Chapter 407: Expecting A Murder Tonigh (1/2)
At eleven in the evening, Xiaotao asked curiously, ”Song Yang, how can you be sure that there will be a murder tonight? Aren't the four suspects in detention?”
”It’s precisely because they are detained!” My lips curled into a bitter smile. “If a murder occurred at this time, it’s tantamount to declaring that they aren’t our suspects! Their arrest was peculiar to begin with. When I tried putting myself in the shoes of a man who wants to exonerate them, I realized that would be my next move.”
Right then, the ringing of the phone interrupted our conversation. A while after Xiaotao answered, she stood up and asked, ”Where?”
Upon hanging up, Xiaotao looked as if she had taken a bat to the head. ”You were spot on. Under a bridge in Taoyuan District, two bodies have just been found!”
”Let's go!” I sighed, a sense of powerlessness striking me hard.
We rushed to the scene where the bodies were found. It was on the shoal where a concrete bridge crossed over the water surface. On the ground were two female corpses covered in bruises and blood. The police in the jurisdiction stood guarding the scene.
Instead of walking over to where the corpses were, we began setting up lighting equipment. The technical team marked the footprints, bloodstains and left-behind objects with evidence markers and took photos of the evidence. At a glance, I recognized that the footprints on the scene were exactly the same as those found in the previous two murders.
The man’s skill of substituting one for another was perfect. He managed to pull a fast one on us all, getting the police to become witnesses in proving the four young masters’ innocence!
Putting on rubber gloves, I started the autopsy. The two female victims were about twenty-five years old, both wearing thin shirts with numerous bruises on their hands, feet and face. They both showed signs of sexual assault. One of the victims lay near the water, her long hair floating like grass, while the other was close to the bridge pier.
The preliminary examination revealed that the time of death was four hours ago. Picking up the victim’s palm, I inspected it. One of the victims had neatly trimmed nails painted in several different colors while the other victim’s hands smelled of perfume with more than one type of scent. This suggested the victims were sales associates at a cosmetics counter. I also noticed binding marks that appeared to have been caused by a belt.
Both wrists and ankles showed traces of being bound and it seemed the victims were held in captivity for a period of time. I would have to see the contents of their stomachs to determine exactly how long.
In order to confirm my speculations, I listened to their internal organs with the Echolocation Rod and found a lot of liquid accumulated in the lungs of the victim lying by the water's edge.
A closer look revealed pinch marks on her neck. It seemed the victim was rather resilient and didn’t die immediately after being raped. The murderer then submerged her head into the water, forcing her to suffocate.
”What did you find?” Xiaotao asked.
”I’ve made quite a few discoveries but these aren’t important,” I sighed. “The task at hand is to prove that the murder was committed by someone imitating the four young masters.”
I asked for a cotton swab and inserted it into the victim’s vagina. When I pulled it out, it was stained with sticky fluid and blood that had not yet solidified. Upon sniffing it, I confirmed the murderer had used a condom. I examined the body once more and came to the conclusion, ”These injuries obviously deviate from the usual style of the four young masters.”
”What’s different?”
”What is your initial impression of these two bodies?”
”The bruises!” Xiaotao answered truthfully.
”Yes,” I nodded. “The injuries are rather uniform and the blows weren’t that heavy. It’s not so much as abusing the victims as it is to deliberately make them look like this. This time, the murderer was imitating on purpose.”