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

Chapter 1130 Determination of the Cause of Death

"The needle-like lesions, distributed along the edge of the lung lobe, are consistent with the characteristics of death by asphyxiation, but mechanical asphyxiation or hemorrhagic shock need to be ruled out." Xiaolin suddenly found a 1cm rupture in the right ventricle with blood clots at the edges: "This injury extends deep into the myocardium, and there is a grating sensation in the corresponding chest wall, which should be caused by a rib fracture."

The X-ray of the ribs lit up on the viewing light, showing a linear fracture of the 4th and 5th ribs on the right side of the chest, with the broken ends protruding into the pleural cavity. "The direction of the fracture line is on the same straight line as the laceration on the left forehead," Zhang Lin compared with a ruler, "indicating that it was a chain reaction injury caused by the same blunt force trauma, with the direction of the impact from the upper right to the lower left, and the force at least 60 joules, enough to cause internal organ rupture." He opened the pericardium, and dark red blood gushed out. "There was about 300ml of blood in the pericardial cavity, contusions on the surface of the heart, and fan-shaped hemorrhages on the right ventricular wall, which are typical manifestations of cardiac concussion injury and the direct cause of death."

The extraction of stomach contents was carried out with the hum of a negative pressure suction device, and light brown chyme mixed with acid gushed out. "About 400 ml, containing undigested rice, vegetables, and minced meat," Zhang Lin observed the sample under a microscope. "The muscle fiber striations of the minced meat are still clear, indicating death 2-3 hours after ingestion, which coincides with the warehouse's dinner time." Xiao Lin suddenly pointed to the gastric mucosa: "There's a 0.2 cm erosion here, could it be related to the bearing at the scene?" Zhang Lin shook his head, and with a scalpel, he cut open the entire thickness of the stomach wall: "There are no foreign objects embedded around the erosion, it's caused by gastric acid corrosion, ruling out mechanical damage."

The corpse had extensive abrasions and contusions on its back. When Zhang Lin turned the body over, putrefactive fluid pooled in a thin stream in the groove of the autopsy table. "The contusions are distributed in patches, covering an area of ​​about 15x20cm," he measured the boundaries of the contusions. "The vital signs have been disrupted by putrefaction, but the bleeding bands in the deep muscles are still clearly visible, consistent with the characteristics of being dragged before death, and the length of the drag marks from the warehouse to the location of the body is consistent." He had Xiao Lin take a sample from the center of the contusions. "The myoglobin concentration is 160ng/mL, higher than the normal postmortem level, proving that it was an injury sustained before death."

“Teacher Zhang, look at the nail crevices on the deceased’s right hand,” Xiao Lin suddenly lifted the corpse’s wrist, the fibers under the nail crevices gleaming metallically under the operating light. “Raman spectroscopy analysis shows it’s bearing steel powder, completely consistent with the composition of the missing 6205 model bearing!” Zhang Lin wiped the nail crevices with a sterile cotton swab. “The extracted skin tissue fragments have DNA typing that matches the bloodstains on the warehouse floor, indicating that the deceased had a fierce struggle with the murderer before death and had grasped a bearing or the bearing held by the murderer.”

The victim's blood type test results came back: type A, matching the bloodstains on the steel pipe at the scene. "That matches up," Zhang Lin noted in the autopsy report. "The bloodstains on the steel pipe belong to the victim. The murderer used the steel pipe to strike him, causing rib fractures and puncturing his heart, resulting in death."

Zhang Lin's scalpel precisely cut along the course of the femoral artery. The silvery-white vessel wall gleamed under the operating light, completely intact, without even the slightest tear. "Look here," he said, gently lifting the inner lining of the vessel with hemostats. "The elastic fibers are neatly arranged, without any signs of breakage or tearing, indicating that the femoral artery remained intact throughout." Zhang Lin examined it closely; the blood inside the vessel was dark red and had begun to coagulate, but no thrombus had formed. "This means the deceased did not lose a large amount of blood before death, ruling out the possibility of hemorrhagic shock."

The scalpel turned towards the chest cavity. The already opened sternum was angled at 60 degrees by the retractor, exposing the heart, which was covered in dark red blood. "The blood in the pericardial cavity has been measured, 300 ml," Zhang Lin said, using a suction tube to remove the surface blood, revealing the damaged right ventricular wall. "This 1.2 cm rupture has irregular, star-shaped edges, a typical explosive tear caused by blunt force trauma—the broken ends of the ribs, like sharp blades, instantly pierced the myocardium." He had Xiao Lin use a pressure sensor to measure the pressure inside the pericardial cavity, which showed 25 mmHg. "Normal pericardial cavity pressure is -5 to +5 mmHg; this is far beyond the critical value. This high pressure will directly compress the heart's diastolic filling."

“The mechanism of death from acute cardiac tamponade is quite clear,” Zhang Lin said, his fingers gliding across the surface of the heart, avoiding the vulnerable coronary vessels. “When blood rapidly accumulates in the closed pericardial cavity, it’s like putting a constantly tightening iron band around the heart. The right atrium and right ventricle cannot expand normally during diastole, obstructing venous blood return and causing systemic venous congestion, leading to a sharp drop in arterial blood pressure.” He picked up a heart specimen from the dissection table, pointing to the myocardium that had lost its tension. “Look at the contraction state of these myocardial fibers; they’re still maintaining their final contraction posture, indicating that the heart was still trying to pump blood when death occurred, but it was compressed by the accumulated blood and unable to complete diastole, like a stuck engine.”

Xiao Lin suddenly pointed to the blood clots in the pericardial cavity: "These blood clots are at different stages of formation. The ones near the rupture have begun to organize, with fibrin precipitating at the edges, while the ones on the periphery are still fresh liquid blood." Zhang Lin nodded: "This perfectly explains the timeline of the bleeding. The initial rupture causes rapid bleeding, forming liquid blood. Subsequently, the rupture is partially blocked by the blood clots, slowing the bleeding and forming organized blood clots. The whole process shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, because after that time, the blood clots will form a thicker protective layer, the bleeding will stop or significantly decrease, and the deceased might survive longer. But in this case, the bleeding continued until death, indicating that the interval between the impact and death was very short."

He picked up a blood clot with tweezers and examined it under a microscope: "The density of the fibrin network shows that the prothrombin time is within the normal range, indicating that the deceased's coagulation function was normal before death. This also corroborates that the death was extremely rapid; the body didn't have time to activate compensatory mechanisms, such as vasoconstriction or enhanced coagulation, before dying from circulatory failure." Kobayashi added, "The deceased's eyelids, conjunctiva, and nail beds showed no signs of pallor or cyanosis, which is consistent with the characteristics of acute cardiac tamponade, rather than the progressive hypoxia seen in hemorrhagic shock."

Zhang Lin picked up a slice of myocardial tissue that had been extracted earlier and adjusted the focus under the microscope: "Look at the morphology of these myocardial cells. There are no ischemic changes, such as sarcoplasmic aggregation or nuclear condensation," he said, pointing to the gaps between the cells. "The degree of edema is very mild, which means that the time from heart damage to death is very short, not enough to produce typical ischemic pathological changes. This is completely consistent with our estimated 15-minute time interval."