Free Web NovelChapter 86: Chapter 86: Maybe We Are Just That Lucky_1
Such a phrase left Xu Dayuan, Liu Yongxin, Mr. Zhao, and Zhou Ning all stunned, as they turned their heads in unison to look at Doctor Lu.
"How do you have the data?"
Doctor Lu waved his hand dismissively, comfortably sat down on the chair, pulled out his own thermos, took a sip of goji berry water, and even crossed his legs with a flourish.
"What’s the hurry? When we first began testing here, we asked the municipal police department for some bones from unsolved cases to scan as a trial, and among those were remains of unidentified victims from this case. I kept electronic copies of both the X-rays and the related case files."
Zhou Ning looked at Liu Yongxin, and they both fell silent. The municipal department people had just left and had clearly indicated that this case was not related to the serial crimes. Yet here, with just a bit of investigation, it was directly linked to those eleven incidents—this was, without doubt, embarrassing.
Xu Dayuan waved his hand.
"If you want to investigate, then investigate. It’s Doctor Lu who’s leading this anyway. This is part of the experiment; overthinking it is pointless, it’s just a standard comparison.
"Furthermore, the crime pattern of the perpetrator in the Red-Dress Serial Killings has always escalated with each incident. He constantly reviews and admires his own work, takes pride in it. Any new discovery, I think, is normal.
"Let’s talk about what I’ve found out. The victim, Cheng Chunyan, worked as a warehouse manager at Wanhua International Logistics Co., Ltd. in the bonded logistics park. Due to recent tax rebate policies, logistics companies have been working overtime like crazy for the past ten days, with work ending between 9:30 and 10:00 PM every night.
"Yesterday, which was March 9th, according to Cheng Chunyan’s time card, she left the company at 9:38 PM. She commuted by electric scooter, and it’s a three-kilometer distance from the company to Zhujiazhuang, following an L-shaped route."
"You see, from the company, she’d take a turn onto this newly built eco-boulevard, head west for two kilometers, cross the bridge, and then come to Zhujiazhuang. The location where we found her body coincides with the turning point in this L-shaped route."
"A bit further north and you can see the company’s door on the surveillance, a little further west, the bridge has cameras too that could scope out the area. But as of now, we can’t reach that far—it does not seem to be a coincidence. The location choice is quite skilled and shows a strong investigative awareness."
Doctor Lu might not understand all this, but he was intently staring at the sketch Xu Dayuan was drawing with his thermos in hand.
"Eleven cases over five years, each meticulously designed; he treats them as works of art to be crafted. Of course, it deserves a proper investigation. I think we should check all the people who passed through here at night within the month leading up to last night."
Mr. Zhao’s suggestion made sense, but if one were to track down and identify every person who appeared in the footage over a month, the workload would be enormous.
However, thinking about someone riding alone for three kilometers every night for so many consecutive days, wouldn’t there be someone to pick her up sometimes? Or someone to accompany her?
"Is Cheng Chunyan the only one from Zhujiazhuang working at this company? If she’s working so late every night, given the concern her sister has shown for Chunyan, her family ought to pick her up from time to time, right?" freёwebnovel.com
Xu Dayuan laughed.
"See, this is where Zhou Xiaozhou’s attention to detail comes in. Cheng Chunyan has a colleague named Liu Yufeng, who’s from the same village and works as a dispatcher at Wanhua International Logistics Co., Ltd. They almost always left together, but yesterday Liu Yufeng had a family emergency and took the afternoon off, leaving Cheng Chunyan to go alone."
"Suddenly alone? That indicates the killer was staking out this area every day and only acted when he saw Cheng Chunyan was by herself. How could a single woman be easily intercepted on a late night?"
Zhou Ning’s point made everyone pause. It seemed they had all been focused on tracking the killer’s image but had neglected these details. Xu Dayuan raised his hand slightly.
"Don’t stop, keep going."
Zhou Ning was taken aback.
"That’s all I can think of. Everyone walked together every day, and it was only yesterday that she was alone when the incident occurred. This isn’t a coincidence; someone has been following her."
Mr. Zhao leaned in closer.
"There has to be a vehicle involved here; after all, we haven’t found the victim’s electric scooter, have we?"
Xu Dayuan shook his head.
"The search team by the seaside found the electric scooter. It will be transported here shortly. The scooter was discarded in the crevice of some rocks east of the crime scene, discovered by a police dog."
Mr. Zhao hesitated for a moment.
"They’ve deployed search dogs already? Any other findings?"
At that moment, Xu Dayuan’s phone rang. He replied with a couple of affirmatives and pointed toward the downstairs area.
"The electric scooter has been brought back. Mr. Zhao, go ahead and collect fingerprints to see if there are any findings."
Without any fuss, Mr. Zhao picked up his forensic case and went downstairs. Xu Dayuan stood up, grabbed Doctor Lu’s hand.
"Brother, since you’re here, I won’t treat you like an outsider. Those files we talked about, if it’s convenient, let Zhou Xiaozhou and Doctor Liu have a look. It would be better if you could find any commonalities. Even if you don’t, the data will still be useful for your experiments."
"Don’t worry, Xu Da. I’ll check if the equipment is set up, and once it’s ready, we’ll get to work."
"Let me take care of the accommodations for you."
Doctor Lu waved his hand dismissively.
"No need to bother with those trivial matters. We’ll just go back to the city tonight. It’s not far, and commuting is easy. The institute has provided us with a shuttle bus, so it’s very convenient."
"Alright, then I’ll head off first, Liu Yufeng still needs to do some checking."
Xu Dayuan didn’t stand on ceremony and hurriedly left.
Doctor Lu also went next door, after all, work could only begin after the equipment was set up. He was full of interest, especially after the success of their first test.
Zhou Ning and Liu Yongxin went downstairs together, where Mr. Zhao was squatting in front of an electric scooter, closely examining it. Zhou Ning approached and observed carefully.
The electric scooter was sixty percent new, an obscure brand, with a PU thick windshield. Apart from the foot pedals, no damage was visible. As for the pedals, it seemed like they had been smashed by stones; the windshield was scuffed with dirt. However, on the corner of the brownish rear windshield, there appeared to be a trace of blood.
Zhou Ning opened his investigation kit, raised his magnifying glass, and took a closer look. The bloodstain was faint; it would have been hard to detect without close examination. But the presence of blood on the scooter suggested the victim might have touched it after being injured?
This idea was immediately dismissed by Zhou Ning.
The victim’s clothes bore signs of ripping and carried bloodstains, which clearly indicated assault accompanied by abuse. Had the victim managed to escape to the roadside, there would surely be more traces left behind. However, there were none at the scene except for blood stains on two adjacent boulders.
The more Zhou Ning thought about it, the more anxious he became. Could it be the perpetrator’s blood?
With this thought, Zhou Ning quickly took photographs, then extracted a swab to collect the bloodstain sample. He placed it in a bottle with fluid movements that caught the attention of Liu Yongxin.
"What did you find?"
"Blood. I found a bloodstain on the windshield. This doesn’t seem like it was left by the victim. The scuff marks look relatively fresh, with dust on it, probably adhered when it was discarded."
Liu Yongxin looked carefully and nodded continuously.
"Ambushing a woman walking alone in the middle of the night, playing the victim is not a bad strategy."
"Huh?"
Mr. Zhao was confused as he was not aware of what had transpired. Liu Yongxin waved him off.
"Mind your own business, I’m talking to Zhou Xiaozhou."
Zhou Ning followed Liu Yongxin’s lead and thought about the route map which appeared on the transparent screen, thoughtfully labeled with the location of the crime scene. Pretend to be pitiful?
"Do you mean the perpetrator saw the victim coming from a distance, and since she was alone, pretended to be hit by a car or to have fallen and gotten injured, then made some noise to attract the victim’s attention?
Seeing an injured person, in such a desolate place, and close to ten at night, with hardly anyone or any vehicles passing by, she would naturally go over to check out of kindness, and then the perpetrator took the opportunity to seize her, bringing her to the seaside to commit the crime?"
Liu Yongxin nodded.
"You’ve made a good addition. I hadn’t thought that through, but surely something caught the victim’s attention. Even if she was afraid, she would subconsciously assume that the injured person wasn’t dangerous, right?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
However, looking at the bloodstain, Zhou Ning’s brow furrowed slightly.
"If it really is the work of a serial killer in red, would he hurt himself just to draw someone’s attention?"
Mr. Zhao stepped forward, raising his hand to Liu Yongxin, who gave the young man a sidelong glance.
"Speak up, what’s on your mind?"
"No objections here. I’m just thinking, if it’s really like you guys suspect, and he spotted the victim alone all of a sudden, could it be a spur-of-the-moment decision to leave a trace? I think it’s not impossible. Maybe we’re just that lucky!"
