Chapter 177 136: Found It! The Missing Fingerprints

The roof was a place few people ever went. Only the landlady came up to water her plants.

But...

Now, there were several strangers here.

Two corpses, and one murderer!

The killer had gotten in by picking the lock!

Xu Huo walked over to the door and picked up the padlock. His expression turned grave as he examined the marks inside.

"The damage marks on it..."

"They're tiny, almost negligible. If we hadn't already established at the first crime scene that the killer could pick locks, we wouldn't have found them even after a careful inspection," Qian Hua said, stepping forward with a grim voice.

The lock was one of those clunky iron types, the kind almost every household in the countryside used at the time.

They were easy to pick.

The problem was, picking it with only minimal, or even no, damage was no simple feat.

A typical lock-picking job might seem clean—a few tools, a CLICK, and the lock opens with no apparent effect.

But in reality, there was always damage.

It was mainly concentrated in three areas: the keyhole, the lock cylinder, and the lock body. When picking a lock, the body could be disregarded.

But the cylinder would inevitably be damaged unless a key was used.

And yet, the killer had minimized the damage to an unbelievable degree...

His technique was almost not like picking a lock at all; it was as if he'd used a key.

If not for the police dogs and the meticulous forensic examination, they truly would have missed it.

"Let's go see the murder scene."

Xu Huo glanced at the Police Officers bagging the skeletal remains, shook his head, and walked toward the exit.

The body disposal site yielded very little information. There were no clues in the greenhouse, and even fewer outside.

As for the murder scene...

It wasn't far, located within a ten-meter radius of where Xu Huo stood.

The third floor was where the deceased Zhang Family had rented their apartment.

A crowd of police had cordoned off the area and were now searching every inch of the place.

Other residents lingered nearby, their faces a mixture of fear and curiosity, murmuring amongst themselves.

He pushed through the crowd and entered the apartment.

There was blood everywhere!

On the floor, on the bed—the thick, metallic stench of blood filled the air.

"The dismemberment primarily took place in the bathroom. Most of the blood flowed down the drain."

"Then, using one or more knives, the killer precisely dismembered the bodies."

"According to the police estimate, the killer worked very quickly. He was like a master butcher carving an ox, familiar with every part of the human anatomy. He knew the best and easiest angles to make his cuts!" Qian Hua reported grimly, staring at the tragic scene.

"A doctor?" Li Jianye wondered aloud, deep in thought.

Someone familiar with human anatomy was most likely in the medical field, but the problem was...

"A doctor wouldn't be this clean and efficient when dismembering a body."

"And a doctor would have no reason to possess the ability to scale a three-story wall or pick locks," Xu Huo stated from his position by the window.

He leaned out and looked down.

The exterior wall wasn't perfectly smooth—there were balconies and air conditioning units—but it wasn't something an ordinary person could climb.

"This is..."

"A very professional murderer."

Xu Huo paused, then uttered a surprising word.

"Professional?" Li Jianye's brow furrowed.

"Like a hitman?"

"Something like that," Xu Huo said.

'This person is a thief.'

'But a thief with an incredibly high-level lock-picking Skill!'

'He can also scale three stories, has precise killing methods, and dismembers a body more efficiently than a butcher who slaughters pigs all day!'

'He's a professional—a career criminal.'

'Why would someone like that... have a conflict with the deceased?'

'And why take the money?'

'Judging by his methods, someone with this kind of Skill can't be short on cash.'

'Do thieves lack money?'

'A diligent thief isn't really that poor. With his skills, he could make in a day what others make in a month.'

'It makes even less sense for him to be after the victim's paltry sum of money.'

Until...

KSHHH—

"Boss, we have a lead!"

A slightly jarring voice crackled through the walkie-talkie, breaking the silence.

Everyone froze, their eyes fixed on the device.

"Speak," Qian Hua uttered a single word.

"We filtered the data based on Advisor Xu's words, and the internal affairs team quickly sent over multiple leads."

"In the end, we confirmed one of them."

"The report was filed on the morning of the 1st. According to the caller, the refrigeration company was facing serious issues with its refrigerated food due to a personal problem with an employee."

"But that employee disappeared. He was unreachable, suspected of having fled to escape responsibility."

"Just a short while ago, internal affairs personnel took a K-9 unit to re-investigate this report. The dog ended up... finding a body by the lake!"

"It's been confirmed. The body is the missing person!"

As the voice from the walkie-talkie faded...

The people at the scene remained silent for a long moment, until...

"Let's go!"

...

...

Another crime scene had appeared.

A third crime scene!

Three of them in less than a single day!

It was simply unbelievable...

At 6:30 that evening.

When Xu Huo and the others arrived at the location the internal affairs team had mentioned, this was the scene that greeted them.

A frozen man, his arms crossed over his chest, was kneeling on the ground, his body curled up. The muscles of his face were rigid from the loss of body heat, leaving him without an expression.

It was a naked corpse.

A corpse so naked it wasn't even wearing underwear!

A thin layer of ice coated his skin, and traces of water were still visible in his thick hair. His large belly was beginning to swell, a clear sign of post-mortem bloating.

The scene was a lake. The body was found kneeling at the water's edge, having frozen to death.

Besides the body, there was also a water ladle.

"Preliminary judgment is that the killer acted on the night of the 31st, into the early morning of the 1st."

"The suspect first brought the victim to the lakeside and forced him to strip."

"In the freezing weather, the third victim quickly succumbed to hypothermia, curled up, and knelt on the ground."