Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

A man and a woman.Both were of stocky physique.They are all in their forties, but according to their current state, it is difficult for people to see clearly.The man has a bushy beard, tattoo sleeves on his bare arms, and an eagle tattoo on his bare pectoralis major.The woman's blond hair was dyed, and she wore hospital surgical gown pants on her lower body and nothing on her upper body. ①Tattoo Sleeves: Traditional stinging tattoos are not easy to remove, so tattoo sleeves, tattoo stockings and other products with realistic patterns and easy to take and wear have emerged as the times require.

They are sitting on the sofa in the living room.They are all obviously dead, but how they died is not obvious. Pooler stared at the two bodies, Cole at his side. Puller looked down again.There are no obvious tripod marks because the floor is hardwood instead of carpet.Still, his instincts sent him an unmistakable message: They were being interrogated, too. Their skin has turned green.They don't need CPR.What they need is a grave. The man wears a Virginia Tech ring on his right hand.On the woman's left wrist is a bracelet and a Timex wristwatch. "Looks like the Reynolds family died around the same time. We need someone to officially pronounce them dead," Pooler said.

"Okay, but how did they die?" Cole asked. Puller took another careful look at the floor.No blood.Pulling on a new pair of gloves from the pouch on his belt, he turned the man's head forward.There is no bullet entry or exit port in sight.No signs of bruising were visible on the skin of the brain stem.No knife edge.No noose marks on the neck.There was no sign of a blow to the abdomen. "Death by suffocation?" Lu asked.He stood very far back, looking like he was about to vomit, probably because he couldn't bear the smell here. Puller carefully opened the man's left eyelid.

"There are no blood spots." He then looked at the man's upper body, and then at the woman's. "What?" Cole asked, noticing his mocking expression. "Both bodies had been moved and their shirts had been ripped off." "How do you know?" Cole asked. Puller pointed to the whitish marks on the dead man's arms and neck. "These bruises are caused by the pressure on the capillaries from the taut clothing when the body swelled. This means they were still wearing their shirts for some time after death. After death, the blood is drawn to the body by gravity. lower blood vessels."

"Causes plaque," Cole said. Puller nodded. "Yes. Six hours after death the capillaries coagulate, and then the dead tissue becomes permanently stained." "Why take off the shirt after killing them?" Lou said from the sidelines: "Well, we can't tell that someone actually killed them, can we? Maybe they killed themselves, swallowed poison or something, and then took off their shirts before they died." Puller shook his head in denial. "Toxicity tests will draw clear conclusions. However, in most cases of poisoning deaths, the blood pools in the lower parts of the deceased will have a special color, cherry red, bright red, reddish brown or dark brown. They don't have any symptoms like this."

Cole examines the hands of the two deceased one by one. "No defensive trauma. Nails are pretty clean. But why take off the shirt? Especially her. I mean, as a woman, if I choose to kill myself, I don't want people to see me topless." The woman's huge breasts, with clearly visible blood vessels, were already hanging down to the navel.Cole looks away from the woman. "The killers took off their shirts because they wanted to give us a little trouble trying to find the cause of death," Puller said. "what do you mean?" "I mean there's blood on the shirt."

"how do you know?" Puller pointed to a small mark where the woman's right breast met her chest. "Blood soaked the shirt and stained the seam here. The killers must have overlooked this mark, but they cleaned up everything else, because there must have been a lot of blood spattered in the first place. and other things." "Forget it. The question is, where did the splash come from?" Puller bent down and carefully opened the lid of the man's right eye. "I should have discovered it just now, but I opened the other eye at that time." Cole leaned over to take a look.

"Oh shit!" The eyeball was gone, only a black hole was left. "Contact gun trauma," Puller said, "in the trajectory of the wound we'll find powder. Small-bore gun. Check out that woman." Cole put on gloves.The woman also has a hole in her left eye.Some gray brain tissue was pasted around the edge of the wound. "I've only seen this type of murder once before," Puller said. "In Germany. Both the dead and the murderer were soldiers, special forces. They knew how to kill." Cole straightened up, hands stuck to his waist. "Why this sleight of hand? Even if we didn't see it at the scene, the autopsy would."

"An autopsy might find it. Maybe they're counting on you not being able to find a doctor who's that good at dissecting the body, and you might get away with it. Or maybe you guys can't think of doing an x-ray, and you won't find the bullet in the brain. Unfortunately. Fortunately, this kind of situation happens often, so they thought it was worth a try. But there is also good news, neither of the two bodies had a bullet exit, which means that the bullets were still in their bodies." He looked at Lu and said, "Obviously , this is not the guy you asked about yesterday."

"No. That guy is much thinner and clean-shaven." Lu's words became less fluent. "Describe the guy to us in detail." Lu complied. "We've got to look into this guy," Pooler said. Cole said, "While that guy was talking to you, those two were clearly dead, Lou. Send that guy's likeness down, and issue a warrant. Right away. Even though the guy might have It's gone." After Lou left, Cole said to Pooler, "Now we're dealing with two crime scenes. I'm sure I'm short on men. Will the force send more?" "I don't know," Pooler replied, thinking to himself: At first they only agreed to send me alone. Will they think differently now?

"Well, the two cases must be connected, at least we know they are. It would be an incredible coincidence that two different groups of killers committed two murders on the same street at the same time. gone." Seeing that Puller didn't answer, Cole repeated, "These two cases must be connected, right?" "Anything is possible. We need to prove it." "But do you already have some preliminary ideas about the connection between them?" Pooler's gaze went to the window. "You can see the Reynolds house directly from here." Cole went to the window and looked out. "Do you think they had to be silenced because they saw what happened on the other side here?" "But if you're standing at the Reynolds' window looking in here, it's the opposite." Cole nodded, realizing the logic behind it. "So which came first, the chicken or the egg? Who saw who first?" "Maybe so." "Hey, it must be an either/or thing." "No, it's not," Puller said.