Case Files 013

The next day, I received quite a bit of flak at work. There was another suicide case but it was not within the area of my prediction. "Come on, Freud." Gu Chen patted my shoulders and lamented, "Looks like psychology isn't always reliable after all." Guan Zhenglin shrugged and added, "The local police still can't tell whether this is a suicide, accident or homicide. It's hard to differentiate between the three when it's a falling victim. Therefore they wish for us to go visit the crime scene and see it in person."

I sighed. "The books might not be 100 percent right plus I'm not 100 percent wrong yet, aren't I? Perhaps this is not a suicide after all?"

When we arrived, the body was still lying on the ground but it had a white cloth over it. Police line had cordoned off the location. There were crowds milling about, taking pictures. It took us quite some time to squeeze through the layers. We showed our identities and were given entry through the cordoned line. An officer walked over to accost us, "The victim's name is Ma Liliang, he was a real estate agent. He jumped off this building not too long ago. But so far, we cannot tell whether he was pushed or it is one of the strange suicide cases I heard your team is working on, so I invited you guys over to come have a look." The officer turned to point at a few people sequestered off from the crowd, "When Ma Liliang dropped from the building, they were the witnesses who were passing by. Shall we go talk to them?"

"Not yet, I need to talk to him first." Guan Zhenglin told the officer as she walked towards the body.

"Who?" The officer asked. Guan Zhenglin placed the toolbox beside the body and pulled back the white cloth. "Ma Liliang of course, sometimes the dead can tell us more than the living." Even through the white cloth, we could see the pool of blood. The blood splattered in a fan shape, the furthest spatter was about more than 10 metres away. This matched the blood pattern for a fall from a high place. Based on the blood spatter, this was quite a fall. I turned my head up to look at the apartment building, it was 32 storeys tall. However, most of the apartments on the higher floors had their windows closed. A suicide victim wouldn't be able to close the window after they leaped, right? So the highest possibility was our victim took the jump from the roof. Just the thought of it made my head spin.

After Guan Zhenglin pulled back the white cloth, we finally saw the body. The man was faced down and his arm was seriously twisted. It looked like the bones in his arm had shattered. The man was wearing a single shoe. The ankle of the shoeless leg was crushed, the bones were poking out. The man's cranium was heavily fractured and the brain matter seeped out. From face alone, one wouldn't be able to tell his identity. The local police probably found out his identity from another channel. Their speed was quite fast.

Before Guan Zhenglin even opened her box, she said, "The time of death is less than 1 hour. From the condition of the body, it does match a fall. The traumas to his limbs and cranium are of a singular direction, it's very hard to manufacture that kind of falling injury artificially. But as what my colleague has taught us today, we shouldn't ever jump to conclusions. I need to check the wounds on the rest of his body first and examine his blood for anaesthetic residue. Then we can tell for sure whether he was thrown off the building or he walked off it voluntarily." Guan Zhenglin replaced the cloth. "Carry the body to the morgue please." That was easier said than done. The weather was very hot and that meant the tarred road was about 30 to 40 degrees. The man's body had practically glued to the ground. The police had to scoop the body up with a metallic spade. The part where the body had the most contact with the ground had melted away. That was one of the lesser heard of impacts from global warming….

"Okay." I said, "Now let us go interview the witnesses." When Ma Liiliang stood on the 32nd floor, no one noticed him, but when he dropped down, he shouted, "Be careful down there. Move away!" His voice was still reverberating in people's ears when he hit the ground. When the crowd gathered, Ma Liliang was already dead. From the height he fell from, the impact would have crushed his internal organs instantly. His shout at least proved that Ma Liliang was still conscious when he jumped from the building.

"We need to check the roof!" As we moved up the stairs, I asked one of the officers, "Help me get a few mannequins and a big bag of small pebbles."

"What do you need those for?"

"I have their uses. Also please evacuate the crowd downstairs." I told him with a smile. Inside the elevator, out of boredom, I asked Gu Chen, "Gu Chen, why do you think someone would commit suicide? Just how disappointed they are in this world that they feel the need to leave this? If someone was able to empathize with them, would that have made a difference?"

Gu Chen looked at me for a long time before answering, "I honestly cannot say. Perhaps they felt like there was nothing for them anymore in this world and it was hard staying alive. But if you ask me, a person's life is never singular. Even if one doesn't wish to live anymore, they have to think of others in their life. Someone will inevitably be heartbroken when a person dies."

"Oh, does that mean you'll cry after I die? Honestly, I do wish to see a muscular man like you weep. It'll be an interesting contrast." I joked.

"You'll be able to see that when I go visit your grave when I'm 120 years old." Gu Chen shrugged.

The elevator doors opened. As I walked out, I said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you but a sensei told me that I would live to 130 years old…"

"I lament the world's fate to have to suffer someone like you for that long…"

What did it feel like to stand on the 32nd floor and look down? Let's put it this way, if the wind blew any stronger, I would be blown off the edge. However, the scenery was unbeatable. The whole city was within my sight. Even though it was almost noon, the air was cool. From up there, the crowds down on the ground looked as small as ants. There was a rail around the edge of the roof but if someone wanted to commit suicide, they were no deterrent. From the location where Ma Liliang landed, we decided on a general range.

"There's a set of glasses there." I told Gu Chen. With gloved hands, I picked it up and took a closer look. It was a pair of gold-rimmed glasses for men. I observed the glasses and then told Gu Chen, "These are Ma Liliang's glasses."

"How can you tell?" Gu Chen looked at the glasses. "Did it have his name on it?"

I shook my head. "No, it's just a guess. Ma Liliang was a real estate agent, this kind of spec matches his profession. He had to wear formal wear so the glasses have to be formal-looking too. Plus we found this pair with their temples folded together. Ma Liliang must have taken them off and placed them down here before he jumped."

"But why would he remove his glasses?" Gu Chen asked.

I shrugged. "The books that I read suggest that a jumping victim would normally close their eyes when they jump unless they have masochistic tendencies. No matter how humans have evolved, we have animal instincts. None of us would like to view our or other's death head on." I looked down from the edge where the glasses were found, the landing spot matched. I continued, "That's why when a normal person comes across a dead body, their first reaction isn't pity but fear. That is human nature, which is why the profession of coroner is very impressive."

"What a roundabout way to praise Guan Zhenglin." Gu Chen grinned. "Don't think I haven't seen the signals between the two of you. If you ask me, you two should just be together."

"Her?" I quickly shook my hands. "Perhaps when her physical body catches up to her real age."

"I brought the mannequins you asked for!" An officer's voice came from behind us. I turned to look at 5 officers carrying a mannequin each and a 6th one carrying a bag of pebbles. Gu Chen and I hurried over to help.

"Are these enough?" A sweaty officer asked. I nodded and thanked them profusely. "It's more than enough. It's time to conduct a fun experiment. Make sure the crowd down below has been evacuated yea."

"A fun experiment?"

Only Gu Chen seemed to understand my thought. He said, "Crime scene simulation."

"These mannequins will help us know whether he died from suicide or homicide." I said, "Based on my earlier calculation, Ma Liliang was about 1.75 metres tall, these mannequins are about his height. Ma Liliang was about 130 jin, so we'll make up the differences with these pebbles." We tied bags of pebbles around the mannequin's waist to make its weight reach as close to 130 jin as possible. Gu Chen and I placed a mannequin outside the rail.

I began, "Okay, now we shall simulate the scenario where someone has pushed Ma Liliang, inform the people on the ground to be careful." Then we pushed the mannequin off the rails. In less than 3 seconds, the mannequin landed with a thud. Looking from the roof, the mannequin shattered everywhere and the pebbles broke out from the bags. Thankfully we had already warned people of this experiment so no one was hurt. There was someone at the ground to help us mark the landing spot of the mannequin and then we proceeded with the other simulations.

"This is if Ma Liliang jumped into the air as high as he could before falling."

"This is if Ma Liliang was knocked out and rolled off the side of the building."

"This is if Ma Liliang just walked off the side."