Free Web NovelChapter 482: Chapter 453 An Insult to Animals!_1
Sun Gaotie looked puzzled.
"Boss, how could this bruise have formed? Could it have been caused by the fall from the building?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, pulled off a layer of gloves, and grabbed the back of Zou Jialong’s clothes beside him. With such a grip, Zou Jialong immediately struggled to breathe, since he was wearing a shirt inside and a disposable surgical gown outside, which was very thin.
"This mark was left by grabbing onto the clothes from behind. When the girl, Zhang Ruixue, fell, she was slightly turned to the side. The injuries and fractures are concentrated on the head, limbs, cervical vertebra, and lumbar vertebra, but the back is actually hollow, positioned between two steps, so this bruise is an antemortem injury. We just have to see if the forensic department can find the corresponding fingerprints."
This discovery ignited hope among everyone, as what they feared most at the moment was the lack of evidence. These three bruises, at the very least, could prove that the child did not die accidentally, but was picked up from behind, first hitting the invisible mosquito screen and then thrown directly out the window.
Such a brutal act seemed to freeze the air in the autopsy room.
Zhou Ning walked over to the boy’s body. There were no such marks on his back.
The reason was that the impact from the boy’s fall was mainly concentrated near the thoracic spine. The area around the thoracic spine on his back could be described as completely shattered. Even if there were such bruises, they would have been obscured by the subsequent fall injuries.
However, Zhou Ning didn’t give up. Holding an LED light, he began to search every inch of skin, convinced that there must be some evidence that he had not found yet. After all, he was now the only one who could make the final testimony for these two children.
As time ticked away, Zhou Ning stepped back, finding nothing on the back. Just as he was about to change angles, he discovered two faint scratch marks on the inner thigh of the boy—very delicate scratch marks.
Zhou Ning recalled that during the autopsy yesterday, this area had been carefully examined, as it’s necessary to determine if the child had suffered sexual abuse.
Following his pause, Zhu Xingxing came over to ask,
"Boss, what’s wrong?"
"Find the autopsy photos of Zhang Yangrui from yesterday and compare them. See if he had any scratch marks on the inside of his thigh."
Mr. Zhao did not wait for Zhu Xingxing to speak, as he was already flipping through photos quickly. He lifted the camera directly, presenting it to Zhou Ning for a quick glance.
"Yesterday, apart from the traces of the fall, no other scratch marks or bruises were found on the deceased’s body, and nothing was on the inner thigh either."
Zhou Ning’s face showed no sign of relaxation. He thought for a moment and continued,
"Look for photos from previous autopsies with scratch marks for comparison. We’re looking for the kind that didn’t break the skin but left a mark."
Xia Momo, who was standing by, quickly began the task. With such a clear search scope, it was easy to find the pictures. Soon, four photos appeared on the large screen, all showing various scratch marks. In the bottom right corner was the image of the boy’s inner thigh, just taken by Mr. Zhao. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Seeing them side by side, Zhu Xingxing realized there was a problem and exclaimed in surprise,
"This scratch mark seems a bit narrower, lighter, like... like it was made by very sharp fingernails."
Zhou Ning instinctively looked at his own hand, and his mind instantly went to nail art.
"Could it be nail art? But aren’t they usually not this sharp?"
Zhu Xingxing didn’t respond; after all, in their field of work, they really couldn’t have such nails.
"Boss, you’re asking the wrong person. I’ve never had them done either, but I’ve seen nail art, and they really aren’t usually this sharp. Most of them are about the same width as the nail with a slight roundness at the front to make the fingers appear longer. Who would sharpen their nails like Mei Chaofeng’s Nine Yin White Bone Claw?"
Xia Momo came over, holding a remote control, and adjusted the images on the screen. Then she explained,
"Nowadays, girls do all kinds of special nail art, like French tips, square tips, and there’s one kind that’s both long and pointed. Of course, this kind of nail art has a big downside—you can’t do many things with it, like pulling a tab on a can or using a fingerprint scanner in tight spaces."
As the images on the big screen changed, Zhou Ning raised an eyebrow; his hackles rose. To be honest, he found it hard to accept such aesthetics. The longest nails were already a time and a half the length of the actual nail—wasn’t this like disabling oneself?
Mr. Zhao shivered and then exclaimed,
"Damn, I thought this stuff only existed in comics. I never imagined people actually styled their nails like this—it’s too creepy. The scratch marks at the root of Zhou Xiaozhou’s thigh suggest that someone... a woman was holding the boy by his crotch, picking him up and throwing him out?"
Zhou Ning was indeed thinking along those lines. He turned to look at Zhu Xingxing.
"Was the boy wearing split pants or open-crotch pants during the inspection yesterday? Was he wearing a diaper?"
Zhu Xingxing thought for a moment, then spoke up firmly,
"I remember this. The boy was wearing split pants, with the diaper showing underneath. When it was sent for inspection, the diaper was sent in too. Boss, you mean to check if there’s any residue on the outer material of the diaper, since its surface is more likely to hold traces than knitted fabric."
Zhou Ning nodded. Without needing Zhu Xingxing to say anything more, Sun Gaotie had already briskly walked out to go upstairs and speak with Cui Lili personally.
For a moment, Zhou Ning didn’t hurry to do anything. Now that the second external body examination was concluded, finding traces on the two victims did surprise Zhou Ning, but what he felt even more was fury.
The bruises left by the grip on the girl’s back, and the simultaneous ligature mark on her neck, indicated just how brutally she had been treated, being hoisted up by the clothes on her back and forcefully thrust against the screen, before being thrown down from the building.
Although the boy didn’t have the same kinds of bruises, he had squeeze marks, and it was very likely they were made by those sharp manicured nails. Such a person was probably a woman, and most likely that mysterious girlfriend of Zhang Bo.
Firstly, such a person wouldn’t be busy with daily chores every day. They must have someone to take care of their daily needs, for even the most routine tasks would become difficult to handle alone.
To put it bluntly, even wiping their butt after a poop could be a challenge, perhaps even accidentally tearing through the paper and getting their nails dirty.
Thinking this, Zhou Ning gestured lightly, and Zhu Xingxing quickly arranged for the bodies of the two children to be taken away. Autopsying adults, no matter how gruesome, seemed manageable with detachment, but when the deceased were two children, most were unable to maintain their composure.
Zhou Ning stripped off all his gear and left the autopsy room directly. He didn’t put on his thick clothes but simply wore his police coat as he stood on the stairway to smoke. As he exhaled the smoke, most of the anger he had felt was suppressed.
At that moment, a sound of footsteps came. Turning his head, he saw Xu Dayuan coming towards him. Zhou Ning quickly extinguished his cigarette and stepped out of the stairwell. Xu Dayuan looked him over and seemed to understand something.
"Is Zhou Xiaozhou alright?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"It’s fine, the second autopsy is over. We found bruises on the girl’s back from grasping clothes, and there’s a matching bruise on her neck. As for the boy’s body, we found two very fine cuts near the upper thigh. We think they were caused by the kind of sharp manicure scissors."
Xu Dayuan gestured as if simulating how the marks were made. Zhou Ning shook his head and took Xu Dayuan straight to the autopsy room. By now, the bodies of the two children had been taken away, and Xia Momo was still there. Seeing Xu Dayuan and Zhou Ning enter, she quickly stood up.
"Mr. Xia, show Director Xu the marks on the two children’s bodies."
Xia Momo didn’t waste words and quickly got to work. A few photos appeared on the big screen, and after Xu Dayuan saw them, he gasped sharply, looked at Zhou Ning, and instantly understood why he had been smoking in the hallway.
"In a while, I’ll talk to Cui Lili and conduct a thorough inspection of the children’s clothing, especially the boy’s pants. We need to examine them more carefully. I think that Zhang Bo’s girlfriend might’ve been involved in the murder process. After all, Zhang Bo doesn’t have long nails."
Zhou Ning nodded just as Xu Dayuan’s phone rang, with the name Liu Yufei flashing briefly.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Boss, based on the three pieces of information provided by Mr. Xia, we’ve found several people, one of whom is named Ye Chengchen. He looks very similar to the portrait Mr. Xia sketched out, having no relation to the photo on his identity card at all. I’m about to take him back for blood and fingerprint sampling."
Xu Dayuan’s eyebrows knitted slightly, but his eyes shone brightly.
"Is he a model?"
"He graduated from the Oriental Beauty Model School and works at the Shengshi Model Agency. We found this model agency through his identity information, and the agency’s staff contacted him. When I saw him in person, I was stunned. I’ll bring him back right away, no point in staying on the line longer."
After hanging up the phone, the screen already displayed an identity information, which was the Ye Chengchen that Liu Yufei had mentioned on the call.
Zhou Ning glanced at it and stared intently at the photo on the identity card. It was truly impossible for the beauty in Xia Momo’s sketch to coincide with this photo; they could be said to be two different people.
"If you’re fine, come with me to the brigade. It’s better than waiting here for news."
Zhou Ning didn’t object, took the printed identity information that Xia Momo gave him, and followed Xu Dayuan to the Criminal Police Brigade. Xu Dayuan let out a long sigh.
"Twelve or thirteen years ago, I worked on a case where a man, because of gambling debts, killed his wife and child at home after being prevented from getting money, and then lit a fire, staging the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong. His grieving appearance deceived everyone, neighbors even spoke well of him.
After investigating the scene, there wasn’t much valuable information. But since the fire was in the wing and the main house wasn’t much affected, a few months later, when he was drunk and boasting to a neighbor, he let his criminal actions slip. freёwebnoѵel.com
The neighbor was frightened and immediately reported it to the police station. Only at the trial did we learn the extent of his cruelty, and by that time, his new girlfriend was already pregnant. This case was quite sensational in Qidong, and many people came to watch outside the courthouse during the sentencing. It was truly bestial."
Zhou Ning looked out the window, where Liu Yufei was leading a woman towards the main entrance. The woman, dressed in shorts and boots with long, slim legs protruding beneath her coat, caught the eye. She showed no signs of panic but casually brushed her hair tousled by the wind.
"Some people truly don’t deserve to be called human, and it’s an insult to animals to even refer to such people as beasts!"
