Chapter 25: The Suspect of the Broken Corpse

Fang Rui and his team quickly reconstructed the ignition device found at the fire scene:

stick a No. 5 battery to the top of a wooden clip, and nail two thumbtacks on the inside of the clip that can hold things, one on the top and one on the bottom, and separate the thumbtacks with cardboard; the positive and negative poles of the battery are connected to two wires, and the ends of the wires are wrapped around the two thumbtacks on the thumbtacks.

"Can this little device really start a fire?" Xiao Zhang looked at the ordinary clip on the ground. This device is so simple that even elementary school students can make it.

Fang Rui removed the paper, and the entire circuit short-circuited, and the high temperature generated quickly ignited the combustible material placed next to it.

"It can actually ignite a fire?" Xiao Zhang was surprised, "But the murderer has to tear off the paper strip to ignite it, so it's no different from him striking a match to ignite a fire?"

"This ignition device should have another part that can control when this circuit is connected."

Fang Rui thought of the old alarm clock he saw at the explosion site. He found a similar one in the office next door. He drilled a hole in the paper, tied the paper with a rope, and tied the other end to the alarm clock.

When the alarm clock vibrated, the paper quickly pulled out of the clip. Without the paper as an insulator, the circuit was connected and a short circuit occurred, and the combustible material was ignited again.

"In this case, the murderer doesn't even need to be present at the fire scene. He only needs to set the alarm clock to start the fire!" Xiao Zhang exclaimed.

Fang Rui took out the alarm clock found at the crime scene from the evidence box. The alarm clock had been blown up, and the time on it was frozen at 9:30.

——Mu

Mian found that she had encountered a big problem. She seemed unable to determine the exact time of death of the deceased.

Mu Mian and Chen Xue separated the food in the deceased's stomach and placed it in a container.

"Mianmian, the food in the deceased's stomach was hardly digested," Chen Xue analyzed. "We found undigested green cake and coffee in his stomach. Judging from the degree of digestion of the stomach contents, the deceased was killed within an hour after eating breakfast."

The high temperature burned the deceased's body, which made it impossible for them to determine the time of death of the deceased based on the body temperature and rigor mortis. Fortunately, the deceased had just eaten before death, so the time of death of the deceased could be inferred by the degree of digestion of the food in the deceased's stomach.

"Based on the reaction of the wounds on the body, I speculate that the deceased died at least three hours before the fire, that is, before 6:30 in the morning, or even earlier.

But according to the degree of digestion of the stomach contents, the deceased should have died between 8:30 and 9 o'clock. The time of death we estimated in the two ways is not consistent."

Chen Xue said cautiously: "Could it be that the high temperature burning and the impact of the explosion changed the shape of the body, causing you to make a wrong judgment? This situation is rather special, and it is normal to make a wrong judgment."

Mu Mian frowned. Did she make a wrong judgment?

Chen Xue continued, "If the time of death of the deceased was between 8:30 and 9:00 on the day of the crime, then this also matches the testimony of the eyewitnesses. They may indeed have seen the deceased alive at that time. So it is very likely that the murderer first killed the deceased at the crime scene, and then set fire to the body to destroy the evidence."

Then why did the murderer design an ignition device to ignite remotely? This device is generally designed to create an alibi.

Mu Mian felt that Chen Xue's reasoning was not rigorous.

Mu Mian looked at the pile of sticky green food and frowned. After a person dies, the food in the stomach will still be digested. Although it is not very accurate to reverse the time of death based on the degree of digestion of the stomach contents, the error will not be that large.

Did something prevent the deceased's stomach from digesting?

In fact, Mu Mian had a guess, but unfortunately, there is no evidence to verify Mu Mian's idea.

Fang Rui and his team retrieved the surveillance footage from the fire scene. After investigation, they soon found a suspicious person - the deceased's apprentice, Liu Jiale.

Liu Jiale is 31 years old this year. He has had conflicts with the deceased many times, and the two even went to the police station because of a fight.

The surveillance video of the villa area shows that in the past half month, Liu Jiale has driven to follow Ye Zeming several times, and his behavior is sneaky. But in the past week, the surveillance at the gate of the community has not captured Liu Jiale entering the villa.

The deceased's neighbor saw Liu Jiale sneaking into Ye Zeming's home through the window. He called the police. The police were going to file a case, but Ye Zeming guaranteed Liu Jiale, saying that he allowed Liu Jiale to enter and that Liu Jiale only broke through the window because he didn't bring his key. In the end, the police revoked the administrative punishment against Liu Jiale.

The staff of Ye Zeming's studio said that the relationship between Ye Zeming and Liu Jiale was very strange. Liu Jiale always quarreled with Ye Zeming unilaterally, but Ye Zeming coaxed him patiently every time, and Ye Zeming also spent a lot of money on Liu Jiale.

Fang Rui suddenly thought of the engraving on the couple's ring: M&L.

Liu Jiale's name can also be abbreviated as L.

However, Liu Jiale disappeared.

Liu Jiale lived in a low-rent house in a village in the city. The house was very shabby. He lived on the top floor with a friend who was an artist.

His roommate studied fine arts and made a living by painting portraits at a street stall. Liu Jiale sold sculptures next to his stall, and they got to know each other. Later, Liu Jiale broke up with Ye Zeming completely, so he took Liu Jiale in.

Liu Jiale's roommate had rainbow-colored hair, looked sloppy, and had sunken eyes. When he saw the police, he looked a little nervous.

"Officer, has Jiale committed a crime? Jiale is a very good person, he won't commit a crime."

There were also some of Liu Jiale's belongings in the house, basically paints and some finished sculptures. Although Fang Rui and Xiao Zhang don't understand art, they can see that Liu Jiale's works are very artistic. The shapes and colors are very abstract, but there is a kind of harmonious beauty.

There is a self-portrait of Liu Jiale on his bed. He looks average, but there is a sense of decadence that is unique to artists, which makes him look depressed.

"When was the last time you saw Liu Jiale?"

"Last week in the west. Jiale suddenly ran back in a panic at noon that day. He told me that he was going to another place to seek refuge with his cousin. He hurriedly took a few clothes, carried his backpack and left. He has never come back since then. His phone is also unreachable."

The fire happened on June 12, and last week in the west was June 8. This means that Liu Jiale had disappeared before the fire.

"Then do you know the address of Liu Jiale's cousin's home?"

"I don't know! I even suspect that he doesn't have a cousin at all. Jiale grew up in a single-parent family and has very few relatives. I only heard him mention his mother."

"Do you have his mother's contact information?"

"No. His mother passed away seven years ago. He was in college at that time. Later, he lost hope and let himself go. He dropped out of school to pursue art."

Fang Rui asked, "Do you know Liu Jiale's master?"

"Are you talking about the famous sculptor Ye Zeming? I've met him a few times. He's a nice person. Every time he saw Liu Jiale, he would give him money and persuaded him to go back to the studio many times. But Jiale refused. Jiale said that he didn't like the depressing atmosphere in the studio. He liked the free creative atmosphere!"

Liu Jiale had few friends and relatives in Jiangzhou City, so the police couldn't find him for a while.

The surveillance near the rental house showed that Liu Jiale was carrying a black backpack, looking very panicked, and his eyes kept glancing at Xizhou. Later, he disappeared into the blind spot of the surveillance.

According to his ID number, there was no record of buying a car ticket, train ticket or plane ticket, but it is not ruled out that he left Jiangzhou in a private car.