Chapter 130: The Case Completed with K’s Assistance? Sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service!

In Lin Tian’s previous criminal investigation experience, cases where the victim suffered a fatal wound to the back often led to an immediate surge in adrenaline, giving the victim a few seconds to react to the pain, allowing for some resistance.

However, at the scene of the crime, the Rose Flower Shop, no signs of struggle or fighting were found.

It’s important to note that the flower shop had many glass items, such as vases and pots. Even the slightest collision would likely have caused a mess, yet the crime scene was suspiciously clean. Apart from some dried blood on the floor and a few scattered flower petals, there were no signs of a chaotic crime scene.

With his keen criminal investigation experience, Lin Tian quickly realized that the victim might have suffered from hypoglycemia.

Judging by the victim’s height and weight, she was abnormally thin, weighing only 43 kilograms. For someone over 1.6 meters tall, hypoglycemia was a likely concern.

In terms of both practical experience and medical statistics, people with very low body weight are more prone to hypoglycemia than those with normal weight.

Additionally, given the large number of orders on the day of the crime, the victim might not have had time to eat and might have overexerted herself, resulting in hypoglycemia and a subsequent fainting episode.

At the moment the victim lost consciousness, the murderer, codenamed “Rose,” took a pair of scissors from the shop and stabbed the victim in the back.

Because the victim was already unconscious due to hypoglycemia, she was unable to struggle, which explained the absence of typical resistance during the attack.

…

Director Gao, highly experienced in handling cases, nodded in agreement with Lin Tian’s analysis and responded affirmatively, “You’re right, Director Lin.”

“From further investigations, I confirmed through the victim’s boyfriend that she had severe hypoglycemia.”

“She had previously collapsed on the street due to low blood sugar and had to be rushed to the hospital.”

“Even the miscarriage…”

“Most likely occurred because of malnutrition and hypoglycemia.”

“While investigating the murderer, I also noticed how clean the crime scene was. After further investigation, I was able to rule out the possibility that the victim’s hypoglycemic state provided the murderer with an opportunity.”

“In the flower shop’s trash bin, we found wrappers from candy and chocolate.”

“Based on the level of withering in the flower stems pressed at the bottom of the trash bin, it’s clear these were snacks the victim had eaten that day.”

“This suggests that, despite not having time for a full meal, the victim was very aware of her condition and deliberately ate items like chocolate to boost her energy.”

“This confirms that the possibility of the victim fainting from hypoglycemia is effectively ruled out.”

This answer left everyone in the room puzzled. If it wasn’t hypoglycemia, then why was there no resistance when she was killed?

Lan Jing adjusted her black-framed glasses and spoke seriously and earnestly, “From a criminal psychology perspective, if…”

“When a victim doesn’t resist or attempt to escape during a fatal attack, there are three possible reasons.”

“The first possibility is that the victim was already dead before receiving the fatal wound, and the stab to the back was just a trick to mislead the investigators.”

“The second possibility is that the victim was controlled and unable to resist, or perhaps was in a hypoglycemic coma, and thus couldn’t struggle when injured.”

“As for the third possibility, which I suspect the most…”

“In criminal psychology, if the victim is extremely shocked or disappointed by the identity of the killer, the grief that erupts in that moment may overpower the will to survive.”

“And if there is no will to survive, there’s no struggle, and the victim might simply give in and die.”

After she finished speaking, the healthy, dark-skinned Guo Ping suddenly seemed to realize something, and quickly added, “Dr. Lan, the situation you just described sounds similar to a child murder case I once heard about.”

“It’s roughly like this…”

“A middle school student was strangled by her stepfather. In her struggle to survive, she almost broke free.”

“Then she suddenly heard her stepfather shout a name, asking someone to help. Shortly afterward, another pair of hands grabbed her legs.”

“At that moment, when the middle school student heard the name and felt her legs being held, she immediately stopped struggling and let the suffocating sensation take over.”

“Because the name her stepfather called, and the person who grabbed her legs, was her biological mother.”

“Based on this case, could it be that the person who made the victim stop struggling, in the absence of her boyfriend being a suspect, was perhaps her biological parents?”

“Actually, I think there’s a chance her boyfriend might have some involvement in the case.”

Lan Jing and Guo Ping’s speculation was bold and shocking. Furthermore, the example Guo Ping provided wasn’t fictional, but an actual case, giving it some credibility.

Previously silent, Su Ming gently shook his head, furrowed his brow, and calmly said, “No, this possibility is low.”

“First of all, the victim’s actions—jumping from a building and stealing the household registration book to get married—show that her personality was not weak. She had her own determination, and her relationship with her parents wasn’t particularly good.”

“Even if her parents were involved, it’s unlikely they could make her stop resisting. The scene would not be so clean.”

“As for her boyfriend…”

“We can’t consider him for now. After all, he regularly checked in with Director Gao about the case.”

“If the murderer really were her boyfriend, then based on his mental composure, it’s almost unimaginable. The probability is too low.”

“By the way, have you all noticed something? Why was the victim’s face deliberately removed and stuck behind the glass door of the flower shop?”

“She was already dead. Why go through the extra effort of cutting off her face?”

“I think…”

At this point, Su Ming glanced around the room before turning to Gao Chao and speaking seriously.

“If we can confidently rule out the possibility of a random, perverse killer like Zhou Shiru, who treats murder as art…”

“Then this case is most likely a premeditated one.”

“Also, don’t forget…”

“This case is the assessment case for Rose’s induction into the Kill organization. To avoid being traced as much as possible.”

“Every step of the case was likely meticulously designed. The chances of that are very high, far higher than the probability of a random killing.”

“Then.”

“I noticed an important detail.”

“Just now, Director Gao mentioned that due to the close proximity of Valentine’s Day and the Lunar New Year, flower shops that remained open saw a significant increase in sales.”

“Most flower shops saw their sales increase by about twice, but the deceased’s flower shop’s sales actually tripled.”

“This is very unusual.”

“Because the deceased’s flower shop hadn’t been open long and hadn’t built up many repeat customers or a good reputation yet.”

“Plus.”

“Director Gao also mentioned that the deceased’s flower shop was in a rather remote location, not in a particularly busy or populated area.”

“So with all these factors, why did the deceased’s shop see such a huge increase in orders?”

“A threefold increase right off the bat? This is already more than the orders in popular areas.”

At this moment.

Gao Chao, who had been listening attentively to Su Ming’s analysis, couldn’t help but express surprise, silently taking a sharp breath in.

He hadn’t expected Su Ming’s deduction ability to be so impressive.

Just from the flower shop’s operating hours, its location, foot traffic, and the comparison with other flower shops’ sales growth, he immediately concluded…

That there was likely a significant issue with the number of orders at the deceased’s shop that day.

But unfortunately.

Gao Chao still shook his head, looking somewhat helpless, and replied.

“Deputy Team Leader Su.”

“Your idea isn’t wrong. When we were unable to find clues initially, we did look into the order issue as a last resort.”

“But we still didn’t find anything, and we didn’t see any unusual circumstances like a particular phone number or contact placing multiple orders for bouquets.”

“Even the deceased’s boyfriend had called some of the numbers left by the orders and explained that they could only cancel the orders due to special circumstances, and there was nothing unusual about that.”

“Since there were no duplicate orders, and someone answered the phone, I feel that the possibility of order fraud…”

Before Gao Chao could finish his sentence.

Su Ming immediately interrupted him, shaking his head with a frown and rebutting.

“Director Gao, something’s not right.”

“When we didn’t understand the drug trafficking organization situation, it was possible to dismiss the possibility of issues with the orders due to no repeat orders.”

“But now…”

“We are quite certain that the leader of this large drug trafficking organization is a very skilled computer hacker.”

“And using hacking techniques to fabricate virtual numbers for placing orders shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Of course, the premise is that the leader of this drug trafficking organization is willing to assist Rose in doing this.”

“If it were another member of the organization, perhaps the leader wouldn’t choose to help with the murder, seeking fairness and justice in the assessment, and verifying the criminal ability of the members.”

“But if it’s Rose, I think the leader of the drug trafficking organization might be willing to help.”

“Because just the human skin mask alone is enough for him to step in and assist.”

“This also gives us a new perspective.”

“If we can verify that all the excessive orders were placed using virtual numbers fabricated through hacking techniques, it would mean…”

“The leader of the organization helped, and the reason Rose was recruited into this drug trafficking organization was precisely because of her outstanding ability to create human skin masks.”

“Using the human skin mask as a breakthrough point could help us quickly unearth Rose.”

After Su Ming presented this theory.

Lin Tian, who had been standing beside him, thought for a moment before nodding in agreement.

“Xiao Ming.”

“I think your approach is viable. Creating such realistic human skin masks isn’t some common skill.”

“Tracking Rose through that is definitely feasible.”

“But the problem lies in how we verify the authenticity of the orders.”

“It’s been over five years. Even if we get the e-commerce platforms to cooperate with us, it’s likely that we won’t be able to trace anything.”

Compared to Lin Tian’s concern.

Su Ming smiled faintly, squinting his eyes, and confidently said.

“Director Lin, you’re mistaken.”

“In fact.”

“If the time gap was too short, it would actually be hard to investigate, but now, five years have passed, and it’s just the right amount of time to check if the orders were legitimate.”

“Because if most of the orders were fake, that would mean they were placed using virtual numbers fabricated by the leader of the drug trafficking organization.”

“The reason the phone calls were able to go through back then was simply because they deliberately maintained these virtual numbers for a period of time using servers.”

“The goal was to cover up the virtual numbers and the traces of the order used for the murder.”

“And it’s easy for someone to answer those calls. You only need to use the simplest voice changer, and one person can easily impersonate hundreds of people over the phone.”

“As for how to verify this theory.”

“It’s actually quite simple.”

“The leader of the drug trafficking organization absolutely wouldn’t maintain so many virtual numbers for over five years until now.”

“So, as long as we get the phone numbers that were used for orders back then, and call a few or even a dozen of them, we can easily verify this theory.”

“Since many services now require phone numbers to be tied to software and bank cards, most people don’t change their phone numbers, though number portability is more common.”

“So, we’ll pick ten numbers. If three to five of them answer, that means the orders five years ago are probably real.”

“But if all of them are disconnected, that would mean the flower shop orders five years ago definitely had a problem.”

“The question now is…”

“Director Gao, do you still have the phone numbers from the orders placed at the flower shop back then?”

Upon hearing Su Ming’s bold deduction.

Gao Chao was a bit stunned, but immediately reacted, quickly nodding.

“Yes, we kept them for evidence!”

After saying that.

Gao Chao immediately turned on the projector in the meeting room, connected the computer, and brought up the evidence collection process for the revealing case.

After searching for a few seconds.

Gao Chao clicked on a photo showing the order details from the Meituan backend at the time of evidence collection.

Each order detail had a contact number listed for the buyer.

Without hesitation.

Su Ming immediately took out his phone, dialed the first order number from the photo, and put it on speakerphone.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

…

The expected dial tone didn’t sound.

Instead, after a faint beep, the familiar robotic voice came through.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is disconnected. Please check and dial again.”