Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 579 Confusing
Lin Ge wandered around the scene of the crime, which was stained with black bloodstains, for a few hours, but found nothing of value.

This gave him a feeling that the murderer he was facing in this case might be more 'professional' than the criminals he had encountered before.

This might not be the most appropriate adjective, but Lin Ge did feel that the murder scene he saw this time was much 'cleaner' than he had expected.

Just as the policeman named Ma Shun said, the murderer's method was swift and decisive, leaving little trace of struggle at the scene. The victim didn't even put up a fight before being killed instantly, collapsing stiffly.

To achieve this, it would be almost impossible for a non-professional killer!
"No wonder Ma Shun said this case was committed by someone he knew. The scene was indeed too clean, and there was nothing suspicious at all. In fact, because of the long time that had passed and the fact that it was in the wild, you could barely smell anything."

After zooming out and walking around the area again, Lin Ge was still finding little progress, even though Li Siyu was already panting behind him. The crime scene was too simple, so he decided to follow the bloodstains, which indicated the path the body had been taken, towards the cliff where it was dumped.

Along the way, I saw many broken branches and grass stems, as well as many shoe prints and marks left from squatting during rest stops.

While Lin Ge could see these things, the professional investigators naturally wouldn't overlook them either. Signs were placed next to most of the footprints and broken grass stems; the police deliberately avoided these traces, even building plastic bridges, demonstrating their professionalism.

But none of the easiest clues to solve the case—cigarette butts, saliva, phlegm, or even the marks often seen in movies, like accidental needle pricks or cuts—were found.

After that, apart from him, the other two police dogs that came up the mountain with him did not have time to get close to Ling Ge to curry favor before they were also led by their handlers to start their busy work.

The police in Baiyan City didn't place all their hopes on a cat. Given the suspicion that the case involved a serious serial murder, they were employing every investigative method available. Besides the police cats and dogs investigating the case, Lin Ge even spotted an elderly botanist with an apprentice on the street, invited to examine the scene for any biological samples brought from elsewhere by the suspect.

When Li Siyu was resting halfway through the journey and making a phone call to Li Yiduo, Lin Ge could hear a commotion coming from the other end of the line.

It seems an official was planning to request support from the armed police to conduct a comprehensive search of the entire Wudong Mountain area to investigate any potential hiding places. However, his request was not approved by his superiors, and he is currently arguing with the person on the other end of the phone.

"Wow! Apart from the time at Tianchi Airport in Chu City during the pandemic, I've never seen such a tense and lively scene of a detective investigation with so many people!"

Lin Ge sighed, rested, and continued on his way.

As Lin Ge walked, he noticed a detail: the killer seemed very familiar with the route. Aside from taking breaks, his pace remained almost unchanged, and he didn't turn back or retreat at all. This indicated that the killer knew exactly where he was going and how to get there, ruling out the possibility of a crime of passion, a murder by someone from out of town, and essentially eliminating the possibility of a copycat crime.

To reiterate, the killer was too professional or very well prepared. He had only one purpose in contacting the victim: to kill him!
As for whether the victim was unlucky or brought it on himself, not much has been found.

Lin Ge discovered another thing: during the process of carrying the body, the female victim who was responsible for lifting the legs couldn't keep up several times, and then the murderer simply dragged the body forward, leaving obvious drag marks on the ground.

It's unclear whether there were any threats or inducements afterwards, but it's quite interesting that the female victim, despite the killer never putting the body down to chase and coerce her, actually rested for a while and then quickly caught up with him, picked up the body again, and continued walking.

"As expected... the murderer and the victim knew each other, or at least knew the second female victim or had a conflict of interest. But what could possibly make this stupid woman so unafraid to commit murder at the scene, and even actively carry the body? If she and the first victim were lovers or in a close relationship, what kind of thinking led her to continue committing atrocities after seeing someone close to her die in front of her?"

The more Lin Ge thought about it, the stranger it seemed. The way the two victims acted and their relationship with the murderer were indeed as bizarre as Ma Shun had said.

"Mimi, did you find something? If you're tired, take a rest!"

Li Siyu, the trainer in charge of 'directing' and comforting the police cat, noticed that Mimi's expression was a bit strange and her tail was wagging. So she stopped taking pictures of the place Mimi pointed to and instead walked over curiously and asked her with concern.

"Now is not the time to rest!"

Lin Ge shook his head, knowing that the faster clues were found in this kind of case, the easier it would be to catch the murderer. In open, wild places, no matter how careful the police were or how much they protected the scene, it would be contaminated very quickly. A slight mishap could cause a potentially crucial clue to the killer to vanish without a trace. At that point, the police would only be able to resort to the most primitive methods, relying on luck and asking God for help in finding the murderer.

After catching her breath, Li Siyu took out the mineral water from the Pulse bottle, filled it with the cap which was much larger than the original mineral water bottle, and let Lin Ge slowly lick it from her palm.

It has to be said that Pulse is indeed a police magic weapon. The various uses that the police have developed for it are now bringing convenience to Lin Ge as well.

If it were a mineral water bottle cap, you'd have to lick your tongue raw.

"There's another problem with this case: the location is even more remote than the tomb raiding case in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province last year, making it harder to transport investigation equipment and supplies. Even mobilizing the masses is more difficult than in Zhuzhou. Forget about living comfortably while investigating here. Luckily, Li Siyu brought some cat food from the police station, otherwise we'd be eating plain rice and cabbage with them, which would be too miserable."

Lin Ge continued walking while complaining, and finally, after nearly an hour, he arrived at the top of the cliff where the body had been dumped.

This is a small, protruding rock layer, with signs of collapse and mudslides on both sides. It is only because this rock, buried in the mountain strata, was large enough that it did not completely weather away and roll down with the mud and sand.

Even so, the sandstone fragments that slowly eroded over time still formed a jagged, rocky beach dozens of meters below. The victim was pushed off from this spot, first falling several meters and crashing into the rocks, then continuing to tumble down the steep slope. Dark red bloodstains and pieces of clothing could be seen on the various sharp edges of the rocks along the way, until it finally stopped after rolling another dozen meters, but by then, it was too late; its life was gone.

To be honest, this kind of death... might be even more cruel than dying on the spot. Just thinking about those sharp stone points is enough to send chills down your spine, like being sliced ​​into a thousand pieces.

Lin Ge shivered, suspecting that the wind blowing in his face had chilled him.

"call……"

Seeing Li Siyu peering down from the tip of the rock with a mixture of curiosity and fear, Lin Ge slapped her on the back of the foot, signaling her to quickly step back so she wouldn't fall.

"what!"

Li Siyu, who was already nervous, was startled by the sensation on her foot. Looking down, she saw Lin Ge's annoyed expression, gave a dry laugh, and quickly took two steps back.

Her cries even attracted the attention of several police officers who were busy assisting with the investigation nearby. They looked up and saw a policewoman teasing a cat, but they all grumbled and went back to their work.

Lin Ge didn't have time to play with Li Siyu. He just happened to notice that something seemed off about the smooth rock. Besides the straight trail of blood from which the victim had been carried, and the bloodstains that had been flung out at the tip of the rock when the body was about to be dumped, there seemed to be something else amiss.

He walked around the natural stone platform twice before discovering the problem.

The murderer and the female victim appeared to have knelt before this stone platform. Although the scene was exposed to the cold wind and sunlight, leaving little odor, Lin Ge could still detect traces of sweat.

Neither of them left this scent along the way, and given that they were traveling through a desolate mountain forest, they would have been fully equipped, with no possibility of exposed skin. Therefore, the only possible source of sweat stains at this point would be either the gloves they wore while carrying the body were removed, or their faces, which are unlikely to be completely covered. In either case, the only way they could touch the ground is to kneel. But why kneel?
When should two people kneel down at the same time?
bow down?

Thinking back to what Ma Shun had told him about the victim's peculiar hobby before he came here, Lin Ge suddenly guessed a very absurd possibility.

Although it's just a guess, it's still a useful clue. While the remaining scent isn't enough for Ringo to identify the killer, it might reveal it to scientific instruments!
Then Lin Ge raised his head and roared at Li Siyu, who was still looking around.

"Ow!"

The piercing sound startled Li Siyu and also made the nearby surveyors look up again. Was that cat... in the way again?
"Mimi, what did you find?" Only Li Siyu could discern Lin Ge's meaning from his seemingly unchanged voice, which subtly revealed changes in emotion and tone. Had he discovered some clue? She was overjoyed.

Although she couldn't see anything with the naked eye from where Mimi was staring, Li Siyu had complete trust in Lin Ge and immediately called Li Yiduo without hesitation.

"Why not call Nie Guoqiang directly?"

Lin Ge glared at the idiot speechlessly.

"Found a clue? Great! We're on our way!"

As expected, the police officers at Zhanghe Police Station are different from those in other places. When Li Siyu said that Mimi had discovered something unusual, Li Yiduo didn't even ask what it was, and immediately said that he would come to provide support right away.

"what's the situation?"

One of the on-site investigation police officers looked up at his colleague, wiped his sticky forehead with his arm, and shook his back, which was chilled by the wind.

"She said on the phone that she had found a clue?"

Their companion was also stunned, momentarily wondering if they had misheard. There was clearly nothing around the cat and the policewoman, and they had only just arrived; how could they have found clues?

If clues are so easy to find, what have these people been doing, working so hard for so many days?
Feeling somewhat frustrated, the group lost interest in continuing to search the sand. They stood up and curiously approached Lin Ge and Li Siyu, wanting to see what the two had discovered.

"Ouch! Get out of here!"

Seeing that the two were about to step on the place where they were kowtowing, Lin Ge roared angrily.

Although they had already traversed this place several times in the past few days, the less damage it suffered, the greater the chance of extracting traces. How could Lin Ge allow them to contaminate this precious, invisible site again?

"..."

The two investigators were taken aback by Ling Ge's attitude and stopped in their tracks, only able to peer in from a distance. However, the clean stone surface was empty, and the two exchanged a puzzled look.

What on earth has been discovered?!

"Mimi, what did you find?"

Nie Guoqiang, Liu Yuan, Li Yiduo, and Ma Shun led several police officers and rushed over.

However, like the two other investigators, they found nothing on the stone surface before them. As if the cat had only discovered the Emperor's New Clothes, Ma Shun frowned, revealing his displeasure.

"Wait a minute, don't rush."

Seeing that Ma Shun was about to lose his temper, Nie Guoqiang, even though he knew he was under a lot of pressure, calmly stopped him and analyzed, "Mimi wouldn't joke with us about serious matters! Since she found something, there must be clues here that we can't see! Liquid? Smell? Anyway, let's have a professional surveyor check it out. I remember there's a surveying device that can make dried liquids visible, right? Let's use those to do a test; it won't take much time."

"Can you?"

Ma Shun looked at the two investigators who had come closer.

"If it's blood that's been wiped away, you can try luminol. If it's sweat or urine, you can use ninhydrin. But if there are any important traces, to prevent them from being destroyed, I suggest using an ultraviolet lamp, a multi-band light source lamp, or magnetic powder or fluorescent powder. These can all be used to test for biological residues that are invisible to the naked eye. Captain Ma, how about we get the stuff over here first and try it out? Anyway, it's not far, our camp is just at the bottom of the hill."

Although the investigator doubted the cat's abilities, he still thought that maybe it could find a clue, so he asked his colleagues below the cliff to bring up the developing lamp they were using so he could borrow it.

Two more investigators, upon hearing that clues had been discovered, hurriedly and excitedly climbed the hillside, panting.

One of them was holding a large, black, box-like flashlight with a handle—this was what they called a multi-band light source. The Zhanghe Police Station didn't have these. The thought that this rechargeable, explosion-proof flashlight could illuminate liquid residue invisible to the naked eye piqued Lin Ge's curiosity. So, while the two investigators knelt down and shone the light in as he instructed, he curiously joined them to look.

At first glance, it's just an ordinary flashlight with colorful lights changing in turn; there's nothing special about it.

However, when one of the lights, a light that was neither white nor yellow, shone on one of the prostration sites, a faint shadow appeared in the previously empty space, causing the on-site investigator to exclaim in surprise.

"There's really something!"

"what?"

Ma Shun's eyes lit up immediately, and he hurriedly came over and said, "What is it? Can DNA be extracted from it? If you're not sure, don't touch it. Protect it. I'll ask an expert to come and help."

"Captain Ma! Hiring outside help right in front of us, isn't that incredibly disrespectful to our dignity?"

Another investigator, who was coordinating with the lighting, looked up, his voice humming through his mask, making Ma Shun, who had just finished speaking, feel awkward.

"I'm just in a hurry!"

Ma Shun chuckled twice, then carefully squatted down and got a little closer. "Can you tell what it is? Don't rush to extract it. Let's take it slow at this stage! We'd rather not do it at all than destroy this trace that we finally discovered."

"Judging from the wavelength of light, it should be sweat. However, I cannot guarantee whether such a small amount of sweat, which has been exposed to the external environment for so many days, can still yield effective DNA."

The investigator, holding a light source, didn't even look up, carefully searching the surroundings for any further traces.

Then a second shadow was quickly discovered, and the two were positioned almost parallel to the rock peak, seemingly with a very deliberate distance between them.

"Since we're not confident, let's find experts! The bureau hasn't set any funding barriers for this case, so let's not be afraid to spend money. As long as we can solve this 20-year-old serial murder case, it's worth spending any amount of money!"

Ma Shun made a decision quickly.

"Why is there sweat in this spot? Where did the sweat come from?"

Nie Guoqiang, who had been standing quietly to the side with his arms crossed, slowly spoke, harboring doubts. He frowned, facing the gazes of the crowd, and slowly analyzed, "Both victims were fully armed, their bodies protected except for their heads. So the sweat couldn't have dripped naturally, although carrying a corpse this far would have been very strenuous and they would have sweated. And the shape of the sweat is several overlapping ovals; it seems like it's from repeatedly bumping their foreheads. But… why would they kowtow to a corpse that's been thrown down? Are they begging for forgiveness? Or is there some other reason?"

(End of this chapter)