Chapter 108
"Wow!" While the others were still in a daze, Guo Zhen excitedly pounced on it and began pacing back and forth in front of the corpse.
"Captain Lin, this once-in-a-century coincidence looks like a national media report, doesn't it?" He pulled out his phone and started snapping photos. "What a shame Pan Chang isn't here right now. I'll send her the photos and video right away. If a report does get published, it'll be an honor, after all!"
Lin Jiafan cleared his throat and glanced at the firefighters nearby: "Don't forget to have Pan Chang highlight the hard work of our fire department colleagues. Without them, we might not have found the body!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the fire department, including Section Chief Fang, quietly straightened their chests, and a hint of pride could be seen beneath their faces eroded by dust.
Guo Zhen rolled his eyes a few times and agreed very straightforwardly.
Since it was their captain who forced the entire department to do hard labor, they should naturally be more generous in sharing the honor.
Fortunately, Pan Chang has always been famous for his writing skills. Over the years, no matter what advantages Lin Jiafan has taken advantage of outside, Pan Chang has always found a way to use his pen to help the Special Case Investigation Team repay the favor.
Although it may not be possible to repay all the debts, at least it can calm the anger of the person who was exploited.
Just like that, in an atmosphere of everyone being happy, Guo Zhen put away his phone and began to carefully observe the body in the wall.
"It seems the murderer hollowed out half of the wall before sealing the victim in, probably because he didn't want anyone outside to notice anything obviously unusual."
After all, if a wall suddenly becomes too thick, it will make the entire space look distorted.
"When building the wall, the murderer used wooden boards and cement, which meant that only half of the thickness of the entire brick and concrete wall was left. No wonder it broke when hit by the concrete block." Guo Zhen shook his head, obviously looking down on such crude techniques.
You say he wasn't afraid of being discovered, yet he went to great lengths to hollow out the body before sealing it. You say he was afraid of being discovered, yet after putting the body into the wall, he simply covered it with wooden boards and cement.
"It seems the killer doesn't have much common sense about construction." Finally, he could only offer this conclusion: "Judging from the degree of decomposition of the body, the time of death was approximately three to four days ago. The exact time of death can only be determined after a detailed autopsy, as we have to consider the impact of confined spaces on the decay rate of the body."
"In fact, if the murderer had sealed the entire wall with cement, perhaps this incident would not have happened."
Lin Jiafan pondered: "Maybe the murderer didn't want to cause a big fuss and attract the attention of the neighbors, or he was in a hurry."
So we can only choose the rough but fastest method.
"Let me take a look at his left hand..." Guo Zhen squatted in front of the corpse, took out a head-mounted magnifying glass from somewhere and put it on, carefully identifying the skin texture on the corpse's left hand.
"It looks like a chemical burn." He sighed. "I felt something was wrong with that right hand before, but because the skin surface was severely burned by the fire, I couldn't easily draw a conclusion. I was thinking of going back and using the peeling method to confirm it. This time, we don't have to go through so much trouble."
"Can we extract usable fingerprints?" Lin Jiafan asked.
"No," Guo Zhen replied decisively, "but not many people suffer chemical burns. This symptom should help us identify the deceased."
"The cause of death was probably a sharp weapon piercing the aorta in the neck, causing excessive blood loss."
After saying that, he grinned at the two guys from the fire department behind him and said, "Brother, can you help me?"
The other party was obviously not willing, but Guo Zhen seemed to have learned a lot from Lin Jiafan. After a few words of praise, he fooled the two of them forward in a daze.
Seeing this, Luo Jingyao, who was hiding behind the crowd, looked at the man who had walked up to her at some point, with a somewhat sarcastic expression under his mask.
"Coach Luo seems to have something to say." Lin Jiafan's half-smiley voice sounded in his ears.
"No, even with my identity, I probably wouldn't be included in your public security official press release. I wonder how Officer Lin plans to thank me?" Luo Jingyao tilted her head and raised her eyebrows slightly.
"At worst, I can go and have another 'debate with the scholars'?"
However, before she could react to the meaning of this sentence, the body in the wall was taken down intact by Guo Zhen and the people from the fire department.
At this time, the people from the Inspection Department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau finally arrived, and Lin Jiafan went forward to discuss the work related to on-site evidence collection with them.
Almost every part of the house bore traces of the gas explosion. The officer leading the inspection department had a look of worry on his face. "Captain Lin, don't get your hopes up too much. Even if this house was the original scene of the deceased's death, there's nothing left now."
The biological and trace evidence were visibly contaminated, and coupled with the fact that countless people came in and out that day, this was extremely detrimental to their subsequent evidence collection work.
"Do your best!" Lin Jiafan obviously understood this, so he just raised his hand and patted the other person's shoulder, and then he and Guo Zhen and others carried the body away on a stretcher.
As the group exited the complex, someone hurriedly approached them. "Chief Fang! Chief Fang! The shop owner's ex-wife, whom the Special Case Investigation Team contacted earlier, is here. She's been waiting for you. Please go check on her!"
It was almost midnight, and there were fewer people around the cordon, with only a few scattered people still holding on.
So following the direction of the man's finger, Luo Jingyao easily saw the woman standing next to Pang Guang. She had delicate wavy makeup and was wearing a white brand-name down jacket. She was fiddling with the phone in her hand with an impatient look on her face.
Section Chief Fang retracted his stretched neck and turned to glance at Lin Jiafan with a smile: "Captain Lin, do you know the old saying that courtesy should be reciprocated?"
"I've already helped you tear down the walls, so it's not too much for you to help me screen people and do some screening, right?"
Lin Jiafan raised his hand and pushed up the frame of his glasses on his nose, then smiled slightly: "Not too much."
There is a bit of going with the flow in this.
Looking at Section Chief Fang's obviously excited back as he walked ahead, with a typical silly look of someone being sold but still helping to count the money, Luo Jingyao couldn't help but curl her lips: "Wow, Officer Lin is really kind-hearted."
Lin Jiafan, with his hands in his pockets, turned his head away when he heard this, as if he didn't hear the sarcasm in her words at all.
"We are all colleagues, just helping each other."
"Officer Lin is just trying to deceive Section Chief Fang. Besides the ex-wife of the spicy stir-fry restaurant owner, there are several other employees around Officer Pang, right? Don't say you didn't take the opportunity to inquire about the murder case at hand." Luo Jingyao raised her eyelids and briefly exchanged glances with the people around her.
After all, the murder scene was right across from the back door of the spicy stir-fry restaurant, and the employees coming in and out might have discovered something.
Unexpectedly, after being prodded so gently by her, Lin Jiafan was not angry at all. Instead, his tone was filled with appreciation: "Coach Luo."
He called out softly, suddenly stopping in his tracks.
Luo Jingyao raised her head in confusion, and naturally stopped walking.
"Do you know that you now have the basic qualities of an excellent criminal police? You have begun to think like a real criminal police. Don't you really consider giving this industry a try?" Lin Jiafan lowered his eyes slightly, his expression was serious, which was rare in his usual days.
Faced with his sudden sincerity, Luo Jingyao couldn't help feeling a little dazed, as if they had discussed this topic when they had just met.
She shook her head hesitantly, and finally refused: "The first half of my life was so tiring, I want to take it easy in the second half."
"Are you sure?" Lin Jiafan swept her from head to toe with a meaningful look.
Uncomfortably avoiding the other person's gaze, Luo Jingyao couldn't help but feel guilty. As someone like her, who spent all day trying to figure out how to handle the Special Case Investigation Team, she really had no right to claim she wanted to take it easy.
Retracting his gaze, the expression on Lin Jiafan's handsome face returned to its original relaxed and comfortable state. "So Coach Luo also knows that I never get up early unless there's something to gain."
After saying this, he took big strides to catch up with Section Chief Fang who was walking in front.
“…I don’t…” Luo Jingyao wanted to explain, but she could only watch the man’s figure walking further and further away.
There's no gain without pain. Is this how Lin Jiafan sees himself?
But in the last case of a rescued child going missing, after she sent out a message for help, he helped her without hesitation, and did not ask for any so-called "reward" afterwards.
So what does this person want?
Who is after her?
Her eyes flickered slightly, and Luo Jingyao was surprised to realize that she really owed the other person a favor.
She didn't mean to blame anyone by what she just said. She just felt that the Special Case Investigation Team was not liked by the leaders in the bureau, which might be due to the fact that he was always cheating people. Making too many enemies would not be very beneficial to the smooth progress of their future work.
Of course, now that she had calmed down, Luo Jingyao realized that she was a bit nosy. The harmonious coexistence of the past three months had made her inadvertently lose her sense of propriety in getting along with others.
After a moment of reflection, she followed with a deep sense of apology.
While Section Chief Fang was having a polite conversation with the ex-wife of the spicy stir-fry restaurant owner, Luo Jingyao came behind Lin Jiafan and reached out to tug at his sleeve.
"Officer Lin."
Facing the man's puzzled look, she bravely said, "Before the Little Potato case, you didn't want to accept my gratitude. Do you want me as a person?"
After all, after the case was over, she had tried several times to invite the entire team out for dinner or something, but he had always declined on the grounds of being "busy with work."
Where she couldn't see, Lin Jiafan's whole body suddenly stiffened.
Not noticing the abnormality of the person in front of her, Luo Jingyao continued apologetically, "I really don't have any intention of pursuing a career in this field for the time being. How about this? I won't charge you the consulting fee for this case, how about that?"
"Coach Luo, do you think I'm helping you just to save the consulting fee next time?" After feeling relieved, Lin Jiafan was also a little amused.
Sure enough, career-minded women have a very clear way of thinking.
Hearing his question, Luo Jingyao frowned immediately. After a long silence, she stretched out two fingers with great pain.
"Then... twice?"
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