CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 57: WHY DIDN’T THEY SCREAM INSTINCTIVELY?

As the police car just drove out of the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau, Li Jian turned and said, "How about I drive?"

"You came back from Nanbu City last night, it must have been a tough journey."

"Driving now is definitely fatigued driving."

Chen He turned, smiled, and said, "Mr. Li, do I look tired now?"

"I haven’t even yawned once."

"After having a meal of soup dumplings, I’m fully recharged."

Li Jian laughed and said, "Being young is great!"

"Your enthusiasm for solving cases is very strong, even more so than when I was your age."

Chen He gripped the steering wheel and said, "Mr. Li! It’s been hard to make progress in this case."

"If we can seize this opportunity and catch the murderer first, it would be very significant."

"Exactly!"

"If this case is solved, we must celebrate properly."

"The war of resistance lasted eight years, I think this case should also come to an end."

Chen He asked, "Mr. Li, if we successfully solve this case, what kind of reward do you think Mr. Ma will give us?"

Li Jian turned his head to look out the window and said, "I haven’t thought about it yet."

"However, compared to the previous two cases, if this old case is solved, the criminal investigation team will at least get a collective second-class merit."

"Moreover, from what Mr. Ma said, if this case is solved, it will become the first case in the provincial homicide cold case special action."

Chen He laughed and said, "Haha, just thinking about it feels great, at that time our Jiangcheng criminal investigation will be famous throughout Dragon Country."

At this moment.

Jiang An was alone in the criminal investigation team’s meeting room.

He was staring at the digital photos on the projector.

He did not want to miss any detail in the photos.

However, a regretful aspect of this case is that the bodies of the four victims had already been cremated and buried.

Aside from the items extracted from the scene examination back then, other furniture was no longer there.

Moreover, because a murder had occurred in that room, it was sold at a very low price.

Now.

Jiang An could only imagine the three-dimensional appearance of the original scene through the pictures in front of him.

The crime scene was the only place where the murderer and the victims had direct contact, and it was also where the most clues about the crime could be found.

Jiang An scrolled through the original scene pictures, starting from the first one.

During this review, he focused mainly on the details of the images.

Only by understanding the details could he reconstruct the entire death process and look for more features of the suspect.

minutes later, Jiang An had reviewed all the picture materials.

He slightly squinted his eyes, with the bloody scene and pale corpses swirling in his mind.

Instantly, he immersed himself in it, simulating the crime.

The person who reported the case found that the door to the victims’ home was ajar at the time.

He pushed the door open and smelled a strong scent of blood; two victims lay on the living room floor, and the other two lay in different second bedrooms.

All four victims were in pajamas; Zhang Qian’s sister and mother were on their respective bedroom beds.

From the clothing state and positions of the four victims, it fully indicated that the murder was carried out after they had fallen asleep at night.

Since the incident occurred after they went to sleep, why did Zhang Qian and her husband die in the living room rather than in the master bedroom?

There must be a reason that prompted them to get up and go to the living room.

After contemplating for a long while, Jiang An suddenly had a revelation.

Knocking sound!

It was the knocking sound from the hallway by the living room entrance that drew them over.

Zhang Qian and her husband should have been awakened by a series of knocks.

The two of them went to the living room, turned on the hallway light, and opened the door to see what was happening.

At that time,

Zhang Qian’s sister and mother remained in their bedrooms and didn’t come out.

Moreover,

At the entrance to the victims’ living room, you could see that the door hadn’t been forced open, and there were no signs of the lock being tampered with.

This indicated that the murderer did not enter by force.

Since it wasn’t a forced entry, the victims must have opened the door themselves.

Jiang An noticed that the security door at the victims’ home had a peephole, and this peephole wasn’t blocked.

If someone knocked at night, we would all check cautiously.

Since Zhang Qian and her husband voluntarily opened the door to let them in, it fully indicated that it wasn’t a stranger.

According to the case file records, the special task force back then checked the call records of the four victims and found no suspicious numbers contacted that night.

The murderer did not contact them in advance; they just showed up at the door.

All signs pointed to a familiar face visiting at night.

After Zhang Qian and her husband opened the door.

Where did the murder begin?

Following this, Jiang An slightly opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the large screen projector.

A photo of the hallway by the living room entrance caught his attention.

The killer’s first move began with the "first strike" here.

At the connection between the hallway entrance and the living room, there were two drops of blood on the ground.

Seeing these two drops of blood, knowledge of "blood stain pattern analysis" emerged in Jiang An’s mind.

According to the principle of inertia in physics, when blood leaves the body, it initially retains the same velocity as the human body, matching the speed of the human body.

When the blood comes into contact with the ground, it creates a spur-like pattern forward.

Therefore, the direction of spurs around the bloodstains indicates the movement direction of the bleeding object.

The movement direction of these two bloodstains was very clear.

From the hallway towards the living room.

Looking at the bloodstain photos, Jiang An pictured the knife wounds on Zhang Qian and her husband.

Their wounds were all on the front side of their bodies.

Judging from the body positions, it fully indicated that when the murderer carried out the killing, it was done face-to-face, rather than a sneak attack from behind.

After the couple was injured, they instinctively ran back, leaving many bloodstains in the same direction on the ground as they ran.

In the end, both of them died from hemorrhagic shock due to organ rupture and bleeding.

It’s just that the man had injuries to his chest area including his heart, causing him to die quickly.

Zhang Qian’s knife only pierced her lung, without injuring her heart, and she eventually died from pneumothorax and massive bleeding.

Subsequently, another question arose in Jiang An’s mind.

If Zhang Qian and her husband already realized the danger, why didn’t they call for help?

In Jiang An’s view, the knife wounds on their bodies did not reach the level where they would collapse within three steps like a snakebite.

There should have been a few minutes from when they were injured to their death.

Especially Zhang Qian.

Her time of death was the latest among the four.

It’s important to note that both Bedroom 1 and Bedroom 2 had people staying in them at the time.

If they had shouted, the people in both bedrooms would have heard it.

To untie the bell, you must untie the person who rings it.

To solve the problem at the crime scene, you have to look for answers at the crime scene.

This was the main principle in Jiang An’s mind.

Without delay, he opened the original scene photos.

He examined the distribution of injuries on Zhang Qian and her husband closely once more.

Moments later, Jiang An found the answer.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to call out.

Rather, they had already lost the ability to do so.