As the saying goes, “Good things don't work, and bad things work.”
Sun Shaozong's premonition came true!
Although Qiu Yunfei and Zhao Wuwei followed the way and asked about the identities of the two victims in the labor market, they gained nothing except for bringing back a group of old and young people crying for the misery of their homes.
Those two men were not completely without enemies. However, there was not much hatred between them, and it was not worth such a cruel killing.
Second, their enemies were all working laborers. It might be possible for them to kill people, but it was sheer nonsense to say that they were willing to dump a jar of wine and rent a carriage to dump the bodies!
These days, when New Year's Day was approaching, the labor market was also bustling, and no one noticed whether the two laborers left by themselves or were employed by others.
As for Sun Shaozong's inference based on the body, there weren’t any clues regarding a man with a disability in his right arm, which provoked Qiu Yunfei to say a lot of sarcastic things behind his back.
Then…
The next morning, there was another corpse in the morgue!
This time, the victim was a beggar who was also frozen to death after his limbs were broken, and the injury to his right arm was also much heavier than that of other parts.
The only difference was that the place where the body was dumped last time was in the southern city, and this time it was changed to the east city.
"The two dump sites are about nine miles apart. It is almost certain that they were dumped by a carriage."
"Given the scope of the deceased's regular activities, there is a little overlap between the two laborers. It can be inferred that the possibility of hate killing can be ruled out, and it is very likely that it is a catharsis crime with no fixed target."
Sun Shaozong muttered to himself that on the brief map of the Central Judicial Office, he marked the approximate positions of the two places where the bodies were dumped and then drew a circle with a radius of four and a half miles from the center point by using a straight line link.
He then knocked the self-made charcoal pen on the map and asked, "Zhao Wuwei, leave the inner city and the outer city alone. In the range I roughly circle, how long will it take to check all the people with the right arm?"
Zhao Wuwei looked at it carefully for a while, and his face looked like a bitter gourd. He said cautiously, "Report to Master. If I do my best, I will need three or four days, but now it is the end of the year, and people are busy..."
Sun Shaozong also didn't want to listen to his complaints. He asked directly, "Can we finish the investigation by the 28th?"
Zhao Wuwei's face became more bitter. He collapsed his shoulder and said, "This is really..."
"Let's talk about manpower."
Qiu Yunfei listened for a long time, then suddenly interrupted, "There are many people in the city defense camp. They are my father's old subordinates. I can send hundreds of people to help investigate the case every minute."
With that, he aimed at Sun Shaozong with their nostrils, with a proud expression of ”Come and beg me. As long as you beg me, I will help you.”
However, Sun Shaozong didn’t hesitate to shake his head and said, "No! At the end of this year, the use of the city defense camp to investigate cases is too eye-catching, and it is easy to cause panic among the people. If the festival is really disturbed, even if we can catch the murderer, we’re afraid it will be futile."
Tch!
Qiu Yunfei's face collapsed, and he simply stopped talking.
"The official is also eager to solve the case, so he doesn't think so much."
Lin Delu on the other side hurriedly concluded, "It's difficult to solve this problem, Captain Zhao, but you can't go without checking. Go consult with Daxing and Wanping counties first to see if they can transfer some people from there, and try to screen out the places set by Master before 28."
"Yes Sir."
Zhao Wuwei had no choice but to take orders.
Lin Delu asked Sun Shaozong for instructions, "Lord, do you have any other instructions?"
"Not for the time being. There are few clues at present."
Sun Shaozong shook his head helplessly. In an ordinary ancient city, a clue like the right arm injury would be enough to identify the murderer.
However, the Central Judicial Office's permanent residents and temporary residents have a population of not less than 1.3 million. Especially when the customs were closed this year, a large number of foreign merchants and homecoming tourists flooded in. In addition, many people from all over the country have entered the Capital in advance to prepare for the examination
How would it be easy to rely on the hundreds of errands under the Criminal Department for screening?
"County Magistrate Lin, you stay alert for the news. If there is any news from Zhao Wuwei, report it to me immediately," Sun Shaozong said and waved to Qiu Yunfei again. "Come on, follow me to the morgue to have a good test, and see if you can dig out any clues from the dead beggar."
With that, he stepped out of the courtyard of the Criminal Division.
Although Qiu Yunfei was very reluctant, he was afraid that Sun Shaozong would slap him in the face in the name of his official duties, which would make him lose face completely, so he had to follow up slowly and mutter.
So on the 24th, Sun Shaozong took Qiu Yunfei to the morgue and spent most of the day there. However, at the end of the day, all that was gained was a pile of vomit [vomited by Qiu Yunfei] and a thick wooden stick, akin to a bolt.
After that, Qiu Yunfei insisted that Sun Shaozong deliberately abused the dead body just because he wanted to see him make a fool of himself!
Time has passed by...
In a twinkle of an eye, it was December 25th.
"Your Excellency!"
Early in the morning, Sun Shaozong just got off his horse at the gate of the government office when he saw Lin Delu come out hurriedly and shouted, "Two more died last night! They also broke their limbs and froze to death, and their bodies were dumped!"
Another case?!
Five people killed in three days!
The murderer must be really crazy!
Sun Shaozong walked in with a heavy face and asked, "Where was the body found? Has it been sent to the morgue?"
"It's still in the East City!"
Lin Delu, carefully looking at Sun Shaozong's face, said, "But it is not within the scope you have defined before."
Sun Shaozong didn’t respond at all. His delimitation yesterday was originally the general search scope. It could only be said that it was the most suspicious place at that time, and it was not certain that the murderer must have been within this scope.
Lin Delu sighed a little relieved and said, "The bodies have been delivered, but..."
"But what?"
"But Your Excellency, please go back to the Criminal Department first. Governor Liu wants to see you first."
Sun Shaozong's feet suddenly stagnated. Since Liu Chongshan decided to be promoted, he has become superior by name. His reason was to let Sun Shaozong be familiar with the responsibilities of governance in advance.
Now he suddenly summoned him...
"Has this case been circulated outside?"
"No."
Lin Delu said with a wry smile, "Five dead bodies in three days, and all died tragically. You also know that the Central Judicial Office has never been able to hide things. Now it has been widely spread in the city."
After saying that, he quickly added the words of flattery, "However, the people are not so worried. They all think that you can solve the case as soon as possible if you are here!"
Tch!
The expectations of the common people were both motivation and pressure!