Around 10 AM, the Paris-sur-Mer Bar Parking Lot was cordoned off with yellow tape.
Rao Xian arrived at the scene, and Vice-Captain Shao Hui immediately came over to report to him. The informant was Long Xinyu, the vice president of the Long Group, and the body was discovered in his trunk.
According to Long Xinyu, he attended the company’s cocktail party last night and handed his car keys to the valet at the hotel entrance. Before the party ended, he left with his friends Wenren Ying and Li Guang. At that time, the valet also drove the car to him. Afterwards, Long Xinyu and his group of three drove separately to Paris-sur-Mer to continue drinking. When they were about to leave today, they found a strange smell in the trunk, opened it, and discovered the body, immediately reporting it to the police.
While listening to Shao Hui’s report, Rao Xian walked towards the car. From a distance, he could see that the car was a silver-gray classic Porsche. The trunk was open, and the forensic science team and medical examiner were taking photos, collecting evidence, and performing a preliminary autopsy. Even from a distance, he could smell the nauseating odor unique to corpses.
As Rao Xian approached, he saw the body of a man with a mangled head curled up in the trunk.
Shao Hui followed behind Rao Xian, covering his nose as he reported: “The deceased is Min Jun, male, 31 years old, who runs a chain of hotels. He attended the Long Group’s celebration party at his hotel last night. The body was discovered this morning. The medical examiner estimates the time of death to be between 10 PM and 2 AM last night. Because it’s summer and the temperature is high, and the car was parked outside with the trunk closed, the body started to decompose after only a dozen hours.”
Rao Xian was surprised that the identity could be confirmed so quickly, given the condition of the head.
Shao Hui forcefully covered his nose and explained: “The medical examiner found the deceased’s cellphone in his pocket. The cellphone is locked, but the lock screen is a selfie. The informant, Long Xinyu, and the others identified that selfie as Min Jun. Moreover, according to Long Xinyu, he met Min Jun last night and remembers the clothes he was wearing. So, although the deceased’s head is severely deformed, we can still confirm it’s Min Jun.”
Rao Xian understood, turned around, and looked at the three people who were being separated and questioned by the police officers not far away, asking, “Are those the ones who reported it?”
“Yes.” Shao Hui nodded, pointing at Long Xinyu and saying, “That’s Long Xinyu; the car is his.”
Rao Xian asked, “Do Long Xinyu and Min Jun know each other?”
Shao Hui’s voice was muffled because he was covering his nose: “Yes, they said they’re friends in business, known each other for some years.”
Rao Xian pondered: “Is Long Xinyu a suspect?”
Shao Hui shook his head: “We can’t be sure yet. Long Xinyu’s driving recorder and parking surveillance are gone, but the forensic science team said the card was taken out. Also, the first police officers who arrived said they vomited all over the place. Judging from their reaction to the body and their condition before reporting it, the suspicion is not small. The medical examiner estimates that the time the living people were active was when they were drinking heavily in the bar. The waiter in the private room can testify for them. I just verified with the waiter. They were singing, drinking, and playing cards in the private room after they entered, and no one left. The bar surveillance also doesn’t show them leaving the private room—uh—blegh—”
A wave of stench hit, making Shao Hui unable to continue speaking and feeling nauseous.
Rao Xian sympathetically patted Shao Hui: “Okay, take it easy. Keep an eye on the forensic science team’s collection of evidence, don’t miss any clues. The car may have been moved, so this may not be the original crime scene. I’ll go over and chat with them.”
Shao Hui barely suppressed the feeling of nausea and nodded repeatedly.
Over there, Long Xinyu leaned weakly against the police car. When the body was discovered, Wenren Ying vomited on the spot, causing Long Xinyu to throw up as well. Li Guang was the only tough one, although his face looked bad, he managed to hold it in. After the police arrived, the three of them were separated for questioning.
Long Xinyu never imagined that Min Jun’s body would be in his car, and that the death would be so horrible. If the police hadn’t shown him the photos from the found cellphone and the dark patterned suit, Long Xinyu almost wouldn’t have recognized it was Min Jun – his head was smashed to pieces, covered in brain matter and blood, and his eyeballs were bulging out – ugh, thinking of that image made Long Xinyu want to vomit again.
At this moment, the medical examiner completed the preliminary autopsy and evidence collection, put Min Jun’s body into a body bag, and wheeled it towards the police car, passing by Long Xinyu.
Long Xinyu, who was listlessly recounting his experiences from last night to today to the police, saw the body bag, and combined with the memory of Min Jun’s appearance, the fishy stench in his nose seemed to intensify. He couldn’t stand it anymore, waved his hand at the police, covered his mouth, and went to the side to continue vomiting, but he had already thrown up once, and now, there was nothing left in his stomach, so he could only dry heave.
Rao Xian was about to approach when he saw Long Xinyu bending over and dry-heaving near the green belt.
Rao Xian looked up at the sky. First Shao Hui felt nauseous, then Long Xinyu dry-heaved, making him feel a little nauseous too!
Rao Xian paused for a few seconds, turned around, went back to the car to get a bottle of mineral water, and took a few paper towels. He walked over, greeted the police officer who was taking Long Xinyu’s statement, and handed the mineral water and paper towels to Long Xinyu, who was bending over and dry-heaving.
Long Xinyu was feeling very uncomfortable from the vomiting, and without looking at who it was, he took the paper towels and covered his mouth, took a deep breath, and struggled to suppress the feeling of nausea before straightening up and using the mineral water to rinse his mouth.
Seeing Long Xinyu standing up straight, Rao Xian asked, “Are you feeling better?”
Long Xinyu didn’t answer. He tilted his head back and used all the remaining mineral water to rinse his mouth, then wiped his mouth and nose with a paper towel. He turned around, found a trash can, threw the water bottle and paper in, and then turned his head to look at Rao Xian with slight gratitude.
He saw that this person was tall and slender, looked very young, had dark skin, thin cheeks, clear features, bright eyes, a high nose bridge, and slightly full lips. He was wearing a light-colored coat, a black T-shirt underneath, and dark blue jeans – the overall feeling was clean and bright.
Rao Xian also sized up Long Xinyu. The man looked very tired, but his appearance was good. His handmade suit was wrinkled and a little sweaty, looking a bit decadent. However, Rao Xian noticed that Long Xinyu threw the trash into the trash can instead of littering, and felt that this person could pay attention to details under these circumstances, so he should be quite cultured. Perhaps mainly because he looked very sophisticated, it was easy to feel favorably towards him.
Rao Xian smiled at Long Xinyu and introduced himself: “You must be Mr. Long Xinyu. Hello, my name is Rao Xian. I’m the police officer in charge of this case. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Long Xinyu exhaled and cleared his throat, pointing his chin at the police officer over there and saying, “I’ve already told them everything I need to say several times. Simply put, someone killed Min Jun and then threw the body into my car, making me nauseous until now, and the car is ruined too.” As soon as he mentioned nausea, Long Xinyu felt his stomach churning again. He felt around in his pockets, wanting to find a cigarette, but he realized he didn’t know where his cigarettes were. He asked Rao Xian, “Officer Rao, do you have a cigarette? Give me one. My stomach is too uncomfortable; I need to smoke one to calm it down.”
Long Xinyu’s tone was a bit rascally, and Rao Xian felt that his way of speaking contradicted his previous behavior a bit.
While observing Long Xinyu, he said, “I’m sorry, I don’t smoke.”
Long Xinyu curled his lip and leaned weakly against the police car.
At this time, the police officer who had been taking Long Xinyu’s statement organized the record of Long Xinyu’s statements and handed it to Rao Xian.
Seeing that Long Xinyu looked a bit listless and irritable, Rao Xian didn’t insist on asking questions. Instead, he took the record, read it through, and then said, “Mr. Long, you said that you saw Min Jun around 9 PM last night, and then you took the car key from the Wanxing Hotel valet at a little after 10 PM and went to the car. So, you believe that the deceased was killed at the hotel and then dumped in your car?”
Long Xinyu nodded. When he attended the cocktail party, he gave his car keys to the hotel valet for parking. While at the hotel, Min Jun was still harassing Luo Pingping, full of energy, but today, Min Jun’s body was in the trunk of his car. Judging by the timeline, Min Jun was likely thrown into his car during the time between his return to the lobby and driving away from the hotel.
When he, Wenren Ying, and Li Guang sneaked out of the cocktail party, Min Jun’s body should already have been in his car, but at that time, Min Jun may have just been killed, and the smell of the body hadn’t spread out yet, so it wasn’t discovered. Just now, if Wenren Ying hadn’t tripped and smelled the strange odor, the body might have been discovered even later.
Thinking that there was a body in his car and that he might have even driven it home, Long Xinyu felt a headache coming on.
Rao Xian listened to Long Xinyu’s deductions, observing his expression at the same time, and felt that what he said was likely the truth.
Rao Xian waved his hand, and Shao Hui came over with Li Guang’s and Wenren Ying’s statements to report to Rao Xian: “Captain, the statements are all done.”
Rao Xian took and looked at Li Guang’s and Wenren Ying’s statements, which were mostly the same as Long Xinyu’s account, with only minor differences, and no suspicious points.
Rao Xian looked up at Long Xinyu, didn’t ask any more questions, and instructed Shao Hui to take them back to the station to cooperate with the investigation first. After verifying with the hotel, bar, and valet to confirm that Long Xinyu and the others had no suspicion of committing the crime, they could be released.
Therefore, Long Xinyu and the others were taken back to the police station.
When Rao Xian returned to the police station, the video from the hotel was sent over. From the video, it could be seen that during the time Min Jun was killed, a person wearing a black hooded sweatshirt came out of the hotel’s staff elevator and went straight to Long Xinyu’s car. They used the car key to open the car door and drove the car behind a pillar and never came out.
After seven or eight minutes, Min Jun went out from the elevator and walked straight towards the pillar. Then, although the pillar was blocking the view, it could still be seen that the person took something and hit Min Jun’s head. Immediately, Min Jun fell down and was dragged into the trunk. Afterwards, that person actually repeatedly struck Min Jun outside the trunk, this process lasting about five minutes.
After that, that person stopped. After two minutes, because the pillar was blocking the view and that person didn’t make any big movements, it was impossible to see what they were doing behind the pillar. But two minutes later, that person closed the trunk of the car and left. After another period of time, the valet came to drive Long Xinyu’s car away.
After Rao Xian watched the video, he got up and went to the Forensic Medicine Lab to inquire about the autopsy results.
Lin Dong of the Forensic Medicine Lab was performing a preliminary autopsy.
Rao Xian asked if there were any findings.
Lin Dong pointed at Min Jun’s head and showed Rao Xian: “Very direct. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, resulting in a skull fracture and brain tissue damage.”
Rao Xian looked at the body and asked, “Are there any other wounds?”
Lin Dong shook his head.
“Can you confirm the murder weapon?” Rao Xian asked again.
Lin Dong was uncertain: “The skull damage is severe. It must be a blunt object. Oh, I found this in the wound. It may have fallen off the murder weapon.” As he spoke, he took off his gloves and handed Rao Xian an evidence bag.
Rao Xian took it and saw a large, sparkling piece of glass on the outside of the bag.
“A broken diamond?” Rao Xian looked at Lin Dong and asked.
Lin Dong nodded: “It’s a broken diamond, and not an ordinary glass diamond, but a fake diamond. It may have been on the murder weapon, and it fell off the murder weapon when the murderer struck Min Jun’s head.”
Rao Xian was surprised: What kind of murder weapon has diamonds on it? A diamond-studded murder weapon is too expensive!
Also, diamond-studded items are generally sparkling, and usually, men like them more, so could the murderer be a man?
No, Rao Xian quickly rejected this idea. Although the hooded figure appeared for a short time, their height was about the same as Min Jun’s. Min Jun’s height was 177cm, so the perpetrator’s height wasn’t less than 177cm. Such a height and the walking posture in the video made it unlikely to be a woman.
Rao Xian stopped guessing. After taking a picture of the broken diamond with his cellphone, he returned the evidence bag to Lin Dong. When Lin Dong reached out to take the evidence bag, he revealed the watch on his wrist.
Rao Xian’s eyes lit up. He thought for a moment and called the Evidence Section. After getting the answer, he wanted to return to the office to verify. As he turned around the corner, he heard a commotion.
Rao Xian walked a few steps quickly in confusion, turned the corner of the corridor, and saw two groups of people facing off at the elevator entrance. One group was three or four people in suits and ties surrounding a middle-aged man in his fifties, and the other group was Long Xinyu and Li Guang. The middle-aged man was shouting something at Long Xinyu in a hoarse voice, while Long Xinyu and Li Guang were coldly watching the man.
Rao Xian quickly walked over and asked loudly, “What’s going on? Why are you shouting so loudly in the police station?”
The middle-aged man turned his head and said aggressively, “Are you a police officer? Why did you let the murderer go? Long Xinyu is the murderer. He killed my son. Why did you let him go?”
Rao Xian heard the middle-aged man’s identity and said, “Are you Min Jun’s father?”
The middle-aged man said, “I’m Min Bocai. Min Jun is my son.” Then he glared fiercely at Long Xinyu: “I’ve seen the hotel surveillance. The video clearly shows Long Xinyu kicking my son in the hallway. My son’s body was also found in his car. He can’t get away with my son’s death. Why did you let him go?” As he spoke, he pointed at Long Xinyu with his finger.