Chapter 23: A Case of Grim Intrigue

Strictly speaking, units like the Criminal Investigation Team are only meant to handle smaller cases—at most a fatality or a few kilos of Class D drugs.

This time, however, it was indeed a major case—a case that shook the system!

It was the kind where even the prime suspects had been apprehended.

But then, an odd twist emerged.

The suspect stubbornly refused to admit any guilt.

The Team reported to the Sub-Team, which in turn informed the City Bureau; the City Bureau then alerted the Provincial Department, and soon they were requesting another polygraph machine!

Impressive, isn’t it?

Such equipment is normally not allocated to lower-level units.

Even if one is available, only trained professionals can operate it.

When a polygraph machine arrived along with two experts to test the suspect,

there was a 93% chance that the suspect wasn’t lying!

Everyone was stunned.

You see?

These aren’t the days of old.

If the wrong person is arrested and a wrongful conviction is handed down, a whole host of people will suffer.

One misstep and the entire city’s police could be taken down in one sweep by higher authorities!

I mean, who wouldn’t be on edge in such a case?

The case was monumental—three lives lost, a family wiped out in a brutal massacre.

The Provincial Department was urging a swift resolution.

Not only did the entire Criminal Investigation Team mobilize, but the entire city police force was thrown into overdrive.

If the case wasn’t solved within the deadline, accountability would follow and the Provincial Department would take over personally…

Perhaps luck was on Xiao Yu’s side, as he was assigned to crack this major case.

And he was just a rookie officer on a three-day break—hardly a chance to slack off.

Others weren’t nearly so fortunate, forced to work round-the-clock without respite.

Everyone was put on overtime, kicking off a 24-hour non-stop work mode.

They had to crack this…extremely high-profile case within the deadline!

Yes, an extremely high-profile case!

Any case with three deaths starts off in the high-stakes category.

Normally, such cases would see the City Bureau set up a special task force—or even have the Provincial Department step in directly.

And if it were even more heinous… it’d escalate to the National Security authorities!

The unlucky part was that the case fell under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Investigation Team.

If they failed to solve it, the blame would fall squarely on their shoulders…

…

It truly was a monumental affair!

Studying the case files before him, Xiao Yu’s lips twitched in a grim smile.

Even in his past life, he’d rarely encountered such high-profile cases.

What era do you think it is now?

There aren’t that many blockbuster cases—this isn’t a movie!

Barely a week into his job, he’s already been thrown into two murder cases.

What sort of fate is this… Xiao Yu winced as if with a toothache!

Opening the file, he was met with a headline in bold characters.

‘Massacre and Dismemberment Case!’

The victims were a young couple and their infant—an entire family wiped out.

The brutality was unspeakable!

Every bit of skin from the family was expertly peeled off and nailed to the wall.

Their flesh was completely stripped from the bones, cut into fragments, and the bones ground into powder…

You thought that was the end?

No.

The victims’ blood and innards were methodically pinned onto the human skin on the wall.

Bone powder mixed with blood was used as paint to cover the skin, flesh, and organs.

In the end, a ghastly tableau of blood and flesh was created…

At this point, Xiao Yu was utterly shocked.

He was horrified by the killer’s sheer brutality and twisted nature.

Is this something a human could truly do?

How warped must one’s mind be to commit such a heinous act?

So, what about the suspect the police caught?

He had been found unconscious at the scene.

Why, then, did the police conclude he was the murderer?

First, the suspect was at the scene of the massacre.

Second, the female victim from the family was his ex-girlfriend!

It sounds outrageous, right?

According to the investigation,

the suspect had broken up with his ex-girlfriend two years ago, and she had since become involved with one of his buddies.

Sure, it wasn’t some grand betrayal on a vast grassland, but few men can handle such a blow.

It was precisely because of this betrayal that the police suspected a motive for revenge.

Revenge!

But suspicion alone isn’t enough—the evidence had to be concrete.

What exactly was the police’s evidence?

At the time of the incident, the suspect received a text from his ex and went to her house.

Not long after, the massacre occurred.

When the police arrived, they caught the suspect, still unconscious, at the scene.

Using fingerprints, DNA, the murder weapon, text messages, and the motive,

they pieced together a full chain of evidence.

The suspect was squarely established as the murderer…

Yet, given the enormity of the case and the suspect’s tenacious denials,

the police prudently applied for a polygraph test.

The results, needless to say,

indicated a high probability—93%—that the suspect was telling the truth.

Especially regarding the crime’s details, he claimed to know nothing.

He even said he had gone to his ex-girlfriend’s, then suddenly blacked out, only to wake up with the police surrounding him…

This was a problem!

Closing the file, Xiao Yu squinted his eyes.

Yes, it was indeed a major problem.

If the suspect truly wasn’t the one who committed the crime, then there was only one possibility.

Someone had framed him, and the real murderer was still at large—nobody even knew who it was.

But according to the police’s review of residential security footage and hallway cameras from the complex,

during the time of the killings, in the dead of night, the suspect was the only one captured on camera.

He was seen in front of the victims’ home, with no other person in sight.

This was utterly bizarre… Xiao Yu was dumbfounded.

How could this be possible?!