My Lovely Wife is a Forensic Doctor - Chapter 300

Chapter 300 The Fourth Murder Victim

“W-What?!”

Mu Yu could not believe her ears. Instantly, she felt absolutely repulsed, and the scrap of flesh fell into the evidence bag as her hand shook.

Feng Rubing did not seem pleased with Rong Jian’s direct and colloquial description as she shot a look at him and corrected, “It should be a man’s genitalia.”

Mu Yu, who still had a chill running up her spine, couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Was it cut off while he was still alive?”

“From the looks of the victim’s expression, it most likely was. Still, I’ll have to trouble you guys with further tests on it.” When he saw how Feng Rubing lowered her head and got to work again, Rong Jian continued instead, “The culprit tied up the victim’s limbs with packing rope before taping his mouth shut. He then cut off the victim’s pe—genitals before chopping it up into little pieces, causing the victim to die from excessive blood loss.”

“Has the time of death been determined?”

“Initial investigations put it around 1.00AM to 2.00AM today. There aren’t any signs of the murder weapon at the scene. Just like the previous three cases, the murder site has been cleaned up thoroughly. There are no traces left at all.”

“Is this the victim’s home?” Mu Yu asked as she carefully inspected the furniture inside the apartment. Although it wasn’t very large, the remodeling had been expensive and classy with its obvious European influences. The apartment was well-furnished as well, for it had air conditioning, a refrigerator, an LCD television, and other appliances. If she ignored the gruesome splashes of blood, the entire apartment looked rather nice and comfortable to live in.

“This apartment is under the name of the victim’s older sister. Her husband has already been taken back to the station to record his statement.”

“The husband of the victim’s sister was the one who discovered the body and called the police, is that right?”

“No, the victim’s girlfriend found him instead. According to the phone call with his sister, the victim hadn’t gone to work this morning. She felt that something was off, so she called the victim’s girlfriend to ask about him. The girlfriend thought that he hadn’t gotten up yet, so she bought breakfast and went to his home. When she opened the door, she found the victim lying on the bed, drenched in blood. He had already stopped breathing by that time, so she called the police.”

“Has his girlfriend been taken back to the station so that her statement can be taken?”

“She’s currently at the hospital. When the police arrived, she had already passed out from the shock. Who knows if she’s currently—”

Rong Jian’s phone rang in the middle of his explanation. He answered the call, and after a few affirmations, he hung up before turning to Feng Rubing. “Jiao has woken up, so I’ll head to the hospital to get more details. I’ll get Lifeng to wait outside for you. Once you’re done, just get him to take you back to the police station.”

“Alright.”

Rong Jian then nodded at Mu Yu, but he suddenly stopped even though he had just begun to walk away. He turned around, lowering his voice as he spoke to Feng Rubing. “Your leg hasn’t fully healed yet, you know. It’s not good for you to stand for too long. Please watch yourself and rest when you need to.”

However, the woman did not even look up as she curtly said, “Got it.” Upon hearing that, Rong Jian relaxed and left.

Mu Yu knew that Feng Rubing did not like people butting in when she was in the middle of work, so she didn’t ask her any further. Then, she carefully and meticulously collected any evidence that Feng Rubing might have overlooked.

Half an hour later, the duo left the scene with the evidence they had collected after making sure they hadn’t missed anything. When they walked out of the door, they noticed that Qin Jinhuan, Bian Zijun, and their subordinates weren’t there, but the other policemen and Weng Yun were still around. Mu Yu walked over in confusion and asked them softly about it.

“The boss left with Zijun and Chief Rong. He left some breakfast for you here.” Weng Yun handed a lunchbox to Mu Yu.

The latter currently didn’t have the stomach for food, so she waved a hand in dismissal before quickly following Feng Rubing into the elevator. Weng Yun and Fan Lifeng immediately followed them as well.

“Yu, are you two going back to the station?” Seeing Mu Yu nod, Weng Yun then continued, “I’ll send you guys there.”

“You don’t need to go through all that trouble. I’ll drive them over instead,” said Fan Lifeng as he chuckled. “Chief Rong got me to stay here so that I can be their chauffeur.”

“And our boss got me to stay back so that I can chauffeur the young mistress.”

“Well…”

“You do what you have to. Just leave them to me.”

“Okay, then I’ll do just that. Give me a holler if anything comes up.” Seeing how insistent Weng Yun was, Fan Lifeng didn’t continue on, for he did have plenty of things on his to-do list.

After Fan Lifeng left, Weng Yun sent Mu Yu, Feng Rubing, and another assistant back to the police station.

Mu Yu and Feng Rubing immediately got to business the moment they were back in the forensic lab. Since Weng Yun never left them alone, they didn’t go down to the cafeteria for lunch. Instead, they simply got him to buy their food and forced themselves to eat a little.

In the evening, Rong Jian came to the forensic lab before work was over for the day to look for Feng Rubing, wanting to get more information about the situation.

“The time of death has been confirmed to be between 1.00AM to 2.00AM today. The pieces of flesh and cartilage discovered at the scene have also been confirmed to be the victim’s genitalia. It has already been reassembled, and nothing is missing. The murderer mercilessly chopped off the victim’s genitals in one stroke, causing the victim to die from excessive bleeding.” Feng Rubing showed Rong Jian the data that she had organized. “The blood found at the crime scene belongs only to the victim. Additionally, the semen found on the bed is also his. Apart from the victim’s own hair, his girlfriend’s hair has also been discovered in the apartment. Currently, there are no hair samples from a third party. Both the inside of the apartment and the door have been cleaned up very thoroughly, so we haven’t found any suspicious leads for now.”

“I see.” Rong Jian took the report and flipped through it. He didn’t look too disappointed. Clearly, everything had been as he expected.

“How’s the investigation on your end?” Mu Yu couldn’t stop herself from asking him.

“I haven’t gotten any useful leads either,” Rong Jian answered after letting out a sigh.

The victim was 34-year-old Qian Dacheng; he was lazy to the bone and fooled around all day without ever bothering to get a job. Coincidentally, his brother-in-law was Tian Maocai, the head of the Qing Tian Group’s West City Quarry. Qian Dacheng’s older sister, Qian Xiaoyu, got her husband to arrange a simple job for her younger brother at the quarry—he just needed to guard the warehouses.

However, he still managed to detest such an easy job. He’d come in to work one day and skip the rest of the workweek, and he would always vanish at the drop of a hat. The only time he ever arrived at the quarry on time was on the sixteenth of every month—the day when the quarry employees received their salary. Today happened to be the sixteenth, but Qian Dacheng hadn’t shown up at the quarry punctually. Tian Maocai had found it odd, so he gave Jiao a call. Hence, that was how he ended up finding out about Qian Dacheng’s death.

“Since he doesn’t like going to work, what does he usually do?” Mu Yu cut in.

“What does he normally do? Pick up ladies, I guess.” Rong Jian shrugged. “The murderer wouldn’t have cut off his genitals otherwise. Supposedly, Qian Dacheng is particularly obsessed when it comes to this. Every single time he opened his mouth, he’d be talking about women. If he met a woman on the street, he’d hit on them regardless of whether he actually knew them or not. He’s been on the receiving end of plenty of beatings because of that. Of course, he also successfully seduced several lonely women because he didn’t look half bad, and he was also pretty tall. Without taking into account that limp in his leg, he’d have looked rather decent with some nicer clothes on him. Good-looking on the outside, ugly on the inside.”

“Was he born with that limp?” Feng Rubing interrupted.

“No. According to his sister, someone broke his leg a few years ago while he was out. I think it was because he was catcalling some young lady too.” Rong Jian paused. When he saw that Feng Rubing didn’t look like she was about to continue questioning him, he spoke again. “Qian Xiaoyu was worried to no end about the continuation of the family line when she saw how her brother was still single with no children at 34. Hence, she privately wired him a huge sum of money to him so that he could get a house in order for him to date properly and get married. Not all that long ago, Qian Dacheng got acquainted with a woman who was working at a hair salon—Jiao. She came from the countryside and was immediately convinced because he splurged on the woman and even pursued her aggressively, telling her that he would give his apartment at Xinyue Estates to her if she was willing to date him. The first night he brought her back to his apartment, she slept with him. Later on, Qian Dacheng did give her a diamond ring as a pledge of his love, but he expressed his desire for a child from her before he felt okay about handing the apartment to her. Jiao, who just wanted the apartment, was overjoyed when she heard that. So, whenever he came to An City, she would take a day off and spend the day at his apartment in order to get that ‘bun’ in the oven as quickly as possible. Yesterday afternoon, Qian Dacheng took a cab to An City from the quarry and waited for Jiao at Xinyue Estates. They ate dinner together before going out for supper some time later after that. According to Jiao, they returned to the apartment later in the night, and she discovered that the diamond ring he got her was fake at midnight or so. She argued with Qian Dacheng and left the apartment. She got a phone call from Qian Xiaoyu this morning at work, so she took the day off and went to the apartment, only to discover that Qian Dacheng was dead in bed, stark naked. She fainted from shock after calling the police.”

“Does this Jiao have someone to vouch for her alibi?” Mu Yu asked.

“Not for now. All of the times that she gave for last night were just estimates. The only thing we can confirm is that she returned to the salon at 2.00AM. However, she couldn’t get into the salon because her work partner had locked the door from inside, so she called them up to open the door. According to the call history on that co-worker’s phone, the call was made at 2.30AM. Under normal circumstances, it would take only 30 minutes to walk from Xinyue Estates to the salon that Jiao works at. If she took a cab, then she would only need a little over 10 minutes.”

“In other words, Jiao had enough time to possibly commit the murder, right?”

“That’s right.” Rong Jian nodded. “Although this murder was carried out the same way as the previous three, we can’t exclude the possibility of a copycat case. We took her statement after she had calmed down this afternoon. Once she sensed that we were suspecting her, she lost it again. The doctors injected her with a sedative, so we can’t get her to answer any detailed questions for now.”

Having said as much, he looked at Feng Rubing. “What are your thoughts on this case, Rubing?”

Feng Rubing had been writing in her notebook. When she heard him, her pen stilled, and she slowly gathered herself before solemnly answering him, “I compared the packing rope that was used in this murder with the packing rope from the other three cases, and I realized that there are clearly some differences even though they are both packing ropes commonly found in the market.”

“How are they different?!” Mu Yu and Rong Jian asked in unison.

“Take a look.” Feng Rubing showed them her notebook. “The packing rope used in the first three murders are medium-sized, but the one in this case is a large instead.”

“Maybe the culprit decided to use large packing rope instead because Qian Dacheng is tall and fat?” Mu Yu wondered.

“That’s also a possibility. However, I’ve already compared them. While the medium rope is shorter, it’s still able to restrain Qian Dacheng’s limbs. This kind of packing tape is strong and secure. As long as you secure it properly, there’s practically no chance of freeing oneself. Besides…” Feng Rubing then pointed at a bunch of data written on the pages of the notebook. “The weapon used to cut up this man’s genitals is not quite the same as the knives from the other three cases. In other words, the weapon used in this murder is not the same one.”

Mu Yu paused for a while before asking, “So you’re saying that the killer this time might not be the one involved in the other three murders?”

Rong Jian didn’t quite agree. “The weapons are different, but the methods are the same. The murderer could have disposed of his old weapon because he was afraid of being exposed. What if he used completely new weapons for this murder? You can’t be too sure about some things.”

Feng Rubing did not refute or agree with him as she seriously closed the notebook and said to him, “We can’t let our guard down just because the suspect is a salon girl either. Anything is possible.”

“There’s also a chance that—”

“Chief Rong! Come here for a second!” Liu Xiaofan rushed in.