Free Web NovelChapter 599: Chapter 569: Open the Coffin_1
The car’s headlights flickered, and by the time they arrived at the Blue Sea Hotel, it was already 19:10.
Mr. Zhao, carrying a suitcase, got out of the car. His stomach rumbled loudly, a sound that seemed contagious, as the driver Mr. Wang and Sun Gaotie beside him also started to echo with stomach growls.
Zhou Ning gave them an apologetic smile.
"Hold on a bit. After we inspect this place, we’ll go eat."
Mr. Zhao waved his hand.
"Forget it, let’s consider it a diet and get to work quickly."
As they were talking, Fang Mu quickly led his team over. The seven or eight men behind him, all in suits and shoes and uniformly wearing name tags, were clearly the hotel’s senior management. They obviously took the matter very seriously.
"Director Zhou, thank you for your hard work. The door has been opened, and we haven’t gone in yet. Shall we start the inspection now?"
Zhou Ning nodded and also gave a slight nod to the people behind him before gesturing to Mr. Zhao.
Without needing to be told, even the driver Mr. Wang was fully geared up and followed them toward the Peppa Pig Cabin. The door was already open, but the lights were off. The bright flashlight illuminated the inside.
Mr. Zhao searched around, found the switch, and turned on the lights. Instantly, the room’s interior came into view.
The place was furnished very simply, without any extravagant decorations or renovations. There were several rows of shelves in the room, displaying some Yunan specialty souvenirs, and, of course, there were also many Zhou Dynasty-related museum souvenirs. However, these items seemed to be rarely purchased by tourists.
After twenty minutes spent by Mr. Zhao’s team inside, they had established a path covered with inspection mats. Zhou Ning and Fang Mu then followed them inside. Of course, those looking like managers all stood obediently outside.
Zhou Ning and his team went straight to the bar, where there was a surveillance camera overhead. Fang Mu quickly said:
"The hotel mentioned there’s a camera here. They’ve retained a month’s worth of surveillance video, recorded the day after they disappeared. But when we sent someone to look for it, it wasn’t found—it’s obviously been maliciously deleted. There are quite a few hotel staff here and they are conducting an internal investigation. I’ve sent someone to listen in."
Mr. Zhao leaned over.
"Mr. Dui, don’t worry. Are you certain the files were deleted? If they were just deleted and the computer wasn’t replaced, I think Mr. Qu could give it a try. If he can recover them, we could save ourselves a lot of detours," he said.
Fang Mu nodded, of course happy with this arrangement.
After all, there was no direction to the suspect; they only knew the person had been to the Blue Sea Hotel but didn’t know exactly when he had appeared or how he had left. The surveillance surrounding the area had limited coverage and couldn’t capture people’s faces inside cars.
Seeing Zhou Ning nod too, Mr. Zhao hurried off to arrange things. Fang Mu glanced at the fingerprints Mr. Yang and his team were collecting. Mr. Yang smiled.
"Mr. Dui, don’t worry; we’ve found many fingerprints and will start comparing them at the scene right away," he said.
Fang Mu, feeling a bit embarrassed, received a nudge from Zhou Ning.
"It’s okay to be dedicated to work, but everyone’s hungry. Mr. Wang sped on the highway to get us here straight to work, and all we had on the way was some bread. After inspecting this place, let’s quickly get some boxed meals or something," Zhou Ning suggested.
Fang Mu looked apologetic.
"My fault. I was so focused on getting you here quickly to conduct the autopsy, I didn’t arrange for boxed meals. I’ll have someone prepare them now. I understand what you mean; we definitely won’t eat in this hotel. Some things might get misinterpreted later. Anyway, with the inspection over, and comparison and analysis still to do, how about we all head back and sort this out?" he said.
Zhou Ning nodded. Fang Mu didn’t mention going to the Qifeng City Criminal Police Division for analysis, which clearly meant they hadn’t set up their workplace there. Zhou Ning naturally supported this.
"Alright, Mr. Yang, let’s wrap up here and proceed with the comparisons back at the station. Are there many footprints?" Zhou Ning asked.
"There are quite a few footprints, but the older ones seem to have one particular pattern, size around 38, and only one person’s footprints. The person has a severe case of out-toeing, and the wear on the outer side of the heel is noticeable. It seems like a female, over 140 pounds, around 5’3" tall, aged between 30-40," Mr. Yang reported.
Zhou Ning, looking at the photos in Mr. Yang’s camera, continuously nodded in agreement with his assessment. The trace evidence technicians had indeed improved their skills significantly.
"You’re being conservative with the age; I’d say between 35-40, a married middle-aged woman, and it seems her gait indicates a bad lumbar spine," Zhou Ning observed.
Fang Mu, intrigued, knew Zhou Ning’s specifics were very detailed. However, thinking back to their previous analysis, this differed greatly from Shi Yun, which somewhat disheartened him.
"With this assessment, the likelihood that this person is Shi Yun is extremely low," Fang Mu sighed.
Zhou Ning smiled.
"Regarding Shi Yun, we’re just speculating. Let’s not be swayed by this judgment and analyze based on what we’ve found at the scene. After all, we’ve made a very fortunate discovery – we have collected a female’s DNA from the wounds on the victim’s neck. Once we find a suspect, we can perform a comparison. That’s conclusive evidence," he explained.
The crowd withdrew, and the staff at the Blue Sea Hotel escorted Fang Mu and his team to their car. The message was clear—they hoped the incident would be resolved quickly. However, it wasn’t something they could control. Fang Mu and his team didn’t say much and flatly refused the Blue Sea Hotel’s offer of dinner arrangements.
After all, they were already trying to minimize their impact on the hotel’s operations, sealing just the storeroom and the Peppa Pig Cabin, which didn’t affect the hotel’s normal business.
Mr. Wang raced back to their accommodation, and Fang Mu organized a meeting for everyone.
Boxed meals were distributed in the conference room, and they discussed matters while eating. In these extraordinary times, everyone was famished. Fang Mu summarized the day’s work and let Zhou Ning discuss the findings from the autopsy and related analysis. Fang Mu then laid out the work direction for the next day, especially the surrounding surveillance and the search for eyewitnesses.
After the meeting, everyone returned to their rooms. Zhou Ning spoke to Fang Mu and arranged a separate room for Mr. Qu, who wanted to continue with the search work. Zhou Ning took a shower, grabbed his phone, plugged it into the charger, and dialed Xu Dayuan.
"Leader, I hope I didn’t disturb your rest?" Zhou Ning inquired.
Xu Dayuan grunted a couple of times, and Liu Yongxin’s laughter could be heard from the other end. Zhou Ning’s eyebrows relaxed—it seemed everyone was busy.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, you’re trying to check up on us, aren’t you? You think you’re out there busy as can be, and are worried we might slack off. It bothers you, doesn’t it?" Xu Dayuan teased.
"How could that be? I was just about to report to you about our work," Zhou Ning quickly said, steering the conversation back on track, and hurriedly shared their findings, today’s harvest, and his perspective. Towards the end, Zhou Ning shifted the topic.
"Leader, has there been any progress in the investigation of Shi Yun?" Zhou Ning asked.
"It seems you’ve really been run ragged; you haven’t even called Mr. Xia. We’ve already produced a conjectural portrait of Shi Yun. After searching the system, we’ve found several individuals of similar age group and are checking each one by one.
As for progress with the Yun family investigations, the Yun family used to be local landlords here. They owned land deeds not only to fields but also certain parts of the mountain ranges on the eastern and southern foothills of Quanshan and Tiger Mountain. However, they donated it all to the state after the establishment of the PRC.
Armed with such information, we conducted a carpet search on the gentle slopes of Quanshan and Tiger Mountain facing the sun and found many nameless graves. We analyzed the tombstones for their age, specifications, and size, and selected four of them, mainly because they all had traces of recent cleaning around them.
The poet collected the surrounding vegetation and headed back to the lab to bury himself in comparisons; no results have been announced yet. As for the fingerprint and DNA extraction from the exterior of the tombstones, your master, along with Zhu Zuozhang and his team, took care of it. There were plenty of fingerprints, but all were incomplete, and so far, there’re no matches for the DNA in the database," Xu Dayuan explained.
Zhou Ning grew interested upon hearing this. freёwebnoѵel.com
"We found a woman’s DNA in the wounds on the victim’s face and the strangulation marks on the neck. We can run a comparison," Zhou Ning said.
Xu Dayuan sighed.
"That’s what I thought when you mentioned it. But all the DNA we’ve found so far is from males. You know the customs here in Qindao Area, women seldom attend grave-sweeping ceremonies. If they do, they stay at a distance.
Moreover, according to your analysis, the killer wore gloves while sweeping the grave, which is why they only got pollen on them while plucking weeds and cleaning around the tombstones. So I think it’d be tough for fingerprints or DNA to be left behind," Xu Dayuan said.
Zhou Ning fell silent. Without finding Shi Yun, they couldn’t make the comparison, and the suspicion surrounding this person was far from ordinary.
"In that case, I’ll have Mr. Qu send the test report for that female DNA to Mrs. Cui. It can be compared to the DNA from those four tombs. After all, we’ve been suspecting all this time that everything might be Shi Yun’s revenge.
If the killer really is Shi Yun, we need proof. Since these are her parents’ graves, we might try extracting DNA for comparison," Zhou Ning proposed.
Liu Yongxin’s sharp intake of breath was audible; clearly, he was startled by his cherished disciple’s words and approached Xu Dayuan with a puzzled tone:
"Xiao Ning, cremation has been in place for fifteen years. Our policy in Qindao Area was very thorough back then, and these ashes can’t yield any DNA. Even if there are clothes inside, after fifteen years and under such conditions, what could possibly remain?" Liu Yongxin asked.
Xu Dayuan agreed enthusiastically.
"Right, not to mention 1998, even my grandfather, who passed away in 1982, was cremated, and he was buried in the village," Xu Dayuan added.
Zhou Ning sighed. What they were saying was indeed the norm, but the situation for these two was somewhat different.
"Leader, you forgot. Shi Mingchen and Doctor Yun, one died accidentally and the other committed suicide, and it all happened within a day. The family had only one child, and no relatives or friends took charge. How would they have proceeded with cremation?
Furthermore, if I remember correctly from checking their household registration information, they weren’t marked as deceased but were found to be gone during the fifth census in 2000. There was no information about the child back then, so the family was deregistered. The two were marked as dead, and Shi Yun as missing," Zhou Ning explained.
"That’s right, and now I see you suspect that these two people might have been taken away and buried by Shi Yun’s relatives or friends. After all, obtaining a death certificate from the workplace is quite troublesome. I’ll start working with the village committee now, searching among the unclaimed graves, maybe even conducting a posthumous examination," Xu Dayuan said.
Liu Yongxin spat out in disgust and snatched the phone back.
"Alright, don’t get too excited, leader. You splashed water all over me. Since Zhou Ning and the others have wrapped up their work, their remaining tests can wait for the results to come back. Why not just call them back? Leave Zhu Xingxing and a few to continue with Fang Mu," Liu Yongxin suggested.
Zhou Ning felt a warmth in his heart; his master was concerned about his fatigue.
