Chapter 141: There Is Such a Thing as Makeup Art

Yu Dazhang had already looked into the case at the top-tier hospital before.

At that time, he had suspected the hospital wanted to take the child's organs.

Later, after consulting professionals, he learned that organs must be transplanted from living bodies.

One could tell just by looking at the hospital's requirements for donors.

Either brain death, or signing the consent form with the family at the moment of impending death.

There was another method to extend the time: within half an hour after the heart stopped, remove the organs and perform cold perfusion.

Obviously, the four corpses in this case did not meet these conditions.

Yu Dazhang pinched his brow twice, feeling somewhat irritable in his heart.

Cases that rush against time are the hardest to handle.

Tracing the clues step by step, by the time the lead is found, the corpses will likely already be destroyed to cover up the crime.

"Today is the fourth day since the corpses went missing," Yu Dazhang said, staring at the time on the monitor.

He had a premonition that even if they found the suspect now, it would be too late.

The other party was so eager to get the bodies, probably... A thought suddenly popped into Yu Dazhang's mind.

"Do you think it's possible the suspect used stolen corpses to make up the numbers?"

Saying this, he himself felt it sounded absurd.

It lacked logic and seemed out of nowhere, but for some reason, he always felt this was also a possibility.

"Make up the numbers?"

Sure enough, the team members beside him didn't understand:

"Make up what numbers? Where to make them up?"

Yu Dazhang irritably scratched his head; obviously, his own mind was also a tangled mess.

It was as if a ball of yarn appeared before his eyes, but he simply couldn't find where the thread started.

Seeing his troubled expression, everyone fell silent.

Veteran criminal investigators had basically all encountered this situation.

Clearly having a lead, yet unable to start; once figured out, everything becomes clear; if not, one gets stuck in a dead end.

"We shouldn't focus all our attention on the morgue; think outside the box..."

Yu Dazhang's eyes gradually grew sharp as he stared at the members of the task force and said:

"Besides the morgue, where else can corpses be stored?"

Upon hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought.

That's right; this was indeed a direction worth considering.

Four corpses missing for four days; how did the other party preserve them?

The maximum storage time in a morgue is two weeks, and that is only if the corpses are placed in a freezer to prevent decay.

Since the other party dared to steal four corpses at once, they must have figured out a preservation method before stealing them.

Or rather, the other party didn't need to prepare anything special; preserving corpses was simply no difficult task for them.

Besides the morgue, where else could this be done?

After a brief silence.

"I know!" One of the team members suddenly looked up at Yu Dazhang:

"The funeral home!"

Prompted by his reminder, the other team members also realized it.

"Right, the funeral home can also preserve corpses, and there are more methods; besides low-temperature storage, there are specific chemical solutions for embalming."

Once a train of thought was opened, everyone's thinking became more active.

Everyone began to discuss the matter.

Yu Dazhang did not join in, but continued watching the surveillance video.

Ten minutes later, the group's discussion gradually stopped.

"Dazhang, how did you think of the funeral home?" one of the team members asked.

Actually, they should have called Yu Dazhang Deputy Team Leader.

But his seniority and age were right there, besides, calling him by his name felt closer.

Yu Dazhang didn't care about the title; that was just how it was within the system.

Not calling him "Little Yu" was already being polite.

"It wasn't me who thought of it," Yu Dazhang pointed at the surveillance screen:

"I discovered it while watching the monitor."

"Although we can't see the four people's full faces on the monitor," "we can still tell their appearance is different from normal people."

"Pale, ashen complexions, sunken eye sockets, and faint bluish-purple spots on both cheeks."

"Obviously, they had applied makeup beforehand."

Saying this, he specifically found a clearer frame and pressed pause.

Everyone immediately crowded over, looking carefully at the four people on the screen.

"It really is; this makeup is quite skillful," one of the team members exclaimed.

Another team member pointed at a man on the screen and said:

"Look, there's a ligature mark on his neck; this must be the one who hanged himself in the psychiatric hospital, right?"

"So detailed; the ligature mark looks too real."

Yu Dazhang didn't interrupt them, just listened quietly.

After a while, the team member sitting closest to him asked:

"Since we already know they prepared in advance, putting on some makeup shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Please... s.... ave.... 6.... 9.... b.... oo.... k....!

Playing a dead person definitely requires smearing something on the face.

A living person's complexion is rosy and flushed — you can tell at a glance.

This is common sense; even ordinary people know it.

"That depends on what kind of makeup." Yu Dazhang explained patiently:

"Anyone who works the shift in the mortuary has seen every kind of corpse there is."

"An ordinary person putting on a dead-person makeup for themselves could never fool the attendant on duty."

"Not only did they fool them, they even scared the attendant into fainting."

"Which means the makeup on their faces was extremely lifelike."

"Anyone who can do a dead-person makeup to that level must be a professional."

Once he had put it that way, everyone present understood completely.

Being able to disguise a living person as a dead one — ordinary people don't know this kind of makeup art.

Even on film and TV sets, those special-effects makeup artists who paint dead-person makeup can't pull it off.

In film and TV, at most they make the face a bit paler and draw the eyeliner a bit deeper.

For war films it's even simpler — smear some ash on the face, dab on some fake blood, and lie down on the ground.

Those special-effects makeup artists on set have never even seen a real dead body.

Anyone who knows this kind of makeup art has to meet two conditions:

One, they deal with corpses year-round and know very well what a person looks like after death.

Two, they can do makeup — and at a professional level.

Only one kind of person meets both conditions.

A mortician!

Also called a funeral director.

Morticians usually fall under the jurisdiction of the civil affairs department; they are staff at a funeral home.

This is also one of the reasons Yu Dazhang has set his suspicions on the funeral home.

Being able to preserve bodies for long periods, plus having professional morticians to help with the makeup…

Those two points alone are enough to arouse suspicion.

Bold hypothesis, careful verification… Yu Dazhang was running deductions and analysis in his head.

Suppose it really was people from the funeral home who stole the bodies.

Then what was their purpose in stealing the corpses?

The funeral home already has bodies on hand — wouldn't it be easier to just steal from right under their own noses?

Why go out of their way and take such a big risk to steal from the hospital's mortuary?

The logic doesn't hold!

Unless…

To make up the numbers!

Yu Dazhang returned to his original deduction, but this time, what lay before his eyes was no longer a tangled mess.

There was a loose thread.

Precisely because a funeral home is a place that can store bodies, that's exactly why there could be a shortage of bodies.

As for why there's a shortage of bodies — that can't be deduced; it's only a hypothesis.

Next, he switched perspectives.

Yu Dazhang tapped the tabletop lightly, his eyes unfocused as he stared ahead.

"If I were the body snatcher."

(End of this chapter)