Free Web NovelChapter 210: Chapter 209: Deduction of the Time of Death_1
"Could this be theft or robbery?"
Upon hearing Zhou Ning’s skepticism, Zhang Haohao glanced at the earlobes of the deceased and then shook his head.
"I don’t think that’s possible. This might be an incidental theft. I mean, to kill so many people just to rob? I find that far-fetched."
"Take the pubic symphysis!"
Zhou Ning didn’t say much else and recalled for a moment.
The corpse he had just dissected had no ear piercings, and there were indeed no jewelry on its hands or neck. The key point was there were no personal items, which really made it hard to judge.
Shaking his head, Zhou Ning returned to his autopsy table and put on a new pair of gloves. Liu Yongxin had come over, holding a tablet.
"Apart from the temple, there are no other facial injuries on the first victim, so the facial reconstruction should be quick. The second victim is much more complicated, as the facial injuries are severe, but Mr. Xia has already finished it. Have a look."
Zhou Ning took a glance and saw that, on the recovery sketch of the second victim, eyeliner had been drawn. He shot a look at Xia Momo, who was looking at him, clearly noticing the tattoo marks on the deceased’s eyelids, but this made identification easier.
After a brief look at the appearances of the two young women, the Zhou Family raised a hand, pointing towards Zhang Haohao’s table.
"The second victim is a bit older, 25-30 years old. Mr. Xia, you adjust it a bit. After processing the pubic symphysis, we can confirm the age."
Xia Momo made the adjustments quickly. Looking again, the second victim’s face had a more weathered look with the eyeliner and eyebrows, losing the sense of youthfulness from before.
Soon, the next batch of two victims arrived; this time, both victims had severe facial damage, with apparent abrasion marks from a stone behind the head, and the scalp was torn on the right temporal area.
Zhou Ning remembered that they hadn’t discovered any bloodstains at the well. It seemed the killer had cushioned clothes underneath when smashing the victims’ faces after knocking them unconscious.
This indicated that the killer was very experienced and confident in their methods to commit consecutive crimes.
Zhou Ning shook his head and continued to perform autopsies, speeding up his work. The high-pressure sterilizer in the morgue had not stopped, and by eight o’clock in the evening, after completing the autopsy of the ninth victim, Zhou Ning finally raised his head.
Such high-intensity dissection he had only experienced before during tormenting drills in the ’little black room’, but no matter how much he trained in the evening, his physical condition would return to the beginning by the second dissection. Now, however, his hands and feet were beginning to tremble.
He leaned on the table to rest for a moment, and Sun Gaotie had already completed the suturing. Mr. Zhao looked at Zhou Ning.
"I mean, you don’t plan to finish all the bodies and skeletons tonight, do you?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, and Liu Yongxin came over, patting his shoulder.
"Let’s stop here for today. There’s a lot that needs organizing and we won’t be done before ten o’clock. For the remaining skeletal remains, we need to take samples and label them first. We have to wait for the lab results before we can further identify them. After all, we need to distinguish one from the other, and that can’t be rushed. I’ll have Liu Yong send them for analysis soon. I suppose Mr. Hu has already given instructions."
Zhou Ning nodded.
"Alright, after the tests come back, we’ll proceed with the assembly. Zhu Xingxing, you take charge, call Sun Gaotie and Yang Xuetong, and all of you go label and sample all the skeletal remains."
Zhu Xingxing happily called people to come over, Mr. Zhao clucked his tongue, and as he watched her retreating back, he kept remarking:
"Give her something to be responsible for, and she’s delighted. She doesn’t even remember she’s hungry."
"Less of the cold words. If you’re really that sympathetic, why don’t you go and help?"
Mr. Zhao hmm’d twice but still quickly followed them out. This reaction surprised both Zhou Ning and Liu Yongxin. Liu Yongxin nudged Zhou Ning.
"What’s the deal, is there something going on between those two?"
Zhou Ning briefly explained the history between Mr. Zhao and Zhu Xingxing, and Liu Yongxin suddenly understood.
The door opened, and Xu Dayuan and He Chunyang walked in. Seeing the empty autopsy tables, both paused, then spoke in unison as if they had agreed beforehand:
"All autopsied already?"
Their words caught Zhou Ning off guard.
Before he could speak, Liu Yongxin exploded. The old man put his hands on his waist, stood in front of Zhou Ning, pointed at the two men, and vented with agitated gestures:
"Tell me, aren’t you two going overboard? Even a work team’s donkey shouldn’t be driven so hard. Are you bullying my apprentice or what?
Nineteen victims, processed like clockwork, two tables going at the same time from noon till now. I haven’t even had time for a restroom break. Nine autopsies completed, and the remaining skeletal remains can’t be assembled just yet.
They’re all piled together, indistinguishable. Even the skulls are incomplete. We have sent people to label and take samples for analysis. Everything awaits the lab results, and then we’ll move on to assembly and analysis."
Such protective behavior warmed Zhou Ning’s heart. This master truly cared, but looking at the two awkward men, Zhou Ning couldn’t help but laugh.
"Leaders, the autopsies of the nine bodies have been completed, and Mr. Xia has done the facial reconstructions. We can give you that part first. As for the autopsy reports, we’ll need a moment more as we haven’t finished organizing them. Just like my master said, the most urgent task right now is to label the skeletal remains and send them for testing."
Xu Dayuan rubbed his short hair and caught Liu Yongxin’s shoulder.
"Old Liu, seems like retirement has only lengthened your temper, eh? Let’s go, go, go, you must be hungry with low blood sugar. Let’s talk over dinner, shall we? We’re still hungry!"
Liu Yongxin hummed dismissively, and they all headed to the office. Xia Momo sat in front of the laptop, apparently making some adjustments. Zhou Ning leaned over for a look and saw she had already organized the images of the nine people.
"Are we ready?"
"Yes, should we start the search now?"
"Let’s eat first."
Xia Momo didn’t make a fuss. Everyone sat down as Liu Yong brought over a pile of boxed meals. Though they were just boxed meals, their contents were incredibly rich. Xu Dayuan glanced at them and then at He Chunyang.
"Is the standard for case meals at the branch office always this high?"
He Chunyang’s face was a picture of embarrassment.
"I paid out of my own pocket to have them made at a real restaurant. We’re pressed for time, and going out to eat would be a waste of time. Let’s make do with a quick meal. Once the case is closed, I’ll treat you all to a proper feast. What do you say?"
Liu Yongxin snorted twice. Actually, everyone knew that the two of them were under the most pressure. After all, this case came with strict targets: they had to close it before the Spring Festival. But they were dealing with the bodies of nineteen John Does!
How easy could it be to unravel the details of the case?
Without wasting more words, everyone hurriedly grabbed their boxed meals and dug in.
It wasn’t just the men who were hungry - even Zhu Xingxing didn’t find one boxed meal enough. Zhou Ning watched Xia Momo picking at her food nearby and walked over with his meal. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
"Give me what you don’t like to eat, and you take the veggies."
Xia Momo smiled awkwardly. She knew all too well how germophobic Zhou Ning was. For him to accommodate her eating habits like this was, in its way, a first response to her.
She picked up her chopsticks, thought for a moment, and then pushed the meal box towards Zhou Ning.
"You can take the vegetables for me, and I’ll give you the meat."
Zhou Ning nodded. In fact, the vegetables in the boxed meal weren’t bad, but there was too much meat and not enough veggies. After following dissections for so long, Xia Momo found herself unable to eat the meat. He gave her all the broccoli and cabbage.
Xia Momo, in turn, put some of her meat into his meal box, and the two sat in a corner, finishing their meals.
In fact, everyone in the office saw what they were doing, but they all knew that no one should joke about those two. After all, Zhou Ning hadn’t aggressively pursued Xia Momo. Mr. Zhao quietly finished his third box before contentedly rubbing his stomach.
"Mr. He, these boxed meals are quite good. They deserve praise. Let’s maintain this standard next time!"
"Eating still doesn’t shut you up."
Xu Dayuan gave Mr. Zhao a contemptuous glance. Xia Momo rinsed her mouth and handed Zhou Ning a thermos cup before walking over to the computer.
"Xu Da, I’ve finished the facial reconstruction work. Should we start the search now?"
Not only Xu Dayuan, but He Chunyang too hastily wiped his mouth and crowded around, both of them nodding towards Xia Momo.
"Go ahead, Mr. Xia. That hard drive I gave you contains information on the hostess girls that were detained in Qidong over the last two years. Let’s start with the search according to your usual methods. If that turns up nothing, then we’ll compare with this data."
Xia Momo smiled.
"Let’s start with your data first. Since the target’s occupation is quite specific, we’ll proceed based on your analysis."
As she spoke, she opened up the comparison interface. Nine reconstructed faces were displayed on the left side, and on the right, she began searching through the information on the external hard drive starting with Victim No. 1. The images flickered rapidly on the screen, and it didn’t take long to skip past the first match.
Clearly, there was no matching data for Victim No. 1 within that set. She then started on the second, and in less than five minutes, all comparisons were complete. Only Victims No. 3, No. 5, and No. 8 were matched with information. There were no findings for the others.
However, the fact that they had found three matches excited everyone.
Looking at the three entries displayed on the screen, both He Chunyang and Xu Dayuan raised their phones to take pictures.
Victim No. 3: Song Jingwen, female, 23, from Bo County. Detained twice between 2010-2011;
Victim No. 5: Li Yue, female, 29, from Tongling. Detained three times between 2010-2011;
Victim No. 8: Liu Chunyan, female, 31, from Anqing. Detained once between 2010-2011;
All three came from the same province. This was a common occurrence in the trade, most often brought over by a ’pimp’ under the pretext of introducing them to work.
Of course, once they got here, their identity cards and all other belongings were confiscated, leaving them at the mercy of others. Over time, realizing how quickly they could earn money in the trade, they accepted their profession.
Xu Dayuan breathed a sigh of relief and carefully compared the photos he took with Xia Momo’s reconstructed images. Indeed, they closely resembled each other.
This confirmed that their earlier judgments and directions were completely correct.
The professions of all the victims were likely hostess girls, given that the probability had already reached 30%. Moreover, the information here was of hostesses who had been detained; these individuals had a high turnover rate, and those who hadn’t been caught were the majority.
Zhou Ning glanced over. He had performed the autopsies on Victims No. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Only No. 8 was not his case. Just as he turned his head, Mr. Zhao had already brought over the autopsy report, and after a quick look, Zhou Ning turned to the two men.
"Victim No. 3’s time of death is between 3-5 days ago, Victim No. 5’s is around a week ago. As for Victim No. 8, Doctor Zhang, have you estimated the time of death?"
