She knew where the deceased had boarded the vehicle—it was at the Fuk Oi Estate stop on Waterloo Road, north of Prince Edward Road West.
But she couldn’t find any evidence to prove that the deceased had boarded there, so she had to keep this clue to herself. Seeing everyone anxious and knowing so much but unable to say it was really frustrating.
…
The detectives arrived at the forensic autopsy room, just as Sir Xu was conducting a second autopsy on the body.
This time, Jiayi only saw about ten minutes of footage from before the deceased’s death.
But the first time at the bus stop, she had seen much longer.
It seemed that the ‘fresher’ the body, the more information she could see and the longer the duration. It was like the more intact the body, the clearer and more complete the images she could see.
“The deceased had consumed a large amount of vodka before the injury, which also accelerated his death… Perhaps it’s also related to the cause of his death,” Xu Junhao saw Fang Zhenyue and Jiayi but skipped the greetings, directly stating all the details he had discovered.
“Drunk brawling,” Fang Zhenyue frowned and turned to instruct Liu Jiaming who had followed him, “Go make a call and ask the police stations if there were any reports of brawls involving alcohol in the time frame before the victim got on the rickshaw.”
“Yes, sir,” Liu Jiaming nodded, then left the autopsy room promptly.
“The knife wound is angled upward from below,” Sir Xu showed a picture of the wound to Fang Zhenyue and others.
Jiayi peered over and quickly grasped Sir Xu’s point, adding, “The murderer was shorter than the victim.”
“Yes,” Xu Junhao looked approvingly at Jiayi and nodded, “Considering the force and depth, the murderer likely used both hands to thrust the knife forward, which is consistent with this angle of attack.”
Xu Junhao then demonstrated the posture of a taller person stabbing from below with one hand, explaining:
“If a tall, strong person were to stab like this, the angle would be more steep because people tend to grip the knife with the base of their thumb facing outward, making the angle larger. When stabbing, the friction at both ends of the knife would also differ subtly…”
Once on his topic of expertise, Sir Xu found himself speaking at length without pause.
Jiayi took this opportunity to make notes, capturing both the logical connection Sir Xu made about drinking leading to possible drunk brawling clues and Xu’s expert knowledge.
“So, considering the fight, the victim might not have been standing upright, and the murderer’s height is probably half a head to a head shorter than the victim,” Sir Xu concluded.
“From the depth of the wound, can we determine whether the murderer was male or female, an adult male or a child?” Fang Zhenyue pressed further.
After some thought, Sir Xu replied, “It’s more likely to be a woman, not very strong, even if holding the knife with both hands, the depth isn’t very significant. It’s just that the location of the wound was tricky, and excessive blood loss was what killed the victim.”
“Thank you.”
“The stomach contents, analyzed by forensic science, were all common foods, nothing special. Some cotton fibers and fabric lint were found under the victim’s fingernails, but… we can’t locate the original crime scene or the suspect, so this is temporarily of no use,” Xu Junhao, seeing Fang Zhenyue’s expression, couldn’t help but mutter his frustration.
He wanted to help, but the information he could extract in his field for this case was limited.
“It will be useful,” Fang Zhenyue noticed Sir Xu’s frustration and, although still in a bad mood, spoke up.
Xu Junhao slightly raised the corner of his lips, testing the waters.
“Let’s head to forensic science again,” Fang Zhenyue patted Xu Junhao on the shoulder.
“Thank you, Sir Xu,” Jiayi smiled at Xu Junhao and followed Fang Zhenyue.
…
“The contents stuck on the victim’s shoe soles were all extracted and analyzed. If there were sand, we could determine which beach it came from. But the current results, which include ordinary road dirt, dust, and bits of trash, don’t point to any specific location,” Brother Da Guangming stood in front of the lab bench, also distressed.
“Stuff like nasal contents and others sent from the medical examiner’s office were also analyzed,” Diane shook her head at Fang Zhenyue and Jiayi.
“Thank you,” Fang Zhenyue nodded, patted Jiayi on the shoulder, and signaled it was time to head back.
On the way back, everyone chose to remain silent.
Everyone was deep in thought, repeatedly pondering and recalling, trying to find even a glimmer of inspiration in their minds to break the deadlock instantly.
But until they sat in their own chairs in Office B, the agents remained silent.
As lunchtime approached, Fang Zhenyue led everyone to repeatedly analyze possibilities, discuss the victim’s route, and speculate on all the things the victim might have done before dying.
Liu Jiaming hurried back, and Fang Zhenyue immediately turned to him with an inquiring look.
The young man shook his head, “There was only a drunken brawl reported at night; there was nothing in the time slot before the victim got on the vehicle.”
Fang Zhenyue’s face instantly darkened, seeing that the agents were also downcast. He cleared his throat, trying to lift his spirits, and called out:
“Let’s go have a good meal first, and we’ll talk more this afternoon.”
One by one, everyone stood up responding to Fang Zhenyue’s call. Jiayi touched her notebook, hesitated for a few seconds, and then spoke, “Brother Yue, I need to buy some things for my new home during lunch break. You guys go ahead without me.”
“Do you need a ride?” Fang Zhenyue stood up, hand on the back of his chair, raising an eyebrow at Jiayi as she walked out.
“No need, I’ll take the Ding Ding car.” After saying this, Jiayi glanced at the whiteboard and muttered with a bitter smile, “Ding Ding car.”
“Okay, be safe,” Fang Zhenyue advised before leading the team away.
Jiayi boarded the Ding Dong car across from the police station, rattling through streets and alleys, then got off at Fuk Oi Estate.
After alighting, she looked up and saw the sign for the International Primary School and the student pathway. After confirming more scenes she had seen in her mind’s eye, she took out her notebook, marked this stop, and followed the mental imagery in the opposite direction of the victim’s memories.
As Jiayi walked, she looked down, thinking that if she found bloodstains, a DNA test could confirm if they were from the victim, and then she could follow the blood trail to find the initial crime scene.
But while her ideas were rich, reality was harsh.
She walked and searched, her neck growing sore, yet saw not a single drop of blood.
It was either washed away by the light rain or cleaned up by maintenance workers. All that remained on the road were dried marks of rainwater and some mud, footprints, and bits of debris.
Turning left, turning right, going straight, descending, turning, ascending… She only found a coin.
When Jiayi reached the entrance of Building 6 in Fuk Oi Estate, where the victim had fled, she sighed in resignation.
Although there was a janitor’s desk downstairs, the elderly man inside kept his eyes glued to the small black-and-white TV behind the counter. When Jiayi pressed the elevator button and it beeped, he didn’t look up, likely a bit hard of hearing.
Taking the elevator up, Jiayi stood in front of Unit 4A on the fourth floor, crouched down, and sniffed; there was no smell of blood.
Perhaps the colder weather had slowed the decomposition of the body.
Even if she could smell decay, she couldn’t report it.
After all, she couldn’t explain how she had found this place…
Frowning, Jiayi stood upright with her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
She was frustrated. She knew there were two bodies inside, yet she couldn’t break down the door.
She couldn’t tell anyone that the seated corpse on the tram was actually the murderer. He had killed two people in this room, and had also sustained serious injuries during the struggle, eventually dying in a bus on the upper deck by the window seat…
Closing her eyes, images flowed through her mind.
She felt as if she could see through the iron door in front of her to the scene behind it.
A crowded living room table was set with a simple feast—when preparing this meal, the housewife probably hadn’t anticipated that their esteemed guest would turn out to be a harbinger of death, killing her and her husband.
Now the delicacies had spoiled, and the male host had collapsed beside the table, stabbed fatally, along with the wooden chair. The female host, who had also stabbed the ‘tram corpse man,’ had fallen next to her husband after her throat was slit…
How could she lead the investigators to such a hidden place?
It was deep autumn in Hong Kong, and winter was approaching. The apartment’s doors and windows were tightly sealed. If the bodies inside were to decompose slowly, if the smell didn’t escape. What if the deceased couple had no other family, and both were unemployed at home…
What if the ‘tram corpse man’s’ relationship with this couple was very subtle, perhaps only a casual acquaintance, with no mutual friends? Even if the identity of the seated corpse man was discovered, it might not lead to this couple…
Wouldn’t that mean that no one would ever discover the two bodies inside this apartment?
Jiayi’s brow furrowed deeply. What to do? What to do?
…
Living opposite, the grandmother in unit B walked to her door slowly after hearing the ding of the elevator, checking through the peephole to see if it was her daughter coming home.
But instead of her child, she saw a woman dressed in white, with short hair slightly disheveled, standing motionless in front of unit A, her fists clenched as if harboring hatred.
Just standing there…
The grandmother felt a chill down her spine and quickly retreated, swallowing nervously. Not daring to look again, she turned back to the kitchen, frantically pulling her husband along:
“There seems to be a weirdo in front of the neighbor’s door, come and see, can you see her (it)?”
Her husband, cleaning a fish and covered in fish blood, grumbled as he was pushed to the door.
He peered through the peephole to the opposite side and exclaimed, “There’s nothing there!”
“Ah!” The grandmother shuddered.
It appeared that no one else could see the woman in white, only she could. Perhaps it really was a ghost…
Just then, the grandfather, seemingly heedless of danger, pushed open the door.
“Ah! Don’t open the door!” The grandmother couldn’t stop him in time and stepped back, covering her eyes.
“There’s nothing, look for yourself, old woman!” The grandfather pointed outside the door, where it was empty.
“Ah?” The grandmother looked left and right, indeed seeing no one.
But just as she was about to dismiss her fears, she noticed several drops of water on the dry ground in front of the opposite door.
The grandmother shivered and quickly shut the door.
….
Footnotes:
Officially known as the Hong Kong Tramways, these are double-decker streetcars that have been operating in Hong Kong since 1904. They are affectionately called “Ding Ding” trams because of the double bell ring they use to signal their approach and departure.