Chapter 24
Nearly five o’clock, Mayor Anthony of Barton city slumped in his car, and the beautiful female secretary Gina bent over bitterly, massaging her heel. Anthony’s eyes went down unconsciously, looking at some part of Gina’s body that has been exposed from bending over. Then today’s exhaustion seemed to have reduced a lot …
“Keep your eyes in front! Pay attention to the road!” Anthony noticed that the driver in the front seat was looking at the same place in the rearview mirror as him. He sternly reminded the driver and reached out his hands in front of Gina.
Gina realized what happened, sat up shyly, covered her chest, and at the same time, cast a grateful smile to the mayor.
The mayor of Bartron City nodded coldly, but he was happy inside, ‘one step at a time, build a good impression first, don’t rush, don’t rush…’
Let us not judge the philosophy of the mayor to conquer women for the time being, and briefly talk about the busy day the mayor had.
The municipal government repossessed the cemetery and privatized the funeral and burial business. By the time Barton City implemented this, (Barton City was located in the easternmost part of Massa state), this policy was implemented throughout Massa state. But for the entire Federation, this was just a trial. So the governor and the two Massa Senators attached great importance to it. All-day today, what Anthony did was inspectp each cemetery and explain what projects would be carried out after the land was recovered with two senators.
Of course, during this process, the two senators, who we destined to become opponents, showed very different concerns. One was more concerned about the direction of the funeral business. Anthony had to take the southern cemetery, which Zach was in charge of, as an example to explain that Barton City has not abandoned the tradition… while the other was more concerned about land planning and commercial value…
Anthony, who was in the middle of the two concerns, felt like the campaigns of those two senators had already begun.
In short, Anthony was free now. After he sent away these two politicians, he could finally return to the city hall to rest for a while, and then he would go to the birthday party of Cologne’s niece!
“Gina, what’s the name of Cologne’s niece?” Anthony rubbed his temple and asked his secretary.
Gina replied: “Lisa. Sir, she is the daughter of Cologne’s youngest sister. ”
“How old?”
“Ten years old. Sir.”
Anthony sighed. If it wasn’t for his good personal relationship with Cologne, how could a 10-year-old girl’s birthday party need the mayor’s ‘attendance’! Anthony looked out of the window, and the City Hall building had already appeared before him.
The driver opened the door, and after Anthony got out, Gina followed him. Anthony decided to go back to the office quickly, and then get drunk, then he could spend time in a ten-year-old kid’s birthday party in a half-conscious state.
Anthony walked past the reception of the city hall and walked in-, wait a second… Anthony quickly looked back and looked at the two people sitting in the hall, Zach and Benjamin!
Anthony reluctantly made a gesture of ‘let’s go to the office’ towards the two, and then told Gina that she could go home.
Back to the mayor’s office, Anthony just opened the whiskey bottle cap, then three men pushed open the door of his office.
Three people?
Zach smiled and capped the whiskey bottle cap, “Anthony, what we are going to say next requires you to have a clear mind.”
Anthony frowned when Zach took the bottle back to the wine cabinet and looked at the third person. “Who is he? Wait?” Anthony rubbed his temples: “You are James Rance! The son of General Rance! Why are you with these two people?!” .
“See, I said, you need to have a clear mind.” Zach seemed to be very familiar with the place, so he moved over two stools, and then all three people sat down.
Anthony stared at Zach: “What’s going on? He is James, right? Not some strange things?”
James now fully believed that Anthony and Zach had a deep friendship, but he did not know whether he should be happy or sad…
“Benjamin! You say it, you are the good one, why are you here?” Anthony knew that the vampire liked to play with words. Compared to them, the werewolf was more straightforward, so Anthony preferred to talk to the werewolf.
Benjamin raised an eyebrow at Zach. He seemed to be very happy about Anthony’s ‘praise'”This is James Rance, but in the past week, there were two ‘James’ in Button City. In terms of specific details, he can explain it himself.”
James looked at the vampire and the werewolf around him, and then looked at the mayor, who had a serious expression. He never thought that he would meet the mayor of Barton this way, and the mayor’s behavior and words just indicated one thing. He believed in the other two “people” more than the son of General Rance.
Those three people were from Bartron City, but James was just an outsider.
James took a few deep breaths, set aside this feeling, and began to tell the whole incident: the shapeshifter, the missing people case, the bodies, his encounter with Zach and Benjamin, David, the telephone lines, the rumors…
Anthony’s face changed several times during James’ explanation. Finally, he leaned his back on his desk with his hands on his face: “Zach, go get my whiskey, I need a drink now.”
“No,” Zach shook his head: “I need you to stay clear-headed and think like a mayor.”
Anthony rubbed his face with both hands, and his expression was not very good. He extended his right hand to James: “I’m sorry, I doubted your identity before.”
James extended his right hand and held it, normal human body temperature, and the handshake was strong. James had read Anthony’s information before and knew that he used to be a soldier.
“Another shapeshifter, uh, Jim, where is he?” Anthony began to think.
“He is in my trunk.” Benjamin replied: “We don’t want him to move around.”
“The ‘rumor’ he said. Is it reliable?” Anthony frowned and said, “I mean, can we trust this guy?”
James let out a sigh of relief. From this sentence, he felt that the mayor did not want nonhumans to enter the city of Barton!
“A hundred perfect.” Zach replied somewhat helplessly: “He was the first to come to Barton, but he is seriously picky about his food, and he wasn’t very goal-conscious.” Zach glanced at James, meaning that he actually let James survive, “These strangenesses means that he is excluded even from his own kind. Nonhumans are not much different from ordinary people. They will not abandon their home easily because of a rumor, but he did so.”
“In other words, he could not stay in his original place. And you, you are a vampire who can walk in the sunlight, so he chose to be loyal to you…” Anthony nodded, sighed again, and then asked, “Do you have any plans? I don’t want my city to be occupied by nonhumans from the bottom of the city!”
James noticed the words Anthony used to describe Zach. It seemed that Zach’s “noble”, which he mentioned in Coulson’s studio, had special meaning!
“The first step, I need the access to the bodies that were found, and I want to identify the smell of the shapeshifter who started the rumor.” Benjamin said: “Although the rumor has been spread out, we must at least end this source first.”
“Then why are you all here?” Anthony was puzzled, “James, you have retrieved your identity. You can take Benjamin-” Anthony suddenly thought of something and pressed his brows: “Damn it! Repossessing cemeteries and privatizing the funeral business!”
Benjamin shrugged, it seemed that the mayor also started to realize it.
After receiving victims’ bodies, the Barton Police Department would first go through the forensic examination and collect evidence, and then the bodies would be sent to the funeral homes, which used to be the municipal government’s public resources. If the bodies went unclaimed for a long time, it would eventually be disposed of.
This process was not changed, but there were two points to note in this case. First, when the bodies were found, they had already been exposed for too long, so they were already severely rotten. After they were sent to the forensic for examination, they were directly sent to the funeral home.
Second, the privatization of the funeral business. The facilities that used to be public resources were now privately owned. Any economically-minded funeral homes would definitely not keep the bodies that were severely rotten and damaged for too long.
Benjamin had already visited all funeral homes in the Barton city this morning because of the acquisition of stones. The notice of privatization issued by the city had already been received by everyone, which meant that the bodies that were in their possession now became their private property, and if the police needed to check them, there must be a formal warrant.
Moreover, if the funeral homes moved fast enough, these bodies that wasted too much of their resources would probably be the first batch to be cremated!
Before coming here, Benjamin had gone to David’s house and remembered the smell of David. Now he still needed to compare the smell of the original David to separate out the smell that could truly determine the shapeshifter.
If you don’t understand, let me explain. The smell of a shape-shifter is composed of two parts, one is the smell of the shape-shifter’s external image, and the other is the fixed smell of the shape-shifter. This is a special phenomenon produced by the two sets of digestive systems of the shape-shifter.
What Benjamin now has was a mixture of the scent of David and the shapeshifter. Even the real David had a mixed smell because of the shapeshifter’s bite. So what Benjamin needs is another different mixed smell to confirm the part of the smell that is unchanged.
Isn’t the werewolf’s nose incredible? I also think so.
“I need to call cologne!” Anthony picked up the phone. Even though the mayor was very anxious, the dial of the phone was still turning slowly.
Anthony only hoped that the shape-shifter was not manipulating the telephone line now, or, he was hoping that it was manipulating it at the moment!
After the number was dialed, there was a busy tone in the receiver. Yes, it was a busy tone. This kind of sound that only appeared very often ten years ago was often heard in Barton City this week. The busy tone meant that the other party was talking to someone else and it couldn’t be connected. In fact, after the popularization of answering machines, this voice has long been replaced by “please leave a message after the beep”.
Now there was a busy tone instead of the answering machine’s voice, which meant that ‘David’ was manipulating the communication!
“Busy tone, he is in Barton Telecom now!” Anthony looked at Benjamin and said.
“Great.” Benjamin stood up, “that will save a lot of trouble, I will go first.”
“Be careful.” Zach said to Benjamin who stood up and stretched his arms, and at the same time, he stopped James who was about to leave together with him: “What are you doing? There are important things that we have not finished yet!”