Chapter 1443 - The Second Report
Mu Min waited at the counter. The morgue duty officer—a somewhat seedy-looking man of middle years, his wrinkled black uniform jacket hanging open at the collar—reluctantly set down his book and checked her identification according to regulations.
Her unannounced visit had clearly disturbed his leisure time.
When he realized the visitor was a senior National Police officer and an Elder, he hurried to button his collar and snapped into something resembling an attention stance, heels clicking together.
"Chief..."
"Let's get to business." Mu Min noted that despite her uniform, the man had obviously paid no attention to her rank insignia. Of course, expecting much from a coroner's "helper" who had muddled through half his life in a county yamen was unrealistic.
The duty officer recorded her name in the register.
"Which corpse do you wish to inspect?"
"The Maid School student brought in on the morning of September 1st."
The man's expression froze for an instant—a flicker Mu Min did not miss.
"Is there a problem?"
"Chief, there is a small issue." The duty officer grew visibly nervous. Though he had worked for the "Australians" for several years now, he still hadn't quite adjusted. Life in the Ming county yamen had been much simpler—no endless Australian regulations. As long as you kept your superiors happy, you could do as you pleased. Under the Australians, a tense and dangerous atmosphere permeated everything.
"What is it?"
"Chief Su has instructed that no one may inspect No. 1633090107001 without her permission..." A thought flickered through his mind. "Please allow me to make a phone call."
A few minutes later, he put down the receiver with a fearful expression.
"I'll lead the way immediately. Please understand..."
"Skip the pleasantries," Mu Min said firmly. "Lead the way."
He selected a bunch from a heap of keys and walked ahead.
Opening the final iron gate revealed a monotonous corridor. The duty officer flipped on the electric light, illuminating a brick spiral staircase at the far end that descended into pitch darkness, as though leading to hell itself. Beside the staircase stood a square elevator shaft enclosed by four iron pillars and mesh plates. A black iron platform hung suspended by chains—the manual elevator to the basement, used for transporting corpses.
Mu Min followed the duty officer down the spiral stairs under weak electric light. The descent was considerable. In the front hall, he turned on the lights. Cold white fluorescent brightness flooded the room, which was lined entirely with white tiles.
Three iron-clad doors faced her from the opposite wall, each secured with heavy padlocks. Arabic numerals were painted on them in black.
The duty officer lit a cigarette—not to mask the smell of decomposition, since the frigid temperature prevented any odor, but to cover the pungent reek of preservatives.
"No. 1633090107001? The Maid School student?"
"Yes."
"Morgue Number One."
He unlocked the padlock and hauled open the heavy door. Cold air struck their faces. Mu Min shivered involuntarily. He switched on the lights, and they entered the ice-storage-like chamber. Pale fluorescent tubes on the ceiling made the room feel even colder. The white-tiled floor sloped gently toward a central drainage grating; the sound of melting ice water trickling through it was faintly audible. To control humidity, special racks along two walls held replaceable rough paper packets filled with furnace ash as makeshift dehumidifiers. The other two walls were lined with large wooden drawers sheathed in galvanized iron. The corpses lay within.
The duty officer took down a loose-leaf binder from the wall and flipped through it.
"This one." He tucked the binder under his arm, walked to a drawer, and pulled it open. Mu Min approached and lifted the white sheet covering the corpse.
The frozen-stiff body looked quite different from when she had investigated the scene on the day of the incident. It had clearly been dissected already. Mu Min breathed on her cold palms, reached into her coat pocket, and withdrew a pair of disposable cotton gloves coated with tung oil—a simple substitute for latex.
She pulled on the gloves, lifted the deceased's arm, and examined the hands and arms with meticulous care. Only after some time did she exhale and address the duty officer:
"That will do."
After returning to the surface, it took a while for Mu Min to feel the chill leave her body. She was just about to depart the Forensic Center when she noticed a pale, tall figure waiting in the lobby.
"May I speak with you?"
"Of course." Mu Min seemed to have anticipated this encounter.
The conversation took place in Su Wan's office. Since this was unofficial, she lit a gas lamp and had the night secretary pour two cups of tea, then closed the door.
"Are you handling this case?"
"Yes."
"Does the Executive Committee have instructions on it?"
"No instructions." Mu Min gave a strange laugh. "Why would you expect the Executive Committee to have instructions?"
"A Maid School student who wasn't staying in her dormitory turns up dead—inexplicably—in the Elder residential area. And you're handling the case personally. I'd find it strange if the Executive Committee didn't have instructions."
"You're quite perceptive. But apart from Xiao Zishan calling to inquire, no Executive Committee member has asked about this matter yet." Mu Min paused. "What did you want to tell me?"
"What did Director Xiao say?"
"Determine the truth and report as soon as possible."
Su Wan seemed to breathe a small sigh of relief. "Have you seen my autopsy report?"
"I have." Mu Min nodded. "It's quite incomplete. You didn't even conclude whether it was suicide."
Su Wan's report was a textbook exercise in reserving judgment—stating only the examined injuries and cause of death, with no conclusion on whether the death was homicide. Mu Min had worked criminal investigation for five years, handling over ten building-fall cases. In her experience, this one was a textbook homicide.
According to the report, the deceased had obviously been beaten with heavy objects, then pushed from the building.
Jumping from a building would not typically cause multiple spinal fractures combined with massive hemorrhaging in both the chest and abdomen. Massive cranial hemorrhage was possible, but not without accompanying skull fractures.
A frontal landing would cause sternum and rib fractures plus frontal hemorrhaging, but not multiple spinal fractures. A back landing would cause spinal fractures but not frontal damage. The deceased showed fractures on both sides—impossible from a mere three-story fall like the dormitory building.
"This is a homicide," Su Wan said, her face relaxing. "Because you urged me so urgently, I only submitted the preliminary report."
"I understand you wanted to wait for the Executive Committee's position. But for us, determining the truth is what matters most. Who possesses that truth isn't our concern."
"I have a second inspection report."
"Just tell me the contents first." Mu Min said. "My time is short."
"Simply put: accidental falls typically result in a head-up, feet-down landing, usually with severe leg fractures—the head may not be injured at all. Frontal landing is common in spontaneous falls, usually producing frontal fractures and cranial hemorrhage, but the spine is rarely severely fractured and the abdomen won't bleed. Frontal landing with abdominal hemorrhage basically means the abdomen struck stones or similar objects on the ground."
Mu Min listened carefully, jotting key points in her notebook.
"Though I haven't visited the scene, my students brought me a complete site survey report and photographs. There were no stones or similar objects at the fall site."
"So?"
"So Lin Xiaoya actually landed on her back. And she was beaten before she fell—the abdominal hemorrhage was internal injury from the beating."
A back landing typically indicated homicide: the victim was facing the killer and was pushed, or fell due to other factors. The back landing would produce severe spinal fractures.
Mu Min nodded. "So it's confirmed as homicide."
"Correct. You saw the corpse just now—you must have noticed the defensive wounds on her arms."
"Yes, I did."
"Though I'm not a trace expert, I can roughly tell the injuries were caused by a fairly sturdy stick—nine out of ten it was hardwood. If you have an on-site evidence report, you'll probably find this weapon. Of course, the naturalized forensic personnel's skill level is quite low—it's entirely possible they missed it."
"I'll inspect the scene personally." Mu Min scribbled a few more notes. "Did you perform a sexual assault examination?"
"Of course—I'm a licensed forensic doctor." Su Wan thrust out her flat chest. "Very strange: negative."
"Why 'strange'?"
"The Elder residential area is full of otakus with all manner of bizarre tastes in this time-space, and our maids are absolute slaves with no rights to life or person—you should understand my imaginative associations."
"Fine, continue." Mu Min said, resigned.
"Given the diversity of Elder preferences, though I had already confirmed Lin Xiaoya's hymen was intact, I still performed every sexual assault test I could think of. All results indicated Lin Xiaoya had not been sexually assaulted before death. Additionally, there were no traces of binding, whipping, mild burns, or similar marks on her body. I detected no semen traces on her clothing or skin."
Su Wan's tone carried obvious disappointment, making Mu Min shiver again.
"However, the stomach contents examination did yield findings." Su Wan pulled a page from her drawer. "I don't know what they feed them at the Maid School, but it seems they ate rather well that night."