"They must have thought these dolls were special and picked them up to play with, only to find human flesh inside when they pulled them open," I said.
Xia Hou replied, "Yes, these children were all terrified at the time, and will likely have trauma for life."
"That's troublesome. Let me see how they are doing!"
I asked Xia Hou to search for more evidence at the scene while I found the children. I saw a boy and two girls, all around 15 years old. When I asked why they were there, the chubby boy said, "It's vacation time, isn't it? The two girls and I are good friends, so we made plans to hang out!"
"Yes, we wouldn't dare come to a place like this, but Da Liu wanted to find some excitement so he brought us here so late at night!" a short-haired girl said.
Another girl in a white dress added, "Now look, we've run into a case like this!"
"Uh, I didn't mean to either, *sniffle*, it was too scary, let's just go home!"
These individuals seemed fine, so I took their contact information and let them go. By the time I returned to the provincial department, it was past 2 AM. The body parts needed to be pieced together immediately. Since the victim's head was not found, identifying them would be difficult.
Based on the autopsy, the only definite findings were the sex, which was male, and the estimated age of around 34, similar to the previous victim.
Inspired by the demonic symbol, I refocused my attention on Deng Yuanwu's body. However, no such symbol was found on his remains. Why would the killer act differently this time?
Perhaps they felt their previous methods were not refined enough?
As I pondered, I felt the victim's abdomen. A piece of flesh seemed to have been removed from that area, leaving a gap about 2 centimeters in diameter. The cutting technique was consistent with the other body parts. When we conducted experimental comparisons, we found it matched the previous cutting machine, but this time the killer had not left the body at the scene. Instead, they had stuffed it into numerous dolls and let them float over, presumably to be discovered.
What did this mean? Why stuff body parts into dolls? Did it hold any significance?
I asked Zhang Keying and Xie Chuchu to conduct the autopsy while I frantically searched for information about Eligos on my computer. The more I researched, the more I discovered. In the stories surrounding Eligos, there was a passage about him using human remains to assemble a new body. With the victim's head missing this time, was the killer using it in some way?
This reminded me of a past case involving sacrifice, but Eligos's story didn't mention anything about sacrifices. His body was incomplete and required animal and human body parts for restoration. I wondered if the killer had a similar motive. Was their own body in trouble?
I recorded a significant amount of information. When the autopsy report came out, it revealed that the victim's liver was severely necrotic, and there were traces of barbiturates in their blood, a sedative. If the killer truly intended to use the victim's body, they wouldn't have killed them so quickly. During this time, they might have been slowly cutting away flesh from the victim. I mused that the sedative would have calmed the victim, yet they would still have endured immense pain.
The killer must have relished seeing the victim's suffering. This time, they had also used preservation methods, likely to mislead us about the time of death.
But they couldn't fool me. This victim died only an hour later than Deng Yuanwu. This meant that after killing Deng Yuanwu, the killer had then murdered this victim, merely delaying the disposal of the body.
"The killer must have a vast laboratory, and there are definitely more than these two victims. We will undoubtedly find more dismembered bodies recently! They will appear in various forms throughout Guangming City!"
I stated this with considerable pressure at the criminal case discussion meeting, but no one refuted me. Instead, everyone grew tense. Gao Mingqiang said, "Then we must stop them as soon as possible!"
"I understand that, but what can we do now? Apart from the footprints, we've found almost nothing!" I replied.
"I've verified the footprints and checked surveillance footage on nearby roads. There are too many men who are around 1.65 meters tall and weigh about 60 kilograms. However, we will track them down and screen them one by one!" Liu Yuning said. Although she hadn't brought up the previous incident, her reaction indicated she had abandoned her prior thoughts.
"Team Leader Liu, please conduct another search upstream of the Xinghe Bridge. Visit all the shops, markets, toll booths, and other establishments near the road! Try to find eyewitnesses." I instructed.
"Understood!" Liu Yuning left with Xiao Yuande and a few others. I then asked Xia Hou to re-examine the first and second crime scenes. After that, I instructed Gao Mingqiang to help He Xin review the Sky Eye footage to capture all suspicious individuals near the Xinghe Bridge during the crime.
As for myself, I began interrogating some of the suspects we had brought in earlier.
Zhang Keying, who was busy with us, was also skilled at interrogation, despite being a forensic doctor.
In just a few hours, we questioned over a dozen people. However, apart from their physical build, they had no connection to the case.
Most of them were anglers. Some were businessmen traveling to Fuming City, and others were tourists.
This was strange. If the killer was throwing the dolls upstream, they must have been present. We checked the surveillance footage from late at night and found several individuals who had approached the upstream area during the darkest hours. However, due to the perpetrators' use of the surrounding environment for concealment and their extreme caution, we could see shadowy figures but had no idea of their physical characteristics.
The area upstream of the Xinghe Bridge is very remote, with many reefs. Although there are multiple connecting roads, there are still cover. By utilizing the nighttime environment, it's possible for anyone with good counter-surveillance skills to evade camera detection.
Furthermore, the paths of these individuals were consistent, and their actions were similar. They were familiar with the surroundings and could quickly find areas for complete concealment, indicating that the person disposing of the bodies was not alone. They had scouted the area and understood the local environment.
We had previously determined that there was more than one person involved. But if there were several individuals disposing of the bodies, then this team was truly quite substantial.
At this point, the surveillance line of investigation had reached a dead end. As time passed, we released the people we had apprehended earlier. Those who had gone to the crime scenes also found no clues, and the Sky Eye had no new findings. The case had reached a stalemate, and everyone looked dejected.