frightfiction Chapter 1162 Dongshan Cemetery
Chapter 1162 Dongshan Cemetery
Li Ming's laser pointer stopped at a dent on the edge of the fountain, where the tiles showed obvious signs of friction. "Where did this mark come from?" Liu Zhiqiang's gaze swept over the dent, and he suddenly trembled violently: "His knee hit here when he struggled," he gestured to the position where Sun Biao fell, "his head hit the edge of the tile, and there was a dull thud..." The location of the "3x4cm subcutaneous hematoma at the back of the head" in the forensic report corresponded perfectly to the height of the tile edge, and the trace amount of blood pretreatment agent residue in the dent matched Sun Biao's blood type—it was from when Liu Zhiqiang dragged him.
When pointing out the dragging route, Liu Zhiqiang hesitated in front of the holly bushes. Faint drag marks, about 0.5 meters wide and 12 meters long, could still be seen in the dew-dampened grass, matching the forensic expert's deduction that the body had been dragged horizontally. "I grabbed his ankles and dragged him in," he whispered, the chain rustling against the grass. "His jacket got caught on holly branches three times, and each time I had to stop and pull. The third time, the fabric on his left chest was torn..." The dark blue wool fibers found at the end of the drag marks matched the lining of Sun Biao's jacket, and the freshly broken branches in the holly bushes showed signs of life, confirming Liu Zhiqiang's confession that he "forcibly pushed it aside on the night of May 14th."
Standing before the bushes where he had dumped the body, Liu Zhiqiang's breathing suddenly quickened, his chest heaving like a broken bellows. "Just leave it here," he said, tracing circles in front of the charred grass, "face down, right hand still clutching that LV belt—his most prized possession." The forensic report's description of the body as "prone position, right hand clenched into a fist" perfectly matched his confession. The size 43 shoe print at the edge of the bushes had a forefoot pressure area 30% larger than normal gait, consistent with the characteristics of "exerting force while dragging a heavy object." The soil residue around the shoe print was identical to that found in the tire seams of Liu Zhiqiang's motorcycle.
"Why did you handcuff him?" Li Ming suddenly asked, pointing to a flat patch of ground next to the bushes. Liu Zhiqiang's gaze drifted to the ground, where there was an oval-shaped indentation of 0.3 square meters, which, according to the soil hardness tester, was 25 degrees higher than the surrounding area. "I got the handcuffs from the motorcycle's tailgate here," his voice filled with an almost manic fear, "I wanted to pretend to be a police officer investigating a case, but I tried seven times and couldn't open the lock, so I got impatient and rubbed the key on a stone..." The metal scratches at the indentation matched the width of the handcuff key, the scratches on the stone matched the wear on the edge of the key, and the wear marks on the internal gears of the handcuff lock cylinder found by the technicians in the tailgate corresponded perfectly to Liu Zhiqiang's confession of "repeatedly inserting and removing the key."
By the end of the identification process, Liu Zhiqiang's work pants were soaked with dew, clinging to his legs like a black plaster. Li Ming flipped through the forensic report, pointing to the photo of "incomplete fracture of the greater horn of the hyoid bone": "The leather strap you used was 3.5 centimeters wide. The force you applied when strangling him was just enough to cause this kind of fracture—fatal without leaving obvious signs of external force." Liu Zhiqiang suddenly looked up, tears mixed with bits of grass in his eyes: "I just wanted him to shut up... I didn't mean to actually strangle him..." His voice suddenly rose, "But he called me a poor wretch, saying I could only repair motorcycles my whole life..."
On the highway outside the cordon, technicians were photographing and archiving each location identified by Liu Zhiqiang. As the last photo was taken, the morning light pierced through the clouds, illuminating a strand of silvery-white wool fiber deep within the bushes—a remnant of Sun Biao's jacket lining, and an indelible piece of evidence against Liu Zhiqiang. Li Ming closed the on-site record. During the identification process, the 27 details Liu Zhiqiang confessed matched perfectly with the conclusions of the on-site investigation and forensic autopsy. From the wear points on the belt to the skin tissue under Sun Biao's fingernails, from the length of the drag marks to the shape of the hyoid bone fracture, each piece of evidence, like a puzzle piece, now fit together seamlessly to reveal the bloody tragedy that occurred on the night of May 14th in Beishan Park.
As Liu Zhiqiang was being escorted away, he suddenly glanced back at the fountain, where his blurry reflection was still visible in the puddles. "If my dad knew I used his belt to kill someone," he said, his voice barely a sigh, "he'd definitely crawl out of his grave and beat me." The clanging of the chains faded into the morning mist, leaving only the wind of Beishan Park whispering the story of how two lives consumed by desire met such drastically different ends in this seemingly peaceful grove.
Less than a week after the case at Beishan Park was closed, the Criminal Investigation Division received another report.
The asphalt road to Dongshan Cemetery was damp with morning mist. Li Ming's police car had barely come to a stop when he saw Li Baoguo trembling beside the incense and candle stand at the cemetery entrance. The old man's yellow paper was wrinkled from cold sweat. Upon seeing the policeman, he immediately rushed forward, his withered fingers grabbing Li Ming's arm: "Officer, you scared me to death… When I bowed three times, my forehead brushed against the grass on the grave, and my hand felt all sticky…"
The cordon was quickly drawn around the tombstone number 7 in row 3. Before this tombstone, inscribed with "Tomb of My Late Mother Zhou Guiying," the offerings of fruit were still fresh, the tooth marks on the apples clearly visible. But even more glaring was the dark red stain on the fresh soil of the grave mound, like a poisonous flower blooming in the yellow earth. Xiao Yang approached using the surveying platform, the beam of his surveying light piercing the fog and drawing bright lines on the damp soil: "The bloodstains are distributed in a splatter pattern, starting at a height of about 1.2 meters, with a splash angle of 30 degrees, consistent with close-range injury characteristics."
Xiao Sun was scanning the grass around the tombstone with a footprint light. Two size 43 leather shoe prints were clearly visible on the dewy, lush grass. "The pressure on the forefoot is concentrated on the outside, the stride length is 72 centimeters, and the stride width is 15 centimeters," he said, using a ruler to mark the edge of the shoe prints. "The gait is steady, the stride angle is 5 degrees, and the outward splay is obvious, estimating the height to be 175-180 centimeters. There is fresh red soil attached to the edge of the shoe prints, which is consistent with the soil composition of the hill behind the cemetery."
Xiao Wang placed the interrogation record book on the wooden box at the incense and candle stall. Li Baoguo's fingers repeatedly traced the date "6 a.m. on May 22nd": "I come to sweep my mother's grave every Wednesday. Today, I had just set out the offerings when I noticed the soil on the grave was loose. I thought it was dug up by wild dogs." He suddenly shivered. "When I kowtowed, my forehead scraped against the ground and I saw blood. When I looked up, there were splatters on the tombstone... I mustered my courage and dug away the soil, and there was a hand sticking out!"
Xiao Yang picked up a blade of grass stained with blood with his tweezers. There were obvious tear marks on the edge of the blade. "The herbaceous plant stem was broken by a sharp instrument," he observed against the light. "It wasn't broken by being trampled, but more like it was cut by a piece of cloth being dragged while moving the body. The bloodstains on the grass blade were already half-dried, indicating that it had been exposed to air for more than 6 hours."