novelraw Chapter 208 208: Too Contradictory!
Chapter 208 208: Too Contradictory!
Xie Wensheng felt an inexplicable chill.
In over a decade on the force, what scenes hadn't he witnessed?
But he had quite a gripe about the moonlight tonight!
Shining on him was one thing, but it even pierced through the windows on the door, illuminating the person on the podium.
He shivered slightly, took out his phone, and made a call.
By some strange instinct, his first call was to Chen Xiao.
"Found it?" Chen Xiao answered quickly.
Xie Wensheng responded with a grunt: "Found it, not in the back mountain, just sitting on the podium in the classroom."
"Just one of them?"
"I only saw one, not You You and Wu Rui; those two are blond, but this one's hair is black."
"How old?"
Xie Wensheng took a few steps forward: "About the same age, should be the other boy among the three, Luo Yan."
Just as Xie Wensheng finished speaking, a shout came from behind: "Captain Xie, found it!"
After a shout, another person also ran out from the original cafeteria of the school, shouting: "Found it!"
Xie Wensheng's gaze tightened and he said into the phone, "They've all been dumped out."
"Tell me the location, I'm heading over now."
After Xie Wensheng provided the location, Chen Xiao immediately hung up and called Xiaoji and the three of them.
"Get up, I'll take you to witness something."
The three of Xiaoji hurried out of the room, asking, "Bro, is it found?"
"Yeah, tonight he dumped all the dead bodies out. By Captain Xie's account, his men have already puked up their dinners."
Liu Dayou's face changed: "No way, that harsh? Then what are we having for midnight snacks?"
Xiaoji couldn't help but look at Chen Xiao: "Bro, you did it on purpose, didn't you? I saw you didn't eat just now!"
Chen Xiao glared: "Enough nonsense. You guys haven't seen a real corpse dumping site yet, this time you get to see one."
"Didn't the one at Yaoxi count just now?"
"The forensic pathologist covered up a lot, of course, it doesn't count," Xiaoji replied.
Whether willingly or unwillingly, all three followed behind.
They got into the car, and soon arrived at the scene.
By the time they arrived, many police officers from the sub-bureau were already there.
The forensic pathologist was destined to be the busiest tonight, and just the ones from the sub-bureau were obviously not enough.
To best record the details, Xie Wensheng borrowed quite a few people from other sub-bureaus.
Chen Xiao entered the old school, musing, "A person very familiar with this area could find a place like this."
Without saying much, Chen Xiao went looking for Xie Wensheng.
However, when passing by the steps, he paused at the sight of liquid on the ground.
"Zhao Hai's suspicion can mostly be ruled out."
Xiaoji quickly asked, "How so?"
"This trace likely dropped when the killer was transporting the body up, looks like it was made tonight. Zhao Hai didn't have the time to dump a body."
"So, that means, there's still a possibility... he hired someone to dump the body."
"Yeah, hiring someone is possible. After all, money makes the mare go. But Zhao Hai, at the moment, might not actually have money to hire anyone."
With that, Chen Xiao went upstairs.
Xie Wensheng was still in the classroom, with the forensic pathologist recording the evident information of the body.
"Captain Xie," Chen Xiao called out.
Xie Wensheng turned his head, "Come take a look."
Chen Xiao led the three forward. After taking one look, he frowned immediately.
The trio of Xiaoji had their faces turned white at once!
Liu Dayou and Xiaoji Knife Man couldn't hold it any longer, running out to vomit wildly.
Xiaoji held out for a bit, but ultimately couldn't bear it and ran out too.
Seeing this, Xie Wensheng laughed, "What, looking to train them?"
"They follow me, they must adapt. But honestly, my stomach is churning too."
"That's a natural reaction, but just from this corpse, can you see anything?" Xie Wensheng asked.
Chen Xiao replied, "Though each one is dead, it's clear the killer treated the females more carefully. But this male, his handling was too rough, it's unspeakably brutal."
As Chen Xiao spoke, every part of the deceased's body began imprinting in his mind.
The victim's face also had missing features.
His eyes were also gone, but there was a large hole in his throat!
This suddenly made Chen Xiao feel that the previous notion about facial features was somewhat inaccurate.
Suddenly, Xie Wensheng looked down and saw a small plump creature almost crawling onto his shoe, and immediately stomped on it.
A "bia" sound was heard.
Chen Xiao shook his head with a wry smile: "Raised them really fat."
"Your tolerance is quite strong, you've probably seen a lot of bodies with Captain Zhang Zhang Xian?"
"I've seen plenty of bodies, but not many on the scene, especially not ones this decomposed. Honestly, I'm holding it together with tough skin."
Indeed, Chen Xiao hadn't seen many decomposing bodies on the scene.
When Zhao Xiaohong was killed, she hadn't decomposed much when found.
The Swallow Lane fishbone case was arguably the most bizarre death Chen Xiao had encountered.
As for the Xiaofeng Village case, when he saw the body, much time had already passed.
And Cheng Qing and Wan De's deaths were just skeletons by then.
Speaking of decay levels, the third deceased would rank second earlier, while the current one would rank first.
But victims who died almost at the same time had different levels of decomposition; it was enough to show the killer used different methods or environments when handling the two bodies.
Xie Wensheng didn't elaborate further, returning to the main topic:
"The killer used a chair and podium to keep his body splayed across the podium without it slipping down."
"Judging from the manner of death, it matches the previous three girls, all have nails driven through their temples."
"I estimate the killing process wasn't torturous; just systematically killing them one after another."
Chen Xiao nodded: "Now the six missing persons are all found, and dumping the three males in one spot suggests the killer's done."
"Yeah, but you're sensitive to the killer's hints. Look closely and see if there's any guidance left."
Now with much admiration for Chen Xiao, Xie Wensheng subconsciously began letting Chen Xiao take the lead.
When seeing the third body earlier, Chen Xiao mentioned the killer possibly only hinted halfway.
And this half he mentioned was actually left vague.
Now, with a stark gender distinction among the six victims, Chen Xiao internally confirmed his suspicion.
But Chen Xiao didn't speak immediately, leaning against a wall after thoroughly examining the body, then closed his eyes.
He needed to process!
"When the third victim's posture I guessed was a Young Pioneers salute, and it was a female, at that moment my intuition told me it could be a hint from the killer."
"Young Pioneers salute isn't related to middle school, high school, or university, it's more likely from primary school."
"By posing an adult deceased in such a salute, is he telling all the police that he once had a daughter?"
"Is it because he had a daughter that he's so distinct in dealing with males and females?"
"Though these thoughts are still baseless, perhaps I could formulate a line of case logic."
"Whether it's Xiong Ruru or You You and the boys, all had numerous prior criminal acts. So they not only robbed Zhao Hai, but could've also harmed or even killed a young girl?"
"There's always a motive for murder, let alone killing six at once! If there's a story behind this, it's most likely bloodstained."
"But the killer treated them to a hot pot for their last meal, meaning You You likely knew the killer, and their bond wasn't bad. Otherwise, how could they be so defenseless?"
"When checking the contents of the first two deceased, Xie Wensheng also probed into their social circles, but he never suspected anyone!"
"With no suspect, and possible close ties between the six victims and the killer, what did they do to leave themselves so unguarded?"
"Contradiction! So many contradictions here!"
Thinking this, Chen Xiao couldn't help but open his eyes.