The Brain Science Case 38

Chapter 38: The Body That Vanished in a Bloody Foam – 4

Arriving at the station, the first thing Jinglin saw was Cai Yuwei, fast asleep at his desk.

“Passed out at his desk so early in the morning. How late did he stay up?”

She was about to reach out and shake him awake when Chen Huomu quickly stopped her. “Little Zhou, don’t wake him… he just fell asleep not long ago.”

“Just fell asleep?” she raised an eyebrow, watching as Chen Huomu came over, first turning off the monitor, then organizing Cai Yuwei’s messy notebook. “He didn’t go home?”

“Of course not. Otherwise, when have you ever seen him arrive before you?” Chen Huomu’s tone was teasing, but then his gaze toward him was filled with admiration. “Maybe he was stimulated by the on-site investigation yesterday. Ah Wei was especially dedicated this time. He was the first to confirm the victim’s identity, and he also volunteered to investigate the surveillance footage.”

“Meticulousness is his strong suit.” Jinglin put down her bag and turned back to ask, “Strange, what was he stimulated by? The on-site investigation?” How did I not know about this?

“Ah Gui said it. It seems the brainy teacher asked him a question he couldn’t answer, and he wanted to prove himself in some other way. So I told him, ‘In a team, everyone has things they’re not good at. There’s no need to force it.’”

He picked up the notebook. “But apparently he didn’t listen. He pulled an all-nighter and found nothing. When I came in this morning, I heard him muttering, ‘I can’t find the killer,’ and he seemed really angry.”

Jinglin took the notebook. Two timelines were drawn on it, clearly marking the victim’s check-in time, the estimated time of death, and the time the report was made, among other more certain points in time.

‘Pay special attention to men around my height,’ Tang Yingli had emphasized.

“Can’t find the killer… was he not caught on camera?”

“I don’t know. It could also be that he just didn’t find any suspicious individuals.”

She looked up at the clock. It was still early, so she turned on her own computer. “I’ll take a look.” She still had the video file saved.

Actually, Chen Huomu knew what Cai Yuwei was trying to do. He had probably hoped to redeem himself in front of Jinglin, but things hadn’t gone as planned.

He muttered to himself, “If you really do find something, he’ll probably be too embarrassed to face you.” Not to mention that Cai Yuwei had always had a crush on her, her recent outstanding performance, and the fact that they were from the same class, had all put a lot of pressure on him.

“Huh?”

“Nothing. You go ahead and look. I won’t disturb you.” Pursing his lips, Chen Huomu glanced at the sleeping Cai Yuwei and shook his head.

Meanwhile, in the autopsy room, Tao Qianya let out a big yawn and pressed enter, sending the file.

The two detectives who were helping with the photos and records stretched. “We’re going to buy breakfast… Dr. Tao, is there anything you want?”

“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll go get something myself later.”

“Then we’ll be going.”

As the two of them were leaving, the automatic door slid open. “Morning.” The two of them, who had quickly moved aside, were dumbfounded when they saw who it was.

The person who walked in was none other than Tang Yingli, with her hair styled and looking sharp and capable. Her high heels still clicked with a rhythmic sound, but the rare combination of knee-high socks and a short dress was a refreshing sight.

Tao Qianya swallowed a yawn. “Teacher? So early.”

“It’s not early for you. You’ve been busy all night, haven’t you? You’ve worked hard.” Glancing at the autopsy table, there was no body bag, and the surface had already been cleaned, which meant the autopsy was complete. “Especially you, Dr. Tao, being called back on your day off.”

“I was so… not wanting to answer that call.” He exaggerated his tone, but in reality, he had decided to rush back to the station for the autopsy as soon as he got the call. “You’re here to see the report, right? It’s just finished.”

The deceased, Cui Jiajia, twenty-one years old, female. The fatal wound was a cut on her abdomen from the diaphragm down to her navel. “The weapon was a sharp, serrated blade. The wound was about twelve centimeters deep.”

The back photo showed no subcutaneous bruising, probably because the tip of the blade had hit the spine and then been pressed straight down, creating a large wound sixteen centimeters long on the surface.

“There was a slight bruise on the back of the deceased’s head, and the hematoma was not serious.”

“But that could be the key to why she didn’t struggle before she died, dying in a semi-conscious state.” Should she call it lucky? It had reduced her suffering, and because the blood had stopped circulating after death, the hematoma had not expanded further.

“That’s right.” Tao Qianya clicked on a few more photos. “Unfortunately, no suspicious skin flakes were found under her fingernails, and no other bodily fluids were collected from her private parts.”

Was it washed away? Tang Yingli couldn’t hide her disappointment. “So we can’t confirm if she had sex before she died… was even that calculated?”

“However, we did find something in her stomach.”

She leaned closer to the screen. “This is…”

“Seaweed, rice, and tuna, salmon roe, and other residue.” Among them were several salmon roe that had not been eroded by stomach acid, a translucent orange-red color. “What kind of food would you think of, Teacher, that has this content?”

“Seaweed, rice, fish slices…” She rested her chin on her hand in thought. “Japanese food… sushi?”

“Yes. And not to mention the meat and rice, even the cucumber and tofu skin have only just begun to decompose, which means the victim ate within one or two hours of her death.”

And the victim had checked in at 3:50, with the estimated time of death between 5:30 and 6:00. “So she either ate very late, or the killer brought it to her, is that what you mean?”

“That’s a possibility.”

Tang Yingli continued to stare at the screen, and suddenly, she remembered the wound she had examined with her own eyes yesterday.

A sharp, serrated blade…

“This looks like a wound caused by a tactical knife. It doesn’t seem to be related to what she ate before she died.”

Tao Qianya was stunned. “What do you mean, Teacher…”

“A chef wouldn’t use a serrated knife like this, would they? Unless they were a baker…” But a bread knife is flat and cannot cause a fatal stab wound. “But the knife wound is unusually straight and clean. It must have been done with considerable skill.”

“So a chef used a sharp, serrated knife as a weapon?”

“It’s a possibility.” She rested her chin on her hand, her index finger tapping her lips, her usual thinking pose. “In any case, we need to find out where the food came from first, to clarify the victim’s movements before her death…”

Suddenly, the wall-mounted phone rang.

Tao Qianya reached over her to answer, stumbling. “H-Hello? Oh, Chief… I’ve finished the report…” He glanced at Tang Yingli. “The teacher is here, looking at the report with me… okay, okay. Got it.” He hung up the phone with a serious expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“The chief wants you back in the office.” He let out a yawn. “It’s probably… something about the surveillance footage.”

“Okay, we’ll take it from here. You get some rest.” Her steps were like the wind, leaving behind a faint scent that was different from the smell of alcohol disinfectant.

“Ah, honestly, seeing the teacher like this, I’m all energized…” he scratched his head and smiled.

Arriving at the chief’s office, Fang Zijun, Chen Huomu, and Jinglin were waiting for her.

“Oh, so it wasn’t Officer Cai who was going to report?” she exclaimed, covering her mouth.

“Huh?” Jinglin, who was holding a notebook, looked up. “What did you say, Teacher?”

She smiled and pushed up her glasses. “No, it’s nothing.”

“You’ve seen the autopsy report?”

“Yes, I’ve had a quick look.” She winked at Jinglin. “And I’ve made a clear new discovery.”

Jinglin’s heart leaped with joy. “What kind of…”

Fang Zijun interrupted. “We’ll exchange information later. Jinglin, you go first.”

“Oh.” Jinglin clicked on a video screenshot. “This is what we have so far, the time the victim checked in.”

The projection screen showed two images of the victim, one at the counter and the other in the elevator. “As the key shows, the room number is 314. The two images are less than a minute apart.”

This was the last image of the victim. Tang Yingli’s expression was focused. “Mm.”

“According to our deduction, the killer checked in before this time, so I went back and checked. From noon until the victim checked in, there were seven groups of guests, six of whom were for a short stay, and I’ve checked the time they left on the footage.

“As for the only guest who stayed overnight, it wasn’t the killer. I’ve already confirmed with the motel owner. And the other overnight guests are not suspects.”

Chen Huomu asked, “What about the motel staff?”

“The chances are low.” Jinglin shook her head decisively. “Not to mention that besides the owner and his wife, there are only three cleaning staff, all middle-aged women in their forties and fifties, and…” She clicked on a photo of the murder scene. “They didn’t know the victim, and they didn’t have the means or opportunity to commit the crime.”

“So the problem is with those six groups of guests…”

“And that’s where the real problem is.” She gave a wry smile and clicked on the video screenshots one by one. “Of these six groups, four were couples, and the other two were single women.”

Fang Zijun looked at the two female guests in turn. “No wonder Ah Wei kept checking and didn’t dare to report to us.” Because there were no suspects who fit the criteria.

“However,” Jinglin pulled one of the couples to the center of the screen, “I want to talk about this couple in particular.”

“This couple… what’s wrong with them?” Fang and Chen both moved closer to the projection screen.

The woman in the picture had dark green hair, and the man also had shoulder-length hair. They should be no more than twenty-five years old, and their intimate gesture of holding hands was no different from that of a normal couple.

“Their behavior is fine.” Jinglin played a clip of them laughing in the elevator. “But this woman with the dyed hair is a colleague of the victim.” She showed another photo, one that Jian Minggui had taken at “Starry Night” yesterday. “Her stage name is Tina. I learned from her that the victim wasn’t very popular at the club… at least, the two of them seemed to have had a falling out.”

“It’s not new for women to be catty with each other…” Chen Huomu snorted, but was silenced by Tang Yingli’s cold glare. “Uh, ahem. Even if they had a falling out, it doesn’t necessarily mean she would kill her, right?”

“The problem is her male companion’s subsequent actions.” Jinglin quickly brought up another screenshot. “The time is 5:30 in the afternoon. They checked in at 3:30, so their check-out time should have been 6:30. Why did he leave his girlfriend and go out alone?”

“Maybe it was for work…”

“The real point, Officer Zhou, is that,” Tang Yingli interrupted Fang Zijun, “this time coincides with the victim’s estimated time of death.”

“The teacher is right.” Jinglin brought up the last photo. “And Tina also left half an hour earlier than her normal check-out time. Combining these suspicious points… I think this couple is highly suspicious.”