Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 212 Unexplained Motives 2
"The deceased, Yang Jia, was 27 years old. He worked as a shop assistant in a shoe store about 800 meters away from the scene where the body was dumped. He was unmarried, not a local, and lived alone in an old residential building behind this alley."

After clarifying the deceased's identity, Tan Ming said, "According to the shoe store owner, she had worked here for more than half a year, had no bad habits, and although she had friends and often went out to play, she had never caused any trouble and did not associate with those shady characters."

“She was on vacation yesterday and apparently went out with some friends. This alley is a place she usually passes through on her way back to her rented room.”

Tan Jia asked, "Is it not the only necessary path?"

“No,” Zheng Yan answered for him, “This alley is very wide and connects to a resettlement community. The alley is interconnected and has many entrances and exits.”

"But this should be the shortest distance she has walked. Neighbors along the way say they see her every day, sometimes riding an electric bike and sometimes walking, and she rarely changes lanes," Tan Ming added.

“I pass by here every day without incident, but last night I encountered the murderer…” Tan Jia looked at the young body lying in the garbage alley and pondered, “Was the murderer acting on impulse, or had he been watching her for a while?”

“I think they’ve been watching for a while now, and it’s more likely they’ve premeditated the murder.” Xiao Chen strode back.

He just visited the residents near this alley and got a lot of information.

“There are many restaurants and takeout shops around here. There’s also a very popular beef and offal shop at the end of the alley. Occasionally, people get drunk and act crazy while eating there. But the shops here close at 10:30 p.m. at the latest. The people in the shops clean up and leave around midnight. I didn’t see anyone loitering on the roadside at the time. Apart from eating and buying clothes, there are no outsiders here.”

"Moreover, if the first crime scene is within a hundred meters, then this location is excellent. The surrounding area is full of restaurants that close at night, and behind that is a clothing street, and in front are beauty salons, express delivery stations, and parking lots. There is no one there in the middle of the night. I asked the people in the neighborhood, and no one heard any unusual noises last night."

It sounds like the murder location was carefully chosen after thorough investigation.

However, if you want to investigate, you have to come and stake out the location multiple times, which makes it easy to be discovered.

Tan Jia quickly realized: "So the murderer is very familiar with this place, or even someone from this area."

Xiao Chen nodded emphatically.

She hesitated for a few seconds, then looked up and glanced around.

"So, the murderer probably also knew where the surveillance cameras were, and the crime scene and the body disposal site may have been in blind spots of the surveillance."

Xiao Chen nodded again: "It is indeed possible."

Tan Ming: "So this is a very cautious killer. Why did he kill Yang Jia?"

“Investigate the deceased’s social relationships,” Zheng Yan said. “See who she had conflicts with, who she met recently, and whether any strange people appeared around her.”

At that moment, Old Li suddenly exclaimed "Hey!"

"The deceased was menstruating."

They all took a few steps away and looked at the body again.

"How did they find out? My pants weren't undone," Xiao Chen asked, puzzled.

Old Li: "I could smell it; there was a peculiar bloody odor."

Xiao Chen subconsciously inhaled, wanting to see if he could smell it.

Then a stench of rotting kitchen waste filled his nostrils, and he immediately gagged.

"...You've ruined me, Old Li! This alley stinks so badly, you can't even smell a ghost!"

"Don't belittle others if you don't have the ability yourself. Don't just stand here and stink." Old Li twitched his nose to adjust his glasses, then rolled his eyes at Xiao Chen clearly through the lenses.

Tan Jia was still staring at the corpse when they finished arguing. Suddenly, she said, "The deceased should have had a bag, right? There was no place on her to store sanitary napkins, tissues, a cell phone, a charging cable, or anything like that. If she really went out to play all day, she would definitely have brought sanitary napkins with her."

Zheng Yan and his team were taken aback; they hadn't thought of that immediately. "No bag has been found at the scene yet," the forensic investigator added.
Xiao Chen: "Was it taken by the murderer? Robbed?"

"What's there to steal from the dead? She worked as a clerk in a shoe store, earning 5,500 yuan a month. Did she carry all her wages from the past six months with her in her bag all the time?" Tan Ming said irritably.

"They didn't steal money, maybe something else from the bag? Perhaps the deceased had secrets that no one knows about," Tan Jia speculated.

Zheng Yan agreed with her idea and quickly made arrangements: "Visit more residents in the surrounding area, as well as people in the shoe store."

"We will focus our investigation on the deceased's social relationships; the murderer was likely very familiar with her."

"Check the phone's location and the surrounding surveillance footage."

Speaking of surveillance, I have to think of the previous case. Now, whenever I look at any camera, whether it's on or off, I feel like I'm being watched by a serial killer.

Zheng Yan scratched the back of his head and called to Tan Jia, "Let's go, let's find the first crime scene."

These alleys are all pretty much the same, and there's more than one alley entrance that matches Tan Jia's dream.

She called Lin Zhiyue, who was sitting in the car, and they strolled through the alleys one by one.

However, it's not enough to just rely on vague dream images; you also need to analyze and find clues that are somewhat directional.

"When the deceased's mouth and nose were covered, he struggled violently, grabbing and kicking wildly. Grass and soil were left under his fingernails and on the back of his shoes. There must have been traces left at the primary crime scene."

They crouched down and examined the roads and plants in several alleys, but found no bloodstains, fallen hair, or other evidence.

The weather was so hot that people were drenched in sweat, like dough that could spoil at any moment, either turning sour or disappearing.

Tan Jia was a little irritated by the heat. The scorching sunlight made it hard to open her eyes. She walked past the alleyway she was about to inspect, thinking that she should come at night so that she could make the most direct comparison with the scene in her dream.

Then, her gaze lightly swept over the parking spot at the alley entrance, and she abruptly stopped in her tracks.

"There's a mark left by someone kicking the tire in that spot."

Zheng Yan strode over, squatted down beside the tire, and examined it. He said, "It matches the soil residue on the deceased's body quite well."

Then look at the cars parked on it.

"Was this parked here intentionally, or is it just a coincidence that it happened to be parked here right after the incident and before we arrived?"

No one can answer.

Zheng Yan called for a tow truck and then called for a forensic examination.

Tan Jia stared at the marks on that spot, then carefully observed the surroundings, and said to Lin Zhiyue behind him:

“We’ll try coming here tonight to be sure if it’s the first crime scene in my dream. I always feel that if the murderer is a very cautious person, he might also consider whether there are any clues left at the crime scene, and then he might fake a second scene.”

Lin Zhiyue nodded: "I'll go with you."

Zheng Yan, who had finished his phone call sometime earlier, squeezed between the two of them, his strong body causing them both to stumble.

“I’ll stay with you too,” he said seriously.

　The next chapter will be set during the day.

　　(End of this chapter)