SFTD -Chapter 174 A Severed Thumb (Part 4)

Xu Biao tried hard to widen his tiny eyes. “What do you mean? You’re making your own people do this?”

Chu Menghan didn’t answer directly. She glanced at the six remaining locations, then at Zhou Hai.

“I’ll split into two groups with Vice Captain Wang. You divide yourselves as well and follow us. Time is critical now.”

Zhou Hai naturally had no objections. “Alright. Fengzi and Xiao Liang will go with Vice Captain Wang. Xu Biao and I will follow Captain Chu.”

“Move out!”

The driver was also taken into the police car. A convoy of siren-blaring police vehicles sped away from the scene. As the officers dispersed, only a few workers remained to clean up the garbage. The crowd watching from across the river gradually lost interest and left as well.

Once inside the car, Chu Menghan stared at the list of locations and hesitated. “Should we start with the nearest one?”

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Hai replied, “The plastic bag fell from the innermost part of the garbage truck, which means it was thrown in first and ended up at the bottom. Instead of starting nearby, we should begin at the very first dumping site. Fengzi’s group can start from the closest point and work inward from the opposite direction.”

Chu Menghan instructed the driver to turn around and head toward the farthest location. At the same time, Xu Biao called Fengzi to inform him.

Thirty minutes later, they arrived at the Zoujiawa garbage collection point. This place sat at the border between Changhe District and Mocheng, an urban-rural fringe area. However, due to the campaign to create a nationally certified sanitary city, the environment looked surprisingly clean.

The garbage station was designed like a small wooden cabin made from log-colored fencing panels, surrounded by green landscaping. It actually looked rather stylish.

After everyone got out of the car, Zhou Hai stopped Chu Menghan.

“Let Xu Biao check first.”

Carrying his equipment case, Xu Biao walked forward and raised an eyebrow at Chu Menghan.

“Let me sweep the area first.”

The lighting inside the garbage station was dim, perfect for trace evidence inspection.

Wearing protective goggles, Xu Biao sprayed reagent over the handles of more than a dozen garbage bin lids. When he reached the innermost bin, a faint fluorescent glow suddenly appeared. He immediately shined the ultraviolet light closer.

“Haizi, found it! You should go buy a lottery ticket. You randomly picked one location and actually found a clue. There’s human blood on this garbage bin.”

Zhou Hai had no time to argue. He quickly walked over. Sure enough, faint thread-like fluorescent traces could be seen on the handle. On the inner side of the lid was a droplet of blood.

“Collect samples.”

Xu Biao collected the samples and searched the garbage station once more, but no additional traces were discovered.

Chu Menghan anxiously stepped closer. “How is it?”

Xu Biao packed away the samples and stood up with the equipment case.

“We haven’t done DNA comparison yet, but it can already be identified as human blood. The concentration is similar to the diluted blood found on the outside of that black plastic bag.”

“Diluted blood?”

Zhou Hai pressed his lips together tightly. “The killer cleaned himself thoroughly, but those flesh strips had been refrigerated. During the dumping process, they partially thawed, causing diluted bloody water to drip out.”

Xu Biao nodded. “That’s what I think too. When I examined the flesh strips earlier, I noticed the muscle tissue was somewhat stiff. The temperature before dawn wasn’t low enough to freeze them naturally, so there’s only one possibility—they had been frozen beforehand.”

“Let’s go. Next location.”

Xu Biao froze for a moment. They had already found blood traces, yet they still needed to continue searching?

Still, he didn’t object. If Zhou Hai made that decision, there had to be a reason behind it.

Carrying the case, he got back into the car.

By noon, both groups had investigated all seven garbage collection sites. After regrouping, they returned to the center.

The moment Chu Menghan stepped out of the car, her phone rang.

“What the hell are you doing? I called several times and you didn’t answer! Why wasn’t the dismemberment case reported? I only heard about it from the command center! What exactly are you trying to pull?!”

Chu Menghan hurriedly turned off the speakerphone. “Chief, stop yelling. The situation was urgent, so I didn’t have time to report immediately. Wasn’t I just about to call you now? Here’s what happened…”

She explained the entire situation in detail before Chief Liu finally suppressed his anger somewhat.

“You damn girl, stop acting on your own! Photos from the scene are already spreading on WeChat. People are saying things like ‘police digging through trash during New Year’ and ‘major theft case.’ The mayor’s office already called to ask about it. Secretary Zhao and Director Song are both in a difficult position now. Stay put at the center and wait for me. I’ll be there immediately!”

Click.

The call ended.

Chu Menghan curled her lips helplessly and quickly pushed open the doors to the center building. She turned into Autopsy Room No. 1 on the first floor and saw the four men already wearing short-sleeved surgical uniforms, though they hadn’t changed into isolation gowns.

She paused in confusion. Were they still planning an autopsy?

“You guys are…”

Xu Biao waved her over. “No autopsy today. We’re just organizing all the information together.”

Following the direction Xu Biao pointed, Chu Menghan saw the glass whiteboard behind Zhou Hai. Two human body outlines had already been drawn on it.

“Did Sister Zeng say when the results will be ready?”

Xiao Liang adjusted his glasses. “Oh, I asked just now. About one more hour. The DNA results for all eight samples will be done then.”

Zhou Hai nodded and looked around at everyone.

“Since everyone’s here, let’s begin. Fengzi and Xiao Liang, determine the exact anatomical locations of the muscle tissues according to muscle fiber direction. Xu Biao, take an X-ray of the right thumb.”

As Zhou Hai issued instructions, everyone got moving.

The isolated piece of scalp was easy to identify—it was a section of flesh extending from behind the right ear down to the neck. Standing before the whiteboard, Zhou Hai marked the corresponding location on the human figure drawn on the left.

Chu Menghan gradually understood what they were doing.

It was like assembling a puzzle—placing all the recovered body parts onto the diagram, then analyzing the known characteristics of the victim.

After finishing the marking, Zhou Hai returned to the autopsy table and carefully examined the scalp tissue.

The scalp still had about an inch of short hair attached, along with neck skin. Even the neck skin was fair and smooth, without moles, warts, or other distinguishing marks.

The cuts on the inner side were extremely uneven, with pauses and repeated slicing damage. The black grease stains on the wound surface had already been cleaned away, but even without laboratory analysis, it was obvious the grease resembled the residue found on the black plastic bag.

Seeing Zhou Hai lost in thought, Chu Menghan grew anxious and finally urged him from behind.

“Zhou Hai, what’s wrong?”

Knowing she was worried, Zhou Hai did not hide his thoughts.

“I was just thinking… the human scalp actually has three structural layers, but they’re tightly connected and almost function as one. Normally, when sudden force strips away the scalp, it separates directly along the galea aponeurotica layer. It’s similar to industrial accidents where female workers get their long hair caught in machinery, causing scalp avulsion injuries. But this scalp was removed in a very peculiar way. These uneven marks indicate the blade was extremely sharp. At first, I thought the repeated cuts were caused by hesitation and repeated attempts, but now it doesn’t seem that way. It feels more like the killer deliberately wanted to prolong the cutting process.”

Chu Menghan narrowed her eyes. “You mean prolong the victim’s suffering?”

“No,” Zhou Hai replied. “I already said the victim was dead when this piece of scalp was removed.”

Chu Menghan remembered that Zhou Hai had indeed said at the crime scene that the scalp showed no vital reaction.

“Then what was the killer trying to do?”