Chapter 24
After leaving Xu Qinghong's office, Yu Lei went to the Technical Investigation Department.
As soon as he entered the room, he stretched out his hand and asked for the on-site investigation report of Chen Junan's fall, which shocked several technical detectives who had just started work and made their eyes widen.
"We just got back from the scene at around 3 o'clock last night, and now we have to report before 10 o'clock. Captain Yu, if you treat us as living beings, you won't make such a request." Xiao Liu from the Technical Reconnaissance Department said unhappily with dark circles under his eyes.
"Is the prime time for solving murder cases a place for you to sleep? It's been six hours and thirty-five minutes since the team withdrew, and the autopsy report should be out by now. It's just a scene investigation, not a complicated one."
Yu Lei's rant was so outrageous that the detectives' faces turned black. Even the most uncomplicated scene still had to follow the on-site investigation report format. Doesn't writing a report take time?
"Where is the murder? Is Chen Junan dead?!" another technical detective couldn't help but protest.
"Is this a matter of life or death? Is this a criminal case or an accident? Until the report is out, I can't sign the accident confirmation. And until I sign, the Emergency Bureau can't conduct its investigation, and the pressure will be on Director Xu. How can you sleep like this?"
The technical detectives were all stunned. What kind of nonsense was this? And they had no way to refute it.
When there are doubts about the crime scene, the on-site investigation report becomes more useful. Yu Lei's decision is indeed correct, but it has only been a little over six hours since the investigation was completed. How could he be adding days to the time?
——How shameless.
"Get out of here."
Yu Lei was kicked out by several people.
After leaving the Public Security Bureau, he suddenly remembered that he had only slept for two hours, but he didn't feel sleepy at all. The excitement of finding Zhao Zheng's only relative kept hitting his brain, making him extremely excited.
So he came to the Donghe refining plant again.
Yu Lei stood in front of the elevator. He wore a hard hat, a portable gas alarm on his wrist, and a walkie-talkie borrowed from the team working on the installation. He even changed into his Donghe Refining uniform.
Yu Lei looked up at the top of the ladder towering in the air, put on gloves, then bent down and tied his trouser legs tightly with a cable tie, because Chen Junan also tied his trouser legs in the same way.
The cold air was inhaled into his nasal cavity and turned into white mist when exhaled, flying into the sky ahead of him.
There are only two differences between a straight ladder and an ordinary ladder. First, its bottom end is firmly fixed to the ground, and the middle is tightly connected to the layers of platforms to ensure that the straight ladder is firm and does not shake. Second, it is equipped with circles of semicircular steel pipe guardrails. When people climb up, the guardrails will circle the people behind them to prevent them from falling backwards.
I won’t discuss how practical this design is, but by enclosing people like this, there is still some psychological sense of security.
However, the back of Chen Junan's head first hit the guardrail behind him. Perhaps this collision had stunned him, so he couldn't hold on to any of the steel pipes during the subsequent fall, and fell all the way down.
Yu Lei pedaled up the steps, the intercom on his waist occasionally emitting the sounds of employees discussing work and reminding him to pay attention to safety. After climbing a few meters, he looked down, then firmly grasped the steel pipe with one hand and reached for the intercom hanging behind him with the other. He answered and continued to climb.
These are the actions that Chen Junan did when climbing the vertical ladder.
Yu Lei wanted to climb the ladder that Chen Junan had climbed last night, but the technical detective had to secure evidence, and the visibility was poor at night, so if there was anything, he might not be able to find it in time.
After reaching the end of the first vertical ladder, he stepped onto the middle platform. After walking a distance, he continued to climb the second vertical ladder, which led directly to the top platform.
When he reached the height where Chen Junan had fallen, Yu Lei glanced at his watch and realized he was climbing faster than Chen Junan. So he prepared to descend and repeat the climb at Chen Junan's pace.
His left foot stepped down one step, and as he was about to continue down, his right foot suddenly slipped. Fortunately, his hands never left the ladder. With both hands firmly grasping the steel pipe, a single slip wouldn't be enough to cause him to fall. However, Yu Lei's heart skipped a beat; this height was worth the shock.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, something glowing in front of him caught his attention.
Yu Lei squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the steel pipe he was holding tightly in his hand, only to find that it was covered in ice. Furthermore, the ice wasn't pure, as it seemed to contain a lot of pale yellow stuff.
He climbed the ladder in two steps to the top, stepping onto the platform at the top of the massive vessel. According to Ding Xinqiao, this was a massive reactor, over twenty meters tall. The ladder consisted of two sections connecting the reactor's four platforms. The employee inspection point was on the highest platform, the same one Chen Junan had attempted to reach via the ladder.
The center of the platform was hollowed out to house the massive, upright reactor. Several small heat exchangers sat in the empty space, and the one closest to the vertical staircase had a curved vent line, slowly emitting white smoke.
Yu Lei raised his hand and waved, redirecting the white smoke upwards, spreading it towards the staircase below, filling it completely. Yu Lei pulled out the intercom from his waistband and asked, "What's this?"
"It's water vapor containing trace amounts of heavy metals and sulfides, but the vast majority is water." The answer came from the intercom.
No wonder there's ice on the top of the staircase. The yellowish stuff in the ice must be these tiny impurities. Yu Lei responded and put the intercom back on his waist.
He climbed down the ladder, carefully comparing the thickness and length of the ice on each step, and found that it indeed decreased from top to bottom. The culprit that caused Chen Junan's fall must have been the vented materials that had frozen in the cold weather.
If nothing unexpected happens, this incident should be a normal production safety accident and has nothing to do with a criminal case.
After returning to the ground and stabilizing himself, Yu Lei took off his gloves and stuffed them into his trouser pockets. Suddenly, he felt a slippery sensation on his fingertips, and he took out his gloves to examine them in confusion.
There was a yellowish, greasy substance on the glove where he had gripped the ladder's steel pipe. Would a mixture of heavy metals and sulfides, after being frozen and then thawed, solidify into a grease-like substance? Yu Lei sighed, once again lamenting the immense distance between professions.
He had just taken out his cell phone to call Ding Xinqiao when a voice came from the intercom behind him to stop him.
Oh, and cell phones aren't allowed at the installation site. He immediately gestured in the direction of the surveillance camera and sprinted out of the yellow-lined area. Just as he was about to continue calling Ding Xinqiao, a picture message rushed in.
Perhaps his morning's nagging had put some pressure on the Technical Investigation Department. The on-site investigation report had now been sent to his phone, and even the pen in the Liu Dong case, which had been delayed for a long time, had a conclusion.
Just as Tang Ruxin had expected, the white pen had no fingerprints on it. Donghe Refining and Chemical's regulations required employees to wear gloves while on-site. Whether they were opening or closing valves or signing with a pen, most people kept their gloves on.
Although no fingerprints were found, something else was discovered.
And this thing also appeared on the ladder at the scene where Chen Junan fell.
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