SFTD -Chapter 136 A Drop of Blood (Part 1)

Thirty minutes later, Zhou Hai, who had fled in embarrassment, had already arrived at Mocheng People’s Hospital.

Although Mocheng was only a prefecture-level city, its Public Security Bureau did not have a dedicated autopsy room. They had been borrowing the autopsy laboratory at Mocheng People’s Hospital all along.

Of course, there was no full-time forensic pathologist either. They simply asked whichever outpatient doctor happened to be on duty to take a look. In that regard, forensic work had always been Mocheng’s weak point.

A young police officer led Zhou Hai to a small, independent building. Before they even got close, they saw Zhao Xinli already standing at the entrance, craning his neck in anticipation. When he spotted Zhou Hai from a distance, he ran over with a smile.

“Dr. Zhou, you’re here!”

“Mm. What’s the situation?”

“I was sent here by Director Pang yesterday. At first glance, this case looked like a home invasion robbery. I went to the scene, but it had already been severely contaminated by nearby residents rushing in. Footprints were all over the place—completely chaotic.”

“But there are many strange injuries on the victim’s body. It looks like he may have been coerced. The family refuses to allow an autopsy. I only examined the external body and couldn’t make a determination, so I asked the command center for support. I didn’t expect you to be here.”

As they spoke, they had already reached the second floor. A thunderous wailing made Zhou Hai frown.

A stout old woman was sitting cross-legged on the ground, howling without tears, slapping the floor while muttering something. Beside her, a middle-aged woman tried to help her up, only to be shoved to the ground.

“My son… how am I supposed to live without you…”

Seeing Zhao Xinli bringing Zhou Hai up, she suddenly scrambled to her feet and rushed over, grabbing Zhao Xinli’s police collar.

“I’m telling you—if you don’t leave my son’s body intact, I’ll sit in front of the city government! I’ll go to Beijing and file a complaint!”

“I’ve lived long enough anyway. My life is worthless. You damned killers—you won’t even let my son be reborn properly!”

“Where is justice?! You’re just hoping my son would die, aren’t you?!”

The old woman became more and more agitated. She kicked away the middle-aged woman beside her and spat, clawing at Zhao Xinli several times. Several local officers nearby finally managed to restrain her, and one of them even got bitten.

This kind of victim’s family reaction was something Zhou Hai had never encountered before. It took four officers to finally drag the old woman away. The thin middle-aged woman kept bowing repeatedly to apologize to everyone.

Zhou Hai glanced at Zhao Xinli.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Zhao Xinli said. “I suddenly feel that if marrying means ending up with a wife like that, I’d rather not get married at all.”

He straightened his disheveled clothes and adjusted his epaulettes. Zhou Hai pointed at his head.

“You’ve been scratched. You need disinfection.”

Zhao Xinli’s face fell instantly. He touched his forehead and indeed felt blood—and a handful of hair came off with it. His already thinning hair made the sight especially painful.

“Ah! My hair! At least two hundred strands gone!”

“……”

A local officer quickly ran upstairs, and upon seeing Zhao Xinli’s condition, looked full of apology.

“Sorry about that, Dr. Zhao!”

Zhao Xinli waved his hand. “It’s fine, Chief Xu. This is Dr. Zhou from our center. I asked him to come take a look and help me make a judgment.”

Chief Xu shook hands with Zhou Hai.

“Thank you for coming and causing you trouble.”

Zhou Hai shook his head. “Let’s go. Let’s see the body.”

He glanced at the middle-aged woman again. She stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do. After the old woman was taken away, she seemed even more anxious about the body in the morgue, standing silently at the door with tears streaming down her face.

Zhou Hai said nothing and followed them into the autopsy room.

The place looked like an old teaching laboratory. The dissection table was a cement platform tiled with porcelain, with a drain pipe underneath.

The body had already been placed on the table. The victim’s clothes and restraints were placed on a stainless-steel trolley beside it.

Zhou Hai put on gloves and stepped forward to examine the body. The clothing was very old; the cotton jacket had faded beyond recognition and was so worn it looked glossy, as if coated in glue. It lay stiffly on the trolley.

He pinched it. One sleeve and the collar were hardened and clumped together. Turning it over, the back of the jacket was still soft, but there appeared to be a layer of white powder on it. It seemed the blood stains were limited to the front of the body.

“Has this powder been tested?”

“It’s been collected, but results aren’t back yet.”

“The victim’s identity has been confirmed, right?”

Chief Xu quickly opened a notebook.

“The deceased is Zheng Hongtao, 44 years old, a villager from Suntan Village.”

“He ran a pig farm with a man named Zhang Jian. They lost money in the first couple of years, but business had just started improving recently and they were planning to expand.”

“On the night of February 1st, his wife went into the city for medical treatment with his mother-in-law—the same old woman who was causing trouble earlier. When they returned, they found the courtyard gate locked. No matter how they knocked or banged, no one answered, and his phone was off.”

“They borrowed a ladder from a neighbor to climb over the wall. Once inside, they found Zheng Hongtao lying on the ground with ropes scattered around him.”

“The house was in complete disarray—cupboards overturned, clothes everywhere. The mattress hiding money had been torn open. The 400,000 yuan prepared for contract payments was gone.”

“The neighbor called the police. By the time we arrived, the scene had already been heavily contaminated. There were bloody footprints all over the floor.”

“All the cabinets had been searched again by people who entered the scene, but the victim himself had not been moved.”

Zhou Hai said nothing and walked toward the autopsy table.

Because of blood loss, postmortem lividity was not very pronounced, but it could still be seen on the back and inner arms. Other areas were faint.

There was conjunctival congestion and scattered petechial hemorrhages on the face. Zhou Hai frowned slightly.

Petechiae in a death by blood loss?

There were small cuts on the neck—multiple wounds—but none severed the carotid artery. On the clavicle and right upper arm were seven or eight puncture wounds. All wounds showed vertical blood flow downward without lateral smearing.

The weapon appeared to be a single-edged blade less than 4 cm wide. He probed the wound with a rounded probe, and the internal wound formed a clear triangular tip.

There were also several small head injuries, likely caused by the handle of a knife striking the skull. The cheeks were swollen with fingerprint and palm impressions. Zhou Hai gestured, and Zhao Xinli quickly came over, photographing the marks.

The fingerprints were slightly shorter and thicker than Zhou Hai’s fingers; the palm print was smaller than his hand.

Under the scalp there was a hematoma about the size of a fist. There were also two hematomas at the back of the head. White powder similar to that on the jacket was stuck in the hair—could it be lime from a wall?

The body was in full rigor mortis, completely fixed in posture. Arms naturally hanging down, hands slightly raised above the abdomen, palms curled backward. The head was tilted forward, forming a fold under the chin, partially hidden by injuries.

Zhou Hai parted the fold. He hadn’t noticed it earlier, but from this angle the skin seemed slightly red.

Zhao Xinli helped break the neck rigor mortis so the head could be tilted back. A nearly ten-centimeter dark red mark appeared before them. Zhao Xinli leaned in to examine it.

“Doesn’t look like a ligature mark. The color is too faint, and there’s no rope pattern.”

Zhou Hai glanced at him.

“It was caused by a long, thin, hard object pressing against it. Only an autopsy can determine whether it was a fatal injury—whether death was due to hypoxic asphyxia or hemorrhagic shock.”

But as he spoke, Zhou Hai seemed to notice something at the wound site. He quickly took out a magnifying glass and leaned in close to the victim’s neck.

A tiny wooden splinter appeared before his eyes.

“I think I know what caused this neck condition.”

Chief Xu asked eagerly, “What is it?”