“What are you making this time, Chef Song?” Dali joked.
“Just hurry and go, will you?” I snapped.
Once Dali had gone, I brought the samples I collected from the corpse to the forensics team for testing. When I returned to the morgue, I saw Xiaotao standing at the door talking to several officers. I asked her what happened and she replied, “The rich lady who was attacked had been rescued. We learned from her secretary that her company was recently in a dispute with Chen Da’s company. The rich lady usually delivered her goods through Chen Da’s company, but there was another logistics company that offered their services at a much lower price, so the rich lady broke their previous contract and switched to the other company instead.”
It wasn’t uncommon for large corporations to breach contracts. It was understandable too that the rich lady would be interested in switching to the other company since they offered a much lower price. I didn’t think that Chen Da would risk losing everything and murder the rich lady just for this trivial matter. Besides, his company was established enough that the loss of one client wouldn’t affect their business much.
Even if he did hate the rich lady for it, would he be so stupid to kill her himself, and in public to boot?
The police had also discovered that Chen Da hadn’t been to work for the past week. He was the company’s president, so no one dared to inquire too much about it. Besides, according to his employees, Chen Da often travelled alone for vacations and for work.
Apart from that, it was found that 20 million yuan was taken from Chen Da’s account recently, almost emptying it.
“Where did Chen Da travel to?” I asked.
“He loved travelling and had been all around the world,” answered the officer.
“Who withdrew the money out of his account?”
“We’re still investigating that with the bank!”
I thanked him and told him he did a great job.
“Why would a successful businessman be so stupid and murder someone?” wondered Xiaotao. “Do you think there could be more to this, Song Yang? Maybe a personal grudge?”
“We’re still in the initial phase of investigation right now,” I replied. “I think it’s best we don’t jump to premature conclusions. I know one thing for sure, though. Chen Da is definitely not a murderer—he’s the victim.”
“I agree,” nodded Xiaotao.
After a while, Dali returned panting heavily and carrying big bags in his hands.
“Dude!” he cried. “It was so hard to buy persimmons in this season. I had to search through several supermarkets before finding these unripe ones. What do you need it for anyway?”
“You’ll find out soon,” I smiled.
When we returned to the morgue, I remarked, “I discovered something puzzling when I checked the deceased’s internal organs. Although they had stopped functioning for a week, there were still no signs of decay. I think I’d better check his stomach contents.”
I asked Dali to get me a pot of hot water. I soaked the towel in it and pressed it on the corpse’s chest and back. Then, I handed Dali the pestle and mortar from my bag and asked him to pound the unripe persimmons into a paste.
Dali went about this task eagerly. When he was done, I added salt into this paste and patted it on the corpse’s chest.
“What does this persimmon paste do, dude?” asked Dali.
“It contains tannic acid which contracts the muscle tissues and squeezes out the contents of the stomach.”
“Why don’t you just cut the body open and see for yourself?”
“You’re sure you want to see that?”
Dali didn’t reply. He just pouted and looked away.
“But he’s been dead for a week, Song Yang,” Xiaotao commented. “Would the muscle tissues really contract?”
“I don’t know,” I shook my head.
Dali and Xiaotao looked surprised.
“That’s a first!” Dali exclaimed. “I don’t think I’d ever heard you admit that you don’t know something so frankly!”
I laughed. “I’m just testing this method myself. If it works, it means that this body is somehow not really dead yet. If it doesn’t, then there’s no doubt that this is just a corpse.”
Once I’d covered the body with the persimmon paste, nothing happened for about fifteen minutes. Then, it suddenly arched its back, making the legs of the table it was lying on squeak against the floor. The sound was very loud and eardrum-piercing.
“It’s waking up!” screamed Dali. He ran and hid behind me. I noticed that even Xiaotao was biting her lips nervously.
I assured them that everything was fine. It was just the contraction of the muscles. At that moment, the body looked as if it was about to vomit. I asked Dali to quickly get a container and we hurriedly turned the dead body over. Dali put an aluminum basin under its mouth. Then, brown liquid flowed out of the body’s mouth and into the basin.
Dali winced in disgust. When there was nothing coming out of the corpse’s mouth anymore, I took the basin in his hand and sniffed it. There was a very strong alcohol smell.
“There’s red wine, rice wine, champagne and various other kinds of alcohol in this,” I said. “It looks like the deceased hadn’t consumed anything except alcohol.”
“Ah, I did see him drinking glass after glass of champagne at the party!” Xiaotao remarked.
“Party?” asked Dali. “What party? Were you both at a party together? No wonder I saw you waking up early to shave and do your hair this morning!”
“Let’s focus on the case right now!” I said.
Since the deceased was able to vomit, it seemed that the muscles of his body were not yet in the state of necrosis. This meant that he was not truly dead, only that his internal organs were in stagnation. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could survive this condition.
The fact that he threw up this much alcohol meant that he must’ve drunk even more than this. Why would he do that? He was in a semi-vegetative state, so would he still feel the pleasure brought on by drinking?
“What happens when someone drinks alcohol?” I asked.
“You get drunk, of course!” answered Dali.
“You’ll also blush,” said Xiaotao, “your heartbeat will quicken, the blood flow in your body would increase, and you’d feel excited!”
I then noticed some red and white residues in the aluminum basin. They looked like the shells of a drug capsule. These would have to be tested later.
It then occurred to me that this basin was made with aluminum. Dali shouldn’t have picked this basin, because the human stomach invariably contained hydrochloric acid which would easily corrode aluminum. Coroners would usually layer a plastic film in the basin before collecting the stomach contents.
Still, Dali’s oversight helped me notice another curious point about this case. I lowered my face very close to the basin and studied the deceased’s stomach contents even more meticulously.
“What’s so interesting about dead people’s vomit, dude?” asked Dali. “Why’d you have to put it so close to your nose like that?”
“Well,” I replied, “I need to study the wine’s appearance closely, then sniff it carefully before I can taste it.”
“Oh my god,” cried Dali, holding his mouth. “I can’t take it anymore!”
He rushed out of the room, barely able to refrain from throwing up.
“What an idiot!” Xiaotao laughed.
“Come here and take a look at this,” I waved at Xiaotao.
“What is it?” she asked when she came over.
“There’s no sign of stomach acid in this vomit,” I replied.
Xiaotao sniffed and commented, “You’re right! Usually, vomit has a sour smell to it, but there’s none of that here.”
I must admit that at that point the case got me a little excited. How did the murderer do it? How did they turn a living person into a walking corpse?
I put the basin down and went over to the body. I searched all over it and finally found a tiny inconspicuous puncture wound left by a needle on the victim’s lower back. I stared at it for a while and stated, “This puncture wound was left recently! Probably around four hours ago!”