Mysterious Hunting Ground

Chapter 121 121. Farewell
In mid-February, at the end of winter, the climate begins to warm up.

The sun is shining brightly this morning.

Dean, who woke up from meditation, temporarily suppressed the auditory hallucinations in his ears, said hello to Paque and Last, and drove to LVPD alone.

Under the mask shed at the gate of the police station, police vehicles carrying heavily armed police officers drove onto the road, connecting end to end like a long black dragon.

……

"Rust isn't here?" Holden was planning to go out with his briefcase, his eyes were bloodshot and his hair was greasy, apparently he hadn't slept all night.

Dean shook his head, pretending to be ignorant and asked, "He was so worried about Grace that he couldn't sleep, and he was in a bad state. I let him rest at home today. What's going on in the bureau? What happened? "

Holden was silent for a while,

"I have a sad news for you. We found Grace in the Red Dragon Club in the Lake District, but unfortunately..." Holden put a photo in front of Dean. Ordinary corpse, "she had lost her breath at that time."

Dean closed his eyes tightly, lowered his head, clenched his fists, and asked tremblingly,
"Grace didn't come to California, why did she appear in the Lake District?"

"It's not clear yet." Holden turned his gaze, "Perhaps the murderer deliberately created a cross-state case to confuse the LVPD's investigation."

"How did she die?"

"According to the preliminary survey and investigation at the scene, the bureau has drawn some conclusions. Al Darris is the leader of a cult organization, and he often organizes some kind of killing rituals in the Red Dragon Club, and also seduced a group of bosses and stars of large companies. , politicians are involved."

"Gris is their chosen victim."

"However, there was a more terrible massacre in the club last night. Someone killed all the party participants and avenged Grace."

Holden paused, looking at Dean sharply,
"Where were you and Paque and Ruster at the time?"

"Post missing person notices everywhere, you doubt me?"

"Don't mind, I'm just analyzing all the possibilities," Holden said earnestly, staring into his eyes, "After all, your best friend Rust's mother was killed by the club, you have a motive for killing, and you have The ability to kill a group of people."

"The identities of the dead are not simple. This incident has a huge impact. Maybe the director will be dismissed from get out of class. If you did it, nod your head, and I will find a way to help you cover it up."

"Unfortunately, not me."

A red light flashed in Dean's eyes, he gritted his teeth,

"If I had discovered their bestiality, I would never have let them die so happily."

Holden pulled his tie and asked tentatively, "Then follow me into the club tonight for a psychic ceremony and ask Al Dalis's soul?"

"No problem." Dean agreed decisively, "but I'm going to take Ruster with me."

……

When he got home, Dean conveyed the news to Paqui and Ruster. Paqui sighed and put on his apron to prepare lunch, while Ruster just listened silently, with an extremely empty expression, as if there was something in his heart. A void was missing that could never be filled.

Dean sighed, glanced at his uncle in the kitchen, lowered his voice,
"Dude, do you want to say goodbye to Grace? I don't mean the body, I mean her soul."

Ruster's face changed, and his bloodshot eyes looked over,

"Don't worry, act tonight, you must first know some rules of psychic medium ceremony..."

……

night.

Paque went to his friends to discuss his escape plan in case of an accident.

Dean and Ruster followed Holden into the Red Dragon Club, which was guarded by several police officers and surrounded by a cordon.

The corpses and bloodstains from last night were cleaned up.

There are only circles of white traces and fixed lines in the empty hall, which record the shape and direction of the fallen body and the point where the bullet fell.

Dean walked to the kitchen, took out the divination set from the handbag, and put the soul divination board full of characters on the knees of the three people, forming a fixed triangle.

One last look at the expectant Holden, and the restless Ruster.

Light incense, candles.

Hold down the divination board with three fingers and place it on the divination board.

"Friends get together, sincerely."

"The soul is near, we call you..."

Dean's steady voice echoed in the hall.

"The ghost that haunts the club, Al Dalis, you are a murderer, you have committed an unforgivable crime, but you don't deserve to die without knowing it. Now there is an opportunity for you to show up at once and tell The identity of our killer."

"If you're around, please let us know!"

"Whoosh..."

A breeze blew the candles flickering.

In the eyes of the three people expecting.

"Shadow of the Past" flew out of the plank, and pieced together a word "YES".

At the same time, under Dean's telepathy, he squirmed like mist, and transformed into a man wearing a white chef's uniform, whose body and face resembled Al Dalis.

Dean immediately handed the board to Holden, allowing him to observe the disguised face of "Shadow of the Past" through the lens.

"Sure enough!" Holden asked with a startled expression,
"Al Dalis, who are the murderers who killed you?"

"Three people, one of them is Dutton, the security guard of the club, and the other two don't know each other... red hair, big nose, burly... a bit of Slavic blood."

The shackles were assembled according to Dean's fabrication.

Holden seriously questioned and answered "Shadows of the Past" for a long time, completely pinning the murderer's identity on the security guard and his accomplice three "vigilante" who drove away in a car, and at the same time dispelled the last trace of doubt about Dean. ,
"Dude, it's thanks to you this time. Next, I will convince the bureau to go all out to hunt down the fugitives and catch Dutton, which should calm the anger of those big shots."

Well, good luck in advance for finding the body in Lake Mead.

"It's your turn, Rust."

Dean looked at his friend with a nervous and apprehensive face, and recited another prayer.

Soon, a woman in a blue professional dress arrived as promised and landed in front of them.

The red-haired face is still delicate and beautiful, but it is illusory and dull, without the warm smile of the past, and his eyes are staring at the void, just like a mannequin in a clothing store.

Rust, who was watching through the lens, was completely dumbfounded, he suppressed his excitement and stammered and asked,
"Is it true, Dean, that she's really Grace?"

"That's right, but because it's a soul, it's different from a living person, it's more dull..."

"Gris!"

Before Dean finished speaking, Ruster got up and threw himself into the arms of the ghost.

But after all, he was not a living person, that phantom body was like a slightly cool mist, with nowhere to focus, and Rust's hands passed through it.

But he didn't give up, just like caring for a treasure, he carefully opened his hands and hugged his mother, feeling the coolness in his arms, and kept apologizing,

"I'm sorry, Grace, you have been taking care of me and giving everything for me, but I have never been considerate of you and help you share a little pressure."

"I didn't protect you in the end, I didn't save you, I don't deserve to be your son."

"Uuuu...I'm sorry..."

"sorry!"

Cries echoed throughout the hall.

Dean picked up the plank on the ground and put it in front of him. He saw the woman standing in mid-air struggling to change her stiff posture. A misty arm wrapped around Ruster and held him in her arms. , and the other hand gently patted his back.

Grace's mechanical face became vivid and shone with the brilliance of motherhood, she was still humming a song in her mouth, drops of clear tears in her eyes fell down her chin on Rust's shoulders, and instantly she was like Disappearing in the air like steam.

But Dean clearly felt that every tear was full of a mother's deep nostalgia, reluctance, and love.

thump...

Dean put down the shackles and took a cigarette from Holden next to him. For the first time in his two lives, he took a deep breath. Amid the faint stimulation of the tobacco, he closed his eyes tightly.

……

Everything is going smooth.

Dean misleads the police investigation and makes Ruster say his final goodbyes to his mother.

In the next few days, he, Paque, Britney, Gretchen and a group of relatives and friends accompanied Rust home to sort out the remains, and went to the police station to retrieve Grace's body.

After crying a lot, Last prepared the coffin, tombstone, and grave for his mother.

It cost seven or eight thousand knives in total.

Everyone stayed by his side all the time, contributed money and efforts, finally there was a change on that ashen face, and they also expressed their gratitude to everyone.

……

The funeral came quietly.

Because the apartment where Rust lived was high-rise and narrow, it was inconvenient to receive guests, so the coffin was transported to a church in North Las Vegas.

According to custom, keep vigil for several days.

That first night, Dean stayed with Ruster.

The church was dimly lit, the rows of chairs were eerily empty, and the coffin stood in front.

A cold draft blew outside the door, light bulbs hanging from the ceiling swayed slightly, the yellow wires swayed, the coffin also creaked, and the reflection on the wall seemed to be dancing with demons.

"Dude, you know, people who are prone to mental problems have a characteristic. Their minds are full of past or future events. They don't pay attention to the present. If you focus on the present, you won't feel regretful."

Dean, who was sitting in the first row, patted the shoulder of his friend next to him. Rust's thin body was dressed in a solemn black suit. After this blow, his youthful face matured a lot, but there was a kind of expression between his eyebrows and eyes. lingering melancholy,

"You have already bid farewell to Grace. After today, it's time to let go and take her last wish to study in college well. You don't have to worry about the tuition fee. I will help you solve it."

In the past few days, Britney and Last have received the admission notice from the University of Arizona, but they did not celebrate because of time sensitivity.

After these words, Dean thought that Ruster would keep silent like in the past.

But Ruster shook his head and said in a hoarse and nasal voice like a bad cold,

"I've already told Grace that I'm not going to the University of Arizona. Being an astronomer won't protect my family."

"Don't blame yourself for Grace's accident, punish yourself," Dean shook his head, "Even if it's another person, um, even if this tragedy happens to someone else, the outcome will not change."

"No, it wouldn't be a tragedy if it were you." Lust suddenly turned to look at Dean, half of his face was hit by the shaking lights, showing deep envy, "In recent months, I often There will be unrealistic fantasies, and if I, like you, reborn in half a year, then I can have your insight."

He withdrew his gaze, lowered his head, and clenched his fist unwillingly, "Then I will definitely find out that Grace has fallen into the trap of the casino in advance, and I can prevent this tragedy in advance."

"If I had your amazing skills and superpowers, even if those perverts from the club wanted to grab Grace by force, I could still cleanly kill them like you did before."

Dean rubbed his face with his hands, standing in the position of being envied, he had nothing to say.

"But no if..." Ruster shook his head mockingly, "I, Cole Ruster Spencer, am still that useless little dwarf, a nobody, I just cry, it doesn't help at all. I It was the same when my father was lying in a coffin torn apart by those weed sellers, and it was the same when my mother was killed by those perverts."

Dean fell silent.

"Your uncle Paque gave me a very good suggestion."

"What advice?"

"I have to make a change." Rust stood up suddenly, and his back straightened. "If I don't want to experience similar tragedies in the future, I must change myself from now on."

"I discussed it with Grace when I said goodbye, and she agreed with me."

He walked slowly towards the open door of the church,

Dean followed him into a winding path among the outdoor green burials.

The night air was unusually fresh.

The cold wind howled past, and both of them closed their necklines.

Ruster said slowly,
"Paque hates the police, but he still suggested that I go to the police academy, hone my skills and marksmanship, understand the basic laws, have the power to protect myself, and protect the people I love in the future..."

He paused, staring at the garden with deep hatred in his eyes, and said in a solemn tone as if swearing to the sky,

"And then I'm going to take care of every criminal like Al Dalis in the world."

"This group of insane and inhumane beasts deserve to die!"

He roared, and the angry voice was heard far away in the night.

Dean was stunned, what a naive idea, but how is it possible to eliminate all criminals?

Black and white will never disappear in this world.

Dean moved his lips and wanted to say something to reassure him, let him stick to his ideal of astronomy, and enjoy the wonderful college life with Britney.

Then he swallowed the words again.

If it were me, if I encountered the bad luck of Last, and the most precious person was killed, I might take a more extreme path.

"Last, you want revenge and destroy these bastards, I understand and support it. But you don't have to take the risk yourself to be a policeman. Well, you can continue your dream, study astronomy, and later study spaceships, manned Rocket...become a big scientist, a big businessman, and at that time, you can spend money to hire people to help you realize this wish."

Dean stared into Luster's eyes and said seriously, "When you graduate from college and have completed your studies, I will give you an investment to help you start your career."

"Thanks buddy," Luster said gratefully to him, shaking his head suddenly, remembering,
"Do you remember? I said I used to live in rural Alaska..."

"Yes, once I had dinner at your house, you said that you would make up some stories about the starry sky at that time."

"Well, I didn't watch TV at that time, so I didn't have anything to do every day. I could only look around, lie by the window, and look up. At that time, I only felt that the black starry sky was full of deep and unknown charm. And attractive, makes me want to explore."

"But now that I've grown up, I finally discovered a truth about the starry sky of the universe." Rust suddenly looked up at the night sky, the stars and moon were dim tonight, "Those blacks are not beautiful, they are full of pain and evil , like the abyss crushed everything and destroyed my life."

Ruster suddenly covered his mouth and choked up twice. The night wind blurred his vision, and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.
"I don't want to look up at the stars and study astronomy anymore. I need to find something bright, otherwise I will get lost, or I don't know what is the point of living."

The pessimism that hit his face made Dean hesitate to speak, and he couldn't help thinking of the auditory hallucinations that had tortured him during this period.

He unconsciously slowed down and looked up at the night sky, but perhaps because of his superior eyesight, he could still see the edge of the black sky dotted with a few bright stars.

He stood side by side with Ruster, put his arms around Ruster's shoulders, and dragged him to the open lawn beyond the deep forest.

"Listen, man, it looks like the darkness is overwhelming. But you know, there used to be only darkness...but now," he pointed at the twinkling stars, "the light is slowly gaining the upper hand."

(End of this chapter)