Rebirth 2014: I, the King of Criminal Investigation

Chapter 557 This smell seems familiar...

He didn't really want to know, but out of professional ethics, he asked anyway.

Judging from the horrific scene before them, the child's death must have been no better.

Upon hearing this, one of the officers from the brigade stepped forward and replied:

"The child was just one year old when he was murdered and stuffed into the washing machine."

Then, a colleague in charge of the on-site investigation came forward:

"Both of the two men sustained fatal head injuries, with their skulls shattered by what appears to be a hammer or similar weapon. The weapon has not yet been found at the scene."

As he spoke, he flipped through the notebook in his hand:

"Based on the footprints at the scene, the perpetrator is a single male, around 30 years old, and of a certain height..."

Upon hearing this, Yu Dazhang raised his hand to interrupt:
"What was the time of death?"

He now believes this was a revenge killing.

The murderer is Cheng Wenhao.

More than detailed data analysis, he now wants to know the time of death of this family of three, so that he can roughly deduce Cheng Wenhao's movements.

"Preliminary assessment indicates that the male victim died between 2:30 and 3:00 AM."

The surveyors replied:
"The time of death of the female victim was pushed back by half an hour, while the child died last."

Yu Dazhang originally wanted to ask how the murderer entered the room.

But then I thought, it's pointless to ask this question now.

He then looked at the people from the Criminal Investigation Department:

"How's the city's surveillance network doing with the investigation?"

His voice was deep and serious, with an unquestionable tone.

The officers from the headquarters were clearly prepared for this question and immediately replied:

"Based on facial recognition, Cheng Wenhao was quickly identified, but his counter-surveillance capabilities were also very strong, and he evaded surveillance multiple times."

"It was finally confirmed that Cheng Wenhao's movements were indeed heading this way."

"From a timing perspective, it also coincides with the time of death of this family."

That's it then... Yu Dazhang made his judgment in his mind.

Cheng Wenhao is determined to take revenge on society.

Within the realm of criminal cases, if the motive is money, it is rare to cause someone's death; even if someone does die, it is mostly manslaughter.

But when it comes to emotions, that's a different story.

Cases involving love turning into hatred have a particularly high mortality rate, and they are almost always intentional homicides.

Take, for example, this family annihilation case.

No one could possibly think of it as an accidental killing.

After the on-site investigation was completed, the three bodies were carried away. Yu Dazhang then walked around the house again, trying to see if there was anything he had missed.

Lu Zhongxin and his two companions followed him closely, also searching for clues.

His steps were light and cautious as he carefully examined every detail—the walls, the floor, the windows, and even the ceiling.

However, after searching, he did not find any particularly valuable clues.

Just as Yu Dazhang was feeling somewhat disappointed, he noticed that the house also had a balcony.

The open-air balcony contrasts sharply with the darkness inside the house.

It was already nine o'clock in the morning, and the sunlight was shining on the balcony, giving people a warm and comfortable feeling.

Yu Dazhang thought for a moment and decided to go to the balcony to take a look, hoping to make some unexpected discoveries.

As he pushed open the door, a breath of fresh air rushed in, making him feel refreshed.

I have to say, having a balcony like this at home is quite comfortable. Occasionally coming out to breathe some fresh air is a real treat.

Especially now, the smell of blood in the house is too strong.

After a while, it made me feel dizzy and even made it difficult to breathe.

Yu Dazhang took a deep breath and then carefully observed every corner of the balcony, the railings, the flower pots, and the ground.

About five minutes later, finding nothing wrong, he turned and went back into the house. "Hmm?"

Upon entering the room this time, the strong smell of blood still hit him, but at the same time, he also smelled another faint odor.

It has a faint sour and rotten smell.

The flavor is very mild.

If Yu Dazhang hadn't gone to the balcony to breathe some fresh air and made his sense of smell more sensitive, he probably wouldn't have noticed at all.

Moreover, the sour, foul smell seemed somewhat familiar to him, as if he had smelled it somewhere before.

The first thing he ruled out was the smell of a corpse.

Because it takes at least six hours after a person dies for the body to start smelling like a corpse.

Moreover, the stench of a corpse is a foul odor, which is distinctly different from the sour smell we see now.

"Master, can you smell a foul odor?" Yu Dazhang asked Lü Zhongxin.

Upon hearing his apprentice's question, Lü Zhongxin immediately sniffed carefully, then shook his head:
"Aside from the smell of blood, I couldn't smell anything else."

Yu Dazhang then looked at Ma Jian and Liu Miao.

The two of them also frowned and shook their heads.

"Can't you smell anything?" Yu Dazhang immediately realized where the problem lay.

My sense of smell is also extraordinary. Since I have a hard time smelling it, it would be even harder for others to detect it.

Seeing that seeking help from outside the venue was not working, he had no choice but to calm down and try to recall where he had smelled this scent before.

Yu Dazhang closed his eyes and carefully smelled the scent in the air.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind, and his expression changed slightly.

I understand... Just a moment ago, he recalled a scene from the detention center.

He had smelled a similar odor while he was in the cell.

While they are not exactly the same, they are quite similar.

The feet smelled awful!

Yu Dazhang hadn't paid attention to it when he was in the cell because it was normal for more than ten people to have this kind of foot odor when they were crammed into one room.

But now it's different.

This family of three is clearly not the kind of people who are sloppy.

Moreover, judging from their living environment, they are clearly people who pay great attention to the details of life, and such people are unlikely to suffer from athlete's foot.

If that's the case, it means the smell was left by the murderer.

The reason the taste was so mild was because the murderer hadn't taken off his shoes.

Judging from this, the fact that Cheng Wenhao could still emit an odor while wearing shoes indicates that his athlete's foot was quite severe.

Or perhaps it was the night of escape that aggravated his athlete's foot to this extent.

Yu Dazhang silently memorized this characteristic.

Once downstairs, he called the captain of the Criminal Investigation Division.

After the call connected, Yu Dazhang asked directly:

Has the motive for the murder been determined?

Since Director Liu has delegated authority to him, he naturally won't be polite, and now is not the time to be polite.

Moreover, everyone is now aligned on the same goal: to do their utmost to find Cheng Wenhao.

"It's clear."

The opposing captain replied:

"The police officers investigating Cheng Wenhao's social relationships just reported that the female victim was named Yao Jing, and she had lived with Cheng Wenhao for a year."

"The two were once at the point of discussing marriage."

At this point, his tone became somewhat serious:
"But later, Cheng Wenhao was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for a previous case. When he was released, Yao Jing had already married someone else."

I love hearing these melodramatic stories… Seeing that the other side had stopped, Yu Dazhang couldn’t help but ask again:
"Even if Yao Jing didn't wait for him, it shouldn't have warranted Cheng Wenhao wiping out his entire family, right?"

(End of this chapter)