SFTD -Chapter 45 Mystery of the Dry Bones (Part 9)

The crowd stepped aside, and only then did Zhou Hai notice several extremely clear bloody fingerprints appearing along the edge of the guardrail under the effect of the reagent spray. Sweat covered Xu Biao’s face as he grinned proudly at Zhou Hai.

“Haizi, we found fingerprints! And we also found several fibers and bloodstains on the wire fence. Not sure if they belong to the killer.”

Zhou Hai was thrilled and slapped him hard on the shoulder.

“Nice work, Xu Biao! Hm? Where does this gap in the guardrail lead?”

Xu Biao shook his head.

“Haven’t gone over to check yet.”

Zhou Hai glanced at the evidence bags inside his investigation case.

“You finished collecting evidence?”

“Yep!”

“Then let’s go take a look!”

Old Li had long since lost patience. Grabbing the wire fence, he leaped over it in one motion.

Turning back, he took Zhou Hai and Xu Biao’s equipment cases and pulled them across one by one. Zhou Hai made it over without much trouble, but when it came to Xu Biao, Old Li’s face turned red with effort, and the investigator behind Xu Biao almost got crushed flat trying to push him over.

Meanwhile, Xu Biao panicked and shouted:

“Hey hey hey! Hold me steady! Don’t let me fall! And if I do fall, at least let me fall to the other side, otherwise Lord Xu Biao climbed up here for nothing!”

Suppressing the urge to punch him, Zhou Hai quickly strode ahead.

This area was entirely beneath the overpass, almost completely cut off from sunlight, so the vegetation on the ground was sparse.

Several drops of blood on the dirt extended gradually into the distance. Zhou Hai knelt and carefully examined them with a magnifying glass.

As expected, they were impact blood drops produced while moving. From the direction and length of the spines around the droplets, one could determine both the direction of movement and the height from which the blood had fallen.

Xu Biao came panting over and hurriedly photographed and sampled the stains.

“Can you calculate the height?”

Xu Biao nodded. Selecting four nearby blood drops, he measured the longest and shortest spines as well as the droplet diameters, then rapidly calculated.

“Height is between 1.2 and 1.28 meters. They went this way!”

The group followed Xu Biao southeastward. After about fifty meters, the blood drops disappeared.

In their place was a pile of ashes.

Everyone immediately grew excited. Zhou Hai picked up several half-burned pieces of knitted fabric from the ashes.

“Looks like these are the victim’s clothes. Collect everything.”

Now that the blood trail was gone, they were no longer worried, because when they looked up, they could already see another guardrail ahead. This one was much lower than the one they had climbed down from.

They climbed up.

The moment they stood on the road, several investigators stared in shock.

They had somehow arrived on the east side of the highway exit, right beside the western entrance of Bianjia Village. In front of them stretched a broad eight-lane road.

Watching the vehicles roar past, Zhou Hai’s gaze landed on a repair shop sign—

Guodong Auto Repair Shop.

Various repair tools were scattered outside. Two large trucks were parked nearby, while loud metallic clang clang noises echoed from inside the garage.

Zhou Hai and the others quickly hid at the fork leading toward Bianjia Village. From this position, it was obvious the surveillance cameras across the road couldn’t see them. The repair shop itself was also perfectly blocked by a protruding gas station sign to the north.

Without waiting for instructions from Zhou Hai, Old Li had already called Captain Hu.

“Boss, we found bloodstains and a pile of ashes at the primary crime scene. Following the trail, we looped around to another exit, and right in front of it is Guodong Auto Repair Shop.
Should we move in?”

“Wait there. We’ll arrive in ten minutes!”

Hearing this, everyone immediately concealed themselves and called for vehicles to quietly approach from the western entrance of Bianjia Village.

Soon the cars arrived. The moment they got inside, Xu Biao’s phone vibrated.

It was Dr. Nan calling.

Xu Biao quickly answered.

“So you brat finally dared to answer this old man’s calls again!”

“Old man, don’t tell me you still couldn’t enhance those photos. Losing your touch?”

“Tch, stop mocking me. I know you’re busy. I’ve already sent them to your email. Next time you visit, bring me some good liquor.”

“No problem. I’ll bring you five barrels of Du Ping’s strongest baijiu!”

Without waiting for a response, Xu Biao hung up and let out a long breath before opening the email.

Sure enough, the image quality had improved dramatically.

Old Li stretched his neck over from beside him. The moment he saw the third photo, he slapped the seat hard.

“That’s Cai Guodong!”

Xu Biao zoomed in on the image.

A sturdy dark-skinned man appeared on the screen. He was raising his left arm to wipe sweat from his forehead, though the motion also conveniently blocked the camera.

In front of him stood a woman in a red dress.

Zhou Hai instantly thought of the knitted fabric they had just found in the ashes.

He had Xu Biao zoom in further. Everyone stared at the screen. Although the woman in red was shown only in profile, Xu Biao recognized her immediately.

“Yu Hongyu!”

The group was ecstatic.

This discovery practically confirmed Cai Guodong’s suspicion. Now all that remained was the laboratory comparison results.

Just then, the sound of police sirens approached from afar.

Old Li stuck his head out to look.

It was Captain Hu’s vehicle, stopping directly in front of Cai Guodong’s shop.

Zhou Hai’s vehicle immediately sped over as well.

During the drive, Xu Biao had already explained the entire process to Fengzi and Xiao Liang. Everyone’s faces were bright red—not from excitement, but from heat.

The officers wore police uniforms, and over them they still had investigation suits, complete with hats and masks. The discomfort was indescribable.

Moments later, a struggling Cai Guodong was dragged out in handcuffs.

Zhou Hai, Xu Biao, and the others got out carrying their equipment cases.

The police vehicles did not stop, roaring straight toward the Du Ping Municipal Bureau.

Zhou Hai and the others entered the repair shop while Xiao Liang recorded everything on camera.

After observing for a moment, Xu Biao headed straight toward a toolbox at the northernmost side.

He lifted out a screwdriver with a black rubber handle while holding a small spray bottle in his other hand, spraying the junction between the metal shaft and the handle.

Zhou Hai recognized it immediately—it was a Luminol reagent.

Even if the murder weapon had been thoroughly cleaned, traces of hemoglobin would still remain. The iron within the blood would react chemically with the reagent and emit a bluish-purple fluorescence.

Sure enough, specks of bluish-purple light appeared on the screwdriver.

Xu Biao immediately sealed it inside a transparent evidence bag.

Zhou Hai took it and examined it carefully.

“The tip of the screwdriver already has irregular indentations. These were left from piercing the skull.”

Just as Xiao Liang turned around, a toolbox behind him suddenly fell to the ground.

The impact shattered the lock, and the lid burst open.

Inside lay a hammer.

Xu Biao repeated the same procedure, spraying it with Luminol reagent. This time the bluish-purple fluorescence was even more obvious, since the wooden handle contained tiny pores that were much harder to clean thoroughly.

Squatting down, Zhou Hai noticed a phone at the bottom of the toolbox—a woman’s phone covered with decorative rhinestones.

At that moment, Zhou Hai’s phone rang.

The caller was Secretary Bian.

Yu Laoda had been found.

He had been locked inside the cellar beneath Cui Hong’s house—and had already been dead for several days.

Fengzi immediately stood up.

“I’ll go take a look.”