Chapter 15 Fingerprints from the Absence Scene

Chapter 15 Fingerprints from the Absence Scene

Chapter 15 Fingerprints from the Absence Scene

Du Yu naturally knew the reaction principle of luminol reagent.

Even blood stains from ten years ago can react with luminol reagent to form fluorescence, which is an indispensable step in criminal investigation.

Xu Yiqing is a forensic doctor and has absolute say over any corpse and autopsy, while Du Yu is a senior criminal police officer and is more professional in analyzing crime scenes.

He carefully observed the large pool of luminol fluorescence and concluded, "Something is stuck inside, and someone left blood behind to try to get it out."

Du Yu thought for a moment and said, "It definitely can't fit in a human. It could be an organ, or it could be some other smaller animal, like a fish... or a dog."

Ever since Li Yueyue's body was found, this horrific case has been linked to dogs.

Whether it is the dog meat in Li Yueyue’s stomach, the kneeling dog skeleton, or the doghouse under the big willow tree, or the suspected small animal in the cracks in the wall.

Xu Yiqing measured it and said, "A dog probably can't get in. It's two fingers wide. It's hard to imagine it's a pet dog."

An ordinary pet dog is too big to fit in there.

Du Yu said: "The case is important, take Zhao Xiaomeng back first."

In the interrogation room of the serious crime squad.

During the day it was Zhao Qianyu, and in the evening it was his daughter.

Zhao Xiaomeng was obviously not as fearless as her father. After entering the interrogation room, she said nothing and was as silent as a lamb.

No matter who the other person is, even if it is a young girl in her prime, Du Yu will treat everyone equally as long as they enter the interrogation room.

So he used the same seriousness he had used after interrogating Zhao Qianyu: "Where were you the night before yesterday?"

Zhao Xiaomeng still kept her head down and remained silent.

Du Yu knocked on the interrogation table with his knuckles. "It will do you no good to say nothing."

The serious tone and the disturbing environment around it weighed on Zhao Xiaomeng's nerves all the time.

This is an interrogation room, and there has never been such a thing as a friendly face since ancient times.

Sometimes this kind of powerful oppression is also one of the ways police handle cases and conduct interrogations.

Finally, Zhao Xiaomeng couldn't bear the pressure anymore and spoke in a voice as soft as a mosquito: "I'm at home."

Du Yu frowned and shouted: "You are lying!"

Zhao Xiaomeng looked flustered: "I'm not lying, I'm really at home!"

Perhaps because she was eager to explain herself, her voice suddenly became much higher than before.

Du Yu immediately showed her the few surveillance footage from the night before yesterday around Huimin Garden: "Then why did the surveillance camera capture you?"

Zhao Xiaomeng's face changed the first time she saw the surveillance footage, and she shook her head desperately: "This is not me, I have short hair, not long hair!"

Du Yu's originally suspicious look immediately turned serious, and the police officer in charge of taking the statement and Xu Yiqing also heard something.

Under tremendous psychological pressure, Zhao Xiaomeng still revealed her flaws.

Du Yu narrowed his eyes, "I haven't said which one is you yet."

The few surveillance cameras that were still working were all at intersections with a large flow of people. Even the professional criminal investigation police officers had to look at each frame for a long time before they could identify the person suspected to be Zhao Xiaomeng.

Zhao Xiaomeng just took a quick glance and flatly denied that she was captured on camera.

This made Du Yu, who had many years of experience, immediately sense the problem.

Zhao Xiaomeng was also a little panicked. She realized that she had said the wrong thing and quickly made up for it: "I just stayed at home the night before yesterday and didn't go anywhere, so I didn't need to look to know that I was not in the video." This is the truth, but if she said "the person in the surveillance video is not me", she could still make an excuse.

But she was talking about the length of hair.

Du Yu had no intention of continuing to argue with Zhao Xiaomeng. After all, he would have admitted it long ago, and any further stalemate would only be a waste of time.

When an experienced detective investigates a case, he doesn't need to get to the bottom of it. He can actually tell the answer from the suspect's look or gesture.

"We asked the owner of the barbershop you often go to, and she said you went there yesterday to cut your long hair. Why?"

Maybe a man would suddenly want to change his hairstyle, but a woman would never cut off all her long hair for no reason.

There must be some special reason.

Zhao Xiaomeng guessed on the way that the police might ask this question, and immediately said: "I don't have a job, and I don't have much pocket money, so I sold my hair... I still have a few hundred yuan from selling hair in my WeChat, if you don't believe me, just look at it."

As she spoke, she took out her cell phone and showed Du Yu her WeChat transfer records.

Du Yu asked a lot of questions about time and details after that. Zhao Xiaomeng remained silent after realizing that she would make mistakes if she spoke too much. No matter how he asked her questions, she didn't say a word, which caused the record-taking work to come to a standstill.

After returning to the office from the interrogation room, Du Yu discussed countermeasures with Xu Yiqing.

Du Yu said, "I am now 99% sure that there is something wrong with Zhao Xiaomeng, and she is the first suspect you mentioned."

Xu Yiqing nodded: "It does fit the description of an acquaintance, but what deep hatred does she have with Li Yueyue?"

Du Yu said: "Zhao Xiaomeng won't tell us, otherwise she would have told us her motives in disguise."

Xu Yiqing asked: "Can we only wait for her to confess her crime in person? In that case, wouldn't it be better to find a psychologist to put pressure on her to break through her psychological defenses?"

Du Yu shook his head: "It's difficult. We still have to find actual evidence... It would be great if we could find fingerprints."

There were almost no clues at the crime scene, not even fingerprints or DNA.

Of course, the serious crime team did not believe that such a clean crime scene was the work of an ordinary girl like Zhao Xiaomeng who seemed to have many loopholes.

They prefer to believe that it was the second murderer who cleaned up the scene -

The person who was so affectionate that he was willing to exonerate Zhao Xiaomeng and take the blame!
Not only does he have methods that are cruel enough to dismember people, and psychological qualities that are beyond ordinary people, he also has meticulous anti-reconnaissance capabilities.

Du Yu said: "The second murderer wiped all traces, door handles, cups, floors... He even wore shoe covers when he entered Li Yueyue's house. Such a cautious murderer is very difficult to deal with."

Xu Yiqing understood: "Perhaps Zhao Xiaomeng also knew this, so she was sure that she could escape punishment as long as she said nothing... Even cutting her hair short could have been an idea given to Zhao Xiaomeng by the second murderer."

Du Yu sighed: "I have asked my colleagues in the serious crime team to investigate Zhao Xiaomeng's interpersonal relationships to see who is helping her. But even if we find such a person, it will be useless. He will definitely not admit it."

The murderer who could commit the murder of Li Yueyue must have a strong psychological quality, and Du Yu's ordinary interrogation methods would probably be ineffective.

After a pause, he sighed, "So there must be solid evidence to make Zhao Xiaomeng speak, preferably the kind that she can't argue with... surveillance is definitely not an option."

Xu Yiqing thought for a moment and asked, "Like fingerprints or DNA?"

Du Yu nodded: "Yes, but unfortunately, the scene has been searched inside and out countless times. The colleagues in the Criminal Investigation Department almost lived at the crime scene, but they found nothing."

An idea suddenly popped up in Xu Yiqing's mind.

"Maybe... the fingerprints were not at the scene?" Xu Yiqing asked.

Du Yu was confused: "What's the use of fingerprints that are not at the scene?"

Xu Yiqing looked at him and said, "If the murderer made a mistake, I know where the fingerprints would be - the dog skeleton that we ignored and left the crime scene with Li Yueyue's body from the very beginning!"

(End of this chapter)