Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 398 Human Bones
Chen Shu kicked a pile of oddly shaped bones he had picked out earlier and asked the proprietress, "These were all fished out of your sewer. Pick a few and take a closer look."

"It's just a bone, what's so interesting about it?" The bewildered proprietress obediently bent down and picked up one of the pieces, looking it over from all angles but unable to make sense of it.

Then, following their instructions, they changed a few more bones, but the result was the same.

"Should we ask the forensic experts to send someone over to check it out?" Chen Chuan leaned closer and suggested in a low voice.

“You don’t know, those forensic doctors at the branch office have pretty bad tempers. It’s late at night, and we’re going to get yelled at for calling people over without any basis. Besides, with our status as special police officers, do you think they’d be willing to come? In the end, we’ll definitely push it to the Zhongshan branch. Here’s what we’ll do: take the boss’s wife back first, and then bring the boss over.”

After pondering for a moment, Chen Shu decided to observe the food stall owner's reaction before making any further plans.

Not long after, the food stall owner, head hanging low, was escorted to the scene by several special police officers.

Chen Shu scrutinized the middle-aged man who was the prime suspect and said in a stern, threatening voice, "These bones on the ground were all pulled out of this well. Heh, do you have any ideas?"

The boss, who wasn't in a good mood, glanced at the small pile of bones on the ground and asked, "What's wrong with these bones? Oh, right, our drain got clogged a few days ago, and I guess these bones were the culprits."

A hint of doubt flashed in Chen Shu's eyes; this person didn't seem to be faking it.

He squinted and stared into the other person's eyes without saying a word, a testament to his years of experience in handling cases.

This little trick can exert considerable pressure without you even realizing it, prompting the suspect to talk and then giving the police a breakthrough.

Sure enough, the food stall owner couldn't withstand the pressure any longer. He swallowed hard and started making conversation: "Hey, that's strange, who would flush bones down the drain? They have no common sense at all, isn't that just messing around?"

Chen Chuan gave a cold laugh: "This is the pipe that came out of your shop. Who do you think flushed it?"

“I wash the garbage in the kitchen every day, there’s no way I could have washed these little bones down there. If it gets clogged, I’ll have to pay to unclog the pipes myself. I guess it must have been the upstairs neighbor who washed them down.”

The shop owner hit the nail on the head, squatting down to pick up a few bones, examining them before tossing them back on the ground. He declared confidently, "These bones definitely weren't washed down here. Hmm, these don't even look like pork ribs; the cut surfaces are so neat."

The boss spoke calmly, but to Chen Shu it was like a bolt from the blue, instantly jolting him awake.

Clean cut surface? Bone fragments?
He asked casually, "Besides your shop, which other businesses use this well?"

The food stall owner turned around, raised his bound hands, and pointed upstairs: "This whole building is in use."

Chen Shu and Chen Chuan quickly exchanged a glance, sensing that something was amiss!

After the food stall owner was brought back to the shop, Jiang Hai, who had been sitting quietly to the side, finally couldn't help but speak up excitedly: "Brother Shu, I think these bones are human bones! Let's start searching from the second floor and go up; we're bound to find something somewhere!"

Chen Shu glanced at the building, which was over thirty stories high, and shook his head, saying, "This would have too much of an impact, could easily cause panic, and might even lead to public opinion problems. We don't have any concrete evidence yet, so we can't be so reckless."

However, the food stall owner's earlier comment, "It's not like pork ribs, the slices are cut whole," felt like a fishbone stuck in his throat, making him extremely uncomfortable, as if something was blocking his heart.

He looked at Ma Bowen, who was in good spirits, and said, "Bowen, could you please go down into the well and fish it out?"

Go down the well? No way, this is too dirty. Ma Bowen was stunned for a moment, then nodded, took off his police uniform, and wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, he climbed down the stinking well with a large iron plate he had taken from a food stall.

This time, Ma Bowen retrieved even more bones. As Chen Chuan continued to clean them, some bones that looked like they belonged to a human body were found.

It really was a dismembered body!
Chen Shu frowned.

Late at night, inside a roadside food stall.

To avoid alerting the suspects, after discovering the human bones, Chen Shu and others arranged for the special police officers to quickly move the couple who ran the food stall to the nearest Zhongshan Police Station, and then contacted the Criminal Investigation Department to send people over.

The food stall hall, which should have been sealed off, was now empty except for four people in plainclothes—Chen Shu, Chen Chuan, Yan Chenxi, and Jiang Hai—sitting at a round table. There was no one else, not even a single police officer.

On the round table sat the large pot of soaked meat that had been placed in the corner of the kitchen. Jiang Hai excitedly whispered, "Brother Shu, I said before, this is definitely a murder case. This meat is definitely from that hostage."

As he spoke, he chuckled and touched the edge of the iron basin on the table.

"vomit!"

Yan Chenxi couldn't help herself and covered her mouth, peering under the table.

That basin contained not only human flesh, but even ordinary pork, which she couldn't bear.

Looking under the table, a pile of human bones that had been fished out of the well earlier were now right there in front of them.

"Ouch!"

Pale as death, Yan Chenxi couldn't bear the suffering any longer and felt an intense wave of nausea rising in her stomach. She pushed aside the tables and chairs and ran behind the front desk, holding onto the counter with one hand and pressing the other tightly against her chest, curling up in a ball.

Jiang Hai glanced at his sister with a strange expression and asked doubtfully, "Is it really that exaggerated?"

Chen Chuan took out the pack of yellow cigarettes that Li Meng had never dreamed of from his pocket, pulled one out and handed it to Jiang Hai: "Kid, I underestimated you earlier. You've got the makings of a cop."

"That's necessary."

Jiang Hai didn't recognize the quality of the cigarettes, but he still happily took them, picked up a lighter from the table, and lit one with a "click".

Chen Shu, sitting to the side, initially wanted to slap Jiang Hai's hand away from his cigarette, but then he thought that Jiang Hai was over eighteen and should have the right to make his own choices. Besides, his performance today was indeed quite good, which made Chen Shu look at him with new respect.

While the group was chatting, Li Meng led Xing Da and his group in.

"Someone died?" Li Meng walked closer to the table, placed her hands on the surface, and stared at Chen Shu, asking hurriedly.

Chen Shu stood up, walked to the door, closed the shop door, turned around, and pointed to the large bowl of meat on the table and the pile of human bones on the ground: "It's almost certainly human flesh. Look at this meat, could it be human flesh? And these bones on the ground."

A middle-aged man following behind Li Meng bypassed the group of people talking and walked to the table with the iron basin. He reached out and fiddled with the large piece of meat that had been soaking in the basin for quite some time.

"pork."

After calmly finishing his sentence, the middle-aged man bent down and examined the bones on the ground. His expression darkened, and he turned to nod at Li Meng.

Li Meng asked, "Was it someone from this food stall who killed him?"

Chen Shu showed the group the surveillance footage taken by the bank on his phone, and then described the food stall owner's physical characteristics and the fact that he was left-handed.

The group from the Criminal Investigation Department also agreed that the food stall owner was the murderer.

Chen Shu raised some doubts.

Based on his previous contacts, the crime scene was definitely not at this food stall. Furthermore, the well pipes were shared by all the residents of the building, so it's highly likely the suspect was a resident from upstairs.

As for why the person in the bank surveillance footage might resemble the food stall owner, Chen Shu's speculation is simple: since the perpetrator is a resident living upstairs, he must have had considerable contact with the food stall owner.

He was deliberately imitating the food stall owner.

Chen Shu was resolute.

(End of this chapter)