SFTD -Chapter 18 The Faceless Female Corpse (Part 10)

Captain Wang paused for a long moment.

“Dr. Zhou, are you certain?”

“Yes, I’m certain. The white B-shaped piece of leather clutched in Ma Keke’s hand when she died was a decoration from Wang Yu’s shoe. And Wang Yu’s DNA was found both on the shoelace and beneath Ma Keke’s fingernails. The evidence is conclusive. The only issue is that Zhong Yishan’s autopsy results are still lacking some details. I’ll photograph the report and send it to you shortly.”

Hearing Zhou Hai say this, Captain Wang’s confidence immediately surged.

“Good. I’ll go arrest her right now.”

Zhou Hai narrowed his eyes.

“Bring her in as soon as possible. I suspect she may commit suicide.”

After hanging up, Xu Biao stared at Zhou Hai in shock.

“Why would you say Wang Yu’s going to kill herself?”

Instead of answering, Zhou Hai looked at Xu Biao and Xiao Liang and asked in return:

“At Zhong Yishan’s crime scene, almost no clues were left behind. It could practically be called a perfect murder scene. But at Ma Keke’s scene, there were so many mistakes. Why do you think that is?”

“When Ma Keke was killed, the security guard passed through the woods and startled the killer. Naturally, there wasn’t enough time to clean up the scene.”

Zhou Hai shook his head.

“That’s only part of it. When the killer murdered Zhong Yishan, she used a knife, chose an isolated beach as the murder site, wore gloves, and even had wild dogs destroy the scene. But when she killed Ma Keke, she used a shoelace. The murder happened on school grounds. She wore no gloves, and although she prepared dry grass, firewood, and a lighter, she never got the chance to burn the body. Taken together, this shows that Ma Keke’s murder was impulsive — a crime of passion. Now think about it. What would a meticulous killer like this do after realizing her crimes are about to be exposed?”

Xu Biao stroked his chin seriously.

“If it were me, I’d find the person I like and do all the things I never dared to do before.”

Liang Honggang frowned.

“Brother Hai, you mean she already knows she’s been exposed, so she wants to commit suicide? That’s way too extreme.”

“For ordinary people, yes, it’s extreme. But for someone who has already perfectly murdered two people, nothing is impossible. Let’s go.”

The other two could barely keep up with Zhou Hai’s constantly shifting train of thought.

“Go where?”

“The case involving Zhong Yishan still lacks evidence. Let the others handle the arrest. We’re doing a second autopsy on Zhong Yishan. I already told them last night to thaw the body.”

The expressions on Xu Biao and Xiao Liang’s faces slowly froze.

“Huh?! We have to do it again?”

The three went downstairs.

Autopsy Room No. 2 had already been prepared, and Zhong Yishan’s body was completely thawed.

The previously faint livor mortis on her body had become much clearer, with most of it concentrated on the right side of the corpse.

During the first autopsy, Zhou Hai had not dissected the back.

At the time, the victim’s internal organs had already been almost completely exposed.

But this time, Zhou Hai decided to begin from the back.

The three geared up fully and stood on either side of the autopsy table, working together to turn the body over.

The moment the corpse was completely flipped over, Xu Biao sucked in a sharp breath and pointed at a pale circular mark on the victim’s back.

“How did this mark appear? It wasn’t there last time!”

Xiao Liang leaned closer. Since the body was now lying face down on the autopsy table, it looked far less terrifying.

“A frozen corpse often shows marks much more clearly after thawing than during the initial autopsy. The freezing and thawing process accelerates decomposition. That’s why a second autopsy may reveal details we couldn’t see before.”

As he spoke, Zhou Hai used a cotton swab to repeatedly wipe the skin around the circular mark. He only stopped after using three swabs.

“Do you know what kind of mark this is?”

Zhou Hai glanced at Xiao Liang, who shook his head.

“Zhong Yishan’s skull showed no mechanical trauma. There were no signs of neck compression, and no drug residue was found in the blood. The only injuries were abrasions on her palms and knees. So how was the killer able to restrain her? It must have been a surprise attack from behind that knocked her to the ground. Perhaps the killer used an inhaled anesthetic to render her unconscious before binding her hands. During the process, to prevent her from waking up or struggling, the killer likely pressed a knee against Zhong Yishan’s back. After all, Zhong Yishan hadn’t eaten for an entire day, so physically she would’ve been weaker than the killer. Now let’s pray the killer was wearing a skirt or shorts. Xiao Liang, send this for testing.”

Holding the vial containing the swabs, Xiao Liang jogged off to deliver them.

Zhou Hai cut into the marked area and, as expected, found slight subcutaneous hemorrhaging, confirming his theory.

This was an ante-mortem injury.

After conducting another full examination and finding no additional valuable clues, Xu Biao helped Zhou Hai turn the corpse back over.

Zhou Hai peeled apart the remaining tissue around the victim’s lips and carefully examined it with a magnifying glass.

Back when they had inspected the victim’s molars, they had checked the oral cavity before, but Zhou Hai felt the examination hadn’t been thorough enough. This time, he inspected nearly every tooth one by one.

Suddenly, he stopped and shouted: “Forceps!”

Xu Biao handed him a pair.

Deep within the folds of Zhong Yishan’s upper palate, Zhou Hai found a strand of hair wrapped in dried blood.

Moments later, he carefully pulled the hair free from the clot. A smile of excitement spread across his face.

“It actually has the follicle attached.”

Xiao Liang walked back in with both hands raised. Seeing the evidence bag in Xu Biao’s hand and the expression on Zhou Hai’s face, he shrugged.

“Looks like I’ll be making another trip to the lab.”

June 25th, 1:40 PM

After finishing the second autopsy, the three grabbed a quick bite in the cafeteria.

At that moment, both Zhou Hai’s and Xiao Liang’s phones rang simultaneously.

Xiao Liang glanced at the number — it was the pathology department’s landline — and immediately rushed out excitedly.

Meanwhile, Zhou Hai’s phone showed Captain Wang calling. He quickly answered.

“Dr. Zhou, we caught Wang Yu. Come over.”

“Alright!”

Zhou Hai grabbed the stack of printed color photographs and his police uniform jacket from the table.

“Let’s go!”

The two left the office, and Xiao Liang soon came sprinting down from the second floor, clutching a pile of reports as he hurried after them.

Before long, the three arrived at the West District Criminal Investigation Unit and headed upstairs to the conference room on the second floor.

The moment they entered, Zhou Hai nodded at Captain Liu before even taking his seat.

Captain Wang strode in quickly and warmly shook Zhou Hai’s hand.

“The investigators staking out the school received my call and immediately went to find the homeroom teacher of Class 9, Grade 11. But Wang Yu had called in sick this morning, saying she was going to an outpatient clinic for an IV drip. So I had people search the clinics around the school. We finally found her just now at a pharmacy north of No. 1 High School. When we arrested her, Wang Yu and her mother were buying medicine.”

Zhou Hai let out a long breath. It was good that they had found her.

Wang Yu’s psychology had already become extremely twisted. If she didn’t kill others, she might kill herself.

“Has the technical team unlocked Zhong Yishan’s computer yet?”

“I was just about to tell you — they cracked it already. They recovered some QQ chat logs that had synced with her phone. The five of them were all in the same QQ group. Ma Keke once suggested going to the beach on Sunday to take photos, but the boys all had plans and couldn’t go.”

Xu Biao moved closer to them.

“Did they check Ma Keke’s QQ records?”

At the same time, Zhou Hai asked: “Was it Ma Keke who invited Zhong Yishan out?”