Good and Evil, Chapter 85: The Case of the Unidentified Male Corpse

Summer had already passed, and September followed close behind. The fierce heat receded with the lingering drizzle, and the bleakness of autumn arrived at an unhurried pace, stepping on the heels of summer.

On this day, the Second Criminal Investigation Team, which had returned from Far West County only a few days earlier, received a report that a male corpse had been found on the seaside of Seaside City. They immediately rushed to the scene.

The deceased was a man in his thirties or thereabouts, about one hundred and seventy-six centimeters tall, weighing roughly eighty kilograms, of average build, neither thin nor fat. His hair was neatly parted. He wore a white designer shirt on top, black dress trousers below, and a designer watch on his wrist. Apart from that, there was nothing on him that could prove his identity.

The report had been made by a father and son who made their living fishing along the coast. The elder was named Sun Hongda, forty-eight years old; the younger was Sun Jinglong, just turned twenty. They were native residents of Seaside City’s coast, and had been fishermen for generations, surviving by casting nets and going out to sea.

According to them, they had gone out as usual that day to cast their nets. Around four in the afternoon, the sky suddenly darkened, and rain seemed imminent, so they decided to cast one last net and see if they could bring in anything worthwhile. But when they hauled it back in, they found no more than a few fish, and instead brought up a dead man. The shock nearly frightened the father and son out of their wits. After the initial panic at the sight of the body, they gradually calmed down, chose to call the police, and then waited on the shore for the authorities to arrive.

After Ning Yanan led the Second Criminal Investigation Team and the forensic examiner Ye Xuefei to the scene, Ye Xuefei performed a preliminary autopsy and determined that the deceased had drowned, and had been dead for about a week. Judging from the autopsy results, the man had actually been dead for only three days, yet he had been soaked in seawater the entire time. Under normal circumstances, the body should have floated to the surface not long after death. But now, after roughly a week, it was still sunk beneath the seabed, which was clearly unusual.

Ning Yanan first ordered the members of the Second Criminal Investigation Team to examine the scene, then sent people to Sun Hongda’s village to question the locals. After that, she brought the corpse and the fisherman father and son back to the police bureau.

The reason she had Zhao Hua conduct the village inquiry was twofold: first, to determine whether the father and son might be suspects; second, to see whether anyone recognized the deceased. In many homicide cases, the killer would, after committing the crime, choose to call in the report in order to clear suspicion from themselves. Ning Yanan was simply taking precautions.

Once the body had been brought back to the police bureau, Ye Xuefei began a full dissection and detailed autopsy, while Ning Yanan carefully questioned the father and son in detail.

After the questioning, Ning Yanan could be certain that the father and son had not lied, and that they had no opportunity to commit the crime. At the same time, Zhao Hua, who had gone to the coastal village to investigate, also returned to the bureau. According to his findings, from a week earlier up to the time the body was discovered, the father and son had been fishing at sea as usual, with no abnormal behavior whatsoever. Moreover, the villagers said they were honest and straightforward to a fault, the kind of men who could not be shaken into speaking even with repeated blows, and therefore could not possibly be suspects.

Since Sun Hongda and his son had no suspicion attached to them, Ning Yanan had them sign the interview record and then let them go home.

Not long after, Ye Xuefei’s autopsy results came in. The dissection showed that the deceased was between thirty and thirty-eight years old, in good physical condition, and had a smoking habit; this conclusion was drawn from the condition of his lungs. The man had indeed drowned, as seawater was found in both his airways and lungs. In addition, a three-centimeter Y-shaped wound was discovered on the back of his head. However, Ye Xuefei determined through the autopsy that the wound was shallow and not fatal.

With these findings, together with the testimony of the fisherman father and son, Ning Yanan and the others initially judged that the deceased had most likely died by suicide. Of course, that was only the conclusion based on the information available at present.

The body had been found, but no documents proving the deceased’s identity were discovered on him. So the first task was to determine who he was and trace the source of the corpse. Ning Yanan and the others collected the deceased’s fingerprints and searched them in the fingerprint database. Unfortunately, after a thorough search, they found no match. This was understandable: the database currently contained mostly the fingerprints of criminals who had served prison sentences, while the fingerprints of ordinary people were relatively scarce. In general, no one would make a special trip to the police bureau just to have fingerprints recorded.

Since fingerprint tracing had failed, they had to think of other ways. From the clothes on the body, it was clear that the deceased’s financial circumstances had been very good. A branded shirt, branded trousers, a branded watch—every external detail suggested that he must have been a man of status in life. So Ning Yanan and the others decided to investigate from that angle.

Over the next few days, they visited a large number of luxury clothing stores and watch shops, but could not find anyone matching the deceased. With no better option, Ning Yanan contacted the media and released a public notice seeking identification of the body. Not long after the notice went out, someone called in to report that, one night a week earlier, they had seen a man in his thirties at Coco Bar, drunk from drinking there. Since that night, the man had never been seen at the bar again. The person making the report was a regular customer of Coco Bar, and the missing middle-aged man had also been a regular; many people had seen him before. Since Coco Bar was near the coast, Ning Yanan had someone find the bar owner and ask him to come identify the body.

After the owner of Coco Bar arrived at the police bureau, he went to the mortuary to view the corpse. He then shook his head and told the police with complete certainty that the deceased was not the middle-aged man who had disappeared from his bar.

First, the man who had vanished from Coco Bar was an overweight fellow, close to one hundred kilograms, so their builds did not match. Second, their faces were different. Because the missing man had been a regular, the owner had seen him often. He was not especially familiar with him, but he could still remember his face and recognize him. Finally, after receiving the tip-off, the Second Criminal Investigation Team had gone to look for the middle-aged man, and the police actually found him. The reason he had not been to the bar for so long was that on the night in question he had drunk too much, fallen on the way home, and broken a rib. When the police found him, his arm was still in a cast and his neck was still in a sling. With these clues, the police, who had just glimpsed a ray of light, were instantly plunged into disappointment.

The case returned to square one. Although the cause of death had been established, the deceased’s identity still remained unknown. Three or four days after the public notice seeking identification was issued, no one had come forward, and the case fell into deadlock.

To clarify the deceased’s identity, Ning Yanan gathered everyone from the Second Criminal Investigation Team. The purpose was twofold: to analyze the case, and to bring everyone together to pool their thoughts and see whether there was any way to trace the corpse’s source.

The deceased seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. At the case conference, the members of the Second Criminal Investigation Team rarely sank into silence. Since the fingerprint database had yielded no match, there was no way to identify the source of the corpse. Even after the identification notice was published, no one came forward. And in the nearby area where the body was found, no one recognized or had seen the deceased. If they could not identify the source of the corpse, they could not determine whether the man had truly died by suicide. Although the autopsy showed drowning, it was still unclear whether he had jumped into the sea himself in despair, or been pushed into it and murdered by someone else.

At the silent, eerie meeting, Zhang Lei looked at the others, all of them quiet and furrowed-browed, and suddenly said, “That watch on the deceased’s wrist looks like a Xidan watch. It must be worth at least several hundred thousand. For such an expensive watch, there ought to be customer records when it was purchased, right?”

As soon as Zhang Lei said this, the faces of the others, all tightly furrowed just moments before, lit up at once. Everyone felt this was an excellent breakthrough. After some discussion, they agreed with Zhang Lei’s suggestion: since they could not find the corpse’s source for the moment, they should start by investigating the watch. With a direction in hand, everyone immediately got to work.

Xidan was a well-known brand, and there were not many watch shops in Seaside City that sold such watches—only three. So the members of the Second Criminal Investigation Team took the watch to the three stores that specialized in selling this model and conducted inquiries.

Their efforts were not in vain. After careful questioning, the team obtained a very useful clue. Xidan watches were a luxury item, usually sold to wealthy clients. Each watch had a unique serial code inside. When selling such watches, the stores would carefully record the customer’s detailed information. The first reason was after-sales service: Xidan watches were made overseas, and domestic technology could not yet produce them. If a watch broke and needed repair, it had to be sent back to the original store, which would then forward it abroad. Once repaired, it would be sent back, a process that took about a month. The second reason was even simpler: customers who could afford luxury goods were major clients and did not lack money. The people around them were likely to be wealthy too. Once the customer’s information was on hand, it opened the door to many more potential clients. This was a common marketing tactic in the service industry.

With this crucial clue, Zhang Lei immediately took the deceased’s watch to the three stores and had the owners identify it. Of course, nothing could be learned by the naked eye alone, so the staff opened the back of the watch. Sure enough, there was a code composed of numbers and letters inside. Zhang Lei then used that code to question the staff at the three stores, and after some difficulty, he finally found out who had bought the watch.

The customer who bought the Xidan watch was named Zhou Boming. According to the store records, Zhou Boming was the owner of a private company and was worth at least tens of millions.

With this clue, Zhang Lei immediately reported it to Ning Yanan. After learning the information, Ning Yanan promptly had someone search the population records for a man named Zhou Boming.

Very quickly, Zhou Boming’s detailed information was found. Zhou Boming, male, thirty-seven years old, a native of Seaside City, unmarried, owner of Boming Company. Everything matched the watch shop’s records fairly well.

After finding Zhou Boming’s information, Ning Yanan and the others immediately began investigating him. To their surprise, Boming Company had gone bankrupt half a year earlier and was now officially deregistered. Zhou Boming was also living alone. His parents had passed away one after another several years before, and he had never married, so naturally there were no children. This once again plunged the people who had just glimpsed a ray of hope into darkness.

Fortunately, there was also good news: the police discovered that Zhou Boming had a girlfriend of eight years, Du Keer. But along with the good news came bad news: Du Keer was not in the country at present, but in America, and could not be reached for the time being. Once again, the case fell into deadlock.

Ning Yanan and the others were unwilling to give up, and carefully investigated Zhou Boming again. They discovered that Zhou Boming had a close friend named Cai Hongzhe, whom he had met while drinking at Mia Bar.

With this clue, the members of the Second Criminal Investigation Team, who had previously found no useful leads and were discouraged, saw hope once more. After further investigation, they finally obtained Cai Hongzhe’s contact information. Once the police got in touch with him, they asked him to come to the bureau and see whether the deceased was indeed Zhou Boming.

Cai Hongzhe happened to live in a private villa in the Modern City Villa District of Seaside City. After receiving Ning Yanan’s call, he did not refuse and came to the police bureau very cooperatively.

When Cai Hongzhe arrived, Ning Yanan took him to the mortuary to identify the body. At first, when he saw the corpse, swollen from soaking in seawater, he could not recognize it and was not certain whether it was Zhou Boming. But when he saw the tattoo on the deceased’s left arm, he became completely certain that the dead man was Zhou Boming.

Ning Yanan found this somewhat strange and asked, “How can you be sure he is Zhou Boming?”

Cai Hongzhe said, “Did you see the tattoo on his arm?”

Ning Yanan nodded. She had noticed the tattoo when she first saw the body. This was the twenty-first century, and having a tattoo was nothing unusual. They had not paid it much attention then. Hearing Cai Hongzhe say this, Ning Yanan asked curiously, “Is that tattoo special?”

Cai Hongzhe explained slowly, “That tattoo is the flag of America.”

Upon hearing this, Ning Yanan looked carefully at the tattoo on the deceased’s arm. Because the body had been soaked in seawater for a week, it had become swollen and begun to decompose. The tattoo was stretched so badly it had become blurry, and it was impossible to tell what had been inked there. After Cai Hongzhe’s explanation, Ning Yanan realized that the tattoo on the man’s arm was indeed the flag of America. So she asked, “Is there some story behind this tattoo?”

Cai Hongzhe explained, “Zhou Boming loved America very much when he was alive. He always wanted to travel there, but he was busy with work and never had the time, so he had the American flag tattooed on his arm. About a year ago, after finishing the work at hand, he planned to marry his girlfriend Du Keer, and the two of them went to America together for a trip. I never saw him again after that.”

Through Cai Hongzhe’s identification, Ning Yanan and the others finally confirmed the deceased’s identity: the dead man was Zhou Boming.

So Ning Yanan and the others conducted a detailed investigation into Zhou Boming. In the end, using the contact information for Du Keer provided by Cai Hongzhe, they managed to reach her after great difficulty. After some conversation, they learned that Zhou Boming had indeed gone to America with Du Keer for a trip more than a year earlier. The trip had originally been intended as a honeymoon of sorts, but two months after arriving in America, the two of them broke up. After the breakup, Zhou Boming stayed in America for a while, drowning his sorrows in drink every day, living in a drunken haze and having no mind to deal with the company’s affairs. Soon afterward, Boming Company began to suffer losses and, half a year later, officially declared bankruptcy and closed. Zhou Boming then returned home alone, while Du Keer, who had gone to America with him, remained there.

With this clue, Ning Yanan and the others first grew suspicious of Du Keer. They investigated her, and the results showed that after leaving Seaside City and going to America a year earlier, she had never returned. Moreover, Du Keer had already married in America, to an American man. According to American law, a foreigner who marries an American can obtain citizenship there. So Du Keer was now an American citizen. During this period of more than a year, she had remained in America the entire time and never come back. Thus, her suspicion was eliminated.

His girlfriend of eight years had run off with someone else, and the company he had painstakingly founded had gone bankrupt. Based on these clues, Ning Yanan and the others judged that Zhou Boming must have been unable to endure such a blow, unable to accept it all at once, and had chosen to jump into the sea and end his own life.