Ning Zhiheng continued, "I just saw the knife wounds on the throats of the two victims. They were straight lines, smooth cuts, directly severing the arteries. The method was swift and clean; the perpetrator must have been a very experienced knife-wielder."
Sun Jiacheng nodded to him, having also noticed this detail. He was an expert in using short blades and could tell at a glance what kind of weapon the victim had used from their wounds.
He began, "The murderer used a specialized, thin-bladed knife, the kind used for assassination or theft. People who typically use thin-bladed knives are not skilled in close combat. Otherwise, they would have used a dagger like ours, which is commonly used for parrying and fighting."
Hearing his words, Ning Zhiheng thought for a moment and then analyzed, "Then the murderer should be two people, or at least two people, or a gang. One of them is a skilled hand-to-hand combat expert, and the other is a master of assassination or theft."
It's unlikely to have been done by one person. A master of joint locks would habitually use joint locks to break the victim's neck bones when killing them, rather than slitting their throat with a thin-bladed knife.
He then turned to Liu Datong and asked, "How are Gong Ji'an and Hou Cheng's investigations going?"
Liu Datong quickly replied, "I already notified them this morning, telling them to investigate according to your plan. Check their respective social relationships and see if there are any overlaps. After receiving your call, I told them to send someone back to report on the progress of the investigation! They should be back soon!"
Just then, Gong Ji'an rushed back. Gong Ji'an and Xiong Hongda were both detectives under Wang Bapi who were in charge of solving cases. They had some experience in this area, which is why Liu Datong put him in charge of this investigation.
He, Wen Xingsheng, and Hou Cheng were investigating the social connections of two habitual thieves when they received a call from Liu Datong, who said that Commander Ning wanted to personally investigate the case. Surprised, he realized that this seemingly ordinary case must be hiding a major secret. He secretly resented Liu Datong for not telling him the truth, so he rushed back to report the case to Ning Zhiheng.
Upon meeting, Ning Zhiheng didn't say much and went straight to the point: "How's the investigation into the social connections of these two habitual thieves going?"
"As per your instructions, I specifically investigated their social relationships. I found that they have no connection with each other, they should not know each other, and their areas of activity do not overlap. Moreover, petty thieves like them usually work alone. They would be too busy being suspicious of each other and on guard to work together as a gang." Gong Ji'an replied quickly without even taking a breath.
Ning Zhiheng nodded. Just as he had guessed, these two habitual thieves had been murdered separately by someone who came to their door in order to find out the whereabouts of the family crest seal. This further confirmed Ning Zhiheng's guess.
"Have there been any other missing persons in the past two days? I suspect that more than just these two habitual thieves were killed. The murderer may have found more than just these two people, but we just haven't discovered them yet," Ning Zhiheng said, turning to Liu Datong.
"I'll immediately arrange for the household registration police to verify the population in their jurisdiction and report the results to you as soon as possible!" Liu Datong nodded in agreement.
"No need. Making too much noise will alert the murderer. Besides, even if we find them, it'll be too late. Just go and ask if there are any missing persons reports!" Ning Zhiheng shook his head and said. It would be too late to investigate now.
He suddenly realized he had overlooked something, so he quickly said to Liu Datong, "Bring me the map of your jurisdiction."
Upon hearing this, Liu Datong didn't dare to delay and ran to get a city map. Ning Zhiheng carefully examined the map and said to Liu Datong, "Show me the location where the murderer disposed of the body."
Liu Datong stepped forward and pointed to a spot on the map, saying, "This is it! This is a garbage dump behind the North Street intersection. Residents usually dump their garbage here, and it stinks so badly that you can't smell it even when a corpse is rotting. Hiding a corpse here is not noticeable at all. If it hadn't been discovered by chance, these two habitual thieves would have died in vain."
Ning Zhiheng studied the map carefully, thinking intently. After a while, he suddenly asked Gong Ji'an, "Have you investigated the homes of these two thieves? Were they the primary crime scene?"
Gong Ji'an replied, "Both of their homes have been searched. One of the deceased's parents are still alive. They said they waited all night the night before last, but their son didn't come home. We went to investigate today, and that's when they found out their son was dead."
The other deceased lived alone. We went to his house and examined it carefully. The items and furniture inside were all in good order, the doors and windows were intact, and the door was locked; there were no signs that anyone had entered.
After listening to these words, Ning Zhiheng analyzed, "In other words, neither of these two homes was the primary crime scene, and there were no signs of anyone entering! However, both victims were tortured and severely abused before their deaths, and interrogated to extract confessions! Killing someone only takes one blow, but to torture someone requires time, and first, there needs to be a location. Now that we've established that location isn't in the victims' homes, where could it be? I deduce that they must have had a house where they conducted interrogations, tortures, and extracted confessions!"
So where exactly is this place? Let's look at the location where the body was dumped. There are many garbage dumps in Nanjing, so there are many places to choose from to dump the body. Why choose the Beijiekou garbage dump? Because it is the closest and most convenient place to dump the body.
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