Free Web NovelChapter 160: Chapter 159 A Piece of a Wine Bottle_1
Following the sound, Zhou Ning quickly ascended the stairs, with Xu Dayuan right behind him.
Mr. Zhao held up an evidence bag containing an L-shaped object, dark and seemingly metallic, with one broken end showing signs of chopping.
Zhou Ning recognized it as a doorknob. Despite its simple design, the craftsmanship must be expensive since it didn’t peel or deform even in the fire.
However, it seemed to bear a crocodile-skin-like pattern. Taking the bag from Mr. Zhao, Zhou Ning lifted it for a closer look and instantly thought of the scars on Dong Chengwen’s hands.
"The main bedroom’s door handle? Mark it for the record, and test the skin tissue on it when we get back. If Dong Chengwen wasn’t lying, then this should be from the skin of his hand."
Xu Dayuan took a glance with a look of disdain and then stared at Mr. Zhao.
"Just for this thing, you’re making a big fuss?"
Mr. Zhao’s face was like that of a bitter gourd as he spread his hands towards Xu Dayuan, pointing around.
"The search here wasn’t done just once; just look at these footprints. No less than forty people, including fire rescue personnel and police officers, have entered the scene. Everything that could be found as valid evidence has been searched. This is a fish that slipped through the net. Shouldn’t we be glad?"
Xu Dayuan didn’t speak, going over to Yang Xuetong, who was sorting through a pile of trash-like items in the middle of the bedroom, and looked it over. As Yang Xuetong worked, he explained:
"Mr. Zhao is right. Initially, there was little evidence at the site of the fire. The firefighting itself was destruction to the scene. Moreover, it’s been searched multiple times, even the trash has been sifted, and the floor has been swept. There’s not much valuable evidence left in a place like this."
Xu Dayuan rubbed his head, aware of the difficulty, but didn’t expect there to be so little left behind. Zhou Ning, however, said nothing, closely observing the dark bedroom.
The bedroom was over thirty square meters, wider than the average living room, with a window on both the south and east sides, both completely shattered, which shows how intense the fire had been.
The bed, now just a metal frame, was placed against the north wall and, even in its current state, one could tell how luxurious it once was.
The bed was where the fire burned most fiercely; only the spring framework remained of the mattress, and embedded in the bedside cabinet next to it were broken pieces of red wine bottles and glasses.
On the floor was an area of severe burning, which upon inspection, appeared to be a large rectangle, extending from in front of the wardrobe door to beneath the bed. The floorboards here were gone, the concrete surface even had burst open, indicating a thick shag carpet must have been laid here.
Next to the bedside cabinet was an open wardrobe, and on the side closer to the bedroom door, where there was no door, must be the bathroom. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
The bathroom was relatively intact.
Zhou Ning walked over to the wardrobe with a window, and in the center was a dressing table. The decor here seemed to be wooden, burning violently, leaving metal rods and chunks of fallen concrete, along with half a turret-head.
Moving to the dressing table, Zhou Ning’s foot slipped as though he had stepped on something. He lifted his foot, and his shoe cover was torn, revealing a shiny object on the ground.
Zhou Ning crouched down and gently wiped away the ash, exposing the melted glass pieces. Mr. Zhao followed closely behind and, seeing Zhou Ning’s discovery, quickly came over to take photos.
He then crouched down too, carefully prying with tweezers. The floor had carbonized completely and easily gave way; they carefully lifted the piece of floor with the melted glass and placed it into an evidence bag. Only then did Mr. Zhao take a closer look.
"Could the fire have started in the wardrobe? I remember glass has a melting point of 500 degrees, and at a typical fire scene, it might reach 400 degrees after 10-15 minutes. But with so many combustibles here, it’s not impossible."
Zhou Ning watched the glass in Mr. Zhao’s hands and then surveyed the surroundings.
As he continually scraped his foot over the floor, many more specks of glass became visible, extending all the way to the doorway of the wardrobe. In the corner of the doorway, wedged against the skirting board’s edge, was a chicken-egg-sized piece of glass with a greenish glow.
Mr. Zhao rushed over, carefully photographing the glass against a measurement scale before prying it out and placing it into an evidence bag. His gaze turned to the dressing table as many broken bottles and jars were laid out, most of which were also burned into a semi-melted state.
"Green, I wonder what cosmetic bottle it is? Wait for Mrs. Liu to return and ask her if she recognizes it."
Zhou Ning stared at the window, estimating the distance and pressing his lips together with his arms folded. Zhao looked on, puzzled.
"What’s the matter, Zhou Xiaozhou? You don’t think it’s a cosmetics bottle?"
Zhou Ning pointed to the spot where the first piece of glass was found and gestured to Yang Xuetong.
"Mr. Yang, come over here. Could you measure the straight-line distance from this spot to the window?"
Yang Xuetong came over with a tape measure and took the measurement.
"The straight-line distance from the window to this spot is two meters eight."
"Continue, measure the distance from the window to the doorway of the wardrobe."
This activity drew Xu Dayuan’s attention. He approached, his gaze shifting between Zhou Ning and the glass in Mr. Zhao’s hand, wearing an expression of confusion.
"Glass fragmentation is common at fire scenes, but Zhou Xiaozhou, do you think there’s a problem?"
Zhou Ning pondered for a moment before speaking:
"This needs to be confirmed with the fire department. I remember a question I got wrong before, which I still remember vividly because of that. It was about what the shattered glass at a fire scene can prove. The correct answer was:
It can prove the direction of force, the timing of the breakage, the intensity of the fire, and the temperature at the fire scene. Generally, when glass shatters at a fire scene, it’s mostly because high temperatures increase the internal pressure, causing it to explode outward. Even if there are glass fragments inside the room, they wouldn’t have scattered this far."
As he spoke, Zhou Ning walked over to Mr. Zhao, took the evidence bag with the green glass, and asked Yang Xuetong for a magnifying glass to give to Xu Dayuan for a closer look.
With curiosity, Xu Dayuan lifted the magnifying glass. The edges of the green glass were no longer sharp; they appeared to have melted somewhat, and only small dots could be seen.
However, in the center, one could still distinguish a letter and four digits—if looked at carefully. It seemed to be an uppercase B followed by possibly 2009, although it could also be 2008 since that part was very blurry.
Zhu Xingxing leaned in closer; the younger eyes were sharper. She wasn’t shy and asked directly:
"What does B2009 mean?"
Mr. Zhao leaned in, took a closer look, and slapped his forehead.
"I took it for granted and didn’t look closely earlier. This is a beer bottle, from our Qindao Second Factory. I think there’s some sort of national standard that requires distinguishing between the types and years of beer bottles produced before and after, hence the beer is marked with a B followed by the year of production. But how did this beer bottle end up here?"
Xu Dayuan passed the evidence bag to Mr. Zhao, his brow furrowed in concern.
"There is a possibility that someone threw a gasoline-filled beer bottle at this window, essentially a Molotov cocktail. With the accelerant, and no door to stop the flames in the cloakroom, the fire would have instantly engulfed the entire room. If the people didn’t react in time, they couldn’t have escaped."
Zhou Ning nodded; this was what he suspected. Picking up the half brick, he weighed it—it was not light.
"If a Molotov cocktail were thrown directly at the glass, it would shatter upon impact. However, it’s much easier to smash the glass with a brick first, and then throw in the Molotov cocktail through the gap."
The dispersion of the glass fragments was too great, and along with that piece of the beer bottle, they both seemed to come from the same angle, thrown directly from the window towards the door of the cloakroom. But if the brick broke the glass and the Molotov cocktail was thrown through, that would have made a lot of noise. How come Fang Hua and her daughter didn’t wake up?
According to Dong Chengwen, Fang Hua was hungry, and Xiao Mi was also fussing for food, which is why he went out to buy something to eat, and it was only twenty minutes before he came back to find the place on fire. Could they have been sleeping, and slept extremely deeply?
Yang Xuetong looked embarrassed; this was the area he had just searched. He had found the melted glass but hadn’t thought much of it. Yet, Zhou Ning had found a problem with it.
"Team leader, you should criticize me; my survey just now wasn’t thorough."
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"You’re overthinking it. When we take on cases like these, they have usually been screened several times by others. Finding a problem is a matter of chance. Now, let’s clear the dressing room and mark the location of all the glass, labeling the transparent glass and green glass separately."
Zhu Xingxing came over and followed by placing a few small labels.
The team quickly cleared the scene and began placing labels. Starting from the window towards the doorway of the cloakroom, they eventually found some glass on the floor of the bedroom too, but here it was already mixed with the cement below.
Xu Dayuan went outside. He sent someone to inspect the villa’s backyard and also called Liu Yufei, asking her to gather all the materials, which included the security footage copied earlier.
If someone had thrown a gasoline bottle from the north side of the villa, there would definitely be traces left, and the surveillance would have recorded it.
Seeing that they were busy, Zhou Ning went downstairs.
The first floor had a more open layout, a large hall of nearly a hundred square meters, with the kitchen and dining room enclosed in glass walls, offering a wide view. However, now most of the glass was shattered, exposing a door at the back of the kitchen that appeared to lead to the north side of the villa.
Walking to the dining area, he noted several chairs overturned, and something was lying face down on the floor. Zhou Ning used a brush to sweep the ashes away and found it was an overturned cake tray.
Gently lifting the tray, Zhou Ning saw that the cake had completely spoiled, but could see the remnants of dark brown stains, revealing it was a chocolate cake about eight inches in size. There was a card with a fork beside it on the floor, which read "Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary My Love."
Zhou Ning placed the cake tray and the fork card each into evidence bags.
Walking down the stairs, he could reach the basement. Near the staircase was a room with its door open. Zhou Ning looked inside to find it filled with fishing gear and children’s toy cars, and on a side table lay a man’s sun protection clothing with a standard evidence photo marker next to it.
It seemed to be left behind by someone who had previously come to survey the scene. However, recalling Dong Chengwen’s statement, Zhou Ning realized that the fuel receipt might have been found in the pocket of this clothing.
Zhou Ning didn’t linger; he went straight down the stairs to the basement. There were many rooms, almost unaffected by the fire, just some water stains on some walls. There were a billiard room, an audio-visual room, a study, a laundry room, and a nanny room.
From the basement, he entered the garage, but there was also a security door next to the roller shutter door. Zhou Ning pushed open the security door and found it connected to the underground parking lot.
As he turned around to leave, Zhou Ning stopped in his tracks, his attention caught by a pattern on the wall.
