Chapter 1 Generally Speaking

Generally speaking, when you mention a crime scene, it's usually made up of a few key elements.

Police and their set-up of the cordon,

A corpse, bloodstains, and uniformed forensic doctors,

And of course,

The three inner and outer layers of onlookers, the rubberneckers.

Lao Dao helped Zhou Ze squeeze through the crowd, escorting him inside.

Taking a breath,

He had a sense of déjà vu.

He remembered that his previous boss also liked to investigate cases,

And in the process of investigating, he almost got himself killed.

Looking at his current boss behind him, Boss Zhou's face was twisted with disgust, as if he really didn't want to be here.

Lao Dao breathed a sigh of relief,

At least,

His current boss wasn't very interested in investigating cases.

Over there, Zhang Yanfeng also came over and greeted Zhou Ze to come inside.

Zhou Ze saw the tall, thin female police officer again, and she also noticed Zhou Ze.

The female police officer was probably surprised and suspicious inside; just what was Zhou Ze's background that two consecutive criminal investigation team leaders liked to have him come over and help out?

Zhang Yanfeng was very skilled in commanding his team. It was a given, after all, he had worked here for twenty years. Now, it was just a matter of having a different body.

This gave many police officers the illusion that the new chief and the chief who sacrificed himself a while ago were alike; their styles of handling cases were basically the same.

However, everyone was quite used to it. After the old team leader sacrificed himself, not hearing him scold and lecture people for a while made them really miss it.

Lao Zhang took Zhou Ze to see the body first. It was the old woman, the one who was setting up a stall selling newspapers by the roadside yesterday.

There were forensic doctors and their assistants examining the body, and the preliminary autopsy report was already out.

"The cause of death was a heavy blow to the back of the head. The time of death was probably in the second half of the night, because the body was discovered at six o'clock in the morning by a passerby. Plus, the two of us left here at eleven thirty last night, so we can basically analyze a rough time frame for the death.

"Also, look here."

"This is a rural cement road, and this is the deceased's tricycle. According to preliminary inquiries from the deceased's family, the deceased usually went to set up a stall near Little Stone Bridge at six o'clock in the evening to sell newspapers, and would definitely ride her tricycle back after selling the newspapers, or at the latest before one o'clock in the morning.

"If the newspapers sold out earlier, she would come back earlier.

"This location is about a twenty-minute tricycle ride away from the location where we met the deceased yesterday, and it's not far from the deceased's home. The deceased's home is behind that field in front of us. Her old partner passed away a few years ago, and her son has long been married and living separately. She lives alone in the old house."

After explaining the general situation, Zhang Yanfeng lowered his voice and asked in Zhou Ze's ear:

"Why can't I see a soul?"

"Probably went straight to hell," Zhou Ze explained.

If the souls of every dead person had to take a walk around the bookstore, then Boss Zhou would have made a fortune long ago, counting hell money at home until his hands cramped.

Zhou Ze also squatted down, took a pair of gloves from the forensic doctor, and roughly examined the body. Although Boss Zhou wasn't a forensic doctor, surgeons also had added experience if they were just looking at the surface to deduce things.

The cause of death was indeed a heavy blow to the back of the head.

"What is this red powder?" Zhou Ze asked, pointing to the ash on the back of the deceased's hair.

"It's red brick," the female forensic doctor answered directly. "The preliminary deduction is that the murder weapon should be a red brick. People have already been asked to search nearby, but there's no feedback yet."

Zhou Ze nodded, indicating that he understood.

These days, there are many criminal investigation dramas and detective novels. Although many of them are made up, there are also many real parts.

He remembered that in the early years, the Americans had filmed a documentary explaining criminal investigation techniques in detail, but it was later called to a halt because that documentary could also be used as a popular science education film for murderers.

At least, in recent years, as long as it wasn't a purely panicked crime of passion, the proportion of murderers who planned and prepared their murders, hid the murder weapon, erased fingerprints, and tried not to leave behind DNA information has been constantly increasing.

If the murder weapon was just a red brick, the murderer would directly take it away after killing someone, find an inconspicuous place and throw it away at random. It would be really difficult for the police to find it.

Zhou Ze stood up and looked at the tricycle parked to the side, also circled. There was a chalk outline of a human figure on the ground next to the tricycle, which should be the position the deceased was lying in when she was discovered.

"See anything, boss?" Zhang Yanfeng asked in a low voice.

"What I saw, you must have seen too."

Zhou Ze didn't think that an old criminal policeman would be worse than him.

In fact,

The course of the case was already very clear.

He could even clearly imagine the scene at the time.

The old woman was probably riding her tricycle home at around twelve thirty,

And then a dark figure rushed up from behind with a brick and directly smashed the old woman who was riding, and the old woman fell off the car and died.

The speed of an old person riding a tricycle is very slow. Adults can catch up with a slight sprint.

"This is a rural road area, there are no cameras, and because it was late at night, the probability of there being eyewitnesses to the case is very low."

Saying that,

Zhang Yanfeng said seriously again:

"Most importantly, is all of this too much of a coincidence?"

Zhou Ze nodded. Yes, it was too much of a coincidence.

He and Lao Zhang went to the scene of the body dumping from sixteen years ago yesterday and saw this old woman, and then this old woman was immediately murdered.

He wasn't Conan, nor did he have the aura of attracting death wherever he went.

Although there was no direct evidence, instinctively, it would still make people involuntarily connect the two cases and think about them together.

"What's the date today?" Zhou Ze asked.

"August 16," Zhang Yanfeng replied.

"Yesterday was the 15th. What date did the body dumping case from sixteen years ago happen on?" Zhou Ze asked.

That case was one that Zhang Yanfeng had never given up on, so the information about that case was almost imprinted in his mind. At this time, he didn't need to flip through the files and directly answered:

"The discovery of the mammary gland was on...

"Cough cough,

"The discovery of the breasts was on September 1st, 2002. After investigations, it's known that the earliest person who picked up the meat and took it home was on August 17th, 2002."

"August 17th, August 15th," Zhou Ze muttered repeatedly, and then said, "August 17th is the earliest known day that the body parts were discovered, but the time when the deceased was killed should be moved up a bit."

"You mean...?"

"Yesterday was the 15th, and the case from '02 also happened in August. Is it possible that yesterday was actually the sixteenth anniversary of the death of the victim in that dismemberment case?"

Zhang Yanfeng's face twitched.

He didn't think Zhou Ze was being far-fetched or talking nonsense,

Because this possibility was really very high.

Murderers like to return to the scene of the crime and squeeze into the crowd to watch the excitement and observe. This has almost become a law.

It's like how people like to look back at the stool they pulled out after standing up after shitting.

Zhang Yanfeng's face suddenly twisted, his breathing became a little rapid, and his fingers also began to tremble. This was because of anger.

"That is to say, it's very likely that yesterday, just after we left, the murderer also went there.

"Even,

"It's possible that when we were there,

"The murderer had brushed past us!"

Lao Zhang immediately clenched his fist.

If the murderer had really brushed past him yesterday,

This would really be a kind of humiliation,

A humiliation to his profession!

"You investigate here first. Maybe we're overthinking things. How could there be such a coincidence in this world, right?"

Zhang Yanfeng nodded with some difficulty, and then said, "I really hope it's him. Sixteen years ago, due to limited conditions, he was able to escape the law for so many years. If he's the one who killed this time, I will never let him escape again."

Zhou Ze reached out and patted Zhang Yanfeng on the shoulder, and then walked out.

Lao Dao immediately followed, and the two got into the car.

Lao Dao sat in the driver's seat, started the car, and asked, "Boss, back to the bookstore?"

"No, go to Little Stone Bridge."

Not long after,

The car drove into the small road where Zhou Ze and Lao Zhang had come yesterday.

Getting out of the car,

Zhou Ze sat down on the curb.

He vaguely remembered

Yesterday he was joking with the old woman selling newspapers,

She asked if he had dropped something and came back to look for it.

He joked and replied: Yes, I dropped a few pieces of meat.

"Boss, is this the scene of the body dumping case from sixteen years ago that Officer Zhang mentioned?"

"Yes."

"Tsk tsk."

Lao Dao began to look around.

But sixteen years had passed. For a big city, sixteen years was enough for earth-shaking changes to occur.

Why did the old woman die?

Was it really the murderer from the dismemberment case sixteen years ago who appeared again and started committing crimes?

Then why did he kill this old woman?

Zhou Ze licked his lips,

In fact,

There was one more thing that Zhou Ze noticed,

Shouldn't selling newspapers be done on the street? Setting up a stall also required finding a place with high traffic. Why would that old woman set up a stall on this small road late at night?

This didn't make sense. An old person who had separated from her married son and lived alone would come out to sell newspapers in order to subsidize the family. Grabbing the opportunity to sell more newspapers should be the top priority.

"Boss, what you and Officer Zhang said before, that the murderer might have also come when you guys came yesterday? That's too coincidental, right? After all, sixteen years have passed. Maybe that murderer has already died."

Zhou Ze didn't answer,

But instead, he raised his head,

And looked at the wall that was close to this small road,

Behind the wall was an old apartment building.

Zhou Ze suddenly froze,

As if a bolt of lightning had flashed through his mind,

Was there another possibility,

That,

For the past sixteen years, the murderer,

Had been living in this dormitory building?

When he and Lao Zhang came here last night,

That murderer,

Was actually standing behind the window of a certain room on a certain floor,

His gaze,

Was looking over here?