The Truth Surfaces

Chapter 8: The Truth Emerges

Lin Xinyi had successfully shed the predicament of being seen as a suspect.

No one could even question him.

Because his proof always proceeded step by step, with each step rooted in the evidence presented by the body.

This process wasn't like the wild, ever-changing deductions of famous detectives; rather, it was a plain, unadorned statement, a simple and direct report.

Such a report and statement possessed the most irrefutable persuasive power.

"It seems Mr. Lin Xinyi is indeed not a suspect."

Inspector Megure finally acknowledged this conclusion.

He completely dropped his hostility, his gaze filled with curiosity as he looked at Lin Xinyi:

"As you said, the deceased drowned before death, and was submerged in water for over 3 hours."

"But that doesn't prove the deceased committed suicide, does it?"

"More importantly, how were the dismembered remains formed?"

"And how do we explain the blood surge that Brother Kudo and Ran witnessed?"

Inspector Megure asked the most crucial questions.

"We'll analyze the suicide part last."

Lin Xinyi answered calmly and methodically:

"First, let me explain the cause of the dismembered remains and the blood surge."

Hearing this, Kudo Shinichi immediately perked up his ears.

This was the most perplexing part for him!

He could easily determine the cause and time of death, but he couldn't imagine how a drowned person could become dismembered remains 3 hours later.

And he and Ran had witnessed the blood surge phenomenon just over ten minutes ago:

Since the body parts had been submerged in the water for three hours, the blood should have been washed away by the river long ago, and there shouldn't have been such a large area of blood surge visible at all.

"The reason Kudo saw the blood surge is actually very simple."

Lin Xinyi calmly provided the answer:

"That's because the time of the deceased's death and the time the body became dismembered remains are actually not the same."

"Not only are they different, but there's a significant gap between them."

"I get it!"

A flash of insight struck Kudo Shinichi, and he suddenly understood:

"The deceased drowned 3 hours ago, that's right, but after that, her body had been floating in the river."

"During this process, the body remained intact, so a large amount of blood wouldn't have been lost into the water."

"And when Ran and I found the body just over ten minutes ago..."

"The body just happened to be dismembered into parts for some reason!"

"A large amount of blood from within her body also flowed into the river during this dismemberment process, causing Ran and me to see that blood surge phenomenon, which looked like a body had just been dumped."

"What?"

Hearing the famous detective's deduction, Inspector Megure was somewhat confused:

"Brother Kudo, what exactly caused the deceased to become dismembered remains?"

"Could it be that a second person was involved—no..."

He suddenly turned to look at Lin Xinyi again:

"Mr. Lin Xinyi said that, as it currently stands, no second person was involved in this entire case."

"So, how did the deceased 'dismember herself' after death?"

This question hung in the minds of everyone present; even the famous detective Kudo Shinichi was struggling with it.

In an instant, countless heated gazes focused on Lin Xinyi.

The scene was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Lin Xinyi had, without realizing it, replaced Kudo Shinichi as the star of attention.

"The answer is simple."

Lin Xinyi said unhurriedly.

But he didn't give the answer directly.

This was his professional habit: provide the evidence first, then draw the conclusion:

"As everyone can see—"

Lin Xinyi gently stepped aside, allowing everyone to get a clearer view of the gruesome dismembered remains laid out on the plastic sheet:

"The body parts laid out here currently include the head, torso, upper right limb with hand, and the thigh of the lower left limb."

"And on these body parts—the face, chest, forearms, and legs—there are large areas of mostly parallel linear, arc-shaped, and oblique grazes and scrapes, with roughly consistent spacing."

"At the same time, there was also extensive epidermal detachment on these areas."

"Imagine this for a moment."

"What kind of attack would cause a person to suffer such extensive grazes all over their body?"

"This…" The onlookers subconsciously began to ponder.

But it was Inspector Megure, with the most experience in handling cases, who reacted first:

"Could it be a traffic accident?"

"I've seen many bodies of people who died in traffic accidents, and they all had more or less these kinds of large-area external injuries from colliding and scraping against car surfaces or the road."

"But…"

As he spoke, he felt something was off:

"Didn't Brother Kudo deduce that the body had been submerged in water ever since the victim died?"

"There are no cars in the river, so how could a traffic accident have happened?"

"No, it's possible."

It was Kudo Shinichi who spoke.

After Lin Xinyi's prompting reached this point, he immediately understood:

"A boat!"

"I remember before Ran and I found the body, there were several cruise ships passing by on the river!"

"So, the body collided with those ships?!"

"That's right."

Lin Xinyi nodded seriously:

"However, due to the limited speed of the cruise ships themselves, a mere collision with a boat wouldn't cause such severe grazing injuries."

"Not to mention, the force of such damage would be enough to tear a complete body into pieces."

"Please, everyone, take a look."

He pointed casually at the cross-section of the victim's severed arm.

The flesh there was mangled, bones broken, reds, whites, and yellows mixed together, making anyone who saw it break out in a cold sweat and feel their stomach churn.

But Lin Xinyi had long grown accustomed to such sights:

"For dismemberment by human hands, the most commonly used tools are kitchen knives, sharp knives, and other cutting tools found in ordinary households."

"Therefore, wounds caused by manual dismemberment often show free-floating flesh flaps along the wound edges, which are traces of repeated cutting."

"Chop marks on the bones are generally shorter and shallower, with multiple repeated hacking marks."

"Scratches and fish-tail-shaped drag marks are often visible on the skin, and more scratches can be seen at large joints."

"And if a saw is used, clear saw marks can be seen at the severed end of the body, with an uneven wound surface, and wavy or stepped serrated marks visible on the bone cross-section."

"Axe marks are even more obvious; the wide-top, narrow-bottom shape of the wound cavity is very easy to distinguish."

"These are all traces that the killer inevitably leaves behind when manually dismembering a body, due to insufficient personal strength or limited tools."

There are only a few types of tools available for human dismemberment.

And the wound traces caused by each tool are distinctly characteristic.

As an experienced forensic doctor, Lin Xinyi could distinguish the differences at a glance from the dismemberment wounds:

"However, the wounds on this body are scattered and varied in form, with different wound types on different parts of the body."

"Among them, the wound edges and walls on the head are neatly distributed, similar to chop wounds."

"On the abdomen, thighs, and other areas rich in soft tissue, there are multiple arc-shaped wounds with consistent alignment and roughly equal spacing. Their wound edges and walls are uneven, the wound angles are not very sharp, the wound cavities are generally deeper, and the soft tissue layers within the cavity are uneven—this is the result of a sharp object rapidly and repeatedly slicing the body."

"And most importantly…"

"There are clear signs of twisting, tearing, and fracturing in the muscles and tendons at the severed limbs."

"Furthermore, there are multiple, relatively smooth sharp-object chop marks on the bones at the severed ends, and some of the bones exposed at the bottom of the wounds show characteristics of depressed comminuted fractures."

Lin Xinyi's voice became much deeper:

"Manual chopping simply cannot cause this kind of damage."

"This kind of damage requires a 'weapon' with high-speed rotation, immense chopping power, and cutting characteristics."

"It's like someone was thrown into a meat grinder."

At this point, everyone present understood what Lin Xinyi meant:

Simply put, the injuries on the body were too messy, too deep, and too severe.

Humans with limited strength simply couldn't inflict such wounds; only powerful machines, like a meat grinder, could cause such a phenomenon.

And in this case, the machine that turned the victim's body into fragmented pieces was…

"The Propeller?"

After being prompted to this extent by his "opponent," Kudo Shinichi finally found the truth he was looking for:

"The body was caught in the propeller of a passing cruise ship!"