Chapter 1193: Can’t Wait?
10:30am, in the funeral parlor in Bei Gang City.
Zhao Yu had brought Xiong Wendong and the others and arrived on the scene as quickly as they could.
When Zhao Yu found out that female corpse number five had been cremated years ago, he could only draw two conclusions. The first was that Su Lan had been resurrected, or her corpse had not really been cremated and had been swapped.
Of course, the first conclusion was easy to rule out, which meant that only the second possibility remained!
Furthermore, if Su Lan’s parents had really seen her body get pushed into the crematorium, then there could only be one place with a problem. That was the funeral parlor!
And to be even more precise, it was the crematorium in the funeral parlor.
The crematorium was part of the funeral parlor, and as the name implied, it was the place where the dead were cremated.
According to the information, there was only one crematorium in Bei Gang City. Because cremation was encouraged locally, the crematorium was very busy.
When Zhao Yu and the others arrived, there was a cremation going on, and there were still people waiting in line behind them.
Zhao Yu wanted to check out the cremator, but there was a fire burning outside, so he had no choice but to wait a while.
“Detective Zhao, detective Zhao! There really is a problem!” Xiong Wendong hurried to report to Zhao Yu and Qian Hui. “The employee in charge of the cremator now is a replacement. He said that Bai Lang, the director of the crematorium, has taken sick leave and hasn’t been to work in three days!”
“Three days?” Zhao Yu exhaled. “That was the day when the female bodies in the hanging coffins were found!”
“I… I’ve already informed the Bei Gang Interpol Brigade and got them to arrest him!” Xiong Wendong said quickly. “The mobile phone signal is also being triangulated now!”
“Hmm…” Zhao Yu nodded, but deep down he felt that the chance of catching the suspect was not great. Now that the suspect was aware of them, he probably already escaped. It would take a while to find him.
“If so,” Xiong Wendong said as he pointed at the cremator in the distance, “Then is there still a problem with the cremator? The family of the deceased watched the deceased being pushed forward into the cremator and watched the fire.
“That… that… what about the ashes?” He scratched his head in shock.
“The ashes were buried in the grave,” Zhao Yu said. “The family members of the deceased are now going to the Interpol to identify the corpse. If there is no mistake, then they will open the grave and check the ashes. You must send someone to follow up and accompany them throughout the process!”
“Oh, okay!” Xiong Wendong gestured toward his men and sent someone to get to work on it. After the person left, Xiong Wendong continued. “Detective Zhao, are the ashes fake too…?
“To make use of the cremator… oh, these criminals are the worst! Oh!” He sighed. “No wonder the female corpses in the coffin had makeup on them. It turns out the makeup had been painted on by the funeral parlor!”
“Leader, leader…!” Just after their discussion, Zeng Ke quickly ran in with a report. “I found it, I found it!” Zeng Ke said. “Except for the last two, the first five female bodies were all cremated in this funeral parlor!
“And as previously guessed, all of them were already dead!”
As soon as this remark was made, the police officers present were in an uproar. None of them had heard of such a weird thing.
“Five?!” Xiong Wendong exclaimed. “Then there’s still two left. Where did the last two come from?”
“The f*ck!” Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu shouted loudly. “Female corpse number six showed signs of a car accident, while female corpse number seven was choked to death!
“Isn’t it obvious enough? The condition of the person who wanted to go against God’s will must have worsened and they couldn’t wait to get more dead people, so they had to start making dead people themselves!”
“Ah…” The tone of everyone changed again.
“That’s too… too cruel!” Xiong Wendong said, shuddering with rage. “It’s murder! The two girls were murdered after all!?”
“But…” Zeng Ke seemed anxious. “Leader, according to the data, Ling Mengfan, female corpse number one, committed suicide by cutting her wrists. But she was cremated last September. It’s been almost nine months now, and the body that was placed in the hanging coffin, how… how could that…”
Indeed…
Zhao Yu frowned. He really couldn’t figure out how the body had not rotted. Gao Facai from forensics had examined the body with several experts, and just like with Zhang Peipei, they could not figure out the reason for the bodies not rotting.
Because the corpse would eventually be cremated, the funeral parlor would simply dress up the body without embalming it.
As such, if he wanted to understand why the body had not rotted, he would only find out if he caught the criminal!
“Zeng Ke…” Zhao Yu turned to ask another question. “What is the cause of death?”
“Hmm…” Zeng Ke glanced at the information before replying. “Other than female corpse number two who died of congenital heart disease, the other four girls committed suicide!”
“Oh…” Zhao Yu said. “What about female corpse number three, the one who was suspected of having drowned?”
“Suicide as well!” Zeng Ke said with certainty. “The deceased named Liu Yueying jumped into the river to commit suicide. Because she was found pretty early, there was no sign of swelling and bleaching!”
“Oh…” Zhao Yu said.
“Oh, right!” Zeng Ke said, hurriedly turning on his mobile phone and pulling up a report. “This is the autopsy report you wanted last night. Forensics have confirmed that other than female corpses number one, two, and four, the other girls were no longer virgins!”
“Ah, they’re not?” Zhao Yu was surprised. Master Zhang had made it clear yesterday that in order to continue living, it was more appropriate to use corpses of pure yin. How could it be these girls were all not virgins?
Unless… they served a different purpose regarding the criminal’s objective?
“Leader, leader!” A subordinate policeman under Xiong Wendong rushed forward at that point to report to Zhao Yu. “We just checked the CCTV footage from earlier. It was too early to see anything, but regarding the situation of female corpse number five, we checked the most obvious question. Come over and take a look!”
After saying that, the policeman immediately led Zhao Yu and the others to the security room of the funeral parlor.
As he walked, he added, “Female corpse number five was cremated three months ago.
“The funeral parlor was understaffed and the CCTV is basically unwatched. Only when something happens will they get someone to check it.
“But the director asked me, ‘what could happen in a funeral parlor?’, so the cameras are usually just there for display…”
While speaking, the crowd had already arrived at the security room. Not only were the police officers of the technical team present, but the director of the funeral parlor was waiting there as well.
Seeing Zhao Yu had arrived, the police hurriedly opened the video for Zhao Yu and the others to watch.
On the screen, you could see that at midnight a man in a white coat snuck out of the cremation room, carrying a huge and heavy woven bag on his shoulders.
“Oh… So, you’re saying that inside the bag is the female corpse?” Xiong Wendong said, slightly nervous. “Like the group of people Zhao Shentan met last night, the guy who burned the corpse performed an illusion in front of the family?”
“That man is Bai Lang!” The director confirmed, pointing at the man in the video. “That night, he should not have been on the night shift. But he intentionally switched shifts with Old Wang…”
“That means that night he was the only one at the funeral parlor?” Zhao Yu asked, turning back.
“Yeah!” The director said quickly. “We are not worried about thieves or anything like that, even on normal days! Therefore, our night shifts are usually done with one eye closed. Some come to clock in at work and just go home to bed, while others don’t even bother to clock in. I never thought…”
“Leader Xiong!” Zhao Yu commanded with a strong voice after hearing this. “Immediately gather all the staff of the funeral parlor! I suspect that there are suspects here in cahoots with Bai Lang!”