Free Web NovelChapter 330: Chapter 320: Scratches Reappear_1
Glancing at the autopsy table, he had just finished examining the body and discovered an injection needle mark beneath the strangulation furrow on the victim’s neck.
Zhu Xingxing had already stepped forward, pulling back the white cloth. The victim’s clothes had been completely removed and placed on the stainless steel trolley beside them. With such weather, only a pair of jeans were left, accompanied by a tight, high-slit sweater which could barely cover below the chest.
There was a dark green down jacket on the outside, quite fashionable in style. The down jacket was propped behind the body, so only the bottom part was soaked with blood, with no splattered bloodstains present.
All this indicated that the victim had not been moved after being strangled. Had Zhu Yunping really not noticed that the girl in the passenger seat was already dead when he drove her around the city for a ride?
Zhou Ning put away his thoughts and waved to Mr. Qu. The large screen switched to a skeletal scan of the victim, Fu Wendan.
"Zhu Xingxing, start recording, and introduce the situation of the victim."
Zhu Xingxing quickly stepped forward. This procedure was second nature to her. She briskly introduced the victim’s information, the discovery of the car accident, and the physical evidence that Mr. Zhao had just presented, then nodded towards Zhou Ning after finishing.
Zhou Ning looked at the scan and began to speak, freewёbnoνel.com
"The victim has three strangulation marks on her neck, a broken C-shaped cartilage, a fractured trachea, and glass and metal puncture wounds on her neck and face. These puncture wounds are all postmortem. The victim’s six fingers show defensive wounds, strangulation marks reaching the tendons and ligaments of the fingers, and a complete pubic hair follicle was found in the oral examination.
There is a needle mark below the victim’s strangulation furrow, with no evidence of abuse. There are glass and metal puncture wounds on the chest and abdomen, and the direction of blood flow inside the vehicle and the pattern of blood spatters indicate that the victim had not been moved after being strangled. The autopsy will now begin."
Zhou Ning took the scalpel handed to him by Zhu Xingxing and made an incision from the neck down to the upper margin of the pubic symphysis. He then cleaned out the thoracoabdominal organs one by one, examined and took samples, especially collecting several tubes of blood from the heart, under Zhu Xingxing’s careful handling.
With meticulous scrutiny, no signs of manual strangulation were found beneath the skin near the strangulation furrow. It seemed a fishing line was used to strangle the victim, who only resisted by reaching out during the asphyxiation.
Zhu Xingxing collected the fingernails and cleaned around the victim’s lips. After attending to these, at Zhou Ning’s signal, Zhu Xingxing examined the victim’s external genitalia.
Upon seeing the external genitalia, Zhu Xingxing hesitated, looking at Zhou Ning. Zhou Ning quickly approached and discovered two bite marks near the groove of the victim’s thigh.
"Mr. Zhao, come take photos and attach a scale."
Mr. Zhao and Yang Xuetong hurriedly completed the task following Zhou Ning’s instructions. Zhou Ning carefully wiped the victim’s external genitalia with a cotton swab.
The area around the external genitalia was somewhat swollen, suggesting that Fu Wendan had been active before death. Moreover, there were some fine tears around the edge. Upon spreading the area open with a speculum, injuries were also found inside, with one after another damage marks.
Seeing this, Zhou Ning couldn’t help frowning, as these marks were similar to those found on the last victim of the Red Serial Killings. These were scratch marks; someone had deliberately scratched the inside of the victim’s genitalia, even causing skin damage to many mucosal parts.
Such severe injuries, yet no skin flakes were found beneath the victim’s fingernails—could it be that she hadn’t resisted?
Zhou Ning checked the victim’s wrists again. There were rope marks on her wrists and signs of adhesive tape, although the marks were not pronounced. On the back of the hand, at the metacarpal bones, fingernail imprints were found. Zhou Ning compared his hand with the victim’s, making a grasping motion and found that the nails could just reach that area.
Zhou Ning, being tall with long limbs, had hands much longer than the average person. Zhu Yunping, whom Zhou Ning had observed just now, was about 172 cm tall, skinny, weighing no more than 120 pounds, with relatively small hands and feet. Such a hand size could not have caused such imprints, which meant that the person who had grasped the victim’s hands and had sexual activity with her was someone else?
Zhou Ning lifted his head and waved at Zhu Xingxing.
"Sample the nail marks on the back of the deceased’s hand multiple times, and be thorough with both hands."
Zhu Xingxing hurried forward, carefully collected the samples, then pointed to the head of the deceased. Zhou Ning shook his head. The cause of death was apparent, and there was no need for identification, and since there were no fractures on the skeleton, there was no need to take samples from the skull or pubic symphysis. Zhou Ning glanced at the victim’s toenails.
Surprisingly, the girl hadn’t painted her toenails. Signaling Zhu Xingxing to start stitching, Zhou Ning looked once more at the deceased’s face.
Given her height, her head was exceptionally small, a classic case of "big face, small head," her body slim, lacking any pronounced curves, just slender. She was 177cm tall, much taller than Zhu Yunping.
Her face, however, appeared youthful. At a cursory glance, the girl hadn’t undergone any cosmetic surgery, possibly due to her family circumstances; she might not have had the financial means.
Zhou Ning stared out the window at the Iveco, slightly lost in thought.
They were coming back from Hai’an City, and the journey had been quite uneventful until they descended from the overpass and encountered the Lexus. Recalling it now, it seemed that the Lexus had cut off a car in front of them. Mr. Zhao, being a skilled driver, overtook and avoided getting stuck between the two cars, which caught Zhu Yunping’s attention.
So, where did Zhu Yunping come from in the Lexus?
Mr. Zhao called out, and Zhou Ning lifted his head, snapping out of his reverie. freewebnoveℓ.com
"What’s up, Zhou Xiaozhou?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"Are you finished?"
Mr. Zhao nodded and gestured for Sun Gaotie to summon people to transport the body, as there were many formalities to take care of. Still, the most crucial examinations would require a long wait.
Stretching his stiff neck, Mr. Zhao hummed in discomfort.
"What kind of situation is this? We’ve been driving tiredly for over ten days to get back to Qindao for a break. Everything was fine all along the way; how come we ran into Zhu Yunping driving so aggressively, and then there’s a corpse in the car too? Didn’t check the almanac before leaving the house today; this is just plain bad luck!"
Zhou Ning shook his head, helpless. He didn’t want this either. Mr. Zhao had tried as best he could to avoid road rage, and even had Yang Xuetong record footage to preserve relevant evidence before the accident occurred.
"Stop lamenting. Mark it on the map, where did we encounter those two Lexuses? I remember coming down from the overpass and running into them, but I’m not clear on the exact location."
Mr. Zhao thought for a moment, took the camcorder from Yang Xuetong, looked at it, then walked to the computer where Mr. Qu handed him a pen. As Mr. Zhao pointed, Mr. Qu began marking the location.
"We encountered the car even before descending from the overpass, back at the Xiang’er Mountain Park section. The Lexus sped past us from behind; I thought it just floated by, definitely at speeds exceeding 130 km/h, then started competing with the car in front in a game of one-upmanship.
We came down from Qinyin Overpass and took Liaoyang East Road Overpass, then turned from Liaoyang East Road onto Shiling Road. That’s where it cut off the other car and turned, I got dazzled for a moment, and the Lexus started messing with me, stirring up trouble, and the accident happened at the intersection of Shiling Road and Tongan Road."
