The old Taoist priest's investigation into the details of the case went smoothly.
The coffin shop Jin An has just made new progress in the autopsy of the pig butcher.
I saw the old Taoist priest running back in a hurry,
Gudong, gudong, the old Taoist took a few gulps of tea to quench his thirst, and then quickly talked about the details of the case: "Little brother, you are really right. The three of them were hugged together and burned to death by the fire!"
"The fire at the pig butcher's house burned very suddenly. When the neighbors saw the fire, it spread quickly and ignited the entire house. At first, the neighbors did not know that other than the pig butcher, other people were burned in the house.
When the fire was extinguished and the three bodies were found charred together, they were shocked to realize that a fire had killed three people."
"Hey, the scene was so tragic. Three people were burned together. It was said that it took a lot of effort to separate the three people. Because the three people were held together and burned to death, their faces were still intact.
When the yamen catcher brought the widower to do an autopsy, he immediately recognized that the person who was burned to death along with the pig butcher was Miss Song, who had recently been kidnapped by the kidnappers."
The old Taoist priest continued to drink a few sips of tea, and continued to speak quickly: "According to the old housekeeper of the Song family, Miss Song and the maid Caixia who were burned to death in the fire had their hands and feet tied, and their personal freedom was restricted, and the pigs were killed.
The real cause of the craftsman's death was not that he was burned to death in the fire. Based on the deepest burn mark, the head catcher deduced that the initial fire point was the overturned wine bottle and lamp oil on the table. Based on the location of the three people who were burned to death and the location of the slaughtered pig,
The spittle in the carpenter's mouth and the remaining alcohol on the inside of his clothes revealed that the pig-killer, who had always been single and coveted Miss Song's beauty and the Song family's property, kidnapped Miss Song and drank at home to celebrate, until late at night, until he was extremely drunk.
, accidentally overturned the wine jar and lamp oil, and the fire followed the wine flowing to the ground and burned the two Miss Song. When the pig butcher was awakened by the fire and was completely drunk, he was about to save the two Miss Song.
The best time to escape had already been missed. By that time, the fire in the house was already very strong, and the three of them were choked by the thick smoke and could not find their way around. This can be testified by Zuzuo, who found a large amount of soot that they had inhaled in their mouths and noses.
The butcher's fatal injury was that he was hit hard on the back of the head by a collapsed beam, and he lost the ability to move. All three of them were burned to death."
"And more importantly, when everyone put out the fire and rushed in to rescue people, they found that the doors and windows were all with wooden latches and locked from the inside. The catcher connected every tile on the collapsed roof and inspected it.
The possibility of man-made arson and escaping from the roof was also denied once and for all, which is completely consistent with the characteristics of a secret room... There were autopsy testimonies made by two people, the origin of the fire was found in the house, and evidence of a fire in the secret room was found, so everyone believed the butcher.
They are the kidnappers who kidnapped Miss Song."
"Hey, it's a pity that the only three witnesses were all burned to death in the fire. Even if the butcher really had any grievances, he couldn't defend himself."
The old Taoist priest sighed heavily: "Before so much evidence was established, the Yamen concluded that the pig butcher Tie Shuan was the kidnapper. And because the kidnappers and the kidnapped people had been recovered, the Yamen decided that the kidnapping case had been solved and the file was sealed. From now on
The case has been concluded. The bodies of Miss Song and maid Caixia were taken away by their families for burial. The butcher had no father or mother and no relatives to take away the bodies. Finally, he was buried in a mass grave by the Yamen and became a lonely ghost.
.”
Jin An frowned and thought. There was a fire in the secret room. There was a point of origin and a reasonable cause of the fire. Residual liquor and thick smoke and ashes were found in the mouths and noses of the three people. The butcher's personality was withdrawn and he had no relatives or friends. This was in line with the criminal's psychological description. He looked very handsome.
A reasonable motive for committing the crime. When the bodies were found, Miss Song and the maid Caixia had their hands and feet tied... All of this was perfect. All clues and evidence pointed directly to the butcher as the kidnapper with criminal motives. This cannot be blamed on the Chengnan Yamen for dereliction of duty or the
The case was decided arbitrarily because all the evidence was indeed very unfavorable to the butcher.
Seeing that Jin An was thinking, the old Taoist priest continued: "Regarding the details of these cases, I visited several neighbors, and everyone said the same as the old housekeeper of the Song family about some details of the case."
"All the evidence in this case is very unfavorable to the pig killer. Little brother, do you have any new discoveries here?"
The old Taoist priest looked at Jin An expectantly.
Jin An nodded: "There are indeed some new discoveries. Let's go to the pig butcher's house again to verify my conjecture."
He covered the coffin again, lit three sticks of incense for the deceased, and burned some paper money, and then he and the old Taoist priest went straight to the pig butcher's house.
When they revisited their hometown, it was almost dusk, and the old housekeeper of the Song family had already left. Seeing that there was not much time left for them, and the sunset curfew would soon be over, they immediately walked into the mess that was burned by the fire.
Find new clues in the house.
"Where were the old Taoist, the pig butcher, and Miss Song burned to death?"
Following the old Taoist priest's finger, Jin An came to a corner, where there was indeed a piece of wall that was cleaner than other places.
He checked every corner of the wall and found nothing;
He also carefully inspected the wooden beam that had fallen to the side. There were no signs of separation on both sides of the fracture, and it was a natural break;
Then he walked back to the original fire point.
It is not difficult to find the fire point. The fire point is often deeper than the smoke marks and fire marks in other places.
There was also no doubt about the origin of the fire. It was the same as the Yamen judged. The origin of the fire was from the table to the corner. Miss Song, whose hands and feet were tied at that time, had nowhere to escape. They huddled in the corner in fear.
There were obvious signs of struggle on the ground.
Then he walked to the burned windows. Although the windows had been burned to charcoal, some remaining traces of the window frames could still be seen as intact, and there were no signs of violent damage. The window bolts were also inserted.
The clueless old Taoist priest followed Jin An step by step, wondering if Jin An had made any important discoveries and why he wanted to return to the scene of the fire?
At this time, Jin An came to the door frame, touched the scorched door frame with his fingers, and carefully inspected every inch. There were still two ends of the door latch on the door, and the middle section was broken and kicked like the door, and was scattered on the ground.
There was nothing abnormal about the door frame. Jin An picked up the door latch fragments and wooden door fragments scattered on the ground one by one and inspected them, not missing any detail. He did not believe that there was really a perfect secret room in the world for committing crimes. Maybe people of this era did not understand his thoughts, but
He knows very well that no matter how rigorous a locked-room crime is, there will be clues left behind, and the methods of locked-room crimes are just the same...
"Um?"
Jin An's eyes lit up: "I found it, this is it!"
Hearing Jin An's voice of joy, the old Taoist priest knelt down and looked at what Jin An was holding in his hand. It was a broken door latch fragment, but it had been burned into charcoal by the fire.
The old Taoist priest curiously asked: "Little brother, is there anything different about these door bolt fragments?"
Jin An smiled without saying a word and handed some pieces of the door latch to the old Taoist priest, asking him to see if he could see any difference. As a result, the old Taoist priest stared at him and his eyes hurt, but he still didn't look at it.
After the old Taoist priest took the initiative to admit defeat, Jin An took the initiative to explain: "Old Taoist, look at this part of my finger, how is it different from other parts next to it?"
However, after looking at it for a long time, the old Taoist priest still had no clue. He became anxious and said, "Little brother, you'd better just tell me directly!"
Jin An laughed: "Old Taoist, use your fingers to pick the part I pointed out, and then use your fingers to pick other parts next to it."
The old Taoist priest followed the instructions and picked it with his fingers. When he picked it, he immediately made a discovery and exclaimed: "Huh? Although they are all burnt to pitch black, this place is obviously harder and has not been completely burned to charcoal.
Other parts have been burned into charcoal, and you can pick off a lot of charcoal shavings with just your fingernails."
At this time, Jin An made a new discovery behind the door frame. He swept away the ashes and tiles on the ground and found that there was a small area here that was slightly less blackened, while other areas were burned black by the fire.
, only this small area is light black, which seems a bit clean at first glance.
"Little brother, what's going on here?" The old Taoist priest poked his head over curiously.