Silver Snow Line [Criminal Investigation]

An hour and a half ago.

Lu Shaohui was awakened by the ringing of his cell phone. He quickly washed his face and rushed to Jincheng Jiayuan, where the crime occurred.

The deceased was named Kang Wenxia, ​​a 27-year-old female freelancer who had been married for two years. Her husband was currently on a business trip in Africa and had not returned for more than two months. She had been living alone during this period.
At 7:30 in the morning, her mother came to bring her a quilt for the winter, but she didn't see her daughter in the bedroom or the living room. Finally, her daughter's body was found in the bathroom.

Lv Shaohui took the shoe covers handed to him by the criminal police at the scene and entered the scene to see the body lying prone, with half-wet long hair draped over the back, the body above the shoulders immersed in a bathtub full of water, arms resting on the edge of the bathtub, legs bent and in a kneeling position, black cotton socks on the feet, the body naked, and a bathrobe hanging on the hook on the wall.

The technician measured the water temperature in the bathtub and found that it had already cooled down.

The forensic doctor examined the body and found rigor mortis had set in the joints, punctate hemorrhages in the conjunctiva of the eyelids, and pink, bloody foamy fluid flowing out of the mouth and nose.

"The estimated time of death was around 10 o'clock last night," Cheng Buyu said, "Preliminary judgment is that he died of drowning and suffocation."

"Is it possible that she bumped into something and passed out, then fell into the water and drowned?" Lu Shaohui looked around the bathroom and found no signs of a fight. In fact, except for a little half-dried water stain on the floor, everything else was clean. "She lived alone."

"We have to go back and check to confirm the details, but I think it's unlikely to be an accident."
Cheng Buyu pointed at the head of the corpse and said, "If he fell into the water unconsciously, his hair wouldn't be so neatly draped over his shoulders."

The body was put on a stretcher. Just as Lu Shaohui was about to follow him out, he suddenly found two black spherical particles the size of a little finger nail falling out from under the body. Cheng Buyu also discovered something was wrong at the same time. He lifted the white cloth again and found that the deceased's anus was filled with foreign objects of the same shape.

"What is this?" Lu Shaohui frowned, "It doesn't look like excrement."
"Soapberry pills. The book "Rescue of the Dead" says that for people who have been drowning overnight, as long as they put soapberry pills in cotton cloth and put them in their mouths, they may be revived after they come out of the water." Cheng Buyu said after crushing the things in his hand, "Is the person who reported the case still here?"

"Waiting outside."

Lu Shaohui understood what he meant and came out to find the mother of the deceased. With the comfort of the female police officer, she finally stopped crying and sat down on the sofa in a daze.

Lu Shaohui: "Did you move the body when you came this morning?"

There was a flash of panic in Kang's mother's red eyes, but under the pressure of the others, she still glanced at the trash can at her feet. Lv Shaohui followed their gaze and found an empty bottle with "Saponin Pills" written on it.

"I, I wanted to save Wenxia! When I was in my hometown, I heard people say that people who drown can be saved, so when I saw her like this, I..." She said tremblingly, and looked away guiltily, "Who knew it was useless."
Kang's mother's clothes were of ordinary texture but too gaudy in color. Her hands were rough and had the marks of years of housework. The cracks were more obvious in winter. The first impression she gave was that of a housewife with a low level of education. The quilt she brought to Kang Wenxia also looked old and probably not very warm.
Lu Shaohui narrowed his eyes and thought for a while: "You are not Kang Wenxia's biological mother, right?"
Kang's mother did not hide the fact: "I have been married to her father for decades, and I have always treated her as my own daughter. What is the difference between me and her biological mother?"

Kang Wenxia has no job, no friends, and no children. She doesn't have a close relationship with her parents-in-law. She does have some contact with her parents, but the relationship between her biological father and stepmother is not close. When her mother was asked to name someone who might have a grudge against Kang Wenxia, ​​she couldn't even name a single one.

Lu Shaohui pressed his temple with a headache: "What other places did you touch at the scene?"
"I...I saw her fall into the water first and wanted to save her, but after waiting for a long time, it didn't work, so I put her back." Kang's mother confessed timidly.

Kang's mother came to Kang Wenxia's home and saw her stepdaughter half submerged in the bathtub. She was so frightened that she hurriedly pulled her out and found that she had already stopped breathing. Then she remembered the "folk remedy" she had heard of. It happened that Kang Wenxia had not used up the soapberry pills she bought for cough and sore throat some time ago, so she "rescued" her according to the method described in the folk remedy. However, after waiting for a long time, the body was still a body. Kang's mother was panicked and scared before she realized what she had done. She was afraid that the police would suspect her, so she put the body back in its original state and cleaned up many places including but not limited to the ground, the bathtub wall, and the towel sink.

"Now that's great. If this was really a murder, the suspect probably didn't expect to win such a big prize, and have someone clean up the scene for him for free." Lu Shaohui said helplessly to Cheng Buyu.
Cheng Buyu: "Did you also get her hair wet while moving the body?"
Kang's mother knew that she had made trouble, so she was very honest at this moment: "No, no, no, her hair was wet when I came here in the morning."
"Is it soaked in water?"
Mother Kang recalled for a moment and shook her head: "No, that's how I put it."

The bathroom was narrow, damp, and poorly ventilated, with so much water still in the bathtub. If the victim had washed her hair before death, it was very likely that her hair would not have dried by morning. But as Cheng Buyu said, she fell and her upper body was soaked in water. It was impossible for her hair to remain so smooth and tidy. This was most likely a loophole left by the murderer.

But it was useless to rely solely on Kang's mother's one-sided statement. The scene had been completely destroyed and no one could know what the real situation was at the time of the crime.

The crowd was so shocked by this wave of operations that they couldn't even cry. They could only search the room more carefully for other possible clues.

After Zhao Chongyun came back from the community after inquiring about the situation, he gained a lot.

"This building was built twelve years ago. It is an eight-story building with two elevators and four units. Because this unit faces the street, the first and second floors are all shops. Kang Wenxia lives in 403. Usually, there are only her and her husband at home. Because the house was originally bought as a wedding house for their son, it was not renovated until three years ago when they got engaged. They moved in the year before last."

Zhao Chongyun told all the news he had heard from the neighbors: "Other people have settled down for many years, but her family waited until then to renovate, and they were restless on weekends, so the upstairs and downstairs couldn't rest for a long time. At that time, someone asked her for advice, but she scolded him. "Last Tuesday, the residents of 303 downstairs found Kang Wenxia in the owner group and asked why her family made loud noises from moving tables, chairs and benches every night. Kang Wenxia is a freelance worker and doesn't even have to go out, so she makes noises during the day and at night. Not only does it not fit in with the work and rest schedule of a normal worker, but it also causes severe lack of sleep. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I tagged her in the group to ask for a solution."

The resident who sent the message is Du Manhe, 25 years old, an English teacher at Tianning Primary School. In addition to her husband and parents-in-law, she also has a one-year-old son.

Because Kang Wenxia's work and rest schedule was so weird, she would often move tables and chairs upstairs and even run and jump until after 11pm. The sound coming through the floor was as stimulating as the reverberation of a concert. Du Manhe said that her house seemed to be shaking every night. However, at 6 or 7am, Kang Wenxia actually got up again, running and jumping as usual, waking up the family downstairs who had finally fallen asleep.

Du Manhe was trying to negotiate with Kang Wenxia when she posted a message in the group, but she was verbally abused by Kang Wenxia after she explained the situation, and the situation did not change. Du Manhe even called the police, but Kang Wenxia's attitude was uncooperative and the police could not punish her, so Du Manhe was forced into a corner and said a few unpleasant words.

After listening to this, Lu Shaohui said, "What I mean is that Kang Wenxia has simple social relationships and doesn't need to interact with others on a daily basis. The only people who can be confirmed to have had conflicts with her are the Du Manhe family downstairs?"

Zhao Chongyun: "Yes. Big Mouth Brother, do you have any clues?"
"The scene has been destroyed," Lv Shaohui repeated what had just happened to him speechlessly, "Now we can only confirm the cause of death through the autopsy results and then conduct follow-up investigations."
Zhao Chongyun was startled and glanced at Kang's mother not far away: "How dare she touch the corpse?"
Lu Shaohui shrugged: "Ignorance is fearless, but there is no guarantee that she is lying."

After saying this, he suddenly paused.

"what happened?"

Lu Shaohui walked to the trash can where the medicine bottle was found, put on gloves and carefully took out a piece of paper that was burnt to the point where only the edges were left.
Zhao Chongyun hurriedly handed him the evidence bag, glanced at the words on it, and frowned: "You... what do you mean by death... what is this? A threatening letter?"

The original content on the letter had long been burned to ashes, leaving only a few words on the top row that could still be seen clearly, but fortunately the fire burned from the bottom up, so the tape that was originally stuck on it was still there, and a fingerprint was clearly printed on the transparent tape surface.

After returning to the bureau, the fingerprint was extracted and compared, and it was confirmed that it belonged to Du Manhe from 303.

Xi Ming came to the school to bring Du Manhe back for investigation. Considering that there are many children in the school and today is the Parents' Open Day, he was worried about the bad influence, so he only brought an auxiliary police colleague to accompany her.

"Friends who often kill people know that sometimes when a person gets angry, his behavior is often not controlled by reason. It only takes a split second for the knife to come out and for the adrenaline to kick in before he realizes that he has killed someone. This is all normal," said Xi Ming.

Du Manhe informed the school leaders about the situation and was brought out. Jiangjiang saw her and waved with a smile, and called out from a distance: "Teacher Du!"
Xie Qingfei lowered his head: "Is that your class teacher?"
Jiang Jiang nodded: "Yes, Teacher Du is my favorite teacher, she is so gentle."

Du Manhe approached, bent down and touched Jiangjiang's face, but she looked obviously very tired, her face was sallow, and her smile was very forced. Xie Qingfei noticed that her hands were trembling slightly, and there were traces of sweat on her hairline in the middle of winter.

Jiangjiang held Du Manhe's hand and said, "Teacher Du, where are you going? Don't you want to play games with us?"
"The teacher still has things to do and will be back in the afternoon." Du Manhe liked children very much and knew that Jiangjiang's family were police officers. Seeing that Xi Ming did not interrupt, she looked at him gratefully.
Jiang Jiang said sensibly: "Okay, then you have to listen to Brother Xi Ming. I'll wait for you to come back."

After everyone left, Wei Cheng pinched Jiang Jiang's face and asked, "Why is Xi Ming the elder brother and I am the uncle?"
Jiang Jiang looked at him suspiciously, then looked at Xie Qingfei, and after thinking for a while, he asked, "Uncle Wei, do you want Aunt Feifei to be your aunt as well?"
Wei Cheng’s face turned dark.
Xie Qingfei was overjoyed and responded, "Sure, sure, my dear nephew."
Wei Cheng: "...It's nice to call you uncle."

Du Manhe was unable to return to school for the entire afternoon.

After sending Jiangjiang home, Wei Cheng drove Xie Qingfei to the downstairs of the community.
She was looking through the photos she had taken on her phone, pointing at a picture of Jiang Jiang riding on his shoulders and grinning. When she came to her senses, she realized that he had been staring at her for an unknown period of time.
"Well, I'll go first. I'll send you the photos when I get back." Xie Qingfei straightened his expression in a second.
Wei Cheng withdrew his gaze and said "hmm" softly.
Just as Xie Qingfei was about to open the car door, his cell phone rang. He paused when he saw that the caller ID was Lu Shaohui.

"what's up?"
"We received a report that a few fishermen near Zhuque Lake found a sack with a dead body inside."
Xie Qingfei and Wei Cheng looked at each other and asked, "If it's just a dead body, they won't look for me, right?"

"The body had two cuts on its lips, and a 'No. 2' was scratched on its forehead with a knife." Lu Shaohui said, "Xi Ming said he met you this morning, and you know about the drowned female corpse in Jincheng Jiayuan. Section Chief Cheng just sent me the results of the autopsy, and there are the same scratches on the soles of this body, with 'No. 3' written on them.

"So, this could be a serial murder case. If the situation is good, there will only be 'No. 1' left to be discovered. If the situation is bad... who knows if there are four, five, six, and seven."

(End of this chapter)