Chapter 75

Xu Man then remembered that a teacher had once said in class that everyone's earlobe has a different shape and is the second identity mark besides fingerprints. During investigation, when looking at a person, one should first look at the earlobe, and then the face, body shape and other parts, because it is difficult for ordinary people to think of disguising their ears, and it is also difficult to disguise.

At that time, she memorized these words as the key points of the exam, but theory is not practice after all, and it is easy to forget in reality. After listening to Qin Shen's words, she remembered them and took a closer look at the projection screen. Sure enough, she found that the shapes of the two people's earlobes were completely different, and their facial features were also significantly different. It was obvious that they were two different people.

Having won the argument, Li Shijie excitedly clenched his fists and said, "See, I told you she was a mistress, but you didn't believe me. How could a couple with children go on a trip without bringing their children? There's something fishy going on in this situation."

Zhao Jia rolled her eyes speechlessly: "I'm really impressed by men nowadays. Can't they live without having a mistress outside?"

This time it was Zhu Zhuo's turn to be unhappy: "Hey, we men also reject discrimination and prejudice. Men are divided into good and bad. This kind of man is obviously a scumbag. He is not a normal man. Don't judge him by one standard."

"Forget it, they are all of the same character."

"you……"

"Okay, stop talking nonsense." Qin Shen interrupted the conversation impatiently, "It's meeting time now. If you want to talk nonsense, go outside and don't waste time here." He then asked the person reporting, "Have you found the identity of the woman who traveled with the deceased?"

The police officer shook his head and said, "It has not been verified yet. The electronic tickets for the two people to enter the mountain were purchased using the deceased's mobile phone number. We can only confirm the identity of the deceased, not the other person."

"What was the deceased's activity trajectory in the scenic area before his death?"

Several new videos appeared on the projection screen. They were apparently taken from the scenic area's surveillance video. The police officer controlled the video playback and explained, "The deceased and the woman were walking in the mountains according to the normal tourist route, that is, starting from the foot of the mountain on the east side and climbing up. On the way, they passed the first marriage temple, stayed inside for about 30 minutes, then came out and continued to climb up."

"But they didn't reach the top of the mountain. The deceased received a phone call at around 1:50 p.m., and the two seemed to have a little argument about it. Then the woman turned around and left. The deceased ran after her and left the range of the surveillance camera."

Qin Shen: "Where was the last place the deceased was seen before his death?"

"That's where he answered the phone," the reporter replied. "He was never photographed again. Not long after, he was found collapsed on a shortcut trail in the forest, dead."

"What about this woman?" Chen Kangquan asked, "Have you not photographed her again?"

"We are investigating," said Feng Xuanren, the head of the intelligence department in charge of screening and monitoring. "However, there are a lot of tourists during the summer vacation, and it rained heavily that day, so the flow of people is quite chaotic. It is not easy to find the trace of a specific person among the thousands of tourists running with umbrellas, so it will take some time."

"We need to find out as soon as possible. She has a great connection with the deceased and cannot be let go." Qin Shen flipped through the documents on the table. "The surveillance camera has captured her facial features. As long as she has registered her identity information in the country, we will be able to find her."

Feng Xuanren: "It has been screened and compared in the database."

Qin Shen nodded and asked another question: "The deceased was from Qingzhou and settled in Jiangzhou. When did he come to Mingzhou? How many days has he been here? What means of transportation did he use to get to the scenic spot that day?"

These are matters that Team 2 is responsible for investigating, so naturally, the team leader Liang Guang will answer them: "The deceased drove to Minnesota on August 4. According to his wife, he came to Minnesota for a business trip. The phone call at 1:50 pm on the 6th was also from his wife, asking about his return home date. However, after our investigation, Yingke Network Technology Co., Ltd., which the deceased ran, is a gaming company that operates chess and card games. There are no projects that require business trips. It is very likely that his trip to Minnesota was just a personal decision and had nothing to do with the company."

"Do I need to think about this?" Li Shijie curled his lips in disdain. "He must have used the business trip as an excuse to deceive his wife. In fact, he brought his mistress here for a trip. I didn't expect that this would really be a mistake that I will regret forever."

Liang Guang: "We contacted the deceased's wife, who seemed very shocked by her husband's misfortune. According to her, she and the deceased had a good relationship and had not had any conflicts recently. The game company and three physical retail stores run by the deceased were also running well. There were no financial problems and it was impossible for him to commit suicide."

"If it's not suicide, then it's an accident or homicide." Qin Shen turned a page of documents, "How is the autopsy going?"

Dong Rui, the head of the forensic team, opened the report and said, "There are two blows on the back of the deceased's head. Since the two wounds are very close to each other and part of the area overlaps, it looks like there is only one deep vertical wound. But in fact, this wound was caused by two blows. And according to calculations, the force and direction of the blows are also different."

"Twice?" Qin Shen frowned slightly. Obviously, this discovery was beyond his expectation. "Can you tell what caused it?"

Dong Rui: "It was the same blunt instrument, an axe, a hammer, a stick, a brick, etc. It was possible. The deceased was hit twice by the same blunt instrument, and the second time caused a fatal injury. He died of shock on the spot."

"Strike wounds, from two angles." Qin Shen pondered, flipping through the autopsy report from the folder, and carefully looking at the force and direction of the wound. "Can you confirm that it was man-made?"

"We can't be sure about that," Dong Rui said. "Considering the weather conditions and the mountain road conditions at the time, an accident is not impossible. After all, bricks and stones are also a type of blunt weapon, and the angles of the two directions of impact are not very tricky. A simple bump could have caused this situation."

"Anything else you found?"

"No special findings so far."

Qin Shen nodded and asked the technical department: "How is the trace inspection at the scene? Did you find anything?"

The appraisers reported the results of their work over the past few days, which were all routine appraisal conclusions. Unfortunately, it rained heavily that day, washing away most of the traces, and no useful clues were found. The only thing worth noting is that the dark red stains Qin Shen found that day were indeed the blood of the deceased, and not only in the cracks of the stone, but also on the outside of the stone. It can be inferred that the stone was once stained with the blood of the deceased, but strangely, no blood reaction was detected in the samples of the mud road between the stone and the deceased's body, which is not in line with common sense.

"The blood on the outside of the stone may have been washed away by rain, so it doesn't look abnormal to the naked eye, but it can be detected by chemical reagents." The identification personnel said, "But no blood reaction was found in the samples taken from the section of road between the stone and the body. Even if it was washed away by rain, the blood reaction should still exist and it is impossible not to detect it. There is only one possibility, that is, the section of road in the middle has not been stained by the blood of the deceased and is clean, so there will be no chemical reaction."

Chen Kangquan frowned: "But this is very strange. How is it possible that blood reaction was detected on the stone, but not on the middle section of the road?"

"Unless someone moved the stone," Qin Shen said calmly, "someone hit the deceased on the head with the stone, and then put the stone back to its original position after the deceased fell into a coma and died, which led to the current situation."

He looked at the forensic team and asked, "If we use the stone we brought back as a weapon and hit the back of the deceased's head twice, will the wounds formed match the current wounds on the deceased?"

Dong Rui was stunned for a moment, "This... We haven't thought about it yet. We have to go back and simulate it carefully before we can draw a conclusion."

"Stones are also a type of blunt instrument," Guan Shuiyun interjected. "Since a blood reaction was detected on them, it is very likely that the deceased was killed by being hit by the stone."

Her teacher frowned slightly and expressed her disapproval: "Everything is still uncertain now, so we can't jump to conclusions easily."

Guan Shuiyun stopped talking.

"Although we are not sure, several key points have come out. If we continue to investigate according to these clues, we can solve the case." Qin Shen flipped through the file from the beginning, closed it, stood up and walked to the whiteboard, and wrote a few points on it with a marker. "The wife of the deceased, the unknown woman who accompanied the deceased to the mountain that day, the wound on the back of the deceased's head that was injured twice, and the stone with blood stains are all the focus of the investigation."

As he spoke, he assigned tasks to each group of people one by one. After clarifying the objectives of the next stage of the investigation, he disbanded the meeting.

Everyone packed up and left one after another. Xu Man deliberately slowed down the speed of organizing her notes. By the time she finished packing and stood up, most people had left. Only Qin Shen was left in the meeting room, smiling at her.

"Why don't you leave?"

"Waiting for you, let's go together." Xu Man walked up to him holding a notebook and looked up at him, "Are you going to work overtime today?"

Qin Shen smiled and asked her, "Did I ask you to work overtime to investigate the case just now?"

She was startled, thought about what he just said, and shook her head: "No."

"Me too." He smiled. "No overtime today, so I'll leave on time. Let's go back and pack our things and go home together."

It was already 4:25 p.m. on Friday, close to the end of the get off work day. Since the deceased was not a native of Mingzhou, it would take some time to wait for his wife to arrive from Jiangzhou. Accordingly, the detachment's schedule was not so tight. Although it was still busier than usual, at least they didn't have to use up their weekends and work overtime all night long.

When Xu Man was sent back home by Qin Shen and looked at the half-packed luggage, she suddenly realized that tomorrow was Saturday, the time she and Qin Shen had agreed on for moving.

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