As soon as he walked into the room, Luo Fei noticed the corpse lying on the cement floor at first glance. It was a lean elderly man's corpse, appearing around sixty years old, wearing only underwear. The corpse was curled up and lying on its side on the floor, with hands slightly raised as if trying to protect its head. There were seven or eight bruises on the elder's dry arms.
There was a noticeable indentation on the left side of the elder's head, likely the cause of death, but the most shocking aspect was the grotesque scar on the elder's cheek. It stretched from the corner of the mouth to the ear, with flesh turned outwards at the wound, making it particularly eerie.
Additionally, it could be seen that the elder's right cheek was swollen with distinct slap marks, seemingly left by something akin to a shoe.
Furthermore, Luo Fei noticed a rather indistinct ligature mark on the elder's neck, likely caused by something like a rope.
Clearly, the elder suffered inhuman treatment before his death.
Behind Luo Fei, Wu Wei and Zhao Le, witnessing such a scene for the first time, immediately covered their mouths and ran out after seeing the corpse.
"What grudge, what resentment could lead someone to beat an elder like this? It's simply beastly conduct." Zhang Haiyang's voice was filled with anger.
Luo Fei continued inspecting everything in the room. The house was less than twenty square meters, with a military bed on the right side as one entered. Clothes belonging to the elder were tossed haphazardly on the bed, and at the bedhead, there was a small wardrobe with its door open, and the contents inside had been turned upside down.
"Could the murderer have killed for money? But if it were just for money, they wouldn't have beaten the elder like this, or perhaps it's a vengeance disguised as a robbery? But who would harbor such malice against a sixty-year-old elder?" Luo Fei observed the situation in the room as various ideas surfaced in his mind.
"The fatal wound on the deceased is only one place, located at that indentation on the left head, presumably caused by a baton or similar hard object, which resulted in death. However, we didn't find the murder weapon at the scene, suspecting it was taken by the murderer or thrown somewhere." At some point, Yang Mei had finished her investigation and mentioned casually while walking out of the room, unsure if she was addressing Luo Fei or Zhang Haiyang and the others.
After observing the situation in the room for some time, Luo Fei, Zhang Haiyang, and the others also left the room.
Luo Fei noticed a doghouse next to the house, but there was no dog in it.
After generally inspecting the situation around the house, Liu Haiquan and Zhang Da started searching the bushes surrounding the house.
Zhang Haiyang glanced at Liu Haiquan and the others, and noticed the police team on the other side seemed to be discussing something.
"Let's go over and check it out, so we understand the case better, otherwise we'll know nothing!" Zhang Haiyang thought for a moment, then strode toward the police team.
Of course, Luo Fei hurried to catch up, eager to learn the case details, but as a new junior policeman, he felt hesitant to approach the police team immediately. Now, with Zhang Haiyang leading, Luo Fei followed promptly.
Coincidentally, as Luo Fei and Zhang Haiyang walked over, Zhao Donglai was organizing the case.
The basic circumstances of the case are as follows.
The deceased was named Tang Youquan, aged sixty-two, with his son and daughter working outside, his wife no longer living. He had a nephew named Tang Dayou, who contracted 100 acres of wasteland on Walnut Mountain to plant walnuts.
Tang Dayou usually busied himself with business matters, having no time or energy to care for the walnuts on Walnut Mountain, he paid his uncle, Tang Youquan, to help look after them. To facilitate better supervision, Tang Dayou specially built a house here, where Tang Youquan stayed, seldom descending the mountain without necessity.
Tang Dayou would go up the mountain once a week, bringing Tang Youquan daily necessities.
This morning, as usual, Tang Dayou bought goods at the market, then drove up the mountain.
Usually, when Tang Dayou's car neared the house, Tang Youquan's dog would bark non-stop. But this morning, when Tang Dayou parked the car, he didn't hear any barking.
However, Tang Dayou didn't think much of it, occasionally Tang Youquan would walk around with the dog, thinking today might be such a day.
After unloading the items from the car, Tang Dayou carried them toward the house, finding the door slightly ajar, not locked, he didn't mind, assuming Tang Youquan simply forgot to lock it.
From beginning to end, Tang Dayou didn't consider any mishap might have occurred with Tang Youquan, until he kicked the door open, holding items with both hands, entered the room, and discovered the corpse lying on the ground. Realizing something had happened, he was stunned for a while before remembering to call the police.
The police team has currently obtained two useful clues, one is a suspect's shoe print found on the military bed in the room; the other is the fingerprint left under the eaves beneath the house's main door camera. Tang Dayou installed a camera above the main entrance of the house, but in fact, the camera had been broken for a while, now merely decorative. However, the suspect, unaware, while climbing the roof and destroying the camera left a clear fingerprint beneath the eaves. Fortunately, the fingerprint was under the eaves, otherwise, after last night's rain, it might have been unnoticeable.
Clarifying the basic situation of the case, Police Captain Zhao Donglai ordered his team to search everywhere, especially the murder weapon used by the suspect. Zhao Donglai believes the suspect wouldn't constantly carry the weapon, so it's likely either discarded or hidden somewhere.
Later, Zhao Donglai made a call to the K9 technical squad, asking them to bring two police dogs over for searching and tracking, stating that dogs are far more effective in this aspect.
"Master, do you think the deceased's dog ran somewhere?" Zhang Haiyang and Luo Fei were searching through the bushes, Luo Fei asked Zhang Haiyang.
"Most likely, it ran off?" Zhang Haiyang responded casually.
"But according to what Tang Dayou said, this dog was raised by Tang Youquan from a young age, accompanying him up the mountain, their deep bond should make the dog fiercely protective of its owner. I suspect this dog met a violent end as well." Luo Fei speculated.
Zhang Haiyang countered, "If the dog truly was beaten to death, then where is the body? Neither the dog's body nor any blood marks were found at the scene; the suspect couldn't possibly have taken the dog away."
That's also a puzzling point for Luo Fei, like Zhang Haiyang said, if the dog met a violent end, its body should be near the house, yet after searching the house's vicinity, they found absolutely nothing.
"Liu Haiquan and the others found something." Suddenly, Zhang Da's voice came from the right, prompting Luo Fei and Zhang Haiyang to quickly jog over.
By the time they arrived, Liu Haiquan, Zhang Da, and a couple members of the police team were already there, soon joined by Police Captain Zhao Donglai, Zhou Weimin, Yang Mei, and others.
"Team Zhao, Director Zhou, look over here" Liu Haiquan pointed toward a not-long freshly burned pile beside the bushes, surrounded by empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, snack bags, and bones.
Zhao Donglai stepped forward to touch the charcoal pile, then examined the beer bottles nearby, subsequently remarking, "It's probably left from yesterday."