Chapter 633: Bizarre Death

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

Geng Qing hesitated for a while and said, "There are no enemies, but my father has some acquaintances who have bad relationships with him. But no matter how bad the relationship is, they wouldn't kill my dad, right?"

Peng Sijue asked, "Does your father have a history of medical problems?"

"Frozen shoulder and rheumatism. Except for these, his health has always been very good."

"Although there are no obvious wounds on your father, I think it’s necessary to do an autopsy and I wish to obtain your consent."

Geng Qing furrowed her brows, seemingly a little resistant to an autopsy, but nodded in agreement anyway.

Peng Sijue went to bag the corpse and take it away while Chen Shi questioned Geng Qing about some matters. As she talked, her tears started falling again. The questioning process was interrupted several times. Nobody could handle this kind of thing if it happened to them.

After questioning, Chen Shi took down Geng Qing's contact information and returned to the bureau in a police car.

Half an hour later, Geng Zhangle’s corpse was lying on the dissection table. His clothes had been cut off. Since the joints were already stiff, the assistant applied a hot towel to the joints after measuring the liver temperature and rectal temperature so that the corpse could lie flat.

Chen Shi saw the tiger descending a mountain on Geng Zhangle's chest at a glance. As the man was already old, his tattoo was wrinkled and the color had faded a lot, as if it was recounting the Jianghu spirit of this man back when he was young.

In addition, there were some old scars on his stomach, which seemed to have resulted from being slashed by a knife. They should have been left when he was young.

"This uncle was probably part of the group of young people who were active in the 1980s!" Chen Shi said.

Peng Sijue ignored him, and began to examine the body. The assistant pointed to a place and said, "Captain, there’s a scar here that’s new."

Upon a closer look, there was a round red dot on the deceased's shoulder. It was a bruise under the skin. It didn’t look like livor mortis and the surrounding skin wasn’t damaged.

In addition, there were no external wounds on the whole body, which could not help but make one suspicious.

Peng Sijue stared at the corpse for a few seconds. "Autopsy!"

"I’m leaving, I’m leaving!" Chen Shi said, "I can't stand this scene."

The forensic pathologists opened the corpse’s chest and fixed it. The deceased's liver had congestive edema, which seemed to be signs of poisoning. However, he didn’t rule out rheumatism as the cause. He had minor renal failure, which gave Peng Sijue a sense of déjà vu.

As the autopsy progressed, he had an increasingly ominous hunch. He could tell that it was due to poisoning, but he couldn’t detect the substance. All he could find was cocaine in the urine.

He did not give up and continued with a brain autopsy to rule out causes of sudden death such as arachnoid hemorrhage and myocardial infarction.

"Let’s stop for now! Don't stitch it up yet, preserve the organs first."

The assistants looked at each other and did as they were told. Peng Sijue went outside and found Chen Shi sitting in the laboratory. He was holding the little folding stool brought back from the scene in his hands. It was the one that the deceased had been sitting on. He said, "Old Peng, I have some findings. This stool has been tampered with. It’ll fall over with the slightest touch.”

"..."

"What's the matter? You’re not saying anything."

"It's the same type of poison as last time. The pathological characteristics are exactly the same. This time there isn’t even an injection hole. I'm afraid we won’t be able to file a case."

"Talk to Captain Lin about it."

"I don't know how to tell him."

"Let's go!"

Chen Shi dragged Peng Sijue to Lin Qiupu's office. After hearing Chen Shi's explanation of the incident, Lin Qiupu's first reaction was, "Are you sure it wasn’t a sudden death?"

"It was definitely not a sudden death." Peng Sijue said.

"If no poison can be found, how can we be sure that it was a homicide?"

Chen Shi said, "It can be seen from the scene! I noticed that the front of the stool that the deceased had been sitting on had part of the frame sawn off. The deceased was sitting five centimeters away from the water and would fall into the water with little effort. The purpose of setting up the deceased in this way was to let the fish bite the hook and use the power of the fish to drag the deceased into the water. This was a delaying mechanism. The murderer could leave calmly and let it run its course and take effect. It’s speculated from the time of death that it was 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. Once the deceased is dragged into the water, it would only be regarded as an ordinary drowning incident when he’s discovered, and the police wouldn’t even be alerted."

"Then why didn't this person push the deceased directly into the water?"

"You didn't go to the scene. There was a shopping street opposite the lake in the park. It’s very lively until late at night. If someone fell into the water with a crash, they’d definitely be spotted and then the murderer would be spotted."

Lin Qiupu shook his head. "This is just your conjecture. It's untenable."

"I think that it was God’s will that we discovered this case! If the murderer's delaying mechanism had taken effect and the deceased had been discovered by the park rangers, they wouldn’t call the police. They’d only notify the family to pick up the body. If Old Peng didn’t go fishing today and find the corpse, the case would have been handed over to the branch office. When the cause of death cannot be found, it would be hastily determined to be sudden death. Another thing is that this undetectable poison has appeared twice. Either this case was done by Xu Fa, or he’s selling this kind of poison. If we let this case go, there will soon be other dead people. Do we have to wait until Xu Fa gives himself away before investigating? How many innocent people would die before that? "

Chen Shi's remarks moved Lin Qiupu. He said, "I believe in Captain Peng's professionalism. If he can't detect the poison, nobody in Long'an would be able to. Investigate it! But be careful. After all, we don't have any evidence to prosecute the murderer with. We must find other evidence.”

"Although you’re dislikable, you still have a sense of justice." Chen Shi praised.

"Don’t sweet talk me after taking advantage of me!"

Chen Shi called Sun Zhen. "Little Worm, I need you to check something for me. Are there any poisons being sold on the Internet? I need to find a poison that will kill people without being detected."

"Brother Chen, are you investigating a case?"

"Of course, or do you think I’m going to use it myself?"

"I don’t know much about it either but I’ll give it a go!”

"Thanks, I’ll compensate you afterward."

"You're welcome."

The task force was immediately established and they began a thorough investigation of the deceased Geng Zhangle. According to Geng Zhangle’s neighbor, Mr. Cui, they had met up to go fishing together in the park on the afternoon of the 19th and Mr. Cui had gone home at 5:00 in the evening. Geng Zhangle had said that the catch that day wasn’t good and that he planned to fish for a while longer. Mr. Cui should have been the last person to see the deceased.

Unless the suspect had been targeted and screened first, the surveillance footage at the entrance of the park was difficult to use as evidence because many senior citizens as well as people who had just gotten off work would enter in the evening to exercise, and the flow of people was immense.

The place where Geng Zhangle fished was relatively remote, and it was almost impossible to find witnesses. The police had offered a reward for leads, but nobody had their hopes up.

As for Geng Zhangle’s history, his youth had coincided with the reform and opening up. He sold pirated tapes near the Bailong Temple and hung around with shady people all day, infuriating his father. He had killed someone in a DUI incident. Back then, the punishment for drunk driving wasn’t so harsh. Geng Zhangle was sentenced to 20 years, and his sentence was gradually reduced to 10 years. After he was released from prison in his thirties, he took up a job in a gear factory as a security guard. However, his income was as high as that of a senior technician. According to a colleague’s report of the situation, he had a personal relationship with the factory director Wei. Wei had taken care of him and given him that leisurely job.

Geng Zhangle was married once and later divorced. He had custody of his daughter Geng Qing. His daily life consisted of drinking, smoking, watching TV in the duty room, and going home after work to drink, smoke, and watch TV. His only hobby was fishing.