Spy Under Sky Chapter 3

Oliver Wang was in his early thirties, thin and very capable. After hearing what Marcus Zhou said, he opened the file in front of him and introduced the case to Gavin Lin.

The case itself is not complicated.

Three days ago, on the morning of February 12, Grant Cao went to the Cao Family Ancestral Hall to deliver food to his father, Cao Ada, who was guarding the hall. However, he found the door of the hall wide open and his father strangled to death in the hall. At the same time, more than a dozen Cao Family ancestral tablets inlaid with gold foil were missing.

Since Grant Cao was a police officer at the Hengheqiao Branch of the Second Branch of the Provincial Police Bureau and had received professional police training, he was so grief-stricken that he asked people to go to the police station to report the incident, but he also stayed in the ancestral hall to protect the scene.

The Second Branch naturally knew that the Cao Family Ancestral Hall was the ancestral hall of Deputy Director Cao of the Civil Affairs Department. After receiving the report, they sent people to the Cao Family Ancestral Hall and quickly called Marcus Zhou to report.

Marcus Zhou did not dare to delay after receiving the call. He immediately ordered detective captain Oliver Wang to gather the best criminal investigation officers in the bureau and forensic doctors from the forensic department to rush to the Cao Family Ancestral Hall.

Although Grant Cao protected the scene very well, several veteran detectives led by Oliver Wang did not find any useful clues such as footprints or fingerprints at the scene.

The only thing we learned is that the murderer is likely someone close to Cao Ada. Because there were no pry marks on the doors and windows of the ancestral hall, and no signs of climbing were found on the outer walls, the only explanation is that Cao Ada himself opened the door to let the murderer in.

According to Grant Cao's account, Cao Ada would close the gate of the ancestral hall and go to bed at 9 o'clock every night, and there were very few exceptions. So it would be hard to explain why Cao Ada would get up from his bed and knock on the gate to welcome him into the ancestral hall at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night if they were not familiar with each other.

In addition, after an inventory, it was found that in addition to the ancestral tablets inlaid with gold foil, a pure silver incense burner was also missing from the ancestral hall. Therefore, it can be confirmed that the murderer's purpose was for money, and the nature of the case can be determined as theft and murder.

The greater harvest came from the forensic doctor in the forensic room. In addition to determining that Cao Ada was strangled to death by someone with a soft rope around midnight, the forensic doctor also found a small amount of blood and flesh fragments between Cao Ada's right fingernails. After identification, the blood type of these blood and flesh fragments was AB type.

According to the forensic doctor's judgment, these bloody and flesh fragments were probably left behind when Cao Ada struggled hard when the murderer grabbed his neck and scratched the murderer's back of the hand or arm with his hands.

According to the information provided by Grant Cao, although Cao Ada was 63 years old, he was in good health and often did heavy work. Considering his height of 1.7 meters and weight of 68 kilograms, the person who could strangle him to death despite his strong resistance must have been a strong man.

Therefore, the final conclusion of the forensic doctor was that the murderer should be a strong male with AB blood type and scratches on the back of his hands or arms.

Oliver Wang immediately made targeted arrangements.

First, an investigation was launched into Cao Ada’s social relationships. Anyone with scars on the back of their hands or arms, regardless of whether they were men or women, would be arrested and identified.

Second, order all eight sub-bureaus under the Provincial Police Bureau to take action and conduct a comprehensive investigation of pawnshops and gold and silver jewelry workshops within their jurisdiction to see if anyone came to sell or pawn gold and silver items of unknown origin this morning.

Third, a large-scale sweep was launched throughout the city of Hangzhou to arrest all habitual thieves. In addition to asking them to go through checkpoints one by one and explain their whereabouts from last night to this morning, they were also encouraged to provide suspicious clues.

After obtaining approval from Marcus Zhou, Oliver Wang gave an order and more than 2,000 police officers from the Provincial Police Bureau, except for the necessary personnel who stayed behind in the agency, were dispatched to conduct investigations in three directions across the city.

What Oliver Wang didn't expect was that after three days, the more than 2,000 police officers he had deployed in the three directions he had identified had found nothing, and had not found any clues related to the murderer...

After listening to Oliver Wang's introduction to the case, Gavin Lin did not say anything. He reached out and took the file from Oliver Wang and began to read it carefully. The focus was of course on the photos of the crime scene and the autopsy photos of Cao Ada.

After reviewing all the evidence, Gavin Lin closed the file and said to Marcus Zhou, who was looking at him expectantly, "Principal Zhou, judging from the evidence in the file, Captain Wang's direction of investigation is correct. The only point that needs extra attention is that judging from the autopsy photos, the murderer is likely to be left-handed."

"Left-handed? How did you tell?" a young police officer sitting at the end of the conference table couldn't help but ask.

His name is Zachary Wan, he graduated from the Peking Police Academy, which is directly under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He thinks highly of himself. Although he is in the base camp of the Zhejiang Police Department, he has always looked down on the graduates of the Zhejiang Police Department. When Gavin Lin heard that he could tell from the autopsy photos that the murderer was left-handed, he naturally couldn't help but question it.

"You should be the forensic doctor in charge of the autopsy, right?" Gavin Lin looked at Zachary Wan and took out a photo from the file. "This is a photo of Cao Ada taken at the crime scene. Did you notice that the right side of Cao Ada's collar is standing up, covering his neck."

Zachary Wan was shocked. He really didn't notice this detail at that time.

Gavin Lin reached out and took out another photo from the file. "This is a photo taken during the autopsy. Although the grooves on Cao Ada's neck are the same depth on both sides, there are slight differences in color. The left side is dark and the right side is light. This also suggests that when Cao Ada was strangled to death by the murderer, the right collar was actually under the rope."

"Anyone who has studied forensic medicine should know that if the rope is padded with cloth, collar or braid, the groove will be interrupted or shallow and not obvious. Now there is a collar on the right side of Cao Ada's neck, but the depth of the groove is the same as the left side. This shows that the right side of the rope is under greater force."

"Considering that the murderer strangled Cao Ada from behind, it is easy to judge that the murderer's left hand is stronger. From this we can infer that the murderer is either left-handed or his right hand is injured."

Gavin Lin said this while looking at Zachary Wan.

"Considering Cao Ada's height, weight and sturdiness, if the murderer had an injury on his right hand, it would have been difficult for him to strangle Cao Ada to death when he was resisting violently. Therefore, the murderer is most likely left-handed!"

After stating his conclusion, Gavin Lin had both photos handed to Zachary Wan. "Of course, this is just my judgment based on the photos. Whether it is accurate or not, you need to go and see Cao Ada's body in person before you can make a final conclusion!"