The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective-Chapter 148 - 133: That Conclusion Was a Bit Too Hasty!
Li Jian was somewhat surprised, "Strange?"
"What’s strange?"
Jiang An looked around and said, "I can’t quite put my finger on it at the moment."
"I always feel that the degree of burning on the victim’s body doesn’t match how it should be."
Upon hearing this, Li Jian raised his hand and patted Jiang An’s shoulder.
"Jiang An, your time in criminal investigation has been relatively short, and you haven’t encountered many murder cases."
"Is this the first fire crime scene you’ve encountered at work?"
Jiang An nodded. "Indeed, this is the first fire crime scene I’ve come across."
Li Jian continued, "Although you are extremely professional in forensic matters, with solid forensic knowledge."
"However, when it comes to analyzing the burning state of the crime scene, fire department investigators are much more specialized than us."
"I’ve collaborated with the fire department for many years; they always issue the written fire reports."
At this moment, Zhang Yean also came over.
"Exactly!"
"Junior fellow, you don’t need to be overly cautious."
"As the saying goes, every profession has its specialization. You are already unbeatable in the forensic field."
"Moreover, from the nature of this arson death case, if someone came to the site to steal and encountered security guards, at worst they might injure or incapacitate the guards."
"It’s improbable that a thief would resort to arson to burn a guard to death, right?"
"Furthermore, even if it was deliberate arson, why wasn’t any gasoline, alcohol, or other residues detected in the burned remnants?"
"Additionally, the fire occurred in the early night when there were still some pedestrians on the road. I can’t believe the perpetrator would be so brazen."
At this point, Mr. Zhang suddenly walked in.
He raised his hand and pointed, saying, "They often pile clothes and cotton near the kettle; I’ve reminded them many times before."
Jiang An walked closer to the kettle, bent down, and saw that some parts of the wall had already been burned white.
In some areas, the wall could be seen peeling off due to high temperatures.
After observing for a while, Jiang An said, "This area has indeed undergone high-temperature burning, it is an ignition point."
Then, he turned to inspect other areas for burn marks.
Finally, Jiang An approached the bunk bed and carefully observed the bed’s burn condition.
Li Jian and Zhang Yean also walked over.
Zhang Yean said, "The walls around the bed have all been blackened by soot, unlike the white color near the kettle."
"If this spot were indeed an ignition point, the walls would be burnt white like those over there."
"Through reverse reasoning, if it hasn’t turned white, could it indicate that this isn’t an isolated ignition point?"
Upon hearing Zhang Yean’s analysis, Mr. Li was somewhat amazed, looking incredulous.
He turned to look at Zhang Yean.
"I didn’t realize your analytical thinking was so clear."
"You can reason forward and backward."
Hearing the unexpected praise, Zhang Yean suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
She smiled and said, "I’ve mainly picked up some basics from analyzing cases with Jiang An over time." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Right after she spoke, Zhang Yean added.
"Of course, Mr. Li has also taught me a lot, expanding my correct approach to case analysis."
While the two were speaking, Jiang An bent over to observe the wall next to the body’s location.
As expected, he found no traces of high-temperature burning flames.
After a while, Jiang An straightened up.
Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain at the top of his head.
Immediately following, there was a dull thud.
As Jiang An rose, his head collided with the second-level bed board of the bunk bed.
Zhang Yean hurriedly asked, "Are you okay!"
Jiang An raised his hand to touch the top of his head, then looked at his palm, finding no bloodstains.
Jiang An shook his head.
"It’s fine! No bleeding."
As he turned around, Jiang An caught sight of the second-level bed board out of the corner of his eye.
Suddenly, he noticed some white marks in the middle of the second-level bed board.
In an instant, the sensation of sharp pain in his head vanished.
Jiang An bent over again, scrutinizing the white marks on the bottom of the bed.
Within less than a minute, Jiang An confirmed these were traces of high-temperature burning.
"What’s wrong?"
"Have you found something new?"
Li Jian asked.
Jiang An nodded and turned to say, "I’ve found that the bottom of the bed directly above the body is heavily burned."
"The bed board burned?"
Li Jian was a bit curious and bent down to observe.
At the same time, Zhang Yean bent down to take a look, and after a while, said, "That’s not surprising."
"The deceased had already been burned so severely, the flames rise upward, so it’s not unusual for the bottom of the second layer of the bed to be burned white."
Jiang An continued, "Burning to an ash-white color might not be unusual."
"What’s strange is, why is the burn so severe even so far from the ignition point?"
After Jiang An finished speaking, Li Jian’s gaze moved several times between the kettle and the bed.
Then, he fell into thought.
After a long pause, Li Jian said, "Are you suggesting this is also a point of ignition?"
Jiang An nodded.
He continued, "In Jiangcheng, the weather is such that we only use a thin blanket at night."
"Normally, there wouldn’t be many clothes or blankets on the bed."
"But it’s strange that the burn at this spot is so severe."
Then, Zhang Yean asked in puzzlement, "What do you mean?"
"If there’s only a few blankets on our bed, how could there be such evident burn marks then?"
In an instant, both Li Jian and Zhang Yean fell into thought.
A moment later, Captain Li Jian suddenly began to feel a bit uncertain.
He looked back at the place where the kettle was placed and recalled the fire cases he had dealt with in the past.
Analyzing and deducing the ignition point from the spot where flames burned most severely is a common logical deduction process in criminal investigations.
However, in this fire scene, apart from the severe scorching at the kettle’s location,
the second-layer bed frame of the bunk bed was also significantly burned.
This is evidently unusual.
If the fire happened in winter, when there are more quilts on the bed, it might be explained away.
But this season is summer.
With only a summer blanket on the bed, how were such severe burn marks formed?
After a while, Zhang Yean suddenly ran to the side of the bunk bed.
She bent down and looked under the second layer of the bed.
"There’s no intense burn mark under this bunk bed."
Two minutes later, Jiang An said in a deep voice, "Mr. Li, now I suspect that the bed where the deceased was located is an independent ignition point."
"Moreover, at the time of the fire, a large amount of combustible material must have been piled on the bed, resulting in prolonged burning."
In an instant, Li Jian froze there, his eyes fixed on the bunk bed.
Just now Jiang An’s words had been very clear.
Amidst their surprise, Jiang An continued speaking, "Mr. Li, I don’t know if you noticed."
"Last night during the forensic autopsy, I carefully observed the burn marks on the deceased and found the burn distribution to be very uneven."
"The front side of the deceased’s body was severely burned, with most skin and muscle tissue charred."
"However, what puzzled me was the neck, lips, and chest areas were the most severely burned."
"According to our sleeping habits, the blanket usually covers below the neck."
"But on this body, we see significant burns on the head, neck, and chest of the deceased."
"Judging by the extent of the body burns, it can be deduced that those three areas were covered with a large amount of combustible material."
"This clearly doesn’t match the characteristics of a blanket covering while sleeping."
Hearing Jiang An’s analysis, Captain Li Jian suddenly became nervous.
Originally, he simply thought this was an accidental fire death, with the cause of the fire being very clear.
But now, suddenly there was a 180-degree turn.
For a moment, Li Jian stood stunned, his face heavy with concern.
Shortly after, Li Jian’s phone rang.
He took out his phone and saw the incoming call was from Wan Junjie.
"Hello! What’s up?"
"Mr. Li! I’m reporting some news to you."
"What is it? Quickly, tell me."
Wan said, "This might surprise you."
"We went to Zhang Biao’s hometown to investigate and found that Zhang Biao was abandoned by his biological parents at birth."
"He was raised by an elderly couple who have since passed away."
"Moreover, Zhang Biao never married himself."
"So, we didn’t collect any blood samples from Zhang Biao’s relatives."
Hearing this, Li Jian’s brow furrowed tightly, his heartbeat quickened, feeling a sudden buzzing in his head.
minutes ago, Li Jian was still very sure that this fire death wasn’t a criminal case.
But.
At this moment, he suddenly felt that conclusion was a bit hasty.
