Start with a core cabin

Chapter 1414: Deep in the Forest (Play something else before the controller comes)

After investigating the scene, everyone went to the hot spring hotel. The hot spring hotel of Baifan Group has a good environment and good decoration. However, for Duanmu Huai, these things are obviously not what he cares about. After arriving at the hotel, Duanmu Huai found a meeting room and pulled everyone together for a meeting.

"So far, there have been six disappearances in total."

Duanmu Huai knocked on the table, and Sha Jiuye nodded and opened the laptop next to him.

"The first case was the disappearance of the shrine's chief and his family, followed by the disappearance of the village chief and his son... This was discovered on the day the anomaly at the shrine was discovered."

"Then a day later, a forest ranger went missing. His wife came to the police to report that her husband had gone to patrol the mountains, but had not returned for a day and a night, and no one answered the phone..."

When Sakuya finished speaking, Manager Kashiwagi also continued.

"Then, members of the hunting club conducted a search of the area where the ranger might have gone, but found nothing."

"Don't hunters usually bring hunting dogs with them when they go up the mountain?"

Duanmu Huai raised his own questions.

"They didn't use the hounds?"

"I didn't see it with my own eyes, but I heard that the hounds didn't want to go into the woods, and some even broke free from their ropes and ran away. Because of this, some people suspected that there might be some ferocious beasts hiding in the forest. However, this is just a small island, and we have investigated the animals in the forest. Most of them are squirrels, hares and other animals that are not aggressive. The only thing to watch out for is poisonous snakes. In fact, they did not find any traces of strange animals."

"The fourth missing person was a high school student. He did not return home after school, so his family called the police. The police inquired about the school and learned that he left school after school, but he did not arrive home, and no one knew where he went."

So far, they were all locals and the situation was relatively okay, but the next two disappearances were a little grim.

"The fifth missing victim was a tourist who came here to travel. The hotel waiter found him and said he had left the day before yesterday and never came back... His luggage was still in the room."

This time, Manager Kashiwagi looked a little unhappy, after all, the missing person was a guest of the hotel.

Then the most difficult one is the victim of the sixth case so far.

"They are Officers Kinoshita and Akino from the main island. The police station here asked their superiors for help, and they were sent to investigate the disappearance. They were originally staying in another hotel in the village, but the owner hasn't seen them for several days."

  This matter has not been reported yet, and the news is just a rumor. After all, the situation of police officers going missing is a bit sensitive. It is certain that once the report is made to the main island, the matter will become even more serious, so everyone has chosen to remain silent. After all, they are just missing, and no bodies have been found. Maybe the two police officers went somewhere to investigate?

But for Manager Kashiwagi, the matter must be resolved as soon as possible. After all, the disappearance of the two policemen can be concealed in the short term. But if time goes on for a long time, the main island will find that they have lost contact and will definitely send someone to investigate, and then the matter will become a big deal.

Therefore, he also hopes that the case can be resolved as soon as possible.

"So, the biggest suspect right now is this forest."

Duanmu Huai said, staring at the forest on the map. This is obvious. After all, the entire island is densely covered with trees, except for the area near the dock due to development. The shrine is also in this forest. According to Manager Kashiwagi's description, the village chief's house is also located near the edge of the forest. High school students also pass through the forest on their way home from school. Not to mention the forest ranger, who disappeared in the forest.

Although this is a small island, it is relatively small. At least for humans, this forest is indeed quite large, and it is not an easy task to search it thoroughly.

"Brother, where should we start?"

After sorting out the case, Sha Jiuye looked at Duanmu Huai, somewhat excited. This was her first time to officially do a job similar to a detective assistant.

"Let's start by investigating the missing guest."

Duanmu Huai gave a decisive answer.

"I want the surveillance footage of that guest, and the waiter who spoke to him. I hope to meet him in person."

"Of course, the police have done this before, so we kept that part of the surveillance, as well as the person who was in charge of the hotel room service at the time... Please wait."

Manager Kashiwagi took out his cell phone and made a call. Not long after, a waiter came to the meeting room with a videotape.

"This is Xiao Shanjun, the missing guest he last saw. The surveillance footage also proves this."

"Hello, hello..."

The waiter named Xiaoshan saw that Duanmu Huai's face was obviously pale, and he couldn't even continue the greeting that was unique to the service industry. If there weren't a few beauties like Alice and others sitting in the conference room, he might have just run away.

"I think you know why I called you here."

Duanmu Huai was too lazy to talk nonsense and quickly got straight to the point.

"The police should have already questioned you, so just repeat what they asked you at that time, about the guest."

"Ah, okay."

The waiter lowered his head and stared at the floor. He didn't dare to breathe and could only speak timidly.

"I am the hotel's concierge, and my main responsibility is to greet guests at the main gate. That afternoon, the guest walked out of the hotel with his bag on his back, so I asked him where he was going. He said he was a professional photographer and was planning to go to the nearby area to take photos..."

"Did you try to dissuade him? After all, several people are missing."

“Of course I tried to dissuade him, but I didn’t dare tell him about the disappearance. I only said that there were poisonous snakes in the forest here and advised him not to go to the forest. He said he wouldn’t go too far, but would just stay by the lake for a while…” “By the lake…”

Duanmu Huai looked at the map carefully and soon found a lake on the west side of the community. According to Manager Baimu, that place had also been developed. There was a road leading directly to the lake in their community, and there were also operating facilities on the lake side, such as renting boats or fishing rods, and of course there was also a camping site for rest and recuperation.

If you have nothing to do, going out for a walk to the lake to see the scenery is actually a good choice.

"How long will it take to get there?"

"It's about 30 minutes on foot. We originally planned to send a shuttle bus, but it's difficult to repair the road... We're still in the planning stage."

"When did you discover your guests were missing?"

"One day later, when it was time to check out, the front desk called the internal line, but received no response. So we sent staff to check, and found that the room was empty, with only luggage there. At that time, I felt that the situation was not good, so I checked the surveillance and found that the guest had left that afternoon and never came back."

"You didn't set up surveillance on the lake side?"

"The line was too far, and we didn't make it in time."

Manager Kashiwagi shook his head.

"We originally planned to pave it along the road when the bus service started..."

"So did you send anyone to look for him afterwards?"

"Where are we going?"

This time the waiter called out.

"Everyone is afraid of that place now and stays away from the forest. The colleagues who were originally in charge of the campsite have not gone there in the past few days! Only those outsiders would foolishly run into the forest..."

"So you called the police?"

"Yes, this is the responsibility of the police..."

He passed the buck very quickly.

"and then?"

"We sent several police officers to the lake to investigate, but they also found no clues..."

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai nodded and motioned to play the videotape. Then Manager Baimu inserted the videotape into the player, and then the surveillance video of the time appeared on the TV in the conference room.

At the hotel entrance, a middle-aged man wearing a vest and carrying a SLR camera walked out, and then the waiter next to him came up and said a few words to him. The SLR man smiled and waved his hand, pointed to the front and said a few more words, then left the hotel along the walking path and disappeared from the surveillance screen.

"that's it?"

"that's it."

"alright, I got it."

After watching the video, Duanmu Huai nodded and stood up.

"Well, let's go to the lake now. It's about this time."

Duanmu Huai had used backtracking in the shrine before, but unfortunately, just like before, Duanmu Huai was unable to trace back what happened at that time, which meant that the other party was at least an Old One. Only in this way could he interfere with his information backtracking and make Duanmu Huai completely unable to grasp what happened at that time.

  Maybe we can find some clues here?

"Woooooooo!"

At this moment, a whistle sounded suddenly from a distance. Duanmu Huai turned his head and asked casually.

"what sound?"

"Oh, that's a regular ship from the main island."

Manager Kashiwagi also gave an introduction.

"The transportation between here and the main island is not smooth. The young lady has her own yacht, but ordinary people, unless they are in a hurry, will wait for the scheduled ship. The scheduled ship usually runs once a week, and we will also use the scheduled ship to replenish some supplies for the hotel. But now it seems that no one should come here..."

"That's it..."

Duanmu Huai didn't say much, just glanced out the window and then looked away.

"let's go."