kvmb Chapter 1071 On-site Investigation Discoveries
Chapter 1071 On-site Investigation Discoveries
Xiao Wang's notebook was already half full of notes, while Lao Li continued rambling on: "The cleaning station locks at 10 p.m., but the wall is low; anyone can easily climb over it with a ladder. Last week, a handcart went missing, and I suspect it was done by that scavenger..." He suddenly slapped his thigh, "That's right! The van's rear bumper was dented, on the left!"
The investigation in the sorting area continued. Xiao Yang straightened up, the lenses of his gas mask fogged up. "The body will be temporarily taken back to the team for autopsy," he told Li Ming. "The shoe prints, fibers, and ligature marks collected at the scene need to be analyzed further in the lab." His gaze swept over the pile of rummaged garbage. "Notify the cleaning station to suspend operations. We need to conduct a comprehensive screening of the entire sorting area; there may be other physical evidence."
Li Ming nodded and looked at Xiao Wang: "Based on the clues provided by Lao Li, immediately check the surrounding surveillance footage, focusing on that silver-gray van, especially the one with a damaged left rear bumper and a driver limping on his left leg." He crushed another plastic bottle with the sole of his boot. "Also, check the missing persons cases of the past two weeks, focusing on men around 175 cm tall who wear size 43 shoes."
As the morning mist gradually dissipated, sunlight filtered through the iron fence of the sanitation station, casting dappled shadows beside the corpse. Flies continued their tireless buzzing, as if telling the secrets of this forgotten place in the landfill. Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun were carefully photographing and marking every trace, while Xiao Wang continued to question Lao Li about the details. Everyone knew that behind this decomposing body lay a hidden story, and their task was to peel back the filthy veil bit by bit to find the truth.
As the truck carrying the body slowly drove away, Li Ming took one last look at the stench-filled waste disposal station. This place processed the city's garbage every day, bearing countless discarded items, and now, a corpse was being dumped here as trash. The cold indifference and cruelty behind it made him frown. He took a deep breath; the stench in the air was still overwhelming, but his eyes were even more determined. No matter how difficult, he would find out the truth about this case.
After thinking for a moment, Li Ming's footsteps echoed on the cement floor of the sorting area. He bent down and patted Xiao Yang on the shoulder, the gas masks clanging together with a dull thud. "Expand the search area, from the beginning of the conveyor belt to the end of the compressor, don't miss an inch." Xiao Yang nodded and gestured for Xiao Sun to open the investigation box. The evidence bags inside gleamed transparently in the morning light.
Carrying his DSLR camera, Xiao Sun first aimed the lens at a three-meter radius around the body, taking circular shots. He changed angles after every three shots to ensure the light illuminated the marks on the ground from different directions. "First shot, due north, align the 0 mark on the scale with the starting point of the ligature mark," his voice came through the mask, tinged with slight panting. The sound of the camera shutter was exceptionally clear amidst the roar of the garbage dump, like a silent footnote to this chaotic scene.
When they got to the edge of the conveyor belt, Xiao Yang suddenly stopped them: "Wait a minute, get that oil stain clear." There was an irregular dark mark on the rubber surface of the conveyor belt, shaped like half a shoe sole. Xiao Sun squatted down, placed the scale bar next to him, and took five photos with different exposures: "Number 047, suspected oil stain footprint."
The entire photo-taking process lasted two hours, only stopping when the memory card showed "full." Xiao Sun rubbed his aching shoulders, looking at the 987 photos on the camera, each marked with precise coordinates and angles. But after examining them repeatedly, apart from the known ligature marks and wounds, there was no image that directly pointed to the killer.
Holding a metal detector, Xiao Yang began to probe outwards in a spiral motion from the location of the body. The detector beeped softly in the pile of waste paper. He crouched down and parted the layers of cardboard, only to find it was just a rusty pull tab from a soda can. "The 17th source of interference." He drew an X in his notebook, the sound of the pen tip gliding across the pages echoing in the empty sorting area.
Xiao Sun was responsible for inspecting the walls and fences. Wearing white gloves, he ran his fingertips across the mottled wall surface, finding a loose piece of cement about 1.5 meters from the ground. He pried it off and saw several gray fibers stuck to the back, completely different from the fabric in the trash. "Number 048, wall fiber sample." He carefully placed it in an evidence bag, a glimmer of hope rising in his heart. However, later testing revealed it was just ordinary building insulation.
In a corner of the cleaning station, there was a forgotten toolbox. When Xiao Yang opened it, a smell of rust mixed with machine oil hit him. The wrenches and screwdrivers inside were covered with a thick layer of dust, except for the head of a claw hammer, whose edges seemed cleaner than the other tools. "Take a sample of the surface residue." He gently wiped it with a sterile cotton swab, which picked up some blackish-gray powder, later confirmed to be long-term accumulated dust.
Thick grease had accumulated on the metal supports of the conveyor belt. Xiao Sun peered inside with an endoscope. Several tangled threads flashed through the lens, their color similar to the pale gold fibers found between the corpse's fingers. It took him half an hour to pick them out with tweezers; there were three threads in total, of varying lengths. "Number 049, fiber sample, pending comparison." But when these fibers were sent for testing, the results showed they were common curtain fabric, the same kind that could be found in the nearby garbage dump.
The compressor's feed inlet was a key area to inspect. Wearing safety goggles, Xiao Yang directed the workers to stop the machine and insert an endoscope into the dark pipe. The screen displayed scratches on the inner wall, one of which, an arc-shaped mark, appeared to have been formed by an impact from a hard object. "Measure the depth and width," he said, staring at the screen. Xiao Sun recorded the marks: "3.2 cm long, 0.5 cm deep, suspected to be a metal impact." However, after searching through the scrap material ejected from the compressor, they couldn't find an object matching the mark.
The ground beneath the conveyor belt was the most easily overlooked area. Xiao Yang lay prone, illuminating the dark gaps with his flashlight. Countless dust particles swirled in the beam, like disturbed sprites. He discovered a broken piece of plastic, with freshly broken edges. "Number 050, plastic fragment." But pieced together, it was just the bottom of an ordinary mineral water bottle.
The two walked around to the outside of the cleaning station's wall, where the weeds grew taller than a person. Xiao Sun's laser rangefinder suddenly pointed to a patch of flattened grass: "Look, the grass has been trampled." The grass stalks there leaned in the same direction, and fresh soil still clung to their roots. They followed the tracks and found a half-faded shoe print at the base of the wall, size 42, completely different from the previous brown leather shoes. "Number 051, shoe print outside the wall." But after removing the plaster model, all that could be seen was a rubber sole, without any patterned design.