Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Bloodstained Pants_1
February 15, 23:42
The guard room was packed with people.
Mr. Hu’s fingers danced across the keyboard, tap-tapping a flurry of commands to find the surveillance feed aimed at the observation room. He adjusted it to 11:30, then fast-forwarded the playback.
As the footage flickered, a nurse came out of the room, placing a yellow plastic bag at the doorway. There was a lot of foot traffic, and a cart bumped into the bag. However, as time progressed, the bag didn’t move.
Just as the time-jumped to 13:07, an old man in a green cleaning uniform came by, steadily collecting trash. Passing by the observation room’s door, he seemed to ask those around about the bag, which he then picked up.
Mr. Hu hurriedly switched the surveillance feeds, continuously changing views, watching the cleaner throw the bag into the medical waste bin and push it straight to the backyard. Xu Dayuan slapped his forehead, and Mr. Cao, with his unruly hair, stomped his foot as well.
"Today is Monday, and if we go by the schedule before the New Year, the trash sent around one o’clock is probably already hauled away. Go check quickly!"
With that, he was the first to run toward the backyard. He and Xu Dayuan hadn’t known each other long, and if it weren’t for something urgent, Xu Dayuan wouldn’t have called him over in the middle of the night. Now, he was breaking out in a cold sweat.
Arriving at the backyard, a guy with a big ring of keys was already rushing up, unlocking the medical waste storage. What came into sight were huge trash bins, and Mr. Cao, breathing heavily, patted his thigh in relief.
"Thank goodness, it hasn’t been taken away!"
Looking at the piles of trash bins, Zhou Ning’s temples throbbed. With six bins in a row and seven or eight rows of them, not to mention the pathway in between, these weren’t neatly arranged. How long would it take to find what they were looking for?
Xu Dayuan snatched the keys, then gestured to Mr. Cao.
"Tell them not to use this warehouse for now. I’ll have people search through the trash. By the way, do you know who the cleaner is?"
"I know who he is, but you can’t find him at night."
Xu Dayuan waved his hand.
"When he comes in tomorrow morning, have him come here to see if he can remember where he threw the trash."
Mr. Cao nodded.
"Okay, arrange someone to send me back."
"Come on, get back by yourself."
"You’re not sending me, where are you off to?"
Xu Dayuan, indicating Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao, discontentedly said:
"These two idiots only know how to work. They haven’t eaten since lunch, and if they don’t get food now, they’ll be good for nothing tomorrow. You just go home. Your wife won’t let you eat this or that, and later on, I’ll still be the one to face the complaints."
Mr. Cao gritted his teeth and wrapped his down jacket more tightly around himself.
"Misfortune in human form, how did I make a friend like you? Alright, I’m off."
With that, Mr. Cao quickly left. Mr. Hu also came over at this time, nodding to Xu Dayuan:
"Mr. Xu, I’ll head back now. The phone’s almost handled, but I need my computer to sort it out. I’ll finish it by tomorrow morning and send it to you, so I won’t come back to your office."
Xu Dayuan grasped Mr. Hu’s hand and gave it a firm shake.
"Thanks for your hard work. No need for courtesy now. I’ll have someone escort you."
Mr. Hu waved his hand and left with a detective. Liu Changhai came over, looking at the heap of garbage with a face full of dismay.
"Mr. Xu, are we going to dig through the trash now?"
"Don’t ’we’, you lead your men in the search. Didn’t you see what the garbage bags looked like in the surveillance? It’s best if we find them tonight, so we can send them for examination."
Liu Changhai nodded reluctantly.
"But we don’t have any equipment!"
Mr. Zhao grinned and came over, noisily raising his hand as if he wasn’t bothered by the task at all.
"I have investigation suits in my trunk, newly acquired, over a dozen sets, plenty to go around."
Liu Changhai raised his fist toward Mr. Zhao, who dodged with a laugh. Everyone was tired, but this was their way of finding some amusement among the struggles. They distributed the investigation suits, and Xu Dayuan gestured to Zhou Ning and Mr. Zhao.
"You two hurry up and leave, go home for a meal and some sleep. Your task is done for now. We’ll talk about everything else tomorrow."
"Ah, weren’t you going to treat us to a meal?"
Xu Dayuan slapped Mr. Zhao on the back.
"Enough talk, we’ve been busy all day, and it’s late at night. The buffet is on a tab; once the case is closed, I’ll treat you all, alright?"
Mr. Zhao nodded in satisfaction, and without further ado, they got in their cars and headed home.
...
The next morning, as Zhou Ning just arrived downstairs at the detective squad’s building, he heard shouting from behind and paused to look. It was Mr. Zhao, stuffing his clothes full, apparently holding something. When he saw Zhou Ning looking, he patted it as if showing off a treasure.
"You haven’t had breakfast, have you? I brought some pork burgers and black rice porridge, and they’re still warm."
Zhou Ning felt a bit embarrassed.
"I’ll treat you next time."
As they were speaking, a voice popped out from above.
"Did you bring my share?"
"Master, you came early."
As the two climbed the stairs, they saw Liu Yongxin holding a teacup, and Mr. Zhao scratched his head.
"I only brought two portions. Zhou Xiaozhou and I are the same; we wake up late and don’t like to have breakfast. After all, bachelors don’t have anyone to cook for them. Doctor Liu, how come you didn’t have breakfast? Offend the wife?"
"You brat, your mouth warrants a beating. Of course, I ate. I heard you guys were busy until the wee hours?"
Zhou Ning nodded and followed Liu Yongxin into the forensic office, with Mr. Zhao not seeing himself as an outsider, following in and sitting down, placing the food he’d brought down one by one.
"Got home after twelve, don’t know if Liu Changhai and the others found the clothes?"
Liu Yongxin waved his hand, signaling them to eat quickly.
"Didn’t find them, the cleaning old man went, took quite a few people with him to search. It’s easier to search in daylight. The old man said, by the door are all previously stored items, after all, these medical wastes aren’t cleared out every day. Let’s eat, and wait for news."
The two wolfed down the food, and as Zhou Ning ate, he opened his computer. There were no new emails in his inbox, which surprised him, especially since Xu Dayuan had made it clear to the city bureau that the case’s tests were urgent.
"Master, the test results haven’t come through yet."
Liu Yongxin wasn’t surprised at all.
"The city bureau is short-staffed, just got back to work a few days ago, the backlog of work is huge, us being anxious is useless, let’s wait!"
Zhou Ning nodded, knowing he was anxious but also recognizing that there was no point in rushing. After finishing breakfast and cleaning the table, he tidied the room, then poured himself a glass of water and also sat at his desk.
Yet, his mind wandered to the idea he discussed with Xu Dayuan the night before, wondering if there had been any progress in the investigation into Zhang Xin.
Waiting was the hardest part. At 13:50, Mr. Liu burst in, beaming with joy and holding up a yellow plastic bag, smiling at the group.
"Found it, found the clothes that Zhang Xin lost!"
Zhou Ning sprang to his feet in a flash, quickly put on his gloves, and approached for a closer look.
As soon as the bag was opened, a strong stench hit them, and the frozen stiff clothing was dumped onto a plastic sheet. Zhou Ning carefully unfolded it, revealing a set of pink coral fleece pajamas with black lace trim.
The sleeves and chest area bore slash marks from a knife, with blood on the sleeves and smudged bloodstains where the fabric had been cut. Of course, there were also many blood spatters; this type of fabric doesn’t get soaked easily, but once blood splatters onto the fleece, it’s just as hard to clean.
They set the clothes to one side and unfolded the pants, where dark purple bloodstains could be seen at the crotch and rear. Zhou Ning quickly located a camera and started taking photos of each item.
He then searched for a prior full-body photo of the victim. Although the shorts were a darker color, the pattern of the blood soaked into the fabric was still distinguishable.
After comparing them, Doctor Liu didn’t need Zhou Ning to say anything before he excitedly slapped the table.
"The patterns are almost identical. Although contaminated by urine, the stains on the back are purely blood. Quickly cut out a piece and send it to the Eighth Hospital for blood comparison. Send the pants and shirt to the city bureau’s inspection center as a whole, and note down that all bloodstains must be matched against both individuals’ DNA."
Liu Yong nodded emphatically.
"I’ll send it for testing right now. Xu Da said to let you take a look before deciding the order of the tests."
Zhou Ning had already cut out a piece of the pants fabric from the rear and placed it in an evidence bag to toss to Mr. Zhao.
"Let’s split up. That way we’ll be faster."
Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhao didn’t waste any words and quickly left. At that moment, Zhou Ning’s phone rang, flashing the name Mr. Hu.
"Doctor Zhou, phone data recovery is done. I just called Xu Da. He said to copy the data to you. He’s interrogating some female assistant. Are you in the office now?"
"Yes."
"Oh, good, I’ll be right up."
After hanging up, a few moments later, there was a knock at the door, and Mr. Hu walked in, nodded and smiled at Zhou Ning, then came over to his computer, inserting a hard drive to export the files.
Inside was none of the phone’s various apps, but rather two phones’ neatly arranged documents: one for the contact list, one for text messages, and one for QQ conversations. Of course, the regular uses of that QQ account, like various drawings and so on, weren’t copied over, but the contents specific to each person were all marked with names.
After thanking Mr. Hu, who left with a smile, Zhou Ning quickly printed out the QQ conversations and text message contents.
Skimming through them quickly, Zhou Ning paused at one part of the content.
Liu Yongxin leaned in.
"What’s up?"
"This Mrs. Qin is no simple character! I wonder how Xu Da’s interrogation is going?"
