"Sean, are you interested in writing part-time?" Edward asked with obvious intention.
Although Sean had already intended this, he still shrugged: "I don't know if my time allows..."
Edward has handed over his business card: "Of course, if you have time, I hope you can consider it. You know, the New Testament newspaper industry is developing very fast, but there are only so many excellent manuscripts and reporters. We need Talent like you!
"If you can provide high-quality manuscripts, the manuscript fee will definitely satisfy you!"
Sean left the editor's office with Edward's business card. He also got another good news - in order to express his sincerity in the invitation, Edward gave him a discount only available to long-term advertisers. It originally cost 100 to publish a medium-sized advertisement for three days. In New Zealand dollars, Sean only had to pay NZ$80.
After signing a standard contract, Sean paid half of the advertising fee in the accounting office.
Sean had an unreal feeling as he counted out the $40 banknotes - that was a lot of money for him!
But considering the leads the ad could bring, Sean decided it was worth it.
The next step is to wait for the news.
Sean returned to his hotel room. Under the arrangement of Daisy, the front desk and security have formed an early warning mechanism. They strictly keep the rooms where guests stay confidential, and especially will not disclose Sean's whereabouts.
If there is an abnormal situation or an intruder, they will find a way to notify Sean immediately. There is also a window leading to the back alley in the house for escape.
Not only that, since the incident involving the corpse of the witch, the number of patrols by correctional officers at the entrance of the Fog and Rose Hotel has increased significantly. Therefore, Sean can still stay in the hotel room with peace of mind and does not need to change his address for the time being.
At this moment, Sean's table was neatly stacked with five bottles of holy water, and the holy dagger that had been cleaned by Catherine was at hand.
It took Sean half a day to read "Theology and Divine Magic". After gaining a deeper understanding of current theology and religion, Sean yearned for powerful "magic": "In this world where evil is rampant, magic is the perfect way for humans to check and balance evil.
"Divine magic is magic that humans can perform with the help of God's power. Unfortunately, if you want to use divine magic, you must believe in a god.
"For example, Leon's mother Naya, she summoned the power of [Death God Akon] that day to restrain the corpse, which is a kind of elementary magic.
"It seems that it is necessary for me to think carefully about choosing faith - I can neither choose blindly nor turn a blind eye to this gain."
Then, Sean began to meditate to strengthen his soul. During meditation, the symbols exude constant energy outwards, and the scarlet color of the Witch Moon is also dissipated little by little...
"It seems that meditation can assimilate the Witch Moon," Sean closed his eyes and looked inside the "candlestick." "After assimilation, maybe I can gain some new abilities..."
The scarlet that Witch Moon was dispelled contained a lot of hatred and resentment. Even if the hatred did not belong to Sean, he clearly felt it during the dispersal process.
While meditating, Sean kept seeing some memories from a blood-red perspective: female workers screaming in the fire, a girl with long braids being hit by something invisible...
"What happened in that textile factory?" Sean opened his eyes after finishing his meditation, with a trace of scarlet that had just dissipated in his eyes. After two hours of meditation, half of the scarlet of the Witch Moon has been dissipated.
"Since the address of the fake poetry association is written there, and since those people placed the fake corpse there, there must be a reason." Sean paced the room thinking, "However, this may be a serial trap- —If I continue to go to the scene to investigate out of curiosity, I may run into new dangers...
"However, if I go to check the news about this matter, there won't be any danger!" Anyway, now he can only wait for the clues brought by the missing person advertisement. Sean decided to check the past news and learn about that year. What happened in the textile factory.
Sean arrived at the New Testament Municipal Library. The library not only has a large collection of books, but also stores past issues of newspapers. Sean quickly found the name of the factory through the address index of "95 Redwood Road".
"Haileywood Textile and Garment Factory..." Sean muttered as he began to search through the name of the factory in the thick newspaper index book.
Soon, he saw a series of reports with very close dates.
“On April 2, 1923, a fire broke out at the Haileywood Textile and Garment Factory. Because the door was locked, 33 female workers were burned alive...
"The Haleywood Textile Mill is a company controlled by the wealthy Rockefeller. After this tragedy, Rockefeller himself suffered criticism and criticism from public opinion...
"Promoted by the Haleywood tragedy, the Rockefeller Foundation issued an announcement to the society, promising to improve the working environment and living conditions of workers..."
Sean raised his head from the pile of newspapers: "The Haileywood tragedy happened a year ago... It was a major event that caused a sensation in society.
“Why did they put the fake address of the Poetry Society there?
"Why did those female workers who were burned in the revelation guide me to find the body of this little witch?"
"What does this tragedy have to do with Aaliyah's disappearance?"
Sean tried to piece the two things together, but found it impossible: "Aaliyah has never been to New Zealand, how could the Haleywood massacre have anything to do with her?"
When Sean was flipping through the index book, he also discovered something: "Reports on the Haleywood Massacre were all concentrated in 1923. After that, the incident seemed to have become a taboo and was never reported again. Mentioned... This is also a very strange thing.
"This is the only information that can be found. If we want to know more about this incident, we can only visit the relevant people at the time or go to the place where the fire occurred."
On his way back, Sean bought a copy of that day's "Daily News". He directly flipped through two pages. At the bottom of the local news, next to a milk advertisement, he saw Aaliyah's photo and the words he wrote.
Sean realized that people who saw the ad might want to call him, so he hurried back to the hotel.
——
In order to prevent the other party from knowing his address through the phone number, Sean published a phone number in the newspaper that could not be found in the Yellow Pages.
On the day the newspaper was released, Sean received more than sixty calls looking for him. As a professional reporter, Sean can directly understand the authenticity and importance of intelligence through telephone communication.
This is a "special ability" that has been developed through many years of communication and is similar to a "function": he can know whether what the caller says is true based on the tone, way of speaking, description content, etc., and immediately judge whether it is true or not. It is of significance to investigate further.
Among the more than 60 calls, there were more than a dozen fraudulent calls. They all claimed that they had clues about Aaliyah and wanted Sean to "pay a certain amount of compensation in advance." Some people even directly claimed on the phone that they had kidnapped Aaliyah and asked Sean to pay a ransom of 10,000 New Zealand dollars...
Sean had predicted that this would happen before, so he wasn't too surprised.
Of course, he would definitely not take the call asking him to pay a "ransom" seriously - if the other party really wanted to use Aaliyah to blackmail, they would have contacted him long ago, and there would be no need to wait until the newspaper published a missing person advertisement before calling.
The rest of the phone calls, after Sean's careful understanding, can basically be ruled out - they claimed that they saw a girl who looked very similar to Aaliyah. After careful questioning, they found that there were characteristics such as height, accent, hairstyle, etc. Significant differences.
In the black-and-white photo, you can't tell that Aaliyah has waist-length hair, you can't tell that her eyes are light blue, and it's impossible to hear her distinct Leon accent. Sean deliberately withheld this information.
These are "secret buttons" used to identify the authenticity of incoming calls. Only those who have seen the real "Aaliyah" will know.
At the end of the day, none of the clues provided by the phone calls were worth pursuing. Although he kept comforting himself, Sean was still a little disappointed.
The phone rang again. Sean, who had already answered more than sixty useless calls, took the trouble to pick it up and understood: "Hello, this is Sean Dickinson."
"Good evening, Mr. Sean." Opposite was a mellow male voice with a unique rhythm. "I am the man who was with Aaliyah at Mr. Bill's banquet."
Sean's eyes widened and he almost broke the pencil in his hand with one hand.
