"What good can it do to scare someone?" Xu Mo shook his head helplessly, "She's not afraid of dismembered bodies, doesn't that seem suspicious to you?"
Hearing this, Chen Ke furrowed his brows slightly and glanced at the old lady beside him.
Yes, why wouldn't this old lady be afraid of dismembered bodies...
After all, even he, a seasoned detective, felt a bit uneasy seeing such a scene. It was only natural for ordinary people to be terrified!
Moreover, according to the old lady, she used to be a female worker in a knitting factory and now makes a living by picking up scrap.
She was as ordinary as they come. Yet, seeing dismembered bodies, she remained calm, which was indeed suspicious.
The local police officers in Hang City, including Xiao Li, realized they had misunderstood Xu Mo.
Xu Mo hadn't been asking aimlessly; he had his reasons for questioning like that. This old lady clearly had something to hide.
"I was already suspicious when I first arrived, starting to doubt her. How could an ordinary person not be afraid of a corpse, not even showing a hint of fear on their face?" Xu Mo continued.
"After examining the dismembered bodies, I became even more suspicious. The wound on the back of the victim's head was shallow, indicating the killer had little strength. Therefore, the killer was either a woman, an elderly person, or a child, which perfectly fits her profile."
"Later, I specifically asked about her job. If she had worked in professions like butcher, nurse, mortician, or police officer, then her composure in the face of body parts might be understandable, given the nature of her work. But she claimed to be a knitting factory worker, which shouldn't give her such a big heart."
"Even if we take a step back and consider someone with a particularly large heart among ordinary people, they might not be afraid of a whole corpse, but seeing dismembered bodies and not being afraid... I don't think that exists."
"Furthermore, when I asked her if she knew the victim, do you remember how she answered? She said she did."
At this point, Xu Mo turned to look at Chen Ke and the others.
"Setting aside your police identities, imagine you were just ordinary people. What would your first reaction be if you found dismembered bodies in a trash can? Would you rummage through the trash bag to find the head and specifically look to see who the dead person was?"
Without hesitation, the group shook their heads. There was no need to think about it!
Ordinary people would definitely call the police immediately. Who would go through the trouble of digging out the head from the dismembered bodies to see who it was?
Not to mention the fear factor, as a witness, it's best not to touch the corpse to avoid leaving fingerprints, which would complicate matters.
Moreover, even touching a normal corpse is scary, let alone dismembered ones.
Finding the head among a pile of dismembered bodies and identifying the victim? That's absurd! Only people in certain professions would have such courage; who else would?
In such a situation, the only one who would know the identity of the victim is likely the killer. Seeing dismembered bodies and not being afraid is probably also the killer, because these body parts were cut by the killer themselves; what is there to be afraid of?
The identity of the victim was first revealed by this old lady. After she spoke, the onlookers and police officers learned who the victim was.
Now, the police officers realized that the killer was likely the old lady in front of them, the so-called witness.
Seeing the police officers staring at her with suspicion, the old lady became even more flustered and immediately began to explain.
"No, I'm not the killer! I'm not afraid because I've seen a corpse before. My husband passed away at night, and I held him all night before realizing he was gone... So the second time, I wasn't as scared!"
"Seeing a corpse once makes you brave enough to rummage through dismembered bodies in a trash can? Do you believe that yourself? Are a corpse and dismembered bodies the same thing?" Xu Mo questioned.
"I, I didn't dare to rummage... I didn't rummage either. I accidentally tore the bag and happened to see the face, that's how I knew who died. Then I immediately called the police and didn't touch the bag again. I was scared of the dismembered bodies!"
This explanation had even bigger holes.
Accidentally tearing the bag and just happening to see a face? How could that be possible.
"You can't see a face through the tear in the bag that held the body parts. The head was clearly at the bottom of the bag. How did you see the face?" Chen Ke rebutted.
Xu Mo was examining the body parts when he was watching.
The bag containing the body parts was indeed torn, but the head wasn't visible.
He remembered clearly that the head was at the bottom of the bag. That's why Xu Mo was the last to complete the head when he was piecing together the body on the ground.
He hadn't considered these details before, but after Xu Mo pointed them out, he recalled them.
Logically, the old lady, as a witness, shouldn't have known the identity of the victim because she couldn't have seen the face. Yet, she knew the victim's identity.
The result was clear... she was the killer.
At this point, the old lady didn't know how to continue fabricating her story. Her mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't utter a single word.
Realizing she had no more excuses, she lowered her head and shed tears of regret.
"When my husband died, people spread rumors that I was a jinx, that my husband died early because he married me. When my son died, they said I jinxed my son... I was so angry that I planned for a long time and found an opportunity to kill her."
Seeing that the old lady had confessed, Xiao Li immediately took out handcuffs and stepped forward to cuff her.
The case was solved.
The killer was the witness who reported the crime.
She chose to call the police herself instead of waiting for someone else to find the body, perhaps hoping to use her identity as a witness to eliminate any suspicion the police might have had about her.
...
At this moment, Director Wang and his team were still on their way, less than a kilometer from their destination.
In the car, Director Wang was quite worried.
"It's a dismemberment case, probably tough to handle. The higher-ups are very concerned about this case, demanding we solve it within forty-eight hours... I wonder if we can crack the case within forty-eight hours."
Little did he know that before he even arrived, Xu Mo and the others had already solved the case, achieving a miraculous speed...
Just then, Director Wang's phone suddenly rang. It was a call from Xiao Li.
"Hello... What? The case is solved!?" Director Wang was stunned.
After receiving the report, he immediately set off with his team to the crime scene without a moment's delay.
Yet, he was still on the road, not even reaching the crime scene, and the case was already solved?
It had been less than half an hour! Was this a joke?