Chapter 32 I Want Your Tongue (VIII) Finding Clues
Han Jianye walked into an open space alone and unexpectedly found a puddle of water at the door of a scrap recycling station. The pit was covered with sand shoveled by a bulldozer, mixed with red mud that had been trampled by people.
His eyes passed through the piles of plastic cans and saw an old man in the scrap yard who was holding a cardboard and placing it on the ground, then stepping on the cardboard hard. Next to him, a child in open-crotch pants was playing with toys attentively. The picture seemed particularly warm and harmonious.
Han Jianye carefully took some red soil and took it away, while silently noting down the specific location of the scrap yard.
Then he continued his search.
About ten minutes later, Ye Bai met Han Jianye at the corner of the alley. Their eyes met in the air, they nodded to each other, and then continued on their way.
At first they thought that red mud could be found everywhere in the village, but after a thorough observation, they found that unless the villagers deliberately took it, the red mud would only appear in certain places, such as construction sites, farmlands, etc.
Speaking of the construction site, Liao Wei and Qi Xiaolei are now standing next to a building.
Qi Xiaolei whispered, "Do you think the murderer is one of those people working on the construction site? Look, they are all wearing rain boots and stepping on red mud, which is very similar to the characteristics we inferred as the murderer."
"Yeah, it's really close, but how can we catch someone with just these? I don't know where to start."
When they gathered back in the car, they had only brought back seven portions of red clay, and they marked each one. They were now going to Luoyang Village to find Su Wan and the others.
At this time, Su Wan's feet were stuck in the mud in the field, which made him speechless.
In the end, the other two investigators pulled him out with a smile.
They searched all over Luoyang Village but could not find any traces of red mud near any houses, but they did find some in the fields.
Su Wan speculated that the murderer might have been to the fields or was engaged in farming work, so the soles of his shoes were stained with red mud.
Su Wan said self-deprecatingly: "I have worn these pants for a hundred years and my butt is now shiny. I can finally replace them."
On the way back, Liao Wei asked, "Captain Han, can we really find the murderer this way?"
Han Jianye answered with a firm look in his eyes: "Although we cannot directly identify the murderer, this method can help us narrow the scope of the investigation. We will take these red soil samples for detailed analysis. As long as we can match the sample that is closest to the red soil data we found in the old house, we can find the possible location of the murderer, or at least determine the area where the murderer often appears."
After returning to the police station, everyone went about their business, but Ye Bai went to look for Mai Shaozhen alone.
After leaving the leader's office, Han Jianye received a message from Mai Shaozhen asking him to come over.
He looked around for Ye Bai, but only saw Liao Wei enjoying something.
Han Jianye curiously asked Liao Wei what he was eating. Liao Wei raised the bottle in his hand and replied, "Vitamins, Captain Han, don't you have any? This is for after meals."
Han Jianye frowned slightly. He realized that Ye Bai had not reminded him to take vitamin tablets all day.
He thought to himself that Ye Bai might have deliberately not reminded him because of the argument last night, which made him feel that Ye Bai was a little stingy.
Seeing that Han Jianye did not respond, Liao Wei continued, "It shouldn't be like that. Ye Bai said that each of us has a bottle. Captain Han, don't you have one?"
Hearing this, Han Jianye's face immediately became serious, and he said sternly: "What are you eating? Go to work."
Liao Wei lowered his head, realizing that he might have said something wrong, and felt secretly regretful. Could it be that Ye Bai gave vitamin tablets to everyone else but not to Captain Han?
He wanted to slap himself twice and thought: Ye Bai, I'm sorry, I seem to have sold you out unintentionally.
At the same time, Mai Shaozhen noticed that Han Jianye was not behind Ye Bai, and asked in confusion: "Isn't Captain Han here?"
Ye Bai stopped and asked, "Did you ask Captain Han to come?"
Mai Shaozhen nodded and confirmed: "Yes, I found a very important clue."
Ye Bai really didn't know about this. He came here because he had some questions to ask Mai Shaozhen, and he guessed that Han Jianye should be on the way.
Sure enough, footsteps were heard in the corridor. From the rhythm and strength, Ye Bai immediately recognized that it was Han Jianye.
When Han Jianye saw Ye Bai, his eyebrows slightly raised, with a hint of surprise, "Why are you here too?"
Ye Bai replied casually: "I have something to deal with, so I came here."
"No wonder I couldn't find you anywhere." Han Jianye said with a hint of amusement in his tone.
"Don't waste time, come here." Mai Shaozhen interrupted their conversation and swept her eyes over the two of them. "I found a very interesting clue on the right shoulder of the deceased."
Han Jianye immediately asked: "What clue?"
"As you can see, Guo Yingping's shirt was soaked with blood, so we took blood samples from every spot on her shirt. Although we didn't find anything initially, didn't we discuss yesterday that the murderer might be left-handed? So I repeatedly simulated the murderer's left-handed knife-wielding gesture, and subconsciously, my right hand would press the victim's right shoulder."
As Mai Shaozhen spoke, he took out the shirt Guo Yingping had been wearing and pointed to a mark. "There is a palm-shaped mark on the right shoulder of the deceased, which looks like it was left by the murderer when he chopped the deceased's jaw."
Han Jianye and Ye Bai looked carefully and indeed found a palm mark that looked like it was left by humans.
Han Jianye asked: "This can only mean that it was left by the murderer when he hacked. What exactly is the clue you are talking about?"
Mai Shaozhen smiled mysteriously: "Don't worry, I haven't finished yet. Look, 5 centimeters to the left of the palm, isn't there a very inconspicuous blood mark that looks like a fingerprint?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Han Jianye and Ye Bai's expressions immediately turned serious. They carefully examined the bloodstained shirt and found that there was indeed a blurry fingerprint on the left side of the palm, which was obviously left by the murderer inadvertently.
Mai Shaozhen continued to analyze: "In fact, this fingerprint is not the key to solving the case."
Han Jianye smiled helplessly, "Can you finish it all at once?"
"Of course." Mai Shaozhen replied.
"Just imagine that the murderer's palm was pressing on the victim's shoulder. Normally, his five fingers should be printed behind the shoulder. How could there be a small fingerprint 5 centimeters to the left of the palm?"
Mai Shaozhen's words caused the scene to fall into a brief silence.
After a moment, Han Jianye and Ye Bai spoke almost at the same time: "This is the part of the killer's right thumb that was left behind."
Mai Shaozhen smiled and nodded, confirming their guess. "That's right. If our guess is correct, the murderer has six fingers on his right hand, and this incomplete fingerprint was left by the murderer's polydactyly finger."