Chapter 92: Chapter 92 It’s actually him!_1
Ring, ring, ring!
A series of urgent telephone rings yanked Zhou Ning from his autopsy training. The hangover made his head swim, and after a brief struggle, he grabbed the cellphone. Seeing Xu Da’s name, even the yawn he was in the middle of was scared away.
"Xu Da!"
"You haven’t gotten up yet?"
"If the leader has an order, just say it directly, scaring someone like that."
"Hehe, you’ve had quite a bit to drink, haven’t you? It’s past ten o’clock. Hurry up and get over to the team. Do you not remember the task you assigned me last night?"
Zhou Ning froze, racked his brain for a while, and instantly remembered. After separating from He Shancun, it seemed he had called Xu Dayuan. As for the content, it was completely forgotten at the moment, seeing as that part was somewhat fragmented. He quickly asked tentatively.
"Xu Da, I’m on my way now, but what did I tell you?"
"Zhou Xiaozhou, are you playing with me?"
Zhou Ning was scared out of his wits.
"How can that be, wait, I remember now. The direction of the investigation, I told you it changed last night. We’d focus on those private urology hospitals in the provincial city, or the fertility treatment centers that have better advertising effects. My brain’s just booted up, so I’m a little slow."
"Alright, cut the chatter and get over here."
As soon as these words were spoken, the call had already disconnected. Zhou Ning rolled out of bed, freshened up, dressed, and dashed out. Ten minutes later, he arrived at the detective squad.
He hadn’t taken a taxi since treating He Shancun to dinner last night was already an unexpected expense for this month.
Besides, if Xu Dayuan really wanted to scold him, he wouldn’t use this tone of voice. It seemed there might be a discovery in the provincial city. However, wanting the remaining alcohol in his body to metabolize quickly, he didn’t rush and instead jogged to the second floor.
As soon as he reached the second floor, he heard Xu Dayuan’s loud voice, seemingly on the phone with someone, speaking quite dominantly.
Following the sound, he saw Xu Dayuan was actually in Doctor Lu’s office, discussing something with Liu Yongxin and the others.
Even though it was Saturday, the employees of the software research group were mostly present. After all, Doctor Lu had provided them with many skulls to study—remains from the World War II era and unclaimed graves found during roadwork. In short, they had a plethora of materials to work with.
Zhou Ning had just peeked his head in when Xu Dayuan, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, shouted:
"Stop peering around; Zhou Xiaozhou, come in quickly."
"What’s the matter, boss?"
Xu Dayuan waved his hand, and Zhou Ning quickly moved to Liu Yongxin’s side. The computer screen displayed numerous surveillance images—at a quick glance, this single page alone held more than forty.
"These are surveillance videos from several private urology and fertility treatment centers in the provincial city. Dr. Lu had someone check them just now. Generally, they keep a month’s worth of surveillance footage, but they’ll save the records for a much longer time. And in the consultation rooms, they take photos of the patients for their files."
Following Liu Yongxin’s explanation, Mr. Qu adjusted the screen, and now it showed various photos from the doctor’s perspective. The photos, very clear in quality, captured both the patients’ records and their faces.
"I feel that the 3.10 case’s perpetrator knew about his abnormal sex chromosomes a long time ago, so searching the footage probably won’t yield much. We should focus on screening the records. From 2005 to 2010, anyone with an XXY abnormality should be filtered. These are the people within our investigation scope."
Xu Dayuan looked at Zhou Ning, nodding continuously.
"You don’t have to stick with 2005. See when they started keeping records and don’t miss anyone. After all, the number of such patients isn’t particularly high, making screening easier."
Mr. Qu smiled and nodded his head.
"I’ll give it a try. This will be fast. Their saved electronic medical records all have the name of the disease included."
With that said, his fingers flew over the keyboard, and shortly after, the large screen displayed numerous files. A number, 447, appeared in the search box below—this was a massive number.
Mr. Qu turned around and passed the mouse to Zhou Ning.
"Four hundred and forty-seven patients with XXY chromosome anomalies, all concentrated in these two Putian System urology hospitals. I’ll cross-reference this later with the information from public hospitals. Patients who used medical insurance can be identified by their real names, but those who paid out-of-pocket are less likely to choose their real names."
Xu Dayuan nodded, and Zhou Ning began examining a photo. Investigating every one of the four hundred plus people in detail would require an unimaginable amount of time and resources.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, have you and the forensic doctor made a portrait of the perpetrator? From which aspects should we screen?"
Zhou Ning looked at Liu Yongxin, who nodded back at him.
The meaning was clear, they were asking him to speak freely, after all, they had both studied the killer’s detailed characteristics long ago, from the strength and direction of the torture wounds to the length of the scratch marks inside the victim’s vagina.
"Based on the 3.10 case crime scene and autopsy analysis, I believe the killer is not tall, thinner than the average man, only then is it possible to lower his perceived threat level. Otherwise, a burly man, even if he pretended to be injured by the roadside, Cheng Chunyan would not have come to help."
As for age, considering the timing of the Red Dress serial killings from 2006 to now, the perpetrator must be at least 22 years old. I asked Mr. He, patients with XXY chromosome anomalies are mostly not obvious in secondary sexual characteristics or develop extremely slowly, and the youngest for a first offense would be 17 years old, meaning someone born before 1989."
Moreover, based on the scratch marks inside the victim’s body, the killer’s finger length, the longest finger being 7.5cm, by estimating normally, the killer’s hand length would be between 16-17.5cm, which is smaller than most girls’ hands, so our estimate for the killer’s height would not exceed 170cm.
Of course, there’s another point, that is the Qindao household registration, or folks from cities nearby on the coast, after all, he has considerable knowledge of the tides, because the tides around our Qindao are quite different from other places."
Liu Yongxin nodded incessantly by his side, evidently agreeing with Zhou Ning’s judgement. Xu Dayuan pulled out his notebook and quickly jotted down Zhou Ning’s words. The clues to the killer found on a corpse were very few; to have deduced this much was a tough job for a forensic doctor.
"Alright, Mr. Qu, start with the age range we laid out, and compare it to the lists of patients with the same disease we gathered from various major hospitals in the province last night. Conduct an initial screening, and we’ll do a thorough assessment and investigation of those who are selected."
Mr. Qu didn’t waste words and quickly got to work on the screening; after all, a big portion was minors, so the screening process wasn’t slow. After matching against similar patient records from key hospitals in the provincial city, the number of files remaining on the screen had dropped to only 154.
Seeing Mr. Qu stop, Zhou Ning then went over, took the mouse, and opened each file for observation. Although height was not visible, most had photos and electronic medical records, so you could still make some comparisons from their seated positions."
Zhou Ning looked through them one by one, eliminating those that appeared overly feminine with long, sharp fingernails and those with case records clearly showing incomplete genital development, until he paused upon opening a file labeled with the patient name "Yang Guang."
Zhou Ning’s action caught Liu Yongxin’s attention.
Looking back and forth between Zhou Ning and the monitor, the file date was August 12, 2004. The person wore a hat and glasses, his hands curled inside his sleeves. His date of birth was February 24, 1979. Liu Yongxin saw nothing peculiar.
"What’s wrong?"
Zhou Ning enlarged the photo, the man’s facial features filling the screen. After scrutinizing it, he turned to Liu Yongxin.
"This man is my sister Zhou Xiaoyu’s boyfriend, Cui Guanglin, whom we met last night. Though he was wearing a hat and had disguised himself, I remember the mole on his nose."
Liu Yongxin was also stunned, not expecting to encounter someone familiar under such circumstances.
"Since he has been screened, obviously he too has a chromosomal abnormality. Don’t your uncle and the others know?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, briefly explaining the events of the previous night, while Xu Dayuan also leaned in to listen.
"No wonder the kid acted like that. It seems he’s long known about his own health issues. There’s nothing worth considering about keeping this hidden. I’ll call old Zhou later to explain clearly, this kid is no good."
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"Let me handle it, it’s not appropriate for my uncle to talk about this, and even if they break up, we can’t let the other side know it’s because we found out. After all, they still work in the same high school."
Liu Yongxin nodded, patting Zhou Ning on the shoulder.
"You’re right, but since this kid has been screened, let’s see when he went for treatment so we can properly scrutinize him."
Xu Dayuan understood Liu Yongxin’s implication and nodded as well, while Zhou Ning lowered his head in thought for a moment. He recalled the details of last night’s meeting with Cui Guanglin, the handshake that did not give a strong sense of size but noticed band-aids on his fingers, which worried him even more.
Liu Yongxin bumped his shoulder, Zhou Ning looked up and smiled at Liu Yongxin, then quickly continued working.
Half an hour later, the screening process was completed, with only 32 individuals remaining.
"I’ll arrange now to verify the real information of these individuals and then start investigating one by one, focusing on the time of the incidents and whether they have any injuries."
"Yes, I agree with Xu Da’s arrangement," Zhou Ning said as he raised his hand to stop Xu Dayuan’s arm.
"Hold on, don’t rush. Xu Da, I want to confirm again, all the incident times of the serial Red Dress killings case at the city bureau."
Mr. Qu clicked on a file, all the timelines appeared on the display screen like a list, the bodies were all found in February, March, August, and September.
However, if one were to estimate the victims’ time of death, the incidents mostly happened in February and August. Perhaps that’s also the reason why the last time the city bureau came by, they determined at first glance that this case was not a series of serial killings—time was likely a consideration.
"Xu Da, we should investigate Cui Guanglin first, not because of Zhou Xiaoyu, but because I remember last night at dinner, Cui Guanglin had a band-aid on his finger. Moreover, besides this 3.10 case, all incident times were in February and August, which are the winter and summer vacation periods."
Xu Dayuan and Liu Yongxin were both taken aback and their expressions grew more serious.
"Then let’s check him first!"
