The next morning.
Fifth Avenue, Henderson.
Dean took the brand-new Alvin outside a blue two-story building.
"Bang, bang..."
Crunch——
"Good morning, dear madam, I am Dean, a volunteer from the Vegas Police Department. I would like to tell you about your neighbor, the owner of House No. 369."
The white-haired old woman looked at the two strange visitors at the door with her cloudy eyes behind her reading glasses, and then moved her nose. A faint sour smell wafted over, and she couldn't help but frown.
Alvin next to Dean took a step back in embarrassment. Even though he had taken a shower in the hotel and changed out of his dirty clothes, the pungent body odor from years of wandering still lingered.
The old woman turned to Dean, who was much younger and more pleasing to the eye, "No. 369...the one on the far left corner of the block, across the street?"
"Yes, do you have an impression?"
"Wait a minute, kid, I'm old and have a bad memory. I have to think about it... No. 369..." A deep ridge appeared on the old man's wrinkled forehead. After a while, he suddenly realized, "Yes, I remembered it. It's Panon. Garcia’s house?”
Dean and Alvin behind him looked at each other with surprise on their faces.
The two of them visited more than a dozen households in this neighborhood all morning. Either they had just moved here and knew nothing about the place, or they were wary of them and dismissed them casually. In short, the residents in this neighborhood seemed to have no relationship with each other. How harmonious.
Most of the residents are also different from what Alvin remembers.
"Yes, do you know him? Do you know where he has been recently?"
Alvin asked eagerly.
"Who are you from Panon?" The old man raised his glasses on the bridge of his nose, as if he wanted to get a better look at the two of them.
"I am his biological brother, Alvin Garcia." Alvin carefully moved his face closer, clasped his hands together, and said nervously, "I came to see him last week, but until today, he is not at home. .”
The old man looked suspicious when he heard this, and held the door warily with his thin hands, "I have never heard that Panon has any biological brother!"
Alvin's expression froze, and then he lowered his head in shame, "Actually, I haven't seen him for several years. It's normal that you don't know me."
"Then you came too late?" The old man shook his head, with a trace of sympathy in his eyes. "Let me think about it. In 1975, five years ago, that house was empty. It has been vacant until now. Some homeless people were hanging around. He went in and stole everything inside, but no one cared about it.”
Five years?
Panon has been missing for five years?
"How can it be?"
Alvin froze in place as if he had been struck by lightning, whispering in a low voice with his mouth half-opened, his face showing deep disappointment.
Dean frowned deeply and asked again,
"Did Panon move somewhere else?"
"I'm sorry, I don't have a good relationship with Panon. In other words, I don't know all the neighbors on the street well with him." The old man's cloudy eyes flashed with memories, "In my impression, he lives in seclusion and doesn't usually communicate or interact with anyone. . He most likely doesn’t have many friends. He always shuts himself up in his house and only goes to the supermarket every one or two weeks with three layers inside and three layers outside, wrapped up tightly.”
Dean's head flashed. On such a hot day in Las Vegas, no normal person should be dressed like this.
"Because of his unusual living habits and strange behavior, the neighbors are very alienated from him." The old man said after a pause, "Some naughty children treated him as a weirdo, played tricks on him, and broke into his house to steal. thing."
"Damn it! What little bastards dare to bully Panon?"
Alvin suddenly exploded, his face turned red and he roared, his eyes shot out fiercely,
The old man was so frightened that he almost fell down when his foot slipped. Fortunately, Dean reached out and grabbed her in time, then turned his head and glared at Alvin.
"Do you want to scare an elderly person out of a heart attack by shouting so loudly?"
Alvin apologized to the old man, "I didn't mean to scare you, I just felt uncomfortable thinking about my poor brother."
"Forget it, I understand how you feel." The old man patted his chest and shook his head, "But you should know that your brother is very introverted and withdrawn, and living alone, he will inevitably be bullied."
Alvin lowered his head.
"Does Panon have a job?" Dean asked. If he could find his workplace, he would be able to follow the clues.
"In my impression, he only goes out once a week or two." The old man shook his head, "No normal company would accept him."
Alvin asked hesitantly,
"Panon, does Panon have a wife, children..."
"I don't even know this, is he his brother? It's been almost ten years since I moved here, and I haven't seen a woman or child come to visit him. I'm sure Panon is an unknown bachelor." The old man said with a straight face. "My last impression of him is that after one day five years ago, no one in the entire neighborhood saw him again."
"He's missing."
Alvin's dark red lips trembled, and a heart-wrenching expression of pain appeared on his face.
Dean rubbed his temples in distress. Five years was a long time, enough to erase most of the clues.
"Did the police come to see him?"
"Both the property management company and the police went to the house to look, but no one was found." The old man paused, his forehead ridged, "When you said that, I remembered that three years after Panon disappeared, that is, two years ago, There was another incident at that house and there was a day of lockdown.”
"ACCIDENT?"
Alvin's heart suddenly tightened.
"At that time, I heard that someone died in the house, but it was not Panon. I don't know the specific situation." The old man paused and looked at the two people with a hint of farewell. "Okay, two people. Bit, I know that’s all, I should go back and prepare lunch.”
Dean looked at the system and saw that "Brother's" progress slowly increased from 5% to 10%.
"Then come here, ma'am, thank you for your answer, and wish you good health!"
…
The two left the house and asked the remaining neighbors along the block. Unfortunately, they gained very little, either knowing nothing or giving the same answers as the old man.
"Man, honestly, how long has it been since you've seen your brother?"
Dean asked.
Alvin didn't know whether he didn't hear clearly or didn't want to answer. He looked down at his calloused hands, confusion, self-blame, and sadness flashed across his wrinkled face.
Dean sighed.
But he can also understand the other party's performance.
In the United States, brothers and sisters in many families were very close when they were young. However, after they got married and started families, they were busy working and taking care of their wives and children, and they did not have much contact with each other. They might only get together once every few years or talk on the phone.
But they can't always contact each other.
A sentence suddenly passed through Dean's mind——
Sometimes when a person has a sudden impulse to contact relatives or friends whom he has not interacted with for a long time.
But they can never find each other...
