Free Web NovelChapter 691: Chapter 691: Beginning the On-Site Investigation
Facing Lu Chuan’s concern, Yang Lin shook his head with difficulty.
Even though he had seen a lot of corpses during crime scene investigation courses at school.
And while studying the process of body decomposition, he had also seen many extremely rotten corpse forms.
But pictures are just pictures, and the scene is the scene.
Pictures are not three-dimensional, and they do not have a gory smell.
But this scene was different.
With just one glance, Yang Lin felt his stomach churn constantly, wanting to vomit.
He even already threw up a mouthful, which he forced back down.
As far as Yang Lin was concerned, being able to work in the Crime Scene Investigation office of the Criminal Investigation Team.
It wasn’t because his ability was particularly outstanding.
At the Huaguang Street Police Station, there were three officers who joined at the same time as him.
Four people joined the year before him, two of whom also studied crime scene investigation.
And among those of them who graduated in the same batch as Lu Chuan, only Lu Chuan entered the Crime Scene Investigation office of the Criminal Investigation Team.
The others were in various departments like the police station, traffic police department, and the anti-drug detachment.
This time, being able to enter the Criminal Investigation Team as a secondment was mainly made possible by Lu Chuan.
It can be said that this opportunity for learning and secondment was excellent.
Once Old Bai retires, if there are no issues during his probation, he could directly be officially employed by the Criminal Investigation Team.
As a policeman, working in the Criminal Investigation Team is the dream of all cops.
There’s a saying: if you’re a cop, do criminal investigation.
So, even if he was about to vomit, Yang Lin forced himself to hold it in.
He wasn’t here to enjoy life, nor could he always rely on Lu Chuan.
Yang Lin needed to prove his worth.
On one hand, he needed to show others that Lu Chuan made the right choice by selecting him, without favoritism.
On the other hand, he needed to stand his ground in the Criminal Investigation Team. If just one scene could make a crime scene investigator vomit, he wouldn’t last long here.
Lu Chuan, of course, noticed that Yang Lin was forcibly enduring it.
However, this was a process that every crime scene investigator had to go through.
Two years ago, when he arrived at the Crime Scene Investigation office, he also went through similar scenarios.
But while there were some things Lu Chuan could help Yang Lin with, there were others he couldn’t assist with.
Opportunities can be given, but effort still had to come from Yang Lin himself.
Nodding slightly, Lu Chuan began to organize the crime scene investigation.
The first step was crime scene photography.
Back in police school, Yang Lin certainly learned crime scene photography.
But after entering the police station, he had rarely used it.
When the police station responded to scenes, they generally didn’t use photography anymore; everything was recorded via the police communication device.
Yang Sen pointed out a few angles to Yang Lin, instructing him to take photos from those directions.
But before that, Lu Chuan first examined the floor on the scene.
According to the informant, Li Pingzhang, the Mingde Road Church opened once a week.
The opening hours were from 7 a.m. to noon on Sundays.
No one usually came at other times.
The cleaning was done twice a week, once after the Sunday service and again on Friday when someone had to come to clean.
Other than that, the church saw little to no visitors.
At the entrance, Lu Chuan lay on the ground, using the sunlight to observe the footprints.
There were footprints, and they were quite clear.
"Yang Lin, hand me the chalk."
"Alright."
From the entrance, Lu Chuan started marking every shoeprint inside the church.
This was to prevent them from accidentally stepping on and destroying traces when they entered later.
While Lu Chuan was investigating inside, Zhang Hui was outside asking the informant for more details.
"Do you know the deceased?"
Even after more than an hour had passed, Li Pingzhang’s face was still pale, and his hands trembled uncontrollably: "She...her name was Zhang Cuicui."
"She was in the fruit wholesale business, frequently attending our talks here."
"That’s how we got to know each other over time."
"She called me the day before yesterday, asking me to preach to her alone tonight...I didn’t expect..."
Zhang Cuicui?
The identity of the deceased seemed confirmed.
But beyond that, Li Pingzhang didn’t know much.
About the deceased, he only knew she had divorced before, but he didn’t know if she had children, nor was he aware of her family situation.
"Is the cleaning staff fixed?"
"Yes, it’s fixed. The neighborhood property’s management helps; their manager often comes to our classes."
With the identity confirmed, Zhang Hui had his team contact her family through the household registry system.
Further investigation into the victim’s personal relationships would ensue.
Based on previous case-solving experience, for scenes as complex and horrifying as this, there’s often a deep entanglement between the perpetrator and the victim.
Sifting through the victim’s interpersonal connections could likely reveal some clues.
At the crime scene, Lu Chuan had finished marking all the footprints.
He was now inside, conducting additional crime scene investigations.
"Lu Chuan, the area around is very clean, without any trace of blood."
Yang Sen was the first to notice something unusual.
The victim was nailed to a cross, with steel nails embedded in her hands and feet, her neck bound tightly with steel wire.
The front skin of the body was flayed open and spread symmetrically, resembling butterfly wings.
Logically, in such a scene, there should have been a lot of blood around.
However, it seemed the victim’s blood had been drained.
Incredibly, there wasn’t anything on the floor, it was spotless.
This was not normal.
Lu Chuan wore white gloves and began to examine the body.
"Look here."
The victim’s left chest, at the heart, beneath the mutilated muscle, was a ghastly stab wound.
"A stab to the heart was the cause of death."
"Additionally..." Lu Chuan checked the wounds at the wrists, ankles, and neck.
"The wounds on the victim’s wrists and ankles showed no physiological skin reaction, indicating post-mortem injuries."
"The steel wire marks on the neck also lacked bruising, indicating post-mortem injuries as well."
Lu Chuan opened the victim’s eyes, the corneas were cloudy, appearing milky white.
"The crystalline lens is transparent; the time of death does not exceed 36 hours."
"The rigor mortis is at its peak, indicating death occurred more than 24 hours ago..."
When conducting a crime scene investigation, Lu Chuan never relied on just one dimension to determine the time of death.
The determination of death time involved a comprehensive consideration of body temperature, the degree of rigor mortis, changes in the cloudiness of the eye’s crystalline lens, the color of post-mortem lividity, among others.
Most crime scene investigators can pinpoint the time of death within a half-hour interval for fatalities occurring within 24 hours.
Lu Chuan could extendthat precision to a seven-day window.
For deaths within seven days, Lu Chuan could accurately determine the exact time of death, with the same half-hour interval precision.
As for longer periods, the accuracy of Lu Chuan’s determination of time of death would widen.
For instance, by examining the generational development of maggots on a decomposed body, he could estimate the approximate time of death within three to four months.
"The incision on the chest also exhibited no stress reaction, indicating they were all post-mortem injuries."
"This place... is very likely not the first crime scene!"
