At three o'clock in the morning, in the high-end community in the eastern suburbs of City A, most of the residents were still immersed in a dream. The fog rose from the river, like a milky white veil, enveloping the façade of each high-rise building.
A sharp scream suddenly broke through the silence and rushed out of a window on the 17th floor, like a torn cloth, echoing between corridors and corridors.
When the elevator stopped on the 17th floor with a ding, Qin Mubai walked out quickly. The black trench coat casts a cold and hard shadow in the corridor light. He is the leader of the major crime team, and his intuition after years of handling cases has made his heart sink - such a scream must be a bloody case behind it.
The door of room 1702 has been opened, and there are two police officers on duty at the door. The security door is intact, the lock cylinder does not show any signs of prying and the key is still inserted inside.
"According to the report, the door was broken by the joint efforts of security guards and neighbors, and it was indeed locked before." A police officer whispered.
Qin Mubai nodded and lowered his voice: "Let's go." "
As soon as he stepped into the house, the smell in the air immediately hit his face. It wasn't the usual smell of blood, but a strange smell of rust, alcohol, and wet wood, pungent and stuffy.
The lights in the living room were all on, illuminating everything too brightly, but it looked weird. On the dark carpet, there is a male corpse lying on his back, about thirty years old, wearing a well-tailored gray suit. His clothes were clean and there was no large area of blood, but his face was blue-purple, his eyes were wide open, and he stared at the ceiling, as if he was still struggling to take his last breath in the air.
"Suffocation." Forensic doctor Han Zhou squatted down to examine, and his fingertips wearing latex gloves gently broke open the stiff lips of the deceased, "There is blood in the mouth, there are traces of compression at the base of the tongue, and there are strips of bruises under the skin on the neck, which are likely caused by pinching with both hands." "
Qin Mubai nodded and looked around.
The windows are tightly closed and the locks are tightly fastened. There were no traces of a fight on the ground, and there was still liquid left in the two red wine glasses on the coffee table, with neat rims and almost no fingerprints. The huge floor-to-ceiling mirror in the corner stood quietly, reflecting the stiff body of the deceased, like an eternal irony.
"Strange." Qin Mubai muttered.
"What's strange?" The young police officer couldn't help but ask.
"Since he was strangled to death, the process must be intense. But the scene was not turned over, and the deceased's nails were clean, and there was not even a trace of struggle. Qin Mubai narrowed his eyes, "How did the murderer kill people silently? Not to mention locking yourself inside. "
The air seemed to be weighed down by this sentence.
Just as everyone was silent, a voice suddenly interjected:
"It's still the same, I have a headache when I see the secret room."
The voice is lazy but sarcastic. Everyone turned around and saw a man leaning against the door, tall and wrapped in a dark trench coat, holding a cup of convenience store coffee in his hand, his eyes were like smiles, but it made people feel cold.
"Lin Yuanzhou?" Qin Mubai's face changed, "Why are you here?" "
"Night run." The man shrugged his shoulders and said in a tone as if to say, "I went downstairs to buy a bottle of water."
Several police officers couldn't help but exchange glances. Running at night at three o'clock in the morning, but running to the scene of the murder? The ghost doesn't believe in this reason.But they all knew that the person in front of them was not an ordinary person.
Three years ago, Lin Yuanzhou was still Qin Mubai's right-hand man and the sharpest blade of the major crime team. But after the failure of the kidnapping case that shocked the whole country, he took off his police badge and disappeared. No one knew where he had gone, only that he refused to mention that past.
"This is not the place you should come." Qin Mubai said coldly.
Lin Yuanzhou ignored him and went straight to the corpse. He crouched down, his eyes swept from the deceased's neck to his hands, and stopped at his chest. Fingers hang in mid-air, like tracing invisible lines in the air.
"The cause of death is not correct." He spoke suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Forensic doctor Han Zhou was stunned.
"If it is suffocation, the deceased will at least subconsciously resist, even if it is just a scratch. But look-" Lin Yuanzhou pointed to the fingernails of the deceased, "It's too clean." There was no struggle, no dander and blood in the cracks of the fingers, and not even the sleeves were wrinkled. Can you imagine a person being so quiet when strangled? "
"You mean..."
"He may have accepted death voluntarily."
"Voluntary?" A crisp female voice interjected.
Everyone turned their heads, and there was a woman standing at the door, with long hair and a shawl, holding a voice recorder in her hand. His eyes were sharp, and there was an almost provocative smile on the corner of his mouth.
"Su Mo?" Qin Mubai frowned fiercely.
"Legal channels." She shook her press card, "I'm just here to take a look." "
Qin Mubai snorted coldly, but did not drive him away. This woman is his biggest headache, specializing in digging into the dark side of society, often stepping on the edge of law and public opinion. It is useless to rush, but it will push the case to the public opinion field.
Su Mo's attention fell on the corpse. She stared at those dead eyes and said softly, "If it's really voluntary... There must be a story. "
Lin Yuanzhou didn't answer, he stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the corner. The mirror reflected everyone's figures, and it looked weird under the light.
He raised his hand, touched the cold mirror with his fingertips, and whispered, "It's interesting." "
"What's interesting?" Su Mo couldn't help but ask.
"Mirror." Lin Yuanzhou's eyes were deep, "It seems insignificant, but it is deliberately placed here." You think it's decoration, but sometimes, the most obvious thing is the answer. "
He slowly turned around and said in a cold tone: "Murderer... I didn't necessarily leave this room. "
Air solidification.
Su Mo was stunned, Qin Mubai's eyes suddenly sank, and several young police officers felt a chill down his spine. The fog outside the window slapped the glass, making a dull sound, as if an invisible hand was knocking on the door.
Lin Yuanzhou's voice sounded again, low and slow:
"Or—he never belonged here."