Skin - Chapter 18

Meng Ruoshu’s voice was hoarse and not very smooth, but it was more than enough to make Meng Xiangyu and Song Ning jump with joy.

　　Meng Xiangyu was so proud that he bent down and picked up Meng Ruoshu. Meng Ruoshu, who had always resisted any contact with the opposite sex, giggled joyfully.

　　Meng Zhao was also laughing at that time, maybe because he hadn’t laughed out loud for a long time. When he raised the corners of his mouth, he felt as if his rigid face had finally relaxed.

　　Then he saw Lu Shichen on the other side of the road.

　　Lu Shichen was looking at him with an unwavering expression, no different from the way he would look at a dog in the middle of the road. There was no emotion at all, and it was like he was observing some kind of caged animal.

　　Yes, observation, the word suddenly popped up in Meng Zhao’s mind. Using the word indifferent was actually inappropriate. Lu Shichen was more of an observer who stayed away from the matter, without any joy, anger, sorrow or.

　　What had he been thinking at that moment? Meng Zhao had that thought stuck in his mind, then he opened his eyes and woke up.

　　It wasn’t a dream, he realised, it was actually what had happened that day.

Chapter 19 (without Xiaolu)

　　In the morning, Meng Zhao left home half an hour early, sent his car to the 4S shop for repair, and then took the bus to the city bureau.

　　The car was bought by Meng Zhao two years ago. At that time, he planned to use his savings to buy a Volkswagen worth less than 200,000 yuan. Because Meng Xiangyu was a second-hand car dealer and knew more about cars, Meng Zhao discussed it with him before buying the car. After a moment, Meng Xiangyu heard his ideas and insisted on giving him a subsidy of more than 100,000 yuan, and took him to buy a high-end Highlander.

　　Meng Zhao’s lack of interest in blind dates was partly due to his family. Once he ended up falling in love with a girl, Meng Xiangyu would definitely start making arrangements to buy him a house once again. Meng Xiangyu raised him as his own son, but Meng Zhao considered himself as an outsider. Meng Xiangyu’s money had to be saved for Meng Ruoshu as her dowry. Meng Zhao could not accept it with a peace of mind.

　　So he planned to wait until he had saved enough money for a down payment before he started thinking about his major life event, that is, settling down with someone. What’s more was that he had never met anyone who could make his heart beat.

　　When he arrived at the city bureau, Meng Zhao was about to walk up the stairs when he met Li Jin walking in from the parking lot.

　　Li Jin greeted him: “Captain Meng, didn’t you drive to work today?”

　　”No. The car had to be sent for repair,” Meng Zhao chatted with her as they walked, “By the way, senior sister, do you have any ideas about the time of Zhou Yan’s death? For example, is there any way to delay the time of death?”

　　”You are really focused on the case. You started thinking about it early in the morning before it was even time to go to work,” Li Jin said with a smile, and then thought about it again, “There is no way to delay the time of death. No, for example, if the deceased was incapacitated and then there was heavy bleeding resulting in death by excessive blood loss, then the murderer may have escaped during the estimated time of death. But Zhou Yan was strangled to death, and the amount of bleeding was very small. It’s impossible to die from excessive blood loss.”

　　What Li Jin described was a very common situation. Of course Meng Zhao knew it, but he still listened carefully.

　　The two of them arrived at the stairs. Li Jin wanted to take the elevator to the third floor. Meng Zhao did not go to the office, but stepped into the elevator with her: “Zhou Yan’s stepfather is coming to take away Zhou Yan’s body today, right? I’ll go up and take a look. .”

　　”Okay,” Li Jin pressed the button on the elevator and continued, “There is also one more thing— use of drugs to prolong the time of death. For example, the killer could just incapacitate the deceased at the time. Then, he could leave the crime scene after feeding drugs to the deceased. By doing so, the murderer can also create an alibi for himself at the time of the crime. If we consider this idea in Zhou Yan’s case, Zhao Yunhua first strangled him until he suffocated, and then fed him medicine or made him smell a gas that could have caused his death. However, we found no traces of such substance in the body of the deceased…”

　　The elevator went up to the third floor and the door opened. Li Jin was about to walk out. When she turned around, she saw that Meng Zhao was still staring at the digital display board next to her. He seemed to be deep in thought. She reminded him: “What are you thinking about, Captain Meng?”

　　”Oh,” Meng Zhao returned to his senses and walked out of the elevator with her, “It’s nothing, it’s just that what you just said just now gave me a new idea.”

　　”Really? It’s great that I could provide you with inspiration,” Li Jin smiled and walked towards the forensic room, “What’s your idea?”

　　”Let’s go to the autopsy room first.” Meng Zhao said.

　　When he arrived at the autopsy room, Meng Zhao bent over and carefully observed the several strangulation marks on Zhou Yan’s neck, and asked Li Jin: “Do you still remember which strangulation mark was used to detect residue related to the murder weapon?”

　　”Well… I only took the samples, I didn’t really pay attention to any specific marks.”

　　”Senior sister, do me a favour,” Meng Zhao straightened up and said, “Extract the substances related to the murder weapon from these strangulation marks. Extract each one again, and then tell me the results.”

　　”Okay,” Li Jin agreed readily, “I’ll call you when the results come out.”

　　After leaving the forensic room, Meng Zhao walked downstairs to the criminal investigation office, thinking about the next course of action.

　　He walked to his workstation and took out a pack of instant coffee from the drawer. Cheng Yun came over and handed him a cup of ready-made coffee.

　　Cheng Yun had built a small coffee machine in the office and shared it with her colleagues, but Meng Zhao had never used it so far.

　　Meng Zhao’s life was so rough that he felt that coffee was something just to refresh himself. He could still drink it even if it was washed with cold water. As for the coffee Cheng Yun offered him every now and then, he didn’t feel that there was much difference in taste.

　　”Brother Zhao, what are you going to do later?” Cheng Yun asked from the side, “Has your car been sent for repair? Should I be your driver?”

　　”Guess it,” Meng Zhao drank the coffee while checking the route. “If you guess right, I’ll take you with me.”

　　He was testing Cheng Yun to see if she had her own plan for handling the case, or if she would just follow the orders of others .

　　Cheng Yun thought for a while: “Go to the housekeeping company where Zhao Yunhua works?”

　　”Let’s go,” Meng Zhao threw the empty paper cup into the trash can, stood up and walked out of the office, “also tell me the reason why.”

　　Cheng Yun hurriedly followed up: “Because I think the first thing we need to figure out is why Zhao Yunhua, who had been living with Zhou Yan in harmony for four years, suddenly began insisting that Zhou Yan was the murderer of her son. Zhou Yan was strangled to death. She should have behaved abnormally before and maybe after that too. We are going to the housekeeping company just to question them about her behaviour, right?”

　　”Next time you can train by yourself.” Meng Zhao said.

　　Cheng Yun was very happy to be praised and flattered with a smile: “Brother Zhao, you taught me well.”

　　When they arrived at Shunyi Housekeeping Company, they immediately went to meet the manager. When the manager in charge of receiving them heard that Meng Zhao had come to speak about Zhao Yunhua’s case, he frowned and began to complain: “Officer, it is our company which is unlucky in this matter. Zhao Yunhua skipped the procedure with the company and privately signed a contract with the client. In this case, our company can also be considered a victim. In fact, it’s worse now. Zhou Yan’s case has caused a big fuss for us. Everyone thinks that there is something wrong with our company’s cleaning staff. Several customers with whom we had just finished negotiating decided to not sign the contract. They were all scared away…”

　　Different police officers had different styles of handling cases, and the people cooperating with the investigation also had different chatting styles. The person in front of Meng Zhao was obviously the talkative type. When encountering people like him, Meng Zhao usually listened to them calmly while looking for clues in their words.

　　”Who do you think our company should reason with? Let’s not talk about this. A few days ago, Zhao Yunhua was sent to clean an apartment. The client complained about her. Actually, one of our old clients who has been with us for five years, introduced that client to us. Now, many customers are saying they want to terminate their contracts, alas…”

　　When Meng Zhao heard it, he caught the key point in the manager’s words: “There was a complaint about Zhao Yunhua? On what day was the complaint made?”

　　”Oh…I have to look for the record.” The manager took out his cell phone and called the HR. After hanging up, he answered, “It’s the 12th.”

　　”What was it about?”

　　”Zhao Yunhua broke a vase at the client’s home,” the manager sighed. “The client didn’t want compensation. But, he said that the vase was given to him by a friend who was a famous designer, so it was priceless…”

　　”Had Zhao Yunhua made such a mistake before?”

　　”No,” the manager said firmly, “She has been working with us for many years. In fact, she has been the outstanding employee of the year every year. That’s why she was responsible for such an important customer. She had never made any mistakes since the beginning. But, who would have thought that she would suddenly make such a big one. She knew how precious that vase was, even the client had told her about it several times, but still she…” Because the regrets were too deep, the manager repeated it over and over again.

　　After he finished speaking, Meng Zhao asked again: “Was there any abnormality about her before that incident? Example, was she in a low mood and often distracted?”

　　”No…” the manager said, turning to look at the receptionist at the front desk, “What about you? Did you feel anything wrong about her?”

　　”No,” the receptionist also shook his head, hesitated for a moment and then said, “… I usually say hello to her every morning when she comes over, and she greets me with a smile. On the morning of the 12th, she only ignored me. It was quite abnormal to me…”

　　Meng Zhao noticed that there was a courier shelf placed next to the front desk, with couriers that had not yet been taken away placed on it. He asked, “Has she received any couriers recently, or was she in contact with any strangers?”

　　”No express delivery,” the receptionist shook his head again, “She doesn’t seem to do much online shopping. I’ve never seen her come to pick up express delivery. As for contact with strangers…she just comes here every morning to pick up cleaning tools, so we don’t know much about this.”

　　After asking all the required questions, Meng Zhao thanked him and left a business card for the manager and the front desk, asking them to contact him as soon as possible if they could think of any clues.

　　After leaving the housekeeping company, Cheng Yun followed Meng Zhao: “Brother Zhao, why did Zhao Yunhua suddenly become abnormal on the 12th? She killed Zhou Yan when he returned on the 13th. Could it be possible that she found something that convinced her that Zhou Yan was responsible for the death of Zhao Tong?”

　　”It’s not impossible.” Meng Zhao got in the car and closed the door. “Let’s go to Zhao Yunhua’s house once again.”

　　Last time, because they were in a hurry to apply for an arrest warrant, they only searched her home for evidence relating her to the murder. In the end, they missed many details.

　　When he arrived at Zhao Yunhua’s house, Meng Zhao first glanced around and then noticed a trash can placed by the bedroom door.

　　He walked closer, squatted down, and picked up a photo frame thrown inside the can.

　　The frame looked a bit cheap, and it seemed to have been bought at a wholesale market. It was the kind of photo frame which was quite common ten to fifteen years ago, but now it has become very difficult to find it.

　　The photograph in the frame was a photograph of Zhao Yunhua and Zhou Yan. Judging from their movements, the photo was taken by Zhou Yan, who had stretched out his other arm to take a selfie. They looked very close, with happy smiles on their faces. At first glance, it made people feel that they were a pair of mother and son.

　　The frame had been thrown into the trash can by Zhao Yunhua, and the glass layer protecting the photograph was shattered, with divergent cracks on it. It seemed that Zhao Yunhua must have been very excited when she threw the frame.

　　Meng Zhao noticed that there was a small paper box under the photo frame. He picked up the paper box and looked at it.

　　It was the kind of carton box commonly used for express delivery, but the strange thing was that it was smaller than the ordinary cartons. The bottom was only about the size of a palm. There was a circle of sealing tape wrapped around the opening and closing of the upper and lower lids. One side had been cut open and the cut surface was neat. It was definitely cut using scissors or a knife.

　　Where did the sealed cardboard box come from? What was inside it? Meng Zhao looked at the trash can once again. There was nothing else of value in it.

　　Meng Zhao had seen Zhao Yunhua’s mobile phone before. Although the shopping software was installed in it, when he opened it, there was a prompt— 【The version is too low, please upgrade.】 Just as the receptionist had told them, Zhao Yunhua did not seem to have the habit of shopping online.

　　He stood up and said to Cheng Yun: “Ask Zhou Qiyang to bring someone over to help search the house and find out if there’s anything that fits into this cardboard box.”

　　After Meng Zhao finished speaking, he walked around the room once again, opened Zhao Yunhua’s drawers and looked at them one by one.

　　Zhao Yunhua’s drawers contained different items in different categories, including plastic bags, binding ropes, and some scattered gadgets and none of them seemed to be directly related to the case.

　　Meng Zhao opened the drawer under the TV again. It seemed to be Zhao Yunhua’s special drawer for storing medicine, mostly containing some cold medicine. When closing the drawer, the roller below got stuck. Meng Zhao moved the drawer before closing it completely.

　　As he did it, there seemed to be something stuck under the rollers… Meng Zhao was sensitive to it. He opened the drawer again, stretched out his palm to support the bottom of the drawer, and used his other hand to completely remove the drawer.

　　He leaned down and took a look. Sure enough, there was indeed something stuck inside. It was a small medicine bottle. Probably because of moving the drawer back and forth, the writing on the bottle had worn away to the point that it was difficult to read clearly.

　Did Zhao Yunhua often consume the medicine? What kind of medicine was it? The question appeared in Meng Zhao’s mind again: ‘How did the murderer predict that Zhao Yunhua would commit suicide…’

　　Meng Zhao packed up the medicine bottle and planned to take it back to have the Forensic Department test the ingredients.

　　In the afternoon, Zhou Qiyang took several people to search Zhao Yunhua’s house and returned with news that there were no more suspicious things in the house.

　　”Could it be a cardboard box picked up from the trash?” Zhou Qiyang said, “Didn’t Zhao Yunhua have the habit of looking for cardboard boxes in the trash cans every day?”

　　”But, this one is new,” Meng Zhao said, “and it wasn’t bundled along with the other cardboard boxes that she wanted to sell for scrap. So, it shouldn’t have been picked up from trash.”

　　”What was in it? Was it an eatable? Or was it a paper later burned by her? But no traces of ashes were found…”

　　‘There was something in the box, and now it was gone, could it be that…’

　　”Did someone go to Zhao Yunhua’s house before us and take that thing away?” Zhou Qiyang voiced Meng Zhao’s doubt.

　　”That’s not easy to check…” Zhou Qiyang murmured to himself, “There are so many rented houses in that location, and people come and go every day, so it’s impossible to find out who exactly went to her house.”

　　At that moment, the telephone in the office rang. Cheng Yun, who was nearest, received the call, spoke twice and looked at Meng Zhao, “Brother Zhao, Sister Li is looking for you.”

　　”Got it,” Meng Zhao responded, stood up and said to Zhou Qiyang, “Go find the surveillance cameras near Zhao Yunhua’s house and see what mood she was in when she came home on the night of the 11th.”

　　Meng Zhao arrived at the forensic room upstairs, where Li Jin was leaning on the table to read the new test report.

　　”What’s the result?” Meng Zhao walked over.

　　”It’s really strange,” Li Jin handed him the report, “Didn’t you ask me to check the distribution of the residues of the murder weapon on each strangulation mark? Look, these traces of strangulation from behind, all of them have the traces of the binding rope found in Zhao Yunhua’s house. However, we couldn’t find it in the deepest trace from the front.”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the test report: “Indeed, it’s very strange.”

　　”Perhaps it was because Zhou Yan struggled more fiercely against the grip from behind, so more of the residue from the weapon remained under the friction,” Li Jin analysed, “And from the grip from the front, it is obvious that Zhou Yan had no strength left at the time to struggle…”

　　”From the intense struggle, it’s obvious that the binding rope had severely worn out, and there was be a lot of residue left.” Meng Zhao shook his head, denying Li Jin’s guess, “However, in this report, no substance related to the binding rope was obtained in the strangulation marks from the front.”

　　”Indeed,” Li Jin thought softly, “Then what exactly is going on?”

　　”It may be because the murderer changed the murder weapon.” Meng Zhao said, “If it is a smooth rope such as a skipping rope, it will be difficult for it to leave any traces on the strangulation marks.”

　　”It is possible,” Li Jin nodded, “but, if that’s the case, then the murderer was probably well prepared with two murder weapons, and…”

　　”Furthermore,” Meng Zhao continued her words, “when there are ropes like skipping ropes that are less likely to leave traces and are less likely to break, then why did the murderer choose to use binding ropes in the first place?”

　　Li Jin looked up at him, feeling that he still had something to say.

　　As expected, Meng Zhao continued: “So, maybe not only the murder weapon was changed, but also the murderer was.”

　　Li Jin’s expression became serious: “What do you mean? You mean… the real culprit who strangled Zhou Yan to death was not Zhao Yunhua, but someone else?”

　　”Well,” Meng Zhao pointed to the strangulation marks on Zhou Yan’s neck in the report, “Look at these strangulation marks on the back. Although Zhou Yan struggled more violently at that time, these strangulation marks are still relatively shallow. Maybe it suffocated Zhou Yan briefly, but it shouldn’t have been fatal. But the frontal strangulation mark was obviously fatal in strength and location. It was this strangulation from the front that caused Zhou Yan’s hyoid bone to break, leading to his death.”

　　Li Jin listened to his analysis and raised her own question: “We have considered this hypothesis before, but it can be countered. When he was restrained from behind, Zhou Yan was struggling, and because Zhao Yunhua was shorter than Zhou Yan, it would’ve been difficult to strangle him. However, when he was strangled from the front, Zhou Yan was lying down in a state close to thorough suffocation. It is possible that the marks of strangulation at that point were deeper than those from earlier…”