SFTD -Chapter 3 The Man in the Bathtub (Part 3)

In the silent night, even the faintest sound seemed amplified, making the entire compound feel even more eerie.

A flash of headlights appeared, followed by the sound of brakes coming from the central courtyard.

A moment later, several staff members pushed the victim’s body into the autopsy room on a transport cart.

The moment the body bag was opened, the victim’s arms sprang outward.

Xu Biao jumped in fright, holding a camera in one hand while clutching the back of Zhou Hai’s shirt with the other.

“Mother of— why are his hands still propped up like that?”

Zhou Hai said nothing. Together with Liang Honggang, he removed the body bag and pulled off the victim’s pajama pants.

Because of the hot weather and the fact that the victim had remained submerged in the bathtub, the abdomen had already begun turning yellow-green.

Fortunately, the bathtub had been filled with cold water. Otherwise, determining the time of death would have become extremely difficult.

The victim wore only a pair of black silk pajama pants—no underwear, no socks.

Dressed like this, he had clearly either been preparing for bed or was already resting. That meant the only person who could have entered the room was someone extremely close to him.

Zhou Hai glanced at the clock. The hands pointed exactly to 4:15.

By the time the autopsy was done, the samples could be sent for pathological analysis.

Zhou Hai carefully examined the exterior of the corpse.

“Rigor mortis has reached its peak. Livor mortis is fully concentrated on the buttocks and back, indicating the body was never moved after death.

Estimated time of death: around twenty-four hours ago.

Other than the stab wound to the chest, there are no external injuries. The chest wound is suspected to be the sole fatal injury.”

As he spoke, Zhou Hai inserted a blunt probe into the wound.

He followed the wound tract inward, then withdrew it and measured the depth. The wound was nearly ten centimeters deep.

“There was no hesitation in this stab. The blade went directly between the third and fourth ribs and pierced the heart.

It rapidly caused cardiac tamponade, so death was instantaneous.

However, the victim has absolutely no defensive wounds, which is puzzling.”

Zhou Hai picked up the scalpel and made a straight incision from the jaw down through the chest and abdomen.

The victim clearly cared about maintaining his physique. His fat layer was extremely thin, and the chest wall wasn’t thick either.

After removing the organs using the en masse technique, Zhou Hai separated the heart and placed it on a tray beside him.

Xu Biao immediately bent down to take photos, and Zhou Hai exposed the pierced area of the heart for him.

“The murder weapon was likely a single-edged knife about 1.8 centimeters wide and eight to ten centimeters long.

The blade was extremely thin—less than 0.1 centimeters thick.”

The two others fell into thought. They simply couldn’t imagine what kind of knife matched that description.

Zhou Hai continued explaining to Xu Biao and Liang Honggang.

“The heart is surrounded by a very tough protective membrane called the pericardium.

This stab pierced both atria directly.

Once the atrium is pierced, blood pours out.

But it doesn’t spurt. It still flows into the pericardium, causing tamponade. That’s why the victim died from cardiac tamponade.

Only when an artery is pierced does blood gush out rapidly under arterial pressure, leading to hemorrhagic shock.”

Xu Biao’s lips trembled.

“Sounds like he died horribly.”

Zhou Hai looked up at him.

“How do you know he died horribly?”

Xu Biao shook his head.

“I don’t want to know.

I just don’t get it. Getting stabbed has to hurt like hell.

Didn’t he scream, struggle, fight back?”

For once, Zhou Hai smiled faintly.

“Good question.

Xiao Liang, draw heart blood for testing. I suspect the victim had taken drugs before he was killed.

That would explain why he had no ability to resist and even cooperated with the killer.

Otherwise, at 186 centimeters tall and nearly 80 kilograms, he’s not someone an average woman could kill.”

Xu Biao became excited instantly. His already small eyes widened dramatically, and his voice shot up several octaves.

“A woman?

You know the killer’s a woman?”

Zhou Hai shook his head.

“I suspect it.

When the body was lifted from the bathtub, I found two long hairs in the water and brought them back as evidence.

We’ll send them for testing later. The owner of the hair is either his sexual partner, the killer, or someone the killer wants us to suspect.”

Still, finding two strands of hair in a room that had been cleaned so thoroughly gave Zhou Hai a bad feeling.

Without pausing his work, Zhou Hai cut open the trachea and lungs. There was no drowning fluid, proving the victim had not drowned.

The hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage showed no damage either, further confirming Zhou Hai’s earlier deductions.

He continued by opening the esophagus and stomach. The cardia and pylorus were normally closed, and no drowning fluid was found.

Inside the stomach were partially digested green vegetables and orange-red particles.

Zhou Hai picked them up one by one and examined them under a magnifying glass, leaning close with his right eye.

“For dinner, he ate broccoli, shrimp, and carrots.

Xiao Liang, collect these fluids. If my guess is correct, there should also be red wine present. Run a toxicology test too.

Later, ask Captain Huang whether there are food delivery records on the victim’s phone.

The victim’s final meal was likely a seafood set meal from a high-end hotel.

Judging from the digestion level of the stomach contents, the victim died within an hour after eating. In other words, he died shortly after dinner.

That romantic dinner became the last meal of his life.

Looks like he had absolutely no guard up against the killer. Tell Captain Huang to investigate all of the victim’s female acquaintances.”

Liang Honggang blinked repeatedly.

“Brother Hai, how do you know he ate a seafood set meal?

And why are you saying female acquaintances?”

For once, Zhou Hai relaxed enough to tug the corner of his lips upward, though the mask hid most of it.

“Treat me to it a few times, and I’ll tell you.”

Xu Biao raised an eyebrow.

“Not a bad deal.”

After that, Zhou Hai continued following standard procedure. He shaved the victim’s hair and opened the skull. No abnormalities were found in the brain tissue.

The back was also dissected. Other than lividity, no subcutaneous injuries were discovered.

Finally, he carefully stitched every wound on the victim’s body closed.

At the very least, he wanted the man to retain his final dignity and leave behind an intact corpse.

Meanwhile, Xiao Liang had already sent several samples upstairs for testing.

All three of them took showers afterward. It was only early June, just when the weather had begun heating up, but after wearing airtight protective suits for several hours, they were drenched in sweat.

After changing into short-sleeved police uniforms and eating breakfast, Zhou Hai organized all the information they currently had.

At 9:30, Sister Zeng from pathology called with the test results.

The stomach contents did contain red wine, and ketamine was detected in both the heart blood and stomach contents.

As for the blood samples Xu Biao had submitted, testing confirmed they belonged to two different individuals.

One belonged to the victim. The other remained unidentified.

The database comparison had not produced any matches yet.

Liang Honggang nearly jumped into the air.

“Brother Hai, you’re amazing!

I’ll go get the report and notify Captain Huang!”

Before he even finished speaking, Xiao Liang had already dashed into the center building.

Zhou Hai tilted his head up toward the blazing sun.

“Even if we obtain a DNA sample, it can only serve as corroborative evidence.

Without the murder weapon, we still lack conclusive proof.

Now we can only wait for the hair sample results.”

Xu Biao chuckled foolishly and lightly punched Zhou Hai on the shoulder.

“That’s already pretty impressive. Have you tried reconstructing the crime?”

Zhou Hai nodded.

“Once Xiao Liang comes back down, we’ll go see Captain Huang and explain it in detail.”

Forty minutes later, the three of them appeared in the task force conference room.

The entire room was filled with cigarette smoke. As the air conditioner’s fan blades rotated, the smoke spread into every corner.

Zhou Hai rubbed his nose. He still had trouble adapting to police task force meetings; the smell of smoke was everywhere.

Even though he smoked himself, this level of intensity was overwhelming.

But when these people worked, they worked around the clock. Without cigarettes to keep them going, they could probably fall asleep standing up.

Captain Huang introduced everyone present. The bureau chief, senior political and legal officials, and Captain Liu from the municipal criminal investigation division were all there.

Zhou Hai nodded to the crowd and sat with the other two on the east side of the room.

Captain Liu glanced at the leaders beside him before directly pointing at Zhou Hai.

“Forensic Doctor Zhou, we’d like to hear the conclusions from your criminal investigation department.

Our investigation has hit a dead end.

The surveillance cameras inside the apartment building were broken. We only have vehicle footage from the neighborhood entrance, and the image quality is poor.

Besides, Peng Yuhua was a fairly well-known manager in the real estate industry.

Pressure is coming from all directions. It would be even better if you could reconstruct the crime scene.”

Zhou Hai nodded and opened a folder on the computer, which was already connected to the projector. Crime scene and autopsy photos appeared on the screen.

At the moment he lowered his head, Zhou Hai noticed Xiao Liang beside him cutting through a plastic cable tie with a utility knife.

His eyes flickered.

In an instant, he finally understood the question that had been bothering him earlier.

“Based on the crime scene investigation and the autopsy results, we have now confirmed that this case was a crime of passion.”