Chapter 453: Eight Skeletons
The traffic on Lion Mountain Bridge was unceasing, with trucks speeding by one after another.
The daytime traffic on Lion Mountain Bridge wasn’t particularly heavy, as this road connected the highway outside the city and the local logistics transport base.
During the day, trucks were not allowed to pass over Lion Mountain Bridge, so the inbound logistics vehicles would shuttle through only at night.
While vehicles crisscrossed above the bridge, the search for skeletal remains continued underneath.
The search team led by Lu Chuan found more skeletal remains on the south bank than on the north.
In less than an hour, three sets of remains were already discovered.
As Lu Chuan examined the skeletons, he roughly estimated their time of formation, ranging from as recent as three to five years to over ten years ago.
There were now five people, adding the three skeletons from the south bank to those found on the north.
Old Bai grumbled that under Lion Mountain Bridge was becoming a mass graveyard.
"Old Bai, this case is turning out to be big, with five victims, and we don’t know how many more there might be."
Yang Sen sighed, stretching his back. Though the variable laser spectrometer wasn’t particularly heavy at around 10 kilograms, wearing it around the neck was unbearable after a few hours.
"Here comes more work! Look over there, there’s another one!"
While chatting, Old Bai’s area ahead emitted a faint flash of green light.
More detectives followed to assist with the search, as it became untenable to dig up all the bodies. Each burial site needed at least four people taking turns to excavate.
Today, four new burial sites of skeletons were discovered, occupying 16 detectives.
Naturally, more people had to be dispatched.
Originally stationed in the Criminal Investigation Team’s office, Qin Yong could not sit still, so he went directly to the site under Lion Mountain Bridge.
There was no choice; if only one or two bodies were found, Lu Chuan and Liu Guodong would manage, but in just a few hours, four new bodies were unearthed. Adding Wang Mingshan’s remains brought the count to five.
And now, Old Bai discovered another one.
The originally planned two-hour search on the south side of Lion Mountain Bridge was not completed.
Because too many skeletal remains were found.
By the time Lu Chuan and the others had scoured the entire southern area, it was already half-past midnight.
Altogether, there were six sets of remains from the southern area.
Thanks to the action last night, Group Two was responsible for the southern area, while Lu Chuan started searching from the north, quickly locating Wang Mingshan’s remains.
If Lu Chuan had begun the search from the south, things might have been even bigger.
Of course, there were only so many skeletons. Now, including Wang Mingshan’s remains, eight victims had been found in total.
Eight people!
The longest period of someone being killed extended roughly 20 years; the bones had become incredibly fragile, crumbling at a touch.
Handling such delicate skeletal remains wasn’t easy for most, so Lu Chuan had to take the lead personally.
But a time span of 20 years was quite terrifying.
Lion Mountain Bridge was built just over 20 years ago, meaning it became a burial ground for the perpetrators shortly after its construction.
Who on earth had such audacity?
To have killed so many people!
Finding eight sets of remains in one location was unprecedented in the history of the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team’s case-solving.
Qin Yong’s face was now livid. He was contemplating whether to report the case to a higher authority, ideally having a special task force from the provincial department take over.
With only Wang Mingshan’s case, the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team could still potentially push the case forward, but now it appeared this was far from simple.
Eight people were dead, and it could only be said that at least eight people had died, over a span of more than 20 years.
Among them were a civilian and a policeman, two officers. Explaining the murders as personal vendettas seemed far-fetched.
So what was the real motive for the killings? Apart from significant vested interests, Qin Yong couldn’t come up with any other reasons.
Should this be reported?
Qin Yong alone couldn’t make this decision, or rather, he couldn’t decide without input from the municipal bureau.
"Old Liu, I’ll leave this to you for now. Call in the forensic team to start the skeleton identification analysis. I’m heading to the municipal bureau to report."
"Yes!"
At this hour, it was unlikely that Song Jiangguo would still be working overtime in his office.
So Qin Yong could only call Song Jiangguo.
For the past two years, Song Jiangguo hadn’t been sleeping well. He found it hard to fall asleep and was easily woken up, struggling to fall back asleep once disturbed.
Over time, many of the leaders in the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau had caught on to this issue with Song Jiangguo, so they never called him at night.
Qin Yong was well aware, but he had no choice but to call at this time.
If the call went unanswered, he might even have to go knocking on Song Jiangguo’s door.
When the call connected, Qin Yong could sense through the phone that Song Jiangguo was undoubtedly furious, so he quickly got to the point.
"Director, eight skeletons were discovered under Lion Mountain Bridge, including the remains of Wang Mingshan found yesterday. The longest time span for the victims is about 20 years."
Eight skeletons?
Hearing the number, any drowsiness vanished from Song Jiangguo.
He got up from bed and went to the study, letting his wife continue sleeping and not to wake her.
"What are your thoughts?"
Since bodies had been discovered, the next step was solving the case. Qin Yong was calling both to report the basic situation and to seek advice.
This was no time for pleasantries or trivialities; what the leadership wanted were straightforward recommendations and insights.
"Director Song, the first option is for us to solve the case, but it will undoubtedly be very challenging."
"Eight bodies have already been found under Lion Mountain Bridge. Whether there are others involved and how many remain unknown."
"Among those involved were Wang Mingshan and a civilian policeman, two officers. The reasons for the perpetrator’s involvement are clearly not due to personal revenge or grudges."
"At that time, when the police officer went missing, he was investigating his brother’s disappearance. Wang Mingshan also disappeared and was subsequently murdered after looking into the policeman’s case."
"The current understanding of the cases suggests there is likely a connection to Songbei Mining."
"Five years ago, during the investigation into Wang Mingshan’s disappearance, Songbei Mining exerted pressure on us, which you should remember well."
"So, although the case currently has no clear direction, I suspect this series of cases might all be linked to Songbei Mining."
Songbei Mining...
The events from five years ago were still vivid. Not only did Song Jiangguo know the situation, but he also endured the greatest pressure at that time.