Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 217 Unexplained Motives 7
The forensic examiner explained the findings in detail.

“At the edge of the green steps at the first crime scene, a few weeds grew, some of which were crushed. You said the deceased might have fallen in that spot, right? So we focused our search on that area and found a hair hanging on the bark of a tree trunk nearby.”

Tan Ming: "What if it was left by someone passing by normally?"

The forensic pathologist said, "Don't rush, I haven't finished yet. There's still a little blood left on the bark. It's probably because the victim fell against the tree trunk and got scratched on the scalp or other parts of the body by the bark."

"Was someone pushing her?" Xiao Chen made a pushing motion from the front, and then tried pushing from behind. "Both backward and forward movements could have caused her to graze the tree trunk, cut her skin, and tear off a few strands of hair."

Tan Ming still felt it might not be related to the case: "A normal person passing by that place could also slip and fall, leaving these marks."

"Splattered bloodstains were found in the grass, but disappeared after we left the grass," the forensic pathologist added.

Tan Ming: "...Could you please finish your sentence in one go next time?"

"So another person was murdered there. Could the killer be a serial killer?" Xiao Chen asked in surprise.

Zheng Yan didn't rush to conclusions, repeatedly asking about the details of the forensic examination: "Have you found out the woman's identity?"

“No,” the forensic pathologist shook his head and said, “Current DNA testing technology is mostly used in the verification stage. That is, you provide a DNA sample of a specific person or relative, and we compare it to find out if it is the deceased or whether there is a kinship between them.”

"To investigate directly, we need to see if this person has had their DNA sample entered before. The DNA database is still under construction and hasn't reached the point of universal collection and backup. The fingerprint system is more comprehensive, but the problem is that there are no bodies."

“Yes, if there really was another victim, where did her body go?” Tan Jia asked, puzzled.

She leaned back in her office chair, twirling a plastic sculptor between her right fingers, while her left hand absentmindedly touched her chin, quickly organizing her thoughts into a smooth flow—

“Serial killers typically choose to kill victims who share similar traits, at different times and in different places, to avoid being detected too quickly. Most cases fall into this category.”

"Or, the killer might choose to appear at a similar time and in a similar location, such as the Rain Night Killer."

"Or, it could be a group of interconnected people involved in a certain matter, but the locations where the actions are taken are generally different."

"If the killer is indeed a serial killer, why would he commit his crimes in the same place repeatedly? There are many people in that place, wouldn't that just create more trouble for himself? Unless the location has special significance for him. Of course, it could also be purely for the thrill."

"But there's another problem with pinpointing the location of the multiple murders to alleys around residential areas: what to do with the bodies? In this place, neither dumping them far away nor burying them nearby is suitable. Dismembering the bodies, putting them in bags, and throwing them into the trash can is a solution."

“If it wasn’t dismemberment, the murderer would kill someone and leave the body in the alley. It would be discovered the next day, and the police would immediately surround the area. They might even install a surveillance camera to keep an eye on it, so he wouldn’t be able to kill anyone there anymore.”

"But we've only just discovered one body so far. During our interviews, we didn't hear anyone say that xxx was missing, nor did we hear anything similar about what happened in the alley. This shows that the killer was very good at concealing his previous murders. Especially the bodies; they were definitely not just thrown into the trash. So there's a question: why was this victim handled differently?"

Tan Ming guessed, "Does he have different levels of grading for the deceased? Some serial killers treat corpses like ornaments of varying prices; they collect the attractive ones and discard the less attractive ones." "Collect?" Xiao Chen shuddered. "No way! I only know that dismemberers like to collect certain body parts as souvenirs... No, please, no dismemberment!"

They were having a heated discussion when Zheng Yan suddenly asked the forensic pathologist, "Can you determine the approximate time from the bloodstains and hair you examine? Is it possible that it's very close to the time of the deceased's death?"

When Tan Jia heard the question, he paused, his fingers stopped moving, and the plastic knife landed steadily on the table.

"...Two victims were murdered at the same time?"

But there were only two people in her dream.

Zheng Yan looked at her: "Think back again. In the dream, were there really only the murderer and the deceased Yang Jia?"

Tan Jia nodded, but the case had developed to this point and was still unclear, so her nod was tinged with hesitation.

I didn't see anyone else.

Zheng Yan: "That might be because after the first victim, Yang Jia, had her accident, the murderer killed the second girl. But your dream has already ended."

Tan Jia pondered for two seconds, then added another possibility: "Or perhaps before he killed Yang Jia. After all, my dream turned into a flashback, so it's possible I missed some clues..."

Before she could finish speaking, she sat up abruptly, looked at the tilted-head clay figurine on the table that had been treated as a defective product, and picked it up to examine it.

Xiao Chen asked curiously, "What is this? A snow frog from Changbai Mountain?"

"...This is a dead body with its head tilted to the side." Even though only the head was carefully made and the body was just casually sculpted, it shouldn't be mistaken for a straight-up, dried-up frog corpse.

Pushing aside Xiao Chen's banter, she said, "I created this by accident. After I finished, I felt strange because I didn't see the deceased in the dream tilt her head. But what if the deceased did tilt her head during the time the dream was interrupted? Perhaps she was looking at the second deceased lying on the other side."

"Although I didn't see this scene in my dream, my subconscious mind may have remembered it, so I unconsciously sculpted it when I was making dough figurines."

"Also, we previously mentioned that the deceased did not have any impact injuries when he fell to the ground, so we wondered if he was pulled by the murderer. Now that we think about it, it is very likely that when the deceased first fell, his body fell on top of another deceased person."

Therefore, it can be roughly confirmed that there were actually two victims at the scene of the crime!

But who is the other one? Was they murdered? Where did the body go?
Zheng Yan tapped the whiteboard: "We need to find out the identity of this victim as soon as possible, in case she is still alive. Even if she has been murdered, the fact that her body was not disposed of casually means that she was different to the murderer. If we find her, we might be able to find the murderer."

Xiao Chen has something to say: "This unidentified victim was most likely someone from the neighborhood, which is why she appeared in the alley at dawn without any precautions, becoming the prey targeted by the murderer and considered to be highly likely to succeed. Moreover, she was also connected to the deceased Yang Jia."

"But Yang Jia's incident happened two days ago. Even if the victim didn't die, he should have been missing for two days. Why didn't anyone mention that someone in his family went missing during the interviews?" Tan Jia asked.