I, the outlaw, was caught again

Chapter 161 Human Skin Totem? [Two chapters in one]

When anyone does something, they have a purpose.

Just like approaching a girl or doing something, there is a starting point and then heading towards the destination.

Whether it's chasing someone or trafficking them, there is a purpose, otherwise there is no reason to spend time and energy to get close to them.

If the tasks you are performing are ordered by others, then 'completing the task' is also your goal.

Not to mention the so-called murder.

"It was a very purposeful case. From the murder to the carving of images on the skin, he did it very clearly."

"The key is"

As he spoke, Xu Sheng paused, then reached out, put on rubber gloves, and felt around on it.

What does human skin feel like?
It's very strange. After all, although most people have had physical contact, 99% of them have never touched human skin with both hands.

"Compared to the skins of other animals, human skin feels softer. At the same time, when you touch it, your subconscious mind will feel a chill and nausea."

The feeling of vomiting is not simply a psychological factor, but a definite physiological reaction!

As for the feel
If Chaozi had not, in a sense, seen a greater variety of corpses than the average detective, this guy wouldn't have been able to figure it out.

“Is this human skin leather?”

After observing for a while, Chaozi, who was eating melons nearby, suddenly asked with curiosity in his eyes.

If the skin is exposed to the air, it will slowly rot, then dry up and weather.

But the skin peeled off from humans is different. It is like leather, can be preserved for a longer time and can be used better.

For example, making it into a coat.

Everyone subconsciously thought about the image of wearing a coat made of human skin, and they immediately felt uncomfortable.

"Almost, but only roughly tanned."

Mr. Xu nodded.

Tanning is the process of simply processing the skin and then making it into leather.

Cowhide, mink, and sheepskin are all tanned before being made into clothing, but the tanning methods are different, and the process or items required for tanning are not fixed.

The leather in front of you has been tanned.
"That is to say, after the murderer peeled the skin off the person, he stretched it out with his hands, and then washed, rubbed, and soaked it in a bucket of water, just like washing clothes."

Li Sheng nodded, then frowned.

"What does he want to do?"

"Making leather out of human skin and then carving patterns on it?"

“Is this a mental illness!?”

Criminals committed by mental illness are the most difficult to investigate, but with such a clear target, the probability of it being a mental illness is very small.

Mental illness?
"The tanning process ultimately resulted in this piece of human skin leather."

"And the goal of getting human skin leather is to..."

Tanning is a technique, a method to obtain something, just like drinking water requires using a cup to collect water. The purpose is not to collect water, but to drink it.

The purpose of the murderer tanning human skin is...
Xu Sheng frowned, opened the "Falcon Eye", and looked up and down at the human skin in front of him that exuded the smell of orange.

The skin is not that big, after all, it is only the skin of the upper body, above the navel and in the middle area between the armpits.

"To carve these patterns?"

Xu Sheng looked at it carefully.

The pattern on the leather is very smooth, and there are no mistakes in the engraving.

Xu Sheng guessed that the other party might have drawn these things on the leather first, and then used a sharp object to carve the picture along the outline, which made it look like it is now.

There are many patterns on the human skin. Each pattern is a little man. Although it is not wrong, it is very simple, with only a few lines.

Dozens or hundreds of little people lined up in a row, with their bodies gradually arranged from small to large, all the way to the largest human figure.

But the pattern behind this human figure is a huge monster!

The monster opened its mouth, as if waiting for the biggest person to walk into it!
There are five rows of this kind of scene. The five groups of people have five different appearances, and there is only one monster. Behind the monster, judging from the size, it is the person who walked into the monster's mouth. However, their appearances are as if they were carved in the same mold, and they are highly consistent!

"The murderer wants to express some meaning?"

Everyone frowned, pondering the strange pattern in front of them.

There is logic to the pattern, at least in the eyes of the murderer.

And logical things must have purpose and meaning!

But in the eyes of the murderer, what is the meaning of this pattern? Why did he carve the pattern after killing someone?
Everyone in the office fell into deep thought as they watched this scene. Countless thoughts kept popping up in their minds and then being erased.

"Could it be x faction?"

Suddenly, Li Sheng spoke, frowning and watching the picture carefully.

There are many cases of Crab Cult, ranging from self-mutilation to murdering others.

This is something similar to pyramid schemes. Ordinary people go to see it out of curiosity, and they will probably be trapped in a few days, and then be influenced by the atmosphere and brainwashed, unless they are the kind of people with a relatively independent and firm consciousness.

Li Sheng has solved some cases, one of which involved a man with all kinds of strange patterns written all over his body, who poured gasoline on himself and ran towards the crowd.

It doesn't seem to make sense, but when it comes to the person involved, it does make sense.

"It's possible that these people are not smart, and it's completely expected that they would commit this type of crime."

Zhang Cha nodded. This kind of depressing small county is most likely to breed x-factions because of the repression and the fact that the same old life for ten years has led to spiritual emptiness and the need for something to rely on.

Xu Sheng looked at the skin, frowning and looking it up and down.

But no matter how you look at it, these are still the only things on the skin, nothing else is left.

He did not comment on the x faction's speculation.

These guys are just crazy, they can do anything.

Of course, in the same way, in any case, before the murderer is found, the possibility of the x faction cannot be ruled out.

“Could it be a totem?”

Wang Chao thought about it and recalled some documentaries he had watched in the past.

"It's possible." Everyone nodded and did not rule it out.

Totem is the concrete manifestation of faith.

In ancient tribes, when a group of people gathered together, the sense of identity they developed would bind them together, which is the spirit. They would place their pins on certain animals, such as wolves, tigers, eagles, or even the legendary dragons.

Later, patterns of these animals were carved on the skins of the prey, which became the totems of the tribe.

“It’s hard to say. Totems need to be supported by a subject. They are a presentation of the spirit, not an expression of the spirit.”

Xu Sheng retracted the scene he had been watching and shook his head.

"The pattern probably meant something to the murderer, rather than the painting itself being some spirit."

Totems symbolize spirits, and non-totemic things mean spirits.

"Besides, if it is really a totem, then Ningguang City is likely to have a x faction in secret."

"You know, only when people gather together, when there are a lot of people, will the so-called totem appear. A single person can do it, but they cannot be infected by the spirit symbolized by the totem, let alone the so-called killing people, taking their skins, and then carving patterns on them."

"Moreover, there is no reason to put the totem on a billboard." Totems are sacred in the hearts of believers, just like the national flag to Xu Sheng and others.

"What could that be?"

"Kill the person, take his skin, carve patterns on it, and then cover the billboard."

Everyone fell into deep thought.

If it is not a totem and it is not x-faction, then what is it?
Kill people, take skins, tan them, carve them, and put them in public.
If they don't think about the details and don't explore the clues, then they can only feel one thing, that is
Arrogant!

Li Sheng's face was very serious. He looked at the human skin in front of him and felt a hint of provocation.

You know, in the cases we handled before, like "The Chef", the other party hid the body in the sewer.

In some ordinary murder cases, the bodies will also be handled and buried underground.

Even the man-eating 'eaters', if they have a problem with their brains, will be thrown into the trash instead of being thrown directly in front of everyone.

Killing people and hiding bodies are basically what all murderers do.

But the murderer in this case is...
They openly laid out the body in front of everyone, and they wouldn't care even if the police found it.

This shows that they don't take the police seriously at all!

How arrogant is this? It's just short of pointing at the police's face and saying that you look down on them!
"Let's go to the crime scene."

After pondering for a long time, Xu Sheng withdrew his gaze, thought for a moment, and walked outside.

Looking at his appearance, Li Sheng was stunned, then delighted.

"What did you think of!?"

Generally speaking, traveling back and forth between two places is rather troublesome, so they usually obtain as much information as possible before going to the second place to save time.

I just watched it for a short while and then left.
"I saw something, but I didn't expect anything."

Xu Sheng spoke slowly. He looked at Li Sheng's face and said slowly:

"Captain Li, if this piece of skin is not human skin, what do you think of its quality?"

How is the quality?

Li Sheng subconsciously glanced at the human skin and his heart skipped a beat.

“Average quality.”

"Yes, the quality can't be said to be good, nor can it be said to be bad, but at least the quality is guaranteed."

Xu Sheng nodded, not being careless at all. He looked into the other person's eyes and said word by word:

“What is the prerequisite for quality assurance?”

“It’s trial and error!”

试错
The moment these two words appeared, everyone's pupils suddenly shook.

Yes, just now their attention was focused on the pattern itself and the murderer's psychology, but they ignored the exquisiteness of the human skin itself.

For anything, unless the person is a genius among geniuses, there will inevitably be problems the first time he or she gets started!

But this piece of leather in front of me.
Offensively speaking, if this was a piece of cowhide, it could even be sold for a good price!

How could the murderer do this?
How many mistakes did he make to become so skilled?
Regarding this criminal case
The cost of trial and error can only be human lives!
If it is human life
How many people will die because of this! ?
It would be fine if the murderer had all the skin, but I'm afraid that due to some accident, the skin would leak out and then be made into clothes and worn by someone else.
Here, after creating this case, will the murderer take any further action?

Thinking of this, everyone's heart sank, and a feeling of urgency arose in their hearts.

"But the good news is that the skin on the human body is not limited to the upper body. The inner thighs and inner arms can also be used for trial and error."

Mr. Xu calmed everyone down a little, then paused and threw out another piece of good news.

"Of course, there are two sides to this coin."

"Although this case seems to be full of mystery, it reveals a piece of information that is 'blinding', that is"

"Tanning!"

"Tanning human skin is not an easy job. In ancient times, this thing would be treated as a family heirloom, and the formula and craftsmanship would never be passed on to others!"

"So, where did the murderer get his skills?"

Normal people don’t even know about tanning, let alone the process of tanning human skin and what is needed for tanning.

so.
"There must be something in Ningguang City that can let the murderer know about tanning and learn how to tan leather!"

“Maybe it’s people, or maybe it’s factories.”

Mr. Xu spoke with a serious face.

"If it is a craft that has been passed down, then the search conditions will be even smaller. After all, the existence of the craft will represent the formation of a profit chain. Even if the murderer does not make leather to sell, we can search for his father or even his grandfather. He will be found sooner or later!"

“Although Ningguang City is a small county, it has many factories, many of which purchase cow and sheep hides and process them before selling them, or do processing on behalf of others!”

Zhang Cha thought for a moment and quickly gave the information about Ningguang City.

"Then go check it out!"

Xu Sheng nodded without any hesitation, "Send two teams of police. The former will follow the tanning techniques to search the employees of Ningguang Leather Factory to find out if there are any leathers of unknown origin or employees who have recently resigned!"

"And check through these factories to see if there are any individual cases of leather tanning at home. If there are, quickly ask the internal staff to cooperate and then investigate!"

"The second team was sent out to search for other human skins leaking out into the community, but no reports were received."

"The murderer's actions were very skillful, and there must be more than one victim!"

Proficiency refers to the number of times.

The number of times represents trial and error, and trial and error also determines the number of people!
This level of proficiency cannot be developed by one person alone.

Of course, the murderer may also use cowhide, sheepskin or other leathers to try and error, and then use human skin to achieve the so-called purpose after becoming familiar with the technique.

But Xu Sheng would only search in the worst direction.

He won't take any chances!
This is disrespect for life and the victim himself!
"There are a lot of wear and tear on the skin. This is caused by the tricycle of the lady selling oranges. Even if there were clues before, they have been worn away now."

"Let's go to the first crime scene."

Xu Sheng shook his head, bringing everyone's thoughts back to their previous purpose.

The first crime scene was not the orange stall, but the crossroads where the murderer placed the human skin!

Judging from the results, the murderer's purpose was not to place the skin at the intersection, but it was definitely related to this!
Let’s take drinking water as an example.

If you want to drink water, you have to use a cup to get water. What you want to solve is the problem of thirst, but you can't avoid the action of using a cup to get water, otherwise you can only lie down and get it with your mouth.

The same is true for the murderer. Any purpose is formed by one "action" after another.

But looking at the skin of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, no one could determine the murderer's purpose.

But if we add the crime scene.
It becomes a fill-in-the-blank question, and the murderer has already arranged the leading numbers. All they need is to add, subtract, multiply and divide to get the final answer!
"perhaps."

The case of the "bloody man" came to Xu Sheng's mind. The murderer piled up the bloody man at the door of the haunted house as a result of scouting the area in advance.

"The first crime scene hides something the murderer cares about."

Xu Sheng murmured.

"So, human skin covered the billboard, and the intersection became a crime scene!"

"Walk."

(End of this chapter)