Chapter 58: Chapter 58 Distant Throw and Nearby Burial_1
Zhou Ning chuckled twice, his sudden action leaving the two men baffled.
"The hardness of the human skull ranges between 3-4, while natural marble’s hardness is between 3.5-5.5. I couldn’t find a more suitable stone, so let’s use this one for our simulation.
Let’s test with three actions: hitting with both hands held sideways, hitting with one hand vertically, and hitting with both hands vertically. Then we’ll compare the fracture marks on the marble to visually understand how the killer struck the victim."
Xu Dayuan nodded.
"The test is fine, but why are you passing the marble to me?"
"I’m too tall; it’s not easy for me to hit it from above."
Mr. Zhao, not minding the hassle, stepped forward, flashing a grin as he handed the wrench to Zhou Ning.
"No worries, I’m short. You do the smashing."
Zhou Ning rolled his eyes.
"I don’t have the strength. Let’s just get on with the experiment."
Mr. Zhao, without further ado, put on safety goggles and raised the wrench with both hands held sideways.
"Boss, once you’re ready, I’ll start!"
"Aim carefully, if you hit my hand, watch your head."
Mr. Zhao shivered, his face filled with a bitter expression.
"Boss, don’t scare me, here I go."
With that, Mr. Zhao swung the wrench sideways towards the marble slab, chipping off some fragments, but it did not break apart. Xu Dayuan also turned over the slab to examine it, feeling the strength of Mr. Zhao’s hit, surprised that it hadn’t shattered.
"It didn’t break?"
Zhou Ning nodded and marked a 1 on the marble slab with a marker, then motioned to switch to the second slab. This time, Xu Dayuan held his hands out flat, grasping horizontally, while Mr. Zhao held the wrench with one hand and smashed down.
With a ’crack,’ the marble slab shattered diagonally, the point of impact scattering many small fragments, and the crack also branched off diagonally from the point. Xu Dayuan took a look.
"This piece of marble has a crack, next time avoid this brownish-red pattern when you hit, aim for the white area instead, let’s try again."
Zhou Ning hurried to mark the spot, then stepped aside, allowing Mr. Zhao to take his third swing with both hands around the wrench, crashing it downwards.
This time, the marble slab did not split, the wrench becoming embedded into it. Zhao Xinli exerted some energy to wiggle it free, pulling the wrench out. The shattered area was indeed shaped like the head of the wrench, a round C-shaped indentation, but the damage was severe, suggesting the killer did not have Mr. Zhao’s strength.
"It seems Doctor Zhou’s analysis was correct; the killer struck the victim on the head with a vertical, downward blow while the victim was bending over."
"What I don’t get is, dressed like that, in such cold weather, what could make the victim squat down obediently without noticing and then get hit in the head?"
Xu Dayuan fell silent, Zhou Ning pursed his lips, looking back and forth between the wrench and the chipped marble, and quickly returned to the autopsy table, restoring the victim’s scalp to examine the damaged area closely.
"The killer hit the victim with full force, but didn’t have as much strength as Zhao, Yet there’s another issue, just like Mr. Zhao’s action just now, such a hit would lodge the wrench in the victim’s head. How would he pull it out?"
Mr. Zhao scratched his head, pressing one hand on Xu Dayuan’s shoulder while shaking the other behind his head.
"By pressing down on the shoulder or head and giving it a shake, it would come out."
Xu Dayuan nodded along, having had the same thought, but his eyes widened in a flash.
"Are you talking about the clothes, that there might be traces left on the victim’s clothes? I remember the recent lab report stated that they found male DNA on the extraction from the victim’s wounds that didn’t belong to the victim?"
Zhou Ning smiled. It seems the subconscious actions of people are quite similar. He walked straight to the evidence bag containing the victim’s clothing, spread it out on the stainless steel surface, and as he searched, he said,
"That unknown male DNA, I suspect, is blood. The killer had wounds on his hands, and considering the abrasions on the victim’s nose and brow bone, I suspect the victim had a struggle with the killer, injuring him, and then the victim was pushed down. As the victim was trying to get up, the killer hit her on the head from behind."
Zhou Ning said this as he looked toward the deceased’s fingernails. During the autopsy, he had noticed that the fingernails were trimmed extremely short, almost to the point of cutting into the flesh. Given her profession, Zhou Ning initially didn’t think much of it, but now, he suspected it might not be for that reason.
He pulled over the LED magnifying lamp and closely inspected the fingertips. The trimming of the nails was very neat, not the sort of job done by clipping around the edges with a nail clipper, but cut bluntly in one go.
Zhou Ning waved over to Mr. Zhao.
"Bring me the Luminol Spray, and spray some on the deceased’s nails!"
"After soaking in the water for so long, could there be any blood trace left?"
Despite saying so, his actions didn’t stop; he found the Luminol Spray and came close to Zhou Ning, carefully spraying around. On both sides along the edges of the deceased’s nails, a faint blue-green fluorescence could be seen.
Xu Dayuan also came over. After all, he had many years of experience in handling cases and immediately realized what was happening.
"Did the deceased scratch the murderer, and because the murderer has exceptional counter-surveillance abilities, he didn’t forget to trim off the deceased’s nails when dumping the body, to eliminate any traces that might be left behind?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"I think we should search the reservoir carefully, especially within a twenty-meter radius from the shore. Perhaps we will find the murder weapon, which he wouldn’t have taken with him. Moreover, the murderer’s home should be in the opposite direction of the Baima River Reservoir, because after all, we always say ’cast far, bury near’."
Xu Dayuan took out his phone and walked to the side to make a call.
Zhou Ning moved the LED magnifying lamp over to the deceased’s clothing and carefully examined the back of the shirt, inch by inch. When he reached the right shoulder, he noticed what seemed like three strips of tape visible in the reverse side. Zhou Ning fiddled around with it from the front and side for quite some time but couldn’t make out the material. After touching it with gloves on, it still felt sticky and seemed somewhat reflective.
How could it still be sticky after soaking in water for so long, unless it was some kind of glue?
Mr. Zhao let out a surprised noise and quickly came over, thinking for a moment before speaking.
"This is fluorescent paint."
Zhou Ning looked puzzledly at Mr. Zhao, unfamiliar with this substance and not recalling where it might have been used. Mr. Zhao hastened to explain.
"On the highway, when car headlights shine on it, there’s a reflective strip on the median barrier – that’s a type of fluorescent paint. Of course, some nightclubs and discos also use this stuff. It dries faster than regular paint, but after soaking in water, it probably wouldn’t work – we wouldn’t have seen it on the clothes if they weren’t dry."
Fluorescent paint, hex socket screws, Prado tires, scratches, wrench, unknown male DNA, Shen Guanlin, Xu Zhanshan, Ma Xiannong, Shen Weijie—these known factors kept popping up on the transparent screen in front of Zhou Ning’s eyes.
Zhou Ning had a headache. Although knowing an unknown DNA, it was impractical to bring in every male associated with the deceased for a comparison.
Xu Dayuan returned, and without waiting for Zhou Ning to speak, Mr. Zhao had already briskly recounted their recent findings. Zhou Ning looked toward Xu Dayuan.
"Xu Da, I think we still need to look for clues from Shen Guanlin. Even though Shen Guanlin has an alibi for the 21st, we still need to go through the surveillance footage again."
Xu Dayuan took out his phone, found a video, and played it. It was in fast-forward mode.
"We’ve already downloaded the surveillance footage. Chunyang and the others have analyzed it carefully. Shen Guanlin indeed had surgeries throughout the day on the 21st. At 6:30 pm when he got off work, he left for 38 minutes, then received a call and came running back with a box of takeout in hand.
We’ve verified that too. It was the head surgical nurse, notifying him of an emergency operation. The last operation ended at 23:10, and he arrived at their residential complex at 23:32, saying he walked home.
The two periods without surveillance were 22 minutes and 38 minutes respectively. In such a short time frame, the fastest round trip from the Eighth Hospital to the Baima River Reservoir would take at least 45 minutes. I find it unrealistic."
Zhou Ning squinted, thinking that this timeline must have been studied over many times. Indeed, the time was insufficient for murder and body disposal. But then, Zhou Ning thought of Shen Guanlin’s son and pulled down his mask.
"Did you check into Sun Ailing’s car, Xu Da?"
"Asked around indirectly. It’s a car her father gave her as part of her dowry. Usually, Sun Ailing drives it, though I suspect Shen Weijie drives it occasionally."
Mr. Zhao came over, shaking his head continuously and clicking his tongue.
"Rich people - a dowry car worth nearly a million? What does her dad do?"
Xu Dayuan flipped through messages on his phone, and Zhou Ning, peering closer, saw it mentioned Qindao Xingmu Outdoor Advertising Company. His eyes lit up.
"An outdoor advertising company. Xu Da, check out that car. We just found three strips of fluorescent paint on the deceased’s shoulder. I think their company might use hex socket screws too, right?"
