SFTD -Chapter 272 The Disappearing Evidence (Part 5)

Zhang Chao looked at the utility statement and explained, “I already asked property management just now. Their billing system calculates usage in real time, so the electricity consumption figures for each month are extremely accurate. They’re all live readings.”

Zhou Hai tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Did you investigate the tenant in that unit?”

“We did. We brought them in immediately and verified their whereabouts at the time of the murders, but we didn’t find anything unusual.”

“What about Ji Heping’s younger brother, Ji Jianguo? Did you check his family too?”

Zhang Chao nodded. “Of course. Not only Ji Jianguo, but also the neighbor in Room 202 and every client who had financial dealings with Ji Heping’s family. We screened all of them.”

Zhou Hai said nothing more. He stood and walked toward the master bedroom. Even though they had all examined it again already, he still wanted to see it for himself—to view the scene from the killer’s perspective and determine whether anything had been overlooked.

Xu Biao stretched out a hand to stop Da Liu, signaling him not to speak and simply follow along. The two trailed behind Zhou Hai back into the master bedroom.

Standing at the doorway gave a full view of the room. Outlines marking the victims’ original positions still remained on the bed and in the space between the bed and the window. The master bedroom wasn’t spacious like those in modern apartment complexes; it was merely a square-shaped room. The bathroom was outside and shared. Every piece of furniture was coated in a thick layer of dust.

Zhou Hai walked to the window. Iron security bars covered the outside. It seemed that when Ji Heping first moved into the then-empty residential complex, he had felt uneasy enough to install bars on both the first- and second-floor apartments.

He lowered his gaze to the traces on the floor. Zhu Lixiang had probably been lying with her head toward the foot of the bed. The bed itself had shifted slightly toward the doorway, suggesting she had struggled before death. That meant the bedroom door had likely been shut tightly at the time. If someone had stayed inside the room the entire time without going out much, the disturbance outside probably wouldn’t have affected them too severely.

Just as Zhou Hai reached out to pull the curtains, a AA battery rolled out from beneath them near the head of the bed.

He bent down and picked it up. At the same time, he noticed a black rectangular plastic piece beneath the curtain. It had already been crushed and was tangled in the curtain tassels.

Seeing that Zhou Hai had found something, Xu Biao hurried over and took the battery and plastic fragment, examining them over and over.

Da Liu also leaned in. He had learned his lesson by now. He realized that as long as he stayed humble and followed Zhou Hai around, he could genuinely learn useful things. Gone was his earlier arrogance; now he behaved like an obedient student helping Xu Biao out. As a result, Xu Biao was more willing to talk with him, and Zhou Hai said nothing about it.

Xu Biao frowned in confusion, staring at the black object.

“It looks familiar somehow… like the back cover of something?”

His eyes drifted toward the bedside table, and suddenly widened.

“An electronic clock! Or maybe the battery cover from a calculator—they look just like this. Could this have been dropped by the killer while taking something away?”

Zhou Hai shook his head.

“There wasn’t even a complete fingerprint left at the scene. Would the killer really leave behind something this obvious? I think it was knocked loose when the killer was suddenly attacked. The calculator or electronic watch you mentioned probably wouldn’t have been in this position. If I had to guess, it was likely an alarm clock or a small desk lamp—something easily grabbed from beside the bed.”

Suddenly Xu Biao threw himself onto the floor, almost pressing his face against it while sweeping a high-powered flashlight around every corner of the room. He checked beneath the wardrobe and bedside table as well, but apart from dust, he found nothing.

Da Liu pulled him back up.

Xu Biao spread his hands helplessly and looked at Zhou Hai. “Nothing. Just dust.”

Zhou Hai already knew that. If there had been anything obvious, either the killer or the earlier investigators would have found it long ago. But whatever the object had been, it had to still be somewhere in this room—perhaps simply wedged in some hidden spot.

But where could it be stuck?

He looked again at the tassels beneath the curtains. The plastic fragment had snagged there, and the battery had ended up trapped in the corner. It had been nighttime at the time of the crime, so the curtains must have been closed.

Zhou Hai reached out and drew the curtains shut.

The plastic fragment had fallen from around the second fold in the curtain’s drape, and some black debris still clung to the tassels.

Taking a few steps back, Zhou Hai stared at the closed curtains.

If the plastic piece had fallen there, then perhaps the object itself had been thrown—and may even have struck the killer. As for why nothing remained on the floor, it was likely because the object had ricocheted away into some hidden corner of the room.

Narrowing his eyes, Zhou Hai carefully surveyed the room.

The wardrobe reached all the way to the ceiling. The chest of drawers at the foot of the bed was too far away to trap anything. He turned his attention back toward the head of the bed and gestured behind him.

“A few of you come in. Move the bed diagonally toward me at a forty-five-degree angle—about fifty centimeters.”

Huang Zhongsheng had already been standing at the doorway. He quickly entered with several others, squeezing Xu Biao and Da Liu aside.

Xu Biao looked displeased, but when he saw the massive solid-wood bed, he wisely kept quiet. He didn’t have the strength for that kind of work. Four men took one corner each and heaved the heavy bed fifty centimeters toward Zhou Hai.

Before they had even moved it fully into place, a sharp clack sounded from the headboard area, followed by the metallic jingle of something hitting the floor.

Xu Biao and Da Liu’s eyes lit up instantly as they rushed toward the wall beside the head of the bed.

Sure enough, a golden alarm clock with twin bells had fallen onto the floor. Near the upper crossbar, a faint dark reddish-brown stain could just barely be seen.

The hairs all over Xu Biao’s body stood on end.

From experience alone, he knew that was likely blood.

The most frustrating aspect of this case had been the lack of physical evidence tied to the suspect. If this really was blood, solving the case would become much easier.

Before the others could even set the bed down, Xu Biao stepped directly onto the bed frame and leapt across. For a man weighing over two hundred pounds, the movement somehow looked astonishingly agile.

Captain Huang and the others nearly dropped the bed. The sudden shift in weight almost threw out their backs. Leaning against the headboard, they shot Xu Biao an irritated glare, though their faces still showed eager anticipation—they had heard the noise too.

Xu Biao squeezed into the gap and carefully lifted the alarm clock using a sheet of blue nonwoven fabric as padding. After suffering two heavy impacts, the clock was badly damaged. The glass face was cracked throughout, though still intact, and the two metal bells on top hung precariously loose.

Like someone presenting treasure, Xu Biao carried the clock over to Zhou Hai.

Zhou Hai took out a magnifying glass equipped with an LED light and examined it carefully.

Pointing to the dark reddish-brown stain, Xu Biao said excitedly, “That’s definitely blood. And on the glass face, there’s clearly a fingerprint.”

“Incredible. Looks like the alarm clock just happened to get wedged in the gap between the bedframe and the wall. The killer was in a hurry dealing with Zhu Lixiang and didn’t search carefully enough.”

“Good analysis,” Zhou Hai said. “Package it properly and take it back for testing. Let’s see whose fingerprint is on the alarm clock glass.”

Afterward, Zhou Hai inspected Ji Chenglong’s bedroom and Ji Chengxue’s room near the entrance. They weren’t as lucky there, but in the balcony area of the south-facing living room, they found a large bundle of unused rope.

From behind him, Zhang Chao explained, “We already analyzed the rope. It’s just a common fiber rope bought from a hardware store—cheap stuff. We didn’t find any trace evidence on it either. We figured it was simply leftover rope the killer didn’t use and tossed aside here.”

Zhou Hai didn’t respond.

He merely stared at the rope.

Why had the killer abandoned the prepared rope here?