Chapter 18: On-site Reasoning
Lin Dongxue scowled, "Oi, why are you coming in? Shouldn't we let the forensic team come and take samples and prints first? If we move the scene, my brother will punish me!"
Chen Shi responded, "What if there's a living person in here?"
"Okay, I guess what you said makes sense!" Lin Dongxue turned into the house and felt goose bumps on her body. She gulped and carefully avoided the blood on the ground that was splattered like ink stains everywhere.
The furniture in the house was not too messy. It seems that the murderer made very swift and clean murders. The two went to the back of the sofa where a woman wearing home clothes was laying. She should be aged over 30, and her whole head was like a bloody paste.
Chen Shi was ready to test is the victim had a pulse when Lin Dongxue stopped him. "Wait, don't leave fingerprints."
Chen Shi took out his mobile phone and placed the screen under the nose of the woman. After waiting for a few seconds silently, condensation still did not appear on the screen. "She's dead," he asserted.
The two went to the bedroom next. The bedroom and the living room were decorated in different styles. It was filled entirely with a set of old mahogany furniture and a wicker rocking chair. It was obviously the room of an old person. There was an old lady lying on the floor. Her neck had a hole torn through it, as if bitten by a beast. The blood stained a large piece of the solid wood flooring.
Chen Shi surveyed the area and found that a thick cleaver was thrown on the ground carelessly, covered with coagulated blood. "It seems that this was used as a weapon," he deduced.
The two went into another bedroom. This was the room where the husband and wife slept. The couple's wedding photos were hung on the wall in front of the bed. There was nobody in the bedroom. A bowl of soup was placed on the bedside table. Chen Shi went over and sniffed, "It's snow tremella and lotus seed sweet soup."
Chen Shi straightened up and looked at the small balcony that was attached to the bedroom. The balcony was semi-enclosed with windows on it. One of the windows were open and a small stool was placed on the floor. Chen Shi asked, "When you asked the locksmith to open the door, was it locked from the inside?"
"No!" Lin Dongxue replied.
Chen Shi looked down at the ground below. "It seems that the little boy jumped from here because he was too scared. Below is the flower bed. It has some buffering effect, but he was still injured pretty severely."
"When he woke up and found that the whole family was dead. It must have been so pitiful," Lin Dongxue sympathized.
"When he woke up?" Chen Shi looked at her with a puzzled look.
Lin Dongxue, who knew she must have made a mistake with her words, tried to explain, "I just talked about it casually. Do you have to be so picky with each and every word? We will wait for forensics to determine the time of death!"
"Let's go to the kitchen and see."
The two went to the kitchen. The kitchen and bathroom were connected together. A man was on the floor between the kitchen and the bathroom. It was the male owner of the wedding photo. His head was smashed to a pulp. "Hup!" Chen Shi bent down and checked. "The weapon used to kill this man is different from the other two."
Chen Shi muttered to himself for a moment, then suddenly rushed into the kitchen. He rummaged through the cabinet and took a pair of rubber gloves from the cabinet. Lin Dongxue tried to stop him, "Oi! What are you doing?"
"I won't rest easy until I take a look."
"Don't move the body right now! Wait for my brother, he's coming..."
"When your brother is here, you think he will he let me look?"
"I thought you were afraid? Why aren't you afraid now?" Lin Dongxue groaned softly.
Chen Shi bent down again and checked the man's head. He waved her over. "Look, there are some white broken pieces in the hair."
Lin Dongxue followed suit to take a look. "Oh, it's true!"
Chen Shi stood up and walked into the bathroom. Some white pieces were scattered on the tile floor. The lid on the toilet was gone. The amount of pieces on the floor would be just about the same as the ceramic cover.
Lin Dongxue tried to make an analysis. "I suspect that the murderer was hiding in the bathroom at first. The male owner immediately ran out upon discovering the man. The murderer was in a hurry, picked up the ceramic cover and slammed it on his head."
"Don't make assumptions just yet. Let's collect some evidence first. "
Chen Shi went into the bathroom and closed the door. The door of the bathroom was made of frosted glass. He asked while he was standing inside, "Can you see my figure?"
"Can't see."
"Turn on the light."
After Lin Dongxue opened the bathroom lamp from the outside, Chen Shi's shadow was blurred on the frosted glass. She said, "It can be seen, but it's not very clear."
"But I can see you from the inside." Chen Shi came out and pointed out that the bathroom door faces the kitchen window. "The window is facing east, so the light is very strong and your figure is clearly reflected on it."
"Then my reasoning is correct?" Lin Dongxue said confidently.
Chen Shi stated seriously, "Reasoning cannot be correct and incorrect, only reasonable and unreasonable."
"Wow, would you die if you were to compliment someone?"
Chen Shi just smiled and didn't reply. He then went back to check the male body. He opened the eyelids of the deceased, pinched his muscles, and moved his arms around. He concluded that "There is slight corneal clouding. The corpse has undergone rigor mortis and is relatively stiff. There is color blanching on the skin and livor mortis can be shown when the skin has pressure put on it; the fingers and joints are already stiff. The temperature last night was 10 to 15 degrees. According to this, it can be assumed that time of death should be around 12 o'clock last night, and the margin of error is within two hours."
Lin Dongxue looked at Chen Shi like he was a monster. Chen Shi explained, "These are all basic knowledge. You can learn by simply buying books on forensic medicine."
"I have nothing to say!"
Chen Shi slowly retracted his smile and stared at the man's body. He muttered, "No, it's wrong. Something's wrong. The two female bodies are both wearing home clothes. Why is the man wearing a jacket?"
"It may be that he just returned from a night shift." Lin Dongxue guessed.
Chen Shi shook his head. "But he wore slippers on his feet. In the place where he just entered the door, there was a set of men's home clothes on the hooks on the wall. This house was clean and tidy. Going home and changing clothes is the family's living habits. The power of habit is very powerful. Why does he have such an abnormal behaviour?"