Another Dead

Jinyi Residential Area.

Building 4, Room 102.

Standing outside the door, the officers could already smell the pungent stench of blood and decay emanating from within the house.

Everyone frowned.

Something seemed off...

"Did you guys smell that? It smells like blood," Wang Dachuan pointed at the door of Room 102.

The others nodded in agreement.

The smell was so strong that anyone with a functioning sense of smell would have noticed it. They certainly did.

The odor was coming from inside the room, indicating that someone had died there.

In such a situation, it was unlikely anyone would help them open the door.

Xu Mo promptly pulled out a piece of wire and demonstrated his lock-picking skills.

As the door opened, the stench of blood and decay grew even stronger, hitting them right in the face.

The room was also swarming with flies.

The first thing they saw was a man with dyed yellow hair lying face down in a pool of blood in the living room.

For a moment, the officers were stunned.

Was the man dead?

What was going on? Was it a case of guilt-induced suicide?

None of them had expected this scenario.

"Captain, could this be guilt-induced suicide?" Wang Dachuan pointed at the body in the living room.

Xu Mo remained silent and approached the body to examine it. He flipped the body over.

The corpse had dozens of stab wounds on its abdomen.

Xu Mo pointed at the wounds on the body. The location and angle of the stab wounds indicated that this was not suicide, but murder.

"It's a homicide. This victim is not the suspect we saw in the surveillance footage. He was also killed by the suspect we're looking for. The suspect had a lot of resentment towards this victim. Fifteen stab wounds, each deliberately avoiding vital areas. The victim bled to death. That's quite ruthless..."

In fact, after seeing the wounds on the victim's front, even without Xu Mo's explanation, the officers realized that this victim could not have committed suicide. The position and direction of the wounds were too precise; no one could stab themselves like that.

And even if someone could, no one would stab themselves dozens of times during a suicide... Who could have that much determination? A normal person would probably curl up like a shrimp after the first stab due to the pain.

At that moment, Xu Mo's phone rang.

The coroner? Why would he call me? Did he find something new? Xu Mo pressed the answer button.

As expected, Xu Mo was right. The coroner called because he had found new evidence. "Stretch marks, I found stretch marks on one of the body parts!"

"Stretch marks?"

"Yes, I just discovered them on an unopened section of the abdomen. The victim was pregnant!"

"I see," Xu Mo murmured.

He glanced at the body on the ground in front of him.

The male victim looked quite young, with dyed yellow hair, wearing tight pants and sneakers. His index and middle fingers were stained yellow, a sign of heavy smoking, making him look like a delinquent.

Combined with what the coroner just said, Xu Mo figured it out.

The two victims, a man and a woman, were likely a couple. The female victim was young, but she was already pregnant...

"I know who the killer is," Xu Mo suddenly said after ending the call with the coroner.

The officers perked up and looked at Xu Mo: "Who?"

"The father of the dismembered corpse."

Upon hearing this, the officers were puzzled.

"Huh?"

"The father killed his daughter? Why?"

"And who is this yellow-haired guy? Why was he killed too?"

"Is this yellow-haired guy also part of that family? So he's the son? What's wrong with this father? He killed both his children."

Xu Mo explained, "The coroner just called me and said he found stretch marks on the dismembered corpse. You know what stretch marks are, right? They're something women get when they're pregnant. The dismembered corpse was pregnant..."

"Pregnant? The coroner said the victim looked young... Oh! I get it now!" Wang Dachuan suddenly slapped his forehead, realizing the truth: "This yellow-haired guy and the previous victim were a couple. The female victim got pregnant, and her family found out. Her father was ashamed and killed her. After disposing of his daughter's body, he went to his daughter's boyfriend's place and killed the yellow-haired guy who got her pregnant!"

"Yes, that's what I mean," Xu Mo nodded.

The other officers also felt a sudden clarity.

This explanation made perfect sense.

Jinyi Residential Area wasn't the killer's home, so the killer coming here directly from the seafood market in the early hours wasn't to go home but to kill the next person!

With this, the investigation became clearer.

Officers always follow the principle of bold speculation and careful verification.

Now that Xu Mo had provided a reasonable hypothesis, they just needed to follow this lead.

The yellow-haired guy's body hadn't been disposed of, so it was easy to identify him and find his information.

As a result, the officers quickly obtained detailed information about the yellow-haired guy.

He had been expelled for fighting and later worked as an apprentice in a hair salon with a very simple social circle.

The officers planned to visit the hair salon where he worked to ask his colleagues if they knew who his girlfriend was.

...

"Xiaojiba Haircut Studio."

Seeing the name of the shop, Xu Mo's eye twitched. The name sounded like a joke... No wonder there were no customers!

Inside the hair salon, a few young people with various colored and styled hair were sitting around playing with their phones.

When Xu Mo and the others walked in, the young people glanced up briefly: "Getting a haircut?"

"No, we're officers. We're here to ask you some questions," Xu Mo showed his badge and pulled out a photo of the yellow-haired guy: "This person..."

One of the young men with a crew cut immediately stood up when he heard Xu Mo was a police officer, his attitude suddenly very polite.

"Hello, Officer! Are you here for the yellow-haired guy? He's not here; he hasn't shown up all day."

"I know he's not here. We're here to ask if you know who his girlfriend is."

"We know her, but... Officer, which girlfriend are you looking for?"

The officers: "???"

Wow, it seemed the yellow-haired guy had quite a few girlfriends!

Xu Mo's face darkened.

"The one who was pregnant."

"Pregnant... well, there were a few of them. Which one specifically are you looking for?" the crew cut young man scratched his head.

Xu Mo: "???"

"The skinny little one!"

"Oh! Her..."