SFTD -Chapter 177 A Severed Thumb (Part 7)

Awakened by the alarm, Zhou Hai shook his sore neck, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and put on his glasses.

Looking up at the clock, he saw the hands already pointing to five in the morning. He quickly got up and headed for the autopsy room. The thumb from Victim B was still soaking in Luffier solution. By this point, the fingerprint elasticity should have recovered.

Pushing open the door to Autopsy Room No. 1, Zhou Hai fumbled along the wall for quite a while without finding the light switch. In the end, he turned on his phone flashlight and walked toward the microscope station. There was a switch there that could directly turn on all the south-side lights.

Just as Zhou Hai approached the microscope station, a faint fluorescent glimmer flashed.

Thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him, Zhou Hai raised his phone and shined the light toward where he had just seen the glow. After carefully looking around, he found nothing unusual—only the finger soaking in the Luffier solution.

But the moment he thought about the finger, Zhou Hai’s hand reaching for the switch paused.

He lowered the phone behind his back and carefully examined the workstation again. Sure enough, there was a faint fluorescent glow inside the beaker of Luffier solution.

Rotating the beaker slightly, the glow became even more obvious, and the source of the light finally came into view.

Something fluorescent had been lodged beneath Victim B’s fingernail.

At this angle, it was completely visible—a crescent-shaped fluorescent mark stood out clearly.

Zhou Hai immediately turned around and switched on the outer lights of the room before removing the finger from the solution.

Dragging over the large magnifying lamp arm, he used tweezers to carefully pick out the grime and impurities from beneath the nail bit by bit. Perhaps because of the soaking, the material had softened considerably, and along with it, part of the dead skin was pulled out in one piece.

Zhou Hai placed the material onto a microscope slide and switched on the high-powered microscope. Only then did he finally see the true nature of the substance.

It appeared to be a kind of paint coating.

It had completely seeped into the crevice beneath the victim’s nail and fused together with all the grime and debris, which meant it must have entered while still in liquid form.

So what kind of work did the victim do that required contact with fluorescent paint?

And frequent welding as well?

The door creaked open.

Zhou Hai lifted his head from the microscope to see Xiao Liang emerging from the changing room, his hair sticking straight upward in every direction. Holding up his phone, he looked toward Zhou Hai.

“Brother Hai? Damn, you scared me to death. I thought something supernatural was happening.”

Zhou Hai looked puzzled. Seeing the surgical gown on him and the slippers on his bare feet, he frowned.

“You didn’t go home last night?”

Still half-asleep, Xiao Liang scratched his hair.

“At first I was helping Brother Xu review surveillance footage. Later I got too sleepy, so I crashed in the changing room for a while.”

Zhou Hai packed the paint mixture from the slide into a small box and wrote the required testing items on it with an oil-based marker before handing the box to Xiao Liang.

“Chu Menghan left someone here. Have him drive you to Dr. Nan Wudao’s lab. I want to know where this kind of fluorescent paint is commonly used. And tell Dr. Nan that the victim had two welding burns on his hands. He probably worked in a related industry.”

Xiao Liang froze, his face turning miserable.

“Ah? At this hour? Will Dr. Nan and the others even be there?”

“They will. Chief Liu already informed them, and Dr. Nan arranged for people to stay on standby. Leave now and I’ll call him immediately. That way we won’t waste time. Go!”

Hearing the arrangement, Xiao Liang stopped complaining. Taking the box, he rushed into the changing room, threw on a coat, and dashed out.

Zhou Hai picked up Victim B’s finger and examined it. The oily grime seemed to have softened. Using a soft cleaning brush, he carefully scrubbed along the fingerprint ridges.

After several rounds of cleaning, most of the thick grease was removed. Zhou Hai lifted the fingerprints and uploaded them into the database for comparison.

Second by second, time passed.

The search and matching process continued.

The door opened again, and Xu Biao sauntered in, handing Zhou Hai a cup of coffee.

Looking at the comparison window on the monitor, he rolled his neck.

“This person’s fingerprints are badly worn down. Even after cleaning them, matching won’t be easy.”

As he spoke, Zhou Hai took a sip of coffee. The rich aroma instantly cleared his mind.

At that moment, a ding sounded.

The monitor froze.

The two hurried over to the screen. A fingerprint match with a similarity rate as high as 72% had been found.

Xu Biao quickly pulled up the information. Looking at the fingerprint stored in the household registration records, realization dawned on him.

“When this fingerprint was originally recorded for household registration, this finger must’ve just healed from an injury. There was a scab right here, so the center point is slightly different from how it looks now.”

While talking, Xu Biao had already opened the identity information.

Wang Yanming
Male
Born in 1953, 52 years old
Widowed

Address: No. 133, Wanjiatuan Village, Xiguozhuang Town, Changhe District, Southeast City

There were four people listed in the household registration booklet. The head of household was Wang Yanming’s father. There was also Wang Yanming’s younger brother Wang Yanzhi and sister-in-law Wang Yuling. Wang Yanming’s relationship to the head of household was listed as “second son.”

Zhou Hai had already taken out his phone, photographed the page, and sent it to Chu Menghan through WeChat.

Just after sending it, his phone rang.

The caller was Chu Menghan.

“Victim B’s fingerprints matched?”

“Yeah. This is the information the search returned. Do you know the location?”

Faced with Zhou Hai’s doubt, Chu Menghan’s voice rose several degrees.

“You think I don’t know my own jurisdiction? It’s just that this registered address is really far away—almost at Mocheng City already. I’m heading there right now.”

“Also, I found fluorescent paint beneath the victim’s fingernail. It’s already been sent to Dr. Nan Wudao. Combined with the welding burns, I think he’ll be able to narrow down the industry. I’ll contact you once there’s news.”

The vehicle drove into Wanjiatuan Village in Guozhuang Town.

The local police officer who had been waiting at the village entrance had already stepped out of his car. As soon as the vehicle stopped, Chu Menghan quickly jumped out as well.

“No need for formalities. Do you know Wang Yanming?”

An older police officer nodded.

“Yes. He’s Wang Yuchuan’s second son.”

Chu Menghan’s heart leapt with joy.

“Does he live in the village?”

The man shook his head.

“He comes back during holidays and festivals. Usually he lives in the city.”

Chu Menghan waved her hand.

“Take me to his house.”

The officer naturally had no objections. They drove further into the village and soon arrived at the Wang residence.

The entire village had clearly undergone redevelopment and planning. Uniform courtyard walls, fences, drainage systems, and greenery lined the front of every house. Everything looked neat and spacious, completely lacking the run-down appearance of a rural village.

Stepping out again, Chu Menghan looked at the tightly shut courtyard gate and signaled to the local officer with her eyes.

Understanding immediately, the officer stepped forward and knocked on the door.

After knocking for quite a while, someone finally answered.

A woman came out to open the door. Seeing so many police officers, she was so frightened that she couldn’t speak for a long moment.

“Y-you…

“You…”

The local officer walked over.

“Ma’am, don’t be nervous. We’re just here to verify someone’s household registration. Does Wang Yanming live here?”

The woman nodded.

“Yes. That’s my second brother-in-law. But he usually doesn’t come back to the village.”

Chu Menghan narrowed her eyes.

“If he doesn’t come home, then where does he usually stay? Does he own another house somewhere else?”