Chapter 45 The Corpse in the Coffin
Chapter 45 The Corpse in the Coffin
Du Yu went back to the Criminal Police Brigade. He wanted to summarize the new clues he got from Zou Yi, and then let the Investigation Department determine whether He Yunke's photo No. 2 and Liu Qing's photo No. 1 were developed from the same master.
If it can be confirmed, it means that the person crossed out in photo No. 1 is the man code-named [Forensic Doctor] in photo No. 2, and we can start checking in the household registration system.
By the way, he also had to contact the director of Fumei Company to inquire about the contents of the mobile phone so as to determine whether it would be convenient for the police from the technical department to decipher He Yunke's old mobile phone.
With the current criminal investigation methods of the police, many useful clues can be found even if the phone is an old one with a locked screen, not to mention one that has been flashed.
Maybe these old mobile phones contain the truth about He Yunke’s disappearance.
Xu Yiqing and Zhou Shi went to the renovated Citizen Park for a walk in tacit understanding.
The drizzle stopped halfway through the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The sky cleared up after the rain and the air in the park was particularly fresh, which made people feel very good.
The two of them strolled on the cobblestones of the park, discussing where to go for dinner.
"I remember there's a delicious grilled fish restaurant nearby."
"You mean the one near the cinema?"
"Yes, do you have anything to do this afternoon?" Zhou Shi used her little finger to push a strand of hair behind her ear and asked casually, "Do you want to watch a movie after dinner?"
Xu Yiqing spread his hands and said, "The grilled fish restaurant closed down a long time ago, and the cinema has also moved away."
Zhou Shi was stunned for a moment, then muttered softly: "Yeah, that's right. It's been ten years, there should be some changes."
Xu Yiqing glanced at her slightly disappointed expression, then looked at the green plants in the distance, pretending to be casual: "The grilled fish restaurant has become a bone stew, but it's still delicious. The cinema hasn't moved too far... I have to say this first, I see that the reviews of current movies on the Internet are very bad."
Zhou Shi smiled again after hearing this, "I usually don't watch bad movies, but if they are bad enough, I have to watch them to see what they are like. In case someone talks about it in the future, I just casually agreed that it was bad, but I don't know why it was bad."
These two simple lines of dialogue are a portrayal of their journey from acquaintance to love and then to marriage. Xu Yiqing, who was naive and didn't know how to take the initiative, met Zhou Shi, who was willing not to let him guess.
Xu Yiqing thought to himself that even if it was a bad movie, people would have different impressions if they watched it with different people... At least the evaluation of this afternoon's movie in his life would not be too bad.
As they walked, they unknowingly arrived at the central square of the park.
Because it had rained, the benches were wet and no one could sit on them, so they stood in the corner and watched the people playing in the square.
Near noon, workers from nearby office buildings also came to stroll around during their lunch break, taking photos and posting them on WeChat Moments.
The renovation of the park has been a big news in Jiangcheng in recent times. Today’s circle of friends is probably full of messages about missing the old park and checking in at the new park.
The elderly took their children to play in the square, and some of the children were so naughty that they tried to climb onto the concrete base.
The dog walker came with his dog and had a conflict with the elderly people. The elderly people were afraid that the dog would bite the children, but the dog walker defended himself by saying that he had a leash and the dog would not bite people.
The two sides were in a stalemate on the ground with red ears and red ears. Only the dog was sniffing around the bronze sparrow statue, and finally raised its leg to urinate to mark its territory, not caring about these human affairs at all.
After visiting the park, Xu Yiqing and Zhou Shi went to the bone stewing shop. While placing the order and waiting for the food to be served, Zhou Shi played a mischievous prank on Xu Yiqing by asking him maliciously if he would feel uncomfortable eating these bones after becoming a forensic doctor.
Xu Yiqing told her that she had already gotten used to this discomfort when she was facing the cadaver teacher in school.
After dinner, they went to see a movie.
Bad movies are really bad.
But after the movie was over, when they came out of the dark passage and let go of each other's hands as if nothing had happened, they both felt that it wasn't that bad after all.
It rained heavily for the next few days.
Xu Yiqing went to work as usual. On days when there were no bodies requiring forensic identification, he would clock in diligently and on time. He would then teach Lin Sheng and help him prepare materials for his professional title evaluation and the direction for further study.
"It's been raining heavily recently." Xu Yiqing was looking at the sky outside in the Forensic Department's office.
Mr. Lin asked, "Brother Xu, did you go to the park on the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony?"
Xu Yiqing replied: "I have been there."
Mr. Lin asked: "Have you ever seen a ghost?"
Xu Yiqing frowned: "What ghost? There are no ghosts in this world."
He is the type of person who least believes in ghosts and gods. Logically speaking, forensic doctors should not believe in these things.
Therefore, he did not want Lin Sheng to have such thoughts in his mind, which would affect his future work.
But he soon realized that he was worrying too much.
Mr. Lin said: "These are chat records that have been circulated in the WeChat group recently. They say that ghosts were seen in the park on a rainy night and that there were ghosts wandering in the park. I think it must be the group of people who are jealous of the Fumei Group spreading rumors."
Xu Yiqing then remembered that Lin Sheng's family seemed to be quite wealthy. He was a second-generation rich man with a certain business acumen.
Mr. Lin went on to say, "Fumei Group used the Citizen Park as a token of their loyalty. The park is the facade of their production activities in Jiangcheng. If something happens in the park, it will affect the reputation of the group in the local area. And those who are afraid of having their money robbed will definitely hope that something bad will happen to Fumei Group. I guess they did it... maybe there will be even worse things."
Xu Yiqing didn't understand these intrigues. He looked at the heavy rain outside the window, feeling a little depressed and frowning. He had a premonition that something was really going to happen.
“Don’t let it come true.”
-
Murphy's Law is that what you fear will come true.
After several days of heavy rain in Jiangcheng, someone discovered that the concrete base of the Bronze Sparrow Statue in the Citizen Park had cracks.
Any tiny crack in such a large sculpture would be a serious safety hazard, not to mention that there are often children playing and climbing there.
As a result, several reports were made to the municipal government.
Municipal workers braved the rain and took people from Fumei Company to conduct an on-site inspection, and they smelled a strong odor near the concrete base.
They were worried about what might have happened, so they called the Municipal Public Security Bureau again. Director Fu took the matter very seriously and asked Du Yu to bring people to the scene.
The experienced detectives detected the source of the smell before they even got close - it was from a rotting corpse!
The smell can't be covered even on such a rainy day. The problem is very serious.
Du Yu made a prompt decision and decided to demolish the sculpture.
Even though the female director of Fumei Group rushed to the scene in the rain, she was unable to stop Du Yu.
In the face of criminal cases, all capital has to take a back seat; this is the bottom line that he must not cross.
So in the evening, during a torrential rain with extremely low visibility, Du Yu called a construction team to remove the Bronze Sparrow Statue from the concrete base, and then dismantled the base.
Sure enough, human bones and body parts were found in the concrete base!
The Forensic Department worked overtime overnight. Xu Yiqing and Lin Sheng were faced with broken cement blocks that almost filled up the autopsy room. They had to separate the body from the cement bit by bit in the debris.
This is a typical case of hiding a body in cement!
Du Yu was waiting in the office next door at this moment. He looked terribly gloomy, darker than the sky outside, as if water was about to drip out.
A bad thought lingered in everyone's mind.
Xu Yiqing sent the DNA extracted from the body parts for testing, and the test results came out soon.
If the DNA of the children provided by Zou Yi is related by blood, then the identity of the body is self-evident.
"I promised the family that I would bring her some good news next time we meet! I promised!!"
Du Yu got angry in the office. He was angry at no one but himself. He punched the wall, and the thumping sound echoed in the corridor.
What made him even angrier was that he didn't know how to explain to Zou Yi where He Yunke was found.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony a few days ago, her husband was dismembered and hidden in cement just one step away from her!
While his body was rotting, he witnessed the ribbon-cutting ceremony that belonged to him, and the statue he designed was pressing on himself!
People gathered around his coffin and cheered!
Unlike Du Yu who was angry in the office, Xu Yiqing and Lin Sheng were still conducting forensic identification. They needed to be calm enough to analyze various situations and not miss any details.
It took them several hours to dig the body out of the cement bit by bit, and the actual autopsy did not begin until late at night.
The mask couldn't block out the stench of a rotting corpse at all, and even an experienced and top forensic doctor like Xu Yiqing was struggling to put on the mask.
"The age inferred from the degree of bone loss matches that of the missing person He Yunke. The age inferred from the pubic bone also matches, and the splicing is intact... It basically proves that the body parts are from the same person."
The task of identifying the bones was undertaken by bone expert Lin Sheng, who boiled the pubic bones of the corpse in a container in order to better observe the condition of the pubic symphysis.
The age inferred from the pubic symphysis surface will not exceed two years in error.
Xu Yiqing performed an autopsy on the little rotten tissue left. This was a more technically demanding job and had to be done by him.
Moreover, he was well aware of how important this case was and could not afford to be careless.
After the preliminary autopsy, Lin Sheng put down the bones in his hand, and Xu Yiqing also put down the scalpel. The two looked at each other and both noticed something strange.
"The deceased was killed recently."
"Since the body was cut into pieces and sealed in cement, it decomposed faster than usual. Based on the degree of skeletonization and the amount of tissue remaining, the time of death should be within two months... no, within a month and a half."
There is no oxygen in cement, which provides excellent breeding conditions for anaerobic bacteria in the corpse. At the same time, the magnesium hydroxide in cement reacts with silica to produce a weak alkaline environment. Alkali is corrosive to the human body, which will accelerate the hydrolysis of macromolecules and the decay of the corpse.
So, a huge question lies on the dissection table.
When sealing a corpse with cement, the time of death will definitely be earlier than the time it takes for the concrete to dry, so the corpse will be sealed inside.
However, the concrete base of the Bronze Sparrow was completed a year ago and was placed in the central square of the park, waiting to be assembled after the Bronze Sparrow was completed.
This is obvious to all. The base has never been moved since it was completed, and there is no possibility of it being replaced. Many workers can testify to this.
This time is even earlier than the time He Yunke disappeared!
So how did the murderer of He Yunke manage to dismember his body and hide it in the concrete that had already dried and solidified?
(End of this chapter)