National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 308 - 308 276 The Blood-Red Sunset

308: Chapter 276: The Blood-Red Sunset 308: Chapter 276: The Blood-Red Sunset All eyes in the room were on Wan Baoming as their appetites for the meat they had been eating dissipated.

Putting down his phone, Wan Baoming suppressed his excitement, his trembling hands and twitching toes, and with a slight purse of his lips, he said, “The investigating officers, who just visited a household that had purchased a large amount of charcoal, noted the resident’s abnormal emotional state and their inability to explain the use of the charcoal…

A search revealed human tissue…”

“The case…

was cracked just like that?” Wang Chuanxing was the first to ask.

He had not expected the case to be solved in this manner, which did not align with the criminal investigation textbooks he had studied.

Liu Jinghui was also a bit off pace, holding skewers of meat in his hand, unsure whether to throw them away, and asked again, “What exactly is happening now?”

“That…

could it be that we’ve found the murderer?” Wan Baoming forcefully turned his statement into a question at the end, as being too certain felt unfitting for what came next.

Liu Jinghui silently glanced at the skewers and quietly popped them back into his mouth.

With an embarrassed chuckle, Wan Baoming suggested, “Maybe, Director Liu, we should go check out the scene first?”

“You go ahead, I don’t need to go there, as the case has nothing to do with me.” After taking a couple of bites of the meat, Liu Jinghui wiped his mouth and commented, “The skewers Jiang Yuan grilled are not bad, the flavor is quite infused.”

Jiang Yuan felt a bit embarrassed and said, “Director Liu, this is an unexpected surprise…

But since we’re here, let’s go over and see if there are any other pieces of evidence to ensure we can send him to his death sentence.”

“Having killed and burned the body, he’s almost certainly facing the death penalty,” Liu Jinghui said, then set down the skewers and followed the others to the scene.

The suspect’s villa was located a few hundred meters away on a small hill.

The Jingling Community was built along the hillside, with villas distributed on various levels, shielded by green belts and trees in between for privacy.

Many households even planted bamboo and built pavilions, making it impossible to see inside yards, let alone any smoke.

When Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui, among others, arrived at the villa, nearly a hundred people were already there.

Fortunately, the crime scene was directed by members of the elite squad, who kept reminding everyone to preserve the scene, offering some reassurance.

There were also three or four cameras entering with them.

Despite everyone now having body cams, the value of video cameras is undeniable, especially for their directed filming capability, which is quite essential.

Moreover, recording certain scenes, particularly comprehensive footage, will reduce friction during later court proceedings.

Jiang Yuan, upon arriving, distributed gloves and masks to Liu Jinghui and the others before they entered the villa in an orderly fashion.

The backyard.

A charcoal grill with a smoking feature appeared in front of everyone.

The so-called smoking feature means, aside from the normal functions of the grill, an adjacent large stove was present where one could place fruit tree charcoal, connected by a smoke duct, allowing for the preparation of food through low-temperature smoking.

At the moment, the grill had just ceased operation, but the sight of a half-charred leg hanging inside the opened steel lid was nauseating.

“You dared to continue burning the body while we were conducting the search outside?” Wan Baoming was both shocked and furious at such brazenness.

Handcuffed and flanked by two officers for crime scene identification, the suspect remained indifferent, remarking, “What else to do?

If I wait and the meat stinks, you’d smell it anyway, wouldn’t you?”

“You…” Wan Baoming couldn’t decide whether to praise his answer or chastise him.

Listening to their exchange and seeing what was inside the furnace, Tang Jia suddenly felt waves of nausea and turned to vomit into a nearby trash can.

Wan Baoming held his tongue then turned to someone nearby and asked, “How did he slip past the previous checks?”

“Every household here has their own barbecue grill,” the questioned officer clarified, “The initial search was for an incinerator that could reach 1000 degrees, at minimum 800 degrees.

His barbecue grill, at most, wouldn’t reach four or five hundred degrees…”

“Does he have other high-temperature grilling equipment?” Wan Baoming pressed.

“Yes, he has an ultra-high-temperature steak oven in his kitchen, huh, it’s already been moved out, weighs 12 kilograms, but can only fit a few kilograms of meat…

or a similar object.

We didn’t find this thing before…

None of us recognized it,” the officer explained with a sense of helplessness.

Looking over, Wan Baoming understood.

It was a vertically-placed, rectangular device made entirely of stainless steel, with a vertical slot in the center for placing steaks.

Its controls and indicators were in English, and it was electrically powered in the kitchen.

The officers who saw it probably didn’t think of it in this context.

Besides, it was too small to match the standards of a body incinerator.

Who would have thought the suspect in this case was such a patient psychopath, willing to methodically dismantle a body piece by piece.

And the purpose of this device was likely for grinding bones.

The body was first roasted over charcoal, using a large amount of carbon, until it was nearly reduced to bones.

Then, it was crushed, refilled into an ultra-hot steak oven, and burned until it was completely carbonized.

After that, it was pounded again…

Wan Baoming asked the suspect again, “The burned bones, did you discard them all?

Where did you discard them?

Were there any other ways you disposed of them?”

The suspect, facing the mess of the backyard, watched Wan Baoming with a very calm demeanor, suddenly smiled, and asked, “What’s in it for me if I tell you?”

Wan Baoming waved his hand and said to the officers escorting him, “Take him back.”

As for such criminals, if he was willing to talk, he’d be let to talk to his heart’s content, but once negotiations or confrontations began, it wasn’t a line of defense that could be easily breached.

Wan Baoming certainly wouldn’t start an interrogation in such a place at such a time.

Liu Jinghui sighed at this moment and said, “Well, the case is solved, I’ll head back…”

His voice was slightly low.

Although they were still in Changyang City and there had been no cases recently, rushing over only to find that the case had been solved could inevitably leave one feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Jiang Yuan quickly said, “Don’t rush it, sir; the case isn’t just over.

That…

actually, we originally had no leads, no clues for solving the case, we purely stumbled upon it by accident…”

“It’s also because you had enough trial and error, and collected enough comprehensive clues, that you managed to solve it,” Liu Jinghui, well acquainted with the methods of the police detectives, unsurprisingly said, “Solving a case through meticulous thinking, directly piercing its essence is most perfect, but few can achieve that, and besides, no one pursues that anymore.”

“Have you been resting recently?” Jiang Yuan suddenly asked.

Liu Jinghui hesitated for two seconds and, with a sound of agreement, said, “If I’m allowed to take a break, I like to spend time with my wife and kids.”

“Ah, then that really is…

disturbing you…”

“No worries, my wife took the kids and went back home.” Liu Jinghui waved his hand and said, “Just a normal quarrel, she’s not used to seeing me at home every day and picked a fight on purpose.”

A few of the veteran detectives nearby nodded in agreement:

“Taking leave for too long is not good for family harmony.”

“I even picked a fight myself once, or I’d feel out of sorts.”

“If I stay at home for three days, even my dog starts to dislike me.”

Upon hearing so many kindred spirits, a smile appeared on Liu Jinghui’s face.

That’s the good thing about the police force, where everyone’s work, life, career paths, and interests are almost the same.

Moreover, the main situation in a province’s police force is pretty much the same.

Of course, this refers to detectives; other types of police have their own patterns.

Jiang Yuan watched as several technicians collected evidence and organized physical evidence, without stepping forward to help.

The investigative work for this case was nearly over; what followed would be sending it for examination, then prosecution, and unless there was a need for supplementary investigation, the police side would have nothing else to do.

And as a forensic doctor from out of town, Jiang Yuan didn’t want to touch the evidence and potentially deal with reporting and such, especially after the case had been solved, which could easily create a lot of extra work for himself.

Jiang Yuan then looked at Liu Jinghui and said, “Director Liu, the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment has called me to work on unsolved cases.

If you’re free, why not join me?”

Liu Jinghui was taken aback: “This…

doesn’t quite comply with procedure.”

With a smile, Jiang Yuan said, “Let Chief Yu handle the procedure; he’s probably happy to.”

“Hmm…” Liu Jinghui hesitated for a moment, then said, “I still have a week off.”

“Waiting for your wife to come back?”

“Forget it, if I stay at home, my wife and kids will be homeless,” Liu Jinghui asked, “What other cases are there?”

“You get first pick,” Jiang Yuan offered generously.

He just wanted to crack a few more cases now, to really push the task’s progress forward.

Inspired by him, Liu Jinghui also smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll work on cases with you for a week then.”

At this moment, Tang Jia, who had been violently sick, stood up with the support of a pillar.

When she looked up, she saw Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui, backs against the blood-colored sunset, laughing heartily.

“Is it the end of the world?” Tang Jia murmured.

Wei Zhenguo said, “For some people, it might be.”