Murder Puzzle Code 6

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Chapter 6

"This..." the maintenance worker looked confused, and then said firmly, "Our company's employees have received professional training. It is impossible for this kind of thing to happen. Auntie, did you misunderstand?"

The lady pointed to the logo on the maintenance man's chest, "I remember correctly, he belongs to your company."

The maintenance man seemed to be very sure that this kind of thing was by no means their doing, “Our company has rules and regulations. As long as there are workers at work and people ask us to help with repairs, we can't refuse. And to book maintenance from our company, you can just call us. There is no need to make an appointment online. Auntie, the person you saw is definitely not from our company!”

How can they bring so much temper to work while working to earn money? They must strictly abide by the rules and regulations set by the company. If they are caught breaking the rules, their wages will be deducted!

Yu Jing saw that neither of them seemed to be lying, so he politely suggested to the maintenance man, “Since Auntie is so sure, why don’t you just check if this family had made an appointment with your company for maintenance before?”

“Does it matter whether you’ve made an appointment or not?” The maintenance worker was a little speechless. He didn't understand why he kept asking about the other party when he was clearly applying for maintenance of the air conditioner's outdoor unit.

He was not very willing to check, but there were are always some customers who would be stubborn. If they complained, his work this month would be in vain. And there was a policeman standing next to him. If he said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing, his job would probably be ruined.

Thinking about it, he had no choice but to turn on his phone and enter the company's backend to search for information records.

Fortunately, information was now developed, and records were relatively easy to find.

"Well... I found it! Room 1402, Building 6, Chaoyang Community! They applied for it, but there’s no dispatch information!" This meant that the company did not arrange for a maintenance worker to come to the house for repairs.

The maintenance worker looked at the people in front of him in disbelief. He handed the phone to the other person and explained, "The record I saw here is that they made an appointment for maintenance last week, but they took the initiative to cancel the appointment three days ago. So, the maintenance worker you saw must not be from our company!”

Customers who made and then cancelled reservations like this were quite common in their industry. After all, everyone had their own things to do. If there was a sudden family gathering, going out, or something unexpected happening, the worker would be asked to change the time, or simply cancel it directly.

So they didn't mind the cancellation of the appointment.

Yu Jing looked at the records on the worker's phone and thought, "Does the company keep the customer voice calls?"

When the maintenance man heard the question, he didn't know how to answer for a moment, and said, “I am just an air conditioner repairman. I always follow the company's instructions. I really don't know what happened to the company! Why don't you ask the company directly?!”

He was so nervous that he almost lost his grip on the toolbox in his hand. Ordinary people like them would only have the opportunity to talk face-to-face with the police very few times in their lives. Besides, nothing good would come of talking to the police!

Yu Jing quickly bent down and grabbed the tool box. After returning the box to the worker, he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't be nervous. It's just a routine interview by the police. Go to work!"

The maintenance man ran into the customer’s house like he was running for his life, "Where is the problem?"

The lady pointed in the direction of the bedroom, "It's the air conditioner outside the master bedroom. The screws seem to be loose. It's been wobbly these days. I'm afraid it will fall."

"Okay, I'll go take a look."

Yu Jing's eyes were fixed on the maintenance worker, his gaze meaningful. 

Zhou Xiaoyang followed Yu Jing's gaze and whispered, "Boss, is there something wrong with him? Do you want me to check it out?"

Yu Jing shook his head, "He doesn’t have a problem."

“The four members of the Yin family died two days ago, and they suddenly cancelled the scheduled air-conditioning maintenance the day before the incident. The timing is too coincidental.” As Lu Yan said this, he put on his gloves, shoe covers and mask. He looked back, glanced at Yu Jing, looked at Lin Xiangli and Fang Zhishu and nodded.

"Thank you, forensic doctor Lu for your advice, but have you finished your forensic work?" Yu Jing picked up the forensic toolbox outside the door and placed it next to the shoe cabinet inside the door.

Lu Yan smiled lightly and said, "It is also my duty to remind everyone of the time of death of the deceased."

After saying that, he raised his hands in front of his chest and walked inside cautiously. Because he had just arrived in Jianglong City and needed to go to the appraisal centre to apply for joining, he didn't arrive at the initial site. Last time he was blocked at the door for various reasons, so this was his first time entering the site. 

Observing on site was far more convenient and real than looking at photos.

Seeing that Lu Yan was starting to work seriously, Yu Jing did his part and began to mobilise other people on the scene.

"There is surveillance in the elevator." Yu Jing pointed to the elevator and said to Du Zheng, "Du Zheng, go to the property management to check the monitoring of this week. I want to know which company the neighbour said that maintenance personnel came to visit the Yin family."

Perhaps the Yin family had other maintenance workers to help them, so they cancelled the appointment with Aneng Maintenance Company.

Du Zheng nodded and immediately took the elevator downstairs.

Then Yu Jing looked at Zhou Xiaoyang and said, "Xiaoyang, please cooperate with Fang Zhishu to check the maintenance marks on the outdoor air conditioner."

"Okay." Zhou Xiaoyang nodded and dragged Fang Zhishu, who was leaning against the handrail of the stairs without working spirit, towards the crime scene.

"I can walk by myself, let go!" Fang Zhishu stretched lazily, moved his neck, and then slowly started to put on shoe covers.

Zhou Xiaoyang was ready in a matter of seconds. He stood aside and kept urging, "Why are you so not in a hurry when doing the trace inspection? What if the evidence gets lost? Hurry up!"

Fang Zhishu raised his eyes and glanced at Zhou Xiaoyang, "Is it useful to be anxious? Keep your mind calm. The more anxious you are, the more likely you are to make mistakes."

Moreover, due to the exposure to the sun in the past few days, the outdoor air conditioner was horribly hot, and a lot of the evidence would be contaminated, making it less likely to be used.

Lin Xiangli and Lu Yan walked slowly in the room. They stopped at the door of the master bedroom and looked at the water stains in the corner. On the way there, they heard Yu Jing mention this idea and immediately squatted down to take pictures of the clues.

Lu Yan didn't like Yu Jing as a person, but he respected Yu Jing's labour results and work experience.

Lu Yan recorded the data, lowered his head and calculated the result, "According to the width and length of the soles of the feet, the height of the deceased is between 1.73 and 1.75 metres."

Lin Xiangli checked the information and nodded to Lu Yan. The height of the deceased Yin Ding was indeed within this range.

The two walked into the master bedroom and were immediately attracted by the dark red colour on the wall.

Lu Yan squatted down and looked up at the blood stain, "The blood stain has no spatter, the edges are blurred, and there is no blood dripping. This was printed."

"You are saying it’s fake?" Yu Jing came to the door of the master bedroom at some point.

Lu Yan pursed his lips and explained in a deep voice: "The blood stains are real, and you should have obtained the appraisal report."

As he spoke, he suddenly stood up, grabbed Yu Jing's shoulders, and the pen in his hand suddenly changed its head, and the end of the pen holder was thrust towards Yu Jing's waist and abdomen.

Yu Jing wanted to resist, but he felt that no matter how unpleasant Lu Yan was, he was not someone who would mess around at the crime scene, so he immediately withdrew his fist that was about to rush out.

He was ready to be retaliated by Lu Yan, but Lu Yan held the pen and finally just touched Yu Jing's abdomen with the end of the pen. He didn't feel much pain.

"After entering the master bedroom, the deceased struggled with the murderer, but he was defeated. After the knife was snatched from his hand, the murderer pressed him against the wall and stabbed him." After Lu Yan finished the demonstration, he took back his pen and clamped it in his notebook. He looked up and admired Yu Jing's slightly frowning brows and said sarcastically, "Captain Yu is so cowardly. Do Captain Li and the others know?"

Lu Yan looked Yu Jing up and down, raised his eyebrows and teased, "Nice abs."

Yu Jing's expression froze and he said with a sneer: "I thought the forensic doctors had seen so many bodies that they had no feelings anymore."

"There are definitely feelings." Lu Yan smiled, "After all, forensic doctors prefer to dissect corpses with less fat content."

After saying that, he turned around and returned to normal, carefully observing all traces in the room, even the corners. As far as now, the furniture scattered in the room could basically find corresponding traces on Yin Ding.

After the murderer stabbed Yin Ding, he beat him for a long time. The furniture at the door of the second bedroom was not so messy, because he found someone who he could use to blackmail Yin Ding, and that was Yin Jiande who came out to check.

"That's why the murderer grabbed Yin Jiande's arm for the purpose of threatening." Lu Yan walked to where Yin Jiande was.

The body had been moved away, but the blood stains on the ground were still there. It was not difficult to see that Yin Jiande had moved his position after falling to the ground, from the original back facing the second bedroom to the side facing the second bedroom.

Maybe it was because he knew he couldn’t hold on any longer, so he wanted to take another look at his lover!

"As for Meng Wen..."

Before Lu Yan could speak, Yu Jing took over and said, "There were splatters of Meng Wen's blood on the door frame. The murderer stabbed her by the door, then dragged her into the second bedroom and strangled her with a curtain."

Case inference was also one of his responsibilities, and he could tell when he saw the blood stains on the edge of the door frame, as well as the blood stains and footprints on the ground.

Lu Yan raised his eyebrows slightly, but nodded affirmatively. He turned back to the door, "The one with the most problems is Yin Ding. During the autopsy, we found something wrong. Yin Ding stretched out his hand to ask for help, but..."

As he spoke, he pulled out a photo from his notebook and found blood stains on the low stool used to put on shoes by the door, “The murderer smashed the deceased's arm with a stool to prevent him from calling for help, but the other hand of the deceased was in a half-clenched fist position with no trace of fracture, but there was slight redness and swelling in the tiger's mouth*. Therefore, we suspect that the deceased had something in his hand during the tragedy.” (vv: If you extend your hand, with the area between the thumb and first finger stretched open, you can see how it gets its name—with the slightly-curved space being reminiscent of the mouth of a tiger, in full growl.)

The reason why he wanted to go back to the scene to check was also to find out what the deceased was holding? Was it something that was missed when removing evidence?

Yu Jing understood, turned to the police officer outside the door and said, "The trace inspection people are searching at the crime scene, and the others are in charge of the community. They must find the thing that Yin Ding was protecting before he died."

“Yes, Sir!” 

“Captain, your phone is ringing," The police officer immediately reminded.

Yu Jing nodded, took off his gloves and shoe covers and walked out of the scene, taking out his mobile phone from the police uniform placed on the handrail of the stairs to answer the call.

“Captain, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon three days ago, a man wearing maintenance worker clothes was indeed photographed in the elevator arriving on the 14th floor and leaving in about half an hour.” Du Zheng asked the property management company to zoom in on the video, but the suspect was wearing a hat and a mask and covered himself tightly, making it impossible to see what he looked like.

“But...Captain, after this person left, Yin Ding's family went out for dinner, and after they came back from dinner, they never showed up again.”

Yu Jing thought for a while and then said, "Call the maintenance company and confirm whether they sent someone over that afternoon. If they did, then I was just overthinking it."

The author has something to say: 

Small theatre: 

*Daily Life*

5 a.m.: Yu Jing gets up and goes outside for a morning run.

7 a.m.: Yu Jing finishes his morning exercise and comes back to wash up; Lu Yan gets up. 

Three meals a day: Yu Jing eats whatever he has, and often even has no time to eat because he is too busy; Lu Yan eats healthily according to nutritional standards.

8 p.m.: Yu Jing is still working; Lu Yan finishes work, gym and martial arts training.

11pm: Yu Jing pushes away the documents in front of him, leans on the table and dozes off; Lu Yan goes to sleep.

Although we are not in the same place and have different schedules, we are living actively and hard, just so that you can have light in your eyes when you see me.

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