Chapter 100 Cursed Altar
"...Tromie, thank you for your cooperation. I'm sorry about what happened to your father..."
After secretly leaving the 5-pound note in the bedroom, Angel sincerely apologized to the handyman waiting outside the door before leaving the sparsely furnished two-bedroom apartment.
If she had time, she would have a good chat with her female worker, but now there is no more time to waste.
Leonard carried the bedding without regard for his manners, and the three of them, braving the curious gazes of passers-by, quickly returned to the section of Iron Cross Street near the central square along the same route they had come.
The hired carriage that brought them here was still parked on the side of the road. The driver sat in the driver's seat, an unlit, cheap cigarette dangling from his lips, yawning repeatedly from waiting.
Seeing his employer coming, he quickly put the cigarette into his pocket, rubbed his eyes, and cheered himself up to set off.
"Daffodil Street, hurry up."
Leonard threw the bedding into the car and then climbed in.
"Okay, no problem."
The driver followed the group throughout most of Tingen's western district for the entire afternoon. He saw the three gentlemen and the young lady entering and exiting police stations, residential buildings, and burned-out houses, occasionally bringing strange objects onto the carriage. He no longer harbored any curiosity about their strange behavior. With a whoosh, he roused the horses and slowly drove forward along the bustling Iron Cross Street.
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"Oh no, Melissa is already back from school..."
Looking out the car window at the lights on at No. 2 Daffodil Street, Klein scratched his neck, looking somewhat helpless.
"Melissa, who is that?"
Leonard also leaned over to the window, looking towards Klein's house, and asked curiously.
"His sister attends Tingen Technical School," Angel answered for Klein. "So we can't go to his house for divination, and it's too late to go back to Zouteland Street. My house is not far away, so why not go to my place?"
The two men hesitated for a moment and then nodded in agreement.
To avoid being discovered by Melissa in the house, the three got off the carriage from the other side, each taking some of the deceased's personal belongings, and came to No. 6 Daffodil Street.
Opening the door and ignoring the thin note floating through the crack, Angel turned on the large gas lamp in the living room. The living room, illuminated by the golden evening sun, felt warmer.
"To the study? Or the bedroom?"
She looked at Klein who followed him into the room and asked.
"Well...the study will do."
Klein looked around, seemingly surprised by the simple furnishings in the living room. He came to his senses when he heard Angel's words and quickly replied.
The three of them went to the study next to the living room and placed Val's bedding, Magrum's burned clothes and lighter, the revolver Lawrence had used to commit suicide, and other items on the floor. Seeing that Klein had already taken out a silver knife to prepare to set up the spiritual wall, the two people who seemed redundant at the ceremony quickly left the room and considerately helped the fortune teller close the door.
"Tsk, your house is really... decorated in a very Feysac style."
Sitting on the sofa with his back to the bay window, Leonard half-reclined on the backrest like the "nightmare" Dunn Smith who broke into the room last time, crossed his legs, looked around at the furnishings in the living room, and sighed.
That's the sofa I sit on...
Angel opened his mouth but was too embarrassed to ask him to give up his seat, so he could only sit on the double sofa opposite the coffee table.
"...It means the decor is simple, minimalist, less is more... That's about it."
Seeing that the other party did not respond, Leonard added the introduction in a sullen manner.
"Aren't you afraid of disturbing his divination?"
Angel saw that he had no scruples and shouted loudly, asking curiously.
"What does it matter? The spiritual wall can block most sounds and interference. Can you hear Klein praying inside?"
Leonard said this, suddenly changing from sitting against the sofa to leaning forward, lowering his voice and asking, "Speaking of Klein, what do you think of that guy?"
How about that? Are you talking about his secrets?
"Didn't we agree not to pry into each other's secrets?"
Angel was confused, not knowing why Leonard was asking about his opinion of Klein at this time.
"Huh?" Leonard seemed even more surprised than she was. He rolled his eyes for a moment before reacting. "No, I'm not referring to that aspect. I'm talking about your personal opinion of him. Miss Roxanne told me yesterday that the two of you have been..."
A meaningless smile appeared on his face, and his tone became lower and lower, as if he had forgotten what he had just said, that the spiritual wall would block out external sounds.
"Bang--"
The study door opened, and Klein, holding a silver knife, slowly walked out of the room. His eyes were deep, and the spiritual energy leaking out after meditation had not yet been completely controlled. Behind him was the spiritual wall that had just been lifted, and there seemed to be a breeze blowing inside.
"I found the location of the altar... What's going on with you guys?"
Seeing the two men looking at him like thieves, Klein, who had just finished divination, and the mysterious aura surrounding him that had not yet faded, paused.
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"To accurately determine the altar's location, I used dream divination and saw the scene around it." Klein said slowly, sitting on the single sofa Leonard had vacated. "It was a gray-blue, two-story detached house. All the windows were closed and the curtains were drawn. Surrounding it was a dilapidated, dark garden. The soil was dark brown and there was no grass growing. It looked like something you'd see in a ghost story."
"The perspective in the dream was very close, and I couldn't see the surrounding buildings. I could tell it was roughly the current time, but I couldn't pinpoint the exact location... Behind the house was a river, a very wide river, either the Hoy River or the Tussock River. No other river in Tingen City had such a wide surface area."
The Hoy River, to which Klein refers, spreads southwest from York Mountain in the north, flows through the university district east of Tingen, and locally joins the Tussock River.
The Tussock River originates from the Minerminsk Mountains and flows southeastward, passing through the docks in the southwest and southern suburbs of Tingen City, and finally flows into the sea at Pritz Harbor southeast of Backlund.
"So, what we're looking for is a two-story house located beside the Tussock or Hoy Rivers," Leonard concluded with a frown. "There are hundreds of houses like this in Tingen City. We can only search along the river. The probability of finding it before dark is very low."
"Once night falls and it drags on beyond today, the variables will increase." Angel spread out the map they had marked the crime scene on the coffee table. "We must determine its location now."
This was a large-scale map of Tingen's city district, with detailed markings of the streets, districts, and rivers, but not down to the specific houses and buildings. She had already marked several red dots in the west district, representing murders confirmed to have been affected by supernatural powers.
"Did you see the shadow of the building in the dream divination? Which direction is it facing?" Holding a red pencil, Angel looked at Klein.
The latter frowned, as if recalling the scenes in his dream.
"I don't see any shadows. The wall of the building is bright in my direction... Yes, the shadow is on the other side, slightly to the right."
"It's dusk now, and the sun is in the southwest..." Angel explained, turning the map so that the southwest side of Tingen City was facing him. "Klein saw the shadow on the other side of the house, a little to the right. This means his dream perspective is southwest of the house, and the river he saw is northeast of the house."
She drew several parallel auxiliary lines directly on the map with a pencil, sweeping across the entire city in a south-west direction. Seeing this, Leonard's mouth twitched. He didn't know whether he felt sorry for the map or the result of their busy work all afternoon.
"That would eliminate the east bank of the Tussock River and all locations on the Hoy River."
With the help of the auxiliary line, entering the city from the northeast, the Hoy River, which is almost parallel to the auxiliary line, is no longer possible. And only a few areas on the west bank of the Tussock River match Klein's divination.
"The remaining areas are the West District, South District and Dock District..." Angel circled the three areas close to the west bank of the Tussock River with a red pencil. The total area of these areas is still not small.
"The dock area can be ruled out," Klein pointed his finger at a location in the suburbs south of Tingen City. "There's not a single boat on the river. It's almost nighttime now, so it's dangerous for boats to travel. All nearby boats will return to the docks for the night. If it were the dock area, I would have seen them."
"That leaves two areas. Let's split up and go there as quickly as possible..."
"No need, maybe we can exclude one of the areas."
Leonard, who had been watching Angel plotting his position on the map, interrupted Angel and said with a smile, "The South District falls under the jurisdiction of the Mandated Punishers. They've also received a death list and are currently investigating. I took a rough look at it at the police headquarters, and the deaths there are concentrated before July 20th. The further back in time, the higher the death toll..."
Before he finished speaking, Angel understood what he meant.
"Are you saying that this Beyonder first committed crimes in the South District, and then came to the West District to select victims here?"
"It should have been, 'Back to the West Side.'
Leonard's mouth corners moved up, very satisfied with his teammates' reactions.
"For criminals who are premeditated and ready to make a big news, they will subconsciously choose victims far away from their own residences and away from the altar to avoid being discovered too early."
"When their goals are close and there are not many targets left in other areas, they will turn their attention to their own region."
"That's the West District!"
Klein exclaimed, a hint of excitement and fear in his eyes.
Unexpectedly, this Beyonder criminal and her altar were right in the area where their home was.
Angel also circled heavily with red pencil the area southwest of Tingen's west side, adjacent to the west bank of the Tussock River.
"Let's go, let's go to the scene and let the fortune teller find the location of the altar with the naked eye!"
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