freenovelworld Chapter 1104 Murder Case at the Abandoned Steel Mill
Chapter 1104 Murder Case at the Abandoned Steel Mill
On the muddy ground by the pond, Zhang Long and Zhao Qiang's footprints were quickly blown away by the wind. Only the traces recorded by science—fibers, bloodstains, diatoms, and fingerprints—remained permanently frozen on the laboratory slides, silently telling the story of the crime that night 13 days ago.
While packing up their equipment, the technicians discovered a rock submerged at the point Zhang Long had identified as the end of the dragging operation. Wrapped in a strand of dark blue thread was the drawstring from Chen Miao's jacket, the same thread found during the on-site investigation. Xiao Yang placed it in an evidence bag and filed it along with 37 other pieces of evidence. At this moment, the entire chain of evidence in the case finally formed a perfect closed loop.
Chen Miao, less than five days after the case was closed, while the relevant personnel were still sorting out the materials, the Criminal Investigation Detachment received another report.
As the iron gate of the abandoned steel mill was pried open with a crowbar, rust crumbled in the morning light. Li Ming walked forward through the pile of steel slag, his rubber boots sinking half a foot into the rubble. The stench of decay mixed with the smell of machine oil filled his nostrils, making him wince involuntarily. The overhead crane in the steelmaking workshop hung in mid-air, oil dripping from its steel cables onto the ground, forming dark dots that overlapped with the "location of the body" marker given by the person who reported the incident.
"Team Leader Li, over here!" Xiao Yang's shout came from deep within the workshop. He was shining his searchlight on the rolling mill in the corner, the beam piercing through the swirling dust and casting dappled shadows on the ground. "The body is in the gap between the rolling mill and the load-bearing wall, hidden by a few scrap steel plates. You can't see it unless you look closely." Wearing double gloves, he crouched three meters away from the body, the beam of his searchlight sweeping across the surrounding ground. "There are obvious drag marks around, about 50 centimeters wide, and the steel slag at the edges shows signs of being trampled, as if two people carried something over."
Xiao Sun was inspecting the metal door latch in the workshop. There were fresh scratches on the metal latch. "This latch was secured from the outside with wire," he said, taking a picture of the scratches. "The wire has obvious twisting marks where it broke, like it was cut with pliers." On the concrete floor inside the door, several pieces of dark blue fabric fibers were stuck to the surface, matching the fibers found in the rubble pile outside the workshop. "There's a dent here, like it was hit with a heavy object, and a brown shoelace is stuck in the concrete debris."
Xiao Wang had already drawn a simple map of the steel plant in his notebook, marking the locations of seven workshops. "When did you find it?" he asked the beggar huddled in the police car. The man, wrapped in a tattered military overcoat, was trembling violently. "How did you end up in a place like this?" The beggar's voice trembled with tears: "I came to collect scraps around 5 a.m., heard a strange smell here, and when I pulled back the steel plates… it was a dark, murky mass! I was so scared I ran out to call the police." He pointed towards the steelmaking workshop, "The smell was like rotten pork, ugh…"
Xiao Yang's investigation light shone on the gears of the rolling mill, where a strand of dark blue polyester fiber was wrapped, its warp and weft density appearing to match the fibers on the inside of the door. "The drag marks started at the workshop entrance," he measured the distance with a tape measure, "15 meters in a straight line to the body's location, but the actual dragging path was S-shaped, indicating that the person dragging the body was unfamiliar with the environment and might have been here for the first time." He had the technicians take samples from the slag heap, and a plaster model showed a fragmented shoe print there, the ridges of which matched the sole of an adult male's right shoe.
"There are fresh fingerprints on the overhead crane control lever in the workshop," Xiao Sun's voice came from the east. He was using a laser rangefinder to measure the crane's height. "1.8 meters. The plastic casing of the control lever is worn, and the sweat salt content of the fingerprints indicates they were left recently." There was a fresh oil stain on the ground below the crane, shaped like an overturned oil drum. "The edge of this oil stain has half a shoe print, size 43, with a diamond pattern on the forefoot and obvious wear on the heel, consistent with the shoe print next to the drag mark."
In Xiao Wang's statement, the description from the person who reported the incident gradually became clearer. "I came here last Wednesday too," the beggar said, pulling his military overcoat tighter around himself, his teeth chattering. "The workshop door was locked that day, and I didn't smell anything strange. Yesterday afternoon, I passed by and saw the door was ajar. I thought it was done by other scavengers, so I didn't dare come in." He suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, last night around 11 p.m., I was sleeping in the dilapidated temple near the steel mill entrance when I heard the sound of a truck starting up from the direction of the workshop. It lasted for about ten minutes."
Xiao Yang made a new discovery in the gaps of the rolling mill. "This series of footprints has alternating pauses," he said, using a ruler to mark the imprint of a size 43 leather shoe. "The pressure surface of the right heel is 30% larger than that of the left foot, as if there was an old injury on the right leg." The footprints extended to the asphalt road outside the workshop and disappeared into the roadside ditch. "The cement debris at the edge of the shoe prints indicates that a change of vehicle occurred from here. There are tire marks on the ditch wall, 20 centimeters wide, which matches the tire width of a small truck."
“Brother Lin, look at this brown shoelace,” Xiao Sun ran over holding an evidence bag. The end of the shoelace inside the bag had burn marks. “It was found in the gears of the rolling mill. The fiber composition is exactly the same as the one on the inside of the door, but the heat distortion direction of the burn marks is from left to right, like it was lit by a lighter.” He suddenly pointed to a toolbox in the corner of the workshop. “The lock on this toolbox was pried open. The wrench and hacksaw inside are gone, leaving only some rusty screws.”
Xiao Wang helped the person who reported the incident out of the police car. The wind from the steel mill carried a stench of decay, and the sounds of metal clanging from other workshops could be heard in the distance. "What color was the truck you heard last night?" He wrote the word "truck" in the notebook. "Did you see the license plate?" The beggar shook his head: "It was dark, so I couldn't see clearly. I just saw a big truck with very bright headlights that made it hard for me to open my eyes. It seemed to be carrying something heavy, and the tires were making a creaking sound on the ground."
Xiao Yang's searchlight shone into a crack in the load-bearing wall, where a piece of silvery-white metal was stuck. "The X-ray fluorescence spectrometer measured it; it contains 1.2% carbon, which is the composition of high-carbon steel," he said, picking up the metal shavings with tweezers and placing them on a glass slide. "This type of steel is commonly used to make knives. The workshop inventory shows that a heavy-duty wrench, made of high-carbon steel, went missing three months ago." He instructed the technicians to expand the search area. "The drag marks suddenly deepen near the body, as if the person dragging it suddenly lost their grip, and the body fell heavily to the ground."
Xiao Sun found tire tracks on the open ground outside the workshop, with two parallel indentations extending to the steel plant entrance. "The tires are about 25 centimeters wide and 1.8 meters apart, which is consistent with the wheelbase of a medium-sized truck."