Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 161 The Hand of God 14
Regardless of the method used or the time of the fire, the perpetrator must have had recent contact with the victim, or even visited the victim's room in person.

Furthermore, the scene of the deceased's death is very similar to the scene of Liu Sulan and her daughter's deaths fifteen years ago. The murderer must be very familiar with what happened back then. Compared to the others, these four people are the most suspicious.

It's possible that the Liu family chose arson as a method of murder specifically to avenge their daughter.

It's also possible that the Li family deliberately staged this scene to shift the blame onto the Liu family in order to kill the victim.

As for the others, no one has been found to have had any conflict with the deceased.

So the criminal investigation team returned to the crime scene to examine it again, and urged the trace evidence to be completed.

The scene was charred black, burned very evenly, making it difficult to see where the fire started. Zheng Yan first checked the locations of several sockets but found no traces of a fire caused by a short circuit.

Tan Jia followed along to learn, and saw that his forehead, nose and philtrum were covered in sweat from the heat. He himself belatedly realized that he was also extremely hot.

The sun was shining directly in, and the room still retained the high temperature from the fire, making them feel like they were in a steamer. Her hair was wet, and the green ends looked listless.

Such a high temperature...

She suddenly asked, "Captain Zheng, you've handled many fires, haven't you? You should know a few ways to start a fire without being present at the scene."

"There are many. The simple ones utilize the self-ignition properties of white phosphorus, the sunlight reflected by glass, other flammable materials, and electrical malfunctions. The more complex ones involve setting up small mechanisms to cause dust explosions and fires."

Zheng Yan knew exactly what she meant. He had investigated the cause of the fire from the beginning, but couldn't find any evidence.

Moreover, the deceased was a person with mental problems who had stayed at home for more than ten years, and his level of cognition was uncertain. The reasons that they considered possible or impossible might not apply to the deceased.

What if the murderer simply gave him a cigarette and told him to light it this morning, causing the fire? Such an absurd reason might actually be true if it happened to him.

Tan Jia: "If it was spontaneous combustion of white phosphorus, what kind of residue would be left at the scene? There should be something unusual on the body. I remember that the combustion products of white phosphorus are highly toxic. If it was sunlight reflected by glass, then there should be something that can concentrate and reflect light better than ordinary window glass, such as a lens or a glass ball. These things will not evaporate in a fire, but will only melt and deform, so they can definitely be found."

"Electrical malfunctions are hard to control. Small traps are possible, but they would definitely leave traces. The deceased wouldn't be so stupid as to have a trap installed in his room and then avoid it to go to bed every day. Besides, Old Man Li should know the things in the deceased's room very well. If the deceased brought anything back recently, he would definitely know. Didn't they say that the father and son were very close and depended on each other for survival?"

The clues were all straightened out one by one. Even when she was feeling irritable and restless from the heat, she could still sort them out little by little. Tan Jia felt that her months of clay sculpting had not been in vain.

Zheng Yan also felt that her efforts had not been in vain. After pondering for a while, she seemed to have thought of something and called Old Man Li in.

Who usually cleans the deceased's room? Do you know the layout of the items in his room?

But Old Man Li was unaware that the deceased cleaned the room himself and that he rarely came in.

Judging from the way he seemed to rack his brains for three minutes to come up with a single answer, it was clear that half of his previous talk about filial piety and parental love was a lie. He didn't pay much attention to the deceased at all.

This makes people start to doubt whether their previous statement that "Li Xin would not carry a lighter, smoke, or use natural gas" was also false.

Zheng Yan asked sternly, "I'll ask you one more time, are you absolutely certain that the fire in the deceased's room wasn't caused by you bringing flammable materials or anything that could be set on fire home?!"

Old Li's mouth moved, but when he met the man's sharp gaze, he couldn't say a word.

Li Shixun stood at the doorway, looking incredulously: "Dad?"

“I, I…it was Aunt Qin’s birthday yesterday, and I bought her a cake. She brought her grandson. That young man was smoking, and today he said his lighter is missing. Maybe, maybe your brother took it to play with…” That Aunt Qin is the old lady that Old Man Li sees every day at the market.

Li Shixun was shocked and turned pale with anger.

Tan Jia and the others were also shocked. Could this actually be an accident?

No, that's impossible. The deceased had PTSD about fire. It's impossible that the deceased set fire to the room to commit suicide and deliberately made the scene look like the fire from fifteen years ago.
No, not necessarily. Accidents could also cause similar scenes. The deceased might have accidentally ignited flammable materials, and because of what happened back then, he was afraid to open the door to escape. He subconsciously wanted to breathe fresh air outside the window. After all, he was mentally unstable, and we cannot think about his reaction with the same logic as a normal person.

Tan Jia and Zheng Yan were filled with doubt and uncertainty when the forensic team received a call.

"We found something that looked like a car key with melted edges in a corner of the fire scene. Do you remember? It wasn't a car key at all; it was an oddly shaped lighter."

Zheng Yan's eyelids twitched. He glanced at Old Man Li and his son Li Shixun, and asked in a low voice, "Could it be caused by this lighter?"

The deceased had PTSD related to fire, so why would he intentionally start a fire?
Trace evidence: "Yes and no. We found something that fell from the window in the flower bed downstairs, including a spray can, or more precisely, a cooling spray that's popular in the summer."

"The compressed gas in the spray can instantly lower the temperature by 10 to 20 degrees Celsius. Athletes often use it for temporary pain relief, but improper use can cause frostbite. I have checked, and most cooling sprays on the market contain some flammable alkanes as their main ingredients, which can easily cause fires or even explosions, especially when exposed to open flames."

Zheng Yan listened without saying a word, then suddenly asked Old Man Li, "Did you know that the deceased had recently been using canned cooling spray?"

Old Li, unsure how to face his eldest son's livid face, quickly replied, "I know, he brought it back yesterday, saying someone gave it to him."

"Someone sent it? Do you know who it was?"

"No, I don't know," Old Li glanced at his eldest son's face and pleaded, "He's twenty-five years old after all. I can't possibly interfere with his friends. Besides, the lighter thing isn't my fault. He probably just had never seen one before and was a little interested, so he... that's why he secretly hid it..."

Tan Jia glanced at Li Shixun, whose ugly expression seemed to want to curse him as an idiot.

But in the end, he just gritted his teeth and said, "Think quickly, who would send the spray to Xiao Xin? Can't you tell? The person who sent the spray and the person who threw the lighter could both be the murderers who killed Xiao Xin!"

Old Li instinctively retorted, "Impossible, Aunt Qin's family has no grudge against Xiao Xin, I..."

"Alright, shut up!" Li Shixun took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose with a cold face.

Zheng Yan wanted to ask more, but Xiao Chen shouted from outside, "Team Leader Zheng, we've found something!"

This discovery came from interviews and was about a strange person.

“Yesterday, someone saw the deceased talking face to face with a man in his thirties. They seemed to be quite close, and the man even gave the deceased something. You would never guess who this person is.”

Tan Jia, curious, unusually chimed in, "Who is it?"

Xiao Chen: "He was the leader who came to put out the fire this morning."

　Keep adding and reversing until you get tired of it.

　　I have a 95% chance that you'll never guess the whole story behind this case, hehehe (covers himself with the blanket, closes his eyes, and laughs smugly).

　　(End of this chapter)