Chapter 178 136: Found It! The Missing Fingerprints

"At the same time, the killer used a ladle. In the sub-zero temperature, he used that ladle to scoop up icy lake water and pour it over the deceased's head. The frigid water ran from his head down his entire body."

"In the end, he became a man of ice."

The police officer in charge of the crime scene investigation spoke up.

Linlan City is in the south, but it was December—winter, and right in the middle of a cold snap!

On top of that, the weather was much colder than in his previous life, so...

After a bout of rain on the first of the month, the cold snap hit, temperatures plummeted below zero, and someone froze to death outdoors.

"On the first, during the day, the victim's body was likely encased in a layer of ice," the officer added.

Xu Huo listened, squatting down to look at the pudgy corpse.

He moved the hands and found that the tendons in both wrists had been severed. The tendons in the ankles were the same.

At the same time, the fingerprints on both hands had been removed, sliced off with a knife.

The deceased was named Zhao Qiao, a man in his forties who worked as a guard at a cold storage company's warehouse.

But now he was dead here, frozen to death.

The killer brought him here and cut the tendons in his wrists and ankles to immobilize him.

Then, in the hypothermic environment, he poured cold water over him, layer by layer.

The cold water froze into ice, covering the body's surface until the man looked like a human ice sculpture!

Even now, the ice on his body hadn't completely melted.

"Why wasn't the third victim dismembered?"

After finishing his inspection, Li Jianye pulled his overcoat tighter and voiced his question.

"At the first scene, the body was dismembered, then coated in egg wash and breadcrumbs, and turned into 'fried chicken.'"

"At the second scene, the body was also dismembered and used as fertilizer in a vegetable patch."

"But at this third scene, the body is completely intact! No missing parts!"

Li Jianye summarized, a look of confusion on his face.

"Why wasn't the body at the third scene dismembered?"

"Instead, it was turned into an ice sculpture..."

"Could it be that the victims didn't all anger him over the same thing? If not, the odds of that are just too small..."

'Five people who knew each other, all killed by the same person for different reasons...'

'The probability is too low.'

'Practically negligible.'

"Fried chicken, vegetable patch, ice sculpture..."

"Is there a common thread between these three scenes?"

Qian Hua asked.

Xu Huo fell into deep thought.

'The killer clearly has some kind of specific purpose.'

'His targeting is extremely precise!'

'But his methods are so varied...'

'Why?'

"Have you figured out his identity?"

Xu Huo frowned in thought.

He squatted down, looking at the corpse's peaceful, placid features.

"The victim's facial features are very clear. The body was preserved by the cold air, so he looks almost the same as he did before death."

Hearing this, someone nearby shook their head. "The cold storage company didn't provide a valid contract."

"They said he was a warehouse custodian, but he was really just a security guard. The company is trying to make him the scapegoat."

"His clothes and any identifying information were taken by the killer."

"The internal affairs team searched the victim's rental apartment and only found traces of the killer stealing valuables. They didn't find any other clues that could prove his identity."

'No clues again...'

'Still no clues!'

'Is it really this hard just to identify him?'

Li Jianye frowned, pondering this, but before he could speak...

"Check the fingerprints."

Xu Huo said casually, glancing at the victim's hands.

"The fingerprints were removed," Qian Hua said, shaking his head. "The layer of skin on the fingertips was sliced off by the killer with a knife. All ten fingers are like that."

"The fact that the fingerprints were cut off is the point!"

Xu Huo stated decisively.

'Cutting off the fingerprints...'

'That's a clue in itself!'

"Locard's exchange principle, Captain Li, you remember it, right?"

Xu Huo said slowly.

Li Jianye paused, thought for a moment, and his eyes lit up.

"You mean..."

"Exactly. The killer has a high level of counter-surveillance awareness, but it's precisely that awareness that turns the fingerprints into a clue."

Xu Huo nodded.

Locard's exchange principle states: Every contact leaves a trace.

The killer cut off the fingerprints, leaving knife marks. What does that mean?

It means the police lost the fingerprint clue.

But here's the question: have you ever seen a case that was solved using the fingerprints from a victim's own hands?

There aren't many.

Most fingerprint clues come from what the killer leaves behind. From a police perspective, it's the killer's prints that are useful!

From that standpoint, the victim's fingerprints are useless. You can't even use them to check his identity, because these days, the authorities don't collect the fingerprints of ordinary citizens.

"If that's the case, why was the killer so concerned about the victim's fingerprints?"

"Does he not know the criteria for fingerprint registration?"

"No. He's the Thief King, a professional criminal. He understands fingerprint collection better than anyone. And that's precisely why he removed them."

"In other words..."

Xu Huo paused, then said:

"The victim's fingerprints *can* be found in an internal system!"

"And the killer knows that finding those prints would directly expose him, which is why he had to get rid of them!"

A person doesn't do useless things while committing a murder.

You've killed someone.

Now, you need to use cleaner and water to wash away the evidence.

Your goal is to make the scene clean. So, where do you focus your efforts?

On the tiles that weren't spattered with blood and were already clean?

Or on the tiles covered in filth and blood?!

The latter, of course.

Whatever the killer fears most is what he will try hardest to hide. And what he hides is precisely what the police need most!

It's the same principle behind dumping a body. The hidden corpse is what the police most want to find.

What if the fingerprints weren't useless? Or what if the fingerprints were part of the motive for the murder?