Miss Forensics – Chapter 29

Part One

Regret

Even after all these years, this photograph still struck the softest corner of her heart.

“Captain Song, that’s the victim’s family.”

            

Song Yuhang hurried back. The moment she stepped into the office, Fang Xin leaned in close, covering her nose with a file folder, and whispered in her ear.

A heavyset middle-aged woman sat in a chair with her shoes off, picking at her feet and rolling dirt between her fingers. Every so often she peeled a strip of dead skin from her sole. One hand rested on the table, grabbing fistfuls of sunflower seeds from a plate and cracking them between her teeth. A cup of tea sat at her elbow. She swayed her head as she watched the television mounted on the wall.

Song Yuhang walked over and sat down across from her. The woman was about to snap at her for blocking the TV, but then she spotted the two horizontal bars on Song Yuhang’s shoulder, recognized her as a high-ranking officer, and immediately broke into a fawning smile.

            

“Ooh, a lady boss. What can I do for you?”

“My surname is Song. Just call me Officer Song.” The moment she got close, a wave of foot odor hit her—no wonder no one else wanted to come near.

Song Yuhang’s expression didn’t change. She pulled a photograph from her case file. “Take a look. Is this your daughter?”

            

There was no way she was showing the woman the gruesome state of the corpse at the crime scene. The photos the detectives had taken were of the girl’s clothing fragments and shoes.

“Ptoo, ptoo.” The woman spat sunflower seed shells onto the floor, then took the photo from Song Yuhang with the same hand she’d been picking her feet with.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s her. But she’s not my daughter. I’m her aunt.”

            

She jabbed a finger at the photo, her face showing not a trace of grief. “This shirt was one I wore out and passed down to her. The shoes I fished out of the trash…”

Under the gaze of the two detectives across from her, the woman slapped her own mouth. “Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo. Why am I telling you all this?”

“Does she have any other family?” the detective sitting nearby asked.

            

The woman shook her head and grabbed another handful of seeds. “Nope, nope. My sister came to the city to find work when she was just a kid, ran into some deadbeat. He knocked her up and then ditched her. She barely made it through the birth before she died.”

“The girl’s father never contacted you all these years?”

“Never. Long dead somewhere for all I know. I took pity on my sister, took pity on the kid. She’s been with me since she was still nursing.”

            

For the first time, a hint of worry crossed the woman’s face. “I was counting on her to finish middle school, then drop out and find work to help with the household expenses. How did she suddenly…”

The woman let out a long sigh and set the seeds back on the plate. “Officer, I heard she was run over by a truck. Do we get compensation? How much?”

“…”

            

Song Yuhang didn’t flinch. Her brow didn’t even twitch. “We don’t know that. It depends on the court’s ruling.”

Just then, Fang Xin knocked and walked in. She leaned down and whispered in Song Yuhang’s ear, “The DNA comparison results are in.”

Song Yuhang nodded to show she understood, then turned back to the woman. “Has your niece shown any signs of wanting to harm herself recently?”

            

The woman smacked her lips over a seed. “Not really. She doesn’t talk much anyway. Never tells us anything. But I’ve been to a few parent-teacher meetings at her school. Her teachers said her grades were pretty good. No reason to kill herself.”

Song Yuhang’s gaze drifted down to the woman’s neck, where a chain was hidden beneath her collar. “Could you take us to see your home?”

A flicker of impatience crossed the woman’s face, but Song Yuhang’s tone, though gentle, left no room for argument.

            

“Fine, fine. What a hassle. She’s dead, just bury her and pay us what we’re owed, isn’t that enough? Why all this running around in circles?”

Song Yuhang couldn’t be bothered to explain. She walked out with several detectives, who muttered behind her back.

“With an aunt like that, I’d kill myself too.”

            

Suicide?

Song Yuhang’s thoughts drifted back to the rooftop that day. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the person in black and that suicide note weren’t a coincidence.

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The woman’s home was in the farthest village of the West District—the suburbs of the suburbs. The paved road only reached the village entrance. It had rained a couple of days ago, leaving the road a muddy mess. The car wheels sank in and got stuck, so the group had to wade through the sludge on foot.

            

The people living here were universally poor. The houses were squat, electrical wires hung at haphazard heights, and the air was thick with the smell of chicken shit and cow dung. Skinny stray dogs, ribs showing, ran past every now and then. In the distance, a few roosters crowed. They walked dozens of meters in the dark before they reached a single flickering streetlight, barely holding on, ready to give out at any moment.

Under the dim yellow light sat a table so black you couldn’t tell what color it had originally been. A few old men were gathered around playing cards, some smoking from long pipes, others puffing on rolled cigarettes. A few half-grown boys squatted nearby, playing in the mud. One of them picked up a cigarette butt from the ground, took a drag, and immediately started coughing.

The old men burst out laughing.

            

Song Yuhang glanced over. A few loafers, seeing the police had arrived, scooped up the loose change on the table and stuffed it into their pockets, grinning at the woman leading the group with their tobacco-stained teeth.

“Hey, Xiuzhen, what’s this about? Why are you bringing cops with you?”

Wang Xiuzhen snorted through her nose. “Aiyo, can a dog’s mouth spit out ivory? What kind of trouble could I be in? It’s just my unlucky niece died. Ah well, dead is dead, at least she’s at peace. Better than suffering through life poor.”

            

Duan Cheng couldn’t hold back and started to step forward, but Fang Xin grabbed his arm and yanked him back. “How… how can she talk like that? Is she even human?”

Fang Xin shot him a look. “We’re here to do a job. Mind your own business.”

They walked past the muddy path at the village entrance, turned left around a ridge in the fields, and soon arrived at Wang Xiuzhen’s home.

            

The lights were on inside. A mangy mutt was tied up in front of the door, and it started barking furiously the moment it saw them coming.

Song Yuhang glanced at the light. “Someone’s home?”

Wang Xiuzhen ran over, secured the dog, and pushed open the iron gate. “Yeah, yeah. My son’s home studying.”

            

Song Yuhang followed her over the threshold. “What about your husband?”

“He’s working as a carpenter in the provincial capital. Doesn’t come home much. Usually it’s just me, my niece, and my son at home.”

The woman turned as she spoke and called out her son’s name, telling him to turn on the light in the main room.

            

Her son came out of the outhouse, wearing a sweaty undershirt. “Ma, what’s up?”

“You little bastard! You come out to use the toilet and don’t turn off the light inside! I’ll twist your ears off!” She reached out to grab his ear, and the boy dodged, yelping.

“There are strangers here! Can you not embarrass me?”

            

The woman finally let go, looking a little sheepish. She gave Song Yuhang an apologetic smile. “Officers, please, come in, come in.”

“No need. Where is He Miao’s room?”

He Miao was the victim in this case—the girl who had jumped to her death and been run over by a truck.

            

A flash of unease crossed the woman’s face. Under Song Yuhang’s gaze, she reluctantly led them inside.

The main room wasn’t large. There was a big bedroom on each side—one for the couple, and one on the right for the son. At the far end of the main room, the woman pushed open a wooden door, and dust came sifting down.

Fang Xin coughed, covering her mouth, and waved away the cloud of dust. Only then did she see clearly: this was a storage room less than eight square meters, crammed full of old junk and vegetables that had been sitting there God knows how long, giving off a moldy smell.

            

In the middle of the room stood a bunk bed. The bottom bunk was covered with gray, grimy bedding. The top bunk was also piled with stuff.

A small, low table sat in front of the bed. The girl’s homework was still spread out, unfinished. Books and papers were scattered on the floor.

Song Yuhang pulled gloves from her pocket and put them on. “Let’s get to work.”

            

The technical investigators sprang into action. Fang Xin picked a few strands of hair from the pillow and placed them in an evidence bag. When she lifted the pillow to move it, a big black bug scurried out and disappeared into the darkness of the bed crack.

If Song Yuhang hadn’t been there to keep things steady, Fang Xin would have screamed. The sight of the giant cockroach had turned her face white.

Duan Cheng was also thoroughly disgusted. “How… how can anyone live in a place like this?”

            

The woman stood in the doorway watching them work. Before leaving the station, she’d had the foresight to grab a handful of sunflower seeds and stuff them in her pocket. She crunched away noisily.

“Pfft, what’s so unlivable about it? I slept in a cowshed when I was a kid. Besides, Miao Miao’s brother is about to take his college entrance exam. They can’t keep sharing a room—it’d distract him.”

The phrase “sharing a room” caught Song Yuhang’s attention. She stopped what she was doing. “Please call your son over. We have a few questions for him.”

            

“Fine, fine, but make it quick. My son needs to study.”

Duan Cheng nudged Zheng Chengrui. “Hey, the difference between how she treats her niece and her own son is like heaven and earth. The niece has good grades, and she won’t even let her finish middle school. The son looks like a fat-headed idiot—doesn’t seem like the studying type to me.”

Zheng Chengrui pushed up his glasses. He’d only caught the words “fat-headed.” When his gaze shifted over, Duan Cheng quickly stepped back.

            

“Bro, bro, calm down. I wasn’t talking about you.”

“Where were you on the night of May 31st?” Song Yuhang handled the questioning while a detective beside her took notes.

“At… at home, studying.” The boy glanced at his mother.

            

“Can anyone confirm that?”

The woman’s face immediately soured. “Aiyo, Officer, what are you implying? Didn’t Miao Miao jump off the building herself? What does that have to do with my son? Honestly.”

Song Yuhang looked at her, her gaze sharp as a torch. “Just routine procedure.”

            

“I… my mom was here.” The boy was a bit shy, but he was much cleaner than his mother.

“She came back from playing cards around seven in the evening and didn’t go out again. I was home studying too. She even made me a late-night snack.”

When the others tried to press further, Song Yuhang cut them off. “Fang Xin, collect a DNA sample from him.”

            

Fang Xin responded immediately. She took a saliva collection swab from her forensic kit and gestured for him to put it in his mouth. The boy didn’t hesitate. He did as instructed and handed it back.

Fang Xin carefully labeled it before placing it in an evidence bag.

Song Yuhang turned and walked back into the room. She shone her flashlight on the floor and picked up a homework notebook. Flipping through it quickly, she saw pages of dense math problems interspersed with a few simple cartoon drawings—a whale, sketched like a doodle a girl might draw during class.

            

She handed the notebook to Fang Xin. “Take this back for handwriting analysis.”

After they finished inspecting the room, the group trudged back along the muddy village path.

Fang Xin was still puzzled. The DNA comparison results for the incomplete embryonic tissue were already in, and no matching sequence had been found in the genetic database.

            

That meant anyone close to the girl could be the one who assaulted her and drove her to suicide.

She voiced this thought as they walked. Song Yuhang gave a faint smile. “No alibi for the time of the crime. Did you notice those two tire tracks?”

Following the direction of her finger, they saw two clear sets of tire tracks on the narrow village road, which was barely wide enough for a single bus.

            

Fang Xin was also a trace evidence expert. “That’s…”

“Right. Bus tracks. The road is so bad our police car couldn’t make it because of the low chassis, but a bus could. When we passed the village entrance, I noticed a dilapidated bus stop sign. It said the last bus into the city leaves at six in the evening. The Wang family has no vehicle. It took us over two hours to drive here from the station. There’s no way they could have walked that far on foot. They might have borrowed a ride from someone, but that’s unlikely—it would have drawn suspicion. If we put in the effort to ask around, we’ll definitely find out.”

Fang Xin’s eyes lit up with understanding. As expected, the older the ginger, the spicier it is.

            

Song Yuhang checked her watch. It was 10:15 PM. She turned around. “Alright. Split into pairs and canvass the neighborhood. See if there are any new leads.”

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“Hello, Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau. Have you seen this person?”

“Has she shown any unusual behavior recently?”

            

“Did she ever tell you she didn’t want to live anymore?”

“What was she like normally? Any suicidal thoughts?”

…

            

A dozen detectives split into groups, knocking on doors and questioning dozens of households, large and small. They kept at it until the dew grew heavy and the moon hung high in the treetops before finally regrouping at the village entrance.

Song Yuhang was the last to return. Dew had soaked the legs of her pants. She’d taken off her uniform jacket and was holding it in her hand, revealing the solid muscles of her forearms.

They weren’t going back to the station tonight. Snoring was already rising from inside the police car.

            

She opened the sunroof, lay back in her seat, and gazed up at the vast river of stars. In the face of the boundless universe, individual loneliness was always magnified infinitely.

As she watched, she felt a strange sensation of merging with the sky and earth. Under the gentle night breeze, the tension that had gripped her for days finally began to ease. And so, cradled in the tenderness of the stars and the cosmos, she slowly closed her eyes.

Until the sky was bright with dawn.

            

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Lin Yan slipped quietly out of bed, smoothed the covers back to their original state, and stripped off her hospital gown in a few quick motions, pulling on her own clothes. She ran her fingers through her fluffy curls, gathered them into a ponytail at the back of her head, slung her bag over her shoulder, slipped on her flats, and crept along the wall toward the exit.

The early-morning triage desk was nearly empty. The nurses were dozing, slumped over their stations. Lin Yan, wearing sunglasses and a mask, sailed through the corridor without a hitch.

Sayonara, suckers. There was no way she was staying in the hospital, having to choke down the prison food her aunt delivered every day.

            

The chicken soup tasted good, but too much of it made you want to throw up. A few more days of that and she’d be sick even if she wasn’t already. Besides, the case wasn’t closed yet. She couldn’t rest easy.

She rounded a corner, about to make her great escape, when a tall man walking quickly came straight toward her. She was too busy looking behind her and crashed right into him.

Lin Yan stumbled back a few steps. The man’s imaging files scattered all over the floor. People trained in martial arts had a very stable center of gravity. The fact that she’d been knocked off balance caught her off guard, and she was instantly annoyed.

            

“Hey, watch where you’re going!”

As always, Miss Lin’s first move was to play offense.

The man crouched down to pick up the scattered reports. He was wearing a mask, so she couldn’t see his face, but there were a few streaks of gray in his hair. He looked like he was getting on in years.

            

“Hey, I’m talking to you. You deaf or something?”

Lin Yan kept jabbering. The man looked up at her. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.

A patient?

            

The thought had barely crossed Lin Yan’s mind when the man had already gathered up the scattered papers, tucked them under his arm, and headed toward the internal medicine department.

Tsk. Too bad. He’s a master, though.

Lin Yan clicked her tongue softly. Behind her, a nurse’s roar echoed down the hall. “Bed 13! What do you think you’re doing?! You’re not discharged yet—why are you out?!”

            

Uh-oh. The pursuit was on.

The young heiress zipped into the elevator and slammed the close button. Just before the doors slid shut, she blew a kiss through the gap at the little nurse’s furious face.

The butler’s car was already waiting downstairs. Lin Yan pulled open the door and climbed in. “Back to the villa.”

            

The clothes she’d been wearing for a day stank. Her hair reeked of disinfectant. Lin Yan couldn’t stand it and decided she had to go home and shower and change first.

On the way, she thought about it and sent Lin Ge a text letting him know she’d checked herself out, so her aunt wouldn’t make a wasted trip.

After she finished showering, she came out drying her hair, walked into the study, and pulled a faded, yellowed photograph from the drawer.

            

It was Chunan.

Li Shiping had given it to her. Fourteen years ago, Li Shiping had just started teaching first-year high school. She was still an unknown little chemistry teacher.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was that she was the last person to see Chunan alive.

            

A week after the college entrance exam, it was the day to go back to school and pick up the graduation photo. Lin Yan hadn’t gone that day. She’d asked Chunan to pick it up for her.

This was what Li Shiping had said—

“The senior year teachers were short-handed, so I was helping out in the general affairs office. She came very late. She picked up the photo and left. I remember it clearly because it was already past closing time. If she hadn’t come, I would have been going home too.”

            

“She was walking quickly, like she was in a hurry about something. The photo fell out of her file folder without her noticing. By the time I chased after her, all I could pick up was this.”

Lin Yan lowered her gaze, studying the photograph. The girl in the picture had bright eyes and a radiant smile. Even after all these years, this photograph still struck the softest corner of her heart.

The bitterness that surged up in that moment made her clench her jaw.

            

Lin Yan closed her eyes. It took a long time before the tension in her muscles finally eased.

She picked up the photo, slipped it into the photo album, and locked it in the drawer. Then she sat down and tore off two sticky notes.

If she was being honest, there was still regret. Not just because she and Li Shiping were kindred spirits in suffering, but because she’d never had the chance to say thank you.

            

The early-morning breeze lifted the window screen. Sunlight streamed through the French windows, falling on the folded paper crane.

Lin Yan stood up, took her uniform jacket from the coat rack, and put it on. She did up the buttons one by one. Finally, she picked up her wide-brimmed cap, adjusted it in front of the mirror, and strode out.

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The author has something to say:

            

Thank you for reading.

I’m sorry, but starting tomorrow, the author will be going to Yunnan for seven days. There won’t be much time for writing—mostly just fragmented moments on the high-speed rail, on the plane, or before bed. So the update time will be irregular. If it’s past 11 PM and there’s still no update, don’t wait up. Get some sleep.

When I get back after National Day, I’ll be home and writing like crazy. I won’t go anywhere. Wait for me, okay?

            

Finally, thank you all for following along. I love you. Mwah.

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