Chapter 253

April 17, 2015, 9:00 AM, Longhu Reservoir, Jiangnan District, Zizhen City.

On the vast lake surface, except for a few elderly anglers, police lights were flashing on the shore, and all the people coming and going were public security police officers in police uniforms.

When Gu Changzheng stepped into the scene, the morning mist was steaming up from the Longhu water surface. The mist was steaming, the lake surface was full of mist, and fifty meters away it was completely blurry, and nothing could be seen clearly!

The old angler outside the cordon was still chattering to the young police officer: "The float suddenly sank, I thought it was a big fish, who knew! Oh my! Scared me to death..."

On the shore not far away, forensic doctor Old Zheng squatted on the slippery steps, the stainless steel instruments in his hands glowing with cold white light on the blue and white waterproof cloth.

The deceased was stuck face down between the floodgate grilles, his navy blue jacket inflated like an airbag by the water flow.

Luo Fei scanned the back of the deceased's neck with an investigation light, and a red spot the size of a fingernail glowed with a strange luster under the strong light!

"Time of death?" Gu Changzheng asked while putting on latex gloves.

"Measured water temperature 7.2 degrees, which delayed the corpse phenomenon." Old Zheng lifted the deceased's eyelids, "Moderate corneal opacity, combined with the degree of rigor mortis..." The dissecting scissors suddenly stopped at the deceased's right finger gap, "Wait, this color is wrong."

The tips of the deceased's three fingers were pink, as if painted with diluted strawberry jam.

Luo Fei leaned in and sniffed, his brows suddenly tightened: "Almond smell?"

———

The exhaust fan in the autopsy room made a humming sound like an old motor.

Gu Changzheng looked at the corpse under the shadowless lamp. In front of his eyes, it was still three days ago. That day, Chen Guodong under the camera lens of the TV station was receiving the Environmental Contribution Award, and behind him was the comparison chart of Longhu before and after governance.

Gu Changzheng still remembered that the sentence "Let industrial wastewater become living water that can be drunk directly" in Chen Guodong's award speech had been played for thirty seconds during the evening prime time on the news channel!

————

"There are a large number of bleeding points in the alveoli." Old Zheng's tweezers picked up a piece of lung tissue, "Typical drowning fluid irritation reaction."

"So it's drowning?" Gao Ye highlighted it in his notebook.

"But there are no defensive injuries in the nasal cavity and trachea." The scalpel turned to the throat area, "Look, the glottis is smooth, there are not even water grass fragments—as if someone pressed him into sterile saline."

Ye Lin suddenly raised the evidence bag and said: "Captain Gu! This was found in the deceased's pants pocket."

Gu Changzheng looked over upon hearing this. Only saw that in the evidence bag in her hand, half a melted chocolate was oozing brown grease in the sealed bag, and blue-green crystals were attached to the edge of the silver tin foil, as if some chemical substance had crystallized... From the packaging paper remaining on the outside of the chocolate, it could be seen that this was a brand of chocolate called Ferrero...

———

In the large conference room of the Municipal Bureau Criminal Police Detachment, the whiteboard for the case analysis meeting was divided into three sections.

Luo Fei drew a timeline under "Longhu Reservoir Monitoring": "The deceased entered from the east gate at 1:23 AM and appeared on the camera of the lakeside plank road at 2:04 AM." On the projection screen, the figure in the navy blue jacket was holding the railing and coughing violently.

"The point is here." Gu Changzheng froze the screen at 2:07 AM. The deceased pressed his chest with his left hand and staggered two steps, suddenly turning over the railing. The moment the water splashed, half a reflective object flashed at the edge of the monitoring.

Gao Ye pulled up the 3D terrain map: "The entry point is in the monitoring blind spot, but according to the parabolic calculation, the maximum water entry distance of an adult jumping autonomously will not exceed 4 meters." He used a red marker to circle a radius on the map, "And the position where we salvaged the body is 12 meters away."

"Water flow speed 0.3 meters/second, the body needs at least 40 minutes to shift to this distance." Old Zheng slapped the autopsy report on the table, "But the deceased's real drowning time was within 15 minutes after entering the water."

The conference room suddenly fell into silence. The air outlet of the central air conditioner made a hissing airflow sound, as if it was also quietly waiting for the answer!

"There are three contradictions." Gu Changzheng drew an acute angle broken line on the whiteboard with a marker, "First, those who enter the water autonomously will instinctively close their breath, but the diatom content in the deceased's lungs exceeds the standard by five times—indicating that he breathed violently underwater."

Luo Fei touched the scar on his chin and continued: "Second, there is a mechanical paradox between the water entry position and the body discovery point." The black pen tip in his hand moved to the third point, "Most importantly, 200mg/kg of barium chloride was detected in the deceased's stomach contents."

At this time, Xiao Sun's laptop suddenly made a prompt sound.

"The deceased's call records!" The young criminal police exclaimed, turning the screen to everyone and saying, "Received a call from an unknown number at 1:47 AM, and the base station is located at the abandoned weather station on the southwest bank of Longhu."

Gu Changzheng's pupils contracted slightly—the southwest bank of Longhu! That is exactly the hidden exit of the Huasheng Chemical Plant's sewage pipeline.

When the technical department sent the chocolate test report, it was raining cold rain outside the window.

Old Zheng irradiated the crystals on the tin foil with an ultraviolet lamp, and the blue-green light spots bloomed with spider-web patterns in the dark.

"Barium chloride dihydrate, this crystal form requires strict control of crystallization temperature." He pointed to the spectral analysis chart, "This substance will release highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas when decomposed by heat."

Luo Fei suddenly grabbed the scene photo: "The burn on the deceased's right palm! At that time we thought it was scratched by the gate rust..."

"It is a second-degree burn caused by contact with high-temperature objects." Old Zheng pulled up the microscopic photo, "The epidermis shows wavy carbonization patterns, consistent with the characteristics of instantaneous high-temperature radiation."

Gu Changzheng got up and put on his coat, the glass window reflecting the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes: "Go! Go to the weather station."

The iron gate of the abandoned weather station was ajar, and the smell of mold mixed with the smell of rust rushed towards them. Luo Fei scanned the dusty console with a flashlight and suddenly saw a pool of water that had not yet dried. Gu Changzheng squatted down and picked up the white powder at the edge of the water stain with his fingertips.

"Aluminum hydroxide." He observed the crystal structure against the light, "Common component of water purification agents."

Gao Ye found charred paper ash in the corner. When Ye Lin dipped a cotton swab into the residue, she suddenly frowned: "There is a bitter almond smell." The portable detector made a sharp buzzing sound—cyanide reaction positive.

Gu Changzheng's mobile phone vibrated at this time, and Xiao Sun sent the latest information: "Huasheng Chemical Plant declared equipment maintenance two hours ago, but thermal imaging shows its wastewater treatment workshop is running at full load."

In the night, Gu Changzheng looked at the faint red light in the direction of the chemical plant, and the rain silk wove into a dense net in front of the car lights. The sound of a cargo ship's whistle came from afar, like a long sigh.

At this time, Gu Changzheng, who was already a member of the Party Group of the Zizhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, Deputy Director, and Captain of the Criminal Police Detachment, looked at the rain curtain in front of him with a solemn face—this is an unusual murder case!