Chapter 99 Twelve Hours

We went upstairs and began examining the bodies there, finding yet another family of four.

From the scene, it was evident that the explosion originated from a piano. A young boy was playing it at the time, and he was completely dismembered by the blast, showing no reaction.

About three meters from the piano lay an incomplete female corpse; her head seemed to have been blown off. Not far from her was an old woman who appeared to have been trying to escape, but ultimately could not evade the clutches of death.

I did not conduct a detailed autopsy at the scene, merely observing. I crouched down to examine the blood flow on the ground, comparing it with the distances around, and wondered if these people were all together when the explosion occurred. Did the old woman have time to escape?

I noticed her body seemed largely intact. I quickly understood what had happened and turned her over. I saw that a fragment of a piano iron plate had pierced her forehead. It turned out she hadn't been killed by the explosion itself but by a piece of shrapnel from it.

Xie Chuchu and Xiao Dong came to help me with the autopsy. After a brief analysis, we found that their time of death was very close to each other, but at least twelve hours apart from the man.

This meant the killer entered the house first, murdered the man, and then twelve hours later, killed the other members of the household with an explosion.

What were the family members doing during this time?

Were they threatened by the killer?

The forensic technicians scanned the surroundings with precise instruments, hoping to find fingerprints or shoe prints, but only the shoe prints of this family of four remained.

I compared them by hand. Near the piano were the shoe prints of the young boy, who must have been standing there. On the windowsill, there were the prints of the woman. A set of size 39 prints made me think about the old woman's escape route.

But she hadn't taken many steps before being impaled by a piano fragment. I examined the fragment; it had no fingerprints. It was likely picked up by the killer after the explosion and used to stab her before they quickly fled. They seemed very familiar with the villa's environment.

How could they complete these actions so skillfully? Could they have been hiding in this villa all along?

We searched everywhere and discovered a hidden room in a second-floor corridor. It was formerly a storage room. When Xia Hou and Xiao Yuande were inspecting it, they found traces of someone having lived there, as there were discarded food containers on the ground, and even excrement.

Seeing this, Liu Yu Ning exclaimed in disgust, "That's too disgusting! Did the killer leave it? But they clearly cleaned up the scene. How could they be so foolish as to leave behind their own food containers and waste?"

Xie Chuchu collected the items from the scene into evidence bags, preparing them for lab analysis. I surmised that the killer had indeed been lurking in the house for some time. Perhaps they simply forgot to dispose of the items from the storage room?

Seeing me staring at the small, dark room, Xiao Yuande said, "Team Leader He, don't overthink it for now. We'll find the clues we need!"

I nodded. A few forensic technicians went in with adhesive tape to collect fingerprints. Seeing that someone was handling the scene, I returned to the bodies. However, the body removal team had already arrived. I decided to conduct a detailed autopsy back at the forensic science department. Meanwhile, Xia Hou found remnants of the explosive device near the piano.

He examined it in his hand but couldn't immediately identify it. He placed it in an evidence bag for later analysis.

"Team Leader He, I think we're done here. We can head back!" Liu Yu Ning reported to me.

"Alright, everyone, thoroughly investigate all victim information. Make a copy of the nearby surveillance footage and bring it to my office. For the bodies, Xie Chuchu and Xiao Dong, handle them well. I'll come over to help," I instructed.

"Understood! Team Leader He!" the team responded and began to withdraw from the villa one by one.

Back at the police station, the bodies were immediately handed over to the forensic science department. While the verification was underway, I took the opportunity to review the surveillance footage, which had already been placed in my office.

I scanned it several times, but the situation outside the villa was normal, with no suspicious individuals entering. I even analyzed if there were any repeated frames, but the footage was normal this time.

The indoor surveillance cameras had been destroyed, so we couldn't view them. The forensic technicians had checked thoroughly; there were no blind spots around the villa. How did the killer get in?

It had to be through underground infiltration. Did they dig an underground tunnel?

That was my thought at the time. I picked up my phone and made a call, asking Xiao Yuande and Gao Mingqiang to re-examine the villa with this possibility in mind.

They agreed. I put down the phone and rubbed my temples, trying to calm myself. But the moment I closed my eyes, images of the family's deaths in the villa kept flashing in my mind.

I wondered how Xie Chuchu and the others were doing with the autopsies. I'm not one to sit still. Even though these matters didn't require my direct involvement, I stood up and decided to go check myself.

I went downstairs to the forensic science laboratory. Upon entering, I found that Xiao Dong and Xie Chuchu were still dissecting the bodies, though they seemed to have finished with two of them.

I approached them, and Xie Chuchu said, "I found that She Hongyuan had terminal lung cancer. Even if he hadn't been murdered, he probably wouldn't have survived another month."

"Is that so? Was death merely a release for him?"

"Regardless, the killer shouldn't have treated him like that."

I understood. This might just be a coincidence. I personally re-examined She Hongyuan's body, and then the other bodies. However, the specific findings were not much different from the preliminary examination at the scene. It seemed these bodies wouldn't yield any clues.

Xie Chuchu and Xiao Dong were busy analyzing blood samples and the excrement. With nothing else to do in the lab, I took some hair samples from the scene for comparison, but after a considerable effort, there was no breakthrough.

I felt exhausted. Just then, Xiao Yuande called me. "There's no basement in the villa. However, we found cameras and repeaters here again. The process of She Hongyuan's family's deaths was likely live-streamed."

"Where did you find these items?"

"Underneath the TV cabinet in the living room, and also inside a wall upstairs."

"So the nature of it is the same as before. I was wondering why we didn't find those things this time."

"We're on our way back now. Regardless, let He Xin verify them. Perhaps this time, they might capture some important information?"

That was the only option. Honestly, I wasn't as optimistic as Xiao Yuande. After all, the killer would have anticipated that these items might be found. They clearly weren't afraid of us seeing the process of the victim family's demise, which proved that these items couldn't do anything to them.