Chapter 25 Fire Scene Number 8
Chapter 25 Fire Scene Number 8
The blackened window looks like a picture frame, framing the snow scene outside.
Du Yu looked out the window at the icy and snowy ground outside and frowned: "It's really freezing to death in this weather at night."
Winter is different from summer. If someone dies of freezing to death in summer, the primary death scene is easy to investigate.
Cold storage, cold chain boxes, and even some large refrigerators... Although humans have overcome the laws of nature to create many inventions, there are always traces to follow.
Too bad it's winter now.
Nature is powerful enough to kill a fragile human being.
Any outdoor venue could be the first death scene!
This undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the police investigation... Du Yu can only hope that Xu Yiqing and Zhou Shi, two experts in different fields, can help the criminal police eliminate as many wrong options as possible.
Xu Yiqing also said: "A person's body temperature only needs to be below 28 degrees Celsius to cause arrhythmia and death. When the ambient temperature is too low, people will consume calories to maintain their body temperature. Therefore, the deceased No. 7 may have been living in poverty and suffered from malnutrition."
Thin people are more likely to freeze to death, and according to the autopsy report finally sent by Mr. Lin, the height and weight of deceased No. 7 were not considered too thin.
Then she might have encountered something recently, which led to her poor health.
Zhou Shi checked the second bedroom, analyzed the doubts based on his professional knowledge, and looked for any clues.
Soon, Du Yu, who was checking in the living room, noticed something fishy.
"Lao Xu, Zhou Shi. Both of you come over and take a look."
Du Yu stood at the door of the broken living room, like a guest who had just walked in, and looked at the two people who came out after hearing the news: "Where I am standing should be the starting point of the fire in the room."
Xu Yiqing nodded: "The firefighters just said that the fire started in the yard, so the nearest main gate is the first place to be affected by the fire."
Du Yu asked: "All the windows are sealed with security nets, and the fire has blocked the only escape route. So what is the thinking of an ordinary person?"
Put yourself in their shoes, trapped in a room with all the windows sealed with burglar-proof windows, and a raging fire at the door, with no possibility of getting out.
The entire living room was on fire, and those expensive leather sofas and wooden furniture became dry fuel for death at this moment.
The flames shot up to the ceiling and the scorching heat made people tremble with fear and despair.
Where would you hide at this moment?
Xu Yiqing thought about it carefully and replied, "I will go to a place with water."
Du Yu pointed outside the door and said, "I have observed that the design of this house separates the toilet and the living quarters... There is also a well in the yard for washing vegetables, which means that the amount of water in the main house is limited."
Zhou Shi continued: "If there is no water, people will be driven by fear and try to stay away from danger... They will hide in the second bedroom."
She pointed behind her to the end.
The second bedroom is the room farthest from the main entrance.
Du Yu nodded: "But there is only the body of victim No. 7 in the second bedroom, and the others are hiding in the room closer to the fire source. Why is that?"
This does not conform to common sense. One should stay as far away from fear as possible.
Xu Yiqing looked at Zhou Shi, hoping that a professional could give an answer.
Zhou Shi closed her eyes and paced around the room. At this moment, her powerful knowledge of psychology, the countless psychological reports she had written, and the countless prisoners she had come into contact with became her experience.
She was profiling, putting herself in the desperate situation that the deceased had faced before they died.
So in her mind, the vague figures she imagined huddled together, wailing and fleeing.
However, those figures did not choose the innermost room, and were eventually choked to death and burned into a ball of charcoal.
What are they avoiding?
After pondering for a long time, Zhou Shi thought of a possibility.
She needed to verify her point, so she asked, "What are the ages of the three bodies that were poisoned by carbon monoxide hiding in the room?"
After Xu Yiqing took out the autopsy report to verify it, he said, "They are all relatively old, over fifty years old." Zhou Shi seemed to be thinking about something, as if he had figured it out. "Older people pay more attention to folk customs. The reason why they didn't hide in the second bedroom, which is closer and safer, means... they also know that there is a dead person lying on the bed inside."
In the eyes of these older people, it is difficult to be in the same room with a dead person.
Because I feel unlucky.
Zhou Shi used his expertise in profiling to infer the psychology of the older victims at the time: "When they are desperate, having a dead person around them will make them feel that this person is coming to take their lives... When their minds are blank, corpses are seen as synonymous with death, so they stay away from fire sources and corpses as much as possible."
Du Yu understood.
Since the victims present knew that there was a body in the second bedroom but did not call the police, we can rule out the possibility of the body being hidden...
The body of victim No. 7 was not thrown into the fire by the murderer, but was placed in the house by other victims!
Next, we need to investigate the identities and interpersonal relationships of these deceased persons!
At this moment, a criminal police officer from the serious crime squad shouted at Du Yu outside the door: "Captain Du, there are still survivors at the fire scene!"
Only then did everyone realize that there was an eighth person at the fire scene.
They still had vital signs when they were rescued, so No. 1 to 7 were sent to the Forensic Department for autopsy, while the survivor No. 8 was sent to Jiangcheng People's Hospital.
Du Yu said: "Go to the hospital, I smell a clue."
Jiangcheng People's Hospital.
If you look carefully in the bushes at the door, you can still find the debris of firecrackers set off during the New Year parade, but the debris representing the New Year atmosphere is also isolated on the other side of the road.
The place is filled with the same solemnity and sadness all year round; even the Spring Festival cannot make the hospital festive.
Xu Yiqing walked into the hospital gate, smelled the disinfectant and odor in the air, and felt an atmosphere completely different from that of the forensic autopsy room.
In the forensic department, there is only awe for the dead and a desire for the truth; while in the hospital there is more despair of all living beings.
Sometimes an illness can crush a person or even a family.
In the inpatient department of the emergency building, the three members of the "Accomplice" task force met the only survivor who was rescued from the fire.
They looked through the glass of the ICU emergency room at the man who was still unconscious with severe burns all over his body, imagining how much pain he had suffered in his life.
The doctor in a white coat told everyone: "Seventy-five percent of his body is burned. His condition is critical and he is still in danger of death."
Du Yu asked: "Can you predict when I will wake up?"
The doctor shook his head: "I can't guarantee whether he can wake up."
There was a cry coming from the corridor outside the emergency room. It was from a middle-aged woman in her fifties. She was so fat that she was obese. Her eyes were already hidden by her cheeks and were now completely invisible. She was crying, which made her expression even more distorted.
"My son!!"
The woman was crying for the man in the ICU emergency room.
Du Yu asked: "Are you from Baxia Village?"
When the woman saw Du Yu’s police uniform, she felt like she had grabbed a life-saving straw and cried, “Government, you must save my son!”
Zhou Shi said: "The doctor will do his best. We want to find you to understand the situation."
After calming the woman down, the task force members learned some information from her.
The woman's name was Wang Xiaocui. She was a native of Baxia Village, the current wife of the village chief, and the mistress of the mansion that had been burned down by fire.
Lying in the ward was her little son.
(End of this chapter)