What?!
Everyone present more or less wore that expression, just not quite as cutely.
Other than Kudo Shinichi, whose expression was complicated, shock was written plainly across everyone's faces:
Wait, a suicide dismemberment case?
You made that term up yourself, didn't you?
How could it be suicide if the body had been dismembered?
The crowd erupted into an uproar. After a moment of stunned silence, Inspector Megure's mind began working, and he asked:
"Um, Mr. Lin Xinyi, do you mean..."
"The victim committed suicide, and then a second person dismembered and disposed of the body for some reason?"
"That's a good guess."
"That is indeed one possible scenario for a 'suicide dismemberment case.'"
Lin Xinyi nodded seriously, agreeing with Inspector Megure's speculation:
He had encountered such a case during his career.
A woman wanted to fraudulently claim her husband's pension after he committed suicide, but she was afraid that disposing of his body carelessly would expose her. So, after discovering that her husband had killed himself, she secretly cut his body into several pieces, bagged them, and discarded them. She then kept up the illusion that her husband was still alive until the bags containing his body were discovered by accident.
That incomprehensible stunt had fooled every investigator on the case.
If Lin Xinyi, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, had not confirmed that the victim had indeed died from hanging while alive, no one would have believed something so utterly absurd could happen in this world.
So, the world was a big place.
When you saw cherry-picked headlines like "Body cut into three pieces, police rule suicide" or "Victim stabbed thirty times, police rule suicide," don't be so quick to curse.
Those baffling cases really did exist. If anyone deserved criticism, it was those self-media accounts always trying to make a big sensation.
"However."
"Based on the clues the body has given me so far..."
After praising Inspector Megure's flexible thinking, Lin Xinyi abruptly changed direction:
"There was no second person involved in this case."
"From the suicide to the dismemberment, there was only the victim."
"Huh?" This time, even Inspector Megure's round face showed an expression of disbelief.
"How could that be..." Ran forced herself to glance at the mangled corpse on the plastic sheet, then could not stop herself from asking Kudo Shinichi, "Shinichi, could the victim really have committed suicide?"
"..."
Kudo Shinichi fell silent.
For once, he showed Ran an expression that was not entirely confident:
"There are indeed many things wrong with the victim's body..."
"But... I still haven't figured out the most crucial question..."
As he spoke, Kudo Shinichi looked toward Lin Xinyi again, his gaze carrying indescribable unwillingness and anticipation.
"Mr. Lin Xinyi, may we begin?"
To Kudo Shinichi, this had become an invisible contest of deduction.
A showdown between detectives, a contest of minds and wisdom.
But Lin Xinyi did not see it that way.
To him, this was not a game, much less a competition.
It was a job. A responsibility.
"We can begin."
His eyes gradually became deep and firm, like iron.
Lin Xinyi took the large aluminum Forensic Investigation Kit from Officer Komatsu, then silently crouched down and gently opened it.
Magnifying glass, fingerprint board, hemostatic forceps, puncture needle, scalpel, pointed scissors, blunt scissors, latex gloves, bone saw, bone hammer, bone chisel, bone shears, scoop...
All kinds of forensic tools were arranged neatly inside the case, a sight that would make anyone with obsessive-compulsive tendencies feel comfortable.
But Lin Xinyi sighed helplessly.
The tools in the investigation kit were quite complete.
So complete that it looked like they had never been used since purchase.
After all, any professional forensic pathologist who had actually worked crime scenes knew that autopsy tools like bone saws, bone chisels, and scoops were fundamentally unnecessary during an initial scene examination.
The only things commonly used at a scene were masks, gloves, rulers, measuring tapes, puncture needles, hemostatic forceps, air thermometers, rectal thermometers, and a few other standard examination tools.
No experienced senior forensic pathologist would pack so much into a Crime Scene Investigation Kit unless he wanted the extra weight for exercise.
It seemed Officer Komatsu really was impressively incompetent.
"Ugh..."
As he grumbled inwardly, Lin Xinyi quickly composed himself. With practiced ease, he put on a mask and two layers of latex gloves.
He needed to wear a mask whenever possible. Forensic pathologists dealt with all sorts of corpses every day, and no one knew whether a deceased person carried an infectious disease.
He also needed two layers of gloves. One layer could easily absorb odors.
Then, Lin Xinyi crouched beside the victim.
Like Officer Komatsu had done earlier, he began gently pressing various parts of the body with his fingers.
"Officer Komatsu's examination was basically correct."
"The body has already developed slight generalized rigor mortis."
Lin Xinyi withdrew his hand. As he turned to retrieve tools from the investigation kit, he explained in detail:
"But the time of death was not necessarily more than four hours ago."
"When someone drowned, they struggled and convulsed, their muscles underwent vigorous movement, and the surrounding water temperature was low. Therefore, rigor mortis developed much earlier than under normal circumstances."
"Uh..." Officer Komatsu's expression became extremely awkward.
The only thing he had managed to observe from the body had turned out to be flawed.
"Sorry, I was wrong..."
"Right, I remember reading that drowning victims do develop rigor mortis early... Wait!"
"Mr. Lin, are you saying the victim drowned?"
Officer Komatsu suddenly shouted as if he had just awakened.
"That's right."
"And it's something a professional should have recognized at a glance."
Lin Xinyi glanced helplessly at the professionally challenged Officer Komatsu, then cast a faintly appreciative look toward Kudo Shinichi beside him.
"I believe this famous detective has already noticed the issue as well, hasn't he?"
"That's true."
Kudo Shinichi nodded in agreement.
"Although the body has been horribly damaged, it is not difficult to see that..."
"The victim's skin was generally pale, and the skin on the outer sides of both arms and legs had raised bumps resembling gooseflesh. These were characteristics caused when cold water stimulated the skin of a drowning victim, constricting the blood vessels, contracting the arrector pili muscles, and raising the hair follicles."
"Moreover, the skin on the victim's fingers and toes had softened, whitened, and swollen."
"Combined with the generalized rigor mortis Mr. Lin Xinyi just observed..."
He paused slightly, his tone becoming complicated.
"These body parts should have been submerged in water for around three hours."
"My earlier deduction about when the murderer disposed of the body was probably wrong."
At first, Kudo Shinichi had seen the bloody water and concluded that the body had only recently entered the river, that the murderer had just finished dumping it.
That was precisely why Lin Xinyi, who happened to be watching at the scene, had been considered the primary suspect.
But the various signs on the body now told him clearly—
His deduction had been wrong.
He had trusted his instincts as a detective too much and made a rash judgment with extremely limited clues.
Thinking of this, Kudo Shinichi, who rarely made mistakes in deduction, could not help falling silent.
Yet Lin Xinyi did not notice the great detective's self-critical mood, which was practically written across his face.
He seemed to have unconsciously become Kudo Shinichi's partner, calmly filling in the details of Kudo's deduction:
"Kudo is correct."
"Pale skin, gooseflesh-like changes, and the epidermal keratin changes known in forensic medicine as 'Washerwoman's Hands' are all basic characteristics of a body that has been submerged in water."
"However, these characteristics can only prove that the victim was immersed in water for a certain period of time."
"To prove that the victim died from drowning while alive, we generally need to examine here first..."
As he spoke, Lin Xinyi displayed the tool he had just taken from the investigation kit.
"This is a Finger Straightener. It is used to straighten the fingers of a deceased person whose hand is clenched."
"A drowning victim struggles violently before death, causing spasms in the hand muscles. After death, the palm often remains tightly clenched."
"So, as long as we open the victim's hand like this..."
Under everyone's complicated gazes—horrified, frightened, yet unable to suppress their curiosity—
Lin Xinyi picked up the lone severed arm from the plastic sheet. Then, slowly and steadily, he fitted the Finger Straightener around the fingers and straightened them one by one.
The tightly clenched hand opened.
In the palm that had finally spread open, everyone could see:
"Is that aquatic grass?"
"That's right. Aquatic grass."
Lin Xinyi set down the severed arm and said in a low voice:
"Not only is there aquatic grass. Before opening the victim's hand, I also noticed traces of mud and sand beneath the fingernails."
"These are all evidence that the victim drowned while alive—"
"Because only someone who drowned while alive could have grasped aquatic grass and mud in the water while instinctively struggling."
"If the body had been dumped after death, there could not be such things in the victim's palm or beneath the fingernails."
"By analyzing the type of aquatic grass and further comparing the aquatic microorganisms in the victim's lung fluid with samples from this river, it should not be difficult to confirm that the victim drowned in this very river."
"And as Kudo just analyzed, the drowning occurred roughly three hours ago."
His voice was incredibly serious, and his eyes were filled with a different kind of focus.
That focused gaze was enough to win people over.
Without realizing it, everyone had forgotten that Lin Xinyi had originally been a suspect in this case.
There was even admiration in their eyes.
"This 'Xinyi' is actually this good at deduction too?!"
Someone blurted out in amazement.
But Lin Xinyi would not become smug over the beginner-level forensic knowledge he had just displayed.
What seemed like a thrilling spectacle to the onlookers was merely his familiar daily routine.
"Deduction? No."
Lin Xinyi spoke calmly.
"Deduction is a detective's job."
"My job is simply to speak for the dead."
Before you continue