After Lu Junchi’s fussing, both Su Hui and his cat finally woke up.
Su Hui obediently got up, quickly washed up, and changed clothes.
As it approached 8:30, Su Hui finally emerged from his room in his shirt, which he had tucked into his pants to accentuate his slim waist.
Fully awake by this point, Su Hui expressed some regret, saying, “I’m sorry for oversleeping. I’m not hungry, so I won’t eat breakfast. Don’t be late later.”
However, Lu Junchi handed him a cup of hot milk and a steamed bun, saying, “Finish the milk and eat the bun on your way.”
As Su Hui drank the milk and ate the bun, he glanced up at Lu Junchi.
When the two of them got in the elevator, Su Hui was still nibbling on the bun.
Lu Junchi had already eaten one of these buns that morning, and he had placed a sheet of paper underneath it. However, upon seeing that Su Hui hadn’t noticed the paper and that a small piece of it was missing, he began to sweat profusely, while Su Hui continued to enjoy his breakfast.
“Wait, there’s something on the bun,” Lu Junchi quickly snatched it from Su Hui’s hand and removed the remaining sheets of paper. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, “It’s all gone now. Go ahead and eat it.”
Su Hui simply replied with an “Oh” and took the bun back, taking a bite and saying, “The skin of the bun isn’t as chewy as it used to be…”
He made up his mind to check the food thoroughly before giving it to Su Hui next time.
After all the fuss, Su Hui arrived at work on time and without incident.
The other members of the task force had already arrived, and the case files were finally complete.
After listening to Captain Qi’s introduction of the case and investigation progress, everyone got to work. Lu Junchi made the work arrangements and brought Su Hui and the forensic examiner to follow Captain Qi to the second crime scene.
Captain Qi’s real name was Qi Zhengyang. He was an old captain of the Criminal Investigation Department II of the General Bureau, in his forties, and had a somewhat conservative demeanor. He was the one who led the team to initially investigate the case when it was brought up to the local bureau, so he came along this time as well.
The crime scene was a duplex penthouse. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom were downstairs, while two bedrooms and a study were upstairs. The area of the duplex was not small, estimated to be close to two hundred square meters. In the crowded and expensive city, owning such a well-decorated residence meant that the family was considered middle class.
The crime had happened only two days ago, and the other family members had temporarily moved in with relatives. The crime scene was still well-preserved.
Su Hui put on gloves and shoe covers. As soon as he entered the house, he smelled a strong, heavy scent of blood, which made him cough a few times.
Lu Junchi also scanned the environment of the crime scene. Then he looked at Su Hui. Interestingly, whenever Su Hui picked up the documents or arrived at the scene, his lazy demeanor disappeared, replaced by a focused and dedicated one.
Su Hui first took a look at the first floor and observed the marks on the ground. Various labels and markers had been placed by the evidence examiner. The number one position was where the body of the deceased, Xie Peilan, was located, and the number two position was where the mother-in-law fell and was injured.
Starting from position number one, Su Hui followed the fixed line on the scene photos and examined the body’s marks. It was clear that Xie Peilan was lying flat next to the TV cabinet.
The autopsy report received that morning confirmed that the victim died from multiple head blows, resulting in a skull fracture, severe brain injury, and bleeding.
Then Su Hui’s gaze fell on the blood stains on the wall. These blood stains were obviously formed by the spraying of blood from Xie Peilan’s severe injury.
It was the largest bloodstain on the scene, and the large red area was blurry in his eyes.
Su Hui took a step closer, and only then did he see the blood spots around the bloodstain clearly.
The duplex building is exquisitely decorated, with a layer of dark floral wallpaper on all the walls. The bloodstains on the walls were sprayed onto the wallpaper.
With the development of forensic technology, blood has become important physical evidence in criminal investigations. Blood not only contains a lot of information, but the *spatter pattern is also worth studying. Due to the color, texture, flow, and permeability of blood, which are different from other liquids, the spatter pattern has its particularity. There are even specialized blood spatter pattern analysts abroad.
Compared to complicated lies and perjury, blood spatter patterns are often one of the most difficult pieces of information to fake.
In the absence of a body and other physical evidence, bloodstains can present many clues. Looking at the dark red bloodstains on the wall, Su Hui frowned slightly. He had been to some crime scenes before and had seen many photos taken after the crime, but this bloodstain on the wall was different from what he had seen before.
The bloodstains seemed to be alive like they were spread out by a brush and bloomed into beautiful flowers on the wallpaper.
These bloodstains seemed to be trying to tell them something…
After Su Hui entered the room, Lu Junchi had been observing the bloodstain. He leaned in and asked, “Is there a problem here?”
Su Hui nodded and said, “I need to take a closer look.”
He used his gloved fingers to trace the range of the bloodstain on the wall. When he reached the low area on the ground, he knelt down. He had just recovered from his waist injury, so it was not very convenient, but he didn’t mind getting his pants dirty.
Lu Junchi reminded him carefully, “The ground is dirty. Why don’t you put something down?”
Su Hui didn’t mind at all and said, “I’ll just wash my pants later.”
Su Hui carefully looked at the bloodstains on the wall and turned to ask Qi Zhengyang, who was standing beside him, “Captain Qi, the testimony you asked about earlier was that the grandmother heard unusual sounds and went downstairs to check, right?”
Captain Qi sighed, “That’s what the husband and father-in-law said. I went to the hospital this morning and asked the grandmother who had just awakened. She also said the same thing.”
Su Hui said, “Then it’s very likely that these people are all lying.”
