Chapter 948: Autopsy
After Tao Yueyue left, Lin Dongxue invited Cai Zhengkai to the corridor and asked him, "I want to know what you were doing tonight."
Cai Zhengkai replied calmly, "When I got back from filming, I read the script and ate my meal in the room. Then, I went out to get some air, and I went to the bar to sit for a while before heading back at 9:00PM."
"We live on the same floor. When the fall happened, I paid attention to it. You arrived ten minutes late. Can you tell me the reason for this?"
Cai Zhengkai raised a carefully trimmed eyebrow. "Because I don't like to join in the commotion. Who stipulated that if someone dies, you have to run out and watch and that you’ll be a suspect if you arrive a few minutes later? Do you police handle cases like this?"
Lin Dongxue ignored his provocation and said, "However, some people have reported that you may have been the last person to see the deceased."
"The last person to see the deceased? Isn’t there a problem with this expression? If Little Ai was pushed downstairs, aren't you saying that I’m the murderer? Please. He’s a villain and I can't even hide away from him in time, let alone provoke him."
"Don't go around in circles. Let me ask you something: when was the last time you saw Little Ai?!"
Cai Zhengkai still said in a calm tone, "At dinner."
"Leave down your contact information!"
Cai Zhengkai made a "go ahead" action, reported his number, and then let her take a picture.
After questioning everyone, Lin Dongxue asked them to go back first. Then, Tao Yueyue came back and asked, "Are you finished with the questioning?"
"A few people. It’s estimated that we’ll meet again."
"When I went to take his photo, I learned something. Little Ai is actually the illegitimate son of the producer."
"Really?" Lin Dongxue was slightly taken aback.
"The producer said that Little Ai was born from a mistress of his in his early years. His wife is the daughter of his boss and as the boss's son-in-law, this kind of thing would naturally not be made public. So, he kept it a secret and sent monthly living expenses for him quietly. Later, Little Ai went out to be an extra and wanted to be an actor. The position of the producer in the company was already high, so he used his own money to raise his popularity."
"Does Little Ai know about it?"
"He had to have known, I’m guessing."
"It's so interesting. The father actually robbed his son's girlfriend. The scene must have been really ‘exciting’ at the time. I think I can lower the suspicion I have against the producer."
"Who do you suspect the most?"
"Cai Zhengkai!"
"But what about the motive?"
"I think the probability of an impulsive murder is quite high. For example, when the two quarrelled, Cai Zhengkai pushed him downstairs. This can explain why Cai Zhengkai appeared the latest... By the way, the corpse hasn’t been inspected yet! You won't be afraid, right?"
Tao Yueyue shook her head. "What's so scary about dead people?"
Lin Dongxue lifted the cover of the corpse away. Little Ai lay with his back on the table. Seeing the paper-like skin color and the large pieces of blood clots on his head coupled with the silence of the night, Tao Yueyue was still a little nervous.
"It feels the same as falling asleep. I can't help but think, ‘will he suddenly sit up?!’" Tao Yueyue said.
"Haha, Captain Peng told me that the dead aren’t scary. The main reason is that people who see dead people love to make associations and overthink. If they don’t, they can calmly face them." Lin Dongxue stretched out her hand and remembered that she wasn’t wearing gloves. "Let’s still wait for the police to come and talk later!"
"Weren’t there disposable gloves when we ate the roast leg of lamb at noon? There should be a lot of them in the kitchen. I'll get two pairs."
By the time Lin Dongxue asked, "Isn’t the kitchen closed?" Tao Yueyue had already run out. After a while, she brought back two pairs of disposable plastic gloves.
The two put on gloves and Lin Dongxue opened the eyelids of the deceased and looked at them for a long time. Tao Yueyue asked her what she was looking at. Lin Dongxue said, "I have dealt with cases of people falling from a building and dying. Falling from such a high place, their eyes should definitely have bleeding spots, but Little Ai doesn't have them."𝒇𝑟e𝙚𝑤𝙚𝐛𝗻𝐨ν𝚎𝘭.c𝐨m
There was a layer of blood in the eyes of the deceased. It was hemorrhaging caused by a head injury, not a unique feature of death by falling from a building.
"When I first saw the deceased, I was very concerned about one thing. It was obviously lying on the ground, so why was there dust on his back?" Lin Dongxue questioned.
"Can I take a look?" Tao Yueyue asked, "Actually, when I was at home alone and had nothing to do, I read Uncle Chen's forensics book."
Lin Dongxue smiled and said, "Okay, you can check it at your will. I'm just relying on experience as well. We’re both laymen here. Let’s see what you can find."
Tao Yueyue picked up the deceased's head, pressed the skin on his scalp with her hand, and said, "This should be the scalp hematoma mentioned in the book."
"Yes, deaths from falling off buildings generally have this characteristic."
Touching the rustled, wet hair, Tao Yueyue’s small heart was tight. She read the forensic book with gusto because the knowledge was very mysterious. It could happen to everyone, but it was inaccessible to the majority of people.
However, facing a real corpse, she found it really difficult. What she saw was a dead person with small injuries and bruises on his eyes, nose, and ears. She didn’t know what to focus on.
Tao Yueyue touched a different place under his scalp, pressed it with her hand, and said, "Sister Lin, there’s a fracture here."
Lin Dongxue went over to check and said, "It’s true! This is a sunken fracture..." She used her hand to measure it. "Is this left from the ground? It doesn't look like it!"
"There must be a reason for the abnormal things."
"Yes, there must be a reason. We will explore it slowly."
"Should we check the ribs? If you fall from a great height, the ribs would definitely be broken."
Lin Dongxue smiled and praised, "You look just like a little genius detective now."
Tao Yueyue blushed in embarrassment.
Lin Dongxue untied the coat of the deceased, revealing the chest of the deceased. Lin Dongxue touched it with her hands and said, "Strange. None of the ribs are broken..." She looked at the deceased's hands. "Look. The nails are broken, and there are small drag wounds and dust!"
"Wow, sister Lin is so keen!" Tao Yueyue praised. "I think Uncle Chen's blinding light has always overshadowed your excellence."
"How could that be? I have seen hundreds of corpses in the past few years as a police officer. I have seen hundreds of autopsy reports, which is somewhat a bit of experience. But if you ask me to tell you things systematically, I won’t be able to. I don’t even know the time of death..." Lin Dongxue muttered, "The possibility of a person falling from a high place without a single broken rib is near zero. Even if Zhou Tiannan fell from the sixth floor in the past and didn’t die, he still had a broken rib cage."
"In the end, he fell to death on the second floor of his own house, which is really ironic." Tao Yueyue sneered.
"He hit his head on the flowerbed... The flowerbed? Right, the deceased must have hit something, which is why the sunken fracture was formed. When many people fall, they may hit something in the middle and then fall to the ground. I think we should revisit the scene to have a look."