Coroner Ke Xue

"M-there's more than one murderer?"

"You mean, two people were violent to the deceased while he was still alive?"

"Wait. Can this also be seen from the corpse?"

Hearing such bizarre remarks, Asai Narumi looked a little stunned.

"Haha, you still lack a little experience."

Lin Xin smiled, pointed to the upper arms on both sides of the body near the shoulders, and said in detail:

"Asai, when you did the postmortem examination, did you notice the bruises on the upper arms on both sides of the deceased?"

"I noticed it. Is there anything wrong?"

Asai Narumi's tone was very confusing:

There were large bruises on both upper arms of the deceased.

To the poor deceased, whose entire body was swollen and purple with not a single good piece of flesh, these two bruises looked inconspicuous.

Even, it seems a little light.

"It's just because the injury was so 'slight' that it seemed suspicious."

Lin Xinyi pointed to the deceased’s swollen and purple arm:

"Sheng Yuan is very strong and likes to beat people with fists, feet and sticks."

"So the wounds he made were often accompanied by severe skin peeling damage."

"And the skin on both sides of the deceased's arms."

"You see, although there is visible subcutaneous bleeding, the surface of the skin is still intact."

"This" Asai Naomi has already figured out something is wrong: "Yes. If this bruise was caused by a violent beating, the surface of the skin cannot be so intact!"

Lin Xinyi continued:

"What's even more strange is that compared with the strip injuries caused by sticks and the block injuries caused by fists and feet."

"The bruise area on the deceased's arm was very large, covering almost half of his arm from front to back, left and right."

"Can this be achieved by beating?"

"If you want to be beaten, your arm can only be hit on one side. It can't be hit 'evenly' on all sides, right?"

“Look here again”

Lin Xinyi raised the deceased's hand, allowing Asai Narumi to see clearly the deceased's fingertips:

"The deceased's fingertips also had less obvious cyanosis and swelling."

"There are still some red and black spots under his nails."

"Asai, do you know why this is?"

Asai Narumi pondered.

The medical student's knowledge reserve allowed him to quickly understand:

"Damn it. So that's what it is."

"When I did the post-mortem examination, I thought those fingers were also bruises caused by abuse."

"But the real cause is not that the finger was hit by an external force, but that the distal part of the hand has insufficient blood supply, causing necrosis of the fingertip muscles, so there is slight congestion and swelling."

"The reason for the insufficient blood supply to the distal hand is..."

"It's because the upper arm of the deceased was squeezed by a heavy object for a long time, resulting in poor blood circulation!"

"That's right!" Lin Xinyi nodded with satisfaction: "So, the injuries on other parts of the deceased's body are different."

"The bruises on his upper arms on both sides were not blunt force injuries; they were"

"It's a crush injury!" Narumi Asai blurted out: "This is a large-scale bruise that occurs when the arm is squeezed by a heavy object for a long time."

"And this heavy object is also very 'soft', otherwise it would be impossible not to cause even a little peeling of the skin."

"But it's hard to find something in life that is both soft enough and heavy enough."

"so."

After being inspired by Lin Xinyi, Asai Narumi was able to make inferences about other cases:

"So, this could be someone holding down the deceased's arm with a soft object such as a quilt or a pillow."

"Then kneel down on the quilt and pillow and apply heavy pressure downwards evenly."

"That's right." Lin Xinyi said, "This is a terrible killing method."

"Because the weight is soft enough, the indentation is not noticeable even after sustained heavy pressure is applied."

"And when the deceased was covered in injuries and in pain, he might not have noticed the extra minor bruises on his arms that were not even broken."

"When the arm muscles that have been squeezed for a long time become necrotic and congested, and the bruises worsen to the point where they become swollen and purple and cannot be ignored."

"His life has come to an end."

Lin Xinyi sighed sadly.

But Asai Narumi recovered from the excitement.

He carefully considered Lin Xinyi's statement and immediately realized something was wrong:

"Wait, the bruises caused by this method are indeed not obvious at first."

"However, it was pressed on the deceased's arm for a long time."

"This thing itself couldn't be more obvious, right?"

"The deceased had such a heavy weight on him and kept it pressed for such a long time. Wouldn't it be discovered?"

"It depends on the identification results."

Lin Xinyi replied calmly:

"Under normal circumstances, it is impossible not to notice that your arm is pressed by a heavy object."

"But if the deceased was drunk at the time, of course, the more likely guess is"

"The deceased drank sleeping pills, so he was unconscious and allowed the murderer to do what he did."

"So as soon as I extracted the blood, I immediately sent it to the scientific research institute for identification."

"In addition to identifying indicators such as blood potassium and myoglobin concentration that can prove crush syndrome, I also want them to help find out if there are any ingredients in the deceased's blood that contain sleeping drugs."

"If there is, then our speculation can be confirmed to a certain extent."

"Um"

Asai Narumi followed this line of thought and thought about it carefully:

"Indeed, if all this can be confirmed, the murderer may not be just Matsubara Katsu."

"Because he would never abuse the deceased by squeezing his arms with heavy objects——"

"If it was abuse, there was no need for him to cover it up with a soft object."

"But Matsubara Masaru's purpose was just to use violence to vent his emotions. For him, it was more direct and refreshing to use fists, feet and sticks."

"So." Asai Narumi raised his head and looked at Lin Xinyi: "Mr. Lin, who can this second murderer be?"

"Alas" Lin Xinyi sighed deeply.

At this point, even though he had never known the deceased Mr. Matsubara Kenichi, he still felt sad for him.

"Assuming our previous guesses were correct."

"The one who could enter the deceased's room while he was sleeping and put heavy pressure on his arm for a long time."

"Who else but the family he lives with?"

"family."

Speaking of this word, Asai Narumi's expression became a little complicated.

For him, who has experienced drastic changes since he was a child, his family will always be his most beautiful and precious thing.

But now, for the unfortunate Mr. Kenichi Matsubara, "family" seems to have become the most terrifying demon.

"How many people are there in the deceased's family?"

Asai Narumi asked in a low voice.

Somehow, he was a little nervous about this question.

"I asked beforehand. There are only three people in the deceased's family."

"Living with him is just the Matsubara couple as parents."

Lin Xinyi's voice was full of regret.

“Only three people”

Asai Narumi was slightly startled:

The second murderer was most likely a family member who lived with the deceased, but the only people who lived with him were his parents.

In this case, except for Matsubara Masaru who committed domestic violence against him.

The second murderer who squeezed his arm with a heavy object could only be...

"Mrs. Matsubara?!"

Asai Narumi's expression was extremely horrified.

His mind couldn't help flashing back to the sad look of Mrs. Matsubara crying in the office.

Could it really be her?

Asai Narumi couldn’t believe it:

"How did Mrs. Matsubara know how to use that kind of heavy object squeezing to aggravate the deceased's injuries?"

"The academic research on crush syndrome has only started two years ago. This should be knowledge that only people with a certain medical background will understand, right?"

"Mrs. Matsubara's profession is not a doctor!"

"Mrs. Matsubara is indeed not a doctor." Lin Xinyi replied: "But haven't you heard her say that before?"

"She was once domestically abused by Masaru Matsubara, and she was hospitalized twice when it was severe."

"After a long illness, Mrs. Matsubara would naturally know something about crush syndrome if she had experienced this symptom herself."

"This" Asai Narumi was speechless.

But he still instinctively refused to believe that the murderer would be the poor Mrs. Matsubara:

"Mrs. Matsubara is obviously also a victim of domestic violence. Why did she do such a cruel thing to the deceased?"

"And that's her own son?"

"Because that's probably not her biological son."

"The deceased's registered age was already 24 years old, but Mrs. Matsubara didn't look like she could have a 24-year-old son."

Mrs. Matsubara looks much younger than Matsubara Masaru.

Although Feili, Yukiko and Bellmod have proven with facts that the shelf life of old aunts in this world is extremely long.

So in theory, Mrs. Matsubara may simply look younger.

But Lin Xinyi was still willing to believe his guess.

After all, a tiger cannot eat its own son, and he could not imagine a woman murdering her own son.

"If Mrs. Matsubara is the stepmother and the deceased is not his biological son, everything will be explained."

"Because of Matsubara Masaru's domestic violence, she developed a hatred for the Matsubara family."

"So she wanted to kill Matsubara Kenichi."

"In this way, Matsubara Masaru will not only lose his only offspring, but he will also be charged with manslaughter."

"After all, he did brutally beat the deceased."

"As long as our police are involved in the investigation, if the autopsy is not careful enough, it will be easy to take it for granted and attribute the death of the deceased entirely to Matsubara Masaru's domestic violence."

"But in fact, during the death process of Kenichi Matsubara"

"The large area of ​​heavy crushing injuries caused by the second murderer also played an extremely important role."

He is used to seeing the darkness of society, and has never been afraid to use the greatest malice to speculate on the psychology of suspects.

But such ruthless speculation is still unbearable:

"If everything goes as the murderer wants."

"She can say goodbye to the Matsubara family forever as a pure victim."

"In her opinion, maybe this is a perfect revenge, right?"

Hearing this, Asai Narumi remained silent for a long time.

"Is this really the truth?"

"In this case, it would be too sad for Mr. Matsubara Kenichi to be born in such a family."

Compared with Matsubara Kenichi, he even felt that his experience was happy.

"Alas" Lin Xinyi also sighed:

"Before the autopsy started, I asked the Search Division to start investigating the Matsubara family."

"And the last voice of the deceased has been conveyed."

"Let's go, it's time to talk to the Matsubara couple."

Lin Xinyi's voice became extremely solemn:

"We can't change his tragedy, but at least we can't let justice be absent."