Criminal Investigation Notes

Chapter 32:

After finishing their midnight snack, Lu Junchi helped Su Hui collect the dishes and utensils. When he finished cleaning up the kitchen, Su Hui was already sitting at his desk, buried in various materials and books.

Lu Junchi remembered the *vaccination that Lu Haochu had given him earlier and said, "We have to be at the bureau by 9:00 a.m. at the latest tomorrow for a meeting with the criminal investigation team. Can you wake up by 8:00 a.m.?"

(yu fang zeng) lit: Immunization injection - Fig: forewarning

Su Hui nodded seriously and said, "You can use force if necessary."

"If you don't get up, I'll just pull the blanket off you," Lu Junchi said, remembering how effective that had been when he tried it on Lu Haochu.

Su Hui nodded again with his head down.

Lu Junchi approached and saw that Su Hui was looking at the materials brought back from the bureau in the afternoon. "Is there a problem with these cases?"

Su Hui, feeling warm and full, rubbed his forehead and said, "I think these two cases are very different."

He had spread out the files of the two cases on the desk and was comparing them. The first case was executed calmly and cleanly, while the second was chaotic and disorganized, with bloodstains everywhere.

Overall, it was clear that the perpetrator of the first case had come prepared, while the second case looked like the work of a novice.

Su Hui added, "The two residential areas are also very different. The second one is much more upscale than the first."

The more upscale the residential area, the more secure it should be. However, the higher the risk when committing a crime.

The first case occurred in an old residential area with buildings no higher than six floors, while the second was in a high-rise building with an elevator on the twelfth floor.

After the first case, they found a blurry image of a suspect on nearby surveillance cameras.

In the second case, the elevator camera didn't capture any footage of the killer going up or down the building. Does this mean that the killer climbed up and down without encountering the community patrol or security guards at the entrance and that none of the cameras captured them? This is obviously unreasonable.

Su Hui continued pointing to several photos of the victims and said, "In addition to what we saw today, in the first case, although there were also injuries caused by a blunt object, they only appeared on the husband's body, indicating that they quickly subdued the husband upon entering the house. In the second case, the wife was killed by a blunt object, and only the mother-in-law had a knife wound, which does not fit the killer's *modus operandi."

After frowning and looking at it for a while, Lu Junchi also noticed the abnormality and said, "Could it be done by different killers?"

Su Hui pointed to the portrait of the suspect next to him and said, "But there is one thing that cannot be explained. If it was done by different killers, why are the suspect portraits so consistent?"

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If it was done by different killers, the police have not disclosed any information about the first robbery case, and the eyewitnesses of the second case should not have seen the killer, so why can they accurately describe the suspect's appearance?

Moreover, it was the eyewitness of the second case who first pointed out that there were three killers in total.

Lu Junchi could not explain these and said, "Then let's start investigating these doubts."

Su Hui said, "I want to go to the scene of the second case tomorrow."

Lu Junchi nodded and said, "I'll contact Captain Qi and we'll go there together tomorrow for a re-examination."

Although he was mentally prepared, when Lu Junchi woke up early the next day, ran a few laps, took a shower, and finished his breakfast, Su Hui's room was still quiet, and there was no sign of him getting up.

Lu Junchi went to bed at twelve o'clock last night. When he was sleeping, Su Hui was still awake. He could hear the sound of his slippers walking around, but he didn't know how late he stayed up.

At 8:05 in the morning, Lu Junchi knocked on the door and walked into Su Hui's bedroom. The curtains were drawn and Su Hui was sleeping soundly with an eye mask on. His phone was placed next to him, with the alarm ringing, but he didn't seem to hear it. Lu Junchi suspected that even if the phone ran out of battery, he still wouldn't get out of bed.

Lu Junchi stood at the door and knocked, "*Professor Su, it's time to get up."

*I'll start using professor instead of teacher considering the fact that Su Hui teaches at a university so it's more accurate to call him that. I'm too lazy to go back and change the previous chapters so just bear with it.

Su Hui murmured softly.

Lu Junchi approached and helped him turn off the alarm, "Hurry up, Su Hui, we'll be late."

Su Hui whispered, "Just... ten more minutes of sleep."

Lu Junchi checked the time and said, "Five minutes at most. You have to get up after five minutes."

Su Hui murmured again.

When Lu Junchi finished changing his clothes and went back into the room, Su Hui was still in the same position as before.

Lu Junchi patiently called out to him for the third time, "Su Hui, it's time to get up. If you don't get up now, we'll be late."

This time, Su Hui turned over and pressed his right ear against the pillow, while his *deaf left ear faced Lu Junchi.

TN: *Never thought I would see the day someone used their disability to get out of waking up earlier haha. While in my case, the slightest noise or movement close to me and I'm instantly awake.

Lu Junchi didn't waste any more words and walked to the bed. He pulled the curtains open with a loud noise, then unceremoniously lifted Su Hui's eye mask with his fingers and pulled down the blanket a bit.

Su Hui's sleeping position was exposed, lying on his side with a pair of pajamas on. His shirt had already rolled up, revealing a slender and fair waist. One of his hands was placed on his chest, while Aristotle was sleeping soundly curled up in his arms.

After Lu Junchi's fussing, both Su Hui and his cat finally woke up.

Su Hui obediently got up, quickly washed up, and changed clothes.

As it approached 8:30, Su Hui finally emerged from his room in his shirt, which he had tucked into his pants to accentuate his slim waist.

Fully awake by this point, Su Hui expressed some regret, saying, "I'm sorry for oversleeping. I'm not hungry, so I won't eat breakfast. Don't be late later."

However, Lu Junchi handed him a cup of hot milk and a steamed bun, saying, "Finish the milk and eat the bun on your way."

As Su Hui drank the milk and ate the bun, he glanced up at Lu Junchi.

When the two of them got in the elevator, Su Hui was still nibbling on the bun.

Lu Junchi had already eaten one of these buns that morning, and he had placed a sheet of paper underneath it. However, upon seeing that Su Hui hadn't noticed the paper and that a small piece of it was missing, he began to sweat profusely, while Su Hui continued to enjoy his breakfast.

"Wait, there's something on the bun," Lu Junchi quickly snatched it from Su Hui's hand and removed the remaining sheets of paper. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's all gone now. Go ahead and eat it."

Su Hui simply replied with an "Oh" and took the bun back, taking a bite and saying, "The skin of the bun isn't as chewy as it used to be..."

TN: How has he survived alone up to this point?! 

Lu Junchi: "..."

He made up his mind to check the food thoroughly before giving it to Su Hui next time.

After all the fuss, Su Hui arrived at work on time and without incident.

The other members of the task force had already arrived, and the case files were finally complete.

After listening to Captain Qi's introduction of the case and investigation progress, everyone got to work. Lu Junchi made the work arrangements and brought Su Hui and the forensic examiner to follow Captain Qi to the second crime scene.

Captain Qi's real name was Qi Zhengyang. He was an old captain of the Criminal Investigation Department II of the General Bureau, in his forties, and had a somewhat conservative demeanor. He was the one who led the team to initially investigate the case when it was brought up to the local bureau, so he came along this time as well.

The crime scene was a duplex penthouse. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom were downstairs, while two bedrooms and a study were upstairs. The area of the duplex was not small, estimated to be close to two hundred square meters. In the crowded and expensive city, owning such a well-decorated residence meant that the family was considered middle class.

The crime had happened only two days ago, and the other family members had temporarily moved in with relatives. The crime scene was still well-preserved.

Su Hui put on gloves and shoe covers. As soon as he entered the house, he smelled a strong, heavy scent of blood, which made him cough a few times.

Lu Junchi also scanned the environment of the crime scene. Then he looked at Su Hui. Interestingly, whenever Su Hui picked up the documents or arrived at the scene, his lazy demeanor disappeared, replaced by a focused and dedicated one.

Su Hui first took a look at the first floor and observed the marks on the ground. Various labels and markers had been placed by the evidence examiner. The number one position was where the body of the deceased, Xie Peilan, was located, and the number two position was where the mother-in-law fell and was injured.

Starting from position number one, Su Hui followed the fixed line on the scene photos and examined the body's marks. It was clear that Xie Peilan was lying flat next to the TV cabinet.

The autopsy report received that morning confirmed that the victim died from multiple head blows, resulting in a skull fracture, severe brain injury, and bleeding.

Then Su Hui's gaze fell on the blood stains on the wall. These blood stains were obviously formed by the spraying of blood from Xie Peilan's severe injury.

It was the largest bloodstain on the scene, and the large red area was blurry in his eyes.

Su Hui took a step closer, and only then did he see the blood spots around the bloodstain clearly.

The duplex building is exquisitely decorated, with a layer of dark floral wallpaper on all the walls. The bloodstains on the walls were sprayed onto the wallpaper.

With the development of forensic technology, blood has become important physical evidence in criminal investigations. Blood not only contains a lot of information, but the *spatter pattern is also worth studying. Due to the color, texture, flow, and permeability of blood, which are different from other liquids, the spatter pattern has its particularity. There are even specialized blood spatter pattern analysts abroad.

Compared to complicated lies and perjury, blood spatter patterns are often one of the most difficult pieces of information to fake.

In the absence of a body and other physical evidence, bloodstains can present many clues. Looking at the dark red bloodstains on the wall, Su Hui frowned slightly. He had been to some crime scenes before and had seen many photos taken after the crime, but this bloodstain on the wall was different from what he had seen before.

The bloodstains seemed to be alive like they were spread out by a brush and bloomed into beautiful flowers on the wallpaper.

These bloodstains seemed to be trying to tell them something...

After Su Hui entered the room, Lu Junchi had been observing the bloodstain. He leaned in and asked, "Is there a problem here?"

Su Hui nodded and said, "I need to take a closer look."

He used his gloved fingers to trace the range of the bloodstain on the wall. When he reached the low area on the ground, he knelt down. He had just recovered from his waist injury, so it was not very convenient, but he didn't mind getting his pants dirty.

Lu Junchi reminded him carefully, "The ground is dirty. Why don't you put something down?"

Su Hui didn't mind at all and said, "I'll just wash my pants later."

Su Hui carefully looked at the bloodstains on the wall and turned to ask Qi Zhengyang, who was standing beside him, "Captain Qi, the testimony you asked about earlier was that the grandmother heard unusual sounds and went downstairs to check, right?"

Captain Qi sighed, "That's what the husband and father-in-law said. I went to the hospital this morning and asked the grandmother who had just awakened. She also said the same thing."

Su Hui said, "Then it's very likely that these people are all lying."

TN:Seems like there's more going on here than meets the eye. Su Hui nibbling on the wrapping paper is adorably cute even though I know it's because he can't see clearly. Am I a bad person for finding humor in that?

Modus Operandi

*Modus operandi abbreviated as M.O -  Is a Latin phrase meaning mode of operating. In criminal law, modus operandi refers to a method of operation or pattern of criminal behavior so distinctive that separate crimes or wrongful conduct are recognized as the work of the same person. In the context of serial killers, modus operandi refers to the specific way in which a killer commits their crimes, including the methods and techniques they use to select and approach their victims, the way they carry out the crime, and the way they attempt to avoid detection. In the context of criminal law, some examples of modus operandi include the method of entry, the type of property targeted, the time of day the crime was committed, and the type of weapon used

Blood Spatter Analysis

*Blood spatter analysis (or bloodstain pattern analysis) is a forensic technique in which stains of blood at a crime scene are examined to provide information about the incident, such as how or where the victim was killed. Blood spatter analysis includes the process of examining blood that has struck a surface, and applying knowledge regarding the characteristics of blood and the shapes or patterns made by its impact, in order to determine things like the direction, angle, and speed of its flight prior to impact, and, ultimately, to assist in reconstructing events that occurred in connection with the crime. 

The study involves detecting, describing, and analyzing the size, shape, distribution, number, location, and pattern of bloodstains, as well as the nature of the surface where the blood landed (target surfaces), and the relationship among various bloodstains at the scene. Potential target surfaces can include virtually any surface capable of sustaining detectable bloodstains the victim, the victims clothing, the suspect, the suspects clothing, any weapon(s), any vehicle(s), or any other surfaces, such as walls, floors, or ceilings.

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