frightfiction Chapter 1244 Clues from Extensive Exploration
Chapter 1244 Clues from Extensive Exploration
He took out his phone and sent a message to his team members: "Meet at the entrance of the detachment at 8 a.m. tomorrow to investigate the abandoned factory. Everyone get some rest and be well-rested."
The light from his phone screen reflected his determined gaze. He knew that as long as he didn't give up and continued his meticulous investigation, he would eventually find the black motorcycle hidden in the blind spot of the surveillance cameras, uncover the suspect's true identity, and allow the nameless dead in the mountains to rest in peace.
While Xiao Wang led his team to review the surveillance footage frame by frame in the video analysis room, Li Ming was standing by the cordon at the crime scene in the mountains. Looking at the trees and gullies covering the mountains, he gave Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun new instructions: "Don't just focus on the gentle slope around the body. Expand the investigation area to the entire mountainside area, especially the gullies to the north, the abandoned mountain road to the west, and the pine forest to the south. The suspect must have fled along the mountain road after dumping the body, and there is a high probability that he will leave traces along the way. Search carefully and don't miss any small clues."
Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun immediately shouldered their survey bags full of tools and split into two groups to begin their work. It was nearly noon, and sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground. The mountain breeze carried the scent of pine needles, but it did nothing to diminish the tension of the survey.
Xiao Yang was responsible for checking the ditch to the north. This ditch, formed by rainwater erosion, was about two meters deep and three meters wide, with its bottom covered in gravel and dead branches, and its sides overgrown with thorns. He walked down the slippery slope, his footprint lamp moving slowly across the ground. "There are new footprints here!" When he reached the middle of the ditch, Xiao Yang suddenly stopped—on the pile of gravel, there was a clear imprint of a size 42 men's leather shoe, with a stride length of 80 centimeters, a stride width of 18 centimeters, and a stride angle of 3 degrees outward, which perfectly matched the shoe print found to the east of the body.
“The suspect must have walked this way,” Xiao Yang crouched down and used tweezers to brush aside the dead branches next to the shoe prints. “The pine needles clinging to the edges of the shoe prints are still fresh and haven’t been wet by rain, indicating that they were left no more than 3 days ago, which matches our estimate of when the body was dumped.” Continuing to follow the direction of the footprints, after about 20 meters, the footprints disappeared into a pool of water—the water was murky and could not retain any traces; only a few brown fibers floating on the surface could be seen.
Xiao Yang carefully scooped up the fibers with a net and put them into an evidence bag: "These fibers are rough in texture, like some kind of canvas material. We'll have to go back and test them to see if they match the fiber samples found around the body." He looked up at the end of the ravine, which connected to the abandoned factory to the north. "Xiao Wang and the others are going to investigate the abandoned factory tomorrow. Maybe they can find more related clues there."
On the other side, Xiao Sun also made a discovery on the abandoned mountain path to the west. This path was originally made by villagers who went up the mountain to cut firewood years ago, but it has long been abandoned. The path is covered with fallen leaves and weeds, and only the general outline can be seen. He used a probe to push aside the thick layer of fallen leaves and found a set of tire tracks in the middle of the path. The tires were 28 centimeters wide, which is the same size as the motorcycle tire tracks found to the west of the body, and the tire tread pattern is also horizontal stripes.
“The wheel track is about 1.1 meters, which is consistent with the wheel track of a common motorcycle,” Xiao Sun measured the distance between the wheel tracks with a ruler. “The black soil on the edge of the wheel tracks is consistent with the composition of the soil on the hillside, and the edges of the tracks are clear without any signs of weathering, so they should have been left recently.” He followed the wheel tracks to the east and west. The wheel tracks on the east side extended towards the gentle slope where the body was located, connecting with the tire tracks found earlier; the tracks on the west side led to a country road outside the mountain, but the tracks were covered by weeds and could not be followed further.
In the grass next to the tire tracks, Xiao Sun also found a metal lighter. The lighter's casing was black with obvious scratches, and the brand logo was blurred. "There was still a small amount of gas in the lighter, which means it hadn't been discarded for long," he said, putting the lighter into an evidence bag. "There are no clear fingerprints on it; it's covered in sweat and dirt. I need to go back and treat it with special reagents to see if I can extract the suspect's fingerprints."
After the two met up, they searched the pine forest to the south together. The pine forest was dense, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of pine needles, making it soft to walk on. Deep in the forest, under a pine tree, Xiao Yang found half a size 40 women's cloth shoe print. The edge of the print had a small amount of black soil on it, the stride length was 60 centimeters, the stride width was 16 centimeters, and the stride angle was 1 degree inward, suggesting a height of 155-160 centimeters.
"Women's shoe prints? Could a woman have been involved in the crime?" Xiao Sun frowned. "But the previous shoe prints and motorcycle tire tracks were male. Are these women's shoe prints left by an accomplice or by a passing villager?" Xiao Yang squatted down and carefully examined the shoe prints: "The freshness of the shoe prints is similar to the other marks, so we can't rule out a connection for now. Few villagers come to the pine forest, so it's unlikely they passed by, but we can't be completely sure. Let's take a sample back for comparison."
Among the fallen leaves next to the woman's shoe print, the two also found a small piece of plastic. The piece was transparent with torn edges, as if it had been torn from a food packaging bag. "There was a small amount of brown stain on the piece, and we can't determine its composition yet," Xiao Sun said as he put the plastic piece into an evidence bag. "It might have been discarded by the suspect when he rested here after disposing of the body. It could provide additional clues along with the plastic medicine bottle we found earlier."
Xiao Sun took out his investigation logbook and sorted through the newly discovered clues one by one: "The size 42 leather shoe print matches the one next to the body, the motorcycle tire print extends to the country road, black canvas fibers, metal lighter, size 40 women's cloth shoe print, plastic fragments - there are more clues than before, but they are all too fragmented and there is no key information that can directly point to the suspect."
“Yes,” Xiao Yang sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “The shoe prints can only determine the suspect’s height range, the tire prints don’t provide any further details, and the fiber and plastic fragments need to be tested to confirm whether they are directly related to the case. The woman’s shoe prints are even more unreliable. We also have no clue about the victim’s identity. The body is highly decomposed, the clothes are tattered, and we haven’t found any items that could prove her identity. Her pockets were emptied, which means they were clearly deliberately cleaned by the suspect.”
Xiao Sun leaned against a tree trunk, flipping through the investigation records: "Do you think the suspect might be a villager from the neighborhood? Familiar with the mountain environment, knows the abandoned mountain roads and ravines, has a motorcycle, and might even know the deceased—otherwise, why would they deliberately dump the body in such a remote place and even clean up the deceased's belongings?"
“That’s possible, but we can’t rule out the possibility that it was an outsider,” Xiao Yang countered. “Outsiders can find these hidden routes if they scout the area beforehand. And the presence of the woman’s shoe prints makes the case more complicated—if it was a villager, we can investigate the situation of the surrounding villagers later; but if it was an outsider, the scope of the investigation would be too large.”