Chapter 9 Chapter Seven Discovery in the Graveyard

"Who has been here?" came a loud roar. Ryan and I were taken aback for a moment, and we recognized the voice of Mr. Holmes.We turned around and found that he was no longer leaning against the carriage.The sound came from the back of the house. Ryan, several police officers and I rushed over together, thinking in our minds as we ran: What made Mr. Holmes so angry?I've never heard him speak so loudly. There was still a distance of seven or eight meters away from him, so he picked up his umbrella and pointed at us with the tip of the umbrella and said, "Stand there, don't go any further." The policeman who made people wander around said: "Didn't I tell you? What's the matter with these messy footprints?"

The policeman blushed, lowered his head and glanced sideways at Director Fei Fengfei who was standing aside. The fat director was taken aback for a moment, and soon a smile appeared on his face.He stretched out his fat hand and leaned towards Mr. Holmes, saying: "When I first came, you went upstairs, and I took people around the house to see if I could find any clues. Look at this... ..." Mr. Holmes shook his head helplessly, avoiding Mr. Fei's outstretched hand, turned his head and glanced at the window that was always open on the wall, turned around and left. We followed, and Mr. Holmes told me as he walked, "Go and stop a passing car on the road. Let's go to the police station first."

I was taken aback for a moment. Aren’t the cars and the director of the police station here? Why stop passing cars? After Mr. Holmes taunted us just now, Director Fei had an ugly face, but he was quite sensible at the moment, so he rushed over and led us to his private Chevrolet. After arriving at the police station, Mr. Holmes asked to read the files on the sudden death of Zhang Shunying and his wife, Guo Shufang's death and Zhang Ruiheng's disappearance. After reading it, it was almost the same as what Zhang Liying said, and there were still some photos of the death scene of Zhang Shunying and his wife in the file bag.

The two people in the photo are very similar to the two people in the wedding photo in the house in Portsmouth, so there is no doubt that they are Zhang Shunying and his wife.Both of them had horrified expressions on their faces, their eyes were wide open, and their pupils almost burst. It was obvious that they had seen something particularly terrifying.The clothes on her body were intact and there were no obvious injuries; Zhang Shunying had shallow strangle marks on her neck, but she was not fatal; Soon, the forensic identification materials were also sent by relevant personnel. Zhang Shunying and his wife died with distorted faces, dilated pupils, and bleeding from the nostrils.The medical analysis is that the adrenal gland releases a large amount of catecholamines, which causes the heartbeat to suddenly increase, the blood pressure to increase, and the oxygen consumption of myocardial metabolism to increase sharply.Excessive blood circulation shocks the heart, tearing the fibers of the heart muscle, causing the heart to bleed, causing cardiac arrest and causing them to die.The cause of death of Mrs. Guo is the same.

As for the footprints in the house, according to the results of the soil analysis, these soils are field mud everywhere in the local area, and there is nothing special about them; the skin flakes carried in the soil have shown signs of decay. As for the dead body of the child hanging from the locust tree at the door, the condition was almost the same as that dictated by the white coat wearing glasses at that time. After reading these, I was a little puzzled, what did they see?Why are you scared to death?Will there really be scary things like those in the movie footage in the world? Ryan's brows were also frowned. This matter became more and more complicated, completely beyond his imagination.

At noon, we had lunch together in the cafeteria of the police station.After dinner, Mr. Holmes gave Director Fei a chance to make amends: he asked to borrow a police car from the police station, and we had to go back to Zhang Village in the afternoon to learn about the situation. Fei Feng agreed without hesitation, and even asked to drive us there himself.In this regard, Mr. Holmes did not meet his request, and only asked to bring two police officers with him.Ryan sat in the driver's seat and acted as the driver. When we returned to Zhang Village, we did not go to the house where the accident happened. Mr. Holmes asked a villager to take us to the cemetery where the old man was buried.

It seems that the burial custom here is group burial. In a large wasteland on the other side of the mountain behind the village, dozens of graves, large and small, new and old, are piled up.Both vertical and horizontal are uniform, patchwork and orderly.Some have erected monuments, some have not; some of those erected monuments are still intact, and some are already incomplete.In the gully between the tombs, there are some weeds and rattan plants. Although it was broad daylight, this scene, coupled with the singing of crows on the nearby mountain, and a gust of wind blowing past, made people shudder and shudder.

Ryan, I, and the two policemen felt a little nervous at the moment, but Mr. Holmes and the country guy who led the way walked through the graves with ease as if nothing happened. Probably after the people here died, when they were buried in the earth, they were arranged from the front to the back according to the order of the time of death.So it wasn't until they reached the last row that the man leading the way stopped. He pointed to the two outermost graves and said, "This one belongs to Mrs. Guo." Then he moved his finger to the one next door and said, "This one belongs to Lao Zhangtou. Although they were not able to be together in their old age, It is a blessing to be buried next to each other after ascending to heaven."

These two graves were newly built, so there were no weeds growing. Old Zhangtou was buried earlier than Mrs. Guo, and the graves were also shorter.After being scoured by the rain last night, it also showed the lines of rain pits and running water ditches. Mr. Holmes nodded and thanked the man, and I also lit a cigarette for the fellow sensibly.Mr. Holmes just casually glanced at Mrs. Guo's grave, then turned all his attention to Old Man Zhang's grave next to him.Soon, he squatted down, picked up a handful of soil with his hand, and took out a magnifying glass with the other hand to study it carefully.

The fellow was holding a cigarette, standing with one hand on his hips, and said unintentionally: "This old man, although living alone has become a bit poor in recent years, his son who lives abroad still often sends money back. Life is really good." I haven't treated him badly. Old Zhangtou also knows how to enjoy life. He loves fishing when he doesn't farm the land. He also takes care of the vegetable field. He doesn't smoke. He drinks a little wine every now and then, and the canned food is never broken. He often patronizes my family’s canteen, how can he just go there? I really can’t believe that he died of a sudden illness.”

Mr. Holmes, who had been concentrating on the tomb of Lao Zhangtou, heard his ears move, and soon he stood up, and moved to the outside of the cemetery to look for a long time.From the last row of Lao Litou, along the line to the front row, and carefully inspected the left and right sides of the mountain road we came in, and kept flicking the weeds with the umbrella in his hand . It was a long time before Mr. Holmes came back.He first said to the villager who led the way: "My fellow, can I trouble you to go back and call Zhang Liying, the second son of old Zhangtou, over here? Please." I also hurriedly took out the cigarettes in my pocket and handed them up.The fellow nodded readily, but he didn't pick up my cigarette. He just took out one and said with a smile, "It's a small matter. I have no shortage of cigarettes in my own small shop. Usually the old Zhangtou treats the villagers well, Zhang Shunying He is also the only one in our village who went to a foreign country. He gave the whole village people a face, and gave them things when they came back last time. Comrade Public Security, if you can help solve this case, the whole village will You will all be grateful." Mr. Holmes smiled and nodded silently.The fellow grinned and went. Then, Mr. Holmes turned to a policeman next to him and said, "Give a call to Director Fei and ask him to send some more people over, and bring shovels and pickaxes when he comes." The police officer nodded and went to the side to make a phone call.I interrupted Mr. Holmes's thinking, and said, "I mean, my brother, you are not planning to exhume the grave and open the coffin for an autopsy?" Mr. Holmes nodded and said, "Yes, I want to open the coffin, but it's not an autopsy, but a verification. The conclusion of the coffin is still pending." "Verify what?" I asked curiously. "As for what to verify, I will tell you after the second verification operation tonight. ——In the process of investigating a case, the most important thing is to be able to distinguish the primary from the cumbersome facts. Otherwise, your Instead of concentrating, the mind will be distracted." Mr. Holmes began to play tricks again. I also wanted to express my dissatisfaction, and he continued: "Also, I hope you will remember that when I am thinking in the future, please don't interrupt me casually." "I'm pretending to be a ghost again." I muttered and walked towards Ryan, trying to seek support, but at this moment, the ghost also waved his hands helplessly and curled his lips. Mr. Holmes ignored us, but picked up a grass vine in the gully between the graves, squatted there and looked at it with great interest. Soon, Zhang Liying rushed over, the tied trousers had not been put down yet, obviously he was called directly from the field.The man who went to report the letter also came back.Indeed, this kind of novelty is not seen every day. Mr. Holmes called Zhang Liying aside, and I followed. Mr. Holmes didn't mean to drive me away this time, and allowed me to listen.Mr. Holmes made an exception and took out two brown cigarettes, handed one to Zhang Liying, and lit one himself.Lao Zhang had never seen this new thing before, and he held it in his hand for a while without daring to smoke it. He wiped it with his sleeve and carefully put it in his collar pocket. Mr. Holmes took a deep breath and said to Zhang Liying, "Do you think your father died of illness?" Zhang Liying was stunned when he heard this, and he said after a while, "What? Comrade Public Security, have you discovered anything new?" Mr. Holmes nodded and said, "Yes, we have some clues about the death of your brother and sister-in-law, and now we just need to confirm it." Lao Zhang immediately grabbed Mr. Holmes's hand excitedly, and said, "Comrade Public Security, you must uphold justice and avenge my old man and mother, as well as my brother and sister-in-law. They were wronged." After finishing, he even wiped away the tears from his excitement with his sleeve. Mr. Holmes also held his hand, and said, "Don't worry, brother, it will be. One thing I have to do now is to confirm my speculation, so I still need you to do us a favor, brother." Zhang Liying wiped the corners of his eyes again, and said firmly, "Comrade Public Security, you just need to talk. I, Old Zhang, will definitely be unambiguous if I can help." Mr. Holmes said: "Well, wise people don't speak dark words, and drums don't use heavy hammers. I will say it straight. Today we will break ground to open the grave of your father, Mr. Zhang, and raise his coffin." Zhang Liying was stunned for a moment, and then he hesitated for a long time before saying: "This... Father... the old man has already died in peace, so it's not good to bother him... okay..." I interrupted him and said, "Do you think the old man will be 'safe' when he is buried? Doesn't he want to let his grievances be made public? Doesn't he want to know how his son and daughter-in-law passed away not long after he left? No. Do you want justice for them?" Mr. Holmes, instead of complaining about my talkativeness this time, nodded approvingly. After hearing this, Zhang Liying was at a loss for words, pondered for a while, finally gritted her teeth and nodded, and said, "Okay, I agree, I agree with you to break the ground and open the coffin. I hope that comrades from the Public Security Bureau will help our family understand the blood feud. The murderer will be brought to justice." Just as he was talking, he heard sirens whimpering, and Director Fei's reinforcements had arrived. Mr. Holmes frowned again. I really can't stand this fat man. Can he keep quiet?As soon as the siren sounded, there would definitely be crowds watching the excitement later. Mr. Holmes didn't bother to be courteous to them. He picked up a shovel and drew a big circle around the cemetery, and then told Director Fei, "Please tell Director Fei that no one is allowed except those I choose." Anyone stepping into this circle." Director Fei took a step forward and quickly said with a smile, "Don't worry, no one will dare to cross the line." Mr. Holmes pushed Director Fei back half a step impatiently, and said, "Including you, too!" After that, he pointed to the line on the ground. Fatty's director's smile immediately froze, and even turned green.Mr. Holmes didn't bother to look at the expression on the fat man's face anymore, he called the two accompanying police officers over, and motioned for Ryan and me to fuck the guy and start working. The soil on the grave was not very hard, and it rained last night, so it was easy to shovel.The more I dug down, the more I felt that something was wrong. It stands to reason that after the coffin is buried in the soil, the covering soil on the top will be compacted, but we dug all the way, and it was as loose as the top soil layer. The more surprised we were, the faster our hands were, and it didn't take long for us to dig below the ground level.As the tomb slowly revealed its true face, the crowd outside the circle drawn by Mr. Holmes on the ground stretched their necks. Everyone held their breath and stared wide-eyed at the place under us. Soil, without saying a word. With a blunt sound of "boom", Ryan's shovel touched the real object, and his shovel just now should have hit the coffin lid.We immediately slowed down, changed from vertical digging to flat shoveling, and slowly cleaned up the dirt on it. Soon, the black lacquered coffin lid appeared before our eyes.Ryan and I were going to start digging on both sides so we could lift the entire coffin.Mr. Holmes raised his hand to stop us, and just asked us to gently dig out the soil around the top cover. We only need to open the coffin cover. We didn't know what kind of tricks he was playing, but we just nodded knowingly, and then we did as he said. After everything was settled, Mr. Holmes squatted down on the edge of the grave first, carefully examining the coffin in front of him.Ryan and I also acted in the same way. Although I didn't know what I was going to see, at least it would give a more professional impression to the people watching outside. At this time, Director Fei finally couldn't bear it any longer, and brought a few police officers across the line to join them, leaving other police officers to continue blocking the cordon. At this moment, Mr. Holmes did not make things difficult for him. Instead, he turned to Director Fei and said, "Please help me to lift the lid of this coffin." Those people didn't hesitate, without saying a word, they didn't even put on gloves, they just reached out, lifted the cover easily, and put it aside. When they carried it, I was horrified: this coffin has no coffin nails! After the lid was lifted, the body of the coffin appeared in front of our eyes: the inner wall was painted white, and a moderately decomposed corpse lay safely in the middle.The clothes and fabrics on his body were still intact, but the tissues on his face were severely festered: the eyes and cheeks were sunken, the skin tissue fell off, and part of his lips had rotted away, exposing his white gums.Further down, on the neck and throat, is a pool of rotten black meat.Asymmetrically with the intact clothes on his body, the old cloth shoes on his feet were worn out, exposing the rotten soles of his feet. Since seeing the horrific corpse hanging from the tree in the morning, Ryan and I have even developed immune antibodies to the corpse, and our emotions are fairly stable, so we don't feel too disgusted right now. At this time, the person standing next to me staggered and nearly slipped. I subconsciously reached out to hold him up, only to realize that it was Zhang Liying, the son of the old man. With a face full of astonishment, with my support, he stretched out his right hand and pointed to his father in the coffin, and said tremblingly: "How...how is it possible, when he was buried...his hands were placed on both sides Yes, now... now, why... why is it flat on the stomach..." Hearing what he said, everyone present was amazed, took a breath of cold air, and couldn't help but take two steps back. Mr. Holmes, who had been squatting all this time, slapped his hands and stood up, motioning to the policemen who opened the coffin just now, saying: "Okay, you can put the lid back on." "No... don't you need to take him back for an autopsy?" Director Fei also had a look of horror on his face, and now he asked suspiciously. "No, I have found what I want to know," replied Mr. Holmes flatly. Those officers who were in charge of getting the coffin lid back did not have the decisiveness they had when opening the coffin.After covering it, let go of it immediately, and hurriedly backfill the soil. When the class teacher went back, we still got in Director Fei's car.Fatty’s director’s hands were still shaking a little. We were afraid that his steering wheel would be unstable and cause a car accident, so we pulled him into the back seat and sat with us, and let Ryan go to the driver’s seat to steer. In the car, Director Fei’s hand holding the cigarette was still shaking. He tremblingly asked Mr. Holmes, “What’s going on here? The case is complicated now, and this… is still human A crime committed?" Mr. Holmes chuckled, and said, "It must have been done by humans. Don't believe that ghosts and gods can still deal with the scene." Speaking of this, Mr. Holmes paused, and then asked, "Now tell me about the results of your original investigation. .” Director Fei took a deep puff of cigarette, and said with some fear, "Old man Li didn't call the police when he died, so he died of natural causes. As for the death of Zhang Shunying and his wife, there are many doubts, but we have no way to start." "Hmm? Go on," said Mr. Holmes. Director Fei said with some hesitation: "The only clue that can be found in the house is the footprints left at the scene. But even this, there are many things that make us wonder, because the footprints are very irregular, an ordinary footprint There are gaps in the shape, and it is uneven. Some parts are shoe soles, and some parts are fleshy palms. Judging from the results of the soil analysis attached to the footprints, these soils are field mud that can be found everywhere in the local area, and there is nothing special about it. , and the dander carried in the soil has decayed. "The two deceased had no obvious injuries on their bodies, the door of the room was intact, the doors and windows were not broken, and the forensic examination results showed that both of them died of tachycardia. According to the blood test results, including Zhang Shunying and his mother Guo Shufang, The three of them have not been injected with stimulant drugs that can cause tachycardia, nor have they been found to have heart diseases." When he said this, Mr. Holmes interjected and asked, "Then how do you envision the scene of this case at the police station?" Director Fei thought for a while before answering: "The scene at that time should be like this: the husband and wife are eating dinner at the table, and when there are people at home in rural areas, as long as they don't sleep, they will not close the door. At this time, never I don't know what came in outside the gate, it may be a strange and terrifying 'murderer'. The couple were frightened, causing their hearts to beat fast and died. After comparing the footprints of the deceased, the footprints printed on the floor tiles were not Those of the deceased should have been left by the criminals!" Mr. Holmes nodded, and continued his words: "Zhang Shunying and his wife were indeed frightened to death, but at that time, only the wife was eating at the table, while her husband, Zhang Shunying, was in the next room at this time, giving the The son at home in Portsmouth, England, made a phone call. Also, the 'murderer' did not come in through the door, but came in through the window of the room where Zhang Shunying was making a phone call." "Why do you say that?" Fei Feng asked. "From the clues we found in the UK, we can know that he made a phone call at that time. Also, when I was still outside the house, I complained about who walked around the outside of the house. There, there are more clues of footprints." It's a pity that Fei Guan just wandered there." Mr. Holmes' tone was full of teasing. Director Fei's face was filled with embarrassment.Mr. Holmes continued: "However, it's a good thing you can't climb walls. There are also mud spots on the open window sill, and there are mud marks on the walls. And the composition of the mud is exactly the same as the footprints in the house in the photo." At this point, we all pricked up our ears, looked at Mr. Holmes, and waited for him to continue. Mr. Holmes said: "At that time, Zhang Shunying was in her room calling her son who was far away abroad, while his wife was having dinner outside. At this time, a terrifying 'murderer' crawled in through the window. Zhang Shunying was so frightened that she didn't even have time to make a phone call. Hanging up, even crawled to the hall outside. The microphone in the room is still hanging there, and has not been connected to the base. "The 'murderer' followed Zhang Shunying from the room to the main room. When his foreign wife saw the terrifying 'murderer', she was frightened to death on the spot. But Zhang Shunying, who was not frightened at the time, struggled a few times, 'Murderer' He stretched out his hand and pinched his neck. At this time, his heart rate went too fast and he died of myocardial infarction. Then, the 'murderer' walked out of the gate. The cause of death of Mrs. Guo Shufang is similar to this." Hearing this, the foreheads of several of us were covered with cold sweat. "Then... who is the 'murderer'? Or...not a person at all, but...something weird?" I stammered and interjected. Mr. Holmes said calmly: "The murderer is Zhang Shunying's father, old man Zhang!"