Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 152 The Hand of God 5
When the criminal investigation team arrived at the "colleague's home" mentioned by the netizen, the fire rescue operation there had just ended.

Several fire trucks were parked downstairs in the residential area, and the open space was full of residents who had run out. Looking up at their frightened eyes, you could see thick black smoke billowing from the buildings.

Tan Jia's heart sank. Was this fire set by the murderer to destroy clues at the crime scene?
Zheng Yan called the fire department to ask, "Where did the fire start?"

"The twelfth floor," a firefighter said, pulling open his special protective suit, his face and body drenched in sweat, panting. "It started burning in the early hours of the morning, but nobody noticed it until it started emitting black smoke. By the time we got here, it had been burning for two hours. And it's the weekend, so everyone was home. We could only rescue people first..."

The twelfth floor was exactly where they were going to investigate.

Zheng Yan then asked, "Have all the people been evacuated? Have there been any deaths?"

"Yes," the firefighter said somberly. "There was a body in the house that first caught fire, and an old man upstairs also succumbed to toxic fumes."

As they drew closer, Tan Ming directly showed the other party Zou Yuxuan's photo and the layout diagram of the crime scene drawn by Tan Jia.

"Can you tell if the body is hers? Is that room laid out like this?"

The firefighters gave a fairly certain answer. The reason they weren't completely certain was because the body had been burned beyond recognition, and when they were putting out the fire, they couldn't identify the features except that it was a woman.

Zheng Yan asked one last question: "Can you tell whether it started spontaneously or was arson?"

Having been questioned to this extent, the firefighters knew this was no ordinary fire; it was likely an arson case involving the burning of a body.

"We haven't found any signs of spontaneous combustion yet. The area around the body shows the most severe burn marks."

I understand. It was arson, but we can't draw conclusions yet because the investigation isn't complete.

Zheng Yan said thank you and exchanged glances with Tan Jia and the others.

"Let's go up and take a look. Tan Ming, go and find out who owns the house that caught fire and find them."

That could very well be the deceased's lover.

Tan Jia stared at the tall building billowing black smoke, his brows furrowed. "No wonder no one found the body and called the police; the crime scene was burned down. But was it the murderer who set the fire, or the lover?"

This part didn't appear in her dream.

If the murderer is Huang Yilin, he might have set fire to the house after the murder in an attempt to destroy the evidence, but the homeowner would definitely come back to see the deceased and, upon discovering the fire, would certainly put it out and call the police.

Judging from the timeline, it seems the homeowner didn't return in time, didn't discover the fire, didn't find out that Zou Yuxuan had died in his house, and didn't even know if she was still alive.

Why? Didn't he arrange to meet Zou Yuxuan last night?
Zheng Yan: "We'll find out by asking someone. Let's go."

She followed him with heavy steps.

The twelfth floor was completely blackened by the fire, and the house on the left at the end of the corridor was in the worst condition.

Upon entering, Tan Jia first observed the layout of the house.

Although the decorations were burned, the walls were blackened, and the light-colored wood-grain tiles were also blackened by smoke, she could still tell that this was the first crime scene in her dream.

Not to mention, there was a body lying on the floor in a similar position to the deceased.

A curled-up, charred female corpse.

Zheng Yan squatted down and examined the body's features briefly, saying, "There were many remnants of burned fabric around her. It's summer, she couldn't have been wearing so much. The arsonist must have covered her with other flammable materials and set the fire on fire."

Through his gloves, he carefully removed the charred hand covering the abdomen, closed his eyes briefly, and sighed, "Let Old Li do it. Let's see if he can find out who the deceased's child is." Everyone was reluctant to look any longer, but Tan Jia stepped forward, half-squatting beside the corpse, and examined it closely.

"Burning would cause the body to curl up, and her posture was almost exactly the same as the last time I saw her, which means that no one moved her between the time the murderer left and the time someone set the fire."

"But the last thing I saw was not enough to confirm whether the victim was completely dead. I only guessed that she had only a few minutes left to live based on her condition at the time. Did she die completely when the arsonist set the fire? If not, then the time between the murderer leaving and her being on fire must have been very short, short enough for the murderer to run into the arsonist face to face."

"Unless the murderer and arsonist are the same person."

“Indeed,” Zheng Yan agreed with her analysis, like a straight man in a comedy duo, “that also fits the behavior of excessively violent criminals. Anything else?”

"Furthermore, with the body burned like this, can we still detect the injuries the deceased suffered before death and the insulin levels in their body? The impact of hitting the mirror probably wouldn't have left any marks on the skull. If we can't find these two things, how can we confirm the murderer's method? Can they still be sentenced normally?"

Zheng Yan: "This will depend on the forensic doctor. But for sentencing, the excessive burn marks on the fabric near the body might indicate that the arsonist intentionally killed the victim. As long as the arsonist is found and thoroughly interrogated to obtain a confession, the same applies..."

"Team Leader Zheng, the homeowner has been found."

Tan Jia stood up, and several people looked over at the same time.

The homeowner, a man of similar age to the deceased named Zhou Yan, was now deathly pale and disoriented as he looked at the charred house and the corpse lying there.

"Zhou Yan, right? Do you recognize that corpse on the ground?" Xiao Chen asked.

"She...she, how could she..."

"The deceased was named Zou Yuxuan. You must know her, otherwise there's no way to explain why she would die in your house."

"...I know him. We were high school classmates."

Hmm? High school classmates? The deceased, Zou Yuxuan, and her husband, Huang Yilin, were also high school classmates.

Xiao Chen stared at his face and asked again, "Just a classmate? She disappeared last night, how did she end up at your high school classmate's house, and then just happened to be burned to death there? And you weren't even there."

Zhou Yan's mind was about to stop, and he seemed to be trembling uncontrollably as he looked at the corpse.

Tan Jia stepped forward and blocked the corpse, asking directly, "Did you set the fire and burn her to death?"

"How can it be?!"

"Then explain why she was burned to death in your house, while you, who should have been home, escaped."

Zhou Yan said with a pale face, "She, she came over last night and said she had something to tell me. After she finished talking, she didn't want to go home, so I let her stay here and I went to stay in a hotel."

Xiao Chen, standing to the side, gave a forced smile: "Your reason is quite novel. Do you think we'll believe it?"

Zhou Yan seemed conflicted. After struggling for a moment, he whispered, "You don't understand. Something happened between her and me..."

"The child is yours?"

"How did you know?" Zhou Yan asked in surprise, but after being exposed, he remained silent for a few seconds before speaking more fluently.

“She came to me saying that the child might not be her husband’s, but mine, and now her husband is starting to have doubts. Neither of us knows how to deal with this, so we said we need to calm down for a while. Anyway, she has a husband now, and I can’t possibly live with her. I was also worried that it wouldn’t be safe for her to stay in a hotel alone as a pregnant woman, so I went to stay in a hotel. We also agreed to talk about the child this morning.”

"But how did a fire start... I have no idea. I was planning to buy her breakfast on my way back, and I only realized there was a fire when I saw the fire truck outside the community!"

(End of this chapter)