Chapter 17
“I didn’t expect that Grande Funeral Home will be handling Mr. Quinn’s funeral!” said the Old Ford, who was behind a pile of hill-like documents. This was what a big funeral home looked like. The cemeteries were repossessed by the government, which had an impact on every funeral home. Amongst all the funeral homes, the [Ford Funeral Home], which once had the most cemeteries, had the biggest impact.
Benjamin looked out of the window, Jim (James) was loading a statue of Gabriel into his van with a group of workers. Benjamin smiled and replied, “our Grande’s southern district cemetery is the farthest cemetery from the Bartron city center, so no one would be interested in it. Naturally, the government also doesn’t need to take it back.”
The Bartron City Government wanted to repossess the cemeteries to build new residential areas. The Grande Funeral Home’s southern district cemetery was on the outskirts of the city and close to the prison. Places like that naturally didn’t have any market value, so it became the only remaining burial area in Bartron city. Mrs. Quinn wanted a traditional funeral, so the Grand Funeral Home was the only place to go.
“Alright!” Ford popped his head out from the piles of files, and looked cautiously out of the window, “Those reporters have been hanging around in the area for some times now, they will finally leave soon!”
Benjamin also noticed this. Around the [Ford Funeral Home], scattered some reporters, wearing bulky cameras. Whoever came in and out of the funeral home would always be harassed by them, asking information about the Quinn family funeral.
It seemed that in Barton North, the news of the death of Mr. Quinn had started to spread out. After all, it was the representative of the older generation of Barton City, the media naturally would be very interested in it.
Benjamin picked up a document. Inside were the lists that were full of names, records, accounts… Ford grabbed the document in Benjamin’s hands and glared at Benjamin, “What are you doing! Now you got the stones and the statue, it is time for you to leave!”
Only then did Benjamin realize the real reason why Ford was afraid of those reporters, but he didn’t point it out. Scratching his cheek that was covered with a beard, he asked, “can I make a call?”
Ford annoyedly moved the documents on his desk, revealed the phone under the pile of documents, pushed it to Benjamin, and said, “are you thinking about the stones in our warehouse? Since we can’t use them anymore, you can take all of them. But I can’t guarantee that the phone will get through!”
Benjamin picked up the handset and inserted his finger into the round dial. As he spun the dial, the clicking noises appeared.
Ford was still chattering, “Barton Telecom said that they would send someone to check this morning, the person’s name seems to be Fitz or something, but it is almost eleven now, and he still hasn’t come yet, I will definitely file a complaint against him…”
Benjamin has automatically ignored Ford’s complaint because the phone was connected.
“Grande Funeral Home, how may I help?” An unusually sweet voice appeared on the phone.
Benjamin instantly got goosebumps. Only a few seconds later did he realize that it was Louise.
“Where is Zach?”
“May I ask what this is regarding? Mr. Grande is…”
“It’s me, Benjamin.”
“Oh, wait a minute.” Louise’s voice finally returned to normal.
Benjamin looked at Ford awkwardly and explained, “a new staff.”
Ford pursed his lips and continued doing his own thing.
“Benjamin! Have you got the statue? ”
“Got it. I’m still at Ford. There are some stone statues in their warehouse that they are not going to use anymore. Do you think we should take them? Ford is willing to give it to us for free.”
“You will need to come to take them yourself!” Ford raised his head and shouted, making sure Zach on the phone heard it.
Zach: “That’s great! Please say thank you to Mr. Ford for me! ”
Benjamin smiled at Ford and continued, “just did, by the way, don’t let Louise answer the phone again!”
“Haha…”
Benjamin put the phone back and pushed it back. Outside the window, Jim was already sitting on the front passenger seat and looking at him. Benjamin stood up, slightly bowed to Ford to express his gratitude, and was ready to leave.
A man in a worker attire pushed open the door of Ford’s office and walked in. Behind him was a skinny young man with messy red hair and freckles on his face.
“Mr. Ford, the guy from Barton Telecom is here.”
“Huh!” Ford glanced at the phone on the table and said, “you are finally here! Why can some insignificant phone calls be connected? But whenever I wanted to make an important phone call, it never worked? What’s wrong with your cable connections!”
Benjamin shrugged, ignoring Ford’s mockery, and took the initiative to move back and then walked out of the office.
Ford seemed to be very angry, “You! you, you! Fitz or something! I will file a complaint against you!”
“I am not Fitz, Fitz is on leave, I am David…”
“David! I don’t care who is on leave! David or Fitz! I will file a complaint against both of you!”
1
Benjamin walked out of the office.
As soon as he got in the car, Jim anxiously urged: “What took you so long? Hurry up, we should go to the Barton Police Station next!”
Benjamin buckled his seat belt slowly and started the truck, “what’s the hurry? Have you thought about what you are going to do if you run into another James? Or you want a bunch of policemen to see two identical people fighting each other?”
Jim was lost for words.
Benjamin turned the steering wheel and began to hit his radio as usual.
“What would you do?” Jim asked back. He was also curious why the vampire and the werewolf were interested in the nonhuman, who attacked him. Protect the citizens of Barton City? Jim didn’t think so.
“Hmmm.” Benjamin drawled, “bring him back to Grande, and then ask him why he came to Bartron City.”
“You don’t want to kill, uh, get rid of him?” Jim was surprised.
“It depends on the situation.” Benjamin frowned: “If he just wants to live quietly like Zach and Alice, I would like to have one more younger brother in the Grande family.”
Jim looked at the werewolf in disbelief. At this time, he also remembered that in the conversation between the three in the morning, the vampire and the werewolf did not say that they would kill or get rid of the ‘monster’ that was causing trouble in Barton City. To be precise, they were just concerned.
Jim realized that these two nonhumans were not concerned about the people in Barton, but their own safety in Barton! Just like the wolf hidden in the flock of sheep, the individual’s exposure would cause the entire flock to be vigilant. The Grande family only cared about its own safety!
“So if he is not the same as you? What would you do? !” Jim asked.
“Kill him.” The werewolf shrugged.
Half an hour later, Bartron Police Station.
Benjamin stood at the empty reception and looked inside.
Normally, there should be uniformed policemen at the reception, but today there seemed to be no one here. Not only that, but through the reception desk, Benjamin also noticed that there seemed to be only a few detectives in casual clothes inside the police station. However, all the police officers seemed to be very busy.
Benjamin didn’t know that this morning, the Police Chief Cologne gave the police detectives of the Bartron Northern District Headquarters a day off, and now only the police officers, who maintain daily security, were working.
Being ignored by everyone, Benjamin was thinking whether he should just walk in and explore the station for himself.
“Hey! Sir! Can I help you?” Benjamin felt someone patting him from behind. After turning around, he saw a short police woman walking by with a pile of documents in her arms, struggling to open the front door and get in.
Benjamin reached out to help her push open the door and picked up the several documents she dropped, handing it to the policewoman who was already sitting at the front desk, “I’m looking for James Rance.”
Benjamin found that the height difference between the policewoman standing up and sitting down almost indistinguishable, so he immediately took a step back. The werewolf knew that his figure would sometimes be stressful for other people. His eyes looked around, but his hand reached for his head and scratched his head: “However, it seems that he is not in.”
“Thank you!” The policewoman took some quick breaths, adjusted her scattered hair, and smiled. She first expressed her gratitude to Benjamin, and then asked, “Are you looking for Detective Rance? And are you?”
“Oh!” Benjamin rubbed his right hand on his coat a few times, reaching out to the policewoman: “We used to serve in the same unit, we used to be friends. I heard he came to work at Barton Police Station, so I came to look for him.”
The policewoman smiled and took Benjamin’s hand, which didn’t become very clean even after he rubbed it on his body. The hand was rough but wide and warm.
“Did he not come today?” Benjamin asked.
The policewoman shook her head, “sorry, he left with his partner only half an hour ago.”
“The life of a detective must be very busy.” Benjamin smiled disappointedly, and stepped back, planning to leave. He knew that the contrast between appearance and expression was the most useful weapon against women.
“Wait!” Sure enough, the policewoman stopped the man, who she thought was dispirited because his comrade now became a detective, but he was still nobody, and said, “You can leave a message, I can pass the message for you!”
Benjamin stopped, pretended to think for a second, and finally shook his head, “no need…” After that, he simply turned around.
“Wait!” The policewoman’s voice was clearly anxious. Alas, women… “You can leave your number, I promise you that he will call you!”
1
Benjamin stopped again, his dark brown eyebrows frowned together, and seemed to be in a fierce mind struggle.
The policewoman was relieved and decided to persuade him, “you know that the police detectives have been busy with missing people cases these days, so there is very little free time. It is normal that Detective Rance may forget to contact former friends.”
This girl comforted Benjamin.
Benjamin suppressed the guilt of deceiving this kind policewoman, nodded, walked back to the reception desk, and looked at the policewoman with gratitude, “Thank you, do you have a pen and paper?”
The policewoman took out a pen from the front pocket of her uniform and a stack of notes and handed it to Benjamin. Benjamin took it and wrote down the phone of [Grande Funeral Home], the signature was ‘SS’ (Shapeshifter), and then handed it to the policewoman. “This is where I work, and I also live there.”
The policewoman carefully collected the note, and when she wanted to say something, Benjamin had already turned around and left, leaving a sad view of his back.