The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

In that moment, the interrogation room sank into an almost frozen silence.

Whether it was Director Hou, Jiang An, Political Commissioner Li, or Mr. Qin, every one of them was a seasoned backbone of the criminal investigation unit who had clawed their way up step by step from the front lines.

They had been through countless heart-stopping confrontations and had witnessed too much of the darkness and struggle in human nature.

Now, all gazes, like spotlights, silently converged on Zhang Long.

After a long psychological tug-of-war, the seemingly solid mental defense line of the criminal suspect finally, at this moment, completely collapsed.

Zhang Long lowered his head, his hands tightly clasped together, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

He finally raised his head slowly, bloodshot eyes, his voice hoarse: ”I’ll talk... I’ll talk.”

Then he paused for a moment, and spat out each word distinctly: ”Yes, I was the one driving... the car that hit that girl.”

Political Commissioner Li’s gaze was sharp as a torch; he leaned forward slightly and said, ”Describe exactly what happened at the time. Don’t leave out any detail.”

Zhang Long took a deep breath; his eyes gradually became unfocused, as if he had returned to that irreparable night.

”That night... it was especially dark. I was driving that car and had already been on the highway continuously for nearly five hours.”

”The long hours behind the wheel left me somewhat dazed, my eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Plus, visibility at night is limited; under the headlights I could only see a narrow stretch of road ahead.”

His voice began to tremble slightly: ”Just when my mind started to wander, suddenly—there was a dull thud at the front of the car, a ’thunk’ sound, like I’d hit something heavy.”

”I’m no stranger to that kind of sound, having run long-haul routes for years.”

”In the past, on the highway, I’d occasionally hit stray dogs or cats that darted out, sometimes even birds...”

”So at first, I didn’t think much of it. I figured I’d hit another animal.”

”But...”

He clenched his fists. ”As the car kept moving forward, the more I thought about it, the more something felt off.”

”That impact was heavier, more substantial, than any I’d ever heard before.”

”A nameless sense of unease seized me in an instant. I hurriedly stepped on the brake, pulled over onto the emergency lane, and, trembling, pushed open the car door.”

At this point, Zhang Long’s eyes went vacant. ”I walked around to the front of the car and, by the dim light, saw a figure lying on the road not far away.”

”It was a young girl, wearing light-colored clothes, glaringly conspicuous in the darkness.”

”I... I had no idea how she appeared there, or how I’d hit her in the first place.”

”I staggered closer and crouched down, only then seeing her face clearly.”

”Blood was steadily seeping from her nostrils, that bright red color shockingly stark against her pallid face.”

”My hand trembled as I reached out, gently feeling for her breath...”

Zhang Long’s voice choked. He shut his eyes and shook his head in pain: ”She was... she was no longer breathing.”

”And then?” Political Commissioner Li pressed.

”Then I kept going over it in my head. I’d been drinking that night and driving so late; if I called the police, I’d be facing extremely severe legal punishment.”

”If they tested my blood alcohol level, it would undoubtedly aggravate my culpability.”

”By then I wouldn’t get any compensation from the accident; I might even face a long prison term for causing a death through dangerous driving, maybe years behind bars.”

”That thought was like a boulder weighing on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

”In that panic and inner struggle, a terrifying idea suddenly flashed through my mind. Why not hide the body?”

”When that thought first came up, I did hesitate, wrestling violently with myself inside.”

”But when I looked around and saw how few cars were on that stretch of highway, how deep the night was, and that there just happened to be a desolate mountain right next to the road, it felt as if everything was conspiring to make that insane idea possible.”

”In the end, in a state of extreme fear, I steeled myself, pulled the car fully over and stopped, turned off the engine and lights, and, shaking all over, dragged the girl’s body up the roadside slope, where I hastily buried it in a patch of shrubs.

”Where did you go after that?”

”After dealing with the body, I jumped back in the car and fled the scene in a panic.”

”Even though I’d left, I was a mess the whole way, my hands shaking on the steering wheel.”

”I drive that highway all the time; I know it like the back of my hand.”

”But precisely because I know it so well, I found it even stranger—on that stretch of road, there are barely any pedestrians even in broad daylight, let alone someone suddenly darting out from the roadside in the middle of the night.”

”Back then I was too nervous to think deeper about it, but looking back now, there’s something weird about every part of it.”

At this moment, Jiang An asked in a low voice, ”When you dumped that girl’s body, did you notice any particular details about her clothing?”

”I remember, I remember!” Zhang Long nodded quickly.

”The girl’s outfit was really abnormal—she was barefoot, and her clothes were very thin, nothing like what a normal person would wear going out at night.”

”Stranger still, she didn’t have any personal belongings on her—no wallet, no phone, not even a key.”

”In this day and age, who goes out without a phone? That’s something that’s bothered me all along.”

When he finished speaking, the interrogation room fell silent again.

Time seemed to stretch out; in the air there was only the sound of breathing and the occasional wind from outside the window.

Zhang Long lowered his head, his fingers interlaced.

After a long while, he let out a faint sigh. ”Ah... saying all this now actually makes me feel a bit lighter inside.”

”This case has been like a thorn, lodged in my heart all this time.”

He paused, his eyes a little unfocused. ”Ever since that happened, I haven’t had a single peaceful night’s sleep.”