Murder Call

With so many doubts present, analyzing the motive for the crime becomes quite difficult. 

If the motive isn’t clear, then the work ahead will be tough to progress.

“Teacher Mo, have you found anything?” Wang Yue asked.

Mo Lin was standing with his arms crossed, fingers tapping lightly, a habitual gesture when he was deep in thought.

“Revenge, venting anger, but not entirely. No torture before death, yet the body was destroyed afterward, like completing an assignment… emotions and actions contradict each other…” Mo Lin said, suddenly raising an eyebrow, and then a faint smile appeared on his lips: “No solution.”

In such a blood-scented night, facing so many doubts, this smile seemed to carry a hint of disdain, and the words “no solution” made the smile seem like an illusion.

While everyone was feeling dejected, Gu Yuan noticed a hint of enthusiasm and excitement in Mo Lin’s eyes.

He was familiar with that look; Mo Lin seemed very interested in the murderer.

The more interested he was, the more complex the case was, just like a top student who only gets interested in difficult problems.

On the way back, Mo Lin was driving thoughtfully, and Gu Yuan was also immersed in thinking about the case. Neither of them spoke, and the car was very quiet.

When waiting at the traffic light, Mo Lin reached out to turn on the car radio, casually tuning the channels.

At two in the morning, the night radio was playing soothing songs, somewhat sleep-inducing, but having gone through the night’s autopsy, Gu Yuan was still quite alert.

“Do you have a criminal profile of the murderer?” Gu Yuan suddenly asked.

“This time, the profiling is challenging,” Mo Lin said. “I want to hear your profile.”

With the gentle music playing, Gu Yuan began his profiling: “From the drag marks on the field path, the murderer had to stop and rest every few steps, indicating poor physical strength. However, the footprints found at the scene were size 44, suggesting a large build, likely over 1.8 meters tall, probably male, and someone who can access a triangular bayonet, possibly someone from the military or someone who can access such a weapon.”

“Is that all?” Mo Lin smiled and said, “Even a police academy student could come up with that profile.”

Gu Yuan frowned, “So you’re mocking me?”

“I just think this profile is too simple, don’t overthink it.”

If they said another word, they might start arguing again.

Gu Yuan focused on the case and mentioned the four doubts found at the crime scene.

Mo Lin gave Gu Yuan a look of praise, “You observed very carefully, there are indeed many doubts. Besides, the cigarette butt found at the scene is also suspicious. There’s no yellow stain on the filter, suggesting he just lit it without smoking.”

Gu Yuan hadn’t noticed that: “Looks like he’s trying to mislead us.”

When they talked about the case, they were quite in sync.

Mo Lin finally tuned into a car radio station, and invigorating music floated out from the car speakers.

“Analyzing from the time, after disposing of the body, the murderer should have returned to the car and turned on the car radio. During the radio show, he lit a cigarette.

I remember he was the first caller on the show. The hotline for ‘Heart-to-Heart Night Talk’ is always busy, so he must have been very quick. This at least proves he was very calm after the murder and timed his call perfectly.

During the conversation, I sensed his calmness, but when I was about to switch to the next caller, I clearly felt his panic.

Why would someone who is calm after a murder panic because of something I said? I think it’s because I’m very important to him, or perhaps he admires me.”

Hearing this, Gu Yuan suddenly laughed unconsciously.

Mo Lin raised an eyebrow, his mood instantly improving: “In any case, he’s worried I won’t cooperate with him. But based on these clues alone, we can’t determine the murderer’s true motive. Hopefully, the autopsy results from Forensic Doctor Gu will bring good news.”

※

The body was brought back to the police station and placed on the cold autopsy table. Under the intense light, the pale skin and dark red blood stains created a strong visual impact.

“Through the victim’s fingerprints, we have identified her. Her name is Liu Yun, a local, 20 years old.”

The criminal police officer beside him had confirmed the victim’s identity, and with the source of the body found, the subsequent work would proceed more smoothly.

Gu Yuan had already put on his autopsy suit and was taking samples from the body’s surface. With gloved fingers, he gently pinched Liu Yun’s cold fingertips and carefully clipped her nails.

The freshly clipped nails were meticulously packed and handed to an assistant to extract the murderer’s DNA in the lab.

Then, he used scissors to cut away the victim’s clothing. As soon as he made the first cut, he noticed something unusual.

The fabric was highly elastic, and as soon as a cut was made, the clothing immediately stretched to the sides.

Gu Yuan moved to the body’s neck, lifted the collar, and glanced at the clothing size. The letters “XS” caught his eye, causing him to suddenly furrow his brows.

Wang Yue noticed Gu Yuan’s expression and asked, “Gu Yuan, have you found something new?”

Gu Yuan: “There’s something wrong with the clothing.”

At this, Old Yan’s eyebrows twitched: “I also think… the clothing is too scanty, not suitable for the current season. And the underwear looks like a brand name, probably expensive. Why is the outer sportswear so cheap? If it were me, I’d wear the valuable stuff outside and choose cheaper underwear.”

“You’re right, but what people wear is their own choice. Maybe they just don’t want to flaunt their wealth?” Li Meng said. “Wearing less clothing might mean she was abducted by the murderer while exercising.”

“If you insist on explaining it that way, I have nothing to say.” Yan Ji shrugged.

“The clothing is too small, clearly not the victim’s size,” Gu Yuan added. “The victim is 160cm tall and weighs 45kg. She wouldn’t choose to wear an XS tight-fitting sports outfit. Moreover, the clothing was likely changed later, as there are grass and soil stains on the victim’s back skin.”

Gu Yuan’s hypothesis made everyone present ponder.

Wang Yue took a closer look at the grass and soil on the victim’s back: “So, when the clothing was changed, the victim was lying on the ground.”

Li Meng: “How do you change clothes while lying down?”

“I believe it’s highly possible that the murderer helped her change while she was unconscious,” Gu Yuan hypothesized. “There’s a red mark on the back of the victim’s neck.” Gu Yuan cleared away some of the dirt and blood on the victim’s neck, revealing a round red mark: “This injury seems to be an electric shock mark from a police baton, with signs of life.”

Wang Yue was familiar with such marks, the round outline indeed looked like it was caused by a police baton.

“So, the person might be a security guard or someone who can access a police baton?” Wang Yue pondered, rubbing his chin. “Size 44 military work shoes, access to a triangular bayonet and police baton, likely a retired soldier now working in security…”

Halfway through his analysis, Wang Yue suddenly turned to ask Mo Lin: “Teacher Mo, am I right?”

Mo Lin was sitting on a stainless steel stool watching everyone. When Wang Yue asked him, a slight smile appeared on his lips: “No problem.”

With those five words, Gu Yuan glanced back at Mo Lin. For some reason, he felt Mo Lin was unusually silent today, but he had to continue the autopsy and didn’t think much of it.

Gu Yuan removed the necklace from the victim, and a uniquely designed necklace fell into the evidence bag. Gu Yuan took a closer look at the pendant, which resembled a “69.”

The necklace didn’t seem particularly special, so he continued examining the victim’s underwear, finding a strange fiber on it. He used tweezers to place the fiber into an evidence bag.

“What is this?” Wang Yue asked.

“It looks like some kind of fabric fiber, possibly from clothing the victim wore before. If the murderer cut off the previous clothing with scissors, it would leave such fiber fragments,” Old Yan from the trace inspection team answered.

Gu Yuan placed the fiber into the evidence bag and continued examining the body’s surface marks, suddenly noticing a very small imprint.

Gu Yuan focused on the imprint in his view.

The imprint was shallow, likely left by some hard object, preserved on the body after death, resembling a large fish symbol and a small fish symbol, arranged corner to corner in a “﹥﹤” pattern.

This imprint seemed familiar, but Gu Yuan couldn’t recall where he had seen it before.

What kind of object would leave such a mark?

Due to time constraints, he decided to conduct a preliminary semen test.

The preliminary semen test showed a negative result.

Yan Ji: “How can there be no semen?”

“Maybe the murderer used protection,” Wang Yue analyzed.

“That’s possible,” Gu Yuan said while collecting material from the vaginal area for testing. “But judging from the contraction of the cervical opening, it doesn’t seem like there was sexual assault.”

“If the murderer didn’t assault the victim, why remove her pants?” Wang Yue was puzzled.

“Could it be an attempted rape?” suggested the new criminal police officer, Zheng Mao.

The autopsy room fell into a brief silence.

“An attempted rape is unlikely,” Mo Lin said, sitting on the round stool with his arms crossed, his narrow eyes slightly squinting, analyzing unhurriedly: “The victim was stunned before death, losing the ability to resist, and the crime scene was remote, with no residents within hundreds of meters, offering the murderer the perfect opportunity. If the murderer really intended to rape, he wouldn’t have failed.”

“Either the murderer is impotent, or he never intended to rape… Interestingly, he changed the victim’s clothes to make it look like she was assaulted… I think the purpose is to mislead the police investigation.”

Everyone present respected Mo Lin’s analysis. It was well-known that Teacher Mo’s psychological analysis of criminals was never wrong.

“Why would the murderer want to mislead us?”

“He’s playing chess,” Mo Lin said. “To understand the murderer’s intentions, we need to know where his pieces will fall.”

“So, what should we do next? We need to determine a direction for the investigation, at least!” Wang Yue said.

Mo Lin glanced at the sports short-sleeve the victim wore: “Find this kind of clothing, see where it’s sold.”

Li Meng scratched his head: “A search online shows plenty of similar styles.”

Mo Lin: “Then contact the manufacturer, see which batch the clothing belongs to.”

Mo Lin’s light eyes focused on the body on the autopsy table: “The clothing is special because of the person wearing it…”

“The person wearing it?” Li Meng was completely confused.

Wang Yue was also puzzled: “Teacher Mo, what do you mean by the person wearing it?”