Necropsy

I reached into the bag and handed a stack of rice paper to Xiao Zhou, saying, "Check it yourself, see if I've done anything to it!"

Xiao Zhou glared at me with an ugly expression and said to a police officer, "Hurry, bring me my toolbox."

He opened the toolbox, took out some instruments and reagents, and started scanning the papers. I was too lazy to pay attention to him. Huang Xiaotao called over a policeman from the technical team to take photos for evidence while I carefully observed the two handprints.

The two handprints were on the shoulder blades of the deceased. The murderer must have held down the victim tightly to suck blood, leaving such clear imprints!

I compared with my own palm. The handprints were quite a bit larger than mine. Judging by their size and shape, they belonged to an adult male in his twenties or thirties.

But I noticed a problem, and Huang Xiaotao noticed it too: "Song Yang, there are no fingerprints on these handprints at all!"

"What do you think is the reason?" I asked.

"The murderer probably destroyed his own fingerprints, or wore gloves," Huang Xiaotao guessed.

I shook my head and pointed to a few spots, saying, "Look at these handprints. The lines on the joints are very clear. This shows the murderer was not wearing gloves when committing the crime. If he had destroyed his own fingerprints, there would be irregular wrinkles, but these handprints are very clean and clear..."

"What could be the reason then?" Huang Xiaotao tilted her cute little head, pondering.

By now Xiao Zhou had finished testing my rice paper. His face was even uglier than before, like an aubergine.

Of course my rice paper was fine, but he refused to admit it. He said in a trembling voice, "How could such backward methods defeat my American equipment!"

"Being a sore loser!" I sneered, "It's not that you lost to me, nor that your American equipment lost to my crude methods, but that you lost to your own arrogance. You didn't fully learn the ancient knowledge left by our ancestors, yet went to learn foreigners' gadgets."

"Come on, the ashes are still hot, eat while they're warm." Wang Dali brought over the ashtray from the bedside table and offered it to Xiao Zhou. Xiao Zhou was furious and did not reach for it.

I took the ashtray and held it in front of him, "Come on, pay your debt of gambling. After you eat this I'll tell you why your test did not detect anything."

By now the others in the room had gathered around to watch the show. Most of them were Xiao Zhou's subordinates. He glared at them furiously and yelled, "Go away, don't watch!" Then he grabbed the ashtray from my hand and poured the contents into his mouth. Of course most of it spilled onto the floor, but I was too lazy to point that out.

With ashes all over his mouth, Xiao Zhou chewed the cigarette butts with determination. His tragic expression had some comical elements. I had to fight hard to hold back my laughter out of consideration for his dignity.

Wang Dali did not care about those things. He laughed and slapped my shoulder, "Yang, look at him! Do the cigarette butts taste good?"

Huang Xiaotao also could not help laughing. She probably wanted to spare Xiao Zhou's self-esteem, so she deliberately covered her mouth with her hand.

Of course the cigarette butts did not taste good. Xiao Zhou swallowed with great difficulty, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, "Go ahead, let's hear what theories you can come up with."

"I should actually thank you," I said.

"Thank me?" Xiao Zhou looked puzzled.

"Huang Xiaotao said you are a top talent who studied overseas in America. I believe you can't be so incompetent as to fail a simple fingerprint test. That saved me quite a few steps, so I went straight to the 'oil paper overlay test'."

"Wait!" Xiao Zhou said, "If he doesn't have sweat glands, where did these handprints come from?"

"It's called a 'death print'. At the moment of death, the bioelectricity in the body dissipates out through the pores. If something blocks the skin surface then, it will leave a clear imprint, regardless of whether the person has sweat glands or not! Why does a person's weight reduce by 21 grams after death? Some say it's the weight of the soul, but it's actually the total weight of the dissipated bioelectricity." I explained quickly.

Xiao Zhou stared wide-eyed in shock. After a long while, he sighed, "You really are extraordinary. I underestimated our ancestors' knowledge. I was really rude just now!"

This guy had a decent attitude about admitting his mistake, unlike coroner Qin who's as stubborn as a rock in an outhouse. I couldn't help having some good feelings toward him. I said, "It's alright. Having studied science for so many years, it's normal for you not to trust me since I'm a coroner. I hope we can cooperate well in the future."

"I will definitely learn from you humbly from now on, and not be so arrogant," Xiao Zhou said hesitantly as he extended a hand. I shook hands with him.

I waved my hand at the watching policemen, "Continue examining!"

"There's more examining to do?" Wang Dali asked.

This case did not seem ordinary. I couldn't care less about the cost of the rice paper and camellia oil. With Wang Dali's help, I tested four areas on the corpse - the wrists, waist, thighs and ankles.

The oil paper overlay method takes a long time. The whole process took nearly an hour. There were ligature marks from binding on the corpse's wrists, seeming to be from cloth or silk. Similar binding marks were also on the ankles. There was a pair of handprints on each side of the waist.

As we did this, Xiao Zhou watched with great interest. He was completely convinced.

I said to him, "Come help!"

"Oh!" He ran over and asked, "How can I help?"

"Slowly lift up the arms with Dali." I spoke in a commanding tone.

As the two lifted the arms, I took turn listening to the sounds with my bone listening blocks on both sides of the corpse's shoulders. Meanwhile I told the people around to keep completely silent. If the deceased was fixed in a certain position before death, lubricating fluid would secrete inside the joints. After death the fluid would coagulate. When the original position was restored, very faint abnormal sounds could be heard.

This technique to restore the deceased's pre-death position was called 'corpse interrogation'! It was created by my ancestor Song Tianyang, who was a grand councilor of the Court of Judicial Review in the Song dynasty. It's said that when Song Tianyang researched 'corpse interrogation' to its highest level, he could use techniques of needling acupoints to make the corpse restore its own position before death. The scene was exceptionally bizarre. It was said a clerk was scared to insanity by this.

This ancestor had also made a corpse 'come alive' in court and point out the murderer among several suspects. The murderer admitted guilt on the spot.

We kept adjusting until we finally found the position the deceased was in right before death.

Arms stretched high above the head, like the crucified Jesus! Left to be slaughtered.

I carefully examined that section of wall. Logically there should have been some kind of hook to fix the victim's hands there. I probed with a finger and found that the wallpaper was newly pasted. There was indeed a hole in the wall behind it.

"A nail used to be hammered here! Someone pasted it over later." I exclaimed.

I activated my 'abyss gaze' and examined the wallpaper inch by inch. I discovered an extremely faint bulge and tore off that whole section. Behind it was a segment of black insulated wire!

For fire safety, wires are usually embedded near the wall base and protected by an outer plastic tube when installing them. This wire behind the wallpaper was clearly installed intentionally by someone.

"Find where it connects to." I said anxiously.

"Come help!"

Xiao Zhou called over some technicians. They tore off the wallpaper and pulled out the wire section by section, finally discovering a pinhole camera next to the ceiling light above the bed. It was aimed right at the bed below.

The people present let out cries of surprise. Huang Xiaotao said, "Peeping and filming? How despicable!"

"But this means we have a major clue now." I said.

Huang Xiaotao nodded and called to a policeman, "Bring the hotel manager here!"