The Genius Female Forensic Pathologist, The Psychological Anatomist - Chapter 26: Mystery of the Dismembered Body: Doppelgänger

Chapter 26

Fang Rui and Zhang went to the police station again to inquire about the dispute between Liu Jiale and Ye Zeming.

“Liu Jiale assaulted Ye Zeming, and during the scuffle, Ye Zeming’s left leg was fractured. We were originally going to place Liu Jiale under criminal detention, but Ye Zeming claimed he fell on his own and didn’t want to press charges against Liu Jiale. The two eventually reached a settlement.”

Fang Rui asked, “Why did Liu Jiale assault Ye Zeming?”

“It seems to have been about money. Liu Jiale said Ye Zeming had promised him five million yuan, but Ye Zeming hadn’t given it to him. He was desperate for the money, so he used force to try to get it from Ye Zeming!”

Fang Rui then asked the police officer for the original statement from that time.

After leaving the police station, Zhang asked, puzzled, “I heard Ye Zeming has assets worth over 100 million yuan, and he even owns a large villa. Is it possible he couldn’t come up with five million?”

Fang Rui was equally confused: “And why would he need to give Liu Jiale money? He seems to be very afraid of Liu Jiale. Zhang, go investigate Ye Zeming’s transfer records.”

To their surprise, Ye Zeming wasn’t as wealthy as rumors suggested. In fact, he was deeply in debt.

He originally owned two apartments and a villa, but half a year ago, all these properties had been mortgaged. Even so, Ye Zeming still owed the bank over ten million yuan in loans.

Zhang had a sudden realization: “No wonder Lin Lan said he was planning to go abroad recently. Could he be planning to flee from his debts? Boss, do you think it’s possible that the deceased isn’t Ye Zeming, but someone else?”

Fang Rui was also shocked. Ye Zeming was an artist, and even if he spent money like water, how could he have accumulated so much external debt?

The bank staff helped them check Ye Zeming’s bank transactions. There were several large transfers, all to overseas accounts, which had since been closed.

“All that money transferred overseas… Could Ye Zeming have fallen victim to a telecom fraud? Or was he gambling? Otherwise, how could there be such large transfers?”

Fang Rui then had Zhang investigate Ye Zeming’s insurance purchases.

“Chief Fang, your guess was right. Ye Zeming did indeed purchase insurance. Half a year ago, he bought three personal accident insurance policies, all with high payouts. One policy’s beneficiary is named Lin Lan, and the other two are for someone named Ye Zeling. He also insured his villa, with Ye Zeling as the beneficiary for that as well.”

Zhang couldn’t help but exclaim, “Boss, if it weren’t for the DNA test results showing that the deceased is indeed Ye Zeming, I would suspect he might be faking his own death for insurance fraud.”

Fang Rui had originally suspected this was a crime of passion, but now he too began to doubt whether the deceased was really Ye Zeming.

Mu Mian had been working overtime for many days in a row. When Fang Rui arrived at the autopsy room, he found Mu Mian had scattered the body parts, as if playing a jigsaw puzzle, trying to reassemble them.

Mu Mian was somewhat agitated, disliking this state of being unable to solve the problem.

“Dr. Mu, do you have any other ways to confirm the identity of the deceased?” Fang Rui’s words pulled Mu Mian back to reality from her reverie.

“The testimony from the deceased’s neighbor, the deceased’s sister’s statement, and the phone recordings all confirm that the deceased was alive around 9 PM on the day of the incident. But I also trust your autopsy conclusions. The two are contradictory, so I can only question whether the deceased is really Ye Zeming.”

Mu Mian was somewhat surprised: “You believe me?”

“Of course.”

Mu Mian felt less agitated now.

“But proving whether the deceased is Ye Zeming or not is difficult. The fire has burned away his external features, and the only dental records that could prove his identity have been deleted.”

“The deceased had an apprentice named Liu Jiale, who has now disappeared. I’m even starting to wonder if the body at the fire scene might be Liu Jiale?”

Fang Rui handed Mu Mian a photo: a picture of Liu Jiale and Ye Zeming together. From the photo, although Liu Jiale and Ye Zeming looked different, their height and build were very similar.

Moreover, Liu Jiale grew up in a single-parent family, and his hometown was also in Yuan’an County, the same place as Ye Zeming and his sister’s hometown. He could very well be the illegitimate son of Ye Zeming’s father that Lin Lan had mentioned earlier.

The face of the body at the fire scene had been burned beyond recognition by the flames. If it weren’t for the DNA test proving that the deceased was related to Ye Zeling, he would have suspected that the body was the missing Liu Jiale.

“Mu Mian, is there any other way to determine if the deceased is Ye Zeming? Ye Zeming owed a lot of debt, and he also bought several insurance policies. We can’t rule out the possibility of him faking his death for insurance fraud.”

Although the DNA samples taken from Ye Zeling and Lin Lan’s homes matched the deceased’s DNA, if the killer really had a plan to fake death, they could have easily replaced the DNA samples in advance.

“I’ll do my best.”

Mu Mian had almost finished reassembling the body. As she was about to place the shattered soft tissue into the left lower leg, she noticed a surgical scar on the deceased’s knee. She cut open the deceased’s knee and found a titanium alloy bone pin in the joint.

“Fang Rui, I have a way to prove whether this person is Ye Zeming or not.” Mu Mian stared at the bone pin, a look of excitement on her face.

Fang Rui followed Mu Mian’s gaze and saw only a metal-like pin in the deceased’s joint, which must have been used to fix a broken joint.

“What’s this?”

Mu Mian carefully removed the bone pin and placed it in an evidence bag.

“Fang Rui, let’s go to the hospital now.”

“Which hospital?”

“I don’t know. We’ll check them one by one.”

Mu Mian quickly tidied up the autopsy room and pushed the body back into the freezer.

Outside the City Police Bureau, the night was dark, with barely any stars visible. The once bustling city now had only a few lights still on.

When Fang Rui parked the car at their residential complex, Mu Mian was surprised: “Aren’t we going to the hospital?”

“Mu Mian, doctors need to sleep too.”

“But…”

“Good night!”

The answer was right in front of them, yet they had to wait until tomorrow to uncover it. Mu Mian didn’t know how Fang Rui could sleep, but she certainly couldn’t. She didn’t close her eyes all night and was waiting outside Fang Rui’s door early the next morning.

When Fang Rui opened the door, he saw Mu Mian with dark circles under her eyes. Her short hair was messy, and she looked disheveled, but her eyes were bright and alert.

“Fang Rui, let’s go!”

Mu Mian’s original strategy was to inquire at hospitals one by one. But Fang Rui remembered that the earlier dispute between Liu Jiale and Ye Zeming at the police station was because Ye Zeming’s leg had been injured. So he went directly to the First Affiliated Hospital of the City.

“This is a titanium alloy bone pin. From the serial number on it, it should be from our hospital. You should ask at the orthopedics department.”

Mu Mian then found the head of the orthopedics department.

“This type of titanium alloy bone pin is used to fix bones after a fracture. This one is from our hospital; it has our hospital’s specific coding on it.”

“Is it possible to find the user of this titanium alloy bone pin based on this code?”

“Of course!”

The nurse on duty quickly helped retrieve the medical records of the user.