Free Web NovelChapter 193: Chapter 192 Human Purgatory_1
"I know Wang Ying likes me, and I haven’t rejected her; it’s just that she’s too young. Even if there’s something between us, I hope to wait until she’s older," freewebnovel.cσ๓
Obviously, Xing Xiaoli’s attitude towards Wang Ying and Tan Ran was very different.
It goes without saying, Tan Ran was someone he had known since childhood in Liaodong, someone who knew his past, had seen his most tragic days, and had witnessed him being stripped of his figure skating pairs event. Moreover, with Tan Ran’s wealthy background, a man’s pride, especially after gaining wealth, becomes even more fragile.
In contrast, the younger and more coquettish Wang Ying, who behaved with girlish charm, better matched his aesthetics at this moment, Xu Dayuan abruptly changed the subject.
"Do you know the meaning behind the tattoo on Tan Ran’s body?"
Xing Xiaoli nodded.
"Speak, don’t just nod at me. Didn’t you see him holding up the law enforcement recorder? Everything you say and every response will be recorded,"
Xing Xiaoli sighed.
"She likes telling people it’s a cat, but I know it’s a combination of the initials of our names. But that was many years ago. How do you know about it?"
Xu Dayuan took out a piece of paper from his underarm bag, with the tattoo printed on it, and held it directly in front of Xing Xiaoli.
After one glance, Xing Xiaoli leaned forward, trying to break free from Liu Yufei’s grip. Such a photograph, the pale white skin, the peeling on the side—it was self-explanatory under what circumstances it was taken.
"What’s going on? Let me go. What happened to Tan Ran? Did something happen to her?"
"She’s dead."
"Dead? How did she die?"
Xu Dayuan stared into his eyes. The concern and shock on Xing Xiaoli’s face weren’t feigned.
"That’s what I wanted to ask you."
"Wait, you suspect I killed Tan Ran?"
Xu Dayuan opened his briefcase again and found another piece of paper, which he laid in front of Xing Xiaoli. It was the sketch of the 29-inch suitcase covered in doodles, and Xu Dayuan pointed at the suitcase and asked:
"Look at this suitcase, do you recognize it?"
Xing Xiaoli froze, his expression already showing recognition of the suitcase.
"This is my suitcase, I use it when I go out for competitions. Never mind that, tell me clearly, how did Tan Ran die?"
Xu Dayuan kept his gaze on Xing Xiaoli, and spoke slowly.
"Dismembered, stuffed into a suitcase, and thrown into the sea."
...
Enbo Residential Area, Building 4, Unit 202.
Mr. Zhao carried the box upstairs, followed by Yang Xuetong and others.
Upon seeing Zhou Ning at the door, after everyone was geared up, Zhou Ning briefly explained the situation to them.
"Here’s the situation: There are no signs of forced entry on the door. It was opened by Coach Wang Ligang’s wife just now. I asked, and quite a few people have keys to this dormitory, pretty much all the coaches and the team doctor, because Xing Xiaoli is the only male athlete, so some ice skates are also kept here.
I took a glance in the living room; there are two sets of parallel wheel marks stretching from the bathroom to the door. There’s no blood trace or wheel marks outside the door. We’ll start by examining the bedroom and living room first,"
The two simultaneously responded affirmatively.
The implication of such traces was clear to everyone.
If this was the primary crime scene, then someone must have cleaned it up. But this is an athlete’s dormitory, with people constantly coming and going—If this was the primary crime scene, could it be that no one heard anything?
Mr. Zhao glanced at the inner side of the security door; the bloody handprint there was very faint, almost as though it had been diluted with water.
Mr. Zhao and Yang Xuetong quickly entered the scene. The room reeked of the stench of rotten feet, the smell of 84 disinfectant, along with a faint whiff of blood.
The layout of the room was similar to Wang Ying’s dormitory but flipped; there were two bedrooms on the south side, and the eastern bedroom was the biggest one with a small balcony. However, the curtains were tightly drawn, and despite the abundant midday sun, only slivers of light could penetrate through.
The western room had a fairly new lock hanging on it, evidently where Wang Ligang mentioned storing those items. Zhou Ning passed Mr. Zhao a set of keys.
"We’ve got the keys. After you unlock it, drop the lock into the evidence bag,"
Sun Gaotie hurriedly prepared the evidence bag, Mr. Zhao put the lock inside, and upon opening the storage room, it was packed with various boxes covered in dust, clearly not opened for some time.
Sun Gaotie checked the spare room while Zhou Ning nodded. He entered holding Luminol, while at that time Yang Xuetong was inspecting the master bedroom, and Mr. Zhao was spraying the living room.
Zhou Ning glanced at the master bedroom; it was relatively tidy, with the sweaty smell much less pronounced, likely because all the shoes in the entryway shoe cabinet were contributing to the odor.
A bed, two wardrobes, and a desk with several brand-new high school textbooks and a few notebooks on it.
Yang Xuetong did a check around, not finding any blood traces, he gathered all the notebooks from the desk and flipped through them, revealing a training diary on the top and an account book below.
The account book detailed salaries starting from his time with the Liaodong Provincial Team, as well as various bonuses, from an initial six hundred yuan a month to the current twelve thousand, along with various bonuses, each recorded very clearly.
Zhou Ning took the two books and threw them to Zhu Xingxing.
"Calculate the total income recorded here, Sun Gaotie, flip through the other training diary and see what Xing Xiaoli was doing on July 21, 2009?"
The two sat on the floor in the corridor, where there seemed to be noisy sounds from outside. Zhou Ning knew that perhaps some people wanted to come in, but the criminal police below had stopped them, and for now, no one could pass through here.
Returning to the room, Mr. Zhao and Chen Xuetong had finished inspecting the living room and master bedroom, both shaking their heads at Zhou Ning.
"The space inside the wardrobe in the master bedroom is very large, near the balcony, the marks suggest that luggage cases were once placed there, not one but a row of four. However, similarly, there are no blood traces or fingerprints on the balcony of the master bedroom."
"No major bloodstains were found in the living room, but there were many footprints on the ground, some with faint luminescent reactions, all leading from the bathroom to the kitchen."
Zhou Ning nodded and gestured towards the bathroom directly opposite the entrance door.
"Check the bathroom first, then the kitchen, one place at a time, inspect carefully."
Mr. Zhao opened the bathroom door and on the lower inside, he found a smeared blood trace, seemingly kicked by a shoe.
The blood trace was still faint, and next to it, there were many black scuff marks, which were difficult to spot when mixed in. Mr. Zhao quickly crouched down to take samples while Zhou Ning’s gaze turned to the inside of the bathroom.
Facing the door was a washing machine with a window above it, to the north a wash basin and a toilet, and to the south, a glass partition wall. The area was designed for wet and dry separation, complete with a water barrier on the floor.
Zhou Ning walked around Mr. Zhao’s bulky figure to the side of the south glass partition wall, where a dark green shower curtain obscured his view, swinging continuously, perhaps due to the open window.
As they entered, a bunch of flies buzzed away from the gap in the window screen; as the shower curtain moved, the faint smell of blood and decay grew stronger, and Zhou Ning squinted his eyes, clearly sensing the source of the blood right here.
Zhou Ning grabbed the edge of the shower curtain and pulled it forcefully towards the side of the glass partition wall, the scene before him made him gasp in shock.
Just behind the curtain was a living hell.
Blood, everywhere was blood.
The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the shower head, everywhere was splattered with blood, with streaks of flung blood, columnar flows, and the floor was completely a dried, soaked bloodpool.
A kitchen knife lay in the dried pool of blood, its metal handle covered in rust, and the blade was nicked and chipped, indicating that the killer had tried to dismember the body with it but had not succeeded.
Mr. Zhao came over, shocked into blurting out an expletive.
"Holy shit, is it that stimulating? Can we confirm that this is the primary crime scene?"
Zhou Ning nodded slightly.
"However, the knife abandoned at the scene wasn’t the tool used to sever the victim’s head and limbs. Judging from the cross-section of the bones, it should have been a saw, even if not an electric one, then it’s a regular handsaw."
Zhou Ning crouched down and picked up the kitchen knife with an evidence bag; at the same time, there were two crisp sounds from below.
Several saw blades came into view; it turned out the knife was above a drain. Mr. Zhao laid down an examination mat and kneeled on it, picking up the broken saw blades, only to find a piece of wire twisted into three loops, then into a spiral shape.
Lifting it to measure the circumference, the inner diameter was around 28 centimeters.
Zhou Ning carefully examined the wire, which had yellow insulation, and saw marks where the saw had cut, indicating that the killer, who must have been wearing gloves, was confident no evidence would be left behind. The shape and size made it easy to guess what it had been used for.
"It appears the victim died of mechanical asphyxiation. After the victim’s head was severed, this would have fallen off. When we get back, we’ll have Mr. Xia calculate the diameter of Tan Ran’s neck based on the photos, and then we can estimate it."
The drain cover was carefully opened, revealing a core loaded with a lot of hair and some thick substances.
On the exterior of the core, there was a dense layer of tiny black insect-like creatures resembling maggots. Mr. Zhao stared wide-eyed, his voice pitching up.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, help, give me a bag quick. What the hell are these bugs, how come I’ve never seen black maggots before?"
Chen Xuetong had already rushed over, capturing the drain core in an evidence bag and examined it closely.
"These are not maggots, it’s a type of moth. Obviously, the drain was clogged, probably with bits of flesh and bone, and these creatures started to breed. Let’s be thankful that the room’s screens are relatively secure."
Suppressing his urge to retch, Mr. Zhao got up from the ground and started taking pictures inside the shower booth, while Zhou Ning instructed Yang Xuetong to spray Luminol around the washbasin area, which indeed appeared to have been cleaned.
Yang Xuetong cocked his head, puzzled.
"This is really weird. What kind of hobby does this killer have? Why only clean this area here so meticulously, probably using diluted disinfectant to wash it while not cleaning the shower room? Was he interrupted?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"If he was interrupted, it wouldn’t be such a coincidence to just finish cleaning the dry area of the bathroom. Go check the kitchen, I think the knife was taken from there; as for the handsaw that could replace those saw blades, look for it. I believe we’ll find it."
