Mysterious Hunting Ground

14. Chapter 14
It was just noon when the two came out of the drainpipe, and the scorching sun instantly dispelled the clamminess and haze around their bodies.

The two got into the car, Rust turned the steering wheel, and the F-150 slowly rolled backwards,

"What do you say next, let's go to the South District to dig over the manhole cover? I thought about it just now, and what Alex said makes sense. A drug addict who can't even eat enough, why is there any reason to cover up and get rid of Mona? "

"But if she hadn't lied to me and absconded with the money." Dean leaned back on the chair, closed his eyes and felt the bump of the seat, his temples throbbed, "Where is she going?"

"You have to ask yourself this. I remember you said that the day before she disappeared, on the afternoon of the 19th, I went to see a movie with you, and then—"

The car is back on the smooth road,
"Around 06:30 in the evening, I separated from her at the entrance of the cinema."

Dean looked at the rapidly receding scenery outside the car window, and the picture of that day clearly appeared in front of his eyes.

After completing investigation 1, he regained the complete memory of his predecessor.

"I was going to go downtown with her to see a clown on stilts, but she insisted I go home."

"It's unreasonable." Lars took saliva in his mouth, rinsed his mouth, and spat it out of the window. "At that time, the nightlife just started, isn't it the best time for couples to spend time together and cultivate their relationship?"

"Because it's my birthday the next day..." Dean blurted out, "She's going to have a surprise for me."

"Understood. Then can we think so," Rust's mind became extremely clear in an instant, "Since the boyfriend will be given a birthday present the next day, then the night before, it is absolutely necessary for her to To confirm, or to retrieve the birthday present? But she was worried that you would find out, so she insisted on driving you away."

Dean turned his head and glanced at his companion in surprise, who raised his chin proudly and continued to analyze,

"Just follow what Alex said, and trust Mona for the time being. If she didn't take your money and fly away, then there is only one possibility—she encountered an accident."

Dean's shoulders trembled involuntarily, and his mood became extremely contradictory.

The predecessor, that big fool, would rather swallow the bitter pill by himself than another situation where Mona encounters an accident.

"According to what you said, the accident happened between 19:6 in the evening on the 20th and 7:[-] in the morning of the [-]th when the movie theater starts working."

"Now we have to figure out, where is she most likely to be during this period?"

"After leaving the movie theater... she was shopping for birthday gifts?" Dean said in a deep voice.

"I think the birthday cake is a nice surprise." Rust turned the steering wheel, "Let's set off right away and go to the cake shop next to the super lo cinema to ask about the situation."

"You forgot, I don't like sweets very much, and Mona knows this too. The surprise is absolutely impossible to be a cake." Dean shook his head, Ruster's expression froze, and the detective's air of everything under control suddenly left him .

"What is the most likely gift?" Ruster thought with a sad face.

"I go to the theater every week to watch movies that you think are very boring and boring." And Dean's eyes lit up, thinking of the movie posters that used to fill the walls of his bedroom, "And my favorite movie is ——May the force be with you!"

"May the Force be with you!" Rust suddenly realized, "Star Wars!"

"Let's go to the movie peripheral store to look for it!"

……

After determining the direction of investigation.

The two couldn't wait to drive to one of the largest movie collection outlets near the theater, and showed Mona's portrait to the working clerk.

"Sorry...I have no impression of this lady." The young clerk in the red shirt shook his head blankly. "There are hundreds of customers visiting our store every day. Unless he comes often, I can't remember."

"Then can it be convenient for me to watch the surveillance video? It was about half a month ago on April 4."

Dean pressed, and quietly took out ten dollars.

"Sorry, the small store is not a big shopping mall, and there are no expensive and impractical electronic toys installed." The clerk shook his head regretfully.

It was only then that Dean realized that it was still the 80s, and even in a gambling city like Las Vegas, surveillance was mainly concentrated in areas where casinos gathered.

And there is no casino on this street, and there is very little surveillance.

Then they visited two other stores of similar size and got similar answers——

The last one.

Five miles east of Super lo cinema, a remote and quiet movie collection store is located on the corner of the street.

Colorful decorative lights flash the Raymond House sign.

Dean and Ruster entered the glass door and looked around. Compared with the first three they had visited, this one was much farther away from the bustling city center, and the scale was much smaller. The overall layout was like an old-fashioned bookstore,

There are black shelves on all sides, and there are a lot of movies around - movie posters with oil painting texture: Alien, Dawn of the Dead... Small and exquisite models: hip flasks, pocket watches, earrings and other movie props.

Even the front desk where the owner is located is full of videotapes that look like black blindfolds stacked high.

The whole store is very full and crowded.

Dean looked to the left, and there was a life-size statue in the most conspicuous place in the front desk-Luke Skywalker in white greaves and robes holding a lightsaber.

Dean couldn't help but walked over.

"You also like Star Wars?" The fat man sitting on the chair helped his eyes on the bridge of his nose,

"Of course, no Jedi Knight can resist the temptation of a lightsaber." Dean raised his arms from his chest and shouted, "May the Force be with you!"

"May the force be with you!"

The shopkeeper's fat face got up from the chair, shook his fat body, and answered in a high-pitched voice.

Dean froze for a moment, why did his body seem to be out of control, and he made this strange movement automatically!

And Rast next to him couldn't bear to look straight at him and covered his face. Why did my good brother suddenly have a convulsion?

"Young Jedi, you are in luck. Soon, the second part of The Empire Strikes Back is about to debut. Let me give you some inside information in advance—" The shopkeeper hooked his finger at him mysteriously, "This part The movie will reveal a huge secret - the life of Luke Skywalker!"

hiss--

Dean very cooperatively made a "stunned" + extremely expectant expression, but he assured that this was not his intention.

"Okay, young Jedi, tell me, what secret mission are you here to carry out this time. If you need to replenish the lightsaber, then you have to wait a week, the inventory is sold out, and the goods will arrive next week!"

"This Jedi Master," Dean resisted the discomfort in his heart, and followed the other person's words, "I need your help to resist the minions of the Dark Lord. I'm looking for someone. I don't know if you have any impression? "

For the fourth time he showed Mona's portrait.

The fat man blinked his small eyes behind the lenses, and said without thinking,

"It's her, I remember her, a lady who loves to laugh!"

"Have you seen her? Was it half a month ago?"

Dean's tone trembled, he was surprised and panicked, while Ruster waved his fist with excitement on his face.

"How do you know?" The fat man looked Dean up and down, and suddenly said, "Could it be that you are her boyfriend."

"She mentioned me?"

The fat man nodded, pushed two chairs over from behind the desk, motioned for them to sit down, and then comfortably lay down on the rocking chair that just accommodated his body.

The chair wobbled, and his voice drifted like smoke.

"Why didn't she come with you this time?"

"I haven't seen her in a while and I'm looking for her."

Dean sighed.

"Did you quarrel and break up? It's a pity, young Skywalker, why don't you be more understanding and considerate? If you miss her, you miss your own Princess Leia."

The fat man did not hide the regretful look on his face,
Dean explained,

"I've also asked other shops, but they didn't have any impression. After all, half a month is not short, but you—"

"If it was any other guest, I wouldn't necessarily remember it. But Mona is really impressive. Somewhere she found out that I had an autographed poster of Luke Skywalker, 'Mark Hamill, May the force be with you'. The only one in Las Vegas.”

"For about half a month, she would come to the store every day and ask me to sell her the poster, saying it was for her boyfriend as a birthday present."

"But it was one of those items that wasn't for sale, and I was going to leave it to my son and granddaughter as a family heirloom that might be worth a lot of money in a few decades."

Dean listened silently, but his heart clenched quietly, and an ominous premonition arose.

Rust glanced at his companion's tense face, and took a deep breath.

"Seeing that I didn't agree, Mona didn't give up. She would come to the store for a while every day when she was free, but she didn't play tricks or stalk." The owner's voice changed, and there was a hint of surprise and smile in his tone, "She She started to take the initiative to help me clean the store, tidy up the sundries, and entertain the guests...just be a completely free clerk, and she never mentioned to me about buying posters."

"I'm older and I like to nag sometimes, and she's never been impatient, she's the perfect listener."

The shopkeeper exclaimed,
"I have never seen such a sensible and well-behaved girl in most of my life. If my son is not married, I will definitely let him pursue Mona."

Mona.

The kindest girl I've ever seen.

Dean's face turned pale, and the words of drug addict Alex began to echo in his heart.

"Did you sell to her in the end?"

"Sell?" The shopkeeper shook his head as if he was offended, and his expression was serious, "I gave it to her for free...I can't refuse such a lovely girl."

"Besides, to be honest, the signed posters of movie stars are precious to a small number of movie fans, but not worth much to most people. If it can fulfill Mona's wish, I will be happy!"

"Then she... Mona... NO.19 has been to your place?"

"You don't look very well."

"I'm OK."

"I remember she mentioned that her boyfriend's birthday is April 4th, so I asked her to pick it up on the night of the 20th." The owner suddenly shrugged lonelyly, "Forgive my selfishness, I hope to see Mona more Smile. Alas, but after she took the poster, she never came back."

After finishing speaking, the shopkeeper looked at the tall shelves and fell silent. This conversation completely overturned Dean and Rust's initial thoughts.

Dean held his breath, and the vision he saw in the movie theater flashed in his mind——

"I've been begging others for this birthday gift for a long time, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed!" Mona waved her fist coquettishly.

So Mona didn't lie, she spent a lot of energy begging for help and prepared a birthday surprise for her boyfriend.

Then how could she leave and hide without giving the gift?

The store owner's statement and Dean's memory are enough to prove that Mona never cheated or betrayed her predecessor from the beginning to the end.

This is completely contrary to what the theater conductor said and his previous subjective inference.

Great turning point.

"It's no wonder that the system event's description of Mona is someone who might deceive me."

"Maybe...it doesn't."

"Dean, you have never been deceived and abandoned, and your feelings have not been ruined."

Then a surge of anger burned his chest.

If the predecessor knew this fact, and was 100% desperate to find Mona, how could he commit suicide? !
He died too unjustly!
……

buzz-

The system suddenly shook.

Dean suddenly found that the progress of "Find Mona" jumped by 20.00% to 30.00%.

This conversation directly changed the direction of the investigation that Dean had planned. What else would he use to go to Los Angeles?

Mona must still be somewhere in Las Vegas.

"What time did she leave the shop?" Dean asked, with irrepressible impulse in his tone,

"Don't worry, I have to tell you something. After she got the poster, she finally confided in me and her plans for the future. I can also see that this little girl is a bit precocious and has low self-esteem. She likes to curry favor with you." Boy friend."

The shopkeeper propped his chin and talked, his vicissitudes of life voice was full of warmth,
"She is going to move there with you when you are admitted to university... When you go to university, she will work near the university to subsidize your life. When you find a job after graduating from university, if you still like her and want to, she will To you—”

The shopkeeper paused, looked at Dean, his eyes shot out with naked jealousy,
"Proposal."

ha?
Dean suddenly laughed a few times with distorted cheeks, but he couldn't help but burst into tears as he smiled.

She, a girl, proposed to the old me, a wretch, cowardly, unwanted Asian man.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, he finally understood why his predecessor was so madly obsessed with Mona, and was still unwilling to call the police.

Mona deserves it all.

"We chatted for a long time... She didn't leave until it was almost closing time at ten o'clock."

The shopkeeper sighed.

"After that time, she never came back. I thought she had lived happily with you, but unexpectedly she separated. Kid, Mona is a girl who can shine, how could you lose her Woolen cloth?"

"Go and get her back."

……

　Happy Friday everyone!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)