Case Files 013

Chapter 51: An Intellectual Death

"Will this really work?" Guan Zhenglin questioned.

"Okay, now!" I shouted. With my order, there was a flash through the air and a red figure lifted from the middle of the yard, landed on the roof and then disappeared. Only a small round hole on the ground remained. The thing that we saw in the yard that night was not a ghost, it was not a person either, it was actually a mannequin. With a long black wig, eye-grabbing red dress and darkness of the night, it was hard to tell it was a mannequin. A long spring was affixed to the mannequin's back and riveted at a particular angle into the ground. The coils of the spring were tied together with fishing line. With a slight tug, the tension of the spring would be strong enough to send a mannequin flying into the air.

"See, I told you there are no ghosts in this world." I said as my eyes followed the flying mannequin.

"What in the world are you people up to now?" Xiao Liu walked out into the yard. Seeing how sweaty and tired Xiao Liu was, Gu Chen laughed. "We should ask you that question. What made you all sweaty like that?"

Xiao Liu looked at the 3 of us and dropped the bomb. "I come with bad news. Gao Rui just committed suicide."

Hearing that, my heart literally skipped a beat.

"Gao Rui is dead?" I couldn't help but repeat to confirm.

"The police are handling it now, we better head to the crime scene." Xiao Liu explained.

"Let's go!"

The crime scene was Zhang Mingliang's home. When we arrived, the officers from the local station were already interviewing the gathered crowd. Since Xiao Liu told them to wait on the body examination so no one had touched the body. The trace analysts were already there. Their main responsibility was to collect trace evidence and ascertain whether there was a second person at the scene. According to protocol, when we first found a dead body, the first thing we needed to do was to ascertain the dead's identity and the nature of their death. The victim was undeniably Gao Rui, so what we needed to do now was to figure out how he died.

In terms of medical science, deaths could be categorized into 4 types, homicide, suicide, natural death and accidental death. Normally a murder would often be a homicide disguised as suicide, natural or accidental death.

Gao Rui's body appeared before us. This was Zhang Mingliang's bedroom. Gao Rui was lying peacefully on Zhang Mingliang's bed. Gao Rui was in a presentable western suit and he looked like he was just down for a quick nap. But upon closer inspection, Gao Rui's lips, and earlobes had signs of redness like he had applied make-up on himself. The bed was a set scene, it was decorated with red rose petals. A bottle of red wine sat on the bedside table. It was 1/3 depleted. There was a wine glass next to it and there was some red wine left at the bottom. Under the bedside table was an old-fashioned radio. When we arrived, it was still playing. It seemed like no one had touched it.

"Even if one day the wind carries to my path a thousand romantic encounters,

Even if one day thousands of stars shine brighter than tonight's moon,

They cannot be prettier than this evening, nor can they carry away my thoughts tonight,

Because I don't know when I'll be able to sing with you again." It was an old Cantonese ballad. The lyrics pulled at one's heartstring. It looked like Gao Rui had chosen a special date and way to die. It was not hard to imagine the reason behind Gao Rui's suicide. Other than Zhang Mingliang, Gao Rui had no one else to live for. Now that Zhang Mingliang was dead, the world had no need for Gao Rui anymore.

Guan Zhenglin put on her gloves. She leaned close to Gao Rui's lips and took a sniff. "Hmm? Why is there no smell of bitter almonds?" Guan Zhenglin spoke to herself.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Guan Zhenglin pointed at Gao Rui's earlobes and lips. "Look. His lips and earlobes are red, they form a great contrast to the surrounding pale skin. This is the most common symptom of cyanide poisoning and cyanide normally has a bitter almond smell but I don't smell it here."

"I found a letter!" Gu Chen pulled out a letter from under the pillow. I hurried over, pulled on my gloves and read the letter. After giving it a quick read, I got the gist of it. The content of the letter was basically split into 2 parts, the first part expressed that his death had nothing to do with others, it was a suicide; the second part detailed his bank account number and Gao Rui hoped that the police would donate all of his money to charity, Project Hope China.

"Take this for a handwriting comparison." I told the analyst. Guan Zhenglin continued. "My primary suspicion for the cause of death is cyanide poisoning. Based on the rigor mortis and livor mortis, the time of death is very recent, I believe in the past 1 or 2 hours. I'll need to cut him up to tell more."

"Okay." I nodded. "Move the body to the morgue, we'll head to the autopsy after we're done with the crime scene." I turned to the other officers. "Did we find anything else?"

Everyone shook their heads and one said, "Only trace of Gao Rui living here alone. However, we did find a second set of fingerprints but they belong to the dead Zhang Mingliang so we believe he did commit suicide."

From the set up of the crime scene, it did look like a suicide. Suicide was a highly intellectual activity, it was not as simple as people thought. I had been to witness many suicide cases. Due to the muscular relaxing after death, most suicide scenes would be covered with feces and pee or blood. For those who relied on poison, it might be even worse due to vomiting caused by gastronomical reflexes. There was not many suicide victims who had a death as dignified and as peaceful as Gao Rui.

"There's a syringe inside the drawer." Gu Chen looked around.

"Be careful with that." Guan Zhenglin warned. "I didn't smell any cyanide probably because he injected it into his body." I took a look at the syringe. It had Yu Cai High School's logo. Gao Rui taught at that school but after the incident with Zhang Mingliang, he naturally wouldn't be employed there anymore. But was it possible for him to get the syringe and cyanide from the school before he left his post? Gao Rui was a biology teacher and he had easy access to labs.

"Who was the first to discover the body?" I asked.

A middle-aged woman outside the police line answered. "It was me! I live across from him."

I walked out and studied this woman. She was in her 50s.

"How did you discover the body?" I asked.

The woman frowned sadly and said, "It's truly disheartening. I should have found him sooner. I have the habit of taking naps after lunch. But today, his place keeps on playing that song. At my age, I need complete silence to sleep. So at around 1 pm, I came to knock on his door to tell him to keep it down. I got no answer but I assumed he got my message. But half an hour later, the radio was still as loud. I got pissed and went to knock on his door again. I knocked for several minutes and no one came to answer the door. I then decided to complain to the management. The management came and tried to reason with him but it was to no avail too. In the end, we had to use the spare key. We walked in and saw him in bed. I thought he didn't hear me because he was asleep. I went over to push him but he didn't react in any way. I leaned in to test his breath and then we realized he was dead! Immediately we called the police."

When she knocked for the first time, it was around 1 pm, that was 2 hours ago.

"Seal this place up." I told the officers.

The autopsy was long but not tedious because Guan Zhenglin was there. I had a new appreciation for my body. There were large patches of lividity on the surface of Gao Rui's skin. Guan Zhenglin concluded, "The time of death is 1.10 pm, give or take 2 minutes. His blood is fluid but not bright red. Through the Prussian Blue Test, it is confirmed that he died from cyanide poisoning. I found a puncture wound near his wrist so I suspect he pumped the cyanide directly into his vena cava." As the autopsy continued, Guan Zhenglin sighed. "Gao Rui is really a good biology teacher, he has a deep understanding of human anatomy."

"Why so?"

Guan Zhenglin answered. "There is no food in his stomach and fecal matter in his intestine. Look at his anus, I believe he has given himself an enema before he committed suicide. That way no fecal matter would be there to pollute his body after death. He chose to inject into his vein because that would avoid the gag reflex caused by oral consumption of the poison. It was why he looked so clean and immaculate when we found him." After a pause, Guan Zhenglin continued, "He did drink some red wine before death. The red wine would not only increase blood flow, so that the poison would reach the heart faster, it would also help numb his nerves to decrease the pain of death to the minimum. About 1 minute after he injected the lethal cocktail, he was dead."

Looks like Gao Rui really did commit suicide. The farewell song, the final cleansing, the whole romantic set up, the funeral suit and the will, they all proved that Gao Rui was prepared to die. I often saw detectives on tv drama question, "If someone is really intent on dying, why would they do so and so? So I believe this has to be a homicide."

But in reality, when a person intended to formally depart from this world, they would often hope to detach all their connections from this world. They would quietly pay back favors they owed others and then slip away. Therefore, a suicide people would more often than not, arrange many things before they made the final step.

"The crime scene tech has come back with the result." Xiao Liu pushed the door open, "The handwriting on the will matches Gao Rui's. The bank account details all match, he has around several hundred thousand RMB in his account."

"Where did he get so much money?" I asked. Xiao Liu answered, "They did some digging. Before Zhang Mingliang died, he sold his old family house. Before he passed away, he left the money for Gao Rui."

"Check all of Gao Rui's recent bank activities." I said.

When Gu Chen heard me, he cut in, "But why? Is there anything suspicious about Gao Rui's death?"

"There are indeed some questions. I believe there was at least another person inside the bedroom with Gao Rui before he died." I said confidently.

Greetings, my dear readers.

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