Chapter 22
4:20 Pm.
“My little sweetheart! Here!” Coulson stopped the car and reached half of his body out of the window and waved at the little girls, who were looking around, seemingly waiting for someone.
“Daddy!”
Coulson turned back to Fitz and said, “wait here.” Then he pushed open the car’s door, got out of the car, squatted with open arms, and greeted a group of six or seven running Lolis.
2
One loli with two pigtails rushed directly into Coulson’s arms, “Daddy! Mommy said, Daddy will definitely forget it~ ”
Coulson wiped the sweat beads from his daughter’s forehead, “Well, she was wrong! How can I forget, I have already promised my sweetheart ~ ”
Loli smiled, revealing the two front teeth that were not yet fully grown, “I know! I believe daddy!”
Coulson wiped the sweat beads from his forehead, stood up, opened the back door of the car, and put on the expression of anticipation: “Now, who wants to go to Lisa’s birthday party!”
“Yeah! Yeah! … ” children cheered.
“Lisa and my sweetheart, you two can sit in the front ~”
“Yeah! Yeah! … ” children cheered again.
Watching a group of little children flood into the car, squeezing Fitz into the corner, Coulson took a few deep breaths, disguised his tired look as excitement, and sat back in the car, raising the tone: “Now, fasten your seat belt! Lisa! Where are we going?”
“My home! My party! Uncle Coulson! Let’s go!”
“Yes, Madam! ” Coulson started the car.
…
An old truck was parked on the corner of the street where Detective Coulson’s house was located. Four people got out of the car and walked in the direction of Detective Coulson’s home. Fortunately, today was not a weekend. The working people have not returned home, and housewives were picking up the children at school, so no one noticed four slightly strange looking strangers.
Benjamin and Zach followed two James Rance, Er, or two Jim Grande. But don’t be confused by their faces, the two were very easy to distinguish. The man who held the food and wore Benjamin’s clothes was the shapeshifter. The person who wore custom-made formal wear, but there were countless oil marks on it, was the real James Rance.
Now, we could officially change the names of the two people.
Arriving the door of Coulson’s house, James looked at the closed door, “you want us to break in?”
Jim swallowed the last egg roll, “the pocket on your left.”
James reached his pocket and pulled out a bunch of keys: “He gave you the keys to his home? He never suspected you?!”
“Why would he suspect me? I never did anything wrong.” Jim replied coldly.
“I… You, you attacked me! You stole my identity!” James said angrily.
“You are still alive, and your identity has been given back to you. What else do you want?” Jim still said coldly.
Benjamin impatiently took the key from James, opened the door, and entered first, “Don’t waste time, Jim, where is the clue wall?”
“Backyard.” Jim ignored James, who was still angry, walked into the house, walked through the living room, kitchen, and pushed open the backyard door. Of course, when passing the kitchen, one more fruit had prepared by Mrs. Coulson went missing.
Zach raised his eyebrows, patted James on the shoulder, and then stepped on the doorstep… Nothing happened. The corner of his lips slightly raised and entered Detective Coulson’s house.
The four came to Coulson’s studio, and the first thing that caught their eyes was the clue wall filled with photos.
James temporarily kept his hostility towards Jim aside and carefully studied this information.
Zach glanced around and found a photo of Louise. Zach frowned, did the effect of hypnotizing eyes disappear?
A red line was drawn on Louise’s photo, connecting two other missing women. The red line was marked as “friendship”. According to the corresponding label, Zach found the report that Louise once filed in the Barton police station on the messy table. Among Louise’s two friends, the note and photos of the body of one of them were kept at another place and linked by the red thread.
Zach was relieved. The essence of the effect of the hypnotizing eyes was to implant a false memory. Although it was an entire evening’s memory that was implanted into Coulson’s mind, before that, the vampire had just drunk blood, so it was not difficult to use the hypnotizing eyes.
Zach glanced at Louise’s report. Louise didn’t forget to mention the detail about the body temperature, but the police officer who wrote the transcript only attributed this special detail to the cold weather.
“Hmm… Let me go through it again.” James stared at the clue wall, his arms began to move in the order of the red line: “Everything started a month ago when prostitutes began to disappear. Half a month ago, Louise’s friends became the victims, and then he started to target Louise. But it was obviously different from what he did previously. Previously all the victims belonged to different blocks. Although the victims were still prostitutes, from half a month ago to the following week, his targets were clearly concentrated in the neighborhood where Louise stayed.”
James seemed to have the talent of being a detective, and soon noticed the first turning point of the change of the shapeshifter’s behaviour, from the wall of clues made by Coulson.
“My first question is, why prostitutes?” James said with a disgusted expression on his face, and asked, “does he have a special preference?”
“You can’t figure it out?” Zach looked through Louise’s transcript, “Jim, tell Detective Rance how shapeshifters generally choose food.”
“Those people that no one would pay attention to.” Jim chewed the apple in his hand, “vagrants, prostitutes, bottom-level workers, migrants.”
James frowned, “okay, so prostitutes were the easiest targets at first. You said that shapeshifters were very ‘goal-conscious’ monste… creatures that would not give up on hunting their prey,… Why is Louise is alive?”
“Because she is smart enough.” Zach ignored the awkward change in James’s words. He was able to change it, it meant that he was already working hard to improve it. Zach turned to the last page of the transcript, “After the second escape, Louise went into hiding until the body was found four days ago, and then the Barton Police Department launched an investigation. After taking a transcript, she realized that the police were already paying attention to this case, then she went back to work again.”
Zach handed the transcript to James with an expression of appreciation on his face. He looked at James and said with a joking tone, “You see, she actually went to the police to file a report.”
James took over the transcript and roughly glanced at it. He knew that Zach was mocking that he had insisted Louise contact the police before.
James put down the transcript, found the location of the clue where he left before, and summed it up, “before the second turning point, a total of twelve prostitutes disappeared and only three bodies were found.” The clue wall showed the mutilated bodies of three women, and the latest one was the one that Zach saw in the barton daily yesterday.
“What about other bodies?” James seemed to realize something bad, and his lips became pale.
Zach looked at Jim, signaling him to explain to Mr. Detective.
“In Barton city, there are places with special environmental characteristics,” Jim flatly explained.
“You know the location?!” James stared at Jim: “Why didn’t you report it?” !”
“Why should I? Detective Coulson never asked me.” Jim frowned. He didn’t understand why James would suddenly get angry. What he had taken away from him was now returned to him intact. but he was still not satisfied. Humans were really strange creatures.
A shadow suddenly flashed past! Zach was already in front of James, pressing his hand on James’ hand, which was already on the holster, and staring at James: “James Rance, you should know that now we are trying to help you. Benjamin and I need to prepare Mr. Quinn’s funeral. As for Jim, he can become anyone and then simply leave, and we will not stop him if he wants to leave. The only reason the three of us are here is because of your surname and your current identity!”
James’s eyes glared at Zach indignantly, his hand was caught by the vampire, and it was impossible for him to even move his finger, let alone draw the gun to shoot! He breathed in and out intensely, and his chest also moved ups and downs, but soon he forcibly suppressed his anger.
Zach was right, the vampire didn’t use the “hypnotizing eyes” to change his will, nor did he make him disappear in this world, because the vampire listened to the shapeshifter Jim’s word. The vampire always only paid attention to the upper class of human society, Anthony was an ally of Zach in the upper class, but now he needed someone, who would pay attention to the people in the lower class, and this person was James Rance.
And James Rance must be a humane person, not a shapeshifter, who was obsessed with eating.
Zach repeated what he did to Anthony a long time ago. He saved him, and then reached an agreement with him and then became an ally, but now, this new alliance was still very fragile.
“Have you calmed down already?” Zach looked at James’s gradually calming chest, let go of his hand, and turned to Jim, “Please continue.”
Jim glanced at Zach and continued, “I don’t know the exact location, but I can guess it. This is just a test conducted by the first shapechanger who came to Barton city.”
“A test?” James asked as calmly as possible.
“To test whether there are other nonhumans in Barton City.” Jim said flatly, “Werewolves prefer mountain forests, Nicors like wet environments, Witches like the places filled with creatures from different races, Hellhound often appear near churches, and Tulpas will become more powerful near the place where commerce is flourishing… Vampires.” Jim glanced at Zach and then said,” Vampires cannot stay in the sunlight.”
James looked at Zach and frowned, “but he can.”
“Because I’m nobler.” Zach smiled, sorted his tie, and changed the topic, “James, you should now realize that such a test, he has already got the result.” After sorting the tie, Zach began to fiddle with his hat, “It is foreseeable that in the future, a large number of nonhumans will enter Barton city. You don’t want that, neither do I. We can help each other.” Zach’s eyes looked at James.
This proposal was made by Zach when they were still at Grande Funeral Home. It was that at that time, James did not have much sincerity, but now, James began to think about it seriously.
“You said before that the Mayor of Barton also knows your identity?” James asked.
“You can ask him personally,” Zach replied unconcernedly.
“Mhm.” James nodded. “Now, at least, in this case, we can work together. After that, I can’t guarantee, I will discuss it with the mayor in person first!”
“I can accept such a reply.” Zach smiled and looked at Benjamin, who also smiled.
They were very satisfied with James’s reply. With prudence, a sense of justice, and an attitude to confirm everything personally, he would be a perfect ally like Anthony.