There was no breakthrough in the autopsy, so I asked He Xin to check the surveillance cameras near the dormitory at the time. Although there were no cameras on the rooftop, there were several buildings next door that could be crossed directly from the rooftop. If the killer wanted to escape, they would definitely use one of these buildings. Gao Mingqiang obtained all the corridor surveillance footage from these buildings.
Recently, they have been sifting through this surveillance footage. Based on the time of the crime, we reviewed it and indeed found that at 12:40 AM, someone was walking towards Xiao Yuanba's house.
They said something to each other outside, and then Xiao Yuanba followed this person upstairs.
We don't know what happened on the rooftop, but the person who killed Xiao Yuanba is likely him.
According to the surveillance footage, this was a male, about 1.75 meters tall and weighing around 57.5 kilograms. He never showed his face, and the surveillance footage was blurry, revealing very little.
"Run a background check on the surveillance system and make sure to find this person!" I said.
I felt that the person who administered the poison might not be Xiao Yuanba, and our previous investigation was wrong. However, Xiao Yuanba was definitely involved in the previous cases, it was just that the poisoner was probably not him.
When we were at the final stage of reviewing the surveillance footage, He Xin said, "I can't find him. This person seems to appear and disappear without a trace. I saw him go into the rental building on the left, but I didn't see him come down and leave. He must have escaped through some surveillance blind spots."
"So, this person is very familiar with the surrounding environment. Does he often visit Xiao Yuanba?" I asked. He Xin immediately understood my meaning and went to investigate Xiao Yuanba's recent whereabouts. With the assistance of Shao Zhengzhi and dozens of technical police officers, they finally identified a person who was likely the one who visited Xiao Yuanba at the time of the crime.
Xiao Yuanba had been in contact with this person recently, and they were seen together in restaurants, hotels, schools, and rental apartments.
However, they still couldn't find out where this person went.
Now that the burly man hadn't committed any more crimes, everyone seemed to have gone silent. We had been monitoring the drug rehabilitation center, but there had been no discoveries lately.
The burly man also seemed to have stopped performing sacrifices. I wondered if they knew we were investigating and were afraid to come out?
But given the burly man's personality, I felt he couldn't resist.
We could only investigate from multiple angles. Then, one afternoon, Gao Mingqiang suddenly called back and said, "The burly man struck again. This time, two bodies were found in Rainbow Mansion, and they were in the fire escape!"
"Isn't that place full of surveillance cameras? That bastard is truly insane, daring to strike in such a place!" I cursed. I always knew this burly man wasn't like Xiao Yuanba, a highly intelligent criminal, but he was too crazy, treating the surveillance cameras as if they were invisible.
I called Liu Yuning, and we immediately set off for Rainbow Mansion.
Upon arriving, the entire mansion was sealed off by the police. Many people were present this time. Liu Yuning and I walked directly to the scene, the fire escape.
Xie Chuchu and Xiao Dong were squatting beside the bodies, conducting a preliminary investigation. I came up to them and asked, "Are they the same as the previous bodies?"
"More or less. Their skulls were also smashed open, and the weapon was a blunt object. We'll need to do experiments to compare if it was a claw hammer. I found wallets on the deceased, containing their IDs. This time, both bodies are male. The thin one is Liu Zhanpeng, and the sturdier one is He Jialiang. Both are 25 years old."
As Xie Chuchu spoke, I observed the bodies according to my usual habit. The joints of the bodies were stiff, the eyelids were cloudy, and the livor mortis was fixed and did not fade. The time of death should be around 23 hours. There seemed to be skin fragments under the fingernails. I observed them and extracted them. Xiao Dong said, "This looks like skin tissue. The deceased has bruises and scratch marks, indicating he struggled with the killer before death."
"If we extract those skin tissues, it might provide new clues," Xie Chuchu said. I used a shadowless reflector to scan the deceased back and forth, but found nothing special. It could be said that these two bodies were similar to the ones found previously.
I stood up and observed the situation in the fire escape. It was spacious and clean. There seemed to be no footprints on the ground. Very few people usually passed through this corridor.
There was a camera at each of the left and right exits. Gao Mingqiang had already gone to the security room to retrieve the footage.
I lifted my shoe-covered foot and walked towards the left door. As I moved forward, forensic investigators tested for footprints nearby with instruments. Soon, several outlines emerged. There were a few pairs of footprints, two of which clearly belonged to the deceased. Another set, I immediately recognized as belonging to the burly man because of the large shoe size.
He had indeed been here. We had found these footprints before. After taking photographs, the forensic investigators finished their work. I walked towards the right door, where Gao Mingqiang had just emerged. He told me, "The surveillance footage directly captured the burly man attacking someone. The guy didn't try to hide at all. This time, because the visibility around was very high, the surveillance captured his front."
"Good, then we can confirm his identity. We'll ask He Xin for help when we get back!"
Having obtained a clear frontal image of the burly man, it was a major breakthrough for the case.
I did not participate in the remaining work and directly returned to the provincial department with Gao Mingqiang.
While examining the surveillance footage, we captured a screenshot of the burly man's monstrous face. The guy had a broad forehead. His eyelids were somehow swollen and bulging, as if they were glued to his eyes, making it impossible for him to open his eyes fully. His lips looked like they had been injected with paraffin, with a peculiar color, so thick they resembled an iron plate embedded on them. His uneven cheeks were covered with freckles, and his chin was as sharp as a rat's. It was an extremely strange face that anyone would find disgusting and even frightening.
Having encountered so many suspects, honestly, this was the first time I had seen such a face. Even someone with strong psychological resilience would find it difficult to bear. If it were an ordinary person...
After confirming the man's appearance using the facial recognition system, his information was immediately found in the archives.
Cao Leping, 38 years old, male, had previously stayed at the Guangming City Drug Rehabilitation Center. In the same year, he had been with several people who escaped during a toxic gas leak incident. These people were precisely some of the victims he had killed.