Qiu Sushan straightened her body and stared fixedly at Yi Jiayi.
Lin Wangjiu and others also turned their heads back, looking puzzled at the petite policewoman who seemed like a mascot.
“I was wondering why the victim would go alone to King’s Park and read on the lakeside grassy slope. It’s clear she was outside, yet she seemed to be hiding from others,” Yi Jiayi explained, seeing that Uncle Jiu and the others were still unclear on her point, and continued:
“When I was around fifteen or sixteen, I did everything with friends, we would go to the park to read, to libraries, to shopping malls, always together. I never went alone to a secluded place to read.”
“From the testimonies of the victim’s friends and relatives in the case file, the victim was a lively and cheerful girl who loved to be with her friends.”
“I know that Team A’s investigation has already ruled out some special circumstances and concluded that the victim went to a quiet place to read, where she encountered an unknown stranger and was raped and then killed, which is often a crime of passion and fits with the clues presented in this case.”
“But, I still want to hypothesize, could it be possible that the victim had arranged to meet a friend to read together?”
“Isn’t that more in line with the behavior pattern of a well-behaved, shy, yet lively and cheerful girl who liked to mingle with people?”
“The testimony of the victim’s friends mentioned that she rarely spent weekends with her best friends before her death. However, her family said she would go out on weekends, but since her academic performance did not decline, everyone suspected she might have gone to the library or some small bookstores and stalls,” Fang Zhenyue pondered and added:
“It’s also possible that she made new friends.”
“This new friend was her secret, one she didn’t want to share with her family or classmates,” Liu Jiaming chimed in.
“Was it a secret romance?” Lin Wangjiu frowned.
“An affair? A teacher-student relationship?” Gary’s deduction suddenly veered off.
“Gary, you and Uncle Jiu go to the victim’s school and her home for another round of visits, ask if she had a crush on someone, a male teacher she was particularly close to, or some other noteworthy social relations,” Fang Zhenyue said, pausing to think, and then added:
“About the new ‘friend’ the victim made about a month before she died, from the testimony, she didn’t spend weekends with her classmates, which started about a month before her death.”
“At the same time, ask what the victim did during that month, where she went, who she met.”
“Understood, Brother Yue,” Uncle Jiu and Gary immediately got up and swiftly left.
“Sir Fang…” Yi Jiayi spoke again as she saw Gary and the others leave, hesitating slightly.
They were looking for the person who was with the female victim, but they definitely wouldn’t find him, because that young man had died before the female victim.
However, why had the police completely failed to find the male victim’s body? Had it been taken away by the killers?
“Uh-huh,” Fang Zhenyue nodded encouragingly, signaling her to continue.
Liu Jiaming had already turned his chair around to face Yi Jiayi, tilting slightly towards her.
The young policewoman really has it going for her. After attending a few meetings, she has learned to think and reason independently. Even Brother Yue has adopted her perspective—it’s quite smart and impressive.
Qiu Sushan stared at Yi Jiayi, closely observing the young officer’s expression, deep in thought.
Yi Jiayi was immersed in how to convert the content she visualized in her mind into reasoning that she could present to everyone.
After pondering her words for a moment, she asked Fang Zhenyue:
“Sir Fang, suppose the person with the victim that day was her boyfriend…”
“The victim might have been raped and then killed by this unknown boyfriend,” Fang Zhenyue continued her line of thought, considering a possibility.
“But why would he beat the victim so brutally? She clearly wasn’t a fickle, bad girl; there was no reason for her to provoke a man to this extent,” Yi Jiayi added, then continued, “If it really was the boyfriend, that’s just twisted.”
Fang Zhenyue thought for a moment, then said, “If it wasn’t the boyfriend, but he was at the scene…”
“Hmm,” Yi Jiayi swallowed and asked again, “What would you do, Sir Fang?”
“Protect the victim and fight the murderer.” Fang Zhenyue thought for a moment and then added, “Based on the victim’s injuries, there was more than one assailant. The boyfriend probably couldn’t handle them.”
“Another victim?” Liu Jiaming clapped his hands, suddenly speaking out loud.
“But where is he?” Everyone reasoned together for a while, and Qiu Sushan’s emotions were stirred as well. She stood up, staring at the whiteboard and began to think rapidly, “Did he run away? No, the murderer wouldn’t easily let a witness go. Chased to another place and killed?”
“That’s possible,” Fang Zhenyue thought for a moment, then asked, “Half a year ago, near King’s Park, were there any other murder cases?”
“I’ll check.” Qiu Sushan turned around and left; she had high-level access to all the homicide files across Hong Kong.
After Qiu Sushan left, Fang Zhenyue proposed another possibility:
“If the chase didn’t leave the boundaries of King’s Park and the male victim also died in King’s Park, and since Team A’s investigation didn’t find any trace of another victim, where could the body be?”
“The lake!” Liu Jiaming suddenly slapped his hand and stood up from his chair.
Without another word, Fang Zhenyue ordered Sanfu to requisition a police dog, and he and Liu Jiaming headed straight for King’s Park.
Before the jeep started, Yi Jiayi also got in the car.
Fang Zhenyue glanced at his watch, “It’s time to get off work, and you’re staying to work overtime with us?”
“I’ve called my brother already,” Yi Jiayi settled in the back seat, obediently saying.
This response seemed to imply, as long as the head of my family agrees, I can come home late.
With a light laugh, Fang Zhenyue stepped on the gas and sped out of the police station.
Today, his lineup for the outing was exactly like the God of Wealth’s: sitting down to invite fortune and treasures, accompanied by a boy and a fairy.
No matter how you think about it, he felt sure today would be a lucky day.
…
Before Fang Zhenyue went to King’s Park, he first stopped by a grocery store, entered the back room, and greeted the informant who was playing mahjong there.
Half a year ago, the homeless people near King’s Park exhibited unusual behaviors, which might be related to various potential phenomena and details of the King’s Park Murder. The informant was asked to inquire around before heading back to King’s Park.
The police dogs ran around, the search area expanded, but as expected, nothing was found, and they were sent back just as they came.
Walking around the park, the grass mostly looked the same, and none seemed like it had been dug up. Considering the difficulty of the operation, the possibility of burying a body in the park was essentially ruled out.
Standing by the lake, Fang Zhenyue walked around half of it and then gave up on the idea of searching the lake himself.
He left the park to make a phone call and returned with a large team—professional divers, a trailer carrying a professional small salvage boat, and professional salvage tools.
“This must cost a lot of money, right?” Liu Jiaming was stunned. “Can the department even approve such expenses?”
Fang Zhenyue just smiled and kept quiet.
“Brother Yue is going to pay out of his own pocket.” Liu Jiaming walked over to Yi Jiayi and clicked his tongue twice. “Sometimes, what do you rely on to solve a case? Money.”
A group of people were working by the lake, with Fang Zhenyue and a few others nearby, starving as they kept watch.
Yi Jiayi snuck out to call her elder brother, and after about fifteen minutes, Yi Jiadong arrived on a small motorcycle, bringing a box of milk tea called “Yi’s Iced Delight” and pork chop buns.
“Thanks, Brother Jiadong, you saved our lives.” Liu Jiaming, who was already starving, grabbed a bottle of Yi’s Iced Delight and a pork chop bun, devouring them ravenously.
“Put it on the tab.” Fang Zhenyue had given Yi Jiayi 5,000 Hong Kong dollars a week for expenses like afternoon tea, telling her to spend it all here and ask for more if needed.
He also took care of her overtime meals, and occasionally when she ordered lunch for everyone at noon, Fang Zhenyue would invite her to join the meal.
Most of the time, Yi Jiayi took care of her own family business, and it always worked out profitably for her.
Even gaining a bit of an advantage, she handed Fang Zhenyue a pork chop bun and thanked him.
Fang Zhenyue replied, “You’re welcome,” greeted Yi Jiadong, and then turned back to supervise the work at the lake:
“Be careful, if there’s a body, don’t damage it.”
Yi Jiadong put down the food and quickly rushed back to his store, Yi Ji, during the peak business hours, needing to hurry back to look after the business.
As night gradually fell, the high wattage lamps shone down, and everyone’s faces grew increasingly grim.
Fang Zhenyue received the short message sent to his pager by Qiu Sushan, making his aura sink even lower.
The word “none” clearly referred to the fact that within the last six months, no criminal case in the entire city matched the boyfriend of the female victim they were theorizing about.
Now, all hopes were almost entirely pinned on the lake. If there was no body inside, everything might have to start over from scratch.
He turned his head to glance at the young policewoman standing beside him, only to find that Yi Jiayi’s expression was unexpectedly resolute, watching the salvage boat working on the lake without a trace of anxiety.
“Feeling that confident?” Fang Zhenyue asked.
“There’s no perfect crime in this world, there must be clues, and we will eventually find them,” she replied, nodding at Fang Zhenyue with a tone that seemed to be encouraging him.
Fang Zhenyue couldn’t help but chuckle, patting her on the shoulder before turning back to the lake.
The area was bustling, with the salvage boat’s lights bright and hot, attracting swarms of mosquitoes.
Fang Zhenyue had to take out his mosquito repellent and continuously spray it around himself.
As everyone was irritated by the mosquitoes, a tanned man on the salvage boat suddenly exclaimed in pain.
Twenty minutes later, the divers worked with the salvage boat to bring up the body entangled with water plants, mud, and heavy stones all at once.
The forensic officer and colleagues from the identification department hurried over. Xu Junhao, dressed in an expensive-looking suit, apparently had just finished work and gone home, but was urgently called back.
The body had been soaking in the lake for half a year, and now only a skeleton remained, with the traces left on the hair and clothes looking grim.
Even if fingerprints had once remained on the clothes, after half a year, nothing was left.
The body and many other items fished up were treated as crucial evidence and taken back to the police station.
…
You Zhaohua led his team in a new round of reasoning and discussion on the case they were currently solving, which gradually entered a dead end.
They had suspects, but solid evidence played hide and seek with them, always almost appearing, yet proving to be useless.
“Everyone, go home and get a good night’s sleep,” You Zhaohua said, massaging his throbbing head. He didn’t want to give up on the case, yet he felt he had no more leads to follow.
Another unsolved case, yet another…
He hated himself for not being able to capture any evidence, and he despised the many pieces of evidence collected that, with current technology, could not yield more accurate results.
“Brother Hua, you should also go back and rest for a bit,” one of his subordinates urged him as he walked out and looked back.
Suddenly, an unusual noise erupted from outside, as if a group of emotionally stirred people were hurriedly coming back.
“What’s the matter?” You Zhaohua stepped out of Team A’s office and looked towards the entrance of the police station.
Squinting his eyes, he unexpectedly saw Fang Zhenyue.
“It seems like…” Walking at the front, the agent who saw Fang Zhenyue and his team turned back, hesitatingly said to You Zhaohua:
“Another body has been found in the central lake at King’s.”
You Zhaohua’s eyebrows furrowed deeply, and he stood frozen for several minutes before suddenly striding towards the corridor, heading to the forensic pathology lab.
…
The rope tying the body’s feet to the stone was preliminarily identified as two shoelaces tied together. To determine what type of shoes they belonged to and whether there were any other significant clues, further experiments and investigations were needed.
Only the skeleton remained of the body, and from the residual damage on the skull, it was determined that death was caused by a blunt instrument.
“No stones stained with other people’s blood were found at the crime scene. We tested all blood samples collected nearby, and they all belonged to the female victim alone,” You Zhaohua said, immediately thinking of the various-sized stones on the lakeside and the grassy slopes upon hearing that the skeleton might have died from blunt force trauma, and couldn’t help but interject and ask:
“Is it possible to determine the time of death?”
Was it really the same day as the King’s Park female murder victim died in King’s Park?
Could there have been more than one victim at that time?
But after such a long investigation, no trace of another victim was found…
Is it possible that these are two completely unrelated cases?
“The weapon that killed this body might have been discarded in the lake along with the body, and there’s no need to dredge it up now,” Xu Junhao looked up at You Zhaohua, then inspected the skeleton up and down for a while before saying:
“The time of death needs to be determined in combination with the forensic analysis of the clothing and other evidence.”
“The body was completely skeletonized in the lake water, and with the current temperature, two weeks would have been enough. The reason the skeleton was preserved so well is entirely due to the clothes he was wearing and the algae wrapped around him.”
“The clothes are spring long-sleeves, obviously not for summer. Setting aside the possibility that this young man was particularly cold-sensitive, the time of death should be in February, March, or April. If the young man was very warm-bodied, January might also be possible.”
“As for the algae, I remember that the lake’s algae were last dealt with at the beginning of the year. Tomorrow I will call to consult the specific time of treatment and the height of the algae after the treatment.”
“Judging by how the algae almost completely enveloped the body now, it must have fallen into the algae when it was quite short, and then grew to this height… Indeed, it would have taken several months.”
“I will also ask the forensic experts about the specific growth rate of the algae tomorrow.”
Although Xu Junhao has not given a definite answer, You Zhaohua’s expression has become complex.
Based on the existing clues, the skeleton in front of us is very likely to have died about six months ago and could be another victim of the Jing Shi Bei Murder Case.
So… it is also the most important breakthrough clue that their Team A has not found after several months of investigation.
You Zhaohua’s face twitched slightly, and when he turned to look at Fang Zhengyue, his expression became difficult and bitter.
However, Fang Zhengyue did not look at him, but kept staring at the corpse, constantly examining the style of the corpse’s clothing and other information.
Next, the forensic team carefully removed the clothes, trousers, socks, and other items from the corpse and bagged them to take them for testing.
The medical examiner laid the skeleton flat, examined the skull, teeth, and maturity of the ossification centers, then stood up and said to Fang Zhengyue and others:
“The growth plates are partially closed, indicating that the deceased was about 18 to just over 20 years old.”
“Male, approximately 1.75 meters tall.”
“From the thickness of the bones and the condition of the bones where the muscles attach, the deceased had a moderate build, not overweight.”
“From the comparison of the bones of the left and right arms and legs, it can be determined that he was right-handed.”
“Jiaming, check the missing persons in the whole port over the past six months.” Fang Zhengyue immediately ordered.
Liu Jiaming, holding a notebook with the skeletal information, accepted the order and left.
When Fang Zhengyue looked away, he caught Yi Jiayi staring at the skeleton, her eyes red and fists clenched, visibly unstable.
He nodded to Xu Junhao, pulled Yi Jiayi by the arm, and led her out of the forensic autopsy room.
You Zhaohua still stood in the autopsy room, exchanging glances with the medical examiner Sir Xu for a while, before awkwardly nodding and dejectedly turning to leave.
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