I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 74: Chapter 72: Didn’t See the Killer’s Face

Lu Zhishen and Su Miaoyi drove directly to the morgue.

”You’re here?” Kang Ting said, seeing the two of them.

Lu Zhishen said, ”Captain Kang.”

Kang Ting gave him a once-over and nodded, much like an elder checking if a younger relative was doing well and hadn’t lost any weight. Only then did he turn to Su Miaoyi and say politely, ”Thank you for coming so late.”

”It’s all for the case. It’s part of the job,” Su Miaoyi replied.

Kang Ting led them to the autopsy room.

The medical examiner was performing the autopsy, so Kang Ting briefed them on the case first.

”We sent the sketch back to the station for a match and got a result quickly,” Kang Ting said. ”Shao Dong, male, thirty-five, a Jiangcheng local.”

”After identifying him, we found three addresses. But when officers went to check, it was clear all three places had been uninhabited for a long time. The furniture was covered in dust sheets.”

”His last known occupation was in real estate sales. He had a record of social security and housing fund contributions, but that was ten years ago. We don’t know what he’s been doing since; nothing came up.”

”We contacted his parents, but the elderly couple didn’t know much. They just knew Shao Dong had made a lot of money and bought them a house in Jiangcheng. In fact, one of the addresses we found was theirs. That makes tracking his movements rather difficult.”

”And then?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Right at that moment, a woman came in to file a report,” Kang Ting said. ”She claimed she’d been held captive, and the man who imprisoned her was none other than Shao Dong.”

Su Miaoyi immediately asked, ”The wife of the deceased, Xu Shuxuan?”

Kang Ting nodded.

Lu Zhishen listened from the sidelines.

”Her name is Sheng Ningxuan, and she was college classmates with both Xu Shuxuan and Shao Dong,” Kang Ting continued. ”She said that a little over a month ago, Shao Dong suddenly asked Xu Shuxuan out for a get-together. She didn’t think much of it at the time. As it turned out, Xu Shuxuan never came home that night. Instead, Shao Dong showed up at her house, knocked her unconscious, and abducted her.”

”For the past month, she’s been locked up in a house. In the beginning, Shao Dong was there every day. He’d cook for her, talk with her, and give her gifts. Then he suddenly stopped showing up. She survived on the snacks and water left in the room.”

”Sheng Ningxuan said that during their conversations, Shao Dong mentioned he had killed Xu Shuxuan. She also overheard him discussing drug deals on the phone. So, the moment she managed to escape, she came straight to the police station to file a report.”

”But didn’t Shao Dong die at his home? Which one?” Su Miaoyi asked.

There were the three addresses on record, plus the place where Sheng Ningxuan was held.

That made four locations already.

’So there’s another one?’

”It was a location Sheng Ningxuan told us about,” Kang Ting said. ”I asked if she knew of any other properties Shao Dong had. She said he once mentioned a villa, telling her that after some time, once she ’came to her senses,’ he would take her there to live. His body was discovered in that villa.”

’They say a cunning rabbit has three warrens. It’s really true...’

”When we arrived, Shao Dong was on the living room sofa, sitting upright,” Kang Ting said. ”This time of year, we don’t have heating in this region, but the villa’s air conditioning was running. After two weeks, the body was already badly decomposed.”

”Cause of death?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”His throat was slit. Death by exsanguination and cerebral hypoxia,” Kang Ting said. ”The location and angle of the wound, along with the dagger found by his right hand, are all quite consistent with suicide.”

”He was likely holding the dagger, and it must have fallen onto the sofa as the body decomposed.”

”But you said it didn’t look like a suicide,” Su Miaoyi stated.

Kang Ting nodded, rubbing his stubble. ”Even though the body is decomposed, the medical examiner said there are visible signs of a struggle that occurred before death. On top of that, there are indications that the scene was rearranged and cleaned up after a fight.”

”A staged suicide,” Lu Zhishen said.

”The scene was wiped clean. We couldn’t find any useful footprints, fingerprints, or other evidence,” Kang Ting said.

After a moment of silence, Su Miaoyi asked, ”What about Shao Dong’s phone?”

”We found nothing on his phone,” Kang Ting said. ”And that’s another major point of suspicion. Sheng Ningxuan said she overheard him discussing drug deals on a call, but we’ve checked all his contacts. It’s just a few old classmates, some former colleagues, his parents, and relatives... There’s no call in his log at the time she mentioned, either.”

”You suspect someone deleted data from his phone?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”If the killer had taken the phone, the staged suicide wouldn’t hold up. They had to leave it behind,” Lu Zhishen pointed out.

”Exactly. We’re working on data recovery now, but there’s no telling if we’ll get anything back,” Kang Ting said.

Su Miaoyi fell silent again.

’If the killer is tech-savvy and did a thorough wipe, recovering the data will be extremely difficult.’

She asked, ”Have you looked into the Fengjiang Clubhouse?”

”Not yet.” Kang Ting frowned.

The moment the Fengjiang Clubhouse was mentioned, a look of profound annoyance crossed his face.

”If we can get a breakthrough on this end, we’ll hold off on investigating them,” Kang Ting said. ”If they are involved, showing up now could tip them off and our leads will go cold.”

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen exchanged a look.

’Looks like the Fengjiang Group is in much deeper water than they’d imagined.’

...

They waited outside the autopsy room for a while.

Once the medical examiner finished the autopsy, Su Miaoyi went inside to examine the body.

However, she didn’t see Shao Dong’s killer in her vision.

She only caught a glimpse of a scene through the wound on his neck.

It was of him being grabbed by the hair and slammed onto the sofa. As he tried to fight back, stabbing backward with the dagger in his right hand, his wrist was seized by someone behind him.

Then, the person behind him forced his hand, using the dagger to slit his own throat.

That was why the wound looked self-inflicted.

The killer was behind Shao Dong the entire time. From his perspective, she couldn’t see the culprit at all.

All it did was confirm that Shao Dong had not committed suicide.

...

By the time they returned to the police station from the morgue, it was already past midnight.

They followed Kang Ting into the station.

”What are you doing here again?”

Su Miaoyi turned toward the voice and saw Song Yucheng.

”Watch your tone,” Kang Ting said. ”I brought her in as a consultant.”

Song Yucheng glanced at Su Miaoyi, then back at Kang Ting. ”Captain Kang, *her*? A consultant?”

Kang Ting shot him a glare.

Song Yucheng immediately backed down a bit but still muttered under his breath, ”A woman solving cases? Women just get in the way.”

Lu Zhishen frowned and was about to speak.

But Su Miaoyi spoke first. ”Well, well. Seeing you has really filled the void in my life of never having met a bona fide, old-fashioned chauvinist.”

Song Yucheng glared at her.

Su Miaoyi took two steps forward. ”Women can’t solve cases? Then tell me, were you the one who found Shao Dong?”

Song Yucheng’s brow furrowed.

Su Miaoyi scoffed. ”Do I need to take this up the ladder?”

Taking it up the ladder meant going to the Jiangcheng City Bureau leadership.

”That’s enough,” Kang Ting interjected. ”Get back to work.”

Song Yucheng walked off without another word.

Kang Ting said, ”He has a chip on his shoulder. Please try to overlook it.”

Lu Zhishen was about to say something again.

But once again, Su Miaoyi spoke before he could.

Lu Zhishen felt like he was choking on his unspoken words.

”Does his chip on his shoulder have something to do with me?” Su Miaoyi’s tone was no longer harsh. She asked it like a simple question, her voice even becoming gentle.

’She knew perfectly well.’

’She had been recommended by Director Meng from Jinghai. And while she didn’t officially represent the Jinghai City Bureau, any mistakes she made or wrong words she spoke would reflect poorly on them.’

’This case was a joint effort between the two bureaus.’

’She couldn’t let herself be pushed around, but she also couldn’t let the situation become awkward.’

’And as for Lu Zhishen...’

’With the matter concerning his parents, he would inevitably have to deal with the Jiangcheng City Bureau in the future. She didn’t want him getting mixed up in this kind of petty squabble on her behalf.’

”I’ll make him apologize,” Kang Ting said.

”It’s not a big deal. You’re being too kind, Captain Kang,” Su Miaoyi replied graciously.

...