National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 685 - 628: Murder in the Locked Room

Chapter 685: Chapter 628: Murder in the Locked Room

Liu Cheng hadn’t expected that by simply coming over to transfer a corpse, he’d actually witness the changing of the guard at the Ningtai County Bureau.

Fortunately, this series of personnel changes seemed to have been brewing for a long time. In just one day, the doorplate of the county bureau’s political commissar’s office had been changed to that of the director, the familiar Deputy Director Huang Qiangmin had become the political commissar, and it seemed that the deputy section chief Jiang Yuan didn’t need to switch roles.

Having acted as a background prop for a day, Liu Cheng felt it didn’t really affect him—he ate when he was supposed to eat, drank when he was supposed to drink, and had bought his ticket, waiting to go home.

In the evening.

In the midst of the eating and drinking, Huang Qiangmin plopped down next to Liu Cheng.

"Oh, Director Huang, congratulations, congratulations," Liu Cheng put down his chopsticks and started with some auspicious words.

"Thanks a lot. You’ve witnessed our awkward moment. How are you getting on in Ningtai County..." Huang Qiangmin’s perfunctory conversation came effortlessly, and after a few words, he began chatting more intimately, "There must be a lot of cases in Beijing, right? Are you usually busy?"

"Busy, how could it not be busy," as the job came up, Liu Cheng went into full rant mode: "Having a heavy workload is one thing, but the work is simply never-ending. You’re an experienced detective, so let’s be honest, some cases really just require time to grind through. If it’s a serious or major case, then you find time to work on it. If not, you just have to squeeze in the time to do it, and if you really can’t keep up..."

"These past few years should be a bit easier, I guess."

"Certainly, and there are fewer contact-related cases now. The economy has improved, and criminal cases have decreased..."

"But there are more economic crimes."

"Haha, that’s how it is. The economic crimes unit in our area is growing bigger day by day, and young people prefer working there—white-collar crimes look a bit cleaner, after all. Unlike us detectives, who often deal with bloody sights..."

Huang Qiangmin, a good listener, nodded from time to time, allowing Liu Cheng to vent his emotions greatly and speak more comfortably. The two didn’t discuss specific cases, just chatted about generalities, especially about working conditions, bonuses, and subsidies, almost feeling like white-collars.

After drinking a beer, Huang Qiangmin opened another bottle and asked, "The budget at the Beijing Bureau must be pretty high, right? From what I’ve gathered, it seems like you guys have an unlimited budget."

"But we also have high expenses. Anyway, I don’t have to worry about that," Liu Cheng paused for a moment before laughing and adding, "To tell the truth, for our grassroots departments, the budget has actually been quite comfortable these past few years. As long as we can crack the cases, the budget is usually not a problem. It’s just this ’as long as’—sometimes it costs us dearly."

"Are there really difficult cases?"

"The unsolved cases, well, there are various factors, some are really... hard to describe." Liu Cheng, as a detective, had a very strong sense of pride, especially when facing cases; he didn’t like to say "impossible."

But there were always cases that remained unsolved, a harsh reality of the job.

Huang Qiangmin poured more drinks, remaining silent.

Liu Cheng hesitated for a moment, then said, "There are just too many cases. Just homicide cases alone, there are over 200 each year. Our detachment gets quite a share, and if there are one or two complex cases in the mix, it’s a real headache."

"Beijing really is Beijing, not like us. Our new homicide cases each year amount to just two or three, and three or four is already quite a lot." Huang Qiangmin laughed, "Like Jiang Yuan lately, he’s often dealing with minor cases."

Liu Cheng was taken aback: "That’s such a waste."

"Exactly," said Huang Qiangmin.

Putting himself in their shoes, Liu Cheng suggested, "You could dig into cold cases. We do that too now; we handle several cold cases every month."

"We used to do that. Lately, I’ve been planning to implement a ’one case, one file, one responsible leader’ model to strengthen file cleaning and evidence bottoming, particularly organizing archival units to comb through information on homicide cold cases systematically, to maximally reinforce evidence, and collect physical evidence, especially unexamined evidence related to the cases. This might take some time, but once we get results, we can call Jiang Yuan back to work on cases." Huang Qiangmin hadn’t assumed office, but he had already clearly mapped out his first actions as the new official.

Previously, as the head of the criminal police detachment, he could only manage his own business. Now, as the political commissar of the county bureau, he could mobilize the whole county’s resources to work on completing physical evidence and systematizing homicide cases.

With such a foundation, he believed that the remaining cold cases in Ningtai County could be dealt with as best as possible.

Of course, Huang Qiangmin had not adopted this approach for Ningtai County’s cold cases alone. It simply wasn’t cost-effective.

He wanted to demonstrate its effectiveness to Qinghe City Bureau, Changyang City Bureau, and even to bureaus across the province and beyond.

Having worked with Jiang Yuan on several cold cases, although most of the time successfully, he had to admit that there were always some cases with too few leads, to the extent that even Jiang Yuan couldn’t complete them alone and had to repeatedly call on Liu Jinghui and Xu Taining for collaboration. Unspoken as it might be, this somewhat diminished Jiang Yuan’s own influence.

Therefore, in Huang Qiangmin’s view, it was very necessary to re-examine cases everywhere.

Indeed, the re-examination was necessary, and Liu Cheng had even been involved in it. He simply continued drinking beer, discussing it with Huang Qiangmin.

Huang Qiangmin was very pleased and drank late into the night with Liu Cheng, arranging their plans for the next day.

This time, Huang Qiangmin wasn’t planning on simply handing Jiang Yuan over to Liu Cheng.

Firstly, because Liu Cheng’s rank wasn’t high enough to decide many matters. Secondly, the conditions in Beijing were too favorable, and there were too many experts.

For minor cases, experts were not needed, but for significant cases—not even very big ones, just those with some impact—the Beijing Bureau had plenty of personnel to choose from.

Huang Qiangmin believed Jiang Yuan was very strong, but was he up to the level of a nationally renowned expert? He wasn’t too sure.

So, seizing the opportunity of this occasion, Huang Qiangmin took Liu Cheng on tours while also seeking advice and learning advanced experience from him.

The news of Director Chai’s departure spread quickly.

By the afternoon, two other counties’ criminal police detachment chiefs had already called to inquire about Jiang Yuan and Huang Qiangmin’s recent situation.

Since Chai Tong had left, no one cared for him anymore.

Yet, Huang Qiangmin still staunchly rejected them.

It wasn’t until a call from Yu Wenshu of Changyang City that Huang Qiangmin engaged in a genuine conversation.

In Ningtai and its surroundings, Changyang City is clearly the biggest buyer, as can be seen from the entire delegation of Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team. In this era of insufficient police force, only the criminal police teams of provincial capitals have the capacity to spare more personnel.

Of course, what’s shorn comes from the sheep, and Changyang City can borrow more staff from the cities below, a case of getting something for nothing.

Huang Qiangmin still found it very appealing.

A night of lengthy discussion.

Early the next day.

The members of Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team were all assembled, and after many days, they were eager to set off for Changyang City.

Liu Cheng and his two team members were also in tow.

The white Audi A6 with a license plate starting with ’A’ led the convoy, which almost filled the parking lot of the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment.

The variety of license plates amused the police passing by who didn’t know the true situation, while those in the know felt a chill down their spines.

"Are we handling these cases one by one?" Yu Wenshu was also excited. Those used to comfort and luxury, when returning to a challenging environment, find it uncomfortable no matter what.

Huang Qiangmin nodded solemnly and then added, "Let’s find an ongoing case, and aim for a good start. Any recent cases?"

"There is one..." Yu Wenshu hesitated for a moment, "The case is a bit complicated, I’m not sure if it’s suitable for a good start."

"Let’s have Jiang Yuan take a look first. If it’s suitable, we’ll take it on; if not, we’ll discuss further."

"Right away." Yu Wenshu immediately arranged for someone to take care of it.

Seeing familiar faces coming and taking Jiang Yuan and the others to the conference room, Huang Qiangmin comfortably exhaled. This way of doing business was interesting; unlike going to other provinces where one had to prove themselves first. What’s the point of proving? Now, people should be asking for their help eagerly.

Business that’s too eager is not business.

While thinking this, Huang Qiangmin out of the corner of his eye glanced at Liu Cheng, hoping this veteran detective would apply his investigative intuition and get with the program.

...

Jiang Yuan had traveled from Ningtai, resting with his eyes closed all the way, not wanting to think or care about anything.

Handling a case in Changyang City was all too familiar to them. Strangely, Jiang Yuan felt a bit of anticipation. Without any prejudice, criminals in bigger cities tended to be more intellectual in their crimes.

Incidents like the one that occurred in Ningtai County before, where someone was killed over a three-yuan meal, would not happen in Beijing, Shanghai, or even Changyang City.

Why? Because there are no three-yuan meals in Changyang City!

Zhou, the captain of the second division of the criminal police detachment, came over with the case files, his deeply troubled face lit up with a liberated smile.

"Captain Jiang, you’ve arrived. This time, we really have an interesting case," Zhou said, like a matchmaker, both his face and his scheming heart clearly audible throughout the building.

Jiang Yuan smiled politely and said, "Let’s have a look."

Zhou uttered an ’eh’ and continued, "We’ve had this case for four days now. The victim is a female, who in the morning, got into a Mercedes-Benz C parked on a public parking spot outside the residential area and then there was no further movement. When the car was found, the engine was still running. The victim, Yue Ling, was already dead. The forensic doctor determined death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning."

Mu Zhiyang, who came along, chimed in appropriately, "Wasn’t it due to exhaust gas poisoning?"

"Right, carbon monoxide poisoning inside the car first leads one to think of exhaust gas as the cause. But, after inspecting the vehicle, we found that the doors, windows, and trunk were securely closed with no signs of forced entry, the car had no illegal modifications, and the starting environment wasn’t enclosed, so exhaust gas poisoning is out of the question." Zhou paused and then said, "It’s for this reason that the case went from an unexplained death to a homicide."

Jiang Yuan slowly nodded, pulled out the forensic report, and began to read the crucial parts aloud, also to brief his team members:

"Examination of the body on the scene reveals pale red hypostasis, finger nail beds light red, slightly bright. Involuntary release of urine and feces. No apparent injuries on the body."

"Autopsy the next day shows, the pectoralis major muscle has a peach-red coloration; the surface of both lungs has notable hemorrhagic spots; the heart blood appears cherry red and unclotted. Other organs showed no abnormalities."

"No common poisons such as methamidophos, dichlorvos, omethoate, parathion, rat poison, barbiturates, etc., were detected in the heart blood."

"Detected carboxyhemoglobin levels at 70%."

...

After reviewing the forensic report, Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but nod, "It really was carbon monoxide poisoning."

The beautiful pink hue to a corpse is usually indicative of carbon monoxide poisoning. This simple form of judgment likely originates from Japan, due to their traditional practice of charcoal burning suicide. Ordinary people and reporters, after seeing enough victims of such suicides, come to this conclusion.

But for forensic doctors, they might encounter simulations of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Testing for carboxyhemoglobin levels, checking the lungs for hemorrhagic spots, conducting toxicology tests, and so on, all serve to eliminate the possibility of simulation.

After all, if there was no exhaust leak, the most likely scenario would be death by poisoning.

However, it was not the case.

Jiang Yuan then looked at Zhou: "Have you not identified the source of the carbon monoxide?"

"Exactly, it’s like a locked-room murder," Zhou sighed, his troubled eyes unwittingly glancing up at Jiang Yuan.