Chapter 5: Recovering the Body!

By the reservoir!

Zheng Yuanqiao stared at the rippling water, his expression deeply troubled. Though he possessed a square, upright face, he looked as miserable as a bitter gourd at this moment. His furrowed brows refused to smooth out, no matter how the cool breeze blew against them.

"Sigh... this job as a homicide captain is really something."

He had been jolted awake from a nightmare at three o'clock this morning. That dream had been a compilation of nearly every crime scene he had encountered in his twenty-plus years as a criminal investigator: dismemberment, corpse abuse, human flesh parcels, blood-splattered walls, bone trees, human-skin caps... In his dream, both the criminals and the victims laughed viciously, brandishing chainsaws, axes, hammers, and machetes—every method of killing was directed at him.

It was tragic! Truly unbearable!

Upon waking, a bad premonition took hold of Zheng Yuanqiao. Sure enough, at five in the morning, he received a call from the detachment captain: a crushed skull had been found on National Highway 245. The case was assigned to him.

After arriving at the scene, the weight on his heart only grew heavier. The victim was in an even more gruesome state than those in his nightmare. Among the cases he had handled, this one ranked in the top three for sheer brutality. He had personally retrieved an eyeball from a drainage ditch to spare his team from the trauma. Even now, he felt as though that pupil was staring at him—scrutinizing him, as if supervising his investigation.

Unfortunately, he hadn't even identified the source of the corpse yet.

"I wonder when we'll find the body. Or perhaps, did the killer come here, but not to dump the body at all?"

Zheng watched the frogmen and police officers working in the frigid reservoir, his brows knitting so tightly they could hold a breeze. The tightness in his chest and the anxiety in his heart grew more intense.

"Captain Zheng, don't worry. We will definitely find the body!" The leader of the frogmen team handed him a cigarette.

He lit it. As the smoke entered his lungs, the heaviness in his chest eased slightly. "Xiao Liu, let's just finish the morning. If we don't find the body by noon, there's no point in wasting time here. Although the reservoir is large, without a boat, the killer could only have dumped the body at the edges. The area that needs searching is actually quite small."

Frogman captain Liu Neng nodded. He also found it strange; a dozen frogmen had been in the water for several hours. By all rights, they should have found something by now.

Soon, nearly two hours passed. Although it wasn't yet ten o'clock, the perimeter of the reservoir had been mostly searched. Still, nothing.

"Captain Zheng, let's search the center of the reservoir. Maybe the killer brought a boat and dumped the body in the middle," Liu suggested, preparing to toss his finished cigarette butt aside.

"Don't litter!" Zheng pulled an iron case from his pocket that looked like a cigarette pack; with a press on the side, the top popped open. Liu obediently dropped the butt inside, joining the dozen others that were Zheng's handiwork for the morning.

Zheng put the case away, his frown deepening. The team investigating the nearby surveillance, the officers questioning villagers, the lab technicians examining evidence, and the reward notice—none of them had provided any feedback. There didn't seem to be any better leads. Though he felt it was unlikely the killer had gone to the center of the reservoir, he eventually nodded.

"Search the center. If we don't find anything by noon, we’ll have to give up on this spot."

"Understood!" Liu immediately arranged for the frogmen to head to the center.

Zheng took out another cigarette, but before he could light it, his phone rang. The 110 Command Center? A new case? Or a lead?

"Hello, this is Zheng Yuanqiao of the First Detachment... What? Someone reported a key lead? The dumping site might not be the reservoir, but the river upstream? What is the basis... The informant mentioned keywords like National Highway 245, the junction, the reservoir, and a headless corpse? The timing matches the early morning hours! Good, I'll send people to the reed beds to dredge immediately. By the way..."

Zheng paused to think. "Contact the cyber-investigation unit and check the informant's identity. To know so much about the case, if they aren't an eyewitness, they are very likely the killer."

After hanging up, Zheng immediately had Liu take the frogmen to the reported location with him.

"Captain Zheng, are we giving up on this side completely? Should all the frogmen go?"

"This... send a third of them. The lead might not be correct, and the river doesn't require as many divers."

...

The group walked over fallen leaves, the sound of "swishing" and the occasional "snap" of a dry branch accompanied by the wind, birds, and running water. It was soothing, but Zheng had no heart to appreciate it. His mind was filled with apprehension and doubt. They were struggling to find a body, and suddenly someone reports a lead? Was it too much of a coincidence?

However, he held a glimmer of hope. If they actually found the body at the reported location, that would be for the best.

Soon, they arrived at the reed beds. Zheng saw the middle-aged fishermen from afar and confirmed they were in the right place. "Xiao Liu, arrange for the men to enter the water."

The elderly fisherman, Old Yu, and his companions looked at each other in surprise as the police arrived. "Officer, what's going on? Do we need to move?"

Zheng thought for a moment. "It's not certain yet. But you'd better reel in your lines to avoid hooking the divers."

"Well... alright then."

"What a waste of all these fish today!"

"We'll come again next time!"

The river here wasn't very wide, the depth was moderate, and there wasn't too much silt. The search was much easier than in the reservoir below.

"Hey, look at this! What is this?" A diver suddenly pulled a large, heavy-looking object from the bottom of the river. A nearby diver helped haul it onto the bank.

"Did we find it?"

"A hiking backpack? Is the body inside?"

"The informant's information is that accurate?"

The officers on the bank crowded around. Zheng stepped forward, excited, but frowned slightly at the thick algae on the surface of the bag. The diver excitedly opened the zipper, and his face immediately fell. It was full of miscellaneous items—food, water, a tent, warm clothing, and other camping gear.

"It's just a mountaineer's backpack, probably fell in by accident. It's been here for at least two or three years," Zheng said, lighting a cigarette.

Liu was deeply disappointed. "Keep searching!"

But the stretch of the river was limited, and after a long time, the frogmen found nothing else suspicious.

"Captain Zheng, I think we should go back to the reservoir below. There's still a large area in the center that hasn't been searched. Besides, that informant probably isn't reliable. They might be lying on purpose," Liu suggested as he followed Zheng, who was pacing along the riverbank while smoking.

Zheng didn't speak. He finally stopped at a point where the riverbank jutted into the reeds. He stopped smoking mid-puff.

"Hmm?"

Although it was only a few steps away from where they had been, standing here felt somehow more comfortable. Zheng's eyes were brighter than his cigarette butt. "The location the informant mentioned seems to be right here!"

"Xiao Liu, have the men focus the search on this part of the river!"

"No problem!" Liu immediately went to arrange it. "But Captain Zheng, we've already searched this area! The river isn't that big. A human body is quite large, and my brothers are all very experienced; it's unlikely we would have missed it."

Zheng exhaled a cloud of smoke, understanding that Liu still favored the reservoir below. He wasn't sure himself, either.

Liu continued, "Captain Zheng, if I were the killer, it would be much safer to dump such a large body in the reservoir. Searching here feels like a waste of time!"

Zheng's hand froze mid-smoke. "Xiao Liu, have the frogmen search further downstream."

"Huh? Captain Zheng, what do you mean?"

"You're right. A whole body is too big and not suited for dumping in this river. Then perhaps, the killer didn't dump a complete body, but... body parts!"

Zheng's eyes were brighter than ever. "We previously assumed this was a decapitation case! That the killer had a deep grudge against the victim and therefore committed the act of beheading. But could it be that this is a dismemberment case? The decapitation was just part of the dismemberment, and the dismemberment was done to make dumping the body in the river easier and more discrete!"

"If it's dismembered, this river is narrow, and there's a bend further down. The current is relatively faster! Maybe the body parts were washed further downstream? Captain Zheng, that makes sense!"

Liu's eyes lit up, and he immediately ordered the frogmen to search further downstream. The divers didn't understand the reason, but they followed the order.

This time, less than ten minutes later, an exclamation came from downstream: "Found it!"

Having learned from the experience with the backpack, everyone didn't rush to get excited, but they looked toward the water. Then, everyone's eyes widened.

One of the frogmen was still in the river, but his right arm, wrapped in a jet-black diving suit, was already reaching out of the trickling water. And the crucial thing was—he was clutching a pale, slender arm with pinkish gashes on its surface!