National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 999 - 935: Making Up Stories

Chapter 999: Chapter 935: Making Up Stories

Jiang Yuan followed the arrest team, squatting in a teahouse on the main street of Pusui Town. Through the wide-open double wooden doors, they blatantly observed the fruit store across the street.

The suspect Xu Dekai’s fruit store was semi-open. Near the entrance, there was a stall facing the street for customers, while further inside it resembled a small supermarket, with a row of refrigerated cabinets against the wall containing some perishable, high-priced fruits.

The special forces officer responsible for the arrest whispered, "The fruit store covers an area of twenty or thirty square meters, and there’s another closed back door leading to the stairwell behind, which can take you to the upstairs shops or to the back street. I suggest that during the action, we can post someone specifically to guard this door. With both front and back blocked, the suspect will have no way to escape."

"Agreed." Lang Heng was also seated in the teahouse. As the head of the Criminal Police Brigade, he was not supposed to personally come for the arrest. The arrest phase of such cases was predictable; in ten cases, there might not be even one instance of resistance, and those who dared to resist usually tried to run, with almost none succeeding—successful escapes in movies logically require pre-planned escape routes anyway.

However, this time Jiang Yuan wanted to come to the scene, and Lang Heng was more about keeping Jiang Yuan company.

As a result, the team arresting Xu De had been upgraded from their own criminal police officers to special forces. That difference in strength was like comparing athletes to ordinary high school boys.

"Jiang Yuan, what do you think? Shall we make the arrest?" Lang Heng’s respect for Jiang Yuan had reached a high point; he actually didn’t need to ask Jiang Yuan at all. He should have been the absolute commander on the scene.

But Jiang Yuan came today to observe the suspect Xu De, not bringing too much EQ with him, and simply said, "If the arrest is successful later, it would be best to conduct an immediate interrogation on the spot and ask about the murderer’s killing method. See if there’s a murder weapon."

This was the main reason Jiang Yuan came over. The victim’s body was severely decomposed, and many bones had already fallen into the fish pond, leaving only highly decomposed skeletal remains. Even Jiang Yuan could not determine the cause of death. And this was after he temporarily upgraded Forensic Anthropology to LV4 with a skill boost.

For ancient human archaeological sites, analysis of the cause of death would have ended at this stage. Criminal cases still had one more opportunity, that is, to obtain it from witnesses or the criminal’s confession.

Besides, Jiang Yuan also wanted to observe Xu De’s daily state. Killing is a difficult thing to do, and as a murderer, in an adrenaline-fueled state, one would subconsciously use one’s strengths to kill, which is an instinctual judgment.

Just like someone who is adept with their left hand, when it comes to killing, it is actually quite hard to do it with the right hand, and even if it can be done, the forensic doctor can make certain judgments through analysis like examination of cutting wounds.

Similarly, someone good with knives or who often uses one would likely choose to kill with a knife rather than by strangulation, and their knife movements would be relatively clean and decisive. The preference of female murderers to use poison is also a demonstration of less direct lethal ability.

Jiang Yuan mainly wanted to observe how Xu De used tools, especially his actions in tying up boxes.

Theoretically, killing with a knife is more likely to leave traces on bones. Several direct lethal spots on the human body are attached to and protected by bones: hacking at the head would leave marks, stabbing the heart can be hindered by ribs, and the abdomen is relatively easier, but it’s not so easy to achieve immediate death, which can lead to a struggle and defensive wounds.

That is, the neck is less protected, but if you slash at it with a knife, the cervical vertebrae or neck bones can also easily leave traces.

Now that the remains of the deceased were mostly recovered, except for the scattered hyoid bone and a few finger bones that were not found, no knife marks were found. Jiang Yuan, from his experience, considers asphyxiation due to mechanical causes, like strangulation or throttling, as a likely possibility.

Since Xu De’s hands and wrists bore no wounds, the probability of death by throttling is relatively low.

However, what exactly caused the death is still just Jiang Yuan’s speculation. Ways of dying are incredibly diverse, and the process of murder does not always go as smoothly as planned. Therefore, Jiang Yuan personally came to the arrest scene, wanting to take another look at the last state of suspect Xu De’s life.

There is a high probability that he is the murderer in this case.

It’s not just the economic dispute. On the day of the incident, Xu De’s cellphone signal showed that he was lingering near the highway exit, and the town’s surveillance footage also showed him leaving the town heading west... All these clues combined already suffice to take him back for a thorough investigation.

"If you’re ready, take the opportunity to make the arrest," Lang Heng said casually, without adopting the posture of issuing orders.

The leading special forces captain also nodded, stood a little farther away, and began to give instructions in a low voice.

Jiang Yuan and the brigade commander Lang Heng straightened up a bit.

A female officer, arm in arm with a brawny special forces man who was 1.9 meters tall, squeezed into the fruit store together.

"Pick anything you like, you can try them before you buy," Xu De was packing for a customer and looked up to shout.

The female officer pretended to select fruits, lingering by the entrance of the fruit store, while the male officer, pretending to be bored, walked into the store and stood by the back door, kneeling to look at the fruit next to him.

The male officer was a brawny man from the special forces, his broad build like a double-door fridge blocking the entire back door just by standing there.

Once the two of them were in position, the special forces captain in charge of the operation felt quite relaxed; taking the walkie-talkie, he called out: "Team two move in, team three stand by."

Team two was also a duo, consisting of two men with bulky knuckles. They would be responsible for the main arrest work in the following.

The two men from the second team stood directly in front of Xu De, one of them asked, "Boss, how much for a box of apples?"

Xu De, seeing business coming, smiled and said, "Depends on what variety you want. For a ten-pound box, I’ll give you a good price. There’s 3.5 yuan, 5 yuan, 6 yuan, and even 9 yuan ones..."

The SWAT team leader simply watched the second team getting into position, then eagerly said through the walkie-talkie, "Third team, move in, third team, move in... Get ready, five, four..."

The third team, composed of eight SWAT members, with four crossing the street from the opposite side and another four coming from both ends of the street, completely cut off the suspect’s escape route.

In China, the scarcity of police forces is only in relation to catching petty thieves and conducting investigations; when it comes to murdercases, the concentrated police force simply leaves no space for the suspects to escape.

Especially in recent years, after very stringent gun control was implemented, this squeeze-like arrest method raised the bar extremely high for fleeing suspects—basically, those who can barely muster the strength to get up from bed would likewise be powerless to escape.

"Three, two, one... Go!"

As the SWAT team leader shouted "Go!", two burly men from the second team, one in front and one behind, one grabbing the arms and the other tripping, flipped Xu De to the ground without a word.

Seeing this, two members of the third team came forward to help, while the rest stood aside, showing their badges to the onlookers, "Police!"

The passersby considered themselves lucky and immediately took out their phones to record, "What’s the charge?"

The detectives from the teahouse tidied up and went out to maintain order.

The SWAT members, without a word, took Xu De back to their vehicle.

The Changler City Bureau brought a specialized prisoner transport vehicle; inside, the interrogation officer who had been waiting for him asked Xu De under the camera, "Do you know why you’re being arrested?"

Xu De looked around without responding.

The interrogation officer asked a few more questions, each time with an increasingly stern tone, ratcheting up the pressure on the spot.

Xu De’s body was shaking, but he remained silent nonetheless.

Seeing this, the interrogation officer had an expectation in mind; if Xu De wasn’t the murderer, he wouldn’t be like this. Normally, someone would either anxiously clarify the situation or shout something like "I know XXX."

Therefore, the interrogation officer abandoned routine procedures and sternly said, "Xu De, I’m asking you, do you remember what you used to kill Cai Tingxun?"

Xu De’s face turned red, and in a very quiet voice, he said, "I didn’t kill him!"

"Louder," said the interrogation officer.

"I didn’t kill him!" Xu De spoke up a bit more, "He fell into the fishpond himself!"

"How could Cai Tingxun, in good condition, fall into a fishpond?"

"We were talking by the fishpond, it’s quite slippery there with the grass and all, and he fell in. It was an accident!" Once Xu De started talking, his body stopped trembling.

The interrogation officer wasn’t very convinced by Xu De’s answer, but after hesitating a bit and considering that the first thing to establish was the murder weapon, he chose not to delve deeper, instead he asked, "After he fell into the fishpond, did you try to save him? Did you call out for help loudly?"

"I... my mind went blank at the time, and besides, he was sinking into the mud, I can’t swim, I couldn’t have saved him..." Xu De’s voice grew louder, which from an interrogation perspective, suggested that he was mentally preparing himself.

In other words, Xu De had thought through his lies.

However, piercing through his fabrications was easy; a creditor witnessing a debtor accidentally falling into a fishpond to their death is something not even a policeman who’s been on the job for three days would believe.

But the interrogation officer wasn’t rushing to expose him, rather, he continued to press for more details.

As long as the suspect is willing to talk, willing to make up a story, the interrogation officer is willing to listen.

Later, they not only can ask the suspect to repeat the story but also ask him to elaborate on it; liars will eventually expose themselves.