The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1141 Preparing for the Autopsy

It was a button found in the grass 50 meters away. It was made of black resin and had four holes. It was the same style as the button on the victim's jacket, but the buttonhole had a tear. "It should have been snagged by a tree branch during the dragging," Xiao Yang said, attaching a label. "Evidence number: Scene 37. Although it can connect the dragging route, it still cannot identify the murderer."

As the team wrapped up, the setting sun cast long shadows of the two men onto the roadbed marked with investigation markers. Xiao Yang's investigation notebook was filled with 43 clues, each marked with its relevance in red, but only seven were considered "highly relevant," and none directly pointed to the suspect's identity. "At least we've determined the killer's basic characteristics," Xiao Sun said, placing the last bag of soil samples into the police car. "Male, 170±2cm tall, physically strong, drives a compact sedan, familiar with the conditions of National Highway 339, possibly engaged in a physically demanding occupation—these details can narrow down the search."

As the sirens faded into the distance, the floodwaters in the culvert returned to calm, with only the evidence markers floating on the surface swaying slightly. The scattered clues—bloody scratches, blurred shoe prints, a broken key—were like pieces of a puzzle. They hadn't yet found a way to piece them together, but Xiao Yang knew that as long as he continued to follow these traces, the figure hidden in the dust kicked up by the wheels would eventually be revealed in the beam of the investigation lamp.

The stainless steel table in the autopsy room gleamed coldly under the operating lights. When the body, transported from the culvert under National Highway 339, was wheeled in, the smell of formalin clashed violently with the stench of river mud. Zhang Lin, wearing double-layered latex gloves, pinched the zipper of the body bag, and water trickled down the seams, forming a meandering stream on the ground. "There is obvious maceration on the body surface," his voice sounded somewhat muffled through his mask, the scalpel reflecting a cold light on the tray. "The deceased is male, estimated age 40-50, height 172±2cm, weight approximately 65kg."

Assistant Xiaolin moved her measuring tape across the body, data rapidly jumping across her notebook: "The skin all over the body has changed to a parchment-like texture, and there is a net-like maceration visible on the palms and soles, which are typical characteristics of a body submerged in water." Her pen paused on the words "dark blue jacket," the fabric of which had swelled from prolonged immersion in water, and a piece of seaweed was tangled in the nylon rope at the cuffs. "The clothing is intact, but there is a 2x3cm tear on the left chest, with irregular edges, possibly caused by gravel from the culvert." Zhang Lin suddenly pointed to the deceased's fingernails: "Notice the cyanosis of the nail bed, and there is silt and seaweed fibers in the nail groove. Take a sample for diatom testing."

The post-mortem examination revealed an irregular 4x5cm laceration on the deceased's head, with contusions at the edges and mud and small stones inside the wound cavity. "There's still a living reaction at the edges of this injury," Zhang Lin said, probing the wound with a probe. Decaying tissue flaked off around the probe. "Although water has blurred some features, the inward curl of the skin at the wound edge indicates it was a ante-mortem injury." Xiao Lin suddenly noticed a grating sensation in the deceased's right temporal region. "Professor Zhang, there might be a skull fracture here!"

“Measure the body temperature first.” Zhang Lin didn’t reply, but inserted the electronic thermometer deep into the rectum. The number fluctuated around 18°C. “Ambient temperature 20°C, water temperature 16°C,” he said, referring to the formula for the temperature drop of a body in water, his pen tracing across the calculation paper. “The core temperature of the body is 2°C higher than the water temperature. Based on the rate of temperature drop of a body in water, which is 0.8°C per hour, the preliminary estimate of the time of death is 96-120 hours. However, a low-temperature environment will slow down decomposition, so other indicators need to be considered.”

During the rigor mortis examination, Zhang Lin lifted the deceased's upper limbs. The shoulder and elbow joints had a range of motion of about 10 degrees, and the wrist joint could bend slightly. "The whole body is in the remission phase of rigor mortis," he said, pressing his fingers on the quadriceps muscle, which showed poor elasticity. "Rigoletto appears later and resolves faster in bodies submerged in water. This state corresponds to more than 72 hours after death, but the exact time depends on the livor mortis." The livor mortis on the deceased's back was pale purplish-red, and did not completely fade when pressed. It was distributed on the back and the back of the limbs. "The location of the livor mortis is consistent with the supine position, and there are no signs of movement, indicating that the body was not disturbed after death."

As the scalpel made a Y-shaped incision in the cadaver's chest, the subcutaneous tissue appeared unusually thick due to edema, and the yellowish fatty tissue became translucent after being soaked in water. "Subcutaneous bleeding is not obvious," Zhang Lin said, his scissors separating the sternocleidomastoid muscle. "No fractures of the sternum or ribs, and a small amount of pale yellow fluid, about 50ml, in the pleural cavity, consistent with drowning, but further examination of the airway is needed." Xiao Lin suddenly pointed to the inner wall of the trachea: "Teacher Zhang, there's mud and fragments of aquatic plants here!"

The mud and sand in the trachea and bronchi were grayish-brown, mixed with small shell fragments, and their composition was exactly the same as the river mud in the culvert. "This is a typical sign of drowning," Zhang Lin said, taking samples with a pipette, "but other causes of death cannot be ruled out, as the person may have been violent before falling into the water." When he examined the lungs, he found that both lungs were swollen, with blunt and rounded edges, and a large amount of foamy fluid overflowed from the cut surface. "The lung weight was increased, exceeding the normal 1000g, and under the microscope, the alveoli were filled with edema fluid and a small amount of mud and sand, which is consistent with the pathological changes of drowning."

During the abdominal dissection, the stomach contents were a thin liquid containing undigested rice and vegetables, approximately 200ml. "We'll extract a sample for toxicology analysis," Zhang Lin said, carefully avoiding the bloated intestines with his scissors. "There are a few bleeding points on the gastric mucosa; whether this is a stress response from drowning or poisoning needs to be confirmed by testing." The liver was dark red with sharp edges, and dark red blood flowed out when it was cut open. "The liver and spleen are not ruptured, ruling out abdominal trauma."

There was a distinct pale area of ​​skin around the deceased's left wrist, about 2 cm wide, contrasting sharply with the surrounding soaked skin. "This is a mark left by restraints," Zhang Lin measured with a ruler. "The edges are neat, with no looseness, indicating that he was restrained before his death." Samples of the skin tissue within the mark revealed dark blue fiber residue—completely consistent with the composition of the nylon rope found at the scene. "The murderer may have tied his wrist with a rope, which matches the drag marks inside the culvert."

Regarding the final confirmation of the time of death, Zhang Lin considered all the indicators. His fingers traced the outline of the body on the autopsy table, each feature like a precise clock hand pointing to that hidden moment of death. "The corneal opacity of the body is grade two, and there is slight cloudiness in the pupillary area, with the iris texture faintly visible." He picked up the ophthalmoscope, the beam penetrating the opaque cornea and casting a blurry spot of light on the retina. "Grade one opacity usually appears 12-24 hours after death, manifesting as corneal epithelial edema."