Chapter 45 Strange Time of Death
Seeing that he didn't understand, Shang Lu picked up the dead man's arm and moved it again, then he looked at Gu Nankai again: "Did you find the degree of stiffness of the body?"
Gu Nankai suddenly realized what was going on. He looked at Shang Lu with excitement in his eyes: "Rigor mortis shouldn't look like this! If the deceased had been dead for six to eight hours , her body shouldn't look like this!"
"Yes." Shang Lu nodded heavily and put the dead man's arm down.
"Rigor mortis will start within about two hours, and the whole process will take about twelve hours. By then, the body will be completely stiff and fixed in the posture at the time of death. This state can often last for another twelve hours. This period is called the rigor mortis period. But after the rigor mortis period, the situation will reverse, that is, it will enter the relaxation period of rigor mortis. At that time, starting from small muscles, gradually moving to large muscles, the body will no longer be stiff in the same way. This process will take another twelve hours."
Gu Nankai's brows were tightly locked again.
Shang Lu continued, "For a body that can be judged to have been dead for six to eight hours based on the livor mortis, why can her rigor mortis be as severe as if she had been dead for more than 24 hours? Don't you find it strange?"
"It's really strange." Gu Nankai licked his dry lips and looked at the corpse on the ground.
"But there is still a control range." Shang Lu's words gave Gu Nankai hope again, and his eyes lit up as he looked at the little girl.
Shang Lu explained, "Sometimes rigor mortis can occur very soon after death. If she consumed a large amount of adenosine triphosphate before her death, we can try to estimate her time of death closer to the time of livor mortis."
"What the hell is this Sangan? Can you explain it in simple terms?" Li Meng had been listening to the two people's analysis. Shang Lu, the little girl, talked a lot, and he found that he didn't understand a thing. Instead, he became more and more confused.
Shang Lu rolled her eyes at him, but seeing that Gu Nankai also had such thoughts in his eyes, she curled her lips and said, "It's the stuff consumed after strenuous activities, such as running, fighting, or even epileptic seizures. These can all cause this situation."
Li Meng said directly: "She doesn't look like someone with epilepsy..."
He pointed at the body again and said, "Look at how sexy she was wearing. It's even more impossible for her to be running. If there was a fight, the scene wouldn't be so clean. Look at the scene. From the traces and directions of these things falling on the ground, it can be seen that these things were brought down by the deceased when she fell. It's even more impossible for her to be fighting."
"You make a very reasonable statement." Shang Lu snorted, and reluctantly praised Li Meng's observation ability. Then she continued: "An increase in body temperature will also lead to an increase in the consumption of adenosine triphosphate, so any drug that raises body temperature or inflammation or infection can cause rigor mortis to form quickly, such as people with fever, sepsis, pneumonia, or even heat stroke."
After Shang Lu finished explaining, she saw Gu Nankai nodded silently, and his eyes looked at the air conditioner: "But as far as I know, if the temperature is low, it is difficult to form rigor mortis."
Shang Lu nodded: "That's the problem. This air conditioner can only be turned on after the deceased has died and there has been enough time for rigor mortis to form. It's reasonable."
She quickly added, "Of course, the premise is that we can prove that rigor mortis occurred quickly, which means we have to prove whether she had any fever symptoms."
Gu Nankai agreed very much, but at the same time he thought of a question: "Can we be sure how the deceased died?" He pointed to the deceased's temple.
Shang Lu shook his head: "No, that's not the cause of death, but there are no external injuries or scars of torture on the body. I initially suspect that it was poisoning. I have to go back and do an autopsy to confirm this."
"Thank you for your hard work." Gu Nankai comforted her. Shang Lu smiled indifferently and said that she didn't mind. This was her job and it was her responsibility to do what she should do.
After analyzing the core scene, the body was also moved out. Gu Nankai stood in the middle of the bedroom to observe the situation at the crime scene. Now he first identified a suspicious point. If the time of death was confusing, it could mean that the murderer deliberately caused this error to increase the difficulty of the police's approach or even to cover up his own identity. So how did he turn on the air conditioner in the room some time after the death of the deceased?
"Captain Gu, could it be that the murderer has the key to Xie Lingling's house?" Li Meng came over and asked.
"No, it's unlikely." Gu Nankai shook his head and denied this statement. Look at this house. All the environment shows that this woman lives alone. Her room is simple and monotonous. Only the bed can show that the owner has put a lot of thought into it. But there is only one pillow and a quilt on the bed. Think about it, and look. "
Gu Nankai led Li Meng out of the bedroom and pointed to the front door. "See that red thing next to it? It's an alarm. It shows that Xie Lingling is someone who pays great attention to her own safety. How could such a cautious woman give the key to her house to someone else?"
After Gu Nankai said this, Li Meng finally understood. He looked at the whole scene and fell into deep thought.
"Captain Gu, Captain Gu!" Just when Gu Nankai was lost in thought, an excited voice suddenly rang out from the door. Gu Nankai looked up and saw that it was Xiao Yang, the policeman he had sent to investigate the situation.
Gu Nankai walked to the door carefully. The weather in Longhai in June was hot and humid. The young policeman's hair was stuck together, but he didn't seem to care at all. He wiped his face casually to drive away the heat. Gu Nankai walked over and asked, "Comrade Xiao Yang, what did you find out?"
Xiao Yang was very excited and immediately reported his findings to Gu Nankai: "Captain Gu, I asked the person who reported the case, the landlord himself. He bought the house three years ago and rented it to Xie Lingling two years ago."
Gu Nankai nodded and asked him to continue. Xiao Yang continued, "For the past two years, Xie Lingling's rent has been deposited into the landlord's account on the 20th of every month, but the landlord has not received Xie Lingling's rent since three months ago."
Hearing this, Gu Nankai raised his eyes slightly but did not say anything, waiting for Xiao Yang to continue.
"The landlord initially thought that Xie Lingling was in trouble, so he just urged her a few times on WeChat and didn't take it seriously. However, he had been unable to contact Xie Lingling for three consecutive months, so today he happened to have time and came here to see if he could meet Xie Lingling. However, no one opened the door no matter how he called, and the phone call still didn't go through. The landlord then asked his wife for a spare key to come in, and when he came in, he found that Xie Lingling was dead, and then he called the police."
"You mean, the landlady has a spare key?" Gu Nankai interrupted Xiao Yang and asked.
"Yes, I have asked. There are only two keys in total. When we rented the house, the landlord wanted to give them all to Xie Lingling, thinking that she would have a spare in case she forgot or lost the key one day. But Xie Lingling refused, saying that she didn't have anyone she could trust, and she felt more at ease leaving it with the landlord's wife. If she lost it or something, she could just go to the landlord's wife directly."
"That's a bit strange..." Gu Nankai kept this detail in mind. He already had an idea in his mind, but he still confirmed it with Xiao Yang: "Are you sure the door was locked when the landlord came?"
Xiao Yang nodded. "That should be the case. I was patrolling nearby at the time. It only took me three minutes from receiving the alarm to rushing to the crime scene. The landlord would not lie to me or destroy the scene."
This young man does have some potential. Gu Nankai nodded to show that he approved of his work.
