kingnovel Chapter 1050 The Corpse in the Trash Can
Chapter 1050 The Corpse in the Trash Can
Less than five days after the Liu Dahai case was closed, the municipal criminal investigation branch received another report.
The morning mist of late autumn had not yet dissipated when Li Ming's police car rolled over the gravel road, its siren ripping open the silence of the suburban garbage station. Zhang Haitao squatted by the sorting bins, his orange sanitation worker uniform stained with brown dirt, still trembling uncontrollably. Xiao Wang knelt on the wet cement ground, the words on his notebook blurred by cold sweat: "Tell me slowly, how exactly did you find it?"
“Just sorting kitchen waste as usual,” Zhang Haitao’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “The iron hook caught a hard bag, and I thought it was construction waste…” He suddenly covered his mouth and gagged, his knuckles turning white as he pointed to the evidence bag in the corner—a black plastic bag wrapped around half a bluish-gray arm, the white bone fragments at the break gleaming coldly under the investigation light.
Xiao Yang lay on the edge of the recycling bin, using tweezers to pick up fibers stuck with bits of vegetable scraps: "It's made of high-density polyethylene, the same material as common garbage bags." His laser pointer swept across the bin wall, revealing dark red bloodstains winding down. "The amount of bleeding wasn't large, indicating the victim had been dead for several hours when the body was dumped." Xiao Sun held up a 3D scanner, its red grid beam covering the entire area: "The body dumping point is 27 meters from the nearest blind spot in the surveillance cameras, the killer was familiar with the terrain."
Li Ming crouched down to examine the arm, noting that the lividity was concentrated on the back of the forearm: "The time of death was more than 12 hours ago, and the deceased was right-handed." He noticed calluses on the web of the hand, "He had long been engaged in work that required grip strength, so he was probably a driver or a worker." When the tweezers pulled blue fibers from under the fingernails, the entire scene suddenly fell silent—it was the twill pattern unique to workwear fabric.
"Mr. Zhang, were there any unusual vehicles entering or leaving before or after the body was discovered?" Xiao Wang's voice recorder was flashing red. Zhang Haitao suddenly grabbed his wrist: "There was a silver Wuling! It came twice three days ago, the truck bed was covered with a tarpaulin, and the driver was wearing a black mask..." His pupils dilated, "The second time it came, water was dripping from the truck bed, and I thought it was seafood!"
Afterwards, Li Ming arranged for Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun to conduct a further detailed investigation of the scene.
The searchlights at the garbage station sliced the scene into stark, geometric shapes. Xiao Yang switched his DSLR camera to RAW format and aimed the lens at the bloodstains on the edge of the sorting pool: "Xiao Sun, take a 10x10 cm grid and do a bloodstain morphology analysis." The shutter clicked continuously, each photo precisely focused on the satellite-splatter pattern of the blood droplets. "Passive dripping bloodstains, 75-degree angle, the source point should be 1.2 meters above the edge of the pool."
Xiao Sun knelt on the sticky cement floor, the red beam of the laser rangefinder tracing across the wall: "The 3D model shows that the person who dumped the body was 175±3 cm tall, with an arm span to height ratio of 1.02, which is consistent with the average Asian adult male." He used tweezers to pick up a black fiber embedded in the crack of the pool and observed it under a stereomicroscope: "It is made of Nylon 66, commonly found in waterproof fabrics or work clothes."
"Expand the search area." Xiao Yang switched the investigation light to sidelight mode. As the beam swept across the ground, several blurry shoe prints appeared and disappeared in the dust. He quickly squatted down, took out plaster powder and a syringe: "Size 43, rubber sole, diamond-shaped pattern, obvious drag marks." While mixing the plaster, he suddenly frowned, "Look closely, the edges of the shoe prints are discontinuous, indicating that the murderer was unbalanced when moving, possibly carrying a weight."
The two followed the tire tracks to a gap in the garbage station's wall. Xiao Sun lay on the ground, his magnifying glass pressed against the soil: "The tires are 195 millimeters wide and have a wheelbase of 2720 millimeters, consistent with the specifications of a Wuling Rongguang." He cleaned the edges of the tire tracks with a small brush. "There's diesel residue; we'll extract a sample for gas chromatography analysis." As the survey light swept across the wall, Xiao Yang suddenly stopped them—half a piece of blue cloth hung from the wire mesh at the top of the wall, with dark red fibers embedded between the warp and weft threads.
"Blood source testing is the priority." Xiao Yang sealed the evidence into a vacuum bag. "Contact Zhang Lin and have him prepare to receive it." Returning to the sorting pool, he began measuring the Luminol reaction of the bloodstains. The moment the luminol reagent in the spray bottle came into contact with the bloodstains, a faint blue fluorescence spread in the darkness. "Confirm the blood sources at locations A, B, and C, and perform STR typing comparison."
Time passed amidst the meticulous operation. Xiao Sun scanned the severed arm with an XRF spectrometer: "The serration width is 3.2 millimeters, consistent with the characteristics of a portable chainsaw. The cutting direction is from the inside out, indicating the perpetrator is right-handed." He retrieved the metal composition analysis report: "Chromium and nickel were detected at the fracture site, indicating that the murder weapon was recently chrome-plated." However, when comparing the sales records of chainsaws in hardware stores throughout the city, the database showed 237 matching entries.
“Check the garbage compactor area,” Xiao Yang suddenly pointed to the roaring compressor. The two donned protective suits and began searching the stinking garbage heap by hand. Xiao Sun's metal detector suddenly alarmed, revealing a bloodstained wrench in the pile of scrap metal. However, after testing, the bloodstains on the wrench belonged to a stray dog from three months prior and were unrelated to the case.
At 2 a.m., the handwriting in the investigation logbook became increasingly illegible. Xiao Yang repeatedly played the surveillance video of the sorting pool, analyzing it frame by frame: "At 17 minutes and 23 seconds, the metal fasteners exposed at the edge of the tarpaulin resembled truck bed locks." However, after zooming in on the image, the pixels were too blurry to identify the specific model. Xiao Sun attempted to reconstruct the body dumper's movement trajectory, simulating 17 possible routes in a 3D model, but all failed to pinpoint a route due to a lack of crucial evidence.
"Let's call it a day." Xiao Yang took off his stained gloves. "Although we found 23 pieces of physical evidence, we didn't find any conclusive leads." He looked at the pale dawn breaking in the east, the blood in the sorting pool already congealed into dark red scabs. "Focus on investigating former employees of Yuanfang Building Materials, especially right-handed men who have disappeared in the last six months." Before leaving, he raised his camera again and photographed the faint tattoo marks on the severed arm—that blurry bluish color might become the next breakthrough.
Meanwhile, Li Ming was arranging for Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhou to expand the search area. They had actually found a physical fragment there, so it was very likely that other physical water pipes were also nearby.
Outside the garbage station, searchlights streaked across the night sky in two ghastly white beams. Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhou led their auxiliary police team in a dragnet search along the sewage ditch. The late autumn night wind carried a stench of decay. Xiao Zhou's flashlight swept across the moss-covered ditch walls: "Focus on searching culverts and hidden corners; the murderer may have disposed of the bodies in batches." His tactical boots crunched over the slippery pebbles, the water reflecting shimmering spots of light like scattered silver.
"Brother Hui, there's something here!" Auxiliary police officer Xiao Li suddenly pointed to the reeds by the canal. The moment the searchlights converged, everyone gasped—half of a thigh clad in blue overalls was stuck diagonally in the mud, the reflective strips on the cuffs particularly glaring in the darkness.