Mysterious Hunting Ground

Chapter 188 188. Ryan Reynolds and Antique Books

In the morning, the warm morning light penetrates into the living room.

"Dean? You're back so soon. Have you found Carly?"

The petite girl in pajamas flew to Dean's side in surprise and held his hand, and the three throwing knives hovering behind her excitedly plunged into the dart board on the wall of the hall.

"Not yet, something will delay for a few days." Dean pushed the milk and bread in front of Jane, and poured the freshly fried eggs into her plate. "Are you still used to staying at Betsy's house?"

"It's almost the same as at home, training and watching cartoons, but Aunt Betsy's cooking is delicious." Jane took a sip of milk, and the corners of her mouth were stained with white circles, "By the way, Teri and I had a few black mind exchanges. Afterwards, I felt that her condition was slowly recovering, and yesterday she was able to move the little finger of her left hand."

Dean was surprised, "Congratulations, Jane. This is the bond between mother and daughter that creates miracles. If you stay with her more, she might be able to speak one day."

"Uh-huh."

"But you should also pay attention to safety and be careful of other supernatural things..." Dean gave Jane a little science on the dangers of the law of convergence...

Hearing the other party tense his face and nodded again and again.

"Ahem, little one, eat quickly. It's time to take you to Betsy's house." The Sheriff walked out of the bedroom with his hat on. His face was shiny and his eyes were bloodshot. He was obviously obsessed with Limbo. Didn't sleep well all night,

"You are coming too?"

"We have something to do, so we'll see you when we're done."

"Okay, don't keep me waiting."

……

After breakfast, Dean and Hope drove Jane away, and immediately rushed to Hawkins Police Station.

"Morning, big guy." Hope greeted him, went to the corner and poured two cups of steaming coffee, and handed one to Dean.

"Damn it, Chief, you look really bad, you didn't spend a whole day in the bar during the holiday yesterday." The black man scolded with a smile,
"What are you drinking? I've been paying attention to the new cases in the bureau. Have you found out where that bastard Reynolds lives?" Hope sipped her coffee and glanced majestically at Tom, Nick and a few other police officers.

Tom straightened his cowboy hat and stood up, saying loudly,

"I stayed up all night yesterday and visited the neighbors on Elm Street door to door. I finally found out that Reynolds rented the house at 18 Elm Street two months ago and has been living there, and there is a car parked in front of No. 18. The black old model Ford Mercury Cougar also belonged to him. But without a search warrant, we didn't have time to do anything."

Dean frowned. He had scanned all the houses on Elm Street and found nothing unusual.

"I will resolve the search warrant, and prepare to go with all the search equipment." Hope put down the empty coffee cup, then grabbed a brown paper bag containing a hamburger and looked at the detention room with a fierce look, "Now, I will first Know that hard bone."

As he spoke, Hope walked into the detention room aggressively.

"You're Reynolds from the Hawkins burglary?"

"Wait, what are you going to do? Ahhh - this is a crime, I want to file a complaint against you! Uh-huh..."

Trembling doubts came from the detention room, followed by screams and indistinct wailing. Everyone's expressions became very exciting, and Dean even gave Director Hope a thumbs up.

Five minutes later, Reynolds, who was covered in cold sweat, was lying on the floor of the detention room like a cooked prawn, breathing heavily, while Hope felt refreshed, straightened his collar, and waved towards the outside of the hall, "Let's go!"

……

18 Elm Street.

Several police officers wearing white cotton gloves checked the Ford Mercury Jaguar at the door, and the rest put on shoe covers and entered the room, and began to search the two-story building in a carpet style.

But when Dean scanned, he found that the house had already been evacuated, and there were basically no furniture or electrical appliances in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom.Only the master bedroom has a simple single bed, and a few old men's clothes are placed on the floor beside the bed.

There are no basements or attics.

The whole house is similar to Qingshui House, so there is really nothing to search for.

As he expected, a team of police officers kept bringing back fingerprints, shoe prints and hair samples, but failed to find any valid evidence of Catherine's clothing, boots, blood, etc...

Tom crossed his hands and looked puzzled, "This does not conform to the situation I investigated yesterday. The landlord has disclosed the basic situation of the house. The furniture and electrical appliances are complete, and you can basically move in with your bags."

"So where did everything go?" Hope rubbed his beard under his chin. "Did this shameless Reynolds sell the house upside down in two months?"

Nick nodded, "Since Reynolds can invade Catherine's home, he can also sell other people's property disgustingly."

But Tom said, "But the landlord said that the furniture and electrical appliances are all old and cheap, and they won't fetch much. You can find out by just asking."

"When you're poor enough, you can sell anything," Hope said.

Dean glanced at the empty hall and put forward another view, "It may not have been sold. Reynolds may have expected that he would be exposed, so he moved the furniture, appliances, and even the items stolen from Catherine's house in advance. We’ve arrived at another hiding place. That’s where the really important evidence is!”

This sentence fell into place.

The system was startled, and Dean found that the investigation progress had jumped to 15%.

So, other hideouts exist for Reynolds!

Hope shook her head, "That doesn't make sense. It makes sense for him to move important evidence related to Catherine. What's the reason for wasting time and effort on moving the landlord's cheap furniture and appliances?"

"I don't know. We won't know the answer until we find another place to live."

All three eyes turned to Tom, and Hope began to order,

"In addition to Elm Street, Maple Street, Banyan Street, and the town center also need to be investigated, and another residence for Reynolds should be found as soon as possible."

The huge workload made Tom's eyes darken, but under the sharp gaze of the sheriff, he nodded helplessly.

……

"Chief, important evidence was found in the car." A young police officer came to the door and handed Hope a driver's license.

Dean looked over his head.

Ryan Reynolds

Las Vegas, Nevada XX
Male, black hair, black eyes,

身高5英尺7英寸（1.73米），体重150磅，出生日期：1951年3月4日。

Between the messages were two photos of young men of different sizes. They looked handsome with a bit of cynicism from a rich family. It was completely different from Reynolds's current dick temperament, but his facial features were similar to him.

……

"Ryan Reynolds." Nick was surprised, "That guy didn't lie about his name."

"My inference is correct." Dean nodded, looking at the system's progress jumping to 17.00% and said, "He is from Las Vegas. He met Catherine there long ago and chased Hawkins all the way. But I didn’t expect that he just turned 30,"

Dean recalled the face in the detention room, which had been through vicissitudes and was as old as 40 years old. He didn't know what kind of wind and rain he had experienced in the past few years, "Everyone, now we have the exact identity information of Reynolds, let Catherine Call over to see how it goes, maybe she can remember something."

Hope nodded, "Tom, go contact Catherine."

"OK"

Hope put away the driver's license, and the young police officer handed over another exquisite black silk bag found in the car, revealing a square and hard outline.

Hope slowly took out two thick tomes from the silk bag with his gloved hands, and held them firmly for his companion to check——

Black background with golden edge exudes a strong historical atmosphere, exquisite like a work of art,

Ornate, gold-leaf-covered oversized titles—labium, and spiritus—arrange at the center of the two book covers.

With just one glance, Dean, Tom, and Hope felt the ultimate luxury, mystery, and historical atmosphere.

Immediately, deep doubts arose in my heart, even a blind man could see that these two books were extremely precious, why did they appear in the Reynolds car full of poverty?

Hope opened the milky white title page, frowning,
"The written text is a bit like English letters, but it can't be read according to English grammar..."

Dean also glanced at it, and saw that there were dots of dark golden bronzing flower branches on the edge of the title page, which were simple and elegant, while the center was filled with densely arranged black characters, all of which were not divided into sections with punctuation marks.

He can understand most of the letters separately, but when put together, it looks like a heavenly book, which makes him confused.

He couldn't help but reach out and touch the cold title page, which was full of texture. He immediately felt the texture was different from ordinary leather. This translucent milky white leather paper showed a slightly translucent gradient color against the gilded flower branches and black fonts, a kind of The sense of historical sedimentation is very familiar to Dean——

He had seen it in Reno, among the prizes he had received for his services to the Van Helsing family, expensive and rare antique vellum books.

The system shook suddenly, and the investigation progress jumped to 20.00%!

"It seems that these two antique books are closely related to this incident. The truth of this burglary case is more complicated than I imagined."

Dean turned to his companion, "Who can understand what's written here?"

Nick rubbed his chin and said in thought, "I studied literature carefully when I was studying, and I still have a little memory. I can basically be sure that it is classical Latin."

"You, an illiterate who never went to university, can understand classical Latin?" Hope looked suspiciously at the black man,

"Ahem, in my youth, in order to win a beautiful woman, I worked hard on poetry, so I was able to successfully pursue my current wife." The black man said with pride, and said with deep affection, "O destiny, as changeable as the moon, waxing and waning."

"Stop! Now is not the time for poetry recitation," Dean pointed to the title on the cover, "Let's do something simple. What does this mean?"

"How would I know," the black man chuckled, "Didn't I say that this is classical Latin, which is different from the new version I learned, like a tiger and a cat. I can only communicate with the latter."

"Is there anyone in the bureau who can read it?" Dean looked at Hope, who shook his head, "Don't expect a bunch of guys with guns to write you classical love poems. But it's not hard to find someone in Hawkins who understands classical Latin." .”

"Where can I find it?"

"Is this important?" Hope said, "How could Reynolds own two expensive antique books? There is a high probability that he stole these books from other places, and it has nothing to do with the case of Catherine we are investigating. The priority should be put later." .”

"No, there is a major connection." Dean stared into Hope's eyes, "We must figure out the contents of these two books as soon as possible. This is my intuition."

Looking at his companion who refused to budge, Hope nodded when he thought of the identity of the other party's superpower, and carefully put the two books back into the silk bag.

……

At this time, there was a sound of crisp high-heeled shoes on the side of the road in front of the door, Catherine trotted over,
"Sorry, I was just doing a physical examination at the town hospital, so I wasted a little time."

"Ms. Catherine? You came just in time." Hope handed over the driver's license wrapped in a plastic bag. "Our search has made some progress. Take a closer look. Do you recognize this guy?"

The woman took the plastic bag in her hand and stared at the man's photo and identity information. Deep thoughts filled her slender eyebrows, but soon she relaxed her brows and grinned, "Ryan Reynolds! So it's him ! I know this guy!"

"I knew your memory would be fine," Dean asked, "Who is he?"

Catherine said softly, "He's an employee of a charity kitchen in Las Vegas."

Hope and Nick's expressions became subtle when they heard this.

Dean asked, "Where is the soup kitchen?"

Catherine said, "You all should know that in Las Vegas and across the United States, there are many people at the bottom of society, poor people, or homeless people. They have little income, some even have no income, and often go hungry."

"And there is such a charity kitchen in Las Vegas, which distributes free food every week to those who can't afford it. I hosted a charity program when I was a reporter on the morning news station, and I came into contact with the charity kitchen... I was shocked by the selfless dedication of the staff, so I went to the charity kitchen as a volunteer every month for five or six years, even before I resigned. I donated to the homeless with other colleagues, and occasionally donated money .”

Catherine said uncertainly,

"About two years ago? I spent one day working with Ryan Reynolds, a kitchen employee with limited legs, and I remember everyone called him Ryan at the time."

After hearing this, the three police officers, Dean, Hope, and Nick, couldn't help but cast admiring glances at Catherine.

"Ma'am, your kindness simply puts us to shame."

"Actually, I'm also a little selfish," Catherine shook her head. "Charity is a high-profile career, and it can easily attract the attention of TV media. As a reporter and host, I need popularity, so I have always insisted on charity."

"It's blameless to exchange popularity with true kindness." Dean looked at Catherine's beautiful face and said seriously,

The woman pursed her lips and smiled,

"Back to the topic," Dean changed his voice, "So, this Reynolds met you when he was working in a charity kitchen in Las Vegas, and he has been obsessed with you for two years. Can't help but move your hand?"

The progress jumped to 20.00% Two.

Catherine nodded and sighed again, "In my impression, those colleagues, including Ryan, are all poor people at the bottom. After being rescued, they entered the charity kitchen and only took a meager subsidy to serve the poor. They They are all good-hearted people, how can they become like this now, track me to Hawkins, break into my house, steal my clothes and shoes, and draw my blood?"

Nick's face became serious, "Listen to your description, this Reynolds shouldn't be such a perverted criminal."

Hope said, "Catherine has only met him once, and it is easy to be deceived by the first impression. According to me, Reynolds is a pervert at heart. There are many criminals who pretend to be kind in this world."

"It makes no sense to speculate like this," Dean analyzed. "To understand a person's present, you must understand his past. We should investigate Ryan Reynolds' life experience in Las Vegas."

Hope returned a helpless look when he heard the words, "Las Vegas is across the state, and our Hawkins Police Department can't control such a far away place. And I owed the old man several dollars to find someone for you. Personally, I can't help this time."

"Don't bother you," Dean thought of the police officer from Carl's group that he hadn't seen for a long time. "I have acquaintances in LVPD. I ask them for help."

……

After several people finished their discussion, they handed the two antique books to Catherine again.

The woman was instantly attracted by this beautiful artwork, and then gave an ambiguous answer, "I don't think Ryan Reynolds can own such an expensive antique book, but he also said before he was so poor that he entered the charity kitchen." Not necessarily a rich man with some expensive collection."

"Let's go back to the station and try to pry open that bastard's mouth!"

Hope greeted everyone who had finished searching the house to get on the car and return.

Dean summed up today's investigation. Currently, there are three things that can trigger progress changes——

Ryan Reynolds worked with Catherine at the Las Vegas Charity Kitchen.

He has other hiding places for the evidence.

Two rare antique books are associated with the event.

These three clues must continue to be pursued!
(End of this chapter)