Chapter 208
A frightened bride and groom stood beside the crowd of people who had surrounded the wedding car. I immediately urged, "Let’s go have a look!"
Bingxin teased, "Didn"t you say you were never coming back to this village?"
I argued, "I can"t pretend I didn"t see that, can I?!"
She laughed. "Seeing a dead body thrills you, doesn’t it?"
As we squeezed into the crowd, I noticed that the door of the frontmost car lay open and a man hung out of the driver"s seat. Skin white as ash, his eyes were staring blankly and his hands remained outstretched, holding the steering wheel stiffly. What was even more bizarre was his outfit–he was actually dressed in bright red ancient wedding robes.
The crowd chattered noisily. "How unlucky!"
"This man doesn’t look like he’s from our village. How did he get into the wedding car? Did a zombie crawl out of the grave?"
"Hush, don’t you talk about such an unlucky thing during the new year!"
An old man in a Chinese tunic suit stood up. There was a red flower and the words “father of the bride” pinned to his chest. He quickly waved. "Get some people over here to remove this unlucky thing."
I stood up and interjected, "Wait a minute! You can’t touch the crime scene!"
The old man looked me up and down and asked, "Who are you? I don"t remember inviting you."
When I flashed my consultant badge, the crowd seemed surprised and exclaimed, "He’s an officer!" How easy it was to scare them with the badge!
The old man"s att.i.tude took a one-eighty turn. He said, “Officer, as you can see, this man isn’t from our village and I don"t recognize him either. This has nothing to do with my family. G.o.d knows who was so wicked to place the corpse into the wedding car."
I nodded. "I understand. Everyone, please move away first. I"d like to examine the body. I’m going to call the county police to come and deal with the scene."
The old man turned to the crowd and said, "My apologies everyone, it looks like there won’t be a wedding today. I"ll invite you again some other time. Nephew, quickly go to the hotel and cancel the wedding banquet."
Except for the bride and bridegroom, the others refused to go back to their homes and remained standing there to watch the bustle. I highly doubted there was any chance of chasing them away before the police arrived.
I asked Bingxin to call the police while I crouched down to examine the body. The corpse’s joints were particularly stiff, so much so that it was almost impossible to move. But it didn’t seem like the usual rigidity caused by rigor mortis. It was as if it had been frozen.
I noticed the rashes around the dead man"s neck and wrists, and the overall redness of his skin. Worried that he might have an infectious disease, I borrowed a piece of red cloth, placed it on the dead man"s chest and used Organ Echolocation.
My preliminary judgment was that the time of death was within ten hours, that is, late last night. The deceased wore nothing under the bridegroom robes. Since the material of the garment was relatively thin, the freezing of his joints had obviously occurred naturally.
Since there were so many people around, I thought it wasn’t a good idea to cut open the dead man’s clothes. Instead, I ran my hands through his entire body but found no wounds.
Bingxin asked, "Song Yang-gege, did this man die of carbon monoxide poisoning?"
I muttered, "It doesn’t seem like it!"
"Would you like me to go back and fetch your tools?"
I shook my head. "No, I don"t trust you to walk several miles alone in the hills."
Bingxin giggled. "So you do know to worry about me!"
In fact, I had my own selfish reasons. Not only was I in an unfamiliar place, but I was also surrounded by chatty, rambunctious villagers. It was an understatement to say that I felt more at ease having an acquaintance with me.
I stood up and asked, "Whose car is this?"
An honest looking middle-aged man stood up and said politely, "Officer, I lent the car to my uncle for the wedding. This incident has nothing to do with me at all. I parked the car here yesterday and went drinking with some buddies. This car was originally intended to chauffeur the bride and bridegroom. I didn’t expect to see a man sitting inside as soon as I opened the door. But today being a happy occasion, I didn’t want to lose my temper. So I pushed him and asked him to come out of the car. Who would’ve thought he’d fall flat with his body all stiff. It scared me half to death... "
From his expression, I concluded that he wasn’t lying. The car"s windows had been covered with ultraviolet protective film so the inside of the driver"s seat wasn’t visible from the outside. That’s how the body remained undiscovered from the moment it had entered the car last night.
At this moment, the scene turned chaotic as the villagers automatically gave way and shouted, "Captain Lu is here. Everyone, move out of the way!"
A pudgy police officer showed up with several policemen in brand-new uniforms. I recognized him as the captain of the county police, but with thousands of people in the county, he probably didn’t know me.
There had been no criminal cases in our county for decades. A total of five or six policemen made up the team, so they normally did nothing but patrol. My grandfather’s death three years ago could be cla.s.sified as one, but in fact, Sun Tiger had taken over the case at the time.
Officer Lu walked up to me, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Were you two the ones who reported the case?"
I affirmed, "Yes!"
The bride"s father explained, "Officer Lu, my daughter was going to get married today but we never expected something like this to happen. Thanks to this officer’s timely appearance, the situation was under control."
Officer Lu asked me, "Are you a policeman? You don’t look like it. Show me some identification!"
Officer Lu’s tone was rather rude and he didn’t seem easy to deal with either. I handed over my credentials. He looked at it and sounded suspicious as he read, "Special Consultant? I"ve been a policeman for so many years, yet I"ve never heard of such a t.i.tle. Are your credentials fake? Do you know that it’s a crime to impersonate an officer?"
Upon hearing this, everyone started talking at once. "After all this time, he turns out to be an imposter!"
"Nowadays, there are all sorts of people, even ones who dare to impersonate officers!"
I added flippantly, "You can check with the city bureau."
He arrogantly waved me away. "What’s there to check? Get out of here now and stop obstructing the investigation. Don’t make me drag you away in handcuffs!"
I had learned that these small town officers were more likely to put on airs. Since the case happened in his jurisdiction, it really wasn’t my business. Swallowing my pride, I turned to Bingxin and said, "Let"s go!"
Bingxin widened her eyes in shock. “Song Yang-gege, why are you being so accommodating? You’re going to leave just because he asked you to?"
I said in a low whisper, "Don"t worry, he won’t be able to solve the case. The city bureau will have to take over eventually."
Arms akimbo, she insisted, "That"s no good either. I can"t watch you get humiliated in public!"
She made a call. It went without saying who the recipient was. After a few brief sentences, she handed the phone to Captain Lu and said, "It"s for you."
Officer Lu curiously took the phone curiously and asked, "Who? You’re the director of the city bureau? Haha, stop joking. If you’re the Director, then I’m the Director General!" I clearly heard Sun Tiger cursing on the phone, "f.u.c.k!!”
Officer Lu hung up the call and returned the phone to Bingxin. "You have a lot of courage to call someone and get him to impersonate the director. Get the h.e.l.l out of here before I handcuff both of you!"
I was left speechless. Officer Lu was the perfect example of the old adage, “the ignorant are fearless.” Although Sun Tiger was formally his boss, it was useless if he had never met him.
Bingxin counted expressionlessly. "One, two, three..."
Officer Lu asked, "Hey, why are you counting?"
Bingxin smiled. "Do you believe me if I say that your phone will ring when I count to fifteen?"
Officer Lu looked puzzled. "Stop acting crazy. Aren’t you going to go?"
"Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen..."
Right when Bingxin counted to thirteen, Officer Lu"s cell phone suddenly rang. When he saw the caller id, his att.i.tude immediately underwent a turnaround. He held the phone and respectfully said, "What can I do for you, Chief? ...What did you say?! How am I supposed to know that he’s really the Director of the city bureau… Understood! I know I was wrong. I’ll go back and write as many reports as you want."
After hanging up, Officer Lu looked at us with awe. Bingxin smiled at me. "This is why they say it’s better to look for the person in charge rather than the big boss!"