Gu Cheng sat silently at his desk, flipping through the investigation records, he was analyzing the potential clues of the three cases.

Gu Cheng flipped through the case file, and about the murderer's shoddy method of dividing the body, he inevitably thought of the "Chinese New Year's Eve case". The first crime scene was the deceased's home, although the murderer carried out a thorough cleaning, they still found the blood stains left by the deceased and the murder weapon at the scene: a household kitchen knife, on which the deceased's blood was also detected. The kitchen knife was used by the deceased's own home, and there was no fingerprint of a third person on the handle except for the murderer and the deceased, and the deceased obviously could not have committed suicide. When the murderer threw the body, there were also eyewitnesses who testified that the murderer had gone out with a large bag. The most important thing is that the murderer himself confessed to the facts of the crime - when the New Year's bell rang, he cut off his wife's head one by one, accompanied by the sound of firecrackers outside, and the incisions of the body were uneven, and the degree of tragedy was outrageous.

In such a case where there are all kinds of witnesses and physical evidence, and the murderer also pleads guilty, it is almost impossible to make mistakes.

But soon strange things happened - when the police went to the location where the murderer pointed out the head of the deceased, they found nothing. The murderer was equally confused about this, he even admitted to the murder, but he resolutely refused to admit that he hid the head of the deceased.

The head of the deceased disappeared!

But this incident did not affect the verdict, and soon the murderer was sentenced to death, and the case seemed to end there.

A month later, the 307 murder and corpse mutilation case appeared, which once again caused panic in the town.

But the police did not link this case with the Chinese New Year's Eve case, because the two are very different: the murderer in the Chinese New Year's Eve case only cut off the head of the deceased, while the deceased in the 307 case was dismembered; The murder weapon in the Chinese New Year's Eve case was a household kitchen knife, and the murder weapon in the 307 case was likely to be more than one from the knife edge, and the murderer used a variety of sharp weapons such as boning knives and saws; The deceased in the Chinese New Year's Eve case was beheaded alive, while the deceased in the 307 case was killed first and then dismembered.

Another month passed, and the 405 corpse shredding case appeared. The police quickly determined that the murderer in this case and the 307 case were the same person, because the modus operandi of the two was almost identical.

It wasn't until the 505 case came that the police fully confirmed that it was a serial murder.

At this time, some people suggested that the murderer of the serial dismemberment case might be a copycat of the "Chinese New Year's Eve case", and he was "paying tribute" to the Chinese New Year's Eve case. However, this idea was opposed by some people, not to mention that the tools and methods of the crime were completely different, if it was a copycat, the head should also be cut off, why take different parts of the three deceased people? In addition, there is no other deceased who has been beheaded, because according to the order of the body parts from top to bottom, the first deceased to lose the part should be the head. However, the 307 case was pushed forward by a month, and the case of the missing head of the deceased was only the Chinese New Year's Eve case.

There are other possibilities. The first is that there is another deceased whose head has been removed, but the body has not been found until now. But Gu Cheng believes that judging from the location where the murderer threw the body three times, the difficulty of finding the body is increasing every time, which means that the murderer is becoming more and more careful, and he does not want to be discovered. According to this calculation, the location of the first dumping of the body should be the same as the 307 case, which is easy to find, but the facts are contradictory. Therefore, Gu Cheng's conclusion is that the 307 case is the first time that the murderer threw a corpse.

The second is that the murderer may continue to commit crimes, and the next person to take away is the head of the deceased, but according to the murderer's habits, at least next month will there be a new corpse, how can the police wait until that time? So, the director of the public security bureau personally accepted his fate and ordered Gu Cheng to solve the case within a month.

All in all, now the pressure has completely come to Gu Cheng's head.

He also turned over the transcript of the Chinese New Year's Eve case, and no matter how you look at it, there are no loopholes. From the police discovering the murderer's abnormal behavior, to finding evidence and the murderer pleading guilty, there are no flaws in the middle, and there is no fault in logic and procedure.

Could it be that the murderer of the serial dismemberment case just wanted to divert the attention of the police, perhaps from the beginning, he only wanted to kill three people?

But how to explain the missing head of the deceased in the Chinese New Year's Eve case? Could it be related to a serial dismemberment case?

In the thick file bag, Gu Cheng took out the information of the deceased in the "Chinese New Year's Eve case" again.

The deceased's name is Chen Fang, 30 years old, a white-collar worker of an advertising company, married for two years without children, has a lover behind her husband's back, and after investigation, she is a colleague of his company, and Chen Fang's husband Li Hua killed his wife in a frenzy. Li Hua is regarded as an upside down, due to the high status of his wife in the family, he has low self-esteem in his heart for a long time, and after learning that his wife was cheating, the resentment accumulated over the years broke out at one time, resulting in a tragedy.

Chen Fang's relatives are only a pair of elderly parents, Chen Fang is an only daughter, and after the death of her daughter, the two elders are grief-stricken and lonely.

There are only a few days left in the deadline given by the director to solve the case, and no key clues have been found. Gu Cheng decided to be a dead horse doctor and visit the two old men again, because the case was solved too quickly, he didn't even say a few words to the second elder. For a job like comforting family members, it is naturally not his turn to be the leader of the serious crime team.

Chen Fang's parents live in the same neighborhood as Chen Fang, but they are not in the same building, this is a relatively old community, the management is very lax, and people from outside can come in casually.

It's not the first time Gu Cheng has come, but it's the first time he has gone to Chen Fang's parents' house, next to the building where Chen Fang lives, which should have been done specifically when he bought a house. This area is an old-fashioned residential building, and it looks similar from the outside, but Gu Cheng still easily found the home of the second elder.

"Dangdangdang......"

The knock on the door rang for a long time before Gu Cheng heard the sound of footsteps in the house and the sound of the door opening. It was Chen Fang's mother who opened the door, her legs and feet were not good, no wonder she opened the door so slowly.

"It's you, Officer Gu." The old man recognized Gu Cheng in the cat's eyes, so he opened the door without asking.

Gu Cheng glanced into the house, only the old lady was at home alone, so while changing into the slippers handed over by the old lady, he asked, "Auntie, I'm coming to see you, by the way, my Uncle Chen is not at home?" ”

"He's gone for a walk, and he can't be idle." The old lady replied as usual, and as she spoke, the two of them had already sat down at the dining table, it was still early for lunch, and the dining table was still empty.

"Is there anything wrong with Officer Gu?" The old lady knew that Gu Cheng would not come to her house for no reason, if it was just to see her and her wife, why hadn't she been here once in the past three months?

Gu Cheng got straight to the point and said: "Auntie, I won't hide it from you, Chen Fang's case is still a bit strange, so I want to ask again." ”

"It's been three months, didn't Li Hua also admit his guilt, what else is there to ask?" The old lady's face became a little dark, no wonder she was angry, the case from three months ago still came to ask, didn't it force her to think of sad things?

Gu Cheng expected that the old lady would be displeased, so he explained: "Auntie, isn't Chen Fang's head still missing?" Recently, there have been several more cases in the city, and we suspect that Li Hua has accomplices who are still at large. ”

When the old lady heard this, she frowned and asked, "Someone's head has been cut off again?" ”

"Don't ask specifically, we also have discipline, can you help me recall, was there anything unusual about Chen Fang and Li Hua before their deaths, or were there any suspicious characters who came to them?"

"They usually go out early and return late, and there are not many opportunities to meet our old couple, anyway, I don't see anything abnormal, as for suspicious people, you might as well ask their neighbors, I have bad legs and feet, and I don't go out of the house all day." The old lady didn't think much about it, and replied directly.

Gu Cheng's heart was ready for nothing, the Chinese New Year's Eve case was related to the other three cases, but his intuition and speculation, there was not enough evidence to show that the missing head of the Chinese New Year's Eve case was related to the serial dismemberment case.

"Auntie, do you think Chen Fang's head was hidden?"

The old lady said impatiently: "I think it was hidden by Li Hua, what is the use of you asking me, it is better to go to the prison and ask him." By the way, when will he be shot? ”

"It's coming." Gu Cheng asked again, "What time does Uncle Chen come back from his walk?" ”

"I'll be back after lunch." The old lady said nonchalantly.

"What do you eat for lunch?"

"Order the noodles and deal with two mouthfuls. Officer Gu to eat a bit? ”

"No, don't bother."

The two chatted a few words, and Gu Cheng found that the old lady's expression had not changed much, except for the first time when he mentioned Chen Fang's case, the old lady was a little repulsed, and the old lady seemed to have basically walked out of the pain of losing her daughter.

Gu Cheng felt that he had nothing to ask, and when he was about to get up and leave, he suddenly saw the pattern on the bracelet on the old lady's right hand, which gave people a very wonderful feeling. The bracelet is woven, and the pattern in the middle is very complex, not like an ordinary ornament, it is a strange oval shape, and the interior of the ellipse is intertwined by countless threads, and the pattern composed of it seems to be some kind of symbol, Gu Cheng even feels that it has similarities with some totems.

"The bracelet is pretty chic." Gu Cheng changed into his shoes and said with a smile.

The old lady covered the bracelet with her left hand and replied quietly, "Really? I used to shop in the morning market. ”

Subsequently, Gu Cheng went to Chen Fang's neighbor and asked, and the answer he got was basically the same as three months ago, Chen Fang and Li Hua rarely quarreled, and they didn't see any suspicious people, and they only saw Chen Fang's parents come here after the incident.

Gu Cheng casually walked around the community, but he didn't see Uncle Chen's figure, and he didn't know where the old man went.