Spy Under Sky Chapter 4

Zachary Wan stood in the morgue of the forensic room, staring at the dark brown and light brown leather-like grooves on Cao Ada's neck, unable to speak.

He thought he had checked very carefully, but he didn't expect to overlook such an obvious detail.

This shouldn’t happen. This shouldn’t happen!

Not to mention that he is a forensic doctor who has received modern Western medical examination education, even if he is an old-fashioned Chinese autopsy coroner, he would probably notice this detail, right?

Regardless of what Zachary Wan thought, Gavin Lin walked out of the morgue and said to Marcus Zhou, who was leading the group waiting outside: "Principal Zhou, I have re-examined the body. Apart from confirming that the murderer is left-handed, I have not found anything else. I want to check the crime scene again now."

Marcus Zhou naturally agreed to Gavin Lin's request and immediately asked the driver to drive his Buick car over. He and Henry Du accompanied Gavin Lin to the Cao Family Ancestral Hall.

As for the others, led by Oliver Wang, they boarded a large American truck and followed the Buick sedan.

The Cao Family Ancestral Hall is located in Hengtaohua Lane, Yongjin Road, and it takes only 20 minutes to drive from the Provincial Police Station in Taipingfang. However, Hengtaohua Lane is quite narrow, so Marcus Zhou's Buick sedan can drive straight in, while the American truck that Oliver Wang and others were riding in can only be parked at the entrance of the lane. More than a dozen people jumped out of the truck and ran all the way, but they arrived at the Cao Family Ancestral Hall a few minutes later than Marcus Zhou's Buick sedan.

There were several policemen on guard outside the Cao Family Ancestral Hall.

Seeing Marcus Zhou getting off the Buick, the leading police officer quickly stepped forward and stood at attention, "Commander, Ethan Yang, the director of the Hengheqiao Branch of the Second Branch, has been ordered to report to you!"

Marcus Zhou nodded grimly, "In the past three days, have any strangers entered the ancestral hall?"

"Reporting to the Chief, I am strictly following the warning order issued by Captain Wang of the Provincial Bureau. Without Captain Wang's warrant, even Deputy Director Cao's family members are not allowed to enter the ancestral hall!" Ethan Yang answered loudly.

"Very good!" Marcus Zhou nodded and asked, "Who is Grant Cao?"

"Report to the Director," a middle-aged policeman with red and swollen eyes stood up from behind Ethan Yang, "I am Grant Cao."

"Grant Cao, I'm so sorry for your loss!" Marcus Zhou reached out and patted Grant Cao's shoulder heavily, "I have always taken your father's case very seriously. This is not..."

As he spoke, Marcus Zhou pointed at Gavin Lin standing behind him, "This is Gavin Lin, a famous crime-solving expert at the Central Police Research Institute. In order to solve your father's murder case, I specially invited him to serve as a case consultant!"

Grant Cao stepped forward and bowed deeply to Gavin Lin, and said in a hoarse voice: "Advisor Lin, please take the trouble to catch the murderer who killed my father for me, Cao!"

"Uncle Grant Cao, rest assured. I will do my best!" Gavin Lin quickly supported Grant Cao with his hand. "I will have to trouble Uncle Grant Cao to accompany me to investigate the crime scene. There may be some questions that I need you to answer."

At this point, Gavin Lin turned around and looked at Marcus Zhou, "Principal Zhou, we don't need too many people to investigate the crime scene. I think you, the Chief Inspector, Captain Wang, Grant Cao, and the police officers from the Third Section Evidence Room will just have to go in with me!"

The faces of the veteran detectives in the investigation team changed involuntarily. They had never expected that Gavin Lin would actually leave them outside and not let them enter the ancestral hall with him.

Isn’t this too rampant?

Isn't this obviously looking down on them?

Just as they were about to express their different opinions, they saw Marcus Zhou's sharp gaze sweeping over, obviously warning them not to meddle in other people's business.

At this time, Henry Du just laughed and said, "Gavin Lin, let the chief and Captain Wang go in with you. I am a layman in solving cases, so I won't go in and join in the fun.

No matter how unwilling those veteran detectives were, they could only swallow their words.

Even the Chief Inspector Henry Du was willing to wait outside, so what right did they have to complain? They could only watch Gavin Lin lead a few people into the Cao Family Ancestral Hall.

The Cao Family Ancestral Hall faces north and south and is not large in size, about half an acre.

There is a 50-60 square meter patio at the entrance, with the east and west wing rooms on the left and right. According to Grant Cao, the west wing room is usually used to store sundries, while his father lives in the east wing room.

Directly north of the patio is the main hall of the ancestral hall. The dozen or so ancestral tablets and pure silver incense burners stolen from the Cao family ancestral hall were placed in the main hall, and Cao Ada was also killed by the murderer in front of the incense table in the main hall.

Gavin Lin carefully checked the main hall and the east and west wing rooms, but was disappointed as he did not find any valuable clues.

Then Gavin Lin focused his attention on the patio and began to investigate it carefully.

Suddenly, Gavin Lin stopped at the drainage ditch in the southeast corner of the patio, then slowly squatted down, pressed his hands on the edge of the ditch, and looked down carefully.

"What's up, Jiang Bei, have you found anything?" Marcus Zhou hurriedly brought Oliver Wang over.

"Well, there are some discoveries. There are a few cigarette B*tts here." Gavin Lin pointed to a few cigarette B*tts in the corner of the gutter with his gloved fingers.

"Oh?" Marcus Zhou stuck his head inside and saw that there were indeed five cigarette B*tts of different lengths scattered inside.

"Uncle Grant Cao," Gavin Lin waved Grant Cao over and pointed at the cigarette B*tts in the gutter, "Are these cigarette B*tts left by your father?"

Grant Cao glanced at the gutter, shook his head and said, "No, my father never smokes!"

Gavin Lin nodded. It was just as he guessed. Even if Cao Ada smoked, these cigarette B*tts could not have been left by Cao Ada alone, because there were three types of these five cigarette B*tts. Since Grant Cao said that Cao Ada did not smoke, then these cigarette B*tts could not have been left by Cao Ada.

"How often does your father clean the ancestral hall?" Gavin Lin asked again.

"My father cleans the ancestral hall every day," Grant Cao replied.

Gavin Lin nodded again. Just now when he was inspecting the main hall and the east and west wing rooms, he found that although Cao Ada had been killed for three days, there was still no dust in the wing rooms and the main hall. This proved that Grant Cao was not exaggerating on this issue.

"Then will your father only plan the main hall and the side rooms, and not pay much attention to the courtyard?" Gavin Lin asked.

"That's absolutely not the case. Every time my father cleans the house, he cleans it completely inside and out!"

In order to verify his statement, Grant Cao reached out and touched the stone pier supporting the patio pillar, then stretched out his palm in front of Gavin Lin for him to see.

"Look, even the stone base of the wooden pillars, my father has to wipe them carefully every day!"

"In other words, your father even cleans the drainage ditch in the patio carefully every day?" Gavin Lin asked again?

"Yes, he cleans it carefully every day."

"So when does he clean every day?"

"It's after dinner. He cleans the ancestral hall every day before going to bed." Grant Cao replied, "This ensures that the ancestral hall will be clean and tidy when it opens the next morning."

"That is to say, these cigarette B*tts can only have been left behind on the night your father was murdered or later, and it couldn't have been earlier." Gavin Lin looked at Grant Cao.

Grant Cao thought about it, nodded and said, "Yes, that's right."

Marcus Zhou also understood what was said at this time. He looked at Gavin Lin in surprise and asked, "Gavin Lin, are you saying that these cigarette B*tts might have been left by the murderer?"