Chapter 264: A Cleaver, Four Fingers

"Pull up the stairwell surveillance." Yu Dazhang said to the uniformed security officer.

The man waved his hand:

"There's no surveillance in the stairwell."

"No surveillance?" Yu Dazhang looked at him in surprise:

"How is that possible!"

In his view, hospitals should have surveillance installed in all public areas.

If not a hundred percent coverage, at the very least transitional areas like the stairwell should have it.

"Really none," the man explained:

"The stairwell, as a passage connecting the floors, is a public area, but it can also involve patient privacy."

"Excessive surveillance could lead to violations of patient privacy rights."

"And every elevator has surveillance coverage, so installing surveillance in the stairwell as well would be an extra cost."

"Also, the structure and layout of the stairwell isn't suited for surveillance—the steps all have curved designs…"

Seeing that the man could go on forever, Yu Dazhang hurriedly raised his hand to cut him off:

"Alright, alright, I get it."

He understood now—surveillance in the stairwell wasn't a hard requirement.

So not every hospital provides surveillance coverage for transitional areas like the stairwell.

"Make a call, have the nearby police station send people to support us." Yu Dazhang ordered Liu Miao.

Liu Miao quickly took out his phone and made the call.

Yu Dazhang, meanwhile, pulled up the first-floor hallway surveillance facing the stairwell door.

He moved the mouse, fast-forwarding from half an hour ago, and soon the video reached the end.

He didn't come out?

He Tianxin was still in the stairwell!

Yu Dazhang immediately stood up, walked briskly to the monitoring room door, and said quickly to Liu Miao before leaving:

"Have the police station send people from the technical division, the faster the better, then you take the elevator to the top floor and search from top to bottom."

After saying that, he immediately broke into a jog toward the stairwell.

He Tianxin's hospital room was on the third floor, so he was most likely staying between the first and third floors.

Yu Dazhang's brain at this moment was like an overheating CPU under load, running at full speed.

Why did he go to the stairwell alone?

Could the suspect have told him to go?

That possibility wasn't out of the question—if the suspect threatened him with his family, He Tianxin would surely obey obediently.

After all, he was alive right now for the sake of his family's safety.

If that was the case, there was a new question.

How did the suspect contact him?

When he had gone to question He Tianxin earlier, Yu Dazhang had already noticed he didn't have a phone.

So the suspect couldn't have called him directly.

Have someone pass on a message?

Also impossible—that method was too clumsy.

Surveillance would quickly lock onto the messenger, and through him the suspect would be found.

Before he could sort out a lead, Yu Dazhang had already arrived at the stairwell.

He gathered his thoughts.

He first scanned the first floor, confirmed there was no trace of He Tianxin, then went all the way up to the third floor.

No one?

Just as he was hesitating whether to keep going up, he suddenly caught a salty, fishy smell, with a hint of rust.

The smell of human blood!

He looked up—the smell was coming from above.

Not daring to delay, he walked quickly upward, his right hand resting on the holster, ready to draw at any moment.

Fourth floor, fifth floor…

The smell of blood grew stronger and stronger, and Yu Dazhang's heartbeat quickened.

Finally, at the half-landing of the fifth floor, he saw He Tianxin lying on his side.

His eyes were tightly shut, his body curled into a ball, his right hand missing four fingers, with fresh blood still seeping from the severed stumps.

Beside him lay a kitchen cleaver and four fingers.

The cleaver was new, with the packaging it had just been unwrapped from placed beside it.

"He Tianxin, He Tianxin…"

Yu Dazhang drew his pistol and called out to him a few times. Seeing no response, he carefully circled around and went up another half-floor.

After reaching the sixth floor, he looked up through the gap in the stairs and saw nothing unusual.

Then he quickly exited the stairwell, went to the nurses' station, and shouted to the nurse inside:

"Someone's injured in the stairwell, on the half-landing of the fifth floor—get a doctor, quick."

Seeing the nurse acknowledge, Yu Dazhang returned to the stairwell and went up two more floors.

After confirming no one was there, he went back to the half-landing of the fifth floor, first took a few photos of the scene, then stood in place waiting for the medical staff.

By now he had already made a rough judgment in his mind: the suspect probably hadn't come.

The reason is very simple.

If the suspect had done it, they would not have left the murder weapon at the scene.

Given his awareness of counter-investigation, how could he possibly leave such crucial physical evidence for the police?

If the other party had been so careless, Ding Feng would have caught them long ago.

Soon, several medical staff arrived at the scene, bringing stretchers with them.

!

"Do not touch the kitchen knife on the ground; it is physical evidence."

Saving lives is the priority, but Yu Dazhang also needed to protect the scene as much as possible.

After the doctor performed emergency treatment on He Tianxin's wound, they carried him away on a stretcher.

"These four fingers..." One of the doctors looked at Yu Dazhang, appearing to want to speak but holding back.

Yu Dazhang waved his hand:

"Take them away, take them away."

After fingers are severed, the best time to reattach them is within six to eight hours.

From the moment He Tianxin left the ward until now, only one hour has passed; the fingers can definitely be reattached.

However, in Yu Dazhang's view, reattaching them would be equivalent to suffering the ordeal all over again.

For someone whose life is counting down, there is really no necessity for it.

This is a bit like a murderer committing suicide out of fear of punishment but failing, only to be dragged by the police to the hospital and resuscitated.

After being cured, they are sentenced to death and then shot.

A few days ago, when Xiong Da killed his stepmother, it seemed to be exactly this situation.

As soon as the medical staff left, Yu Dazhang immediately took out his phone and made a call.

After the call connected, he asked:

"Which floor are you on?"

"The ninth floor." Liu Miao answered on the other end of the phone, her voice still sounding somewhat nervous.

"I have already found He Tianxin on the fifth floor and a half," Yu Dazhang said quickly:

"But we cannot rule out the possibility that the suspect is in the stairwell yet. Be careful when you come down; I am going up to meet you now."

Although it was roughly confirmed that the suspect had not been there, such matters could not rely solely on inference.

The two met on the seventh floor very quickly.

The moment they saw each other, they breathed a sigh of relief while also revealing expressions of disappointment.

Before long, the local police arrived, immediately cordoned off the stairwell, and technical department personnel began to investigate the scene.

"Hello, we are from the Provincial Department, here to investigate the severed finger case."

Yu Dazhang flashed his ID card and then said to the leading officer:

"I urgently need to know how many people's fingerprints are on the kitchen knife."

Upon hearing it was the severed finger case, that officer's expression immediately became Heavy, solemn.

This case had long spread throughout S Province, and recently it had been spreading even more miraculously.

A serial case formed by nine incidents, which also implicated nine wrongful convictions; this was equivalent to eighteen cases combined into one.

Let alone those young police officers, even old criminal investigators who had served half their lives had never seen such a complex case.

The two new wrongful convictions Yu Dazhang recently uncovered had not yet spread; in fact, eleven wrongful convictions had now been unearthed.

"How soon can we get a conclusion at the fastest?" That officer asked a technical department member who was investigating.

That person didn't even lift their head, continuing to busy themselves with the work in their hands:

"Ten minutes."

"Thank you for your trouble." Yu Dazhang was very satisfied with such a response.

Because when Qian Cheng investigated the scene, he was exactly like this.

Focused, rigorous, and with no distractions.

(End of this chapter)