"These ten toenails are very carefully trimmed, and ordinary pedicure masters can't fix them like this (Xiao Luhan invited a few pedicure workers to the cold room of the forensic medical department of the Public Security Bureau to see the real thing - the real thing is much clearer than the photo) - ordinary pedicure masters don't have such work and patience (the income of pedicure masters is directly proportional to the number of pedicures they have, and they can't spend a long time on a pair of feet)."

Although Liang Houzhong's assumptions did not bring the slightest help to the comrades' criminal investigation work (whether it helped or not, it is difficult to say now).

Xiao Luhan heard a little subtext from Master Liang's words: "Master Liang, if you have something to say, you might as well say it directly." ”

"Let me tell you one thing, I met a customer, he often came to the Moling bathhouse to take a bath, once, a new pedicure master asked him if he wanted a pedicure, he stretched out his foot to the pedicure master to see, the master asked who repaired his toenails, he smiled but did not answer."

"This man never had a pedicure with us, but his toenails were very well kept, and they were as fine as a woman's, except that they were not as long as a woman's fingernails—even the old skin on his toes was cleaned."

"Why is that?"

"He didn't say it, I guess he has a good wife."

"On what basis?"

"Because I have a good wife, I give pedicures to others, but never give myself pedicures, my wife has to wash my feet every night before going to bed, as long as she finds that the toenails are long, she will trim me, even the dirt in the toenails is clean. After pruning, it should be carefully polished. ”

Xiao Luhan finally understood Master Liang's words, if the deceased was from the south of the old city, then his fingernails and toenails were probably taken care of by his wife. The toenails are so well managed, if they are not trimmed by a pedicure master, they are trimmed by their own wives, because only a wife will have this kind of patience and will put in such a lot of effort.

"How old is this person?"

"Forty-somethings."

Has this person recently come to take a shower? ”

"He just came yesterday, and tomorrow night on time, he will come every other day to take a bath."

Listening to Master Liang's words, Xiao Luhan's heart was half cold.

Originally, Xiao Luhan pinned his hopes on this clue, but the result disappointed him.

Earlier, the author had twice mentioned Liuyedu, there was no trace of the deceased in the bathhouse, Xiao Luhan put his attention on the ferry and the boat, the time when the deceased was killed was in late April, the place of the sinking of the body was about 2.5 meters away from the river bank, and the water depth was more than one meter.

How did the murderer sink the body of the deceased into the water?

Xiao Luhan thought of the boat, only with the help of the boat, can this be done, in Liuyedu, there is a ferry, on the south bank of Liuyedu, there is an ancient town that says it is not big, it is not small, and the name of the ancient town is Huashen Town.

There are more than 3,000 families living in Huashen Town, and the people in the ancient town go to the city to do business, and Liuyedu is the only passage. There are several families in the vicinity of Liuyedu whose families make a living by fishing, and every year in late spring and early summer, as soon as the river water comes up, they begin to set up nets to fish by the river.

Each of these families has a small boat, which is anchored on the bank of the river for many years.

Xiao Luhan turned his attention to these boats (looking for the entire river, in addition to the boats mentioned above, there are many boats coming and going on the river, but they are all passing passenger ships, almost all of them are ships transporting goods. ）

On the south bank of the river, in addition to the town of Huashen in the west, there is a large residential area in the east, with more than 2,000 households. A cross street divides the inhabitants into four sections.

This place has a very interesting name: "Thirteen Battalions". It is said that there were troops stationed here during the Three Kingdoms period.

In the "Thirteen Camps", there is an old theater with a long history, and its location is at the crossroads, which existed during the Ming Dynasty.

There is also a nunnery in the "Thirteenth Battalion", and the three-storey old-fashioned building on the other side of the river that we mentioned earlier—Zhu Laosan as a reference for the fish nest is part of the nunnery, and the name of the nunnery is "Ma Po Po Nunnery".

Throughout the ages, it is rare to build a temple in the downtown area, and in the western part of Beijing, there is a relatively large nunnery, which is also built in a densely populated place, and it is the "Jiming Temple".

To the west of "Ma Po-an", there is also a pickle factory, and if you pay a little attention, you will smell the pickles in the air. This very special smell has been smelled by the residents living on both sides of the river for many years. Of course, the ancient and quiet bell of "Ma Po Po Nunnery" has been heard by residents on both sides of the river for many years.

The back door of the "Ma Po Po Nunnery" and the pickle factory is open on the river embankment. Two stone stairs that wind down to the river, and on the pier of the pickle factory, a relatively large wooden boat is docked.

Zhu Laosan said that in addition to transporting goods, the wooden boat of the pickle factory is usually locked to a large willow tree on the shore with iron chains. When he fishes on this side of the river, he can often see children playing on wooden boats, and occasionally anglers will sit on wooden boats and fish.

Xiao Luhan's visit to the "13th Battalion" took a long time, and the location of the crime was on the Qinnan River, and the specific location was on the north bank, and the 13th Battalion, which was separated by a river, should also be considered as the environment in which the case occurred.

As we all know, Zhao Zimeng has been engaged in criminal investigation work for nearly 20 years, and in the process of handling cases, he has always attached importance to the study of the environment and background, and any case is inseparable from the environment and background. The strangeness of the case is inextricably linked to the complexity of the background and environment. When the murderer commits the crime, he will also take into account the environmental factors.

The body of the deceased was hidden at a distance of about 2.5 meters from the north shore and more than one meter under the water, two city wall bricks fell on the deceased's body, and the head of the deceased was cut off and hidden elsewhere, all of which took into account the environmental factors, so Zhao Zimeng hoped to interpret some valuable information from the environment of the crime scene.

There are a total of four hardware stores in the "Thirteen Battalions", Liuyedu and Moling Road (one in the "Thirteen Battalions", one in Liuyedu, and two on Moling Road).

Xiao Luhan took the thin wire used to tie up the corpse and the bricks of the city wall, and went to four hardware stores to investigate and visit, this type of iron wire, four hardware stores have, according to the length and weight of the wire, such a long, so many wires, must have been bought in the hardware store, this kind of wire is sold by catties, the comrades wrapped all the wires together, and weighed them with electronic scales, The total weight is 1.19 kilograms, and when the murderer bought the wire, it should be about one kilogram, but unfortunately, the owners of the four hardware stores had no impression of the customers who bought the wire, they said that the people who bought this kind of wire were generally units, and the unit was a large bundle (the weight of a bundle of wire was five kilograms).

There are also private people to buy this kind of wire, but the length is limited, because they are all neighbors, the boss will use a vice to cut a section, not a penny, this wire itself is relatively cheap, a piece of wire is not worth a few dollars, in order to attract business, be polite to customers, more repeat customers, good for the business of hardware stores.

Worst of all, the four shopkeepers couldn't remember who had ever bought wire in their hardware store, which didn't usually make money selling wire, and the reason why they got into wire was because someone needed it—as long as someone needed it, even if it was a small nail, they had to try to stock it.

Customers who come to the store don't just buy one thing, so as long as the goods are complete, people will come to their hardware store to buy things, because there are more customers who come to the door, so they have no impression of who bought what.

Besides, if the murderer was a local, he would not have been able to come to their hardware store to buy wire. In the south of the old city, this type of wire can be purchased in any hardware store in western Beijing.

When Xiao Luhan visited for the second time, Wang Huilan, the wife of Boss Zhao of Xiaochen's hardware store (located in the 13th camp), provided a person, who had come to her store to buy wire, this person's surname was Da, called Da Changjin, and he had bought a kilogram of wire in Wang Huilan's hand.

Xiao Luhan conducted an investigation into Da Changjin's progress: Da Changjin bought iron wire to build a kitchen, and his family built a small kitchen in front of the house, and the materials used for the walls were bamboo poles and bamboo fences, and the iron wires were used to fix bamboo poles and fences. When Da Chang entered the house to build a kitchen, he also asked three colleagues to help in the unit.

Ma Minglong led Xiao Luhan to Changjin's house to take a look, Dajia did have a small kitchen, and a lot of wire was indeed used on the bamboo poles and fences - the wire looked quite new. Neighbors also confirmed that at the end of May, Dajia did ask colleagues from the unit to help build a kitchen, and the three people also found the three colleagues, and their statements were consistent with Da Changjin's statement.

Later, there are only those two old city bricks left, in the north of Moling Road is the ancient city wall, west to Xihuamen Castle, east to Jiqing Gate, is three or four kilometers long ancient city wall.

After investigation and visits, Xiao Luhan learned that almost every family living in the area of Moling Road has an ancient city wall in the courtyard and illegal construction.

As long as someone digs the ground on the embankment to grow vegetables, everyone will follow suit, your family divides a piece, my family divides a piece, everyone comes to dig a piece, the city wall brick is a good material for building a house, and when I see others moving home, I also move a few pieces by the way, and I don't move in vain.

As a result, the good end of the river embankment has become a private vegetable garden, the good end of the ancient city wall, the pry of holes, the public area is a big piece of fat, do not occupy a piece of the heart is uncomfortable, so, your family to build a small shawl, my family to build a small kitchen, the city wall bricks are not a good material to build a house?

As a result, the ancient city walls, which had stood for hundreds of years, were lost.