SFTD -Chapter 172 A Severed Thumb (Part 2)

Whether dismembering a corpse or hacking apart a victim, no killer would normally go through the trouble of stripping away skin and tissue. Setting aside the moral and criminal aspects, that alone was an enormous amount of work. And judging from this piece of tissue, the killer’s technique was extremely clumsy.

A sharp glint flashed through Zhou Hai’s eyes.

Could the killer be deliberately misleading the investigation? Or intentionally provoking the police?

A series of hurried footsteps echoed nearby. Zhou Hai looked up toward the sound and, sure enough, Xu Biao was sprinting over with the investigation kit in hand. For a man weighing over two hundred pounds to move that fast, something major must have happened—or he had found something else.

Zhou Hai quickly sealed the tissue into a bag and tossed it back to Wang Man. Startled, Wang Man nearly dropped it.

“Haizi, look what I found!”

Standing behind Zhou Hai, Chu Menghan rolled her eyes.

“Xu Biao, can you change your opening line for once?”

Xu Biao flashed her a syrupy grin.

“My Haizi’s already used to it. If he ever goes to a crime scene and doesn’t hear my loud voice, that’s when he’ll start worrying.”

“You’re hopeless.”

Chu Menghan couldn’t even be bothered to argue anymore. Still, Xu Biao really did have a good temper. No matter what people said to him, he never seemed to care.

Xu Biao put away his smile, walked up to Zhou Hai, opened the investigation kit, and handed over an evidence bag.

Zhou Hai’s expression froze.

“A severed thumb? And it’s a right thumb!”

Xu Biao nodded.

“Yeah, a thumb. I found it behind those trash bins. Looks like the garbage truck driver stopped too suddenly today and rammed all the bins together. Otherwise, this finger would’ve been lying right out in the open.”

Zhou Hai had already removed the thumb from the bag. Pulling out his magnifying glass with its built-in LED light, he examined it closely.

The thumb was short and thick. The tip section looked as though half of the final knuckle was missing. Both the skin on the back of the finger and the fingerprint itself were rough and coarse, caked with glue and oily grime that had seeped deep into the ridges.

The severed end wasn’t cut at the joint. Instead, it had been chopped off directly at the web between the thumb and index finger.

This cut was far more forceful and decisive than the one used to slice away the scalp earlier.

Could there be two killers?

Zhou Hai frowned deeply before sealing the thumb back into the evidence bag and handing it to Wang Man.

Chu Menghan had already moved closer. Seeing Zhou Hai’s expression made her uneasy. Even during the family annihilation case, he had never looked this grim.

Could it be…

“What’s wrong?”

Zhou Hai fell silent for a moment. He glanced at Wang Man and Xu Biao before finally looking at Chu Menghan.

“You haven’t let the garbage truck leave yet, right?”

Chu Menghan nodded.

“Even if the driver was the one who reported it, I’m not letting anyone leave before the scene search is complete.”

Zhou Hai looked over the search operation. The first carpet-style sweep had clearly yielded little. It was already past seven, and rush hour would begin soon. Once traffic increased, the investigation would become even more difficult.

“I suggest calling in more personnel and sealing off this section of the road. Dump out all the garbage from those dozen bins, as well as everything inside the garbage truck, and inspect it piece by piece. Judging by the contamination on that scalp tissue, it wasn’t casually discarded here. That black grime looks like old waste engine oil or animal grease that’s built up over a long period of time. There’s no place nearby that would produce something like that.”

As Zhou Hai spoke, Chu Menghan’s expression grew colder and colder. If the remains really had been transported here along with the garbage truck, then the case would become almost impossible to trace.

Chu Menghan patted Wang Man on the shoulder.

“Do exactly as Forensic Doctor Zhou said. Gather more manpower, coordinate with traffic police to seal off this road, and have everyone start checking the garbage.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Without a single complaint, Wang Man turned and left. Xu Biao immediately grabbed him and shoved the investigation kit into his hands.

“Come on, Vice Captain Wang, carry this for me. I’m joining the search too. I’ll photograph and document everything as we go—it’ll speed things up.”

As he spoke, two more people approached from the distance. Xu Biao waved at them.

“Fengzi, Xiao Liang, did you guys ride turtles here or something? Hurry up, we’ve got garbage to dig through!”

Xiao Liang didn’t care. His resistance to bad smells was legendary. But Fengzi’s cheeks twitched violently.

“Seriously?! Digging through trash during the New Year holiday?!”

Xu Biao shot him a look.

“If you’ve got guts, then don’t come!”

That said, Fengzi glanced toward Chu Menghan and Zhou Hai standing at the bridgehead. Shrinking his neck, he obediently followed Xu Biao over.

Chu Menghan didn’t move immediately. Instead, she looked at Zhou Hai thoughtfully.

“You held something back just now, didn’t you?”

Zhou Hai hadn’t expected this. Chu Menghan had always seemed careless and straightforward, yet now she was showing remarkable attention to detail.

“Although we haven’t done DNA testing yet, based on my experience, the scalp tissue and the thumb do not belong to the same person. The killer who sliced away the scalp acted hesitantly and nervously. The cuts are uneven and repetitive in many places. But the killer who chopped off the thumb was decisive. One clean strike. Even though it wasn’t cut at the joint, the severed surface is very neat overall.”

Chu Menghan froze, carefully considering his words.

“You mean there are currently two victims… and possibly two killers as well?”

Zhou Hai let out a long breath, trying to calm the tremor in his eyes caused by tension.

“There’s one more thing. The victim was still alive when the thumb was cut off. The skin flap at the severed end has curled inward, which shows a vital reaction. The blood vessels are also contracted. But the scalp tissue showed no vital reaction at all. The wound edges were fully stretched open with no bleeding. The victim was already dead when the killer removed the scalp.”

Chu Menghan was stunned. From nothing more than a thumb and a strip of scalp, Zhou Hai had deduced this much.

But since he hadn’t said any of it in front of the others, he clearly had his reasons.

She took out her notebook and carefully recorded every detail of his analysis.

“I’m going to check on the search.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Zhou Hai picked up the kit and followed Chu Menghan toward the street.

No—at this point, it was more accurate to call it a field of garbage.

More than a dozen piles of trash lay scattered across the roadway. Police officers wearing masks and gloves had all joined the search, carefully sifting through every piece of garbage.

Fengzi and Xiao Liang had also joined the search team, occasionally reminding nearby officers what kinds of items to look for and what counted as suspicious evidence.

Today was March 2nd, the twelfth day of the first lunar month. Since the Lantern Festival hadn’t arrived yet, many shops in Southeast City still hadn’t reopened for business. As the old saying went, “the New Year lasts through the first month,” so the volume of garbage was enormous.

Xu Biao and Wang Man directed the garbage truck to the middle of the road and slowly dumped out the trash. At Wang Man’s signal, the truck would move forward a little before dumping again. By the fifth pile, the truck was nearly empty.

Even in winter, the overwhelming stench of rot pierced straight through their masks. Many officers would search for a few moments before turning away to retch violently. Rats darted wildly through the heaps of trash.

Zhou Hai’s gaze never left the garbage. Though he wasn’t personally digging through it, he carefully observed every pile.

Time passed minute by minute.

Then, when they reached the fifth pile dumped from the garbage truck, an oily black plastic bag instantly caught Zhou Hai’s attention.