SFTD -Chapter 57 The Tragedy of an Entire Family (Part 10)

Early the next morning, Zhou Hai strode into the office and suddenly spotted Captain Liu.

“Captain Liu?”

Captain Liu nodded.

“No need to be surprised. I came early to wait for you.”

Zhou Hai frowned slightly, somewhat puzzled.

“Oh? Did Chu Menghan find something?”

Captain Liu rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking exhausted. It was obvious he had stayed up all night.

“Things are progressing very smoothly on Chu Menghan’s side.”

Zhou Hai was surprised. He had assumed Liu Handong would run. After all, once the truth was exposed, people instinctively wanted to flee. If they managed to catch him, then either he was overly confident, or he truly had nothing to do with it.

After all, that kind of composure wasn’t something ordinary people possessed.

“Last night, Chu Menghan sent word.

Early on the morning of August 25th, Liu Handong called the ship captain. He said he was at a clinic getting injections and couldn’t return in time, so the captain didn’t need to wait for him and could head back to Dongnan City first. He said he’d take a bus back later himself.

The moment Chu Menghan heard this, she panicked and immediately contacted the local police for assistance in arresting him.

At the same time, they searched Liu Handong’s room aboard the cargo ship and sent his toothbrush and wooden comb back to Dongnan first for testing. The results should already be out by now.

It wasn’t until after ten that night that they finally found Liu Handong in a hospital.

He was getting an IV drip and was burning with fever, completely groggy, as if he’d just woken up. After questioning the doctor and reviewing the records, they learned he had been admitted with acute pneumonia.

Chu Menghan brought Liu Handong back to Dongnan, and the entire trip she never told him what had happened.

Once they arrived, they sent him straight to the hospital for treatment.”

Xiao Liang ran in carrying a stack of reports. He handed them to Zhou Hai. Seeing Captain Liu there, he greeted him somewhat stiffly before quickly leaving again.

Without opening the reports, Zhou Hai placed them on the desk and asked:

“If things went so smoothly, why do you still look troubled?”

Captain Liu spread his hands helplessly.

“It’s just that Zhu Xupeng refuses to confess to a single word. He keeps insisting he’s innocent.”

That outcome didn’t surprise Zhou Hai at all, so he said nothing and simply looked at Captain Liu.

“And honestly, he doesn’t sound like he’s lying, does he?”

Captain Liu nodded.

“Exactly!

Maybe your theory is right.

But how do we explain the DNA left on Zhang Junya’s outer ear?

And what about the knife in the car, and the blood on the knife?

He says he has absolutely no idea and can’t give any reasonable explanation.

He claims that after he and Zhang Junya had their falling-out on July 15th, he never saw her again. His coworkers confirmed this too. They said Zhu Xupeng had been extremely upset for several days in mid-July.

He kept ranting that he was unlucky, that he’d been cheated on without even realizing it, and that he would never raise someone else’s child.

To comfort Doctor Zhu, they all went drinking together. One coworker even scraped his car that night. We checked the insurance records, and the timeline matches perfectly.

That just makes everything even more confusing!”

Zhou Hai nodded. Although Captain Liu hadn’t said it outright, Zhou Hai already knew Zhu Xupeng wasn’t the killer.

But how had the murderer obtained his DNA?

And then smeared it onto Zhang Junya’s outer ear?

“Wait! We forgot about the bite mark!”

Captain Liu looked up at Zhou Hai, whose eyes had suddenly narrowed.

“Bite mark?”

Zhou Hai stood up excitedly.

“We can compare the bite marks!

There were clear bite marks on the victim’s outer ear. I remember the person had shovel-shaped incisors. Have Zhu Xupeng do a bite impression test and let’s compare them.”

Captain Liu nodded, instantly brightening up.

“Good!”

As he spoke, he picked up the phone and ordered someone to bring Zhu Xupeng over.

While waiting, Zhou Hai casually flipped through the reports Xiao Liang had delivered. The DNA extracted from the lips of the five victims matched Liu Handong completely—they belonged to the same person.

Another report showed that Liu Handong had no blood relation whatsoever to the little boy.

Captain Liu put down the phone, and Zhou Hai handed him the reports.

“The evidence against suspect Liu Handong is solid now, and we also have motive. That boy wasn’t his biological son. You can officially apply for his arrest.”

Captain Liu skimmed through the reports and immediately called Chu Menghan.

“Hello? Menghan, the evidence against Liu Handong is confirmed. Coordinate with the hospital and bring him back.”

Chu Menghan acknowledged and hung up.

Just then, knocking sounded from outside the door. Xu Biao hurried in carrying Zhu Xupeng’s dental mold and a life-sized photo of the bite mark from the crime scene.

His face was unusually serious. The moment he handed the items over, Zhou Hai knew something was wrong.

He quickly took the dental mold and compared it against the bite mark in the photograph.

Zhu Xupeng’s front teeth protruded slightly outward on both sides and had a noticeable gap in the middle, completely inconsistent with the bite mark in the photo.

Even Captain Liu, an amateur, could tell immediately that the bite marks were from different people.

“They don’t match!”

Zhou Hai and Xu Biao both nodded. Zhou Hai pointed at the bite mark and said:

“The person who left this bite mark is the real killer! As for the DNA found there, it could’ve come from chewing gum, or old bandages Zhu Xupeng used to wrap a wound. There are countless ways to obtain it. This trick of shedding one’s shell like a cicada is truly brilliant.”

Captain Liu sighed deeply, while Xu Biao asked in confusion:

“Why would the killer choose Zhu Xupeng as the scapegoat for this ‘golden cicada escape’?”

“Maybe because it was convenient. Among Zhang Junya’s ex-boyfriends, he was the easiest one for the killer to come into contact with.”

Captain Liu inhaled sharply.

“You still suspect Fang Qing? What motive could he possibly have for murder? From what we’ve learned, his family is very wealthy—not inferior to the Zhang family at all. And when it comes to women, he’s dated even more girls than Zhang Junya herself!”

Zhou Hai continuously rubbed the scalpel handle in his pocket. The icy sensation helped calm him down.

He couldn’t afford to become impatient now.

Even if the killer was highly professional, it was impossible to forge an entire crime scene flawlessly.

Evidence and corpses never lied.

As for motive, only the killer knew that.

What they needed now was evidence.

Aside from the bite mark, there was nothing linking Fang Qing to the crime. Even if the bite mark matched, they still lacked stronger proof.

Suddenly, Zhou Hai’s fingers paused.

He snatched the DSLR camera from Xu Biao’s hands and began searching through the photos.

Neither Captain Liu nor Xu Biao spoke as they watched him.

After scrolling rapidly for a while, Zhou Hai finally found the photograph of Zhang Junya’s palm.

There, clearly visible, was a four-leaf clover imprint.

“Xu Biao, put this on the computer and enlarge it!”

Xu Biao quickly pulled out a data cable and connected the camera to the computer. After a flurry of typing, the image appeared on the screen, enlarged to fill the entire display.

With the image magnified, countless details became visible.

The imprint was composed of tiny bead-like marks. Captain Liu and Xu Biao stared at it for a long while but still couldn’t figure out what object had caused it.

Xu Biao frowned deeply, his leg shaking nonstop as he leaned so close to the monitor his face was nearly pressed against it.

“It looks familiar… what is this thing? A ring? A watch? But men’s watches don’t usually have decorations like this, right?”

Zhou Hai pointed at the circle of tiny dots.

“These are inlaid diamonds. Even without seeing the object itself, you can tell from the imprint alone that this thing was extremely delicate. The size is about 9 millimeters by 9 millimeters. Maybe a necklace pendant?”

Xu Biao shook his head.

“A necklace pendant has two sides. It wouldn’t leave an imprint like this. This thing was probably something like a brooch, pinned onto the killer’s body. Zhang Junya must have grabbed him while being murdered, which left the imprint behind.”

Suddenly enlightened, Zhou Hai blurted out:

“Cufflinks!”

At that exact moment, Captain Liu’s phone began ringing. He quickly answered it, and Chu Menghan’s anxious voice immediately burst through the speaker.

“Captain Liu, he’s gone!”

Captain Liu shot to his feet.

“Who’s gone? Speak clearly!”

“Liu Handong—Liu Handong disappeared from the hospital!”