Chapter 217

The third son died in his own house.

This was an apartment in the city center. The area wasn't large, about a hundred square meters, but half of it was a mezzanine, decorated very luxuriously, like the American-style luxury apartments seen on TV.

The third son's corpse was lying on the mezzanine, and next to it was the corpse of his current boyfriend.

Blood flowed down from the mezzanine, not just along the stairs, but also out through the gaps in the hollowed-out railing on the front of the mezzanine.

It is conceivable that during the short time when the blood was abundant, this luxury apartment in the city center was like a "Water Curtain Cave" made of blood, with a waterfall composed of blood flowing straight down from the mezzanine, dividing the room in two.

Even now, there was still viscous blood dripping from the mezzanine or simply stretching from top to bottom.

"I really want to let the person who buys a 'haunted house' see this ghostly scene." The fatty stood at the door, looking up at the dripping blood lines, the taste of yesterday's noodles rising in his throat.

"Did your family ask you to buy a haunted house?" The thin investigator was the fatty's master and knew his family's situation.

The fatty gave a "Yeah" and said: "They think that since I'm often in contact with corpses, it doesn't matter if I live in a haunted house. And I'm young, with plenty of 'yang' energy; after living there for a while, the haunted house will improve, and when selling it, maybe it can even be sold at the price of a normal house... I firmly disagreed, so that was that."

"Not every haunted house is like this." The thin investigator looked at the blood-colored Water Curtain Cave and asked: "Why did you disagree?"

"Because I can't afford a haunted house either." After the fatty finished speaking, he asked: "Where do we start?"

The thin investigator looked at Jiang Yuan and said: "Go and assist Forensic Doctor Jiang."

This was the jurisdiction of the Qianjin District in Qinghe City, and the homicide case was the responsibility of the Qianjin District Criminal Investigation Brigade. The captain was none other than Lei Xin, whom Jiang Yuan had met before.

Lei Xin had cooperated with Jiang Yuan before on the corpse-burning murder case, so when he confirmed the identity of the deceased and knew that Jiang Yuan was working on a related case, he made the call immediately.

Now, the technicians from the Qianjin District were all sweeping the perimeter, and the mezzanine on the second floor, especially the corpses, were all left untouched, waiting for Jiang Yuan to come and handle them.

Jiang Yuan dressed neatly and went upstairs with Wu Jun.

In front of them, transparent acrylic footstools were laid out one by one, as much as possible to avoid affecting the scene, especially to avoid repeatedly stepping on bloody footprints.

The four of them lined up and walked slowly upstairs.

Two male corpses, shirtless, covered in blood, lay in a pool of blood.

Thinking that he had seen one of them just yesterday, the fatty investigator's throat felt even itchier.

"Bloody footprints must be photographed carefully." Jiang Yuan took a rough look first and then made arrangements.

Although Wu Jun was the master, he was now wisely stepping aside and taking the initiative to pick up the camera and start shooting.

At a homicide scene, the most important thing is certainly the corpse, but solving the case doesn't necessarily rely on the corpse.

Other information surrounding the corpse is sometimes easier for solving the case.

For Jiang Yuan, the bloodstains covering the scene brought too much information; he had reconstructed crime scenes so many times. And with this skill as a foundation, the efficiency of obtaining and organizing information at the scene was extremely high.

Just like the simplest fingerprint scanning—no crime scene investigation is done by looking inch by inch.

Large-area fingerprint scanning is either done by using a crime scene investigation light, shining it on, and seeing many fingerprints.

But this is mainly used outdoors. Indoors, there are fingerprints everywhere, and you still have to judge which fingerprints belong to the victim and which are the useful ones.

Otherwise, if an investigator brings hundreds of fingerprints home, it's impossible for the trace examiners not to curse.

A more common method is for crime scene investigators to analyze the start of the case based on the situation at the scene, guess the direction of the case, and then check the places where the criminal might have left fingerprints.

Just like what Jiang Yuan did yesterday. The place where a thief is most likely to leave fingerprints is near the door lock, because he has to take off his gloves to work and then wipe the fingerprints, which is very prone to mistakes. As for indoors, the thief has put his gloves back on, so looking for fingerprints is meaningless.

Therefore, if the murderer's modus operandi can be determined by reconstructing the crime scene, collecting evidence will be simpler and more perfect.

However, for today's crime scene, Jiang Yuan felt he didn't need to use this trick.

He looked at the bloody footprints one by one, and soon had an idea in his mind.

"The murderer is 25 years old, can be expanded to about 28. Actual height... should be around 170, weight 140 jin..." Jiang Yuan found two bloody footprints with better conditions, observed them carefully for a while, and gave his conclusion directly.

The most famous crime scene investigator in Qinghe City is Chen Wenming, but he didn't come this time.

The fatty investigator, as Chen Wenming's subordinate, had seen Chen Wenming do footprints, but compared to Jiang Yuan's method, he only felt that Jiang Yuan was like a god possessing his body.

Technicians all know that it's easy to give a wider range for some indicators, but wanting to narrow it down requires considering multiple factors. It's very difficult.

Jiang Yuan dared to confidently give such a string of conclusions, and the fatty investigator was a bit worried for him.

Wu Jun, however, was used to Jiang Yuan's common terms for conclusions and asked: "What does 'actual height' mean?"

"This is the unique part of this case." Jiang Yuan gestured in the air and said: "Look at the back half of this footprint; there's a slight feeling of dragging, right?"

"What is this?" Wu Jun asked.

The fatty investigator had hung out with footprint experts and blurted out: "Small horse pulling a big cart?"

Jiang Yuan glanced at him and said: "We usually call it 'small feet in big shoes,' but it's the same meaning."

Small feet in big shoes are relatively easy to identify. There are many distinguishing points; besides the dragging Jiang Yuan mentioned, there might be heel overlap, or virtual pressure on both sides, as well as changes in the center of gravity at positions like the big toe and little toe.

In short, small feet in big shoes are very easy to expose. Anyone who has read a few books, learned some trace examination knowledge, or spent three to five years in prison should understand the relevant knowledge. By comparison, there are much simpler ways to hide footprints, such as...

"Then this person is a bit stupid; is he an amateur?" The fatty investigator had studied this and said the key point in one sentence.

Jiang Yuan shook his head at this time and said: "This person is slightly different."

"Where?"

Jiang Yuan said: "Look at the outer arc edge of the footprint... this person should be wearing height-increasing shoes, and it's small feet in big shoes. I think it should be a set."

Wu Jun nodded, recorded it, and said: "Look at the corpses; they were stabbed many times, and a lot of force was used, to an unnecessary degree. It's very likely a crime of passion..."

"Yuan Yutang should be bisexual. There's also the possibility of a romantic rival."

"Homosexuals can also have male romantic rivals."

"That's true."

"However, killing two men, even if you have a key and enter while they are sleeping, the difficulty is very high." Jiang Yuan stared at the pool of blood on the ground for a while and added: "By the time he killed Yuan Yutang, he had already woken up. This pool of blood here has been washed with water many times; it's possible that the murderer's blood remains. You guys should wipe up more samples to take back."

Blood washed specifically can only cover up traces; it cannot eliminate the existence of DNA. To clean it thoroughly, you have to use some unique formula of cleaning agents.

The fat and thin investigators agreed and both bent down to wipe.

Jiang Yuan continued to stare at the surroundings for a while and added: "The hygiene of this apartment should be handled by someone hired. Have someone ask later if any towels or similar items are missing from the bathroom."

"You suspect the murderer was injured and bandaged himself with a towel?"

"Yes, check the pillows and bed sheets too. It's possible he dripped blood somewhere and took one or two items on the spot." As Jiang Yuan said this, he started looking himself.

He tried to see if he could find incomplete bloodstains; those would definitely be left by the murderer.

By the time Jiang Yuan did this, he already felt a bit relaxed.

The case before his eyes gave the feeling that the component of a crime of passion was relatively large.

And for a crime of passion, if it's a one-hit kill, that's fine. But this kind of stabbing face-to-face, and if the first stab doesn't kill, then forcibly stabbing to death under the other party's resistance, and then not feeling satisfied and stabbing a dozen more times—it's very difficult not to leave evidence.

In this situation, if you want to evade the crackdown and hide the criminal facts, you either have to extend the time before the corpse is discovered, causing the biological evidence at the scene to naturally deteriorate. Or you have to dispose of the corpse and deep-clean the scene.

However, cleaning the scene itself is a technical job, disposing of the corpse also has the risk of being discovered, and the second scene created isn't necessarily not going to be discovered.

From the perspective of criminal investigation, the difficulty of crimes of passion is generally not very high.

And the participants in crimes of passion are often reckless. That's why it's called "passion"—if they hadn't been blinded by anger, and the atmosphere hadn't reached the level of killing, a normal person with normal thinking would never adopt the method of killing.

After looking around, he didn't see any incomplete bloodstains, but Jiang Yuan wasn't discouraged. He stood up and summarized: "As of now, we can first screen Yuan Yutang's male lovers or romantic rivals for men who wear height-increasing shoes and also wear large-sized shoes." Jiang Yuan estimated and said: "After increasing height, this person should be about 180 cm tall, shoe size 44."

Wu Jun shouted across the railing: "Captain Huang..."

Huang Qiangmin ran over and asked: "Any leads?"

Jiang Yuan then repeated the judgment the few of them had just made to Huang Qiangmin.

Huang Qiangmin muttered a couple of times and immediately said: "I'll have Wu Junhao come over to make the arrest right now."

Only then did Jiang Yuan remember the thief from yesterday and asked hurriedly: "Was that thief caught?"

"Caught, and currently being interrogated. He's an old thief, so there's a bit to chew on." Huang Qiangmin said as he took out his phone and got busy himself.