Dean and Alvin greeted Holden at the stairs and returned to the lobby on the first floor.
The three of them sat in a circle around the sofa.
Holden listened to Dean recount the clues he had asked from the neighbors and spoke,
"This is consistent with what I have learned from the property and Henderson government departments. Almost every year for the past two decades, these two departments have received property fees and real estate payments from the residents of Room 369, which are sent to them by Panon. tax checks, until five years ago when Panon stopped mailing checks.”
"The tax department tried to contact him, but failed. Panon seemed to have disappeared from the world."
"Let me tell you this, the IRS is the most powerful department in the entire United States. Even they have not been able to find Panon. Others have little hope of finding him." Holden said regretfully, "Hender The Sen government has also listed Panon as a missing person and will declare him dead in two or three years."
"Is Panon really missing?"
Amir stared straight at the ground, his face so pale that he lost all color.
boom!
He hammered the table hard,
"It's all my fault, this selfish, indifferent idiot! If I had come to visit Panon a few years earlier and had me taken care of him, he wouldn't have disappeared."
What an emotional guy.
Dean quickly comforted him,
"Don't get excited. You were bankrupt at that time. Your house was auctioned and you were living on the street. You couldn't survive. You had no spare time to help your relatives hundreds of miles away. Even God can't punish you."
"No, you don't understand what I did to Panon...I...I'm sorry for him..."
Alvin held his head, his shoulders shaking.
"Then tell him." Holden looked at his painful face and persuaded in a gentle voice, "You will feel better if you have someone to share your worries with."
Almi gritted his teeth,
"Give me some more time, and when I'm ready, I'll tell you everything about Panon and I. Please continue now. Is there anything else you've discovered?"
"I got some news at the Henderson Police Station." Holden pressed his fingers lightly on the coffee table. "Some time after your brother Panon disappeared, a murder occurred in this house."
Dean nodded, "That's what the neighbors on the block told us...the police cordoned off the house for a day and carried out the body of a homeless man?"
"Not a bum."
Holden stared at the window not far away, his eyes became solemn,
"He is an old man in his sixties, and his identity is not simple, even unusual."
Dean and Alvin both cheered up;
"High social status?"
"Yes. The deceased's name was Alexander Raphael, and he was a well-known psychic medium throughout Nevada."
Holden took out a full-body photo from his arms.
An old man of medium build, wearing black robes.
Slightly hunched.
His hair is gray, his skin is unusually pale, and he has a horse-like face with a huge hooked nose, thin lips, and wide-open eyes, some protruding from the eye sockets, giving people the feeling of being extremely excited at any time.
"psychic?"
Dean's eyelids began to beat, and a faint sense of ominousness enveloped his heart.
"Psychic mediums are also called psychics. In Siberia, northern Asia, Alaska and other places, they are called shamans." Holden recalled the information he found, "They claim to the outside world that they can communicate with the ghosts of the deceased. By communicating, they can ask ghosts to share information about their lives to assist the living.”
"So the psychic can see ghosts?" Dean wondered whether the psychic could see his trump card, "Shadows of the Past."
"According to legend, they have special eyes and can see ghosts. They can also help ordinary people overwhelmed by grief to contact their deceased relatives in order to seek psychological comfort."
When it came to the topic of occultism, Dean and Almi both remained silent in tacit agreement.
Only Holden's voice echoed in the room.
“In the United States, there is always a shortage of superstitious and ignorant people. Whether in cities or rural areas, a considerable number of people believe in psychics. Most of them are people who have lost loved ones and are eager to use the power of psychics to reconnect with their loved ones. .”
"There are also some fanatics who regard powerful psychics as a belief and worship them as believers. They imitate them and practice meditation, hoping that one day they will be able to master this power of communicating with the dead."
"And this Mr. Alexander Raphael, according to my investigation, has channeled hundreds of customers. Because of his miraculous performance, he has gained a group of believers. He is highly respected in the American psychic circle."
Holden stopped talking and waited quietly for the two listeners to digest the information.
…
"Holden, do you believe in the power of psychics?" Dean asked. He controls the "Shadow" and naturally knows that there are supernatural powers in this world. He also wants to take the opportunity to find out how far the authorities have learned about this.
"Your FBI should have conducted a lot of research on these idealistic theories, right? Do you have any conclusions?"
Holden's expression was strange. The wise and calm eyes on the straight bridge of his nose lost their calmness and became hesitant and a little confused.
After a long time, he thought about it and said,
"There was once a department that specially invited a group of well-known psychics and gathered them together to conduct many psychic experiments in front of many media. However, 99% of them were exposed on the spot. Their so-called psychics Ling is just a farce supported by superb acting skills and detailed investigation of the communication objects in advance.”
"What about the remaining one percent?" Dean asked,
"I can't explain it. I dare not make any conclusions."
"You mean there are examples of successful channeling?" Dean said.
"No, with today's technological power, there is no way to expose their clever scam!" Compared to psychics, Holden obviously believes in science more, "Now, don't discuss those superstitious things, let's get back to the topic, this respected person Mr. Alexander Raphael died in this house, and in a strange way."
Holden stood up, walked around the sofa, and pointed to the dining table not far away.
"It is recorded in the case file that he died at the table with his neck broken."
"After he died, the murderer took out his eyes and took him away, leaving two bloody holes."
"It is simply devilish to commit such a heinous crime against an old man in his sixties," Alvin asked with a pale face, "Have you caught the murderer?"
Holden shook his head,
"Do you think the murderer might be..." Dean looked at the two of them meaningfully.
"It's impossible. Panon is not in good health and he doesn't have the strength to break someone's neck."
Alvin was determined,
"Although he is introverted, he is not bad at heart and will never hurt anyone!"
"Alvin is right." Holden agreed. "Panon disappeared five years ago, and Alexander died two years ago. The time difference between the two cases is too far. According to my investigation, Panon lived with Alexander." There is no obvious intersection.”
"The most important point is that the real murderer cleaned up the traces of the scene very cleanly and carried out the attack very professionally. The Henderson police could only draw a rough inference - one of Alexander's competitors in the psychic world hired a professional killer to attack. Got him."
…
The room returned to silence for a moment.
The three of them were thinking unconsciously, is there some connection between the two unsolved cases?
But there are currently too few clues to draw any conclusions.
"One thing I don't understand," Dean asked, "is why Alexander, the psychic master, showed up in an abandoned house in a rundown neighborhood on the outskirts of Henderson. What's his purpose?"
"Who knows? Psychic mediums are very mysterious." Holden said in a joking tone, "Maybe he thinks this place is a geomantic treasure, suitable for meditation practice."
…
getaway paradise?
Alvin smiled bitterly.
This place is filled with the ups and downs of his growing up memories.
More than twenty years ago, my father died of illness in bed.
My brother also disappeared here five years ago.
Two years ago, an uninvited psychic was murdered.
Yesterday, two more blood gang killers were killed in this house.
It is truly a place of doom.
…
At this time, Holden glanced under the table and was suddenly attracted by the reddish-brown wooden box. Under the sunlight, it looked more delicate and mysterious, especially the blue pupil pattern, which seemed to be filled with charming magic. "Where did you find this antique?"
"In the attic, I feel like this thing is a bit evil." Dean said with a solemn expression.
"Isn't it just a box? A djinn and a devil can't pop out of it?"
Holden took the wooden box outside the house and opened it in the sunshine, and an elegant light fragrance came out.
The dazzling sunlight illuminated two strange things in the box——
Two overlapping wooden boards.
It is a rectangle, the size of a chessboard, with YES, NO, and HELLO painted on the top, three bold English words.
Further down, all the English letters are listed.
At the bottom are ten numbers from 0 to 9.
At a rough glance, this chessboard looks like some kind of children's educational toy.
But if you look closely, the background color of those letters and numbers is as white as ashes, which is creepy.
The other piece of wood is much smaller, only about the size of a palm, and has a teardrop shape. It has a transparent glass piece inlaid near its tip, through which the other side can be clearly seen.
…
Holden took out the teardrop-shaped plate and rubbed it, put it in front of his nose and smelled it.
"Made of sandalwood."
"What on earth is this thing?" Dean asked,
"Have you never played Halloween Adventure? Around Halloween, teenagers seeking excitement will gather in remote abandoned houses and use this set of soul Ouija boards to try to communicate with nearby ghosts."
“This large board with a checkerboard shape and full of letters is called a Ouija Board.”
"This little teardrop-shaped piece of wood is called a jiban."
"They combine to form a soul Ouija board."
Holden pressed the Ouija board against the Ouija board and let the lens of the Ouija lens press the word "NO".
"Children sit in a closed chamber, summon ghosts and ask each other various questions, and then the ghost will push the lens of the Ouija board to cover the numbers and letters on the Ouija board, and piece together its answers."
Dean suddenly realized,
He had seen this thing in movie scenes many times in his previous life.
But does it really work?
Dean asked Shadow in his heart, but "Shadow" showed no response.
Hall shook his head and continued with a smile,
"The essence of playing this game is to 'scare yourself'. Those legends about summoning evil spirits are just made-up horror stories."
"But psychics like to use Ouija boards to amplify their abilities. So...it is almost certain that these two boards and the box are the relics of the psychic Alexander Raphael who died in the house."
Disappointment appeared on Alvin's face after hearing this.
"Did Panon do soul divination before?" Dean looked at the system progress. After a day of investigation and discussions about psychics, the investigation progress only increased from 15% to 20%, which is still far from the goal. Very far.
Alvin shook his head, "He's very timid and never celebrates Halloween."
All three were silent.
Holden began to check the mahogany box repeatedly, trying to find the hidden sandwich.
But I found nothing, so I had to put the Ouija board back in the box.
"In addition to this box, there is also a bed in the attic. Let's check it again. This time we will get a few more flashlights."
…
In the narrow and dark attic, the bright light of three flashlights illuminated the dark bed.
"It's so heavy, made of cement?" Holden held the corner of the bed with his right hand and lifted it, but his face turned red and he couldn't lift it at all.
And Dean carefully wiped it, and his palm picked up a complex of dust, hair and dander, and frowned.
"Throw it here, man. I'll take it back and ask my friends to test it and compare it with the biological samples Alexander left two years ago."
Holden took out a pair of tweezers and a test tube from his coat pocket, carefully clamped the residue into the test tube, covered it, and put it into a plastic bag.
"If nothing else, these residues should come from the psychic Alexander."
"The bed and the soul Ouija board were a cramped and dark space. After Panon disappeared, Alexander regarded this ownerless house as his own territory."
Holden analyzed,
"I think he originally planned to settle in this attic for a long time and train his psychic abilities day and night, but he was accidentally assassinated."
"But at the moment we don't see any relationship between him and Panon."
Dean nodded and looked to the other side,
"Alvin?"
"Alvin!"
"Ah! I'm here! I'm listening..." Alvin moved his gaze away from the black bed and made a strange request, "Mr. Holden, can you take my blood back and compare it with this residue?" ?”
Dean suddenly felt that this guy was hiding something from him.
"Fortunately, I was prepared."
Holden nodded, took out a blood collection needle from his briefcase, handed it to Alvin, and instructed him to collect blood from a vein on the back of his hand. He quickly retrieved a bright red sample and put it in his briefcase.
"I will compare your blood, this residue, and the samples left by Alexander in the past. Maybe I can find new clues. It's getting late now. Let's go back to the hotel together and come back tomorrow to take a look."
"I want to stay the night."
Alvin's words surprised the two of them.
"You're not kidding. Aren't you afraid of revenge from the Blood Gang?" Holden didn't understand.
"You said you can't sleep well in this house?" Dean was equally puzzled.
"Sorry, I have to stay to confirm an idea..."
Alvin looked at the two of them pleadingly, his attitude was extremely firm,
Holden and Dean exchanged a look.
"Dean, you are very skilled. Stay with Alvin and take good care of him."
"Okay...I'll sacrifice myself." Dean looked at Holden, "How long will it take for the results of this test to be available."
His mission lasted only seven days.
It is worth mentioning that DNA testing in this world has developed several years faster than in the previous life.
In 1980, relevant technologies in the previous world were still in their infancy, but this world has become relatively complete.
"I'll try to finish it tomorrow," Holden said. "I'll try my best to get the guys in the forensics department to work overtime to help."
