Chapter 631: The Nameless Poison

Chen Shi rushed into the dissection room and saw the body of the Silent One on the table. Peng Sijue was sitting on the floor, with several interns shaking him, “Captain! Captain!”

“Old Peng, what’s wrong?”

Peng Sijue stared blankly, as if his soul had left his body. After a full minute, he finally spoke, “Who did this?”

An intern apologized, “I left my phone charging on the lab table this morning. I got busy and forgot about it. Somehow, it exploded.”

Another intern scolded him, “I told you to get a new phone! You still use that brand? Haven’t you seen the news?”

“Go check if any equipment was damaged.” Peng Sijue stood up with Chen Shi’s help, clutching his chest, “I was scared to death.”

“Haha, even you can be cute sometimes.” Chen Shi laughed, relieved.

“Who let you in here like this? Get out!”

Chen Shi saw a prominent scar on the abdomen of the corpse and asked, “What’s that?”

“If you want to see, change into sterile clothing.”

Chen Shi changed into sterile clothes and entered. As Peng Sijue was about to open the body, Chen Shi said, “Wait, the abdomen looks bloated. Could it be an explosive? This body came through some shady channels. Better be careful. Do we have a metal detector?”

“What era do you think this is? A metal detector?” Peng Sijue rolled his eyes and instructed his subordinate, “Go borrow a drug detection device from the fourth floor.”

Peng Sijue first checked the body externally. There were six stab wounds on the right shoulder, but none were fatal. There were some bruises indicating a struggle. The time of death was about two days ago. When the body arrived, Peng Sijue noticed a needle mark on the leg and constricted pupils, suggesting death by injection.

Chen Shi said, “It seems he and Zhou Xiao both refused the invitation and were silenced.”

“How do you know?” Peng Sijue asked.

“Zhou Xiao told me. Don’t be shocked, but I saw the serial killer at his house… Unfortunately, he got away.”

Peng Sijue was silent for a long time and then whispered, “You should be prepared for your identity to be exposed.”

“It won’t be long. It won’t be long.” Chen Shi murmured. With Zhou Tiannan’s unexpected death, his men would make a last desperate move, but they would eventually be wiped out.

Soon, the subordinate returned with the device, which could detect small particles of drugs and explosives. After confirming it was safe, Peng Sijue cut open the stitches on the Silent One’s abdomen.

The bloody internal organs were exposed. Chen Shi instinctively recoiled but squinted to see nothing unusual inside.

But Peng Sijue, who had seen countless human bodies, immediately spotted the anomaly. He picked up the renal tube with tweezers and said, “Look, this was already necrotic. This kidney was sewn on later… and this liver too.”

“This kidney definitely isn’t his. I think I understand. The killer replaced the lost organs as a sign of respect, leaving him with a whole body.”

“Whose kidney and liver are these?”

“I guess they belong to Qin Wanmu, who disappeared at the same time. I can’t take this anymore, goodbye…” Chen Shi patted Peng Sijue on the shoulder, “Once the case is over, let’s go out and relax.”

“Saturday, if I’m free.” Peng Sijue replied without turning his head.

“See you then.”

After Chen Shi left, Peng Sijue and his assistants continued working. They separated the deceased’s abdominal cavity. Peng Sijue saw the liver was in terrible condition, with signs of edema and necrosis. He said, “Make a pathology slice of the liver.”

The organs were removed one by one, weighed, and samples were taken for blood, urine, and stomach contents. The cause of death might be poisoning. Identifying the target organ would be half the battle. He noted the dilation of the main blood vessels, constricted pupils, acute renal failure, and severe liver damage.

There was no pungent smell in the stomach contents, indicating the poison was injected. He thought of arsenic and ordered, “It could be arsenic poisoning. Do an X-ray diffraction analysis. Also, take hair and nail samples for testing.”

Half an hour later, a subordinate reported, “Captain, the analysis results show it’s not arsenic.”

“What about the blood test results?”

“Potassium levels and white blood cell count are above average.”

Peng Sijue immediately thought of something and murmured, “Snake venom?” He said, “Do a urine test to check for myoglobin.”

He examined the deceased’s lymphatic organs. The pathological features didn’t match snake venom. He suddenly remembered the deceased was a psychiatric patient and had been taking phenothiazine drugs, which would have already damaged his liver, making it unreliable as an indicator of poisoning.

The increased white blood cells might be due to injuries sustained during the struggle before death.

How to explain the elevated potassium? He suddenly thought of the constricted pupils, which was unusual because normal deceased pupils would dilate. Could it be drugs?

The subsequent urine test confirmed it wasn’t snake venom. Peng Sijue calmly ordered, “Chromatographic analysis!”

He continued examining all the organs. An hour later, a subordinate excitedly reported, “Captain, the deceased’s urine contains cocaine.”

“Let me see.”

He removed his gloves and handed the work to his assistant. He personally checked the test results. The urine indeed had cocaine residues, at a high concentration. To confirm, he performed a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis on the blood.

The results showed the amount of drug injected wasn’t lethal. The deceased had no history of drug use, so cocaine had a strong effect on the organs, successfully interfering with the forensic analysis of toxins.

This was a technical counter-investigation. The killer introduced an interference substance to make the real poison “invisible.”

Peng Sijue recalled his teacher’s words, “There is no poison that cannot be detected, only undetectable methods.” He made a decision, “Perform a cranial dissection!”

Hours later, Peng Sijue was in a daze. He had used every method: metal poisons, biological toxins, plant toxins, drugs, alcohols, anesthetics… None matched. It was the nightmare of every forensic student: an undetectable poison!

If such a poison existed, the killer could murder freely without being charged, as it could be explained as a sudden death.

“One more test…”

Peng Sijue, unwilling to give up, turned around to find all his assistants leaning against the wall, asleep.

He woke them up. An assistant rubbed his eyes and said, “Captain, it’s midnight!”

There were no windows in the lab, and he hadn’t noticed. He had worked non-stop for ten hours, without food or drink, not even sitting. Peng Sijue wearily said, “Go home. We’ll write the report tomorrow morning.”

“How do we write it?”

“Acute poisoning… Cause unknown!”