frightfiction Chapter 1093 Discoveries During the Autopsy
Chapter 1093 Discoveries During the Autopsy
A patch of grass on the embankment slope had been flattened, forming a strip about 80 centimeters wide. "This flattened grass extends from the top of the embankment to the water's edge," Xiao Sun measured the slope with a protractor. "The angle is 35 degrees, which matches the mechanical characteristics of a heavy object being dragged by hand." He found a few dark red spots on the grass blades, which turned brownish-red after being wiped with an alcohol swab. "They need to be taken back to the lab for a preliminary bloodstain test, but their shape doesn't look like fresh blood; they may have been diluted by rainwater."
“There are tire tracks on the top of the embankment,” Xiao Yang said, standing at the top of the slope, pointing to two parallel indentations in the soil. “The tires are about 18 centimeters wide and 1.3 meters apart, which matches the wheelbase of a small truck or agricultural tricycle.” He squatted down and touched the edge of the indentations. “The soil moisture indicates that the tracks were formed no more than 48 hours ago, and there are obvious skid marks 1.5 meters from the edge of the embankment. The tire tread pattern is diamond-shaped, which matches the ‘Shifeng’ brand tricycles commonly seen in the village.”
Xiao Wang's inquiry yielded new results: "Old Zhang said that Li Laosi owed the deceased 30,000 yuan. They had argued at the village store last Tuesday, and Li Laosi threatened, 'If you don't pay back the money, I'll make you disappear.'" He shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Team Leader Yang, check if there are any 'Shifeng' brand tricycles in the village, especially those with mud stains in the cargo bed." The rain gradually subsided, and sunlight shone through the clouds onto the water's surface. The water around the body was darker than other areas, as if something had sunk to the bottom.
Xiao Yang suddenly stopped deep in the reeds, a multi-band light shining on a clump of foxtail grass. "There's a piece of fabric here," he said, picking it up with tweezers. The fragment had jagged edges and was dark gray, the same color as the coat on the body. "The fabric has a loose fiber structure and low warp and weft density, like the material of a work jacket." A soil sample attached to the fragment was placed in a container labeled "B-07" and compared with the soil composition of the tire tracks on the embankment.
Xiao Sun found a button in a crevice in the rocks at the edge of the embankment. It was round with four holes, 2.5 centimeters in diameter, and had a worn plastic coating on its surface. "The remaining stitching on the back of the button is brown polyester thread," he observed it against the light, "matching the position and shape of the missing button on the corpse's coat." He scanned around the rocks with an electrostatic precipitator, picking up a few silvery-white metal shavings. "This is ferromagnetic material, possibly from some tool or vehicle part."
As technicians prepared to retrieve the body, Xiao Yang suddenly pointed underwater: "Look at the bubbles; there might be something heavy under the body." He had his colleague probe with a bamboo pole, and they touched a hard object at a depth of about 2.3 meters. "Don't move the body yet," Xiao Yang stopped the officers who were about to go into the water, "Probe around in the surrounding mud; there might be a murder weapon." The rain had completely stopped, and the wind rustled through the reeds, as if telling the story of the secret submerged in the water.
Xiao Wang's notebook was already three pages full of notes, while Lao Zhang was still talking about Li Laosi: "He had a red tricycle, which he usually used to haul fertilizer, and he always kept a crowbar in the cargo bed." He suddenly remembered something, "Last Wednesday night I saw a flashlight beam, a really bright white one. Li Laosi's flashlight was like that, and he was the only one in the village who used one." In the distance, outside the police cordon, several villagers were peeking around, their whispers carried on the wind, making the air above the pond feel particularly heavy.
Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun summarized the investigation results: 3 fiber samples, 2 suspicious indentations, 1 set of tire tracks, 1 piece of fabric, 1 button, and several metal shavings. "The most valuable ones so far are the drag marks and tire tracks," Xiao Yang drew a map of the traces in his notebook, "but they've been severely damaged by rain and need to be reinforced in the lab." Xiao Sun added, "The fabric fragment and button can be confirmed to be related to the body's clothing, but they can't yet point to a specific suspect."
Li Ming stood on the embankment, gazing at the gradually calming pond. The salvage operation was about to begin, and he knew that more clues might be hidden underwater—the murder weapon, identification documents, or items that could reveal the victim's identity. The sunlight after the rain was somewhat dazzling; he squinted towards the direction of Li Laosi's house, where smoke was still billowing from the chimney, as if nothing had happened. But those fragments scattered in the reeds and silt would eventually reveal the outline of the truth under the searchlights.
That afternoon, the body was transported back to the Criminal Investigation Division for an autopsy.
On the stainless steel workbench of the autopsy room, the body was covered by a thin layer of white mucus—the putrefied skin formed from prolonged immersion in water. Zhang Lin, wearing double-layered latex gloves, wrinkled immediately when his fingertips lightly touched the body's skin. "The deceased was male, preliminarily estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old," his voice, metallic in tone, came through his mask. "His skin was pale green, with obvious signs of immersion on his palms and soles; the stratum corneum was white and swollen, consistent with the characteristics of a body submerged in water."
Assistant Kobayashi placed a measuring tape on the corpse's neck: "The body is 175 centimeters long and weighs about 65 kilograms. The clothing is intact, but the third button on the coat is missing, which matches the shape of the button found at the scene." She used tweezers to lift the deceased's eyelids, and the surface of the conjunctiva was covered with dark red hemorrhages. "Subconjunctival hemorrhage, moderate corneal opacity, and loss of pupillary light reflex."
Zhang Lin picked up the scalpel and made a standard "Y"-shaped incision in the corpse's chest. The subcutaneous fat was pale yellow and 1.2 centimeters thick. "There is emphysema in the subcutaneous tissue," he said, separating the muscle tissue with hemostatic forceps. "This is gas produced by putrefactive bacteria, which diffuses more quickly in water." When the sternum was sawed open, the bone marrow was dark red. "The bone marrow's hematopoietic function is active, indicating that the deceased had good nutritional status before death."
“Teacher Zhang, look here,” Xiaolin suddenly pointed to the body’s mouth and nose. “There are mushroom-shaped foams in the nasal cavity and oral cavity. They are white, slightly sticky, and not easily broken.” She collected foam samples with a straw. “This is one of the typical characteristics of drowning before death, but further examination of the respiratory tract and lungs is needed.”
Zhang Lin turned his scalpel to the neck, where the muscle tissue appeared dark red with clear boundaries from the surrounding tissue. "No bleeding was observed in the neck muscles, and the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage were intact," he said, probing the trachea with a probe. "The tracheal wall was smooth, with no foreign object obstruction, but there were a small amount of mud and sand particles on the mucosal surface." The composition of these mud and sand particles was consistent with the silt samples from the bottom of the pond, providing important evidence for determining the location of death.
When the chest cavity was opened, the volume of both lungs was significantly increased, with rounded edges and increased weight. "The left lung weighs 650 grams, and the right lung weighs 720 grams," Zhang Lin said. He lifted the left lung with tweezers, and the cut surface was dark red. When squeezed, watery fluid flowed out.