Perhaps because they had just finished an all-night work, both of them were huddled together due to the cold. Green Hair was holding a bag of steamed dumplings in his hand, which seemed to be breakfast for Xiao Liu.
When Big Liu said that his brother Little Liu was missing, I suddenly felt a buzzing in my head. An ominous premonition instantly surged into my heart. I immediately pushed away Big Liu and Green Hair who were blocking the door and rushed into their room.
When I arrived at their room, I saw that everything in the room was almost the same as when I left yesterday. There was no sign of fighting or struggling, and Ding Yang and I didn't seem to hear any strange noises last night. But if that's the case, where did Xiao Liu go
Thinking back to Xiao Liu's condition last night, he was so scared that he couldn't walk, so it was impossible for him to leave alone in the middle of the night. Could it be that Xiao Liu had been murdered without anyone noticing
I suddenly remembered the warning from the so-called 'Pen Fairy' that Xiao Liu told me yesterday: "You are the only one left. Tonight is the day you die!" I suddenly felt more and more uneasy. I immediately turned to the green-haired man behind me and asked: "How did you get up here?"
"Take the elevator. Who would take the stairs in such a cold day?"
Ding Yang always knew what I was thinking, and immediately said, "You two take the elevator to the fourth floor and see if there's anyone at the elevator entrance. Ji Wen and I will go to the stairs. Hurry!"
Before Ding Yang finished speaking, I had already run towards the stairs. Although I didn't know what the people behind me were discussing, Ding Yang soon caught up with me. I guess Green Hair and Da Liu had already gone to the elevator entrance on the fourth floor to check.
Soon, Ding Yang and I arrived at the stairs and rushed downstairs. As soon as I reached the stairs on the fifth floor, I looked down along the handrail and saw a scene that shocked me!
At the staircase on the fourth floor, it seemed like someone had fallen there, and the ground was covered with a lot of blood!
When I saw this scene, I suddenly felt as if I was struck by lightning. I almost fell down the stairs. I rushed to the person lying on the ground and finally saw clearly that this person was Xiao Liu who disappeared last night!
At this time, Xiao Liu had completely lost his vital signs. He fell in a pool of solidified blood with blood all over his face. Although his eyes were closed, I could see that his left eyelid had collapsed deeply. It seemed that Xiao Liu, like the previous two victims, had his left eye gouged out.
Ding Yang and I were both shocked by Xiao Liu's body. Green Hair and Big Liu, who arrived shortly after, immediately laid on Xiao Liu's body and cried loudly after seeing it. Their crying also attracted residents from the third and fifth floors. For a moment, the entire staircase on the fourth floor was surrounded by a large number of onlookers.
"It's someone from the family on the sixth floor again. I don't know what evil this family has done. This is the third person to die."
"Looking at their appearance, I know they are definitely not good people. They must have done many evil things and are being targeted by evil spirits. Who knows if this can be considered as getting rid of harm for the people."
The residents who were watching were talking about the scene and making comments. As a professional forensic doctor, Ding Yang had already completely protected Xiao Liu's body. He then called Officer Yang and asked him to come over quickly.
At this moment, I felt as if time had stopped around me. The scene of meeting Xiao Liu last night and Xiao Liu asking us to accompany him kept flashing through my mind. It formed a very sharp contrast with the corpse in front of me, making me feel extremely regretful and self-blame from the bottom of my heart.
If I had not been so confident last night and arranged for Xiao Liu to rest in our room, he would not have become like this now. Everything is my fault. I blame myself for being too selfish and too confident.
I was deeply immersed in self-blame and I don't know how much time had passed when I suddenly felt a hand patting my shoulder. I turned around and saw that Officer Yang had arrived at the scene. The look in his eyes was very complicated and I don't know how to describe it. In short, if I had to understand it, it was a look of disappointment.
I turned around and looked at Xiao Liu's body on the ground. I saw Ding Yang had put on gloves and a mask and started to perform an autopsy on the body. Officer Yang called me to a deserted place with a serious face and suddenly said, "What did you do? I arranged for you two to guard here, and something unexpected happened!"
As far as I can remember, this was the first time Officer Yang got angry with me. Although his tone was only a little tougher and more serious, I understood that he must have been forcibly suppressing his inner anger.
Originally, I was in the wrong regarding today's incident, and I did not refute Officer Yang's words. I just lowered my head in shame.
Now I have no other emotion except regret. I even feel that I was the one who actually killed Xiao Liu.
Perhaps Officer Yang saw how depressed I was, so his expression improved a little. He sighed and said, "Don't blame me for being harsh on you. Ding Yang just told me what happened last night. You knew that this person might be killed, so why didn't you protect him in time? The same goes for Ding Yang. You are not a policeman, so you don't know these rules. Doesn't he know them too?"
"Don't blame Ding Yang. I am responsible for what happened yesterday. I was too careless. You should blame me if you want to."
I know that since Ding Yang is a member of the special case team and has a special identity, Officer Yang cannot teach him a lesson directly, so Officer Yang took out his anger on me.
After listening to me, Officer Yang turned around and looked at Ding Yang who was concentrating on examining the body, then said to me: "Forget it, now that it has happened, it is useless to blame anyone. In the next period of time, I hope you can do your best to find the murderer of this murder case. Can I give you three days?"
Officer Yang still likes to give people a time limit to solve a case, but now I am filled with guilt and didn’t think too much about it. I agreed immediately.
After chatting with Officer Yang for a few more words, I gradually relaxed and turned to ask Ding Yang, "Can you confirm the time of death?"
Ding Yang raised his head and said, "The time of death should be between 1 and 3 o'clock last night. The cause of death is still the same, he was strangled to death, and the left eye of the deceased was dug out and disappeared. If we look at the previous two deaths, the eyeball should still be in the body of the deceased. I will know after I return to the institute to perform an autopsy."
Last night, from 1 to 3 o'clock, wasn't that exactly the time when Ding Yang and I went back to the room to sleep? I shook my head vigorously, letting the lingering self-blame in my mind temporarily leave my mind, and carefully recalled what happened when I went to bed, but I did sleep a little soundly last night and couldn't remember anything.
Ding Yang seemed to have finished his work. He took off his gloves and mask, motioned other officers to take the body back, and then turned around and said, "I slept lightly last night, but I'm sure I didn't hear any noise all night. How did the murderer kill Xiao Liu without anyone noticing? You know, the sound insulation of this room is quite poor. I can hear the slightest noise in my room, not to mention Ji Wen's bedroom which is close to their room. So, this is a problem we must figure out now."
I agreed with Ding Yang's opinion and nodded, "Yes, this is indeed a very strange thing. Xiao Liu said there was someone at the door last night. How did that person disappear in front of us? According to the situation at the time, there were only three of us, Uncle Liu and Grandma Feng. When I passed by Grandma Feng's room, her room was pitch black. Obviously, she had fallen asleep, so that's why."
I really want to say that it is now basically confirmed that the murderer is Uncle Liu, but I always feel that this vague inference may not be accurate. If Uncle Liu becomes a suspect because of our wrong inference, I will feel guilty.
Ding Yang took over the topic at this time and said: "I don't think so, because when I was examining the body just now, I found some subtle clues. Although they are inconspicuous, they are very convincing."
As he spoke, Ding Yang took out a small plastic bag from his pocket, pointed inside and said, "Look what's this?"
Officer Yang and I leaned over to take a closer look and discovered that the small plastic bag contained a small black stone about one-third the size of a grain of rice. If you didn't look carefully, it would be really hard to spot this thing.
To me, this thing is just an ordinary stone. I wondered, "What is this? Where did you find it?"
Ding Yang did not answer, but took out the key ring from his pocket and aimed it at the pebble. Suddenly, the pebble was attached to the key ring through the plastic bag. It turned out that this thing was a small magnet!
"This is a magnet. I found it on the neck of the deceased. Ji Wen, think about it carefully. We saw this thing yesterday."
Hearing this, I was a little puzzled, wondering when I had ever seen such a magnet? But when I turned my eyes to the key ring in Ding Yang's hand, I suddenly realized what Ding Yang meant!
"You mean? The bunch of keys that Uncle Liu brought to open Wang Tao's door last night?"
Yesterday when we asked to open the door of Wang Tao's house for inspection, Grandpa Liu went downstairs to get the spare key. At that time, I took a rough look at the spare key. There was a whole bunch of keys, and each key had a number plate on it. Grandpa Liu did not sort the keys carefully, but just tied them all up with a rope, as if he was afraid that the rope would break. He also used a large magnet to absorb the keys. If this kind of small magnet appears on Xiao Liu's neck, then it can be basically confirmed that the murderer is definitely Grandpa Liu!
I was about to state my conclusion when Ding Yang sighed and said, "There is another discovery. This discovery has completely confused me, who already had a clue."
After that, Ding Yang took out a small plastic bag from his pocket. I took a closer look. Inside the plastic bag was some black powder, which seemed to be left after something burned. This powder was particularly dazzling to me! Because I have seen this thing before! And this thing does not belong to Uncle Liu!