kingnovel Chapter 1082 Expanding the Scope for Detailed Investigation
Chapter 1082 Expanding the Scope for Detailed Investigation
On the way from the dispatch room to the material yard, the roar of the conveyor belt was so loud it hurt your eardrums. Xiao Wang had to shout at the top of his lungs to make sure the veteran workers kept up. The tarpaulin next to the hopper had been carefully lifted, revealing a silver watch on the wrist of the severed limb. Several dark blue fibers were still wrapped around the broken part of the watch chain.
“This watch…” The old worker suddenly widened his eyes. “Qiangzi was wearing a similar one! It’s just that the strap isn’t as shiny, it looks like it’s covered in mud.” He pointed to the finger joints of the stump. “I’ve seen this deformity before! Qiangzi injured his hand while moving stones last week, and his little finger was bent like this!”
Xiao Yang picked up a strand of dark blue fiber with his tweezers and examined it against the light: "It looks like some kind of workwear fabric, rather rough, but wear-resistant." He asked the technicians to take a sample, "to compare it with the fibers remaining on the inner wall of the hopper, and also to check the model and purchase record of this watch." Xiao Sun was measuring the length of the limb, the measuring tape leaving a silver line in the sunlight: "62 centimeters from the shoulder section to the fingertips, initially identified as a male's right limb, aged approximately 30 to 40 years old."
Xiao Wang's notebook was already half full of notes, and the old worker was still rambling on: "Qiangzi is usually quite arrogant. Last week he got into a fight in the break room over who should unload first, and he broke the other person's head." He suddenly slapped his thigh, "That's right! The tailgate of his red truck is broken, so he has to use ropes to tie it up when unloading. I just saw the truck parked at the back door!"
The investigation of the material yard continued. Xiao Yang straightened up, the lenses of his gas mask covered with fine sand. "The remains will be sent back to the team for further examination," he told Li Ming. "The shoe prints, fibers, and bloodstains collected at the scene need to be analyzed in the lab." His gaze swept over the gears of the conveyor belt. "Notify the workers to stop work. We need to inspect the entire conveyor system to see if there are any remaining human tissues in other parts."
Li Ming nodded and looked at Xiao Wang: "Take a few men to the back gate and check that red truck. Be careful to protect the scene and not destroy any possible evidence. Also, check the identity information and recent activity trajectory of this person named 'Qiangzi' and find him as soon as possible." He kicked away a sharp piece of gravel at his feet. "We also need to retrieve the surveillance footage from the quarry, focusing on the time period from 7:00 to 10:30 this morning."
The phone in the dispatch room suddenly rang; it was the lab calling. Xiao Yang answered, and as he listened, his brow furrowed: "What? Trace amounts of engine oil were found in the muscle tissue of the severed limb? Matching the engine oil in the truck engine?" He hung up and looked at Li Ming, his eyes grave. "It seems this 'Qiangzi' is highly suspicious. We need to find him as soon as possible."
Xiao Wang led his team towards the back gate of the material yard. Sure enough, the red truck was parked there, with some sand and gravel still remaining in the back bed. The truck was covered in dust and oil, and the ropes on the back bed fenders hung loosely, as if they had just been untied. Xiao Wang gestured for his team to approach carefully. He went around to the driver's side and looked inside through the dusty window. There was no one in the driver's seat, but half of a bloodstained gauze, already blackened, was sticking out of the storage compartment in the passenger seat.
"Prepare to search the vehicle," Xiao Wang ordered in a low voice. The team members immediately took out their tools. When they opened the driver's side door, a smell mixed with sweat and engine oil wafted out. Under the seat was a bloodstained wrench; the blood had dried and was a dark red. In the gaps of the floor mats, they also found several black hairs of varying lengths.
“This case seems complicated,” Xiao Wang picked up the wrench and held it up to the sunlight. “The bloodstains on it are very likely from the victim.” He put the wrench into an evidence bag. “Quickly send this evidence back to the lab for testing, and at the same time, intensify the search for ‘Qiangzi.’ He can’t have gone far.”
The sun grew increasingly intense, the ground of the gravel plant scorching hot, and the air thick with a strange stench of sand, oil, and blood. Exhaustion etched itself on everyone's faces, but a resolute determination shone in their eyes. Xiao Wang knew that behind this mutilated corpse lay a cruel truth, and their mission was to find clues as quickly as possible, apprehend the murderer, and bring justice to the victim.
As the truck carrying the severed limbs slowly drove away, Li Ming took one last look at the bustling gravel plant. The conveyor belt was still running, and the sand and gravel were still piling up in the hoppers, but the tranquility here had been shattered, and a tense manhunt was just beginning.
Li Ming's leather shoes crunched over the gravel at the edge of the material yard, making a soft sound. He wiped the sweat from his brow, the shadow of his police cap falling on Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun: "Expand outwards from the hopper, don't miss a single grain of sand within a fifty-meter radius." The sunlight pinned his shadow to the ground, intertwining with the shadows cast by the conveyor belt to form a network.
Xiao Yang placed the survey kit at the entrance of the dispatch room, the metal buckles gleaming coldly in the sunlight. "Shoot the panorama first," he said, inserting a new battery into the camera. When the screen lit up, a red truck in the distance was reflected. "Shoot one set from each of the four directions: east, south, west, and north. Make sure to frame the hopper, conveyor belt, and truck." Xiao Sun had already set up the tripod, and the laser level projected a green line on the gravelly ground: "The baseline is set on the centerline of the hopper, with an error controlled within two centimeters."
The sound of camera shutters clicking filled the air amidst the roar of machinery. Xiao Yang crouched beneath the hopper, his lens focused on the 3.7-meter-long bloodstain on the ground: "The 47th image shows the wiping marks at the end of the bloodstain, like it was rubbed by something." He used tweezers to pick up a grain of blood-stained sand. "The bloodstain concentration here is higher than elsewhere; it's probably where the stump remained." Xiao Sun's measuring tape was positioned at the widest point of the bloodstain: "7.3 centimeters, splattered, indicating that the blood vessels were still bleeding when the limb was severed."
As they moved toward the conveyor belt gear assembly, Xiao Sun's rangefinder suddenly beeped. He bent down and parted the tangled wire: "Look, there's something wrapped around the gear teeth." A strand of dark blue fiber hung from the serrated edge, hardened by machine oil. Xiao Yang leaned closer to take a picture; the fiber in the lens showed a clear double-stranded weave: "It's the same thickness as the fiber on the watch chain of the severed limb, but the color is slightly lighter, probably because it was discolored by the machine oil." He carefully covered it with an evidence bag: "Number 017, fiber sample, for spectral analysis."
In the northwest corner of the material yard, there was a pile of discarded cement bags. As Xiao Yang's camera lens swept across it, it suddenly froze. "Wait," he zoomed in on the image, and half a black object was sticking out from the gap in the cement bag, "It looks like a piece of cloth." The two of them worked together to move the sack, revealing a torn black work jacket. The frayed cuffs revealed gray wristbands, which matched the old worker's description of "Qiangzi's" clothing perfectly.