Chapter 136: Birds Leave Their Call, People Leave Their Trace

Meeting the officer's gaze that seemed to see through everything, the driver guiltily lowered his head, not daring to meet his eyes, and stammered:

"I took his money."

In a room beside the interrogation room, Yu Dazhang exchanged a glance with the other team members—this was a new development.

If the driver was telling the truth, then the two body movers in the van were even more suspicious.

Without Yu Dazhang having to say a word, a team member volunteered to go arrest the two body movers.

Inside the interrogation room, the questioning continued.

"How much did that body mover named Li Tao pay you?"

"Twenty thousand."

Once he had started confessing, the driver put up no resistance—he answered whatever the interrogating officer asked.

Hearing that amount, Yu Dazhang couldn't help but frown.

He had originally assumed this was a grave-robbing case, but as the case had developed, in his view only that one possibility remained.

But this sum was simply too much.

Four adult corpses are worth at most a little over thirty thousand, and that doesn't even include transport costs.

Just to win over one hearse driver cost twenty thousand.

A little over ten thousand left—split a few thousand each between the two body movers?

Take such a huge risk for a mere few thousand yuan?

Not worth it.

Grave robbing carries criminal liability—stealing four corpses in one go means prison for sure, and a heavy sentence at that.

He'd thought too simply… Yu Dazhang suddenly realized he'd underestimated this case.

"What did they do at the back of the van?" the interrogating officer pressed.

"I don't know." The driver spoke, then, seeing the interrogating officer staring at him, hurriedly defended himself:

"Before they got out, they specifically told me—no matter what happened, don't get out of the car."

The interrogating officer was thinking about what to ask next when Yu Dazhang picked up the mic and prompted him:

"Was there anything unusual about where they stopped, or anything different from other stretches of road?"

The officer relayed the question to the driver.

The driver's eyes went blank, as if lost in memory.

After a moment, he said with some uncertainty:

"When I stopped, I saw a minivan—one of those flat-nosed vans. It was parked with the engine off at the time, so I didn't pay much attention."

"Did you park in front of that van or behind it?" the interrogating officer asked.

This time the driver didn't hesitate and said firmly:

"In front of it. That body mover named Li Tao told me to park that way."

Yu Dazhang glanced at the time, picked up the mic, and said:

"Let's stop for now."

Whether the driver's words were true or false, continuing the interrogation had no practical meaning.

Now the case clearly pointed in one direction: those two body movers.

Especially that one named Li Tao—he'd been directing the driver the whole time.

In Yu Dazhang's view, there was still one point that didn't add up logically.

Did body movers have channels for selling corpses?

Even assuming they could contact buyers, setting their sights on the morgue was just too stupid.

The police would definitely investigate this to the end, and the families wouldn't let it go easily either.

Going this big on the first try—far too risky.

The next day.

The team tracking the corpses' whereabouts reported first.

After the four corpses left the morgue, the trail temporarily went cold.

Based on surveillance footage review, after leaving the morgue, the corpses all headed to the southwest corner of the hospital.

Because that area was a small grove of trees, surveillance didn't cover it.

The team members also found the four corpses' footprints based on the scene investigation.

Strangely, tracing the direction of the footprints, they found the corpses had all left the grove from the same direction.

But after that, none of the surveillance cameras at the various gates picked them up again.

As if they were still lingering inside the hospital.

"Quite a thorough plan."

After hearing the report, Yu Dazhang narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and asked:

"Has the tech division gone to investigate?" "No." That team member shook his head:

"The tech division hasn't been notified yet."

Actually, in their view, there was simply no need to keep investigating that small grove.

The four corpses did vanish from there, but they were only passing through.

At most they left footprints—continuing to investigate would be a waste of time.

"Get the tech division, we'll go together." Yu Dazhang gave the order.

"Yes." The team member responded and immediately made arrangements.

Half an hour later.

In the small grove behind the morgue of Qingpu Hospital.

The technical team members began collecting footprints in the grove.

Please... go ahead.... bookmark 6... 9... book.... bar....!

Yu Dazhang stood at the edge of the grove, his eyes sweeping over the trunk of every tree.

"That tree." He suddenly pointed at a tree in the center of the grove and said:

"Go take a look under that tree."

The two technical team members immediately followed the direction of Yu Dazhang's finger and arrived beneath the tree.

A moment later, one of them said:

"The footprints here are concentrated and dense, indicating that someone stayed here for a long time."

"How many people's footprints?" Yu Dazhang asked.

The technical team member quickly replied:

"Four."

Then there's no mistake... Yu Dazhang spoke again:

"There's a strangulation mark on the trunk, roughly one and a half meters above the ground."

A strangulation mark?

The two technical team members glanced at Yu Dazhang's position, estimating he was at least ten meters from the tree.

To see a strangulation mark on the trunk from that far away?

What kind of eyesight is that!

A tree trunk is different from a wall—it's wrapped in bark.

Let alone a strangulation mark, even if a piece of bark fell off, it would be hard to spot from that distance.

Although the two had doubts in their hearts, they didn't speak them aloud.

They stared at the spot on the trunk, searching bit by bit.

"There really is one! Right here, right here..."

Both of them simultaneously discovered a strangulation mark at about one and a half meters above the ground, with slight traces of bark peeling off above it.

Just as if it had been strangled by a rubber band.

"Can you tell what was used to strangle it?" Yu Dazhang asked loudly.

"Wait a moment." After examining it, the technical team member replied:

"An object with flexibility, but with a low degree of flexibility, and with a downward gravitational characteristic."

"A rope can be ruled out."

"A waist belt or similar can also be ruled out."

"Downward gravity..."

The other technical team member suddenly thought of something and immediately chimed in:

"It looks like it was strangled by soft plastic—I know, it's a plastic bag with something inside!"

"The weight must be at least five jin or more to produce such a strangulation mark."

Geese leave their call as they fly, people leave their traces as they pass... Yu Dazhang nodded with satisfaction.

Exactly the same as his own deduction.

No matter how careful the other party was, no matter how thorough the plan, as long as they had lingered somewhere, they would definitely leave traces behind.

People don't simply vanish into thin air.

Corpses don't run off on their own either.

Everything was nothing more than designed by human hands.

Indeed, a bit clever... Yu Dazhang had to admit that although the other party's design was clumsy, it did show some thought.

It gave him the feeling of a very smart person, under time pressure, coming up with a cornered-animal-leaps-the-wall kind of solution.

Hasty, yet shrewd.

"How did you come up with this?" Yu Dazhang muttered to himself:

"Do you take the police for fools?"

(End of this chapter)