Chapter 39: The Second Divine Verdict, The Ultimate Evidence!

Chapter 39: The Second Divine Deduction, The Final Evidence!

After arranging the basic deployment, Su Chen made an excuse to use the restroom and slipped out of the expert group's office. He hid in a toilet stall, locked the door tight, and let out a long breath.

The clues that could be gathered had essentially all been collected. It was time to perform another divine deduction.

Su Chen closed his eyes, let his consciousness sink inward, and entered the room within his mind. He reached out and pressed his hand against the massive sun relief on the star map. Then, immersed in reasoning, he once again entered the world of the murder case from twenty years ago.

Su Chen felt the smell of bleach in the restroom gradually dissipate, and the white light instantly dimmed. The sound of rain reached his ears once more.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The scene before him was no longer the toilet stall, but a rainy alley from twenty years ago—dark, cramped, and filled with puddles everywhere.

Su Chen stepped forward and walked leisurely through the rain. A faint, sweetish, metallic scent seemed to drift in the air. Turning the corner of the alley and arriving at the Jinling Bridge, he saw a blurred figure moving about beneath the dark bridge.

It was the killer.

Su Chen frowned slightly. He followed closely and walked up to the murderer, only to see that the figure was still draped in a black raincoat, diligently shoveling dirt. Protruding from a bag beside the killer was the slender, fair arm of a young girl, unnaturally pale from blood loss. Her slender fingers were slightly curled, as if gripping onto something before death. Faint bloodstains were clearly visible on her fingernails.

"This is the final body-dumping site. He has already committed the murder," Su Chen gazed at the murderer digging intently ahead, and said calmly, "It is too late at this moment; the time needs to be shifted forward a bit."

As soon as his voice fell, the entire scene froze instantly!

The raindrops hung suspended in the air, the killer's motion locked in place, and the dirt kicked up by the shovel stopped falling. Then, the entire scene rapidly reversed! From the bridge side, back through the alleys, to every body-dumping location, to the primary crime scene, and finally to the moment of the murder!

Su Chen stared at the constantly rewinding scene before him, knowing that he was using his divine deduction technique to simulate and reverse-engineer the events.

"Stop right here."

When the scene transformed into the murder scene, Su Chen spoke. Immediately, the rewinding scene around him came to an instant halt, locking the entire spectacle at the exact moment the killer committed the murder.

Inside the cramped residential room, a tungsten filament bulb cast a yellowish glow. Under this light, the man wearing the black raincoat drew a sharp boning knife from his chest and thrust it toward the slim girl standing opposite him.

Seeing the knife, the girl's eyes revealed shock and despair, but before her body could react, the tip of the blade was less than a centimeter away from her collarbone.

"Begin the deduction," Su Chen said in a deep voice, staring at the frozen frame before him.

Thus, within the crime scene, the flow of time began to return to normal, moving forward.

Plop!

The sharp knife plunged into the girl's neck. A corner of the killer's face was revealed beneath the raincoat: a square chin and downturned corners of the mouth.

After receiving this knife wound, the girl's pupils instantly dilated, and her body collapsed. The moment she fell, her hands flailed in the air and grabbed the killer's arm. Her five fair fingers tightly clamped onto the killer, almost tearing the fabric of his clothes.

The killer let out a low curse, brandishing the knife with his other hand, and repeatedly stabbed the fallen girl several times. Two of the stabs were to the neck, and three to the waist and abdomen.

Soon, the girl lost all vitality, lying in a pool of blood with not a trace of color left on her face.

"Let me see your face. Who on earth are you..." Su Chen stared coldly at the killer, leaning forward. However, the face hidden behind the raincoat remained largely pitch-black, revealing only a smiling mouth.

"Not enough, still not enough." Su Chen muttered, "Can time be pushed back even further? I want to see what he looks like when he takes off the raincoat."

"With the evidence I currently hold, is it possible to deduce the killer's lifestyle before committing the crime? His personality, his profession, everything about him..."

However, the scene merely rewound forward to the moment when the killer entered the door and the girl invited him to sit down, and then it ended.

Su Chen took a deep breath, his consciousness slowly returning. Before him, the late-night rainy alley scene gradually faded, replaced by the bright lights of the police station restroom. The smell of detergent entered his nostrils once more.

"Although I saw more than before, it's still just a little bit short."

"Give me just a bit more clues related to the killer, and I'll be able to deduce it completely."

Su Chen did not feel discouraged because he could now sense that he was getting closer and closer to the truth. He could already deduce the entire process of how the crime was carried out; he just needed a bit of the killer's personal information. The current reasoning scene had already reached the moments before the killer committed the murder. If he could push the reasoning just a little further, he would be able to see the killer's lifestyle and his appearance.

"However, how should I obtain this bit of information?"

"Right now, I'm afraid I have already reviewed all the evidence and clues related to this case."

Su Chen pondered inwardly. Suddenly, his eyes lit up! He knew where that final piece of information was hidden.

Bang, bang, bang!

The restroom door was beaten frantically, and the voice of a police officer speaking through gritted teeth came from outside.

"Brother... are you done yet? I can't hold it anymore, hiss..."

"Done, done!"

Su Chen replied, pressed the flush button, and pulled the door open. A young police officer rushed in, sweating profusely and clutching his buttocks. Upon seeing the toilet bowl, it was as if he had laid eyes on a life-saving sanctuary!

Su Chen stepped aside to let him pass. Then, taking out his personal notebook to write and sketch, he walked out of the restroom.

***

In the expert group's office, Su Chen pushed the door open and saw Bai Su sitting in a chair, resting her chin on her hand while reading through the cold case files. A pair of black half-frame glasses perched on the bridge of her straight nose, giving her a scholarly appearance.

Seeing Su Chen enter, Bai Su let out a breath and gathered the stack of papers together.

"I really don't know how you managed to stare at these case files for eight years." Bai Su forced a smile toward him.

"Every cold case is an account, and the files are our promissory notes. We cannot forget to repay what we owe the people," Su Chen said calmly.

Hearing this, Bai Su looked up, gazed deeply at Su Chen, and said nothing.

Su Chen placed a cup of coffee in front of her, then immediately took his notebook out of his pocket, tore off a page of paper, and handed it over.

"Officer Bai, boss, please take the trouble to look at this for me and see if you can analyze anything from it."

Bai Su took the slip of paper and saw that it recorded the entire criminal process of this cold case. Moreover, it was surprisingly written from the perspective of a close bystander, describing the killer's actions, facial expressions, methods of attack, and vocal characteristics while committing the murder and dumping the body! The details were so realistic that it felt as if they had been recorded right beside the killer!

"This... did you write this?" Bai Su asked in astonishment.

Su Chen nodded. "Combining the clues recorded in the case files with the newly discovered skeletal information, I have roughly deduced the process of the killer's crime."

"Boss, you are a psychological expert. Could you help me look at this and see if you can deduce some of the killer's personal information from it, such as his personality and traits?"