Chapter 7 The Work of Forensic Scientists
Nani(ω)? !
The expressions of everyone present were basically the same, but they didn't look so cute.
Except for Kudo Shinichi, who had a complicated expression, shock was clearly written on everyone's faces:
Hey, hello, suicide mutilation case?
Is this a word you made up yourself?
How could it be suicide when the body was broken into pieces?
The crowd was in an uproar, but the police department was stunned for a while and then asked thoughtfully:
"Well, Mr. Lin Xinyi, what do you mean?"
"After the deceased committed suicide, he was dismembered and discarded by a second person for some reason?"
"Your guess is good."
"This is indeed a possibility of a 'suicide mutilation case'."
Lin Xinyi nodded seriously and agreed with Officer Memu's conjecture:
He once encountered such a case in his career:
In order to pretend to receive the pension of her husband who committed suicide, a woman was afraid that someone would be discovered if she disposed of her husband's body carelessly. So, after discovering that her husband had committed suicide, this person secretly cut his husband's body into several pieces, bagged it and discarded it. Then she kept creating the illusion that her husband was still alive until the bag containing the body was accidentally discovered.
This incomprehensible and coquettish operation confused the eyes of all investigators.
If Lin Xinyi, who was the autopsy doctor at the time, had not confirmed through autopsy that the deceased had indeed hanged himself before death, no one would have believed that such a ridiculous thing could happen in the world.
So, the world is very big.
When you see news headlines like "The body was broken into three pieces, the police confirmed that he committed suicide" or "The deceased was stabbed thirty times, the police confirmed that he committed suicide" that are taken out of context, don't rush to criticize them.
These incredible cases actually do exist. If you want to criticize them, you should also criticize the self-media who want to make big news every day.
"but."
"Just go by the clues the corpse has told me so far."
After admiring Officer Mu Mu’s flexible thinking ability, Lin Xinyi changed the subject and said:
"There is no second person involved in this case."
"From suicide to mutilation, there is only one deceased person."
"Huh?" This time, even Officer Memu's fat face showed an expression of disbelief.
"How could this happen?" Xiaolan endured the discomfort and quietly glanced at the mangled body on the plastic sheet, and then couldn't help but asked Kudo Shinichi: "Shinichi, could the deceased really commit suicide?"
""
Kudo Shinichi was silent for a while.
It was a rare occasion when he showed an expression that was not very confident in front of Xiaolan:
"There are indeed a lot of things wrong with the deceased's body."
"But, I haven't figured out the most critical issue yet."
As he spoke, with that unspeakable unwillingness and expectation, Kudo Shinichi once again turned his attention to Lin Shinichi:
"Mr. Lin Xinyi, can we start?"
In Kudo Shinichi's view, this has become an invisible reasoning competition.
It is a duel between detectives and detectives, a competition of brains and wisdom.
But Lin Xinyi didn't think so.
This is not a game to him, let alone a competition.
It's a job, a responsibility.
"It's time to start."
His eyes gradually became deep and firm, like a piece of iron.
Lin Xinyi just took the huge aluminum alloy forensic investigation box from the hands of Officer Komatsu, then silently squatted down and gently opened the forensic investigation box:
Magnifying glass, fingerprint board, hemostat, puncture needle, scalpel, pointed scissors, flat scissors, latex gloves, bone saw, bone hammer, osteotome, bone scissors, spoon
Various forensic tools are neatly arranged in the box, which looks very comfortable for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
But Lin Xinyi sighed helplessly:
The tools in the survey box are quite complete.
It looks like it has never been used since I bought it.
After all, professional forensic doctors who have actually been to the scene should know that dissection tools such as bone saws, osteotomes, and ladles are not used at all in the preliminary investigation of the scene.
All that can be used at the scene are masks, gloves, rulers, tape measures, puncture needles, hemostatic forceps, thermometers, rectal thermometers and other common testing tools.
An experienced forensic doctor would not put so many things in the scene investigation box, unless he wanted to add weights to exercise.
It seems that Officer Komatsu is really good at cooking.
"well"
Lin Xinyi quickly calmed down amid the slander and put on a mask and two layers of latex gloves in a familiar manner:
Wear a mask as much as possible. After all, forensic doctors come into contact with various corpses every day, and no one knows whether there are infectious diseases on the deceased.
You also need to wear two layers of gloves, as the smell can easily penetrate into one layer.
Then, Lin Xinyi walked to the deceased and squatted down.
Just like Officer Komatsu just now, he began to gently press on various parts of the body with his fingers.
"The survey just now by Inspector Komatsu is basically correct."
"The body has already developed inconspicuous generalized rigor mortis."
As soon as Lin Xin retracted his hand, he usually turned back to get the tools from the survey box while explaining in detail:
"But the time of death is not necessarily more than four hours:"
"Because when people drown in water, they will struggle and twitch, their muscles will move violently, and the ambient water temperature is low, so rigor mortis will occur much earlier than normal."
"Um" Inspector Komatsu's expression was extremely embarrassing.
He could only see this little from the corpse, and there were still mistakes.
"Sorry, I made a mistake"
"Indeed, I remember it was written in the book that corpses of drowned people will indeed appear in advance. Wait a minute!"
"Mr. Lin, are you saying that the deceased was drowned?"
Inspector Komatsu asked loudly, as if suddenly awakened.
"That's right."
“And this is something a professional should see at a glance.”
Lin Xinyi glanced helplessly at Officer Komatsu, who was struggling with his professional skills, and then gently cast his admiring gaze at Kudo Shinichi next to him:
"I think this famous detective should have seen the problem, right?"
"indeed so."
Kudo Shin nodded and echoed:
"Although the body is badly mutilated, it is not difficult to see:"
"The overall color of the deceased's skin was pale, and there were goosebump-like bumps on the skin on the outside of both arms and legs. This is a characteristic of the skin of a drowned person that is stimulated by cold water, causing the skin's blood vessels to contract, the arrector pili muscles to contract, and the hair follicles to bulge. "
"Moreover, the cuticles on the fingers and toes of the deceased also appeared to be macerated, whitened, and swollen."
"Consider the generalized rigor mortis that Mr. Lin Xinyi just discovered."
He paused slightly and his tone became a little complicated:
"The body parts should have been soaked in water for about three hours."
"I'm afraid my previous reasoning about the time when the murderer abandoned the body was wrong."
At first, Kudo Shinichi concluded that the body had been in the water for a short time because he witnessed blood and water, and the murderer had just finished dumping the body.
It is precisely because of this that Lin Xinyi, who happened to be watching at the scene, was regarded as the first suspect.
But now, various signs on the corpse clearly told him that
His reasoning was wrong.
He trusted his instinct as a detective so much that he made rash judgments when the clues were extremely limited.
When he thought of this, Kudo Shinichi, who rarely made any omissions in reasoning, couldn't help but feel a little silent.
But Lin Xinyi completely ignored the self-criticism written almost on the face of the great detective.
He seemed to have unknowingly become a partner with Kudo Shinichi, and began to add details to Kudo's reasoning in an orderly manner:
"Kudo is right."
"The pale skin color of the corpse, goose-skin-like changes in the skin, and changes in the cuticle of the epidermis that forensic medicine calls 'washerwoman's hands' are the basic characteristics of corpses soaked in water."
"However, these characteristics only prove that the deceased was soaked in water for more than a certain period of time."
"To prove that the deceased died of drowning during his lifetime, we usually have to check here first."
With that said, Lin Xinyi showed the tools he just took out from the survey box:
"This is a finger straightener, used to straighten the fingers of the deceased's fist."
"Drowning victims struggled violently before death, causing muscle spasms in their hands, and their palms tend to look like tight fists after death."
"So, just open the dead man's palm like this"
In the complex eyes of everyone, who were horrified, frightened, but unable to restrain their curiosity,
Lin Xinyi picked up the only severed arm from the plastic sheet, then slowly and steadily inserted the finger wrench into his fingers, straightening the fingers of the severed hand one by one.
The clenched palms were opened.
In the palm that was finally opened, everyone could see:
"Is that a waterweed?"
"That's right, it's a waterweed."
Lin Xinyi put down the amputated arm and said in a deep voice:
"It's not just water plants. Before I opened the palm of the deceased's hand, I noticed that there was some sand between the fingernails of the deceased."
"These are all evidence that the deceased drowned before his death——"
"Because only people who drowned before they were alive can catch aquatic plants and sand in the water with their hands when they instinctively struggle."
"If the body was abandoned after death, there would be no chance that there would be these things in the palms of the body and between the fingernails."
"By analyzing the types of aquatic plants and further comparing the types of aquatic microorganisms in the deceased's lung fluid with the river water samples here, it should not be difficult to confirm that the deceased drowned in this river."
"And the time of drowning was as analyzed by Kudo just now, about three hours ago."
His voice was extremely serious, and his eyes were full of a different kind of concentration.
This kind of focused look is enough to conquer people's hearts.
Unconsciously, everyone forgot that Lin Xinyi was still the suspect in this case.
There was even some admiration in their eyes:
"This 'Shinichi' is actually so good at reasoning?!"
Some people sighed unconsciously.
But Lin Xinyi will not be complacent about the entry-level forensic knowledge he just demonstrated.
The spectacle in the eyes of the audience is nothing more than a daily routine that he is all too familiar with.
"Reasoning? No"
Lin Xinyi said calmly:
"Inference is the work of detectives."
"And my job is just to speak for the deceased."