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

The ventilation system in the autopsy room was still running, and the stench of decay gradually dissipated, replaced by the pungent smell of disinfectant. Looking out at the night sky, Zhang Kai thought of the scattered sawdust and paint buckets from the furniture factory, and of the murderer whose whereabouts remained unknown. He knew that this autopsy report was only the beginning of the investigation. Next, he needed to connect the autopsy clues with information from the crime scene investigation, surveillance footage review, and interviews with witnesses to expose the crimes hidden within the factory.

The blinds in the Criminal Investigation Division's conference room cut strips of morning light, falling on the long conference table. On the DNA test report in front of Lu Chuan, the three characters "Zhang Baode" were circled twice with thick red marker lines. The conclusion "99.99% match" in the lower right corner of the report was like a final hammer, definitively confirming the deceased's identity. He tapped his fingertips lightly on the table, his gaze sweeping over the people present—Yang Lin's investigation uniform still had sawdust on it, Wang Shuai's notebook was covered with sticky notes of surveillance screenshots, Zhang Hui's interview records were filled with dense annotations, and Zhang Kai's white coat cuffs still had traces of disinfectant.

"Everyone's here, let's begin." Lu Chuan's voice was hoarse from staying up all night. He pushed Zhang Baode's ID photo to the center of the table. In the photo, the painter was wearing blue overalls, with a shy smile on his lips, and half a paintbrush was tucked into his left breast pocket—no one could have imagined that this honest and unassuming man would end his life by being dismembered and his body disposed of.

Yang Lin stood up first and projected photos from the scene onto the screen. The first photo was a close-up of a severed finger in the garbage room, white paint chips gleaming coldly in the sunlight. "A total of five body parts were extracted from the scene, distributed in the garbage room, the woodworking workshop waste pile, the raw material warehouse, and around the paint workshop," he pointed to a diagram showing the distribution of the body parts. "The fracture surfaces of the body parts all have serrated textures, which perfectly match the shape of the 18cm hand saw blade extracted from the woodworking workshop. The DNA of the human tissue fragments on the saw blade is consistent with Zhang Baode's."

The screen switched to a photo of footprints, the size 43 work boot imprinted clearly on the sawdust-covered ground. "The footprints show a stride length of 75 cm, a stride width of 18 cm, and a stride angle of 4 degrees outward, estimating a height of 175-180 cm," Yang Lin pulled up a gait analysis chart. "The footprints show concentrated pressure on the outer side of the forefoot and even pressure on the heel, consistent with minor injury to the right lower limb or habitual shift in center of gravity, highly matching the gait of the suspicious man in the surveillance footage." He added, "Half a palm print was extracted near the mixing tank in the paint shop, with 21 clear feature points, and has been entered into the fingerprint database, but no match has been found yet; the blue fiber extracted from the climbing marks on the wall matches the fiber composition of Zhang Baode's work clothes, suggesting it was rubbed off by the suspect while dragging the body parts."

"Have you found out the source of the saw blade?" Lu Chuan suddenly interjected. Yang Lin nodded: "The saw blade is a common model used in woodworking workshops. On the afternoon of July 11, Zhang Baode borrowed the same model of saw blade from painter Xiao Wang, saying that he had 'work to do at home'. It has not been returned to date. The saw blade retrieved on site has the same serial number as the saw blade borrowed by Xiao Wang."

Wang Shuai then reported on the video analysis. Seven monitors displayed a split-screen view on the screen, with the silhouette of a silver-gray minivan flashing in the lower right corner. "At 4:15 PM on July 11, a silver-gray Wuling Hongguang PLUS was parked at the factory's back gate. The license plate ended in '28,' and there was a 15-centimeter scratch on the right front door," he zoomed in on the image. "At 4:35 PM, a suspicious man wearing blue overalls and with a slightly hunched back got into the passenger seat. This man had entered the woodworking workshop 15 minutes earlier, carrying a black cloth bag that left. The size of the bag matched the requirements for wrapping the body parts."

He switched to nighttime surveillance: "At 9:30 PM on July 11, the suspicious man reappeared in the woodworking workshop, operating the horizontal planer for about 40 minutes. During this time, he moved heavy objects multiple times. At 10:10 PM, he carried a black cloth bag and walked towards the wall, climbed over it, and escaped. The van left the surveillance range at 10:15 PM." Wang Shuai shook his head helplessly, "The factory's surveillance system has many blind spots, and the nighttime image quality is blurry, making it impossible to identify the suspicious man's facial features; the surrounding road surveillance only captured the van driving towards Yingbin Avenue, after which it completely lost contact, and the middle character of the license plate has not yet been confirmed."

"Is it possible to identify the vehicle by its scratches?" Zhang Hui suddenly asked. Wang Shuai nodded: "We have contacted auto repair shops throughout the city to check records of silver-gray Wuling Hongguang vehicles with a 15-centimeter scratch on the right front door that were recently repaired, but there are no results yet. At the same time, we have expanded the monitoring range of the checkpoints to 30 kilometers and are focusing on tracking suspicious vehicles with license plate numbers ending in '28'."

When Zhang Hui reported on the investigation, a social relationship diagram of Zhang Baode appeared on the screen, with red lines marking "conflict targets" and black lines marking "normal relationships." "Zhang Baode, 42 years old, from Nanhe, has worked in a furniture factory for 5 years. He is introverted and has no large debts," he pointed to the relationship diagram. "There are three main conflict targets: First, Lao Zhang from the paint workshop. He argued with Zhang Baode over work orders and threatened to 'make him pay' on July 5th. However, on July 11th, Lao Zhang was in a neighboring city accompanying his mother to see a doctor, and there are hospital records and train tickets to prove this, so he has been ruled out as a suspect. Second, Lao Li, the carpenter. He argued with Zhang Baode on July 10th over a dispute about borrowing tools. Lao Li is 176 cm tall, has an old injury on his right lower limb, which matches the footprint analysis. He was also working overtime at the factory on the night of July 11th, providing a window of opportunity for the crime, but there is no direct evidence yet. Third, the mysterious man. He argued with Zhang Baode at the factory gate on the night of July 10th. He was wearing a black hoodie, had a slightly hunched back, and his build matched that of the suspicious man on surveillance footage. His identity is unknown."

Zhang Hui paused, then added: "Zhang Baode's wife reported that he has been acting strangely recently. On July 8, he said that 'someone is causing him trouble,' but did not specify who it was. There have been three unexplained expenditures of 5000 yuan each in his salary card in the past three months. The receiving account is a virtual account, and the source cannot be traced. It is suspected that it is related to the mysterious man."

Zhang Kai gave his final report on the autopsy. An anatomical diagram of the chest contusions appeared on the screen, the dark red hemorrhages particularly glaring. "The cause of death has been determined to be hemorrhagic shock," he said, pointing to the contusion area. "There is a 3×4cm subcutaneous hemorrhage in the chest, reaching the muscle layer, consistent with blunt force trauma; there are two irregular lacerations in the abdomen, reaching the peritoneum, which accelerated the bleeding process. Both injuries were inflicted before death, with an interval of no more than one hour."

"The time of death is pinpointed to between 5 PM and 7 PM on July 11th," Zhang Kai stated, retrieving the muscle biochemistry report. "The blood potassium concentration was 12 mmol/L, which, combined with the degree of digestion of the stomach contents (last meal 4-6 hours), perfectly matches Zhang Baode's record of eating at the factory canteen at noon on July 11th." He emphasized, "The white paint on the body parts is consistent with the factory's paint composition, and the sawdust is made of pine, indicating that the dismemberment occurred in the woodworking workshop, and the body disposal took place between 9 PM and 10 PM on July 11th." (End of Chapter)