I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 50: Chapter 48: A Fall After Death

After inspecting the scene, they left the No. 7 Clubhouse.

Zhuang Yanzheng had someone take Su Miaoyi to the funeral home’s autopsy center.

Zhuang Yanzheng took his team to question the party attendees.

The case was blowing up online, and the public pressure was immense. The bureau chief had only given them forty-eight hours to solve it.

Time was ticking away, minute by minute. The situation was extremely urgent.

When she arrived at the autopsy center, Yan Cheng had already been there for a while. After speaking with the deceased’s family, he had begun the autopsy.

Just as Su Miaoyi entered the room, Yan Cheng was cutting open the victim’s stomach wall.

She smelled alcohol.

The victim had been drinking before her death.

There was a small amount of chyme in the stomach, which would require further analysis.

Yan Cheng was performing the autopsy with a forensic examiner from the sub-bureau.

Su Miaoyi stood to the side and watched, her mind running through the autopsy and deducing the findings one by one.

Then, her gaze fell upon the victim’s wounds.

With Yan Cheng’s permission, she touched the wounds, but she saw nothing.

Not even a fleeting image.

Even after they had finished the entire autopsy, Su Miaoyi still saw nothing.

She couldn’t help but feel anxious.

’But I can’t see anything at all.’

’Why can’t I see anything anymore?’

’What exactly is the mechanism that lets me see these images?’

Once the work there was finished, Yan Cheng and Su Miaoyi headed back to the municipal bureau first.

By the time they arrived at the bureau, it was already past five in the afternoon.

The two of them went straight into the conference room for a meeting.

It was Su Miaoyi’s first time in the conference room, participating in a case discussion.

Although she hadn’t signed the contract yet, Zhuang Yanzheng was already treating her as a consultant.

After they sat down, Qi Feng began by introducing the case and the victim. "The owner of the No. 7 Clubhouse is Jiang Lingjie, male, thirty-three years old. He was in a relationship with the deceased, Xia Yan. According to the attendees at last night’s party, they had been together for over three years. We’ve confirmed this with Xia Yan’s agent and assistant as well."

The screen at the front of the room displayed a layout of the fifth floor of the private clubhouse.

Qi Feng stood before the screen and pointed. "After midnight last night, their party was held on the top floor, the fifth floor. The entire fifth-floor area is very large."

He showed the full scope of the fifth floor.

The fifth floor had a balcony with a swimming pool.

"According to the party guests, in the early hours of the morning, everyone except for the victim, Xia Yan, and Jiang Lingjie was by the pool. They can all vouch for each other. Based on the details they recalled about one another, we can also confirm that all the attendees were by the poolside," Qi Feng said. "At the time, they were about to start a game and were going over the rules."

"Sometime after 1:00 AM, the owner, Jiang Lingjie, said he had something to do and told them to start playing without him, then he left," Qi Feng continued. "Then, a little after 2:00 AM, the people playing the game suddenly heard a security guard from downstairs shouting that someone had jumped."

"Since the pool is on the fifth-floor balcony and is open-air, they all heard it. They first looked down from the pool’s balcony but didn’t see anything. Then they went inside together and eventually found the spot where the victim had jumped."

"Practically everyone moved as a group, so no one had time to commit the crime alone."

"The guests also mentioned that Jiang Lingjie and Xia Yan weren’t with them from the start. After all, they’re a couple, so it’s normal for them to want some time alone," Qi Feng said. "Later, when Jiang Lingjie left, they assumed Xia Yan had left with him."

"Did Jiang Lingjie really leave?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Qi Feng replied, "All the internal surveillance cameras in the clubhouse were turned off after midnight, but a street camera outside caught Jiang Lingjie driving away from the clubhouse at 1:12 AM. We’ve confirmed that the person in the footage is Jiang Lingjie himself."

Qi Feng displayed a screenshot from the surveillance footage on the screen, placing a photo of Jiang Lingjie beside it for comparison.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "We met with Jiang Lingjie. At the hospital."

Su Miaoyi tilted her head in confusion.

Zhuang Yanzheng continued, "He said he left the party last night because of heart discomfort. He went to a nearby hospital for a check-up, but they didn’t find anything wrong. The hospital suggested he go to a larger hospital for further examination and observation. So he’s hospitalized today."

"We checked with the hospital. Jiang Lingjie was indeed there in the early morning. There’s a record of his visit under his real name. The doctor said his heart rate was very fast, but the blood tests didn’t reveal any issues, which is why they recommended he go to a larger hospital."

They had also taken a photo of the hospital’s examination report.

It showed the time of the examination and the time the results were issued.

Since he went to the emergency room and there weren’t many people at night, the results came back quickly.

"What about the person who leaked this on their livestream? Livestreaming that early in the morning?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"He was one of the party guests," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "He claims he was supposed to stream last night but forgot, so he went live early this morning to apologize to his fans. He let it slip during the chat. We checked his fan group, and he was indeed scheduled to stream last night."

But whether it was an accidental slip of the tongue or intentional was hard to say.

Su Miaoyi said nothing.

Zhuang Yanzheng began to talk about the findings at the crime scene.

"The fingerprints, footprints, hair, and other evidence collected at the scene have all been matched to the people at the party last night."

"At the scene, in a private room on the fifth floor, we used a luminol reagent and discovered latent blood. It was mainly on the floor next to the sofa."

Zhuang Yanzheng showed everyone a photo.

It was a pool of latent blood, surrounded by clear wipe marks.

After being wiped, it was invisible to the naked eye, but it became visible after being sprayed with the luminol reagent.

"On the bottom edge of the sofa, we extracted a drop of blood. It’s been matched to the victim, Xia Yan," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

It was the same drop of blood Chu Xingrou had found, the one that had almost blended in with the dark-colored sofa.

"We found footprints and fingerprints on the window from which the victim fell."

"I tried it myself. Without a stool or some other aid, it’s impossible to stand on the windowsill. Moreover, the positions of the footprint and fingerprints don’t align with where a person would place them for leverage, to push off, or to steady themselves," Su Miaoyi naturally picked up where Zhuang Yanzheng left off.

This seamless coordination made him pause for a couple of seconds, stunned.

Yan Cheng and the other officers couldn’t help but glance between Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng quickly snapped back to reality and looked down at the documents in his hand. "There’s also a problem with the body’s landing site."

He paused deliberately after speaking, and Su Miaoyi subconsciously finished his thought. "Our measurements and calculations show that the victim’s landing spot is inconsistent with a suicide jump. It’s much closer to the wall than a suicide jump would be."

"You can see it from the photos we took," Su Miaoyi said, looking at the screen.

Zhuang Yanzheng switched the screen to an image of the clubhouse’s exterior.

Su Miaoyi continued, "The building’s exterior is a straight drop, with no obstructions. Therefore, based on the current evidence, this leans more toward a post-mortem fall or an accidental fall."

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