Miss Forensics – Chapter 10
by Little PandaPart One
Clouds of Suspicion
It’s impossible for someone who drowned in freshwater to show these signs.
Four hours passed, and the autopsy drew to a close.
Lin Yan set down her scalpel, her back completely drenched in sweat. “We’re done. Are all the specimens collected?”
An assistant forensic examiner nodded. “Yes. We’ll send them to the lab in a moment.”
“What about the records?” She looked toward Duan Cheng, who patted his camera. “No problem, they’re all in here.”
She lifted her chin slightly to acknowledge him, then turned around, peeled off her gloves, and tossed them into the medical waste bin. At the exact moment she lowered her head, her mind drifted for a second.
From his angle, Lin Yan’s profile looked excessively pale under the harsh, stark lights.
Seeing that she wasn’t moving, Duan Cheng called out, “Forensic Examiner Lin?”
Lin Yan turned back around and continued, “Run a diatom test1 on the deceased’s lungs, myocardium, liver tissue sections, as well as her bone marrow and teeth.”
Fang Xin looked conflicted. “For a diatom test, we’ll have to send the samples to the provincial department.”
“How long will it take to get the results?”
“Probably about two days.”
“…” Lin Yan took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to swear. “I could perform a simple diatom test back in my sophomore year, yet you have to send it to the provincial department? Why not just mail it to the central government?”
“To tell you the truth, the Technical Investigation Division has limited funding and is short-handed,” another forensic doctor chimed in. “When we had a high volume of cases in the past, we even had to outsource autopsies to third-party institutions. It’s not that we can’t do it, it’s just…”
Lin Yan arched an eyebrow. “So when it comes down to it, it’s just a matter of money. Easy fix. I’m going to sleep now. Clean this place up.”
She jerked her chin, stretched, and strutted off arrogantly.
In no time, she stripped off her clothes, which were tainted with the stench of death, and stepped into the shower. The water was very cold. As the stream of water poured over her head and face, Lin Yan shivered, bracing one hand against the wall as she slowly regulated her breathing.
Five minutes later, Lin Yan emerged, drying her hair. She retrieved an expensive bottle of perfume from her locker and sprayed it on herself as if it cost nothing. Only when the faint smell of decay was entirely masked did she finally breathe a sigh of relief. She pulled a bottle of chewing gum from her locker.
She popped open the cap and poured two pieces into her palm, but suddenly heard a movement at the door. Turning around, she saw Song Yuhang standing quietly in the darkness, watching her.
The light in the changing room was dim. Lin Yan smiled faintly. “Need something?”
She shut her locker door and walked out, drying her hair, as she casually handed the bottle to her. “Chewing gum. Refreshing. Want a couple?”
Song Yuhang stepped aside to let her pass. “No. I came to ask about the autopsy results.”
Lin Yan paused and let out a yawn. “Look, sister, please look at the time. Does the public security organ have the right to force people to work overtime indefinitely?”
As she spoke, she turned her head. Having washed off her makeup, her bare face was clean and delicate, her complexion excessively pale, with dark circles bruising the skin under her eyes from pulling an all-nighter.
Song Yuhang checked her watch. “It’s five thirty in the morning. I’ll give you an hour of rest. Be up for the meeting at six thirty sharp.”
Lin Yan’s foot slipped, and she gritted her teeth. “Excuse me, are you even human?”
Song Yuhang offered a fake smile. “I’m not.”
Lin Yan nodded in profound agreement. “I thought so. No wonder someone like you is still single in your thirties. I think you should stop tormenting my Ge and just stay single. It’ll be better for everyone.”
“What does being single have to do with anything? Is being with someone really that happy?” She shook her head slightly, apparently disagreeing with such a view.
Lin Yan retorted instinctively, “Of course… Two people are always better than one. At least… there’s someone to listen to you speak, even if it’s just about insignificant trivialities.”
But Lin Yan was exactly that kind of person. She feared loneliness; she feared the empty, hollow room when waking up in the dead of night; she feared dreaming of Chunan, and feared even more that she wouldn’t dream of her at all.
She needed someone to listen to her talk about things that didn’t matter.
Even if that person only loved her body or her money, she didn’t care. After all, she had nothing left to offer besides money.
As for happiness—what was that?
She hadn’t smiled from the bottom of her heart since her eighteenth birthday.
The greatest taboo in social interactions was sharing too much with a casual acquaintance. Lin Yan pulled herself back to reality and gave a self-deprecating laugh. Song Yuhang was a pedantic bore; there was no need to say any of this to her.
She strode away, only to hear the woman behind her murmur in reply, “I don’t know about happiness, but if one doesn’t truly love what they do, they wouldn’t be able to persist at it for over ten years, would they? And without a deep, heartfelt respect for it, they could never achieve perfection.”
“I’m nobody, but at least I’m a people’s police officer. Solving cases is my duty.”
Lin Yan scoffed and ignored her, her thin back dissolving into the long hallway.
To anyone else, this exchange would have sounded completely baffling, but intelligent people required few words to understand each other.
Song Yuhang turned her gaze toward the autopsy room separated from them by a single wall. Lin Yan probably didn’t know that Song Yuhang had watched the video recording of the autopsy process.
The expression on her face in that brief moment when she bowed her head in silent mourning was truly un-Lin-Yan-like.
By the time Lin Yan returned to her office, the two pieces of chewing gum had melted under the heat of her grip, their thin candy shells sticking to her hand with an incredibly unpleasant texture.
She stuffed them into her mouth, swallowed a massive gulp of bottled water, and lay flat on her chair to rest for a moment before pulling out her phone to make a call.
“Hello? It’s me, Lin Yan. I need ten centrifuges2… Yes… Deliver them to the City Public Security Bureau at daybreak.”
“President Lin, this… the timeframe is just too tight…”
Lin Yan let out a cold laugh. “If they aren’t delivered, the financing for the next quarter…”
“Don’t, don’t, please… President Lin, let’s talk this through.”
With a sharp click, Lin Yan hung up. Her gaze dropped back to the chewing gum bottle on her desk.
She thought about it for a moment, then picked it up and put it into her drawer.
An hour later, Lin Yan was jolted awake by the rapid, rhythmic clacking of a keyboard. She sat up abruptly, and the uniform jacket draped over her slid down.
She rubbed her hair, quickly catching it, but couldn’t remember whether she had covered herself with it last night.
Seeing her awake, Zheng Chengrui quickly put on a fawning expression and scurried over to hand her hot buns, deep-fried dough sticks, soy milk, and a freshly boiled egg.
“Forensic Examiner Lin, you’re awake! Eat up quickly. Once you’re done, Captain Song wants us to hold a meeting.”
Her stomach growled right on cue.
Lin Yan waved her hand impatiently. “Got it, go away. I can’t eat while looking at you.”
“Alright, alright. Take your time, then.”
The fat man seemed thoroughly accustomed to being ordered around, and his temper was exceptionally mild in front of Lin Yan.
“If that’s not enough, I’ve got more over there.”
Lin Yan opened the plastic bag, picked up a bun with a tissue, and took a tiny bite. She frowned, spat it all out, and threw the rest into the trash can in one go.
“Is this even human food? It’s pig food!”
Fatty’s face flushed red. “This… this is cafeteria food…”
The entire room turned to look. Lin Yan leaned back in her chair, a mocking smile playing on her lips.
“Only you guys can swallow this.”
Anger flared faintly on a few faces, but they were pulled away by their colleagues. The others stood up one after another.
“Come on, let’s go. Meeting time, meeting time.”
Once everyone had left, Lin Yan leaned back in her chair and ordered takeout. While waiting for the delivery, she went to wash her face and rinse her mouth.
By the time she returned to her desk, a spread of Cantonese morning tea had already been laid out.
Three portions of dim sum3, two steamed dishes, and two bowls of congee. This was, of course, no ordinary takeout, but a nutritious breakfast prepared by the Lin family’s private chef.
Every one of her three daily meals was meticulously prepared to be nutritionally balanced while not being too high in calories.
Consequently, she rarely ate junk food from outside, let alone street-stall items like buns.
However, she definitely couldn’t finish so much. Nibbling like a cat, she tasted a tiny bit of each dish until she was full, tossed the rest into the trash, and dabbed the corners of her mouth with a tissue before leisurely making her way to the briefing room.
“Where is Forensic Examiner Lin?” Song Yuhang swept her gaze across the room, noting an empty seat in the Technical Investigation Division’s section.
“I’m here.” Under everyone’s gaze, the great Forensic Examiner Lin arrived late, wearing slippers and with her curly hair still hanging loose. She wore the tank top she had changed into after washing up last night; the black tight-fitting top perfectly outlined her figure, her ample chest on the verge of bursting out, while her matching loose-fitting athletic shorts highlighted her long legs and slender waist, making her extremely eye-catching.
Beautiful as she was, in a room full of people whose uniforms were buttoned up tight without a gap, she looked completely out of place.
Fang Xin looked at her, then at herself, and lowered her head in shame.
Duan Cheng’s eyes had been glued to her ever since she came in. There was no need to guess what was running through his mind.
Song Yuhang’s lips pressed into a hard, straight line.
Zhang Jinhai spoke up at just the right moment, breaking the silence. “Alright, everyone’s here. Let’s talk about the case.”
“The victim, Ding Xue, thirty years old, was an English teacher at Jiangcheng No. 1 High School. She left her home of her own accord and went missing between eight and ten o’clock on the evening of May 14, 2008. At 10:23 PM, she sent a text message to her husband, Sun Xiangming. The content is as follows.”
The printed text of the message was enlarged on the projector screen.
Song Yuhang sat opposite Zhang Jinhai, spinning her pen in a circle. “We haven’t found any of the victim’s personal belongings, so we can’t confirm whether this text was sent by the killer or by herself. There’s a high probability she had already been killed by then.”
Just as her voice fell, Lin Yan, propping her head up as she leaned back in her chair sleepily, yawned.
“Impossible. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the cadaveric phenomena, supravital reactions, body and liver temperatures, and the climate, her time of death should have been between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM three days ago.”
Zhang Jinhai pondered for a moment. “How’s the video surveillance sweep going?”
Zheng Chengrui stood up and stammered, “We’re still looking… For now, we haven’t found any suspicious people entering or leaving the park.”
“Assuming the killer was after her money, they could’ve robbed her of her belongings after she sent that message, and then pushed her into the water,” an investigator suggested.
“In that case, the victim’s phone becomes the key to solving the case. According to her husband, when she left that day, she had an iPhone worth over four thousand yuan, and her handbag also contained cash, bank cards, and other things.”
“We’ve already monitored all accounts under the victim’s name. If anyone tries to withdraw money, the guys from the nearby police stations will head over immediately.”
Song Yuhang nodded. “Send some more people to check the major secondhand markets in Jiangcheng, especially the used phone markets. If there’s anyone suspicious, bring them back for questioning immediately.”
Lin Yan stretched, acting as if their heated discussion had absolutely nothing to do with her, and gave another lazy yawn.
“I say, have any of you considered that Lotus Pond might not be the primary crime scene?”
“Of course we have, otherwise why’d we be checking the surveillance?” an investigator replied.
Lin Yan stood up, pulled a USB drive from her pocket, pulled the computer directly over to plug it in, and clicked the mouse a few times. Several pictures appeared on the large screen.
“This was discovered during the autopsy. The blood in the deceased’s right ventricle is highly diluted; its blood viscosity, specific gravity, hemoglobin level, and red blood cell count are all lower than those of the left heart.”
“This is highly unusual in forensic science, because it’s impossible for someone who drowned in freshwater to show these signs.”
Zhang Jinhai was holding his teacup, and before he could swallow a single sip, he sprayed it all out. “Wh—what do you mean? You’re saying she drowned in seawater?”
Although Jiangcheng is the city closest to the sea in Binhai Province, the nearest seaside park is still over two hundred kilometers away from the city area.
According to Sun Xiangming’s account, Ding Xue left home around eight or nine in the evening and died between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM. This timeframe wasn’t even enough for a round trip. Even if the killer had rushed the entire way, drowned her in seawater, and then sped back to dump the body, wouldn’t they be walking right into a trap if they ran into a police check on the highway?
In the heavy silence, everyone scratched their heads, all feeling rather frustrated. They had pulled an all-nighter with nothing to show for it; instead, the case had only grown more complex and bewildering.
“We should send the samples to the provincial department for a diatom test. If we can pinpoint exactly which body of water she was killed in, it’ll be of immense help to our criminal investigation.”
No matter the occasion, Song Yuhang always spoke in a formal, completely unruffled manner.
Lin Yan shifted restlessly in her chair. Her seat was right next to Song Yuhang’s, and as she leaned in slightly, a sweet, fresh feminine scent drifted into Song Yuhang’s nose.
Song Yuhang instinctively backed away, avoiding her movement, but she couldn’t escape the glimmer in Lin Yan’s bright eyes, which carried a look that seemed to be fishing for credit.
“Why send it to the provincial department? I can do it myself.” Lin Yan checked her watch. “Hmm, the equipment I ordered should be arriving soon.”
Her underlying meaning was clear: Captain Song, if we solve this case, you’re going to have to thank me properly.
Song Yuhang turned her head with an expressionless look, acting as if she hadn’t heard a thing. “We’ll leave it at that for now. We’ll split into three teams: team one will investigate the secondhand markets, team two will check the victim’s home, and I’ll go to Jiangcheng No. 1 High School to look into the situation.”
Jiangcheng No. 1 High School.
Upon hearing that name, Lin Yan repeated it silently in her mind. Then she raised her hand. “I’m going too.”
The author has something to say:
Sorry for updating late today, thank you for reading.
“I don’t know if it brings happiness, but if one doesn’t truly love what they do, they wouldn’t be able to persist at it for over ten years, would they? And without a deep, heartfelt respect for it, they could never achieve perfection.”
I’m also dedicating Captain Song’s words today to everyone; I hope you can all find your own passion.
I’ve been writing for nearly ten years myself, starting from notebooks in middle school to typed characters on a computer today. If it weren’t for passion, I wouldn’t have been able to persist for so long.
Thank you all once again for walking with me all this way, mwah!
Thanks to all my little angels who cast landmine votes or gifted me nutrition solutions!
Footnotes
- A forensic analysis used to detect microscopic algae in organs to determine whether a victim drowned and identify the specific body of water.
- High-speed laboratory equipment used to separate substances of different densities, such as isolating diatoms from biological tissue samples.
- A style of Chinese cuisine prepared as small bite-sized portions of food, traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates during morning tea.
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