Chapter 60: Telegram from the Dead at the Funeral

Chapter 60: Telegram from the Dead at the Funeral

Chapter 60: A Phone Call from the Dead at a Funeral
Du Yu asked the technicians to mark out all the groove interfaces that matched the size, the number of which was far greater than the number of He Yunke's dismembered body.

"These grooved joints are almost all in the upper part of the concrete base, so they are not easy to find."

The bronze sparrow and the base are upper and lower structures, and the cast connection part is in the middle of the whole statue. The whole statue is about eight meters high. Even if the bronze sparrow occupies the majority, the height of the concrete base below is higher than the height of an average man.

Zhou Shi said: "If the cleaner had hidden in the huge groove in the middle of the base for the load-bearing column on that rainy night, it is possible that he could have fooled the security guard. He is old, and the situation was bad at the time. The base was slippery and he was afraid. I guess the security guard would not climb up the base to look carefully."

While he was scaring himself, there was a murderer wearing a raincoat and carrying several lives hidden less than one meter away from him, quietly waiting for him to leave. No one could guarantee that the "cleaner" who had been participating in the crime as an accomplice would not kill an innocent security guard.

It can be said that was the day the security guard was closest to death in his life!
Du Yu thought about it and said, "In other words, the exact time when the cleaner dumped the body was not when the base was completed two months ago as we deduced, but when he cut up He Yunke's body and put it into these grooves two days before the ribbon-cutting ceremony?"

The technician next to him scratched his head and said, "When the statue was being assembled, couldn't the workers on the construction team find that there were foreign objects in the grooves? And how did the murderer know which spare ports were redundant and which ones could be used?"

To use a simplistic and inappropriate example, the statue is a Lego toy. There are many protruding copper columns at the bottom of the bronze sparrow, and there are sunken interfaces on the concrete base.

Even the construction team didn't know how many interfaces would be used when the statue was finally assembled, otherwise they wouldn't have reserved so many for backup at the beginning of the design.

Xu Yiqing thought for a moment and replied, "Is it possible that the [cleaner] dumped the body after the statue was assembled? After all, the bronze sparrow statue has been installed on the concrete base, so it is clear which joints are not used and have been filled in by the construction team."

Du Yu frowned. "The ports are sealed with cement. How can we stuff a body in there? This is back to the original point of the problem."

Xu Yiqing said: "The initial paradox of this case is that the time of death of the body and the time of cement solidification are too far apart, several months apart. But if it is a few hours... I guess it takes time for cement to solidify. Boss Dai just said that it only took them one morning to install the bronze sparrow, and they didn't even have time for lunch."

Du Yu looked at the technician next to him. For today's trip, he specially brought the youngest person with the highest education in the bureau.

A top student majoring in Criminal Science and Technology at the People's Public Security University, he is good at physical and chemical testing techniques and crime scene investigation.

“How long does it take for cement to set?”

"It depends on the material of cement. Generally speaking, cement setting is divided into initial setting and final setting. Initial setting time refers to the time from when cement is mixed with water to when the cement begins to lose plasticity. Final setting time refers to the time from when water is added to when the cement completely loses plasticity. The national standard is that the final setting time of silicate cement shall not exceed 390 minutes, and that of ordinary silicate cement shall not exceed 600 minutes."

“National Standard…” Zhou Shi spread his hands: “I don’t think this construction team will follow the national standard.”

Du Yu winked at the technician and said, "Go to the construction site and ask the workers."

The technician understood what he meant and went out for a walk and came back.

"As soon as I went out, two people followed me. When they saw me asking questions, they told the workers to stop talking and get back to work... But I still asked, and they told me it was ordinary cement."

Du Yu stroked his chin and said, "Ten hours. If they finish at 10 noon, it will be evening by the time the cement hardens."

Xu Yiqing continued, "I don't believe they would be so abiding by the rules that they would specially arrange people to wait until the evening for the cement to be fully plastic. Most likely they would come in the morning to check the effect the next day, and if there are no major problems, they would sign the delivery agreement with Fumei Group."

Du Yu asked again: "Before the cement is completely dry, is it difficult to dig out a cube of about 50 to 60 centimeters long and wide?"

The technician thought for a moment and said, "It's a bit difficult, but if we just need to get the body parts in before the cement dries, it will be much easier."

[Cleaner] After all, there was only one person committing the crime. It was impossible to dig out the cement and then pour it again without the assistance of any equipment or vehicles.

But in theory it could be done by stuffing the body parts in before the cement dries...even if it would cause some flaws in the cement after it solidifies.

But after the statue was assembled, no one cared whether the extra grooves were smooth and beautiful after being poured with cement. After all, they were blind spots and it would be a thankless task to check them.

As long as the joints of the bronze sparrow meet the acceptance criteria, both Party A and Party B will be satisfied.

He Yunke's body was quietly buried under the statue he designed.

This also indirectly shows that the [Cleaner] may have had contact with Zou Yi for a long time and was able to plan such a corpse dumping behavior. The [Cleaner] must have seen the drawings designed by He Yunke, so he would be so familiar with the process of making the statue separately to the final splicing, and he would know that many grooves for splicing were reserved on the concrete base to hide the body.

So she froze He Yunke's body and chopped it into appropriate sizes at the right time.

Chillingly meticulous planning and action capabilities.

And if you calculate the time, [Cleaner] almost seamlessly connected the Baxia Village fire and the statue corpse case after the Li Yueyue case. She helped Liu Zhuhua find a way to defraud insurance while helping Zou Yi solve the domestic violence.

It can be said that she had just burned Li Cheng to death, and then she chopped He Yunke to death, froze him, and then cut him into more than ten pieces with a saw!

The method of disposing of the body is basically clear, and Du Yu can issue a report on the case.

This incident had a significant impact on Jiangcheng Municipal Government and Fumei Group, especially Fumei Group. After this incident, many senior executives resigned and also applied for protection from Jiangcheng Public Security Bureau.

Even the dumbest businessman should have sensed that the various cases since the Chinese New Year were targeting the Fumei Group, and that someone did not want this multinational company to settle in Jiangcheng or have anything to do with Jiangcheng.

The three members of the task force knew that the "someone" mentioned by the Fumei Group was actually only one person, but they had not yet figured out why the "cleaner" targeted the Fumei Group...

Or why all these people in the photo are related to Fumei Group.

Eventually, the corpse-hiding statue case was combined with the previous cases and treated as a serial case. Jiangcheng police issued a nationwide wanted notice for the "Cleaner," offering a cash reward to anyone who provided clues.

So, on the private enterprise aggregation platform People's Bounty, in addition to the wanted online fraudster Moumou Peng with the lowest reward of 4 yuan, there is another number that has attracted the attention of many people.

five million.

In an era of large-scale construction in the country, five million is not a small sum. It also reflects the determination of the Fumei Group, which has announced that it will give an explanation for the death of He Yunke, a former executive of the company.

However, this wanted criminal doesn’t even have a photo, let alone any other identity information.

The only thing that Jiangcheng police could confirm was that the other party was a female with similar body proportions to Zou Yi, so they posted Zou Yi's data.
-
The funerals of He Yunke and Zou Yi were held on the 42nd day after the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Zou Yi comes from a single-parent family. Only her father and younger brothers and sisters from her hometown attended the funeral. Other relatives only sent gifts and condolences because they had to travel far away.

Du Yu and Xu Yiqing attended the funerals of the two as usual. This had become their old tradition.

Coincidentally, it rained on the day of the funeral and the weather was gloomy.

Although the rain was not heavy, it still revealed a hint of sadness in the cemetery.

He Yunke's parents insisted on giving He Yunke a Western-style funeral, so there were no firecrackers or suonas in the cemetery. There were only people holding umbrellas surrounding the cemetery, watching the old couple and their two children crying.

Unlike in the past, Lin Sheng and Zhou Shi also came today. After all, they also contributed to this case. Putting aside their identities as police officers, it is only natural for them to express their condolences to a family that has witnessed its broken apart.

There were too few family members of He Yunke and Zou Yi, even fewer than He Yunke's colleagues and friends... Outside the cemetery, Xu Yiqing vaguely saw Pan Yao standing on the outskirts of the crowd.

So he asked Lin Sheng, who was holding an umbrella for him, "Are you close to your family? I don't think you've ever mentioned your family."

He only knew that Lin Sheng's family was quite wealthy. Thinking about it carefully, he had never seen Lin Sheng mention his family.

Lin Sheng sighed: "My parents left when I was very young. I don't know where they went. Anyway, my grandmother said they went abroad for business."

Xu Yiqing asked: "Ah Sheng, are you an only child?"

Lin Sheng shrugged. "Who knows? If my parents were still alive, they might have raised another child. Anyway, I don't have much affection for them. What's the use of having money? They don't care about my grandma... My grandma is old and in poor health. Anyway, I never rely on them to take care of her myself."

After a pause, Lin Sheng glanced at his master beside him: "Brother Xu, what about you?"

Xu Yiqing laughed and said, "If I die one day, only you guys will be able to attend my funeral."

Du Yu walked over holding an umbrella and stood beside Xu Yiqing.

Mr. Lin tactfully went aside.

Du Yu said: "We have also found out Zou Yi's motive for committing the crime in the past few days. When he was abroad, He Yunke was bewitched and had some special thoughts. He hated children to the point of physical aversion. Zhou Shi analyzed that it might be because He Yunke's career was booming and he subconsciously thought that children would drag him down, so someone with ulterior motives succeeded... As you know, many religions abroad like to infiltrate the executives of these multinational companies. The Economic Department has found some financial transactions in this regard."

"After that, He Yunke became obsessed with Greek mythology. The oil painting of "Saturn Devouring His Son" is a typical example. You have also seen that painting. Isn't it creepy?"

Xu Yiqing nodded.

Du Yu said: "One of the disturbing things about the painting was the severed limbs, so He Yunke began to develop a perverted obsession with severed limbs. It happened that Zou Yi wanted to use the child to tie He Yunke down, which aroused He Yunke's dissatisfaction." "When he punched Zou Yi for the first time, everything was over. The boundaries of domestic violence are very clear, either it never happens or it keeps happening again and again. So much so that He Yunke even had the urge to use a knife on Zou Yi later, and that scared Zou Yi so much that she took the child back to her parents' home and hid for a while... That was the time when He Yunke was having an ambiguous date with Pan Yao."

Just looking at her figure, Zou Yi is undoubtedly perfect.

He Yunke's impulse to destroy the beauty of the human body is no longer limited to statues.

It was only a matter of time before he killed someone.

Zhou Shi even analyzed that the reason why He Yunke left so many grooves and interfaces in his design was probably because he left them as a backup for himself to commit crimes and dispose of bodies in the future, and they were finally used by the "Cleaner" to bury himself.

The flying bronze sparrow is actually a lock and a coffin.

In ancient times, Cao Cao used it to enjoy his grand ambitions and imprison women. During the countless nights when He Yunke stood among the statues of broken limbs and arms in the storage room, he might have fantasized about killing a woman with his own hands, dismembering her, and pressing her under the bronze sparrow he designed.

And that woman, Zou Yi is the most likely one.

Zou Yi, who finally couldn't stand the domestic violence any more, had to accept the fact that her fantasy was shattered after the cleaner came to her house with evidence of He Yunke's infidelity.

As for the cracks on the statue, technicians later analyzed that it was because of the continuous heavy rains that caused the cement to have bonding problems. And the visibility was extremely poor due to the heavy rain on the night when Du Yu smashed the statue, which led to some details being overlooked by everyone, which made the broken body embedded in the cement look irregular after being broken.

After Du Yu finished speaking, he watched the priest in black finish the prayer, and then directed everyone to place the black coffin into the cemetery.

The two men noticed that there was a bird engraved in gold on the black coffin.

"Hehe, I don't know where the two old men invited this fake foreigner from." Du Yu looked at the solemn-looking pastor and joked softly.

Anyway, he didn't have any good feelings towards He Yunke, but he felt that Zou Yi was a bit pitiful.

No matter what, she is indeed a mother of two children and has devoted everything to this family.

Although her original purpose of having a child was not pure and she also had the materialistic mentality of wanting to marry into a wealthy family, Zou Yi did fulfill her responsibilities as a mother and a wife.

On the contrary, He Yunke, who committed domestic violence and cheated on his wife, does not deserve sympathy.

Zhou Shi came over, and Du Yu, like Lin Sheng, was also very tactful and wanted to leave. He handed the umbrella to Xu Yiqing and said, "Don't always let women hold an umbrella for you."

Before Xu Yiqing could say anything, Du Yu and Zhou Shi passed by each other.

"This is my first time attending a Western-style funeral," Zhou Shi said.

Xu Yiqing continued: "After I die, I still want to listen to the sound of suona."

Zhou Shi laughed and said, "How can you listen if you're dead?"

Xu Yiqing spread his hands, remembered what Du Yu said, and motioned Zhou Shi to close the umbrella and share one with him.

Zhou Shi was slightly surprised when he saw this, and thought that Mu Tou had finally come to his senses today.

"Although it may be a little inappropriate, I still want to say happy birthday to you."

Xu Yiqing was stunned, and then he realized that today was his birthday.

Even Du Yu and Lin Sheng didn’t know his birthday, and he himself almost forgot it... because his birthday always reminded him of his younger brother, who had not celebrated his birthday in all these years, so only Zhou Shi remembered it.

It happened to be the same day as He Yunke's funeral, so it's no wonder Zhou Shi said it was a bit inappropriate.

"Thank you." He was very sincere and touched. "Would you like to come to my place later? Is there anything you want to eat..."

The next second, before he could finish his words, his cell phone suddenly rang.

Xu Yiqing took out his cell phone and saw a string of numbers with no regular pattern.

Overseas call!

Xu Yiqing looked solemn and exchanged glances with Zhou Shi.

Zhou Shi also instantly understood who was calling.

So she hurried to call Du Yu, and Xu Yiqing trotted behind her, fearing that the call would be hung up.

After hesitating for a while, he decided to pick up the phone, turn on the speakerphone and record.

There was a loud noise, followed by a man begging for mercy and screaming.

"Don't, don't... cough, don't kill me! What happened back then had nothing to do with me. I was not a participant... It was the [Forensic Doctor], [Police] and [Butcher] who took the lead!"

The sound was intermittent, with some bellows-like breathing sounds in between.

Xu Yiqing immediately realized that it was because his neck was injured and the vibration of his vocal cords was affected.

It’s He Yunke!

Xu Yiqing's eyes widened.

Although he had never met He Yunke, never communicated with him, or even heard his voice.

But I was sure at once that the person who said this was He Yunke!

So the next second, Xu Yiqing also realized that this should be a recording.

[Cleaner] is playing a recording for himself... a recording before He Yunke's death!

"sorry Sorry……"

"Say a blessing."

This audio has been processed, and it is unclear whether the person is a man, a woman, or an old person. It is obvious that the [Cleaner] made this call well prepared, and the audio was processed in segments, with an audio mosaic added to his voice.

"Happy...birthday..."

He Yunke breathlessly said the blessing as requested by the [Cleaner].

Xu Yiqing stopped running and let the rain slide down the edge of the umbrella in front of him to form a rain curtain.

The rain suddenly got heavier, and I noticed this from the weight of the umbrella in my hand.

On his birthday, Xu Yiqing received a blessing from the dead, which was forced out by his murderer.

Weird and unsettling!
Before he could think, what followed was He Yunke's screams and the teeth-shaking sound of the sharp weapon chopping flesh.

[Cleaner] hacked He Yunke to death, without any hesitation, quick and clean!

After He Yunke completely stopped talking, the phone was silent for a few seconds, and then a beep sounded, which seemed to indicate the end of the recording.

"Did you hear that? I'm sorry I didn't let Li Cheng wish you a happy birthday too." [Cleaner] said on the phone.

Xu Yiqing was sure that this was not a recording, but she was actually communicating with him on the other end of the phone!

Right now!

The cold words, the shock of He Yunke's death, and the harsh sound quality caused by the mosaic made the next words of the Cleaner sound like the whispers of the devil.

"You're next."

(End of this chapter)