I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 84: Chapter 82: No Leads for Now

Yan Cheng and his team continued the external examination of the bodies.

Su Miaoyi came out of the autopsy room and called Lu Zhishen again.

The corner of the killer’s ski mask had been lifted, revealing his left jaw.

It had a tattoo on it.

It stretched from his neck to his jaw, and possibly even higher.

Not many people get tattoos on their face.

This was a very distinctive feature.

Su Miaoyi described the corner of the tattoo she had seen to Lu Zhishen.

Although she couldn’t tell what the design was, Lu Zhishen’s sketch was an exact match to what she saw.

He even managed to perfectly replicate the ambiguous bluish-green color she described.

However, after creating what she felt was a perfect match, Lu Zhishen drew a second sketch.

Because Su Miaoyi had said the light in the stairwell was very dim.

The light and shadows would have altered the color’s appearance.

So, Lu Zhishen rendered a version of the color as it would appear in normal light.

Su Miaoyi thought Lu Zhishen was a genius.

A once-in-a-millennium genius!

’If it were up to me, I’d make trip after trip to Jiangcheng to recruit him, too.’

Once the sketch of the tattooed man was done, Su Miaoyi sent both versions, showing the tattoo under different lighting, to Zhuang Yanzheng.

...

After Zhuang Yanzheng returned, everyone gathered in the conference room.

Su Miaoyi met the Bureau Director for the first time.

Meng Shuyi.

’Then again, it wasn’t technically the first time,’ she mused. ’I saw her when Shen Yanzhou brought me to the Municipal Bureau, when a crowd of people came out to see off some official.’

Meng Shuyi looked at her.

Su Miaoyi met her gaze.

Meng Shuyi nodded and said, "The New Year is only a few days away. We need to solve this case quickly. We must catch the killer as soon as possible so the public can have a peaceful holiday. We also need to give the victims and their families an answer."

Su Miaoyi noted her incredibly powerful presence.

’Aside from Zhuang Yanzheng,’ she thought, ’everyone is sitting much more formally than usual.’

"Let’s talk about the case," Meng Shuyi said.

Qi Feng immediately stood up.

He began to present the basic facts of the case and information about the deceased.

The man murdered in the stairwell was named Zhong Heng, seventy-seven years old. He lived with his wife. Their two sons and two daughters were all migrant workers in other cities.

His grandchildren were also out of town.

The elderly man from room 601 on the sixth floor was Wei Hong, eighty-one years old, and the murdered girl was Wei Lan, sixteen.

The two were grandfather and granddaughter.

The grandfather and granddaughter lived together.

Wei Hong had only one son. He, his wife, and their young son all worked in another city.

Su Miaoyi looked at the file on Wei Hong’s family.

Wei Hong had his son in his forties, which was considered very late for that era.

As a result, his son and daughter-in-law were relatively young.

Their young son wasn’t even in preschool yet.

Their daughter, Wei Lan, had been non-verbal since birth.

She could hear, however.

She also had some intellectual disabilities.

She had lived with her grandparents since she was a child.

After her grandmother passed away two years ago, she had been living alone with her grandfather.

According to interviews with neighbors, despite her intellectual disabilities, Wei Lan was a very sweet and obedient girl.

As she had gotten older, her condition had improved, and she had started to learn new things.

She had even started learning how to cook simple meals.

She was also very devoted to Wei Hong.

The two of them had a very good relationship.

Qi Feng and his team had questioned all the neighbors.

Wei Hong and Wei Lan were very well-liked.

Everyone had nothing but praise for them. If a family had a problem or was in trouble, Wei Hong would always help if he could. He hadn’t made any enemies.

The old man wasn’t just well-liked; he was also well-respected in the community.

When families had problems, they would go to him for advice.

Su Miaoyi listened quietly, organizing the clues in her mind.

Zhuang Yanzheng then reported on the situation at the crime scene.

"We found no surveillance footage."

"There was originally a security camera at the entrance to the apartment building."

"But a few days ago, an old man smashed it with his cane."

"The man claimed the camera was messing with his *feng shui*, ruining his luck, and causing him insomnia. He wouldn’t allow it to be there."

Su Miaoyi: "..."

"We didn’t recover any fingerprints from the scene, but we did find footprints that match the build in the sketch." Zhuang Yanzheng’s voice was hoarse; he’d had to shout while canvassing the neighborhood, as many of the residents were elderly and hard of hearing. "Height is around 175 centimeters, weight around 60 kilograms."

"We extracted DNA, but there’s no match in the database," Zhuang Yanzheng finished, then added, "And the canvass didn’t yield any new leads."

He had shown the sketch from Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen to the neighbors, but everyone said they didn’t know who it was.

After Su Miaoyi provided the detail about the tattoo, he had also shown them the pattern and asked if they had ever seen anyone with a face tattoo.

The result was the same: no one had.

Yan Cheng then presented the autopsy results, including the causes and times of death.

Zhong Heng’s cause of death was pulmonary asphyxia, caused by blood entering his trachea.

Wei Hong’s cause of death was exsanguination. When his abdominal cavity was opened, it was full of blood.

Wei Lan had widespread hemorrhaging in her neck muscles and a fractured hyoid bone. There were clear signs of force applied to her neck; she died from asphyxiation due to strangulation.

In addition, DNA was extracted from the blood under Wei Lan’s fingernails, and it was a match to the other sample from the same unknown individual.

"The killer must have some familiarity with Wei Hong’s family. He didn’t try to break into any other doors; he went straight for their apartment," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "There are other easy targets for burglary in that building, like the elderly couple on the seventh floor or other seniors living alone. But he only targeted Wei Hong’s home."

"Was the burglary a ruse to stage the scene, or did he kill on impulse during the robbery?" Meng Shuyi asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng fell silent for a moment.

He had examined the scene meticulously.

It certainly had the hallmarks of a burglary.

But the assault on Wei Lan... Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t think that was done on the spur of the moment.

"The killer was probably after Wei Lan and a score," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi looked at him.

"Explain," Meng Shuyi prompted.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "Wei Lan was non-verbal and could only make ’ah, ah, ah’ sounds. Wei Hong was old and his hearing was bad."

The neighbors had mentioned that Wei Hong’s hearing was so poor that you had to shout right into his ear for him to hear you.

If something were to happen, Wei Hong wouldn’t hear a thing.

This was also why the killer was bold enough to make his move.

This further suggested that the killer had some knowledge of the Wei household.

"There’s also this... The killer first assaulted and killed the victims, then ransacked the apartment. As he was leaving, he ran into the man from the seventh floor and killed him out of panic and fear," Zhuang Yanzheng deduced.

He had already reached a similar conclusion while surveying the scene.

Su Miaoyi’s account later confirmed his theory.

When Su Miaoyi saw Wei Lan being dragged into the inner room, she’d noted that although the lights were off and it was dark, the room still appeared tidy.

Similarly, when she witnessed Wei Hong’s murder, the living room was also neat and showed no signs of being ransacked.

Therefore, the killer most likely picked the lock, entered the apartment, grabbed a knife from the kitchen, and then went straight to Wei Lan’s room.

While he was in Wei Lan’s room, Wei Hong must have woken up somehow and discovered him.

That led to a struggle between the killer and Wei Hong in the living room, which ended with him killing the old man.

Seeing her grandfather collapse, Wei Lan came out to try and wake him.

The killer then dragged her back into the room and assaulted her.

Afterward, the killer murdered Wei Lan, ransacked the home, and fled.

In any case, we can be certain the killer is a habitual thief. That gives us a direction for the investigation.

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