Chapter 95 Death List

Entering late July, the temperature in Tingen City gradually dropped. Although it cannot be called autumn weather, even at noon when the sun is shining brightly, the sunlight is only dazzling and there is no need to hide in the shade to avoid the heat.

A week has passed since Angel and Klein "officially joined" the Nighthawks and were introduced to the other members by Dunn Smith at a dinner party.

During this time, Angel performed formal shifts, read newspapers in the recreation room, lost money in "Fighting Evil", guarded "Chaness Gate" late at night, patrolled the cemetery in the jurisdiction with other night watchmen, and handled many cases transferred by the police that were suspected of involving extraordinary forces.

She also did not forget the purpose of joining the Nighthawks. In her spare time, she read most of the internal documents and books. She even tried to translate the notes of Emperor Russell Gustav with Old Neil. Unfortunately, she still got nothing on "how to return to Earth".

Perhaps staying a little longer and trying to borrow some literature from other parishes would yield some results?

She comforted herself in this way.

"Five 10p lunches, please!"

The waiter from Old Weir arrived promptly at Blackthorn Security Company to take lunch orders. Angel glanced around at the staff in the reception hall, including Conley, who was guarding the Chanis Gate, and Old Neil, who was guarding the armory, and ordered a working meal for them all.

Dunn Smith, Luo Yao Laiting, and Frye had already gone out for their daily patrol of the jurisdiction. As usual, they would have lunch outside. Leonard Mitchell received a notice and went to the police station to collect documents. Xijia Teong was on leave today. Now, besides Angel, only Roxanne and Klein were left in the reception hall.

After watching the waiter who took the order leave, Luo Shan shook the coffee pot, listened to the sound of the liquid sloshing inside, and refilled her empty coffee cup with fragrant coffee.

"Should we order from a different restaurant? I'm tired of Old Vail's lunch. They serve the same dishes every day, and they're far from delicious."

She whispered to Angel, who stood up and closed the door, and to Klein, who unfolded a new issue of Tingen Daily, glancing toward the door, as if afraid the waiter would return and hear her negative comments.

"But their lunch is the most affordable and can be delivered to the company on time. I'm afraid there is no other restaurant like this on Zouteland Street."

Angel replied with a smile as he sat back down on the couch.

She didn't mind a change of taste, but the nearby restaurants that provided delivery services were either more expensive or too busy to deliver on time. Overall, Old Ville was still the best choice for night watchmen.

Klein nodded from behind the newspaper, agreeing with Angel's assessment.

Ever since the dinner last week, his attitude towards Angel has been a little strange. It can't be said that it has changed for the worse, but he is always distant and seems to be worried about something. Not only the gossipy Rosanne and Xijia Teong, but even the slow-witted Angel himself can feel it.

But she was also confused and didn't know what was going on.

Could it be that he discovered that I had secretly promoted the "instigator" while I was on a business trip?

After much thought, the only possibility that his advancement from Sequence 9 to Sequence 8 before and after his trip to Enmat Harbor could have caused the other party's attitude to change was his.

But I didn't use the ability of "Instigator" and I didn't let anything slip, so how could anyone tell that I was Sequence 8?

Just as she was secretly guessing, the door of the reception hall was pushed open from the outside.

Roxanne's complaints about the Old Vail restaurant were immediately swallowed back into her stomach. Several people looked at the door at the same time. The "Midnight Poet" Leonard Mitchell strode in with black hair, green eyes and a fluttering windbreaker.

He tucked a thick stack of documents under his arm and walked straight to the coffee table in the middle of the reception hall. He put the documents on the table with a "bang" and sat down in the only remaining empty seat.

"Ms. Luo Shan, please heat up a cup of coffee for me, thank you."

He made no secret of his intentions and sent away the only civilian staff member present, then distributed the documents he brought to Angel and Klein.

"The Tingen City Police just forwarded this. Take a look first and tell me what you think."

Angel took the document handed to him curiously, flipped through it first, then went back to the first page and began to read it carefully.

That's nearly 30 deaths reported, concentrated within ten days in mid-to-late July.

Based on the population and life expectancy of Tingen City, the annual death toll is around 3,000, with an average of eight people dying every day from various diseases, accidents, and even criminal acts.

But as Angel read page by page, he found that the situation was not simple.

Most of the deceased in the report were young or middle-aged people, and the ways of death were shocking.

At 5 p.m. on July 22, porter Wells beat up his foreman who had been withholding his wages for a long time, and then jumped from a high-rise building in the West District to end his life.

At 2 p.m. on July 22, Magum of Sapphire Street in the West District attempted to set fire to the house of his long-standing neighbor, but accidentally ignited the flammable materials he was carrying and became the only victim of the arson case.

At 11 a.m. on July 21, on West Boulevard, Lawrence, whose factory had gone bankrupt due to losses, pulled out a pistol, cursed former mayor Tingen, and then shot himself in the street.

…………

At 6 a.m. on July 12, Val was found dead in his bed on Iron Cross Lower Street. It was initially determined that he died of a heart attack during the night.

In just ten days, more than 30 people died in a cluster, and almost all of them were caused by sudden events or serious illnesses, rather than the common elderly deaths from underlying diseases or simple accidents.

After browsing the documents, Angel looked up at Klein, who was sitting opposite him. The other party also looked at him in shock, and then immediately looked away.

Well, what's wrong with him...

Angel felt a little unhappy, but he didn't react to the case. Instead, he looked at Leonard, who was sitting on the sofa with his arms folded.

"Do you think the number of deaths and the manner of death are strange?"

He shifted his position to make himself more comfortable before continuing.

"This is only a partial list of deaths, the ones that occurred in our jurisdiction. The Mandated Punisher and the Mechanical Heart have more on hand than we do."

"In the past two weeks, the number of deaths in Tingen City has been more than four times the normal number in previous years. The age distribution has also shifted significantly younger, and the causes of death are also very different from before. The Tingen City Police Headquarters discovered problems when compiling the statistics and transferred this data to us to share with the Beyonders of other churches."

"Do they think there's some extraordinary power involved?"

Klein put down the documents in his hand and asked with a frown.

"Not necessarily, but very likely. I met the captain on my way back. He told me to go back to Zouteland Street and find you to investigate this part." He pointed to the death report in Angel's hand. "Leave the ones in Klein's hand here. The captain will arrange for others to investigate."

"We..." Angel looked at the "Fortune Teller" Klein and suddenly realized, "Captain, do you think you need the help of ritual magic or divination?"

"That's right. That's why the other team will bring Old Neil. Right now, he and Klein are the only ones on the team who can help with this."

Leonard nodded, confirming Angel's guess.

At this time, Miss Luo Shan returned to the reception hall with hot coffee. The few of them shut up tacitly and began to organize the documents on the table.

The large number of deaths in a short period of time was too shocking, and they didn't want the kind-hearted Roshan to know about it.

——————

Until Leonard retrieved the documents from the police headquarters, new names were still being added to the death list, which meant that if there really was a common culprit behind all the deaths, he or she was still active in Tingen, constantly causing new tragedies.

In view of this, Angel and Klein had no intention of waiting for lunch. After hurriedly saying goodbye to Miss Roxanne, they hired a carriage on the street and headed straight to the scene of the crime.

In the carriage, Leonard carefully closed the window leading to the driver's seat, then turned around and asked in a low voice, "Do you see any pattern in these death records?"

"The distribution of death times is quite regular, with deaths occurring every day and almost at every time period."

Klein was the first to answer. He pointed to the list Angel was holding, emphasizing his tone. "We need to first exclude the normal deaths and classify all the abnormal deaths by time and place, and then find the patterns."

"Yes, that's what the captain requested. So we have to split into two teams. Otherwise, we won't be able to catch up with the pace of death..." Leonard's tone was somewhat melancholic. He looked out the window at the receding street scene and the pedestrians hurriedly passing by. "Right now, another innocent person may die in this incident."

"What was his purpose? These deaths appear to be indirect. If he were a serial killer, this wouldn't be their style. They'd prefer to act directly, enjoying the fear of the deceased and the pleasure of killing."

Angel also frowned as she analyzed the list. She had already gone through the list several times in the car, but apart from discovering that most of the dead were lower-class people in Tingen City, she didn't gain anything else.

"This is the answer we need to find. Perhaps it's a sacrifice to some evil being, or perhaps it's a way to hide the real goal among the innocent dead, or even a promotion ritual for some kind of potion..."

Ascension ceremony? Can't I just drink the potion directly?

Angel looked at Leonard with some curiosity, but the latter did not continue the topic.

The carriage fell into an eerie silence for a moment.

Klein loosened and tightened the silver chain around his left wrist, as if wanting to perform divination right there.

Leonard kept looking out the window, his eyes unfocused.

Angel had no choice but to continue looking through the records in his hand, trying to find some patterns that had not been discovered.

“Dongdong——”

There was a knock on the carriage from the outside, and the driver's voice, which sounded somewhat muffled, could be heard through the wooden boards.

"We've got the boulevards of the West End."