svetikya Chapter 21 Autopsy Report
Chapter 21 Autopsy Report
The problem that caught Lake's attention was indeed significant.
If tomorrow's morning paper were to feature a photo of the homeless man whose face was mangled beyond recognition, it would likely raise many questions and concerns about public health and safety.
Moreover, not long ago, the Bureau of Investigation, together with other departments, launched a rat extermination operation to control the rat population. Now that this has happened, many people will likely question the effectiveness of the operation.
Of course, there might not have been many results to begin with.
After spending half an hour in Lake's office, Luo Qiu came out still expressionless.
But instead of returning to his workstation to rest as usual, he turned and headed towards the autopsy room located underground.
Walking through the long corridor and pushing open the peeling iron door, a smell mixed with formaldehyde and disinfectant wafted out amidst the quiet footsteps.
This place is perpetually dark, and the pale lights shining on the tiled walls on both sides of the corridor reflect a cold, icy sheen.
Staying here for a long time can make people seem to become mechanical.
Lake had previously said that the body was being autopsied in Room 16. When Luo Qiu arrived there, he saw forensic pathologist Andrew standing in front of the autopsy table through the glass. Facing the gruesome body that had already been dissected, he remained expressionless, and the scalpel in his hand did not waver at all.
Andrew Perry, in his fifties, had graying hair. He had worked for the Bureau of Investigation for over thirty years, handling at least a thousand corpses, so his technical skills were undoubtedly top-notch. However, other aspects were less certain.
Upon seeing Luo Qiu arrive through the glass, Andrew waved and greeted her "enthusiastically." He smiled, revealing his teeth, looking very kind, but the dark red bloodstains on his rubber gloves were quite jarring.
Ten minutes later, Luo Qiu received the report from Andrew outside the autopsy room.
"Ha, an hour ago, I was asked to re-examine this body, and I knew it wasn't simple. I didn't expect you, Luo Qiu, to take on this case."
"This corpse is quite interesting. But unfortunately, those newbies weren't very skilled; the wounds they made damaged a lot of things, and it took me a lot of effort."
"Is this corpse interesting?"
Luo Qiu frowned, catching the key point in Andrew's words.
Trusting the other party's technical skills, he began to carefully review the report in his hand.
The first page was a black-and-white copy of the scene photograph, similar to the one he had seen in Lake's office. He quickly flipped through it, his gaze landing on the text entries at the end:
The deceased was an unidentified male, estimated to be between 45 and 55 years old.
[External examination: Multiple bite marks from rodents on the face, neck, and hands. One bite mark on the right side of the neck extends to the carotid artery, preliminarily determined to be a fatal wound. No other sharp weapon wounds, signs of resistance, or obvious signs of struggle were found on the body surface.]
Blood alcohol concentration: 0.18%.
Toxicological analysis: No common drug components or signs of poisoning were detected.
[Preliminary cause of death: Hemorrhagic shock.]
【…】
"A blood alcohol concentration of 0.18%? You mean the victim was drunk and unconscious when attacked? I see it mentions here that the victim showed no obvious signs of struggle."
"Being drunk is being drunk, being unconscious is being unconscious; those are two different things." Andrew sat down on a chair by the side of the corridor, crossing his legs. "With that much blood, the pain sensation is definitely still there. And I've already determined that it was death from hemorrhagic shock, which will definitely take some time."
"That's certainly interesting. There were no signs of struggle, so it couldn't have been that he was deliberately seeking death. Besides, people who want to die would struggle, unless he couldn't feel pain at the time, or there was some other reason that caused him to lose consciousness..."
Following Andrew's line of thought, Luo Qiu immediately discovered the problem.
But even at this moment, he could still laugh freely.
"That's good, the higher-ups were just thinking of making this case an exception. Now it seems we'll save ourselves a lot of trouble."
"I think this is going to cause a lot of trouble. You think that's all I've discovered?"
Andrew seemed to disapprove of Luo Qiu's happy expression, and as soon as Luo Qiu finished speaking, he booed in rebuttal.
After saying that, he looked around to make sure no one was in the corridor, then pulled Luo Qiu into the incident room and walked back to the autopsy table.
"Look here, this tooth mark. Two rows, top and bottom, about one centimeter apart."
"Here, the spacing is 1.5 centimeters."
"And here, the spacing is two centimeters."
Pulled along by Andrew, Luo Qiu also examined the corpse up close. On the victim's grayish-white skin, many small, arc-shaped holes were indeed visible. Some were spaced far apart, others were spaced far apart.
Moreover, his eyesight is even better; when looking at these small holes, he can even tell that they are different in size and depth.
What this meant was something he, a veteran detective, couldn't possibly be unaware of.
"I won't include these details in the report," Andrew said, taking off his gloves and sighing. "I'm getting old, my eyesight is failing, and I'm not sure about many things anymore. If I include them and people question them, it might become a stain on my career."
"Well, what the agents do after that is none of my business. My job's done. Want to grab a coffee?"
……
Luo Qiu certainly wouldn't go for coffee at this time.
After leaving the autopsy room, he strolled slowly down the corridor, listening to the echoing footsteps, and began to quickly organize the case information in his mind.
Two clues.
First, the victim did not struggle. A person who was drunk but still conscious had their carotid artery bitten off while still alive, and did not even raise their hand to block it.
Secondly, the bite marks on the victims were of different types, indicating that many rats were involved in the attack, and the concentrated areas of attack showed that the target was clear.
Combining these two points makes the thinking very clear.
One possibility is that someone secretly killed the homeless man and then used some kind of lure to entice rats to destroy the easily detectable traces.
However, the probability of this is too low.
The victim was just a homeless man, and in Chongqing, hundreds of homeless people go missing every day. If you simply leave a body in a secluded corner, after a few months, all traces will disappear.
Of course, there is another possibility, which Luo Qiu is unwilling to consider:
There's something wrong with the rats there. One of them may have accidentally ascended to a higher level, gaining some strange abilities, such as rendering its opponents unconscious.
Then, for some reason, it led other rats to attack the homeless man.
In the past, Luo Qiu would never have had such an idea.
But after coming into contact with the "cell phone," he also learned that extraordinary beings exist in this world.
Although he didn't know much about them and didn't know what those extraordinary creatures looked like, after seeing the report and hearing the analysis today, he suddenly had this idea.
And it's something that just won't go away.
What if, what if it really is an extraordinary mouse? What should he do?
……