Truth Emerges

Lin Xinyi had already escaped the predicament of being treated as a criminal suspect.

No one could even question him.

Because his proof had always proceeded step by step, with every step grounded in the evidence shown by the corpse.

This process was unlike the wildly imaginative, constantly reversing deductions of famous detectives. It was more like a plain statement, a simple and direct report.

Such a report possessed the most indisputable persuasive power.

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

Inspector Megure finally accepted that conclusion.

He completely set aside his hostility, his gaze at Lin Xinyi filled with curiosity:

"As you said, the deceased drowned before death and had been submerged in the water for more than three hours."

"But that still does not prove the deceased committed suicide, does it?"

"More importantly, how was the body dismembered?"

"And how do we explain the bloody wave Brother Kudo and Ran witnessed?"

Inspector Megure raised the most crucial question.

"We can analyze the suicide last."

Lin Xinyi answered calmly and methodically:

"First, I'll explain how the dismemberment and the bloody wave came about."

Hearing this, Kudo Shinichi immediately pricked up his ears:

This was precisely what had troubled him the most!

He could easily determine the victim's cause and time of death as well, but he could not imagine how someone who had drowned could become dismembered three hours later.

And just over ten minutes ago, he and Ran had witnessed the phenomenon of a bloody wave:

Since the body parts had already soaked in the water for three hours, the blood should have long since been washed away by the river. There should not have been such a large bloody wave at all.

"The reason Kudo saw that bloody wave is actually very simple."

Lin Xinyi calmly gave the answer:

"That is because the victim's time of death and the time the corpse was turned into pieces were not actually the same."

"Not only were they different, they were far apart."

"I understand now!"

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

"The victim did drown three hours ago, but after that, her corpse kept floating in the river."

"Throughout that process, the corpse remained intact, so the blood inside it would not have leaked into the water in large amounts."

"And when Ran and I discovered the corpse over ten minutes ago—"

"The corpse was split into pieces for some reason!"

"Its blood also poured into the river in large quantities during that dismemberment process, causing Ran and me to see a bloody wave that looked like a body had just been dumped."

"What?"

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

"Brother Kudo, then what exactly caused the victim to become dismembered?"

"Could a second person have intervened—"

He suddenly turned to look at Lin Xinyi:

"Mr. Lin Xinyi said that, as things stand, no second person was involved in this entire case."

"So how did the victim 'dismember herself' after death?"

That question weighed on everyone present. Even the famous detective Kudo Shinichi was deeply troubled by it.

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

The scene was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard. Without realizing it, Lin Xinyi had replaced Kudo Shinichi as the center of everyone's attention.

"The answer is simple."

Lin Xinyi spoke unhurriedly.

Yet he did not give the answer outright.

It was a habit from his profession: present the evidence first, then draw the conclusion.

"Everyone can see—"

Lin Xinyi lightly stepped aside, allowing everyone to see the gruesome body parts laid out on the plastic sheet more clearly:

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

"On these body parts—namely the face, chest, forearm, and leg—there are extensive linear, curved, and diagonal abrasions and scrape marks, mostly arranged in parallel and spaced at nearly uniform intervals."

"At the same time, these areas also show extensive skin loss."

"Just imagine—"

"What kind of attack would leave someone covered from head to toe in such extensive abrasions?"

"This..." The onlookers instinctively began to think.

But Inspector Megure, who had the most investigative experience, was the first to react:

"Could it have been a traffic accident?"

"I've seen quite a few victims who died in traffic accidents. Their bodies more or less had this kind of extensive external injury caused by collisions and scraping against cars and pavement."

"But—"

As he spoke, he realized something was wrong:

"Didn't Brother Kudo deduce that the victim's corpse had been soaking in the water the whole time after death?"

"There are no cars in the river. How could there have been a traffic accident?"

"No, it's possible."

Kudo Shinichi was the one who spoke.

After Lin Xinyi had pointed him in that direction, he immediately understood:

"A ship!"

"I remember that, before Ran and I found the corpse, several Cruise Ships happened to pass along the river!"

"In other words, the corpse collided with those ships?!"

"That's right."

Lin Xinyi nodded seriously:

"However, because Cruise Ships themselves travel at limited speeds, merely colliding with one would not cause such severe abrasions."

"Much less injuries powerful enough to turn an intact corpse into scattered pieces."

"Please look—"

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

The flesh there was mangled, the bones shattered. Red, white, and yellow were mixed together, enough to make anyone break into a cold sweat and feel their stomach churn at a glance.

But Lin Xinyi had long grown accustomed to such sights:

"For man-made dismemberment, the most commonly used tools are chopping knives, pointed knives, and other cutting implements commonly found in ordinary homes."

"Therefore, wounds caused by man-made dismemberment often show free-hanging flaps of flesh along the wound edges—that is, traces of repeated cutting."

"Chop marks on bone are generally short and shallow, with signs of multiple repeated blows."

"The skin often bears incised marks and fishtail-shaped drag marks from blades, while major joints tend to show many cuts."

"If a saw is used, obvious saw marks can be seen on the severed ends. The wound surface is uneven, and the bone cross-section shows wavy or step-like serrated marks."

"Marks from an axe are even more obvious. That wound cavity, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, is very easy to identify."

"These are all traces that a killer inevitably leaves when artificially cutting up a body, due to limited personal strength and limited tools."

There were only a few kinds of tools available for artificial dismemberment.

And the injury patterns caused by every one of them were highly distinctive.

As an experienced forensic examiner, Lin Xinyi could tell the differences in those dismemberment wounds at a glance:

"But the wounds on this corpse are chaotically distributed and vary in form. The wounds on different parts of the body each have different characteristics."

"The wound edges and walls on the head are neatly arranged, resembling chop wounds."

"In areas rich in soft tissue, such as the abdomen and thighs, there are multiple arc-shaped wounds aligned in the same direction and spaced roughly equally apart. Their edges and walls are uneven, their wound angles are not particularly sharp, and their cavities are generally deep, with disordered layers of soft tissue inside—this is the result of some sharp instrument repeatedly chopping at the corpse at high speed."

"And most importantly—"

"The muscles and tendons at the severed limbs show obvious signs of twisting, tearing, and rupture."

"The bones at the severed ends also bear repeated, relatively smooth chop marks from a sharp instrument. Some exposed bones at the bottoms of the wounds show characteristics of depressed comminuted fractures."

Lin Xinyi's voice became much lower:

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

"This kind of damage requires a 'murder weapon' capable of high-speed rotation, tremendous chopping force, and cutting action."

"It would be like throwing someone into a meat grinder."

By then, everyone present understood what Lin Xinyi meant:

Simply put, the injuries on the corpse were too chaotic, too deep, and too severe.

Humans with limited strength simply could not inflict wounds like those. Only a powerful machine similar to a meat grinder could produce such a result.

And in this case, the machine that had turned the victim's body into scattered pieces was—

"A propeller?"

After being guided step by step by his "opponent," Kudo Shinichi finally found the truth he had been seeking:

"The corpse was pulled into the propeller of a passing cruise ship!"