vrcanaries Chapter 400: Two More Skeletons
Chapter 400: Two More Skeletons
In the wild forest, the scene Lu Shiya saw was the same as Lu Qingchen and the others, and she did not find any useful information.
"There were no bloodstains or belongings at the scene. It's possible the body was dumped after death, or the murderer may have cleaned up the scene. But...Xiao Xixi, what do you think?"
After asking for a long time without getting an answer, he looked up and saw Qin Miaoxi squatting somewhere. He went closer and saw some messy footprints.
"this?"
She suddenly stared at one of the pairs of footprints and felt strange, but she couldn't explain why.
Qin Miaoxi stood up, her eyes never leaving the dry land.
"You've noticed something's wrong with these footprints, haven't you?" she muttered to herself. "The morning dew is heavy in the wild forest, so those footprints are preserved. The other footprints are some large, some small, and the shoe prints show signs of severe wear. They were probably left by villagers."
"But this pair of footprints is different from the others. Based on the length of the prints, they appear to be those of an adult. Only the outer forefoot is severely worn, while the rest of the shoe is pristine. This suggests this person walked with an inverted gait, commonly known as high arches."
"And his steps are large and wide, a unique style of walking, and he walks fast. Therefore, he knows martial arts and cannot be a commoner in the village."
Lu Shiya thought to herself, "If it's high arches, wouldn't it mean they walk differently from ordinary people and are easy to identify?"
People of this type cannot rotate their feet inward normally after walking, and their center of gravity is pressed on the outside of the forefoot for a long time. As a result, the outer edge of the front half of the shoe print will be thicker, and they will limp when walking.
"That's right. Everyone's footprints and fingerprints are unique due to their height, weight, and walking habits. Once we find a suspicious person and compare them, we can identify the person who dumped the body."
Qin Miaoxi said as she took a rubbing of the shoe print.
"Having said that, there are quite a few people like this, and we don't have any suspicions right now, so we can't check them one by one."
"It's always good to have a direction. Since the murderer has been here, he must have left clues."
Qin Miaoxi nodded and dug some soil from under a few trees and put it in an oil paper bag.
"What are you doing?"
"I discovered that someone had sprinkled wild animal-attracting powder around the tree roots surrounding the body. I'm going to take it back and study its ingredients. Perhaps I can find clues about the murderer from the formula."
"Get out of here! There are dead people there."
They were interrupted by a sudden shout, and when they looked over they saw several children waving at them anxiously.
Qin Miaoxi and the other person looked at each other and walked over. "Are you calling us two?"
"Yes, don't go over there. There are dead people here."
"We know that the government officials took the body away a few days ago."
Unexpectedly, several children shook their heads and denied it, saying, "No, there are still dead people."
"Yes, he's been dead for a long time!"
The children chattered at once, but what they said shocked the two of them. "You mean there are other people who died here?"
"The body is buried over there."
Qin Miaoxi looked in the direction they pointed. It was a small mound with some scattered boulders on it.
"Let's go take a look."
The two men found some tools nearby and started digging without saying a word.
It was difficult to dig because of the rocks. After half an hour, only a shallow layer was dug. Lu Shiya poked it with a stick and hit a hard object, almost pushing herself out.
"These stones are too hard, they shouldn't be buried..."
Before she could utter the word "corpse", she was shocked by the hard object that was dug out.
"There's a skull."
Qin Miaoxi immediately stopped what she was doing and saw the empty eye sockets exposed outside the soil.
"Quick, dig it out."
The two worked together and soon dug out the corpses and placed them neatly and orderly on the ground.
There were two skeletons in total, not buried very deep. From the excavation site, it could be seen that the bodies were placed directly on the slope and then buried. The soil was compacted by being trampled, so they were not exposed.
Qin Miaoxi examined the skeleton and said, "Based on the length and thickness of the bones, it seems she is from a girl of eight or nine years old, and she has been dead for no more than six months."
"With the current temperature and humidity in the wild forest, it's not enough to turn the bones into white. Plus, the bones have the same blue-black lines and knife marks as the three girls. I suspect the two victims were injected with mercury and then had their bones removed."
"The manner of death in both cases is similar. Perhaps we should notify the Ministry of Justice and have them come again."
Qin Miaoxi felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on her heart, and she felt depressed. This was most likely a serious serial murder case.
"I'll go call for help."
Lu Shiya volunteered, while Qin Miaoxi stayed behind to continue the autopsy and observe the scene.
The people nearby were quicker than the Ministry of Justice. After seeing them dig out the corpse, several children were terrified and ran back to the village crying and shouting to seek help from adults.
When they confirmed that they had dug up two more corpses nearby, the people were too afraid to move forward, wondering if there was another corpse hidden under their feet.
When the runners from the Ministry of Justice arrived, Qin Miaoxi had already conducted a preliminary examination of the corpse.
The murderer's method of killing was brutal. It didn't seem like he was venting his anger, but rather it seemed to have some special meaning. Perhaps this was the murderer's characteristic of killing.
But there was one strange thing: there were no identifying objects around the two bodies that had just been found, but there were some around the three girls.
Did the murderer forget to deal with it, or did he leave it there on purpose?
The criminal guard stared at the two skeletons in fear, "Madam Hou, you...?"
"Just call me Qin the Coroner! His Majesty has agreed to my participation in the Ministry of Justice's investigation. This is the preliminary autopsy record."
She handed over a piece of paper and said, "You'd better confirm the identity of the deceased first. The one buried here is most likely a local resident."
"Yes, we'll go check it out right away."
"Also, the ones who told us this were some children. Find out how they knew about it."
"Okay, we'll investigate thoroughly."
With Qin Miaoxi arranging the direction of the investigation, the efficiency of the Criminal Department was greatly improved, and the two of them went to the vicinity of the homes of the three girls.
As soon as I got close, I heard an angry voice coming from the yard, "How could that dead girl die? She forced me to work at my age."
"That's right. The house has been in chaos this month. Girls are only useful at times like this."
"We have many daughters in our family, and we can sell them in the future to help the youngest one get married and build a house."
"Yes! I despised girls at the time, but I didn't expect that I could make a lot of money. If I had more, I wouldn't even dare to think about it."
"You old fellow, even if you don't have a daughter, you still have a granddaughter. You can still make some money if you have the chance."
Then there was a burst of triumphant laughter, and Qin Miaoxi's eyes were cold. Not only did they not feel sad or regretful after the child died, but they only complained and were greedy. These three families were unworthy of being parents.
However, their conversation also revealed something: the three deceased seemed to have earned money for them.
"Shiya, did you give them a lot of silver?"
"No, I only gave them copper coins to go back."
A few copper coins wouldn't make them act like this, so who gave them the silver and why did they give them the silver?