National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 743 - 686: The First Scene (Request for Monthly Pass)

Chapter 743: Chapter 686: The First Scene (Request for Monthly Pass)

From the moment they saw the lotus flowers, the attitude of several detectives became serious.

Upon seeing the Jasmine, Bougainvillea, and so on each corresponding one by one, the expressions on everyone’s faces remained unchanged, but their actions had already entered a state of combat readiness.

For people like Liu Cheng, who had been investigating for more than a day, and today braved the heatwave for half a day, a household that matched their criteria so well was the only one like this; to say they didn’t cherish this lead would be impossible.

Even though they hadn’t seen any sunflowers, Liu Cheng now looked at the homeowner as if he were looking at a bowl of braised pork.

It was certain that this family had bought sunflower seeds, not to mention there was a backyard in the villa. Besides, this was also a cold case; it was possible that they had harvested the sunflowers and not planted them again.

Liu Cheng couldn’t care less about these details; he knew that this guy was at least worth a collective third-class merit, and if things went well, maybe even a second-class, which would compensate his brothers for their hard work under the scorching sun all this time.

At that moment, Liu Cheng saw Mu Zhiyang sneak to a position behind the homeowner, close to the door lock. With just a stretch of a foot, the homeowner would not be able to run inside, close the door, and would only be left to be piled on in the yard by seven or eight detectives.

Liu Cheng couldn’t help but praise silently, with such inconspicuous ability to move to critical positions, no wonder the man had earned so many third-class merits—perhaps this time, he might snag another one.

Liu Cheng had no time to think about other things. In the time it took for his thoughts to make a quick round, and seeing everyone else had secured their positions, he smiled and asked the opposite homeowner, "May I know your surname? How should we address you?"

"No need for formalities, my surname is He. He Wei." The homeowner composed himself; he also felt something was amiss, but no matter what, he did not have the confidence to take on eight people alone, so he could only pretend to be calm and said, "You are trespassing on private property now."

"Didn’t we tell you, we just register the people here and then we’ll leave, please cooperate with us. How many people are in your family?" Liu Cheng brushed it off with a few words, and then continued to inquire.

The homeowner He Wei frowned again. After two seconds, he said, "Just me."

"Such a big house for just you alone?"

"Yes."

"Married?"

"Divorced."

"When did you get divorced?"

"More than two years ago."

Liu Cheng noted another point in his mind; someone who divorced over two years ago and then began to kill, fit the profile of a typical serial killer quite well.

Feigning to take notes, Liu Cheng asked another question, "Any children?"

"My wife took them away." The homeowner He Wei spoke bitterly, "She took away everything."

"Do they come visit here regularly?" Liu Cheng continued to ask.

The homeowner He Wei subtly shook his head.

"What about the kids? They don’t come either?" Liu Cheng kept probing; his actual goal wasn’t really to register information, but to confirm whether there were other people in the house. As for whether He Wei himself was vigilant, it was no longer very important.

With eight well-trained detectives, armed with stun guns, handcuffs, and telescopic batons, all on high alert, even a crafty rat would be forced to meow like a cat.

The homeowner He Wei still felt that something was off but wasn’t sufficiently alert or decisive. Mainly because he was trapped in the courtyard without any room to maneuver, turning hostile wouldn’t yield any good outcomes.

Therefore, faced with Liu Cheng’s questions, He Wei could only coldly say, "I already told you the wife took them, I really don’t want to answer any more questions. I have other matters to attend to, can you please leave my house?"

"Just wait a moment. I’ll ask three more questions, and then we’ll leave." Liu Cheng didn’t know what He Wei was waiting for, but he was waiting for the other detectives to get into position.

Hearing it was only three more questions, He Wei grudgingly uttered a response.

Liu Cheng asked another question, He Wei answered, and before the words were finished, Wei Cheng and two other young detectives had already silently pounced on him.

It all happened in the blink of an eye, He Wei spun around and retreated, managing to throw two detectives down the stairs in the foyer. Even though Wei Cheng managed to grab his waist, he was also somewhat unsteady.

While the detectives had all speculated, they really hadn’t expected that this homeowner, He Wei, was actually a martial artist.

Before Liu Cheng could react, Mu Zhiyang, who was a step behind, moved forward, sweeping a leg out and directly knocking He Wei, along with Wei Cheng, to the ground.

Liu Cheng and the others saw their chance and pounced, pinning the man firmly to the ground, then like schoolboys in a fight, raised the stun gun while groping with both hands for one of He Wei’s hands, looking to Mu Zhiyang to handcuff him.

Shen Yaowei stared at the handcuffs for several seconds, feeling both familiar and strange.

"He Wei, I hereby summon you in accordance with the law..." Liu Cheng struggled to lift He Wei up, his smile barely concealing his effort.

Had they caught the murderer of the "Rain-sodden Corpse Case"? No, the copycat criminal, but regardless of which, there was no doubt he was a murderer.

"Search the place." Liu Cheng stood at the door for a moment, allowing the others to enter the villa first to make sure no one was inside, then brought He Wei in, closed the door again, and started making calls.

A few detectives had done a quick sweep of the room and then quietly withdrew, congregating on the first floor.

After Liu Cheng finished his call and requested backup, Fan Wei said, "Liu Da, come take a look at this."

So, Liu Cheng walked into the dining room where he saw a large stainless steel bowl on the table, beside it a plastic bag of White Elephant instant noodles. The bowl was clean, the noodles eaten, and only a bit of soup was left at the bottom.

"Looks like he’s indeed living a bachelor’s life," Fan Wei commented.

"Mm." Liu Cheng nodded. "Living in a villa like this, it’s pretty sad."

Talk is talk, but Liu Cheng didn’t feel a bit of sympathy for him. Being able to eat a bowl of instant noodles that one cooked themselves in a villa indicated an explosion of happiness already.

At this point, He Wei recovered from his confusion, struggled a bit, and asked, "On what grounds are you arresting me?"

"Don’t you know what you’ve done?" Liu Cheng didn’t give He Wei any information and, leaving a couple of people behind, he led his team back to the division.

On the way, an officer on duty sent over a photo.

In the photo was a picture frame, and the framed picture was of a little boy and his father smiling with a sunflower. The officer typed a note in WeChat: a photo from the second floor’s photo corner.

A smile crept upon the corners of Liu Cheng’s mouth involuntarily.

"Good news?" Mu Zhiyang, riding in the same car with Liu Cheng, had tossed He Wei into another vehicle.

Liu Cheng nodded his head, "Found the sunflower."

"Is it Helianthus annuus No. 2?"

"How would I know? Give it to Captain Jiang to see," Liu Cheng said while sending a message.

By the time they arrived at the detective squad, Tao Lu and others were already waiting in the surveillance room, while Jiang Yuan had set out towards the villa to begin the crime scene investigation.

After all, what Legal Botany was searching for was the first crime scene. In other words, if the variety of plants at He Wei’s villa matched the pollen pattern on the victim’s clothing, then his villa would be considered the primary crime scene where the victim was murdered.

In the event that the primary crime scene had been outdoors, like a park or farmland, they would have to use the primary crime scene to locate the murderer.

But since the scene was at He Wei’s house, the task became securing evidence.

They at least needed to rule out the possibility that "someone came to my house, killed a person, and then left."

Tao Lu wasn’t too worried about this and watched the interrogation room with interest, enjoying the cat and mouse game within.

The "Rain-sodden Corpse" case had been very troublesome at the time. Tao Lu felt his back ache just thinking about it; they had even tried to use live bait and stake out in the rain. Compared to this, the current leads were so obvious that there was no need for any clever tricks.

Wu...

Tao Lu’s phone rang.

"Jiang Yuan, how’s it going, did you find anything?"

"Yes. Found human blood, found a suspected murder weapon," Jiang Yuan’s voice came slowly from the other end of the phone.

"That’s fantastic." Tao Lu slapped his thigh, "Does this mean we’ve cracked the case of the third body at least?"

"Mm, regarding that," Jiang Yuan paused, "I’ve just finished the botanical maps for bodies one, two, and four these past couple of days. According to the results, their pollen maps are similar."

"What does that mean?" Tao Lu was momentarily stunned, then joyfully realized, "Could it be that there was no real copycat criminal at all?"

He couldn’t care less if Jiang Yuan’s previous work was correct or not; as long as they could catch the real murderer, Jiang Yuan could be forgiven for any number of mistakes.

"It means the primary scenes are similar, likely all at He Wei’s house." Jiang Yuan analyzed calmly, then added, "But the third body does show clear signs of being copied, that much is certain."