ebookland Chapter 1175 Discovery in the Scrap Heap
Chapter 1175 Discovery in the Scrap Heap
Xiao Sun made an unexpected discovery in the construction site's waste pile. Behind a pile of discarded wooden planks was a black cloth bag, its drawstring loosely undone. "It was empty inside, but the inner walls were covered with black plastic scraps and yellow mud," he said, holding the bag up to the light. "It's about 50x30 centimeters in size, big enough to hold folded clothes or tools." The label on the bottom of the bag was faded, but the remaining writing indicated it was made of canvas, a common material for construction sites or for moving.
“This should be the black bag Zhou Jianming saw,” Xiao Yang said, examining the inside of the bag. “The fiber composition is exactly the same as what was found at the scene, and there’s a fresh tear at the bottom, probably from when it was filled with heavy objects.” He found a hair in the corner of the bag, 12 centimeters long, dark curly. “We need to go back and do a DNA test; it might belong to the suspect or the deceased.”
As technicians prepared to descend into the pit to retrieve the body, Li Ming's gaze fell upon the construction site's surveillance pole. "Check the footage from this camera," he said, pointing to the camera at the top of the pole, "focusing on the footage from the afternoon to the evening of October 7th, especially the man in the black hoodie and the suspicious vehicle." In the distance, the tower crane creaked in the morning breeze, as if telling the story of the secret buried beneath the foundation.
As Xiao Wang closed the notebook, Zhou Jianming was still muttering about the rotting corpse. "There seems to be something hard wrapped in the plastic bag," his voice trembled, "It feels like a book, deformed by the weight of the corpse." Suddenly, Xiao Sun found a metal piece in the yellow mud beside the foundation pit. He fished it out and saw that it was the dial of a watch, the hands stopped at 10:15, and the case was covered with the same yellow mud as the one next to the cigarette butt.
More and more workers gathered outside the cordon, their chatter rising like a tide. Li Ming spoke into his walkie-talkie, ordering: "Immediately retrieve surveillance footage from the roads surrounding the construction site and investigate any suspicious vehicles from the evening of October 7th; contact the developer to obtain the construction progress and personnel registration information for the Oriental Garden residential complex; interview nearby residents to find witnesses who were active near the construction site on the afternoon of October 7th." The morning light gradually dispelled the thin mist, and sunlight shone brightly on the murky foundation pit, as if to illuminate the evil hidden beneath the soil.
Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun's investigation notes have filled two pages. From shoe print characteristics to fiber composition, from button marks to cigarette butt brands, every clue points to the murderer hiding in the shadows. At this moment, the secret beneath the foundation remains unrevealed, but as the investigation deepens, the truth will eventually be exposed to the light of day, just like a corpse being unearthed.
Li Ming's walkie-talkie signal cut through the noise of the construction site. Xiao Yang was squatting by the foundation pit, taking pictures of the silver button. The button in the lens gleamed coldly under the survey light. "Expand the survey area to 50 meters outside the construction site, focusing on the walls, abandoned warehouses, and the alley behind the material storage area. Be thorough and don't miss any traces." Amidst the hum of the electric current and the roar of the tower crane, Xiao Yang stuffed the button into the evidence bag, looked up at the midday sun—the cement ground was scorching hot, and the stench of decay mixed with dust in the air made one's throat tight.
"Received. Let's start from this side of the wall." Xiao Sun followed with his survey bag on his back. The cable of the footprint lamp left shallow marks on the yellow mud. He was also holding rubbing paper and black ink in his hand. "The footprints of the size 42 work boots just now broke off at the foundation pit. Expanding the area might help us find the extended traces."
The perimeter wall of the construction site was a temporary sheet metal structure, its rusty surface covered with scratches. Xiao Yang took out black magnetic powder and a soft brush from his investigation bag, squatted down, and gently brushed along the seams of the sheet metal at the base of the wall. "There's a blurry fingerprint here," he said, his brush stopping on a slightly smoother section of the sheet metal. After the black powder adhered, half a whorl pattern vaguely appeared. "The lines are incomplete, the edges are rough, it was probably left by wearing thin gloves, making it difficult to extract." He carefully used transparent tape to collect the fingerprint and attached it to a special card. "It's about 1.8 centimeters in size, estimated to be the index or middle finger of an adult male, it needs to be sent to the branch's fingerprint database for comparison."
Xiao Sun's footprint light found a trail on the grass outside the wall. A string of size 42 work boot prints lay among the weeds, the sole pattern matching the ones around the foundation pit, but with less wear. "The stride length decreased from 72 centimeters to 68 centimeters," he said, using a ruler to mark both ends of the prints, "indicating that the suspect slowed down after reaching the wall, possibly checking for anyone." The prints curved under a sycamore tree three meters away, where there were fresh signs of soil being disturbed at the base. Xiao Sun picked up a piece of muddy fiber with tweezers: "Black polyester, the fiber composition is initially consistent with plastic bags and cloth bags, 6 centimeters long, with obvious signs of friction."
"Do you think this shoe print might belong to Li Jun?" Xiao Yang leaned closer, pointing to the wear marks on the forefoot of the shoe print. "Zhou Jianming said Li Jun was a temporary worker who only worked for three days. The work boots were probably issued uniformly by the construction site, so it's normal for them to be the same style." Xiao Sun shook his head and pulled out a photo from the construction site personnel register from his bag: "Li Jun's registered height is 172 centimeters. This shoe print suggests a height of 170-175 centimeters, which matches the range. But he borrowed a shovel when he left, and we haven't found the shovel yet, so we can't confirm if it was the tool he used to dispose of the body."
The two followed the footprints to the abandoned warehouse, a temporary structure built of corrugated steel sheets. The door hinges were rusted shut, and a musty smell emanated from the half-open door. Xiao Yang shone his surveying light inside. The floor was piled with abandoned scaffolding and torn cement bags, and there was a distinct shadow in the corner—a mark that looked like it had been pressed down by a heavy object. “Look at this floor,” he said, pushing open the half-open door. There was a rectangular mark on the cement floor, “115 centimeters long and 55 centimeters wide, similar in size to the mark left by a heavy object near the foundation pit, with black plastic debris around the edges.”
Xiao Sun squatted beside the indentation, shining a powerful flashlight on it; the debris gleamed in the light. "It's consistent with the composition of the plastic bag that wrapped the body," he said, collecting the debris with tweezers. "This might be a temporary hiding place before the body was disposed of." He suddenly noticed the shovel head in the corner, its rusty blade covered in yellow mud. "This shovel model matches the 'Old Zhang's shovel' Zhou Jianming mentioned!" Xiao Yang immediately took a picture and measured the shovel's length with a ruler: "1.2 meters, flat-headed, with fresh soil residue on the blade. We need to send it to the brigade to test the soil composition to see if it matches the yellow mud in the foundation pit."
“But the shovel handle is missing,” Xiao Sun searched the surroundings but found no wooden handle. “It may have been taken by the suspect or hidden somewhere else.” He found a cigarette butt next to the shovel, the same Hongtashan cigarette as the one in the pile of steel bars. The saliva stains on the filter had dried and hardened. “The smoking was light, which means the suspect may not have been really interested in smoking and was just lighting it out of habit.”