The next day, Lü Qingqing met Tong Meng's assistant. She had a generally unfavorable impression of this person, who seemed to be named Li Han. He was an old hand who had worked under Ouyang Wen, but they had never spoken before.
The four of them entered the crime scene again. As this case had a competitive element, the police department was taking it quite seriously. If nothing else, the security of the scene was impeccable.
Lü Qingqing and Tong Meng once again searched along the riverbank for suspicious remnants. Lü Qingqing looked meticulously, but Tong Meng was not quite as focused.
Walking on the sandy beach was rather uncomfortable; after just a few steps, the soles of her shoes would get covered in mud and sand, which was difficult to clean.
Lü Qingqing glanced at Tong Meng disdainfully. She was still preoccupied with cleaning the sand from the soles of her shoes, and hadn't even reached half of the area she was supposed to investigate.
"What's the point? You clean the mud and sand now, and in a moment you'll get them dirty again," even Li Han, who was supposed to be helping her, couldn't stand it.
"Mind your own business. I just feel uncomfortable with sand on my soles," Tong Meng shot Li Han an annoyed look. Li Han shrugged; if she didn't care, he wouldn't either, as it didn't affect his promotion.
"That woman is so fussy. You do all the work, and she just waits to see the results," Guan Jinsong and Lü Qingqing muttered to each other on the side.
"It's fine. The evidence will eventually be marked with who found it," Lü Qingqing had long seen through Tong Meng's intentions.
To ensure that luck wouldn't influence the competition, all evidence found at the crime scene had to be made public.
This had two benefits: it prevented anyone from hiding evidence. If you found crucial evidence but concealed it, not revealing it, leading the other party to miss key information, you would be directly judged to have lost.
This rule was not unfair, as evidence found at a crime scene should be shared by everyone. Just like the high-heeled shoe, if Lü Qingqing had hidden it, and Tong Meng had no idea that a high-heeled shoe was left behind, it would have been unfair to Tong Meng.
As it was, Tong Meng was dawdling, which, in a word, was being lazy.
After a thorough search, everyone found nothing else. However, Lü Qingqing was staring at Tong Meng's feet.
"What are you looking at?" Guan Jinsong couldn't see anything special about Tong Meng's feet.
"Oh, nothing!" Lü Qingqing replied. "I was just wondering why there were no other footprints on the beach."
"Isn't that simple? It's suicide," Tong Meng scoffed when she heard their discussion, casting a mocking glance at Lü Qingqing. "I say, can you hurry up? We're waiting to identify the deceased. The whole sandy area isn't that big, how long will it take you to look?"
Lü Qingqing was speechless and rolled her eyes. "Let's go!"
It was unclear what everyone had found that morning, but the case was temporarily put on hold due to the unidentified deceased.
Taking this opportunity, Qiao Huali organized another case briefing at noon.
This time, Tong Meng spoke first again, confident she wouldn't make the same mistake as yesterday.
Tong Meng said that after the autopsy, she found that the deceased was still breathing when she caught fire. Coupled with the traces of the deceased moving and running around the scene, and the two areas of fire at the scene, as well as the absence of obvious external injuries on the deceased, she believed the possibility of suicide was high.
"If it were homicide, besides wounds, there should at least be some marks. The deceased even had no signs of being tied up, which means this woman willingly walked into the citrus grove."
As she spoke, Tong Meng attempted to reconstruct the scene.
"The situation that night should have been like this: the deceased, alone, brought kerosene to the Huangsha stream, then waded across to the citrus grove on the other side. She had some difficult matter weighing on her heart, something that made her feel she couldn't go on. So, she was tormented internally, struggling and hesitating. Finally, she decided to set herself on fire."
Tong Meng produced the crime scene diagram she had prepared earlier. "Based on the scope of the fire and the woman's burns, the burning area on the citrus grove side is quite extensive, so it should have been the first point of ignition. However, the intense fire in her heart made the woman desire to live, so she ran back towards the stream. She wanted to douse herself in the stream, but ultimately couldn't persevere. Not only that, the flames on her body also ignited the surrounding vegetation, which is why the second burning area formed."
"Despite all this, the woman died on the spot due to severe injuries. So now, we just need to find the deceased's family and confirm her identity to close the case."
After listening to Tong Meng's explanation, everyone nodded.
They couldn't find any reason to refute it.
Next, it was Lü Qingqing's turn. She didn't have many extra words. "This is a pair of stockings I found during the re-examination of the scene this morning, about 50 meters from where the deceased met her end."
Saying this, Lü Qingqing took out a pair of stockings from the evidence bag. The stockings looked relatively new and the size was a good match for the victim's foot length.
Moreover, judging by the surface, the stockings showed no signs of tearing, making it likely that the victim had removed them herself.
Initially, when Tong Meng saw Lü Qingqing present new evidence, her heart skipped a beat. However, upon hearing that the analysis was similar to her own, she relaxed.
If even the stockings weren't torn, what else could it be but suicide?
"So, you also believe it was suicide?" Qiao Huali asked Lü Qingqing.
"No, I disagree!"
Lü Qingqing's statement shocked everyone. Based on the current information, there was absolutely no evidence to support the presence of a third party.
"Hmph, I advise you, some glory cannot be snatched randomly," Tong Meng said gleefully from the side. She thought Lü Qingqing was deliberately saying this to show off.
Tong Meng smiled and asked, "Please, what kind of mindset would choose such a method of death as self-immolation? Wouldn't jumping into a river be easier than this? Even slitting one's throat would be more acceptable than self-immolation."
Lü Qingqing argued that self-immolation was too cruel and extreme a method of suicide, the process excruciatingly painful and the death agonizingly gruesome. It was unlikely a woman would choose such a method.
Secondly, no kerosene container was found at the scene. After all, to cause such a combustion area and degree of burns, a significant amount of kerosene would be needed. So, where was the container for the kerosene?
Thirdly, kerosene was a precious commodity. Who would have so much kerosene readily available? Moreover, kerosene was heavy; how could a woman have carried it?
Fourthly, why was only one stocking found? If the woman committed suicide, she would surely have removed both stockings. Where was the other one?
"I indeed haven't found evidence of a third party's presence, but who can answer the above questions to prove the deceased committed suicide?" Lü Qingqing asked.
Everyone fell silent.
Tong Meng grew anxious. How could Lü Qingqing turn the tables with just a few words? "Then tell me, why couldn't you find any trace of a third person? Not even a single footprint was left behind? It's a sandy area, not a concrete floor."
Yes, it was precisely this point that had made everyone suspect the woman had committed suicide.
How could someone kill another person on the sand without leaving a trace?
Lü Qingqing knew Tong Meng would ask this question. She was not flustered. "Let alone no trace of a third person, if you go back tomorrow morning, the footprints of a fourth person, a fifth person, even yours and mine, will have disappeared."
Tong Meng was almost amused by this remark and was about to mock her when Lü Qingqing didn't give her a chance. "It seems your observation skills need improvement. Stop worrying about whether your shoes are dirty and actually look at the scene."
Lü Qingqing pointed out that Tong Meng had been fussing with her shoes all morning. As a result, she noticed that the footprints Tong Meng left had different depths due to the varying duration of her standing and the force she applied.
Some were deep, others shallow.
And it was precisely because of this that Lü Qingqing realized that the entire beach was smooth and flat. But so many people had been on the beach the day before; where were their footprints?
All gone!