More Than One Victim

“But,” Xu Mo looked at Wang Dachuan and suddenly changed the subject, “there's one thing you got right: the victim was a female, probably between the ages of 20 and 24.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Dachuan felt a lot better, at least he wasn't completely wrong. It seemed that his self-study had yielded some results.

Between Xu Mo and Wang Dachuan's statements, Xu Mo's credibility was obviously higher.

Han Fei chose to believe Xu Mo and summarized, “The victim was a female, aged between 20 and 24, and the death occurred about two weeks ago, right?”

“That’s about it. That’s all we can tell for now,” Xu Mo nodded.

Wang Dachuan was embarrassed. Only these? Just?

Just from a skull, Xu Mo could deduce so much, far surpassing Wang Dachuan's abilities.

Even a professional forensic doctor would likely come to the same conclusions.

It seemed Xu Mo was not entirely satisfied with these findings.

“Between 20 and 24 years old, female, missing for about two weeks. Check again with these criteria,” Han Fei instructed an officer.

Previously, Wang Dachuan's estimation of the death time as two years was incorrect. Searching based on that would only lead them further from the truth.

Han Fei thought it was fortunate Xu Mo was here today. If not for his timely discovery, their investigation direction would have been entirely wrong, wasting valuable time.

At that moment, the divers returned to the shore with bones freshly retrieved from the water.

Wang Dachuan merely looked at the newly retrieved bones without offering any comments, fearing he might be wrong again…

After examining the newly retrieved bones, Xu Mo frowned, noticing another issue.

Seeing Xu Mo’s expression, Han Fei guessed Xu Mo might have found something new.

He immediately asked, “Have you found something else that’s off?”

“Yes, these bones retrieved are not from the same person.”

“Bones not from the same person…” Han Fei quickly realized, “You mean there’s more than one victim?”

Xu Mo nodded again.

“Correct. This pelvis and fibula are from a female, while the tibia and femur are from a male. The handling of these bones is identical, indicating the same perpetrator. At least two victims, one male and one female, are involved in this case, but there may be more.”

“Identical handling, same perpetrator… That means both victims were cooked and their remains discarded in the same place. They were likely killed together. These two victims were probably a cohabiting couple or a married pair,” Han Fei analyzed following Xu Mo’s train of thought.

Previously, they only knew the victim was a female aged 20 to 24, with a death time of about two weeks.

Now, with this additional information, their search scope had narrowed considerably.

…

After a short rest, the divers changed their oxygen tanks and went back into the water.

This time, they searched the areas they had missed before, retrieving another skull, a pelvis, two femurs, one fibula, and several ribs, one ulna… all larger bones.

“Officer, we’ve checked every area underwater. These are all the bones we could see. Any remaining bones are likely buried in the silt. If we want to retrieve more, we’d have to dredge the entire silt layer, which would take about a week… Should we continue?”

Hearing this, Xu Mo asked the divers, “Is the silt layer thick underwater?”

“Um… not very thick, the thickest part is about an inch.”

“Did you miss any areas when searching underwater?”

“No, we’re professionals. We checked every corner underwater. Except for the bones buried in the silt, we’ve retrieved all visible bones.”

After the divers answered, Xu Mo looked at Han Fei.

“Captain Han, I don’t think we need to continue. The thickest part of the silt layer is only an inch, which would only cover smaller bones. Larger ones like skulls wouldn’t be covered. If there were more than two victims, there should be three skulls, but there are only two. There are likely only two victims.”

“Yes, in that case, there’s no need to continue,” Han Fei also nodded.

Continuing the search was just to confirm if there were only two victims. If not, they could start investigating.

Now, the answer was clear: there were only two skulls underwater, so there were likely only two victims.

…

At the police station.

After some effort, the officers found two individuals matching the victim’s identity.

“Captain Han, we’ve found them. A newlywed couple went missing over a week ago and hasn’t been found. The woman is 22, the man is 24, and all the known clues match them well. It’s probably them.”

The officers gathered to review the couple’s detailed information.

“Killing a newlywed couple and cooking their bodies… What kind of grudge could it be?” Wang Dachuan suggested, “Should we investigate their social relationships? See if anyone had a grudge against them.”

Wang Dachuan believed this case was likely a murder.

Judging from the perpetrator’s actions, the grudge against the newlywed couple must have been deep, or else such a heinous act wouldn’t have been committed.

“This case might not be a murder…” Han Fei stared at the couple’s photos on the documents and slowly shook his head.

He had a different perspective on this case.

“I also think it might not be a murder. And regardless of whether it is or not, it’s not something we should focus on right now. The documents mention they have a wedding home, let’s check there. I think there might be some clues,” Xu Mo agreed with Han Fei’s thoughts.

He also felt this case might not be a murder.

Because the victims, this newlywed couple, were both good-looking.

Another possibility besides murder was someone being attracted to their looks.

Given the couple’s identical death times and the same perpetrator, it could be deduced that they were likely killed at home.

Their wedding home might very well be the primary crime scene…