Chapter 89 Chapter 2 Responsible for guarding a civilian outside the cordon...

A police officer who was guarding outside the cordon saw Li Zheng from afar and was the first to come over.

"Captain Li..."

Li Zheng nodded slightly in response, crossed the cordon, and took a quick look at the environment around the apartment building.

The Electric Power Bureau complex is one of the better-off neighborhoods in the area, but the distances between buildings are still incredibly narrow. It's a common problem with all older buildings.

"Captain Li, you're here..."

"Captain Li..."

Two of his apprentices were just coming down from upstairs. Tian Chen, a recent police academy graduate, was experiencing his first real crime scene and looked unhappy. Lou Ruoping, though somewhat experienced, also had a frown on her face.

"Well, get to the point."

Li Zheng's right leg was injured, but it did not stop him from walking in front. His two young disciples followed closely behind him, discussing the case with each other as they climbed the stairs.

"The report was made at around 4:30 in the morning..."

"The deceased, Zhuang Ying, was a 27-year-old male originally from Yanjing. He moved to Qingtan two years ago and rented his current apartment six months ago. He was the manager of a company near the Huamao Building. The prime suspect is his roommate, who has disappeared and cannot be contacted. Further details are still being sought..."

When he heard the deceased's name, Li Zheng's movements to go upstairs were slow for half a second, but it was fleeting.

"The first person to discover the body was a little girl living downstairs. She was a day student at the nearby No. 2 Middle School. She said she accidentally soiled her school uniform the previous day. She washed it that night and hung it on the rooftop to dry. This morning, before school, she tried to pick up her uniform from the rooftop and discovered the body..."

"The Nuojiang Police Station received a call at 4:50 AM. After verification, they immediately cordoned off the scene. The forensic doctor has been notified and is on his way. The medical examination department just arrived, and all exits are currently guarded..."

The smell of blood was already obvious. Li Zheng looked up at the floor, which was the 6th floor, and the first scene where the body was found was on the 7th floor.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has clearly stipulated that residential communities with 7 floors or above must install elevators. Therefore, in order to save costs, many old residential communities have a maximum floor of 6, and the Electric Power Bureau community is no exception.

There are no residential buildings on the sixth and seventh floors, the highest floors. The house where the deceased lived was just a few low-rise houses built illegally with iron sheets by the owner of the sixth floor. It is an illegal building.

There was still a flight of stairs to the rooftop. Li Zheng took the shoe covers handed to him by the on-site police, put them on his own shoes, and quickly put on latex gloves and a mask. This was to avoid bringing foreign substances into the scene, and also to prevent his footprints and other traces from interfering with the investigation.

The first time he stepped onto the rooftop, Li Zheng was sure that this must be the first scene, and he also understood why the two young disciples had such expressions just now.

First of all, the scene was too bloody.

The corpse fell on the concrete floor in an extremely twisted posture. Putting aside the appearance of death, most of the rooftop floor was covered with a pool of dried dark red blood.

Even if I wore a thick mask and held my breath, the strong smell of blood kept drilling into my nostrils and was so pungent.

Secondly, there were several adult toys placed around that were out of place at the scene, including leather collars, chains, whips, etc., which undoubtedly added an indescribable... absurdity and embarrassment to the scene.

The other police officers at the scene all looked unhappy, but Li Zheng didn't react much. He calmly observed the objects that were so strange that they were not stained with a trace of blood, and then ordered them to take pictures and put them in evidence bags.

He squatted with a wooden face only one step away from the corpse, and skillfully pulled open the dead man's eyelids to observe for a few seconds. He then pressed here and poked there on various parts of the corpse, and suddenly stretched his hands back while turning it over.

The new apprentice Tian Chen was still confused, but Lou Ruoping, who had been with Li Zheng longer, immediately handed the tool kit to his master.

Li Zheng took out his camera and took several photos of several places on the corpse.

Based on the degree of stiffness of the body and other traces at the scene, he made a preliminary judgment in his mind.

At least two to three hours before being discovered, the deceased had struggled to crawl a long distance on the rooftop. The winding bloodstains on the ground and the friction marks on the joints of the deceased's hands and feet should have been left at this time.

During the entire process of the deceased's struggle, other traces left at the scene also indicated that the murderer was most likely next to the deceased at the time.

How much must he hate this person to cut the dead man's throat, sever the tendons of his hands and feet, and watch the dead man crawling on the ground bit by bit, and finally die more than a dozen steps away from the rooftop door?

You should know that the financial situation of tenants who choose to rent a top-floor bungalow is generally not very good, and the possibility of making money is very slim. Is it a vendetta?

Li Zheng handed the camera to his apprentice, turned around and walked a few steps to the door of the bungalow where the deceased lived. The door frame was a bit low, and Li Zheng was tall, so he tilted his head as he entered.

The entire layout of the room can be seen at a glance standing at the door. The first thing you enter is the living room and dining room area, which has a sofa, a small coffee table and a square table.

The open kitchen faces the main door and has a simple gas stove and a small range hood. To the right of the main door is the bedroom, and the toilet is also inside the bedroom.

The room is generally tidy, and the bedroom can almost be called clean. From the pillows placed side by side, the clothes hanging in the closet, the pairs of quilts, toothbrushes and towels in the bathroom and other traces of life, it can be judged that two people live here.

The living room outside was also not too messy, and everything still retained traces of the previous owner.

A small casserole sat on the gas stove, the keep-warm button on the electric rice cooker next to it still on. A half-open bag of frozen glutinous rice balls, already thawed into a lump, lay on the countertop. Two cups of cold tea sat on the living room table. Two cups, were they for the deceased and his roommate, or had the murderer entered the house?

There were no signs of a struggle or fight in the room, and compared to the rooftop outside, there was very little blood in the room...

Did the murderer communicate with the deceased?

Do they know each other?

Li Zheng pondered as he walked out of the house step by step from the entrance where the bloodstains first appeared, then walked around the rooftop along the mottled bloodstains, and finally stopped at the place where the body fell.

At that moment, the deceased was only sixteen steps away from the entrance to the sixth-floor rooftop... In other words, he was almost out, but why did he stop? Was he out of strength, or was there some other reason that forced him to stop?

Li Zheng, who was concentrating on checking the bloodstains, noticed a faint sight. When he turned his head suddenly, he was met with a pair of dark eyes.

A crow? It seems to be the same one from this morning. It's a raven, also from the Corvidae family. Logically, such an animal shouldn't be in this area.

"Master, the forensic doctor has arrived..."

It was the voice of apprentice Lou Ruoping.

Following her were a fully armed forensic doctor and two colleagues who were taking photos of the traces. They were all acquaintances, so there was no need for too many pleasantries.

"Captain Li, you're here so early again."

The forensic doctor, with whom I had dealt several times before, exchanged familiar greetings.

"It didn't take long. Mainly because I happened to be nearby when I received the call, so I got there quickly..."

Li Zheng stepped aside, and when he glanced at the rooftop railing again, the strange crow had disappeared again.

I saw it wrong again.

Am I too tired recently?

That's true. Some time ago, a cross-provincial fraudster passed through Qingtan, and the police from several cities jointly arrested him. In order to cooperate, Li Zheng worked overtime for half a month, staying up until the early morning every day, and the inspection team was about to arrive.

After all, as a small leader, he couldn't hide it. He had to memorize various reporting scripts before going to bed every night.

When Hu Hui reunited with his old classmates this morning, the first thing he asked was how long it had been since he'd had a good rest and why he had such dark circles under his eyes. He even teased him about looking even more tired than he did in his senior year of high school.

He said at the time that he was just busy for a while and would be able to rest after he was done with this period of work. However, before he had even had a morning to rest, trouble came up again.

Li Zheng blinked his dry eyes vigorously, took out a bottle of eye drops he carried with him, tilted his head back, dropped two drops into his eye sockets, closed his eyes and rolled his eyeballs.

"Has the family of the deceased not been contacted yet?"

"I called, but two of them didn't go through. One died right after I said the deceased's name, and the other said he hadn't died enough..." Tian Chen scratched his head and asked an idiotic question very seriously, "Master, do you want to keep calling?"

In fact, Li Zheng could also infer the time and manner of death through visual observation and experience, but it was ultimately just a guess. If he wanted to obtain more accurate information, he would definitely have to perform an autopsy. According to regulations, an autopsy must be approved by the family of the deceased.

——If an autopsy is performed on a body without the knowledge of the deceased's family, it is an illegal operation and the lawsuit will be successful.

This kind of low-level mistake must never be made.

Li Zheng frowned slightly and patiently instructed his apprentice: "Keep calling. If he doesn't answer, keep calling. If he hangs up, keep calling. Call several times. Make sure you make it clear. He can choose not to answer, but you can't fail to notify him..."

Tian Chen suddenly understood: "Okay, okay, I understand. I'll go and continue fighting. Keep fighting."

Qingtan City is not well-known in the entire province. It is not a large place and has always had good public security. Although the frequency of homicides is not as high as in other big cities, it is a city after all, so a few cases are not a big deal.

The murder is not a big problem. The main problem is that the inspection team is about to arrive at this critical period, and the timing is really unfortunate.

Not long after arriving at the scene, Li Zheng's phone rang. The caller was his immediate superior, the Deputy Director of the Qingtan Municipal Public Security Bureau.

There was no greeting or small talk. The first sentence he said was that after making inquiries from many sources, he heard that the son of a leader's family had also come to play with the inspection team, and it seemed that he knew someone here.

Li Zheng was silent.

In the small apartment building, several busy police officers came and went. One of them passed by Li Zheng and politely called out "Captain Li", to which he nodded in response.

"You can ask around then. It seems to be someone in our bureau. He's not very old, so the friends he's looking for should be around the same age, perhaps one of the newcomers who joined this year..."

Li Zheng: "..."

"He came from Yanjing. You should ask them if there is anyone from Yanjing. If he is an acquaintance, it will be even better..." The voice on the other end said, as if suddenly thinking of something, "Hey, it suddenly occurred to me that you seem to be——"

"Okay, I get it." Li Zheng really didn't want to listen anymore. He looked towards the scene and responded, "That's it for now. I'm busy here."

The initial inspection is extremely important in a homicide investigation and is also a key stage in collecting evidence. Without it, subsequent inspections and investigations will be difficult to proceed.

This is a job that requires a lot of patience.

Different evidence requires different methods of collection. For example, bloodstains need to be fixed with special chemical reagents to prevent oxidation; fingerprints need to be extracted with fingerprint extraction powder to ensure the integrity of the fingerprints; footprints require different fixation methods according to different materials.

Every detail needs to be recorded.

If it was a scene that was severely damaged, the investigation work would be more complicated. Fortunately, this time the scene was on the top floor, it was discovered early, and the scene was locked early, preserving the original state of the scene to the greatest extent.

As the on-site commander, Li Zheng was undoubtedly the busiest person on the scene. He was responsible for coordinating with other forensic doctors, trace investigators, and surveyors, clearly conveying their respective tasks, understanding case-related information, and judging the nature of the case to determine the next direction of the investigation. He was also responsible for communicating with other departments within the local jurisdiction.

He is also a very responsible person. After a morning of high-intensity work, even though he has simplified his sentences as much as possible, his mouth is so dry that he doesn't want to say another word.

When he looked up, he saw his apprentice Tian Chen holding a notebook and recording everything Li Zheng had just said.

Li Zheng didn't want to speak at that time. He glanced around and didn't see the other disciple. Just as he was about to ask where she had gone, she appeared.

Lou Ruoping was holding a plastic bag with three bottles of water in it. She took out one bottle and handed it to Li Zheng, then took out the second bottle and gave it to Tian Chen who was standing beside her.

"Master, give me some water."

"Thanks."

In the corridor, Li Zheng took off his mask, gloves and foot covers, unscrewed the bottle of mineral water that was still covered with dew, tilted his head back and drank half a bottle in big gulps. Only then did he feel that his dry throat was slightly relieved.

"Master, the information of the roommate who lived with the deceased has been found."

She flipped through the small notebook she carried with her, which was filled with a lot of information.

"My roommate's name is Cui Yang, male, 25 years old, from Cheongdam City, unemployed. His phone is now turned off. I've contacted his family, but they say they don't know what he's doing. They said they haven't contacted him in a long time, and they can't get in touch with him either. It doesn't seem like they have a good relationship..."

"What about the guard?"

"I've asked everyone, not just the guard on duty today, but also the guard on duty yesterday. They all confirmed they hadn't seen him enter or leave through the main gate. I also checked the back door surveillance, and the last time Cui Yang appeared in the surveillance was the day before yesterday, and he hasn't been out since."

Lou Ruoping spoke quickly and clearly, and flipped two pages back in her hand.

"Either he's still in the complex, or he escaped through some other small door we don't know about. I tend to believe the latter. I've already asked people to carefully check all the exits of the complex to see if there are any low walls or holes that can be climbed over..."

Lou Ruoping paused, then added cautiously, "But we can't rule out the possibility that he might have been hiding in the community."

At this moment, a familiar police officer was shouting upstairs: "Captain Li, Captain Li, the meal is here! The meal is here!"

Generally speaking, when the case is not too urgent, everyone can indeed drive back to the unit to eat. However, when the case is urgent and the distance is far, running back and forth really wastes time, so eating nearby becomes the best option.

Li Zheng looked down from the windowsill and waved to the police officers below as a response.

He looked at his two apprentices who had been running around all morning and said, "Okay, we've been busy all day, let's go downstairs and eat."

Tian Chen must have been extremely hungry, and his eyes lit up when he heard this.

Li Zheng and his two disciples went downstairs one after the other. "By the way, how is the girl who saw the first scene now?"

The case was not complicated, but the scene was too bloody. Even a mature adult would be frightened when seeing it, let alone an underage girl. It would definitely leave a psychological trauma.

Li Zheng worriedly instructed, "Please pay more attention to her condition. If necessary, you can help arrange psychological counseling..."

Lou Ruoping: "She has already gone to class today."

Li Zheng frowned: "Does her mother know?"

"It was her mother who asked her to do so." Lou Ruoping added at the right moment. She had just entered her third year of high school this year, and her mother said that now was a critical moment..."

“………”