Free Web NovelChapter 81: Chapter 81 Tides [Kneel and thank 81 big cousin for the silver league reward!]
Half an hour later.
The group got out of the car, the salty sea breeze blowing against their faces as if little knives were scraping forcefully.
This was the south side of the bonded logistics park, which used to be a bay. However, to expand the park, part of the sea was reclaimed. As for the seaside, there was no sandy beach but piles of gigantic rocks forming a tidal flat.
The road was newly constructed, and the surrounding land was simply enclosed without any development, making the area quite desolate.
Xu Dayuan pointed to a crevice among the rocks by the sea and shouted with pursed lips,
"The body was found right there. The road was completed just before the Spring Festival, but generally, no one comes here. Two people looking for a spot to fish spotted a hint of red.
They crawled over and were scared witless when they saw it, and immediately dialed 110 to report to the police. The command center, upon hearing about a woman’s corpse in red, didn’t even bother sending someone from Tieshan Police Station. They just notified them and then called me. Let’s go and take a look."
That phrase, "they crawled over and were scared witless," made Zhou Ning shiver. It wasn’t just a body that could invoke such fear; evidently, the manner of death was particularly brutal. He glanced at Liu Yongxin.
"Master, I’ll go over with Mr. Zhao. These rocks are huge, and clambering over may not be easy."
Liu Yongxin nodded.
"Be careful. Look around the body for any urine or excrement. This place is desolate, and the rocks are large. I find it unlikely that someone carried the body here to discard it."
Zhou Ning understood; Liu Yongxin suspected this to be the primary crime scene. If it was, naturally, there would be many traces left behind. Of course, if the DNA matched that of the red-dressed serial killer suspect, then the cases could be combined.
Mr. Zhao now arrived, carrying two investigation kits and an aluminum ladder, swaying side to side, looking around.
"Where’s the body?"
Xu Dayuan threw him a glare, and Mr. Zhao shrank his neck, swallowing whatever he had in his mouth in a hurry, chasing after Zhou Ning.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, wait for me. I’m overloaded here, you could’ve offered to help."
Hearing the call, Zhou Ning stopped, quickly took one of the investigation kits, and stood at the edge of the road, facing a pile of huge rocks about fifty meters wide, he too felt a bit challenged.
"The boss is watching; quit complaining, get changed quickly, and come with me. Remember not to put on shoe covers until we arrive at the body’s location. Otherwise, they could be slippery on the rocks."
Mr. Zhao grinned, revealing his teeth.
"Listen, you care about me after all. Don’t worry, I’ve got experience with this. Despite my size, I’m pretty agile."
"That’s called being fat, not having a large frame!"
Mr. Zhao’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t argue. His weight had already reached 100 kilograms, and although he wasn’t as tall as Zhou Ning and was robust, compared with Zhou Ning as a reference, he truly was fat.
The two put on their forensic suits and then hopped over the rocks at the edge of the road. Zhou Ning checked the position of He Chunyang and the others, found a relatively less steep path, and started to circumnavigate forward.
Fifteen minutes later, they finally climbed to where He Chunyang was. He Chunyang took their investigation kits and hauled them up. Mr. Zhao was already sitting on the ground, puffing and panting heavily.
"What I’m considering now is, how are we going to move the body later?"
He Chunyang kicked Mr. Zhao’s leg with a smile. freēwebnovel.com
"You need to lose weight, kid, otherwise you’ll have to be called Fatty Zhao. Don’t worry yourself about the body. Xu Da has already borrowed a crane, which will arrive shortly. However, I noticed that from the seaside, there’s a giant rock on the south side that is not as complexly arranged, making it easier to reach the shore."
Although Mr. Zhao looked unsatisfied, he quickly got up and looked towards the spot He Chunyang indicated.
Indeed, at the edge where the waves could reach, there were several comparatively flat rocks. Although not perfectly connected, the widest gap was only half a meter, a single step could cross it, and that side also extended to the road. However, the current spot was more concealed due to the rocks and debris.
Zhou Ning glanced at the two fishermen sitting on the rocks below; they seemed truly terror-stricken. Liu Changhai was constantly comforting them, yet they still looked over here from time to time.
Grasping He Chunyang’s hand, Zhou Ning jumped onto the rock he stood on, with the body now exposed before him.
Zhou Ning took a sharp breath—a long red down jacket covered the deceased, leaning against a rock, head and right hand downward, fingers covered in blood, all fingertips missing.
Long hair obscured the victim’s face, while a sweater, shoes, and undergarments were discarded beside, spattered with blood.
However, the most horrific aspect was the woman’s body, with her chestnut brown curly hair fluttering, her back was riddled with whipping marks, some linear and some with chunks of flesh missing. From the imprints left, it was not hard to deduce that the weapon was a belt with a metal buckle.
The pale skin formed a stark contrast with these wounds. Seeing how fresh the wounds were made Zhou Ning’s heart seem to skip a beat. Could they be so lucky to have found the body just after it was dumped?
Zhou Ning waved his hand to the side, and Mr. Zhao scrambled up, quickly following Zhou Ning’s lead.
"Don’t rush, put on gloves and shoe covers. No one else come forward. I will check if there are any other traces left. Also, take fingerprints and footprints from the two people who reported the crime."
He Chunyang naturally had nothing to say and gestured to his men to do as told.
Closer now, Mr. Zhao leaned over the rock, observing carefully, and pointed to a stone next to the body, shouting:
"Look, there’s half a blood footprint there!"
Zhou Ning glanced over and indeed saw a very faint half blood footprint that was about to be submerged by the seawater.
"Quick, stick on a scale ruler, take photos, and then use a swab to collect a sample."
Mr. Zhao didn’t dare to delay. He rushed over, placed the scale ruler and took photos. As he was swabbing the footprint, the tide had already submerged it.
Mr. Zhao jumped up, landing about a meter in front of the body. This spot was forty centimeters higher and though the waves splashed up some droplets of water, they could not submerge the rock.
Zhou Ning crouched down. At his position, the waves kept surging up, but after wetting his shoe covers, they showed no signs of rising further. He observed the area around the body; above the position of the body, there was a circle with a white line of salt, faint but still discernible upon closer inspection.
He took out his phone; the time was exactly 8:32, March 10, 2011, the twelfth day of the lunar month, but there were no tidal records on it. Zhou Ning was getting anxious. That’s when Mr. Zhao came over.
"I’ve checked around the body and didn’t find any traces of urine or feces. I found a few cigarette butts, but they seem to have been here for quite some time. We don’t know when the body was dumped; should we take these back?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"Pack them up and take them back."
Mr. Zhao was about to say something else, but Zhou Ning raised his hand to stop him and dialed his uncle’s number. His uncle’s biggest hobby was sea fishing, and he would vanish by the seaside for a whole day whenever he had time off, much to his aunt’s dismay.
The phone connected on the fourth ring.
"What’s up, Xiao Ning? Calling me at this time, aren’t you busy?"
"Uncle, I’m at a crime scene right now, and I need to consult you on something."
Zhou Xianghua quickly dispelled his casual mood, stood up immediately, and said:
"Go ahead."
"Uncle, do you know the timing of the tides?"
"I do. Our Qindao area experiences semidiurnal tides with two high tides and two low tides each day, delayed by 48 minutes each day. The interval between the two tides is roughly 12 hours.
Today being the sixth, it’s a middle tide, and nine o’clock is the time of the highest tide, followed by ebb tide after that, and the height of the middle tide isn’t very high."
"So you’re saying, the last high tide peaked around 20:20 last night, right?"
"That’s right," his uncle confirmed.
"Thanks, Uncle. I’ve got to get back to work."
Zhou Ning ended the call, walked over, and motioned to Zhao Xinli.
"Quick, take photographs of the victim. In thirty minutes, the tide will cover the victim. We’ve got to start moving quickly."
Mr. Zhao shuddered and quickly began to photograph the victim’s condition. Zhou Ning approached, gathered up the clothes on the ground, and then proceeded with scale rulers, photographing and sampling. Holding a swab, he didn’t miss a single drop of blood on the ground.
Then, he grabbed the victim’s down jacket and stood up. With this action, the full sight of the victim was revealed before everyone, causing He Chunyang and Mr. Zhao to exclaim in shock. Mr. Zhao sat down on the ground, and He Chunyang and the others all retreated.
They saw a knife plunged between the victim’s legs, only the hilt exposed, and blood everywhere on the boulder underneath and the crevices behind it, making it clear the victim had died from hemorrhagic shock.
Zhou Ning gritted his teeth at the sight.
"Mr. Zhao, no time for shock or emotion, hurry with the photography. We’ve got to move the body within five minutes!"
"I’m on it!"
Exhaling sharply, Mr. Zhao kneeled on one knee, his camera’s shutter flashing repeatedly.
