Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

There was a faint red bloodstain on the cement ground of the sand quarry, already half-dried. "It's about 20 x 15 centimeters in size, shaped like a dragged handprint," Yang Lin said, taking a sample with a cotton swab. "If the DNA test matches the bloodstain near the edge of the shallow pit, this could be the primary crime scene." Next to the bloodstain was a blurry fingerprint on a smooth stone. Although the lines were incomplete, the whorl pattern was recognizable.

"Do you think the suspect acted alone or with accomplices?" Yang Sen leaned against the stone wall of the sand quarry to rest, the beam of his investigation light flickering on the distant water. Yang Lin shook his head: "We haven't found any traces of a second person yet, and the drag marks also indicate that it was a solo operation, but moving a body to the water's edge requires strength, so the suspect should be physically robust." He looked at the body retrieval site downstream, "Judging from the clues at the scene, the suspect was very familiar with the terrain and knew about the blind spots of the surveillance cameras, such as the abandoned dock and the sand quarry."

Yang Sen suddenly pointed to something floating on the water's surface—a black plastic bag swirling in the whirlpool. "Pull it up and let's take a look," he called to the technicians. After the plastic bag was pulled ashore, they found several soaking wet old clothes inside. "A black jacket and trousers, polyester, matching the clothes of the deceased, but a size smaller, so they might not belong to the dead." The pockets were empty, containing only a small amount of mud and sand, and there was a fresh tear at the hem that matched the shape of the tear in the bag.

“These clothes might belong to the suspect,” Yang Lin examined the stitching of the jacket. “There are tool marks on the left breast pocket, similar to the characteristics of the body’s jacket, so it might be workwear from the same brand. But there are no markings, so we can’t identify him.” He found a short hair inside the collar, the same color as the one in the bag. “If the DNA matches, we can confirm that it was left by the suspect.”

By the time they reached the wooded area, it was past noon. Yang Sen found half a wrench in a hollow of a pine tree, its rusty blade stained with black fibers. "The wrench was 2.5 centimeters wide, which doesn't match the pry marks on the water tank lock, but there were dark red stains on the blade," he said. He tested it with alcohol, "and it came back positive, possibly from blood." There were size 44 shoe prints in the soil around the hollow, with a stride length of 76 centimeters and a stride width of 15 centimeters, consistent with the previous findings.

“The suspect may have hidden tools here,” Yang Lin said, putting the wrench into the evidence bag. “But we didn’t find any more important murder weapon, such as a rope or hard object that could have caused suffocation.” He looked at the bag full of evidence—fiber, cigarette butts, buttons, chains, lighters, and clothes. “Although we found a lot of clues, they were all too fragmented, and there was no physical evidence that could directly identify the suspect.”

Yang Sen's notebook was filled with investigation records, each clue marked with coordinates and time. "The shoe prints are consistent, the fiber composition is the same, and the cigarette butts are the same brand," he flipped through the records. "It can be confirmed that it was done by the same suspect, but there is no fingerprint database match, and the DNA will need time to be tested. The identity of the deceased is also a complete mystery. There were no identification documents in the clothes, and the car remote on the keychain could not be directly linked to the car owner."

Upon returning to the location where the body was found, technicians were retrieving it. Yang Lin gazed at the murky river, the afterglow of the searchlight shimmering on the water. "The clues we've found can construct a crime route, but they lack a crucial clue," he told Yang Sen. "The suspect drove from the abandoned dock upstream, dragged the body to the water's edge, and disposed of it, hiding tools and clothing along the way. But why did they choose this location? What was their relationship with the deceased? These questions remain unclear."

Yang Sen inventoried the evidence bag, which contained 15 pieces of black fiber, 4 cigarette butts, 2 buttons, 1 chain, 2 lighters, 1 set of clothing, 1 wrench, and 5 blood samples. "Although there are no major discoveries, this indirect evidence can narrow down the scope of the investigation," he patted Yang Lin on the shoulder. "At least we know that the suspect drives a Volkswagen Lavida, wears size 44 shoes, smokes Yuxi cigarettes, and is 178-183 centimeters tall. These characteristics can help us screen suspicious persons in nearby villages."

The crowd outside the cordon had dispersed, leaving only Li Baochang lingering by the river. Yang Lin handed the last bag of evidence to the technicians, watching them lift the body into the ambulance. The foam on the water gradually dissipated, as if nothing had happened, but the clues scattered in the reeds and mud silently told the story of the secret submerged in the water. He knew that although there had been no major breakthrough, every fiber, every cigarette butt, was paving the way to uncovering the truth.

Lu Chuan walked over and patted the two men on the shoulder. The sunlight after the morning mist had dissipated was a bit dazzling. "You've worked hard," he said, looking at the box full of evidence. "Go back to the team to do the testing first. I'll arrange for people to continue visiting nearby villages to check on missing persons and the owner of the Volkswagen Lavida." Yang Lin nodded and, together with Yang Sen, packed up their investigation tools. They knew that the real battle was just beginning.

After Yang Lin and Yang Sen expanded the scope of the on-site investigation, the body was transported back to the Criminal Investigation Detachment for autopsy.

The stainless steel table in the Criminal Investigation Detachment's autopsy room gleamed coldly under the shadowless lamps.

When Beihe's body was brought back, fine water droplets still condensed on the surface of the embalming bag, mixed with traces of river mud and aquatic plants. Zhang Kai, wearing double-layered latex gloves, frowned as soon as his fingertips touched the bag: "The body surface temperature is 16℃, the ambient temperature is 24℃, and the water temperature is affecting the abnormal cooling rate of the corpse." His assistant, Xiaolin, had already adjusted the incubator; the low temperature of 4℃ could delay tissue autolysis. The moment she cut open the embalming bag, a smell mixed with river mud, aquatic plants, and decaying matter filled the air.

The body was in a prone position, male, approximately 178cm tall, wearing a black polyester jacket and dark trousers. The river mud on the clothing was partially dried, leaving varying shades of lines on the skin. "Rigoletto is distributed in the jaw, neck, shoulders, elbows, and hips, with a joint range of motion of 15-25 degrees, indicating the development stage," Zhang Kai said, pressing the sternocleidomastoid muscle of the body with his fingertips. "The stiffness is moderate, suggesting that the time of death was between 24 and 48 hours ago, but the aquatic environment may have delayed the formation of rigor mortis, requiring a comprehensive judgment based on other indicators." When he turned the body over, the skin on the neck formed obvious wrinkles, and there was a 4×5cm subcutaneous hemorrhage on the right side of the neck with irregular star-shaped edges, as if caused by blunt force.

"The livor mortis is located on the back and the back of the limbs, and the color doesn't completely fade when pressed," Xiaolin noted, the sound of his pen scratching across the paper particularly clear. "It's a dark purplish-red with blurred edges. Does that match the characteristics of death by asphyxiation?" Zhang Kai shook his head, his scalpel making a precise arc-shaped incision on the left chest of the corpse. The subcutaneous fat layer appeared a fresh, pale pink: "The dark color of the livor mortis is due to the oxygen-deficient environment in the water, and cannot be directly determined as asphyxiation. Notice the abdominal skin; there's a slight greenish change, spreading from the lower right abdomen. This is a typical sign of the diffusion of putrefactive gases from the intestines, but it's mild and related to the low-temperature water environment inhibiting putrefaction." (End of Chapter)