Only then did Xu Man notice the small depression hidden beneath the corners, but because the stone itself was mottled, it was easy to overlook it if you didn't look carefully, so she didn't notice anything before. After Qin Shen pointed it out, she looked again.
This time, she finally saw the mark he mentioned.
It was a very small and dim mark, no more than one centimeter long, just a tiny dot, barely a mark at all, hidden in a narrow and deep crevice between the stones, yet he was able to find it.
While secretly admiring, Xu Man also looked carefully and saw that the mark was dark red, very similar to the color of the grass near the head of the deceased, so she said uncertainly: "Is this... blood?"
"It looks very similar, but we can't be sure. We have to wait for the test to know the specific results." Qin Shen said, motioning her to take a photo of the stone. "But we can make a guess first. Assuming this is a bloodstain, and it belongs to the deceased, then the placement of this stone doesn't make sense."
Xu Man was taking close-up photos of the marks on the stone. When she heard what he said, she looked up and found that the stone was about five or six meters away from the deceased. It was indeed not very close, but it was not particularly far either. It was still within a normal range. She didn't quite understand what he meant.
"Hmm... I think this distance is possible." She hesitated to express her guess, "Could it be that the deceased hit the stone when he fell, but his body rolled forward a little due to inertia, so the distance between the two appears to be farther?"
Qin Shen shook his head: "According to this statement, the deceased should be downhill relative to the stone, but his current position is uphill, which doesn't make sense."
Xu Man was stunned and found that it was indeed the case. The deceased was located on the uphill side of the rocks, but because the slope of the road was not steep and the nearby area was particularly flat, it looked like a flat land, which made her ignore this point and make a wrong judgment.
She was a little frustrated when her speculation failed, but she quickly picked herself up and made a second guess: "Then... could it be that the stone was hit by the dead person and rolled down with him, but rolled a little further than the dead person, so it formed the current relative position?"
As she spoke, she pointed to the moss and mud on one side of the stone. "Generally speaking, moss covers the part of the stone that is exposed to the mud, but the moss on this stone is distributed on the right side, and the other side is mud. It looks like someone turned it 90 degrees..."
"Indeed." Qin Shen put a little moss on his fingertips through his gloves, "This moss has been growing for quite a while. If it hadn't been moved, it wouldn't have become what it is now..."
As he spoke, he pinched the moss off his fingertips, stood up with an umbrella, looked around, and walked towards a place. Seeing this, Xu Man subconsciously wanted to follow him, but considering that there was only a little dark red mark left on the stone, she stayed where she was, covering it and herself with the umbrella to prevent this last mark from being washed away by the rain.
Qin Shen walked forward a few steps and then stopped, lowering his head as if he was observing something on the ground. The rain was too thick and Xu Man couldn't see what he was looking at. She only saw him take out his cell phone from his pocket and take a few pictures of the ground. Then he walked back without staying there for too long.
"Captain, have you found anything?" she asked curiously.
Qin Shen took out his cell phone and showed her the photos he had just taken. There were three photos in total, and each one was a close-up of the same thing from a different angle: a shallow pit.
This time, Xu Man noticed the key point without his reminder: the shape of the shallow pit was very similar to that of a stone. The depth and size could not be determined due to the lack of a reference object, but it was unlikely to be too outrageous, otherwise he would not have taken these photos on purpose.
"Is this the original location of this stone?" She looked at Qin Shen and asked.
Qin Shen put his phone away and nodded, "It should be here. There is a lot of moss on the stone, and the boundary is very clear, not blurred. It can be seen at a glance that it has been placed somewhere for many years, and it is almost like this. The pit will form."
"In other words, it has indeed changed its position?" Xu Man's eyes lit up.
Qin Shen smiled slightly and nodded in agreement with her: "That's right."
"That--"
"I said the same thing. Before the test results come out, everything is just speculation and cannot be accurate." Qin Shen interrupted her as if he knew what she wanted to say. "Maybe the marks on the stone are not bloodstains. It is also possible that there are other marks between the deceased and the stone, but they were washed away by the heavy rain."
As he spoke, he looked up at the sky, frowned and said, "This rain came at such an unfortunate time that it wiped out most of the traces."
Xu Man felt like she was doused with a bucket of cold water after hearing his words. The excitement that had just risen in her heart died down again. However, she felt much better now. After all, one of her guesses was finally correct.
"So what should we do now?"
"Wait." He replied, "Wait for the trace investigators to come and carefully extract the traces at the scene for testing and identification. We also need to determine the cause of death."
Xu Man was stunned: "Isn't it because of excessive blood loss caused by head trauma?"
Qin Shen: "It's just a preliminary judgment, and it can't be used as a final conclusion. We still have to wait for the specific report to come out. Even the autopsy report needs to be signed by three forensic doctors. Just relying on the statement of a medical staff is nothing."
He looked down at his phone and said to Xu Man, "Let's go out first. Ask the staff to find some clean plastic sheets to cover this place. Although the clues here may have been washed away by the heavy rain, the scene still needs to be protected."
Xu Man nodded and followed him out of the crime scene and outside the cordon.
The heavy rain was still falling, with no sign of slowing down. The mountain road had become muddy and almost every step would create a pit. However, there were more onlookers than before, standing on the nine-square bluestone slabs set up for aesthetic purposes in the scenic area, taking pictures and discussing the scene.
Qin Shen frowned as he looked at those people, but didn't say much. He walked over to Fan Hong and asked him to find some plastic tarpaulins to cover the scene.
Fan Hong naturally agreed without hesitation. After assigning the task to his employees, he asked Qin Shen what he thought about the matter. He asked him indirectly how long it would take to complete the investigation. His words were full of concerns that this matter might create a bad reputation in the outside world. It was obvious that he regarded it as a big trouble.
Qin Shen did not answer but asked: "Have you found out the identity of the tourist?"
The other party was caught off guard by the question, and after choking for a while, he said: "This... We don't have any companions we know, and we don't have any corresponding ID documents. We don't know where to start..."
Qin Shen was not interested in listening to him continue speaking in official language. He replied, "Then we can only wait for the police to arrive," and then walked to the side. He stood under a tree with his back to the crowd, and habitually reached into his pocket. Instead of taking out cigarettes, he took out two beautifully packaged smoking cessation candies.
He stared at the candies in his hand for a moment, then put them back, stood with his hands in his pockets, raised his head and took a deep breath.
This series of actions was naturally seen by Xu Man who followed closely. However, at this time, she couldn't argue with him about quitting smoking. She walked a few steps forward to his side and asked, "Captain, do you think the deceased died accidentally or was killed by someone?"
Qin Shen slowly opened his eyes: "Didn't you say that everything is just empty talk before the appraisal results come out? It's useless to say these now."
Of course Xu Man knew it, she just couldn't bear to see him looking so worried, so she was just making small talk. God knew why they just came here for a normal trip today and encountered such a thing, it was not a lucky thing to get lucky like this.
She looked ahead, past the rain curtain, and stopped at the staff who were busy covering the scene with a plastic tarp: "It's raining really hard... I wonder how many traces will be left at the scene after the trace inspection comes."
"It's good enough if we can keep one tenth of it." Qin Shen snorted lazily, "This is such a lousy weather, good things always come before bad things."
Xu Man hummed softly and asked him, "For a case like this, what kind of police officers are usually sent to respond? Are they from the local police?"
"It depends on where the command center transfers it to." He replied, "But it will usually be transferred to the detachment. After all, it is a murder case. And judging from the time the police were dispatched, they are almost the ones. It's been almost an hour since we received the call, and they haven't arrived yet. How can they be so slow?"
Xu Man smiled and explained for the person who answered the call, who might be her colleague: "It's raining so hard, it's understandable that they were stuck on the road. Besides, if it was the detachment that answered the call, it would make more sense, as the detachment is not close to here."
She didn't know if it was because she wanted to smoke but failed just now, but she always felt that Qin Shen's mood became a little impatient. She tried to soften her voice as much as possible when speaking, hoping to comfort him.
Qin Shen smiled at her and raised his hand to touch her head.
The two waited for another twenty minutes, and finally the police arrived at around four o'clock. It was indeed the Criminal Investigation Detachment, led by Deputy Chief Chen Kangquan. There were more than ten to twenty people, and the situation was very similar to the first time she was taken to the scene, except that they were all wearing raincoats, so she and Qin Shen both walked forward with umbrellas. The other party was still trying to understand the situation with Fan Hong and others, until Li Shijie on the opposite side spotted them and shouted, which attracted everyone's attention.
"Fuck, Brother Qin?!"
"Captain Qin?" Chen Kangquan turned around in surprise, "Why are you..."
"Coincidence." Qin Shen replied, "I came here to travel and relax, and I happened to encounter this case, so I came to take a look."
"Oh my god." Li Shijie sighed exaggeratedly, "Brother Qin, you don't have the legendary death physique, do you? You can run into a case even when you travel?"
Qin Shen glanced at him coldly and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Now that you understand the case, get to work. It's been almost two hours since the incident. It's raining so hard. If we don't collect evidence, we'll have no clues."
Logically speaking, he is now suspended from his duties and stays at home. Although he still retains the title of criminal investigation team leader, he has temporarily lost the command of the detachment. But, no one knows whether he forgot or what, but facing the people at the scene, he assigned tasks without hesitation. In addition, Chen Kangquan did not express any objection to this, so the command of the detachment returned to him and he was under his command.
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