Free Web NovelChapter 289: Chapter 284: On-site Progress_1
Hearing Zhou Ning’s question, Zhang Chunbo hurriedly said,
"The bodies of the two deceased have been kept in the morgue of the People’s Hospital all this time. The husband of the deceased wishes to get to the bottom of the case and has been following police arrangements. However, the parents and elder brother of the deceased have come several times.
They hope to take the bodies back for a timely cremation and burial, as they can’t be kept frozen indefinitely. If it weren’t for this clearance of backlog cases, we would have agreed to the family’s request."
Xu Dayuan glanced at Zhou Ning, knowing what he meant; Zhou Ning was suggesting a second autopsy, but that wasn’t urgent.
Zhou Ning looked at Bai Hua and politely asked,
"May I ask, Doctor Bai, during the autopsy of Ho Dongmei, did you find any signs of sexual assault on the deceased?"
"For female victims, this is mandatory. I examined the victim’s reproductive system and found no traces of sexual invasion; during the examination, no trace of spermatozoa or male DNA was found.
There were, however, nail scratches on the inner thigh of the deceased, which I believe were self-inflicted. The scratches are not severe and have already started scabbing over, probably left seven or eight days earlier."
Zhou Ning nodded, signaling to Xu Dayuan that he had no further questions. Xu Dayuan then continued to ask,
"Are there surveillance cameras in the village? I remember at the beginning of last year, Qindao required all cities, districts, and towns to install road surveillance. Hasn’t that been implemented here?"
Zhang Chunbo nodded.
"The policy is good, but the implementation is not perfect. Surveillance installation in Jiaotuan Village started later, in May last year. This place has certain peculiarities.
After all, it’s next to Baisha River, and not all houses are terraced together. The roads within the village are also winding and bumpy, so there’s surveillance only at the village committee and by the riverbank – it’s impossible to capture this area. However, we have kept all the footage from various locations; we haven’t found anything out of the ordinary."
Xu Dayuan sighed. While the policy is commendable, the lack of enforcement creates significant difficulties for case investigations. If there were surveillance at the entry and exit points of the village and along the roads, it would be clear who had approached the victim’s house, making the case easier to solve.
On the flip side, if it were known that all surveillance cameras were networked, capable of capturing every corner of the village streets, anyone considering committing a crime would have to think twice.
It appears that this is an issue to report back to Mr. Hu, but the economic investment in these areas is substantial, which is one of the drawbacks of implementation. After all, as soon as it’s rolled out, there’s bound to be mismanagement and wasted expenditures, with little actually going to the intended use.
Setting aside these thoughts, Xu Dayuan looked at the time in the conference room.
"Let’s get ready then. We’ll conduct autopsies on the bodies of the two victims tomorrow. Also, since Wang Hongzhan isn’t returning to his hometown, shall we take a look at the scene?"
Zhang Chunbo glanced at the time and gestured to Xu Dayuan.
"It’s already half-past four. The road to the scene is difficult to navigate. There’s construction work expanding the greening landscape on both sides of the river, so we have to detour from the outskirts. It takes at least an hour by car and nighttime would hinder observation. I’ll arrange for the scene, and we can visit it first thing tomorrow. How about we come back for the second autopsy in the afternoon?"
Zhou Ning nodded, as he had no objections to the arrangement. Xu Dayuan also hummed in approval and gestured to Zhang Chunbo.
"Then let’s hurry up and get all the reports from your initial autopsies and related examinations, so we can start by studying the existing written information. By the way, Wang Hongzhan hasn’t returned to Haining City since then?" freёwebnoѵel.com
Bai Hua prepared a stack of documents and handed them over to Zhou Ning and the others.
Zhang Chunbo looked at Xu Dayuan, shaking his head with a sigh.
"The morning after the incident, on the morning of August 15, 2011, Wang Hongzhan flew back, carrying just a laptop bag. He was obviously in a hurry. Seeing the bodies of his wife and son, he broke down and cried, eventually passing out. We had to send him to the hospital.
Upon examination, his blood sugar had dropped to 2.1, probably due to not eating for a long time and significant emotional stress. His condition was very critical. The village committee arranged for someone to take care of him. He recovered on the fourth day and went straight to the team. We didn’t even recognize him at first; he looked terrible."
At that moment, Zhou Ning was flipping through the autopsy report. The various records of dissection detailed on it were quite comprehensive, just that there was no electronic recording of the autopsy, which the city bureau had started implementing in May of the previous year. It appeared that Haining was a bit behind.
However, when he came to the examination report, Zhou Ning paused, looked up and down at several pages, and then looked up to ask,
"Was Wang Jiahan’s DNA only compared with Ho Hongmei and her paternal grandparents?"
Bai Hua nodded.
"Wang Hongzhan was in a very bad state. We were in a hurry to perform the tests, so we took Ho Hongmei’s DNA as the primary object for comparison. Wang Jiahan is Ho Hongmei’s son and also shares a genetic relationship with her parents. Later on, we compared the DNA of Ho Hongmei with her parents, so we didn’t perform any related tests with Wang Hongzhan."
Zhou Ning nodded. That made sense.
Still, Wang Hongzhan’s reaction clearly touched Zhang Chunbo. After Bai Hua finished introducing, he couldn’t help but shake his head and say,
"This couple has had a hard life. They’ve been classmates since middle school, and both their parents disapproved. After all, the Ho family was in a better position and thought Wang Hongzhan was just a kid from the countryside. When applying for college, they secretly changed Ho Dongmei’s preferences.
The two were separated, one in the south and the other in the north. Wang Hongzhan even visited Ho Hongmei every month. In their second year, Ho Hongmei fell ill with a persistent fever. Wang Hongzhan felt something was wrong, quickly flew over to take care of her, and directly took her to the hospital, where they found out it was Japanese encephalitis, and her symptoms were critical.
After taking care of Ho Hongmei, Wang Hongzhan immediately contacted the Ho family. Only then did they realize the two were still in touch. However, after this incident, they thought better of Wang Hongzhan, knowing full well how stubborn Ho Hongmei was.
Once the obstacles were removed, their relationship grew stronger, and after graduate school, Wang Hongzhan did not follow the Ho family’s arrangement to become a civil servant. Instead, he was hired by an IT company in Shen City and became a corporate elite. When the Ho family saw Wang Hongzhan’s income, they no longer objected to their marriage."
The couple had no children during the first three years of their marriage, and Wang Hongzhan’s parents died suddenly in a car accident during the Spring Festival of 2009, shocking Ho Dongmei so much that she fainted, only to find out at the hospital that she was already four months pregnant. The villagers all said that the Wang Family was not destined to have grandchildren, and then this unexpected event happened."
These words were so emotive that many people were immersed in the narrative, while Mr. Zhao, counting on his fingers, looked at Zhang Chunbo with a puzzled face.
"Mr. Zhang, doesn’t Wang Hongzhan only come back for the Spring Festival each year? How did this four-month pregnancy come to be?"
Zhang Chunbo was startled and then burst out laughing.
"You kid, always with your mouth. Here you are waiting to trip me up. Wang Hongzhan does only take time off for the New Year, but Ho Hongmei is a teacher, after all. Doesn’t she have summer and winter vacations, and then there’s the National Day holidays, you silly boy!"
Everyone laughed, and Mr. Zhao felt a bit embarrassed, while Xu Dayuan didn’t show any particular expression.
"Alright, we have a general understanding of the case. Let’s talk more after we see the scene tomorrow, and as for the body, let’s arrange to have the second autopsy done in the afternoon after we inspect the scene. Meeting adjourned!"
With that order, everyone stood up and gradually left the meeting room.
The members of the task force didn’t move; after all, they were still full from lunch at Fatty’s, and none of them felt hungry. Zhang Chunbo came over and slapped Xu Dayuan on the back.
"Get into plain clothes, I’ll have Mr. Qiu take your team to the buffet, how about you and I go for a drink?"
Xu Dayuan gave him a cold look.
"After two bottles of beer, you can’t even remember your own name, and you want me to watch you perform your drunk kung fu? Forget it, I’m too tired. I’m going back to the hotel to sleep. We’ll talk after the case is over!"
Zhang Chunbo felt snubbed, opening and closing his mouth without being able to respond to the retort.
...
March 9, 2012
By eight-thirty, everyone’s vehicles had arrived in Jiaotuan Village. Liu Yongxin’s blood pressure was a bit high, so Zhou Ning didn’t let him come.
The roads were extremely difficult to travel on, with construction everywhere. It was practically going out from the north side of Hai’an City, circling around to the southwest corner to come back, no wonder they said it took an hour. They encountered morning rush hour, leaving at seven and arriving almost two hours later.
After getting out of the car, Zhu Xingxing was already leaning on the vehicle, dry heaving. Patting her chest, Mr. Zhao handed her a bottle of water.
"It’s lucky Mr. Xia didn’t come, she gets car sick relatively easily."
Zhou Ning glanced sideways; he didn’t know before that Xia Momo easily got car sick, as she never showed any particular symptoms when going out.
Zhu Xingxing rinsed her mouth, patting her chest again.
"If I’d known it’d be this bumpy, I would’ve asked Mr. Xia for a few motion sickness patches."
Zhou Ning shot her a glance, put on his mask, and waved toward Mr. Zhao and Mr. Yang.
"Let Zhu Xingxing and Sun Gaotie stay behind to rest for a bit, and we’ll go over and take a look."
Zhu Xingxing couldn’t help but smile in relief and quickly sat back in the car. The three of them, carrying their investigation kits and fully equipped, walked to the gate of Wang Hongzhan’s house.
From a distance, the courtyard’s gate stood out as unique, an absolutely tall and large gateway, and it was a standalone house, not connected to any others—a standard Ludong-style courtyard. Hardened ground in front of the courtyard, and right inside the gate was a two-story building with pathways on each side. However, the north wall of the small building was also part of the outer wall of the courtyard.
Mr. Zhao walked around and came back to the entrance, shaking his head.
"The wall is a standard ’three-seven’ wall. They probably did that because no one lived there regularly. The top is lined with glass shards, and the height is about 2.6 meters, making it seemingly impossible to climb over by hand.
As for the location where footprints were found, they were under the west wall. It’s curious why footprints would be left here, because the ground in front of the courtyard is well hardened, and it’s only this spot that has some soil."
Zhou Ning’s gaze followed, and at this time in March, the Qindao Area was at its driest, even foggy days would be considered as adding moisture, so that patch of soil was cracked and dry, likely due to the courtyard being unattended all year round, with the plants here all withered and dead.
Before long, Yang Xuetong came out, holding a camera, and handed it to Zhou Ning to see.
"I tried all the windows in each of the rooms. Those protective bars on the outside may look old, but they are all very sturdy. Indeed, only one ventilation window in the kitchen was open. I measured its size, and when opened to the maximum, it measures 47 centimeters by 25 centimeters."
Xu Dayuan became interested and motioned with his hand, saying:
"Let’s go, I want to take a look with you guys."
Zhou Ning followed by Xu Dayuan’s side, led by Yang Xuetong, straight to the kitchen on the first floor. Indeed, at about 1.4 meters above the ground, there was a window opened partway from the inside, supported by a metal hook.
Zhou Ning compared the size and with his stature, he couldn’t fit through.
