Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Liu Guodong nodded: "It’s almost done. The DNA extraction has been completed, and they should be matching it now. If it matches successfully, our work on this side will be considered concluded."

The work in the office here has been fruitful. Out of the eight skeletal remains, aside from Wang Mingshan, three of them had their identities successfully matched in the morning.

In the afternoon, the identities of two more skeletal remains were successfully matched, leaving only two.

If the matching is successful, the crime scene investigation office will have completed this part of the work.

"Do you need me to go down and help?"

Liu Guodong waved his hand: "The extraction of the skeletal DNA information is done, there’s not much left to do. Two people are watching the machines down there, the results should be available soon. Take a rest quickly, as they will be coming up soon too. The rest can be dealt with tomorrow morning."

Lu Chuan nodded and said: "Alright, Master, I’ll take a nap first."

Having only slept three to four hours the night before, and then being busy for another day and night, Lu Chuan has only rested for a little over three hours in these two days.

Utterly exhausted, Lu Chuan fell asleep as soon as he lay on the camp bed.

Half an hour later, Old Bai and Yang Sen returned to the office, dragging their tired bodies.

"Finished?"

Old Bai shook his head and nodded: "Two are done, but we couldn’t determine the identity of one skeletal remain, probably no hope for DNA identification."

"That’s great, out of eight skeletal remains, seven identities have been confirmed."

Actually, from a pure case-solving probability standpoint, confirming the identities of seven out of eight skeletal remains means if a case could be solved, it likely already has been. If not, even confirming the last skeletal identity might not crack the case.

"You guys should sleep a bit, rest well, I’ll report the situation to Captain Qin, he’s waiting for updates."

"Alright, we have been holding on for two days and nights, a bit worn out, need to sleep."

Old Bai glanced inside: "Lu has also finished his work. When did he return?"

"Not too long ago, just a little over half an hour before you guys, exhausted and fell asleep as soon as he lay down."

"This case was fortunate to have Lu’s laser detection method."

Yang Sen agreed with a nod: "Old Bai is right, without that method to quickly locate the skeletal remains, we’d still be digging under the Lion Mountain Bridge."

With some remains found together and others scattered apart, such a wide range, digging them out one by one without a laser method would likely take ten days to half a month.

"Alright, let’s get some sleep."

...

Early the next morning, when Lu Chuan woke up, it was already bright outside.

"Awake?"

"Here, hot buns, beef-filled buns made by the cafeteria this morning."

Old Bai had woken up long ago, saying that as he is older, he sleeps less, even though he hadn’t rested much for two days and nights, five to six hours of sleep would wake him up, he wants to sleep but can’t.

After resting for six to seven hours, Lu Chuan felt much more refreshed: "Thanks, Brother Bai, I’ll wash my face and brush my teeth before eating the buns."

"Awake?"

Yang Sen had also been up for a while, currently watching a drama at his desk.

Unplugging his earphones for some external sound, Yang Sen had recently been following a spy war TV series called "The Message."

Lu Chuan had watched one or two episodes as well, well-shot, with tight pacing and twisty plots, it’s very tense to watch.

"We shouldn’t have much to do today?"

"Almost, wait and see what happens when Old Liu comes back from the meeting."

Lu Chuan tidied up, folded the quilts and put away the camp bed, washed his face, and brushed his teeth.

He came back and devoured two large meat buns.

"Brother Yang, what episode are you on?"

"Almost finished, I’ll catch the finale today, just three episodes to go."

TV shows, unless particularly poorly made, often tend to keep you watching beyond the first one or two episodes.

"Then I’ll watch too."

In the morning, with not much to do, Lu Chuan enjoyed the buns and milk while joining Yang Sen in watching the drama.

But while watching, the buns in Lu Chuan’s mouth became difficult to chew.

The drama reached a plot point.

An undercover operative within the military command was tortured during identification, and through tapping on the hospital bed using Morse code, passed information to the nurse in care.

Ultimately, he successfully relayed crucial intelligence.

Lu Chuan’s attention fixated on the Morse code.

He suddenly remembered having read Wang Mingshan’s resume.

"Brother Yang, you were quite familiar with Wang Mingshan back in the day, right?"

"Not bad, we were of similar age, quite familiar. Why?"

"I saw Wang Mingshan’s resume, he transferred from the army, wasn’t he a communication soldier?"

"Yes, Wang Mingshan used to be a communication soldier in the army, I heard he even earned an individual third-class merit, which is why he transferred to Haizhou City’s Public Security Bureau back then."

Communication soldier?

Morse code?

The tibia with uneven scratches?

Lu Chuan jumped up suddenly!

"Holy! I know!"

Lu Chuan’s sudden jerk startled Yang Sen and Old Bai.

"Lu, are you okay?"

"What’s up?"

"The skeletal remains!"

Lu Chuan was excited: "Wang Mingshan’s skeletal remains, Brother Yang, Brother Bai, do you still remember how we found scratches of varying lengths on his tibia when we discovered them early yesterday morning?"

"I remember. You said it seemed like scratches made by a sharp object, possibly left behind when Wang Mingshan was tortured by his murderer."

Lu Chuan nodded and then quickly shook his head: "The scratches left by the sharp object were correct, but those scratches weren’t left by the person who killed Wang Mingshan when torturing him."

Last night, Lu Chuan had revisited the scratches on Wang Mingshan’s tibia, noting their varying lengths and regular patterns.

"It was Wang Mingshan who left them himself, through Morse code, trying to tell us something!"

"Wang Mingshan’s murder must be because he discovered some crucial clues or evidence!"

"The reason why the murderer didn’t kill him immediately and instead buried him alive under the Lion Mountain Bridge must have been to find the evidence Wang Mingshan discovered."

"Did they manage to find that evidence?"

"Are you saying..."

"I don’t think they found it. Wang Mingshan left us a clue, right on his tibia."

"The scratches on his tibia were deliberately left by him!"

"Wang Mingshan knew he was going to die and didn’t know when he would be discovered, already dead, so he left marks on his own bone. Remember his tibia, which had torture marks from the enemy that wouldn’t be noticed?"