Chapter 66: Too Careless
Zhao Xinli's protest was ineffective and he was dragged by Zhou Ning. The two came to the door of the east household on the seventh floor. There were so many footprints on the ground. After all, there were not many households living in this community and the corridor was covered with thick cement powder. After so much trampling, the ground was full of overlapping footprints.
Zhou Ning looked at the ground, feeling overwhelmed with powerlessness.
There was no way to escape, so Liu Changhai was forced by Zhou Ning to do some labor together with Da Zhao. One took photos while the other placed the survey pad, so as to protect the traces at the scene to the greatest extent.
Soon, Da Zhao and Liu Changhai came out of the room on the survey pad, holding the camera and handing it to Xu Dayuan and Zhou Ning.
"The room was extremely messy. Not only was it searched, but many of the furnishings were smashed. All the cabinets and drawers were open, and even the mattress had been moved. As for whether any valuables were missing, we will have to check carefully and verify with the family of the deceased."
Zhou Ning flipped through the photos and stopped at the one of the bed in the master bedroom. The bed was a retro double bed with a gauze curtain, and had four pillars. The gauze curtain was open and tied at the four corners.
The deceased was also tied up with ropes at four corners. The body was placed in the shape of a big character. There was a rope around the neck, but it was not tied tightly. There were bloodstains on the sheets, pillows, gauze curtains, ceiling , and walls next to the bed.
The deceased was lying on his back on the bed with his eyes wide open and mouth slightly open. Due to the limited shooting angle, the condition of his wounds could not be seen.
Zhou Ning picked up his survey box and nodded slightly to Xu Dayuan.
"Xu Da, let me go in and take a look. Can you help me contact the funeral home's car?"
"Go ahead, Da Zhao will follow you."
Zhao Xinli handed the survey box to Liu Changhai. Seeing Liu Changhai smiling as if he was watching a fun event, he rolled his eyes.
"Laugh, laugh, laugh, you'll cry later."
After saying that, he held the camera and followed Zhou Ning's steps into the front door.
After taking a few steps into the entrance hall, on the left is the dining room and open kitchen, and on the right is the living room. There are many unopened boxes in the kitchen, and all the cabinet doors are open. Apart from bowls, chopsticks and pots, there is almost nothing inside.
Zhou Ning pointed at the boxes and Da Zhao quickly took pictures of them. In fact, you can know what is inside without opening them. There are cutting boards, rice cookers, ozone generators, ovens, microwave ovens, etc.
The dining room and kitchen were the places that had been least searched, so everything was clearly visible here. Zhou Ning turned around and looked towards the living room.
The entrance extends to the living room, with a simple display cabinet and an LCD TV on the wall. The TV wall is a hand-painted three-dimensional painting. There is a broken wall with Mario leaning out holding a big mushroom. His expression is so funny and lifelike that you can tell it is hand-painted without getting close.
The deceased's colleague was a designer. It seemed that the deceased had put a lot of thought into the decoration of this house. However, in this living room, except for the sofa, all movable objects had been searched. There were various fragments on the ground, but there were no footprints.
Looking at the fallen table lamp next to the TV cabinet, Zhou Ning frowned slightly. The floor lamp was just a bare glass cover, and it was something that could be seen at a glance. Why would the murderer push it over?
Looking at the messy footprints under the mat, Zhou Ning didn't stay for long and went straight to the master bedroom. Sure enough, there was the retro big bed that Da Zhao mentioned. Da Zhao had laid mats on three sides under the bed. Zhou Ning went over and didn't check the body directly, but walked around the bed.
The bedroom was large, with a desk by the window. Zhou Ning walked over and saw a desktop computer and a laptop computer, and even four of the latest iPad boxes stuffed next to it.
Zhou Ning picked it up and shook it, looking up and down to see that the seals had not been removed. They were all the latest models. The computer was still on, and on it were some CAD design drawings that Zhou Ning could not understand.
Zhou Ning paused, and Da Zhao came over. He didn't know why Zhou Ning was in a daze. You know, those people outside were waiting for their news, especially Zhu Suo, who was waiting to watch the fun.
"What are you looking at? Aren't we supposed to take a quick look at the body and then take it away?"
Zhou Ning was not in a hurry and glanced at Da Zhao.
"Just now at the door, when Chief Zhu introduced us, he said that the murderer was probably looking for money, right?"
Da Zhao was confused and thought about what Zhu had said.
"right."
"Change money. Who can keep so much cash these days? These four iPads, a laptop, and a MacBook are almost 30,000 yuan. Do you think the cash in this house can be more than 30,000 yuan? If it could, they wouldn't live in this place, right?"
Da Zhao was stunned. He quickly searched the Internet on his mobile phone, then kept tapping on the calculator. When he saw the final price, he swallowed.
"Maybe they think it's an empty box. Besides, many people who don't know much about it don't know how valuable it is, right?"
Da Zhao raised his hand, as if he had thought of something, and quickly continued.
"By the way, the cell phones of the deceased and his wife were not found. I searched everywhere."
Zhou Ning nodded. He had thought of this just now. He put away his doubts and looked at the bed.
The deceased's limbs were bound with leftover cloth strips, which were sold by many people around the Textile Industrial Park at ten yuan a bunch. When Zhou Ning entered the room just now, he saw a large bundle of them in a corner of the living room.
The cloth strips on the limbs were tightly wrapped, especially the wrists, which had been cut into the flesh. There were many marks above and below, which showed that the deceased had struggled violently and the stalemate lasted for quite some time.
The quilt was thrown at the end of the bed. The deceased was wearing a pair of boxer briefs. The boxer briefs were black and wet and stuck to the deceased's body. There was a pool of blood under him.
The injuries from abuse on his body were obvious, including stab wounds , cuts, scratches, and blunt object injuries. Zhou Ning hooked his finger at Da Zhao, who came over and took pictures of every part of his body with a ruler following Zhou Ning's instructions.
Zhou Ning heard the clicking sound stop, then he picked up the boxer briefs and twisted his fingers slightly, with blood all over his fingertips.
Zhou Ning paused, reached out and pulled down the dead man's boxer briefs. Da Zhao exclaimed, then tightened his legs.
"Oh my god, why did my vitals get cut?"
Zhou Ning frowned. The knife wound was not big, but it caused a lot of bleeding. Looking at the wet shorts, it was obvious that this was the first place the victim was injured.
What kind of hatred and grudge is that? The pain of being cut here is unimaginable. Zhou Ning threw a bloody pillow next to him to Da Zhao.
"Stop sighing, help me measure the rectal temperature, and then take this pillow back. The deceased must have suffocated to death by this pillow."
Da Zhao was stunned, pointing at the numerous wounds on the deceased's body and the blood splattered on the wall next to the bed, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.
"This... even after all this, he still suffocated to death?"
Zhou Ning checked the wound and looked carefully at the bed. A sharp wallpaper knife and a claw hammer appeared in his sight.
"These are intimidation wounds. Although they look severe, they are not fatal. Pack up the wallpaper knife and claw hammer on the right side of the body. Remember to put them in evidence bags separately."
Da Zhao nodded and hurried to pack his things. Zhou Ning stared at the blood drops on the wall. The cut did not touch the artery, so there were dripping blood around the body.
As for the blood drops on the wall, they were not splashed. According to the distribution and movement trajectory, they were splashed when the claw hammer hit the deceased and was raised.
Zhou Ning raised his hand and kept waving it. He imagined himself as the murderer, standing by the bed on the north side. Hitting here could cause these threatening injuries, but splashing would not form such a path.
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes. Only kneeling beside the deceased, or riding on the deceased, would cause such a splattering distribution. After all, the position in which the deceased was tied was fixed.
When he opened his eyes, an idea flashed through his mind, but he shook his head and denied the idea.
I stared at the bed sheet beside the deceased for a long time, but did not find any indentations left by kneeling. I lifted the bed sheet with one foot and found that there was a latex mattress on top of the spring mattress.
"What's wrong?"
"It's alright. Cut the strips of cloth, then pack up the body and take it away. Pack the sheets separately."
"Okay, I'll go get someone."
Da Zhao walked out quickly, and Zhou Ning reached out his hand towards the corpse. When his fingers in latex gloves touched the corpse's legs, the familiar task selection interface appeared.
Ding, the system has released a task. Please bind the person to select the difficulty of the task: A. Primary task; B. Intermediate task; C. Advanced task.
Zhou Ning didn't even think about it and directly clicked on the intermediate task.
He had a feeling that this case would not be easy to solve, so it would be better to take a moderate approach.
The transparent large screen continued to change. The bound person selected the intermediate task and the task was now released.
Intermediate task content:
1. Find out the cause of death within 60 minutes.
2. Find the murderer and all the evidence within 96 hours.
With another beep, two countdowns began to tick, but the first one only ticked for one second and then stopped on its own. It was then moved directly to the corner, and Zhou Ning was stunned.
Ding, congratulations on binding the person, finding out the cause of death, getting extra rewards, and upgrading the cumulative value by 5 points.
Zhou Ning was confused.
Damn, that was so sloppy. There is an extra reward. Is it because no countdown time was spent?
But why were you so cowardly just now? Why didn’t you choose the advanced task? Would the reward there be greater?
