Chapter 196 - 196 188 Code Number

196: Chapter 188 Code Number 196: Chapter 188 Code Number Two boats, four frogmen, scoured the reservoir for a day and indeed found four more body bags. Because the body bags were smaller in size and weight, they were more widely scattered, and it was more difficult for the frogmen to retrieve them. However, the real difficulty lay in the enormous pressure and responsibility. Leaders from Qinghe City Bureau were continuously contacted by phone, with inquiries about the situation. This naturally led to constant calls to the autopsy room where Wang Lan was. By the time the four body bags were brought in, the four corpses from before were still not finished. When the forensic doctors saw the four new small body bags, there was a solemn look on their faces. Several of them glanced at Jiang Yuan, signifying an escalation in crime and the possibility of more remains. Jiang Yuan, rendered helpless by their stares, could only say, “Keep boiling. If new body bags keep coming, don’t even think about sleeping.” Wang Lan also sighed, looked at the forensic doctors who had worked through the night, and suggested, “Why don’t we take turns resting? One group sleeps first...any volunteers to stay?” “I’ll stay,” Jiang Yuan stepped up, having caught a few hours of sleep the day before during his mealtime, so he wasn’t very tired. Two other young forensic doctors and Niu Tang chose to stay as well. Wang Lan, obviously, couldn’t escape the task, so he let the others go rest while the four remaining forensic doctors continued working. After all, the people may rest but the pots will not. Reflecting on this, Wang Lan sighed again and said to the detective who delivered the body bags, “Do me a favor and pass on a message to bring over two more pressure cookers.” The detective, who had been keeping a straight face, couldn’t hold back any longer and began to retch deeply. “Go vomit by the drain, not on the autopsy table, otherwise, plan on sleeping here tonight,” Niu Tang jumped high just like the detective, with an even louder voice. The detective, who was no longer young and must have been about thirty, had been on the job for nearly ten years. With two children, on the brink of divorce, huge pressure from mortgage payments, and rising living expenses, he no longer wanted to attend class reunions and emptied his bladder with a dribble and a drip, but otherwise seemed to be getting by in life. Normally, he wouldn’t be driven to vomit. But today’s scene, with its extreme shock value, from the visual and olfactory assault to the psychological impact, exceeded the decade-long threshold of the junior officer. Vomit... As the detective vomited, the heat from it hit the drain, and the odor that should never be pleasant wafted up, processed further by the detective’s mind... Vomit... Disgusted, Jiang Yuan and the others fanned the air as they heard Wang Lan hurry the rest, “Those of you going to rest, get moving. You have 8 hours, no more than 10, then come back to switch places.” Although there were 12 forensic doctors, some were older and some liked to shirk work. Like Doctor Ye from Longli County, who was also present, being idle and lazy in the background and not very helpful. Wang Lan had no authority over him anyway. The city bureau’s forensic doctors were only different by work unit, not necessarily ranking higher than him. Moreover, this time, forensic doctors from various places were supporting the city bureau. They were here to assist, so Wang Lan couldn’t use them to the point of exhaustion. After a while, only the last few people remained in the autopsy room. They continued to watch over the two pots boiling bones. Why did it have to take so long? Using an analogy that wasn’t quite appropriate but quite “expressive,” consider how during New Year’s, it takes the entire family a long time to cook half a pig—how much effort did that take? Here, there were four bodies, and they all needed to be boiled until the flesh came off the bones. The ventilation fans worked desperately, their whirring sound unable to clear out the stifling heat in the autopsy room. Jiang Yuan then opened up another new small body bag, took a DNA sample as usual, sampled the water, left some residual tissue, then renumbered the iron bucket, scrutinized each piece of the remains, and packed them back in. There weren’t any clues on the surface of the flesh, so once a body had finished boiling, they could just dump the remains into the pot to continue cooking. The forensic autopsy room now used oversized stainless steel drums that could hold 50 pounds each—if it wasn’t for the slower cooking time, they could have cooked directly on the stove. After looking over two body bags, and onto the third, Jiang Yuan let out a long sigh. “What’s wrong?” Wang Lan asked, looking over. “Found three arms,” Jiang Yuan shook his head and promptly opened the fourth body bag. Indeed, body bags one, two, and four likely belonged to the same person. Bag number three belonged to someone else. “Now the pressure is on the frogmen.” One of the young forensic doctors probably broke down from exhaustion and laughed miserably, “If they can’t find the remaining two body bags, they better not even think about coming up.” Jiang Yuan ignored this remark, dragged over a large stainless steel drum again, and began attempting to piece together the remains from body bags one, two, and four on the autopsy table. “Not too bad, most of it’s there except the head,” Niu Tang came over to help, showing an “I knew it” expression and said, “It’s no surprise that the killer, who throws far and buries near, would come up with a trick like throwing the head further than the body.” Throwing the head farther than the body is a common tactic in criminal investigations. Because it’s widely believed that the head can most easily reveal the identity of the deceased, criminals involved in dismemberment cases tend to handle the head separately, either discarding it further away or hiding it elsewhere. From the tactics of “throwing far and burying near,” and “throwing the head farther than the body,” it’s clear that the killer doesn’t understand modern criminal investigation techniques very well and is unlikely to be someone who enjoys studying and gathering information. It’s more likely that they are an ordinary person who evolved into a killer step by step. “Four plus two, six people in total,” Jiang Yuan stated as he opened body bag number three, which contained mostly upper body and torso remains, likely belonging to another male. “I’ll make the call,” Wang Lan said, but didn’t immediately move. Instead, he pondered for a moment before saying, “Let’s divide the tasks.” Everyone looked at Wang Lan. “Let Jiang Yuan start with the analysis of the bones to see if any clues can be found.” Wang Lan continued to explain, “We’ve all seen the situation now; these bodies might not be all there is. We need to find something quickly. Not to lock down, but at least to narrow down the investigation area. Otherwise, once the news spreads and social unrest begins to ferment, if the killer gets wind and runs away early, it’ll be trouble.” Wang Lan signaled Jiang Yuan to get started and said, “We are now racing against the clock. We can’t let the killer have the chance to set up in advance, or to destroy evidence, or to change their behavior...” In short, finding some evidence before the killer gets the message and locking down some information is beneficial for solving the case and for prosecution. That was what Wang Lan was trying to convey. Upon hearing this, Niu Tang let out a foolish-sounding laugh and said, “You mean, our skills are not as good as Jiang Yuan’s, so let him take the lead, while we continue to play the role of the cook...” “I didn’t realize you were so committed to anthropology,” Wang Lan said condescendingly to Niu Tang. Niu Tang gave a sheepish smile and said, “I’m just talking nonsense.” He hadn’t even pointed out his talent in forensic anthropology yet. If Wang Lan were to ask him to join in, he would be exposed for his incompetence. The other two young forensic doctors had nothing to argue about, their understanding of anthropology was limited to what it was. These days, forensic doctors are in short supply, and there are too many corpses, but there are never enough corpses for teaching purposes. Relying solely on schools and training, it is practically impossible to train forensic doctors with skills in anthropology; they can only learn more by watching and practicing on the job. Like now, watching is enough. Seeing that Wang Lan was backing him up, Jiang Yuan stepped back from his meat-boiling post and returned to the dissection table to study the bones. Corpse number 3 was a male, in his thirties, with a height of 1.75 meters. Corpse number 4 was a female, in her forties, with a height of 1.65 meters. In summary, the first batch of four corpses provided the special investigation team’s forensic doctors with two middle-aged males and two middle-aged females, who had average heights and average degrees of dental wear, and ordinary life habits. The so-called ordinary people are the type forensic doctors like the least. Especially in forensic anthropology, they hope to find individuals with unique traits from specific groups, as this allows for an easier determination of a victim’s identity through simple bone fragments. The “special” required here is just to be different from the norm, not necessarily truly extraordinary. For instance, if corpse number 1 had been a 20-year-old who had given birth, and also had a height of 170 centimeters, then running through the hospital’s system would likely make it easy to find a match. Or, a 45-year-old or older female who had never given birth and also had a height of 170 centimeters, a subsequent investigation would probably yield results as well. Jiang Yuan looked at the bones over and over, seemingly aimless in his examination. Wang Lan also kept quiet and focused on boiling the corpse pieces vigorously. This task was the most tiring and dirty, and as the person in charge, she felt uncomfortable escaping it for any reason. On the other hand, when Jiang Yuan and she were piecing together the bones, he had already demonstrated an ability in anthropology far beyond hers, and Wang Lan felt there was no need to interfere with Jiang Yuan’s work. The dissection room gradually quieted down again. Everyone was working exceptionally hard. At this moment, after bending over corpse number 3 for twenty to thirty minutes, Jiang Yuan finally spoke up, “This corpse is quite peculiar.” “How so?” Wang Lan, as if wound up by a spring, immediately rushed over. “There are axe chop marks here,” Jiang Yuan indicated the rib bones at the back of the chest. Wang Lan, startled, asked, “Is that the cause of death?” Finding the origin of the corpses was important, but if they could determine the cause of death, that would also be great. However, Jiang Yuan said, “It doesn’t seem like it. His ribs were all chopped with something similar to an axe. But for the leg bones and so on, a cutting machine was used.” “Using both an axe and a saw?” “Right.” “That’s having an idea. Could it be that the axe couldn’t get through, so they switched to a cutting machine?” Wang Lan came over to have a look and indeed saw the characteristic wedge-shaped cuts of an axe. A light went on in her mind as this situation often meant the body was a link in a series. But Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, “The use of the cutting machine is not much different from the other corpses. As for the axe, it seems to be used quite skillfully. There is no learning curve visible.” This was actually part of tool mark examination in trace evidence, and Jiang Yuan did not know much about it, only able to give a rough idea. What was more captivating was the issue of proficiency. If there is no growth in the learning curve, it means the killer is either a professional or they had previously practiced on other bodies. But such exciting speculation can’t be made recklessly, and since they were still searching in the reservoir, they would wait for the results. Wang Lan also heard the implication and frowned, “This person has a pretty complete set of tools.” “And needs a big space to work in,” Jiang Yuan added. All said and done, these things are still far from pinpointing the killer. Qinghe City is full of small factories, with early-planned industrial parks that the government had hoped would attract large high-tech plants, not one of which came, leaving them all leased to local small processing workshops instead. In addition to that, the villages and towns also have all kinds of small workshops. The oil pressing workshops, honey bottling plants, and others that died off 20 years ago are now reviving just as they were. They’re on their way to dying off again, but that doesn’t prevent some people from courting death inside them. “Let’s get more specific,” Jiang Yuan brought the conversation back on track. “Go ahead,” Wang Lan nodded. Jiang Yuan went through them one by one: “Number 1 had dental work, porcelain crowns. We can start searching from this angle.” “Number 2’s right humerus had a fracture, which definitely would have been treated at a hospital.” “Number 3, judging by his lumbar spine and leg bones, he might have been engaged in heavy physical labor.” “Number 4. Wore high heels for many years, had teeth corrected.” Jiang Yuan was trying to give each corpse a direction for investigation. Wang Lan immediately felt relieved. With so many details, they should be able to find the body’s origins. Perhaps by finding one body, they would find the killer.