The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1285 Male, Highly Decayed

Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun, carrying investigation bags and wearing gloves and shoe covers, cautiously entered the cordon. The stench at the scene was even stronger than Deng Guojun had described; even with masks on, they could still smell it clearly. Xiao Yang turned on a high-powered investigation light, the beam penetrating through the bushes and landing on the body on the ground. The deceased was buried in a pit about 30 centimeters deep, with only part of the upper body exposed. He was wearing a dark jacket and dark trousers, the clothes soaked in putrid liquid and clinging tightly to his body. His head was covered with mud, making it impossible to see his face clearly; only his build suggested he was male, probably between 30 and 40 years old, and about 170 centimeters tall.

"Don't dig up the body yet. Focus on checking the surrounding environment and soil traces," Xiao Yang advised, moving the beam of the investigation light to the ground around the pit. The ground was covered with a thin layer of fallen leaves. About 1 meter east of the pit, there were several shallow footprints, about size 41, with a pattern resembling common sneakers. The edges were still covered with fresh soil, as if someone had left them after burying the body.

"There are footprints here!" Xiao Sun gently brushed aside the fallen leaves next to the footprints with tweezers. "The footprints are very clear, without any signs of being washed away by rain. They must have been left in the last two days. Look, the direction of the footprints is from the pit to the path down the mountain, which means that the suspect left along the path after burying the body." He quickly recorded the size and texture of the footprints in his investigation notebook, and then took photos from different angles to ensure that every detail was captured.

Xiao Yang squatted beside the pit, carefully observing the condition of the fresh soil: "The edges of the pit are very neat, and the digging marks are arc-shaped, indicating that it was dug with a shovel or similar tool. The depth is about 30 centimeters, just enough to bury an adult. This shows that the suspect chose the burial location carefully and came prepared, not just digging a pit on a whim." He pinched a bit of fresh soil with his fingers, held it to his nose, and smelled it. "Besides the stench of decay, there's also a faint smell of gasoline in the soil. I don't know if it's from the suspect or from some other source nearby."

The two followed the footprints down the mountain path and, about 5 meters from the burial pit, found a cigarette butt under a pine tree. The cigarette butt was a "Yellow Crane Tower" brand, with obvious teeth marks on the filter and a small amount of dirt on the surface. The burned part of the cigarette butt was intact, as if it had only been smoked a few times before being discarded. "This cigarette butt was probably left by the suspect," Xiao Sun said, putting it into an evidence bag. "The cigarette butt is still very fresh, the tobacco isn't damp, and judging from the time of the footprints, it's very likely left by the suspect while burying the body."

At the same time, Xiao Wang led Deng Guojun to a bench at the park entrance and handed him a glass of warm water. Deng Guojun took the water, his hands still trembling slightly, his face pale: "Officer, I've lived this long, and this is the first time I've encountered something like this. Just thinking about that corpse makes me tremble all over..."

"Don't be nervous, speak slowly," Xiao Wang said, taking out his notebook, pen hovering over the paper, his gaze fixed intently on Deng Guojun. "What time did you arrive at the park this morning? How did you discover the body? Was anyone else around when you found it?"

Deng Guojun took a sip of water, composed himself, and said, “I come to the park at 8 o’clock every morning, and today was no exception. I brought Dahuang in through the main gate and walked along the path on the back hill towards the top. Around 9 o’clock, when we reached the bushes on the north side, Dahuang suddenly started digging in the soil. I didn’t pay attention at first, but then I smelled a foul odor and realized there was something buried in the soil… When I saw that it was a corpse, I quickly ran down the mountain to call the police.”

"Before you found the body, did you see any suspicious people? For example, people carrying shovels, bags, or behaving strangely?" Xiao Wang pressed, afraid of missing any crucial details.

Deng Guojun tried hard to recall, his brows furrowed: "There weren't many people in the park this morning, mostly elderly people doing their morning exercises. I didn't see anyone particularly strange. But when I came to the park yesterday afternoon, I saw a man in a black jacket, carrying a black backpack, loitering near the bushes on the north side, looking around from time to time, as if he was observing something. I found it strange at the time, because that place is rarely visited, so why was he staying there?"

"Do you remember the height and build of that man in the black jacket? Did you see his face?" Xiao Wang asked quickly, his pen scribbling rapidly in his notebook.

Deng Guojun thought for a moment: "He was about 170 centimeters tall, of medium build, and wearing a black baseball cap with the brim pulled down low, so I couldn't see his face clearly. The backpack he was carrying looked heavy, and he kept glancing towards the bushes as he walked. At the time, I thought he was a thief in the park and didn't think much of it. Now that I think about it, maybe he was the one who buried the body!"

"What time did you see him yesterday afternoon? How long did he stay near the bushes?" Xiao Wang continued to ask, as these time clues were crucial for identifying the suspect.

“It was around 3 p.m. yesterday. I came down from the mountaintop playing chess and happened to see him by the bushes,” Deng Guojun added. “When I walked over, he was already carrying his bag and walking down the mountain. I don’t know exactly how long he stayed, but I felt that this wasn’t his first time here. I think I saw him once before around that time, also carrying that black backpack, wandering around the bushes.”

This information caught Xiao Wang's eye. He immediately instructed his team to record the characteristics of the person: "wearing a black jacket, a baseball cap, carrying a black backpack, about 170 centimeters tall, and appearing near the bushes on the north side of Beishan Park around 3 pm recently." He then sent the information to the police stations around the park to assist in the investigation. At the same time, he retrieved surveillance footage from the park entrance and the back mountain path, focusing on the footage from yesterday afternoon and this morning to find suspicious individuals matching the characteristics.

At this moment, Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun made a new discovery during their investigation. In the bushes west of the pit, Xiao Sun found a shovel. The wooden handle of the shovel was covered with fresh soil, and the shovel head contained a small amount of dark, decaying material, matching the color of the substance on the corpse's clothing. "This shovel must be the tool used to bury the body!" Xiao Sun said excitedly. "Look, the size of the shovel head matches the digging marks in the pit perfectly, and there are fingerprints on the wooden handle. Although they are covered by soil, we should be able to retrieve them after cleaning it up when we get back."

Xiao Yang took the shovel and examined it carefully: "The shovel is a Deli brand, which is very common on the market, but there is a clear crack on the wooden handle. It is newly made, probably caused by too much force when burying the body. This feature can be used as a clue for investigation. Let's see if anyone has recently purchased a Deli shovel with a crack."