Four hours later, the members of the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit meet again.
The team was confused.
Firstly, Francis is late, but John, who has always demanded punctuality, does not say a word about it.
Secondly, Francis has changed into another set of clothes, a plain colour long-sleeved T-shirt, black sports trousers and a sports jacket, which is a bit too big for him and obviously John's style. Francis' face is still a bit pale, with a stern face, walking in a very stiff posture and intentionally staying away from John.
John looks at him with a blank face.
The essence of gossip inevitably ignites.
The most obvious reaction is from Mandy, the nobody in the team, keen on shipping couples within the police force. In a second she comes to her senses and types and sends messages in a policewomen's chat group.
Mandy: [Meme: A hedgehog standing and screaming]
Mandy: It's TRUE! Our commander and the forensic consultant! They must have been in love at first sight, see how the forensic consultant wears his boyfriend's clothes afterward!
Below her message, the female officers of the Triad Crimes Investigation Division who know about John's and Francis's first encounter are all laughing at her.
CS Chan: Keep calm and ship rationally. We police officers are law-abiding, so please stay on the correct traffic lane or I'll give you a ticket.
Christie_1216: How could it be falling in love at first sight? It's more like ‘hate at first sight’... You should have already known it.
Mandy: Well, that's true... Now it looks more like our Commander has offended Dr. To again.
Mandy: But it's rare to get a couple of handsome guys in our group! Draco and Dino are both acne-ridden, Vincent the technician is very nearsighted and only likes cute girls in the virtual world, and Toddler is more like our group's beloved mascot... None of them are as good-looking as John and Francis, and I really wish to see how they...(1,000 words below)
For those who are more subtle, such as Vincent, the nearsighted geek technician, he simply continues his keystrokes and mentally eliminates Francis from his list of ‘straight guys whom he can share about Vtubers having a soft and cute voice’.
John announces, ‘All right, everyone is here. Let's start.’
Draco hands over the report of the forensic examination of physical evidence by the IB, and complains, "I don't want to be caught in the middle between SCIU and IB anymore! When I went get the test results, the head of IB, the 'Hairless Lord of Light', scowled at me and even told me to 'go all the way well’..."
"Come on, you need to stand firm. If you can't do it, next time I'll go instead!" says Carman.
‘The Hairless Lord of Light only likes young and pretty policewomen and secretaries, but not men, manly women, or aunties.’ D interjects.
"Who the hell are you calling Auntie?" Carman is getting pissed off by the twin brothers as usual.
Seeing that the discussion is about to get out of hand again, John throws a sharp look at the twins to shut them up.
"Don't waste any time, everyone. Let's take a look at the report Draco got from the IB."
Vincent projects the digital report on screen, a whole hundred pages of it.
Draco looks like he has swallowed a frog alive.
‘As usual, it's thick as a Bible. And the Hairless Lord of Light never sends his people to explain all these to us. My half-assed knowledge of chemistry sometimes doesn't work.’
A male member of the team, nicknamed KK, responsible for taping off and managing the order at the crime scene, has already turned into Francis's big fan. He nudges Draco with his elbow and suggests, "Now we have Dr. To, right? He has studied overseas and speaks excellent English. Let him take a look - why haven't you realised that we already have a ready-made translator?
"Hey, KK, don't make unreasonable requests," John frowned. "He's not a specialist in examining those physical evidence, and he's not a translator."
"Well, it's not," Francis spoke bluntly. "Forensic pathology is a cross-disciplinary profession. A medical examiner, of course, is proficient in clinical autopsy, but entomology, toxicology, database compilation, and so on, are also included in our study, for example, I have tested out victim Joan Wong's internal tissues during the autopsy to see if she was poisoned or drugged before her death. Give me five minutes to read the conclusion of the IB."
John still can't figure out why Francis suddenly flipped out on him when they had just cleared the air.
However, John has drawn a line between his work and personal space, and he never brings his personal matters up during meetings, so he still manages to maintain a courteous attitude.
"Well, then, I'm counting on you. Vincent, please hand Dr. To the laptop."
In the eyes of Mandy, who is full of shipping daydreams, this is called "pampering" by the Commander, done even when he is being shunned by Francis.
The physical evidence examination report mentions the white fibres found in Joan's fingernails and mouth, which are confirmed to have originated from a common type of working gloves that protects the hands.
As for the black shreds found in the crevices of her fingers, they were scraped from black simulated leather. Simulated leather is easy to cut and sew and is durable and resistant to aging. It is used for a wide range of purposes, including clothing, furniture, handbags, and protective covers for smart products.
The IB analysed the wound shape and found that the edge of the wound was rough, unlike the cutting of a knife, so the forensic scientists got a bunch of long and thin tools with concave and convex edges to make a comparison.
The head of IB, Luo Bernard Law, also known as ‘The Hairless Lord Of Light’, is a workaholic who always complains that overtime work has caused him to suffer from hair loss and liver problems and that urgent tests have caused his blood pressure to surge, but he and his forensic staff are still very dedicated and cautious.
After many simulation comparisons, IB has identified the murder weapon as a screwdriver, and the oil rubbed into the wound proved to be a common lubricant.
Speaking of lubricating oil, Francis looks slightly embarrassed. He moves his hips, changes his cross-legged posture a few times, and straightens his back and his waist, but he still feels awkward.
Self-control, as befits a mature professional, eventually prevails, and he is determined not to move around in his chair like a little boy who can't sit still.
Industrial gloves, leather, screwdrivers, lubricants, all of these are related to manual labour.
But there are no workers on Joan's list of johns. There are no units under renovation in the Choi Fung Building. There is no industrial zone in the vicinity.
There was a construction site near the building 15-20 days ago, but the CCTV there captured all the workers taking off their full body gear and leaving their tools behind before they left work. They had handed the tools over to the foreman for central storage and the tools were transported away in a mini-van.
Could Joan Wong be possibly involved with these people?
Vincent, the technician, has collected as much CCTV footage as possible from the neighbourhood of Choi Fung Building and has scanned in and out twice, with one screen displaying six clips, one on each side of the screen, plus the laptop screen.
However, Joan Wong has never appeared in any of the clips!
Vincent cannot help but wonder, "How come this girl is even more of a nerd than I am?"
However, everyone understands after a moment's thought.
Joan Wong has travelled south on her own and wants to overstay in Hecticity for seven years to obtain permanent residency, so she must not be intercepted by the police and repatriated. Plus, she has a special occupation, and the money she earns is just enough to make ends meet. She probably will not spend much money on entertainment, so it makes sense that she didn't go out much.
John ponders and says, ‘Buildings in this area are very old and the CCTV cannot capture all the locations. There are blind spots like this way to the market. Have someone interviewed the market stalls?
‘Yes, Sir.’ In the past four hours, Mandy and two ordinary officers went out to take over the interview from Carman, and she answers John's question.
All shopkeepers in the market can testify to each other that they have not lent or stolen any tools, nor have any staff behaved suspiciously.
They somehow have an idea of Joan Wong.
‘The world is going to hell in a handbasket. That girl is so young, but she's got a tacky rose tattoo on her collarbone."
"I don't remember exactly when, but once I saw her passing by outside a market, wearing a pink wig and schoolgirl's uniform, in her mid-twenties and still pretending to be a teenager, and the man next to her grabbed her by the waist and rubbed her buttocks after he shoved a banknote in her hand, and I immediately knew that she was a whore."
When the police reached the butcher at the butcher's stall, he was chopping pork skillfully with his knife, while joking and laughing.
"Oh, I remember this girl! Whenever she comes to the market, she always looks at my stall but never comes to buy any meat. I almost thought she was interested in me! My motto is very simple: if a pretty lady comes to patronise me, and says ‘thank you’, I will never cheat on the scales!"
He thought for a moment and continued.
"I think that girl probably doesn't earn enough to buy meat, and she doesn't go to the vegetable stall next to mine or the fish stall opposite, instead she goes to the grocer to buy instant noodles and canned meat. Canned meat is full of preservatives, it's no match for fresh meat."
He then turns to hawking.
"Fresh local pork for sale! Madam, would you like to buy some fresh pork? Or get a bone to make soup at home? It'll enrich your skin and make you look good! Come and take a look, we sell fresh pork!"
Mandy went to the grocer that the butcher was talking about.
The owner of the grocery shop was a chatterbox and kept talking to the police officer.
"That girl has little money, but she is quite good at making origami. My coloured paper for handicrafts doesn't sell well, so one day she suggested to me that she would take it away, fold it into stars and flowers, and let me sell them in glass bottles, and I only need to pay a few dollars for her work."
"She's very crafty and talented in making mini crafts, but she suddenly buys a pair of rough working gloves from me as a gift, don't you think it's strange?"
"You mean Joan Wong buys working gloves from you?"
"Yes, cotton working gloves."
The grocery shop owner recalled.
‘I always feel that she didn't buy them for herself, she bought them as a gift, maybe for her boyfriend. That day, she was smiling like the day I got engaged!"
After listening to Mandy's report, John's frown is slightly eased as there is finally a breakthrough.
"We must ask the owner of the grocery store again to see if he's selling the kind of white-fibre working gloves same as that in the murder! Also, we need to question Kessler Huang, the landlord who quarrelled with the victim over the prostitution business, and Indy Yau, who said that the victim often went out late at night and came home early, to find out if she had such a boyfriend!"
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