chapter 374: Luo Youyou’s Disappearance (1/2)

I checked their fingernails and found only gravel—the victims clenched their fists, resembling eagle claws. Logically speaking, drowning victims should have mud under their fingernails but I found nothing of the sort.

I opened one of the victim’s mouths and shook the teeth with my hands but they remained secure and didn’t give. There were fibers inside the first victim’s nasal cavity.

”This whole drowning incident is very strange. Some of the characteristics match and some don’t,” I surmised. “Did the victims stay in their hotel room the entire time?”

”The hotel staff testified on that. They checked into the room at about 8:00 am and never left. During their stay, they ordered lunch, and the delivery staff also confirmed there were two people in the room. Their bodies were found around 2:00 pm. From noon till then, the front desk staff never left their posts.”

I nodded and carefully sniffed at the bodies, though I found no obvious odors.

Even if they went out at noon and were knocked unconscious, thrown into water as soon as they left the room, the time wasn’t enough to produce such an appearance!

I gathered the aquatic plants in their hair and scrutinized them. ”These aquatic plants resemble the ones on Zhang Bing’s body. It’s a kind of moss that some people put in their fish tanks for decoration.”

”There’s a fish tank in the hotel lobby but it’s unlikely for them to have drowned there,” added Xiaotao.

”These aquatic plants were intentionally placed by someone. Look, they were arranged rather evenly,” I pointed out. “I think the murderer deliberately created the illusion of drowning, but he failed to mislead us. What does he want to convey or what is he hiding?”

”I heard Bingxin mention that the ghost bus is related to water. Tell me more!”

Despite my unwillingness to connect the case to the paranormal, these three victims had all boarded the ghost bus last night so it seemed this connection could no longer be ignored. Thus, I gave Xiaotao a general account of the post I read yesterday.

Taking a deep breath, Xiaotao said, ”I think we should investigate this bus of unknown origins.”

”Go ahead!” I concurred.

While Xiaotao made a phone call to assign officers to the task, Bingxin entered the workshop once more, gushing excitedly, ”Song Yang-gege, the second victim’s white blood cell count is on the high end, which far exceeds the norm.”

”What does this mean?”

Pondering for a moment, Bingxin replied, ”I recall that white blood cell count increases during electrocution.”

I proceeded to an empty space and pointed, ”Suppose this is the door. The murderer knocks on the door and the second victim comes to open the door. He knocks her unconscious with a stun gun and rushes in at once! The first victim must be very alarmed. When the murderer orders her to turn around, she complies. Then, the murderer takes out his mace and hits her on the back of the head. He walks over to the second victim and does the same.”

”The two suffered a severe blow to the medulla oblongata,” I concluded as I moved to a different position. “They were unconscious and unable to move. The murderer placed them in bed and removed their clothes. Earlier, you mentioned there was no sign of sexual assault. Let me correct you on that—we can only confirm there wasn’t rape. Why did the killer remove their clothes? In order to create the illusion of drowning, I suspect the murderer must have sprinkled some sort of liquid onto the victims that soon resulted in traces of being submerged in water. Just like in ancient Chinese water torture, he covered their faces with several sheets of paper and continuously poured water. Inhaling a large amount of water, the victims eventually suffocated to death.”

”How do you know the murderer used paper?” asked Xiaotao.

”The first victim had a small piece of paper fiber in his nasal cavity. During the autopsy, I deduced it was possibly A4 paper or something else.”

”How did the murderer create the illusion of soaked skin?” asked Bingxin.

I shook my head, ”Lab tests happen to be my weakness. I'll leave that to you.”