Chapter 1
Edward Quan ·
I’m a medical examiner.
The DNA found beneath a dead woman’s fingernails was her own.
It defied all reason.
As I stared at the report, I suddenly remembered the strange wedding ring on her husband’s left hand when he came in for questioning—a ring he never took off.
1
I’m a medical examiner.
Today, I encountered a body that sent a chill down my spine.
Not because of its condition.
Because the DNA I found beneath her fingernails was her own.
2
It made no sense.
The victim, Su Xiaojing, was twenty-five. A dance teacher.
Cause of death: mechanical asphyxia. There were clear ligature marks around her neck.
Her body had been found in the bedroom of her home. The doors and windows were intact, with no sign of forced entry.
Our initial assessment was that she knew her killer.
3
As part of the standard procedure, I collected samples from beneath her fingernails.
This was important evidence. There was a good chance it would contain skin tissue from the killer.
I took the samples carefully and sent them for testing.
While I waited, several possibilities occurred to me.
Her husband. A lover. Perhaps an obsessed admirer who couldn’t accept rejection.
4
The results came back.
Wang from the laboratory handed me the report with a strange look on his face.
“Chen… You’d better look at this.”
I took it, scanned the page, and froze.
The epithelial cells beneath her fingernails were an exact match for Su Xiaojing’s DNA profile.
“Could there be a mistake?” I frowned. “Cross-contamination?”
“We’ve checked it over and over. There’s nothing wrong with the sample.” Wang shook his head. “It really is her own DNA.”
Her own DNA?
How could someone fighting for her life end up with her own skin tissue beneath her fingernails?
It defied all reason.
Like trying to lift yourself off the ground by pulling your own hair.
5
I returned to the autopsy table and examined Su Xiaojing’s hands again.
Ten slender fingers. Clean, neatly trimmed nails.
With a magnifying glass, I inspected them closely.
Near the base of her right index fingernail, on its underside, I found a tiny trace of translucent material. Its color differed from the skin.
It wasn’t skin.
I immediately collected a sample and sent it for trace-evidence analysis.
6
Full of questions, I informed the detective in charge of the case, Captain Liu.
Liu was a veteran with a wealth of experience.
The result left him stunned too.
“Her own DNA? Chen, are you sure you’re not joking?”
“I wish I were, Captain.” I gave a bitter smile. “But that’s what we have.”
“What the hell are we supposed to make of that?” He scratched his graying head. “Did she strangle herself?”
We all fell silent.
That was obviously impossible.
7
Just then, one of Liu’s officers, Zhang, came in.
“Captain Liu. Dr. Chen. Su Xiaojing’s husband, Li Ming, is here. He’s in the interview room.”
Liu and I exchanged a look.
Time to meet our prime suspect.
8
Li Ming looked to be in his thirties. He wore gold-rimmed glasses and a neat suit. He was a researcher at a biotechnology company.
He seemed grief-stricken and exhausted, yet his answers were clear and coherent. His emotions were under control.
Almost… too much control.
“Xiaojing and I had a good marriage. We never argued.” His eyes reddened. “I was working late at the company yesterday. I didn’t get home until the early hours, and then I found her… How could I ever hurt her?”
Liu went through the routine questions. Li Ming answered smoothly, with no obvious holes in his account.
The interview seemed to have reached a dead end.
9
Just as Liu was about to finish, my gaze happened to fall on Li Ming’s left hand.
He wore a wedding ring on his ring finger.
Its design was unusual: a platinum base inset with black material, something like onyx or obsidian.
But it wasn’t the design that caught my attention.
It was the way he kept unconsciously turning it.
And something about the ring itself. Something almost imperceptible, yet deeply wrong.
It was too new.
Against his tired appearance, the ring gleamed as if freshly bought. There was almost no sign of prolonged wear.
“Mr. Li,” I interrupted. “That’s a very distinctive ring.”
His fingers stopped moving.
He looked at me. Something that might have been panic flickered deep in his eyes, then vanished.
“Thank you.” He forced a smile. “Xiaojing and I had matching wedding rings.”
He raised his hand to show us.
As he did, I noticed what looked like an engraving inside the band.
A line of… tiny letters?
10
The interview ended.
Li Ming was allowed to go home for the time being, though the police would investigate him discreetly.
“What do you think of him, Chen?” Liu asked.
“Too perfect,” I said thoughtfully. “And there’s something odd about the way he wears that ring.”
“What do you mean?”
“A ring worn for a long time, especially by a man with large knuckles, usually shows some wear on the inside. It can leave an indentation on the skin too.” I thought back over what I’d seen. “But the inside of his ring was smooth, and there wasn’t any obvious mark on his finger.”
Liu narrowed his eyes.
“You’re saying…”
“Perhaps he doesn’t wear it regularly. Or… he’s only started wearing it recently.”
A husband who didn’t usually wear his wedding ring?
A husband who deliberately put it on after his wife was murdered?
That was strange in itself.
11
The trace-evidence results arrived.
The translucent material beneath Su Xiaojing’s fingernail was a high-strength bioadhesive.
It was commonly used in medical applications or in packaging precision equipment.
Highly adhesive and very clear, it was almost invisible to the naked eye once dry.
My heart gave a sudden thump.
A horrifying theory began to form.
Could the killer have used this adhesive to take the victim’s shed skin cells and “plant” them beneath her own fingernails?
Why?
To fabricate evidence?
Misdirect the investigation?
If I was right, the killer was not only meticulous. He also possessed considerable expertise in biology or chemistry.
Li Ming was a researcher at a biotechnology company.
12
I immediately told Liu my theory.
He took it seriously. He applied at once for a warrant to investigate Li Ming’s company and decided to bring him back for further questioning.
This time, we would focus on the ring, the materials he could access, and his laboratory.
But just before we were ready to act, bad news arrived.
Li Ming had a perfect alibi.
Security footage from his company building, together with statements from his colleagues, proved he had been working in the laboratory throughout the night of the murder. He hadn’t left until the early hours.
His alibi covered the entire period.
Suddenly, our investigation had lost its way.
13
Was he really not the killer?
Then how could we explain the DNA and adhesive beneath her fingernails?
And that strange ring?
I shut myself in my office and went through Su Xiaojing’s photographs and autopsy report again and again.
The image of the ring wouldn’t leave my mind.
Those letters inside the band…
I sat bolt upright.
Perhaps… perhaps the key wasn’t the DNA itself.
It was how the DNA had been transferred.
The ring.
What if it wasn’t that he didn’t often wear it, but that he couldn’t?
What if the slightest carelessness would get something from inside the band onto his fingers?
An even bolder, more disturbing thought struck me like lightning.
I grabbed my phone and called Liu. My voice was a little hoarse with excitement.
“Captain Liu! We have to get Li Ming’s wedding ring. Whatever it takes. Now! Right now!”
“I may know… how the body can ‘speak’.”
“And that ring is its interpreter!”