The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

The second photo shows the characteristics of the center of the scene.

At the center of the scene, one can see that the bed has already been burned down. Apart from some metal items from the village clinic, there isn’t much else to see. It can be said to be a wide-spread burn.

Just as he flipped to the next page, he suddenly noticed in the photo at the bottom, where the bed against the wall had collapsed due to intense burning. However, at both sides of the bed near the wall, one can clearly see the wall peeling off, the paint having significant erosion and turning white.

In an instant, Jiang An suddenly became alert.

It’s well known that, at typical fire scenes, the areas with the most serious burning often lead to the peeling off of walls.

Although the village clinic only consists of one room, why is there such a significant difference in burn intensity within this room?

The key point, as Jiang An sees it, is that the most intensely burned area is actually by the bedside.

This is problematic, absolutely problematic.

Thinking of this, Jiang An looked up and asked, ”Mr. Qin.”

”Oh, go ahead.”

”Did you visit the village clinic before the fire broke out?”

Qin Feng thought deeply for a moment and said, ”Oh, I did. I remember it was right after I joined the police force at the station for training. Due to a call, I cut my hand, and then I was sent to the clinic for treatment. At that time, I still vividly remember the basic layout of the clinic.”

”Oh, then may I ask, at that time, were the medicines and alcohol directly stored together with the bed?”

”No, they weren’t. Since it was only one room, they separated the sleeping area from the usual treatment area. I remember there was a blue curtain in between, behind which was the doctor’s resting area, and outside there were many medicines and medical instruments. Of course, the medicines were mainly stored in the cabinet right by the entrance.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang An’s eyes suddenly brightened, once again fixing his gaze on the scene photos before him.

Especially that particular photo documenting the burn severity throughout the indoor area.

To Jiang An, both the deceased and the scene can speak; the key is how you interpret and restore the original appearance of the entire event.

In fire scenes where the burning is most severe, there are only two scenarios: First, accelerants and propellants are crucial;

Moreover, the air is sufficiently oxygenated.

In a room with just that single indoor space, and a fire occurs, meaning the air is relatively confined, the oxygen level is the same. So when the burn intensity varies, there’s only one possibility—the difference lies with the accelerant and propellant.

Thinking of this, Jiang An once again focused on the photos of the scene before him.

He was more convinced that the most severely burned area was where the bed was placed in the bedroom.

This shouldn’t be.

Although, in Jiang An’s view, the bed location may have some propellants, such as cotton, combustibles, or clothing, without accelerants, the burn intensity shouldn’t be that severe, particularly as Jiang An has been on multiple repetitive fire scene investigations.

The outcome like this was seen as extremely abnormal by Jiang An.

Unless, unless accelerants were poured onto the cotton.

After pondering, he suddenly looked up, pointing to the photo, saying, ”Mr. Qin, everyone, look at this photo; we can spot some contradictions.”

At this moment, the nearby officers showed expressions of surprise, especially the officer who was confident and had his eyes set on case number 9.

”Mr. Jiang, isn’t it normal to have alcohol in the clinic? Alcohol is highly flammable; even just smoking or other activities could lead to a fire.

Moreover, during that era, rural areas often experience power cuts at night, so when the power is cut, using candles makes fires very likely.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang An nodded and said, ”I know, but there’s one point we need to pay special attention to. In this room, just now, I specifically asked Mr. Qin where the medicines and disinfectants were stored?

And surprisingly, the place where they were stored wasn’t the area with the most severe burning.”

Once this viewpoint was raised, the atmosphere immediately grew tense.

As a criminal investigation captain, Qin Feng certainly wasn’t weak in understanding, especially when it involves scene investigation.

He quickly came over and said, ”Mr. Jiang, you mean there’s another area within this room with a very intense burn severity?”

”Yes, it’s on the bed. Look here beside the bed; we can see the edge of the bed has burned and collapsed, which is normal, but the edge of the bed, particularly the wall above it, has burned and peeled off.

Look at the room’s four walls; which wall exhibits widespread cracking and peeling like the area near the bedside?”

As soon as he said this, everyone’s gaze turned toward him, and at that moment, what they saw was this scene with nothing valuable besides the peeling walls.

After looking, everyone exchanged glances, with some in thought about what Jiang An was trying to convey.

However, Jiang An had already made it very clear by then.

After a long while, Qin Feng’s gaze moved back and forth across the photos a few times, saying, ”You might be right, there is widespread erosion near the wall.”

But he immediately questioned, ”I remember the conclusion given during the scene investigation was that there was a lot of combustibles on the bed, and the incident occurred in autumn-winter season, having combustibles is quite normal.”

Jiang An nodded, ”There were clothes on the bed, that’s normal.”

”But after catching fire, can bed clothes cause such severe wall peeling?”

After speaking, he continued to add, ”Of course, this cannot be determined; I just feel that if there was a significant storage of alcohol, then in this case scenario, would clothes catching fire alone result in such severe burn intensity on the walls?

Moreover, earlier you mentioned the storage location was the cabinet by the entrance. Look, the cabinet near the entrance did burn, but the intensity is far from what it was on the bed.”

”Oh, you’re suggesting that this area may be the ignition point or that alcohol was used as an accelerant?” One officer speculated.

Jiang An looked up at him and said, ”We can’t rule out this possibility.”

”I remember, in this case, the deceased was the wife of the village clinic’s director, a nurse; she had no reason to do this, plus the couple was, from what I saw, very loving.

In my duty time at the station, whenever there were disturbances due to drinking or injuries, I’d ask them for help, and their service attitude was very good,” Qin Feng quickly recalled the old days.

Upon hearing this, Jiang An nodded and said, ”I don’t fully understand the situation at that time, but there is one thing I find very suspicious, which is that burn intensity contradicts very much with the layout and placement of items at the scene.

And this contradiction makes me feel, at least from my level, it’s impossible to reasonably explain it.”

As soon as he said this, all officers fell into silence.

Jiang An spoke tactfully but the implication was very clear.

All officers’ eyes quickly moved between the case file in Jiang An’s hand and the earlier death case at the No. 9 fireworks shop because both cases involved only a small amount of remaining bones from the deceased...

While everyone was puzzled, some even filled with curiosity, Jiang An continued lifting the remaining case files again, taking a close look.

Dealing with criminal investigation, he deeply understands: one must open up the thinking, don’t miss any possibilities.

Because he deeply felt, this time, the perpetrator they encountered was not simple. In fact, the occurrence of this series of cases was definitely meticulously planned by the perpetrator.