In the early morning, Dean drove into the residential area near Maple Street and drove along the green-shaded road to No. 82 along the street.
Far away, I saw three young men practicing their basketball skills on the lawn outside the house facing the rising sun, wearing white basketball uniforms with "HAWKINS" printed on them.
The average height is over 1.9 meters, with a sturdy build. His arms and thighs are full of muscles. His whole body is glistening with sweat in the sun, like three shiny bronze statues.
The car door closed heavily, and the loud sound attracted the attention of the three big men opposite.
"Chatham, Leno, Qiannan?" Dean leaned over,
"Who are you?" The bearded man asked fiercely, wrapping his hands around his bulging chest muscles, looking down at Dean's big black windbreaker.
"It doesn't matter who I am, I'm here to find out about Peter."
"Peter, that unconscious freak?" The blond man in the center smiled sarcastically, "You asked the wrong person. You should go to the town central hospital to have a look. Hurry up before that guy has time to fall into hell. The other devils have a party together, and you can see him one last time."
"Don't talk nonsense to this Japanese...get out!"
The third black man twirled the basketball with his index finger as thick as a carrot and threw it hard!
The basketball hit the ground and bounced high!
Dean casually stretched out his hand to catch the basketball steadily, and blocked the black man's waving arm with his other hand like lightning. At the same time, he pushed his shoulders forward into the opponent's chest and made an iron rocker.
The black man's huge body suddenly jumped into the air as if he had been hit by a train. He fell to the ground face to face, and a big bloody tooth flew into the air.
Seeing his companion being knocked down, the blond man and the bearded man rushed over with a roar.
The next second he stopped the car urgently, and stood frozen in place as if he was tapping his acupuncture points. He opened his mouth slightly and his pupils shrank——
Dean stepped on the black man's back and took out a gun from his trench coat. The black muzzle of the gun was pointing at the two of them. He rubbed their necks one by one. The cold and biting touch made the skin of the three of them visible to the naked eye. Got goose bumps.
"I am not a Xiaoli, your whole family is a Xiaoli!"
"Everything you said is right! Hold the gun steady and don't misfire." Chatham, who was originally arrogant and arrogant, instantly stopped. He raised his hands in the air with a flattering smile on his face and swallowed. "If you have any questions, just ask."
"Get everyone inside the house!"
Without hesitation, the group of people filed into the one-story house next to the lawn.
"Stand still and don't move around," Dean glanced at the three people who were squatting with their heads in hands, silent, and then raised the gun, "Take off your clothes and pants!"
"hiss--"
The cheeks of the three 19-meter tall men turned the color of pig liver, and they covered their buttocks in horror.
"Don't worry, I'm not interested in men." Dean shook the M1911, "Take it off quickly, whoever is slower will have a brain injury!"
The three of them were in a stalemate for five seconds and started to move painfully. After a rustling sound, there were three "orangutans with most of their hair off" in the room, covering their vital parts with red faces.
"You, Chatham, stand behind the negro and put your arm around his waist."
"Fake!" The bearded man's face changed drastically, and the black man shuddered and spat on the ground. A flash of red appeared on his charcoal-like face.
"Why are you standing there stupidly? Do you want your head shot or your butt shot? I'll give you five seconds to think about it!" Dean's eyes narrowed into slits.
The two of them felt a coldness that froze their hearts and succumbed instantly.
Dean turned to the third blond man who thought he had escaped death and let out a sigh of relief, pointed the gun at his belly, "Stand behind the beard and hug his waist!"
"God... I haven't slept with my girlfriend yet, I'm still a virgin... wu wu..."
…
"Very good, keep this posture and expression." Dean raised the newly purchased camera and used the photography skills he had developed during this period to focus on the three people "driving the train" and kept taking pictures.
Light, angle, every photo is full of beauty and artistic atmosphere.
"This time of training has not been in vain." Dean put away the camera with satisfaction and asked the three big men with red faces, "Tell me honestly, what kind of poison did you poison Peter? If you delay it, he will die, and you will be blamed for intentional Incarcerated in Indianapolis jail for homicide.”
"Since you are over eighteen years old, your sentence is at least fifteen years. Moreover, the black boss in the prison likes muscular men the most, and he will definitely love you so much that you will not be able to get out of bed every day."
"Oh God!" The bearded man, regardless of how shameful his posture was, gesticulated hurriedly in the air, almost crying with grievance, "I didn't poison him!"
The black man's nostrils dilated with anger, and he was about to spit out fire with grievance, "I only met Peter once during the whole summer vacation. Where do I have the chance?"
The blond man even went so far as to say to himself, "None of our basketball team's science and mathematics scores are up to standard, and they don't have the IQ to commit poison."
Dean scanned the three panicked faces with sharp eyes, using the technique he learned from Holden to focus on the subtle expressions on the eyes and cheeks.
Pretty sure they didn't lie.
"Since you claim you are not sinners, who do you think was most likely to poison Peter?"
The three of them were stunned by this question and pondered like statues for a long time.
"Peter is an honest man. He doesn't seem to have offended anyone at school..." Beard muttered angrily while maintaining a half-crouching position.
"No, Peter threatened Maggie." The blond man said,
"Threatening, Maggie?" Dean interrupted,
The black man waved his hand in disgust, as if to kill an annoying fly, "Maggie is a girl in the same grade as Peter, and Peter once confessed his love. But Peter didn't express his love with flowers, love letters, or exquisite jewelry. I gave Maggie a red wolf tooth necklace wrapped with nylon rope. It frightened Maggie so much that she almost cried."
"Yes, Peter is a freak who is incompatible with normal life and school, an out-and-out pervert," Bearded Beard said plausibly, "otherwise we wouldn't be able to constantly trouble him and beat him up!"
"We beat him to great pleasure."
Dean looked strange when he heard this.
In the hospital room, Lucia was full of praise for Peter without even mentioning that he was a weirdo.
Did she deliberately hold back, or did she have her own filters for her relatives?
At this time, the system suddenly shook.
The investigation progress jumped from the initial 5% to 10%.
Dean mused, was it a clue that Peter was a weirdo?
…
Dean then asked Maggie's address and home phone number from the three of them, and remembered it for further investigation, but he felt that it was unlikely.
"Think about it again, where did Peter go and meet people during this summer vacation?"
"Shet!" Bearded man pounded the floor angrily, like a beast in heat, "I want to accompany my girlfriend and train. I'm not that boy's follower. How would I know!"
The black man and the blond man also spread their hands and gave up resistance.
"How about you continue filming."
Dean changed the question, "What friends does Peter have?"
The three big men looked at each other.
"There is a weird boy in the lower grade who likes to take pictures and is often with him. His name is unknown."
"A freak who likes to take pictures..." The image of Jonathan Byers suddenly appeared in Dean's mind. "Yes, Jonathan mentioned that a friend of his had an accident. This is right. Ask him first. It’s clear!”
…
Dean withdrew his gun;
"That's it for today. I'll come visit you next time."
"Are you coming?" Bearded's face turned dark, and he could hardly help but kowtow, "Spare us, God testifies that we have nothing to do with Peter's illness!"
"There is no need to discuss! And I warn you that today's matters are strictly confidential. If you dare to leak the secret, or if you dare to continue to bully other students in the future, the front page of the Hawkins Daily will surely publish such a piece of news——"
Dean said jokingly,
"Breaking news! The three rising stars of the town's middle school basketball team actually have a complicated love triangle!"
The three hairless gorillas shivered at the same time and nodded with difficulty.
…
Dean drove to the mall and caught Jonathan in his usual place, patting a skinny girl. He patted him on the shoulder quietly.
"You have a soft spot for slim girls? Why don't you go up and have a date?"
"Ah! Dean? You scared me. Why are you here? Don't you have something to do?"
"I'm done, I have some questions to ask you," Dean squatted next to him and asked, "Do you know Peter Seymour?"
Jonathan's expression froze, he released his finger holding the shutter button, and nodded solemnly, "Besides you, Peter is my best friend."
"So you know him very well, can you tell me?"
"Like me, he is unsociable, withdrawn, shy, and seems difficult to get in touch with, but he is actually very kind and has never meant to harm others..."
Jonathan's eyes softened,
"Peter is crazy and obsessed with all kinds of strange creatures. I have seen books and picture albums describing various monsters from his locker: vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein, wizards, ghosts, sirens, aliens...he He loved all kinds of monster movies and collected small items related to monsters...so his classmates regarded him as a freak and stayed away from him."
Jonathan smiled to himself,
"I'm a geek too, so he and I became friends and talked about everything."
"Then did he behave abnormally or say anything strange to you before the accident?" Dean asked,
Jonathan visibly hesitated for a moment, shook his head and changed the subject.
"Why did you suddenly ask about him?"
Dean took a deep look at the other person, explained the previous situation, and then expressed his inference.
Jonathan was just an ordinary student. After hearing this, his face turned pale and he seemed very surprised, but he shook his head very firmly, "There are some disgusting big guys in the school, but their brains are all muscles. They don't have that kind of IQ, and they don't have such vicious hearts. Peter.”
"It's even more impossible for Maggie to be rejected. Maggie is a gentle and kind girl, one of the rare girls who doesn't discriminate against weirdos like us."
Dean rubbed his chin, "Then did Peter come into contact with any special people outside the school before he fell into coma?"
Jonathan scratched his messy bangs and shook his head.
"He basically plays with me on weekdays. At the beginning of the summer vacation, when I took photos and worked part-time in shopping malls, he went to libraries and movie theaters, and the only people he interacted with were ordinary ticket sellers and store clerks."
"Have you never been to other places?"
Jonathan rubbed his brows and recalled for a while, his eyes lit up,
"Yes, he went to see a magic show once. It was the solo exhibition of Monica, the sexy female magician on the poster on the wall of the cinema."
Dean instantly noticed that the investigation progress had jumped by 2% to 12%, "Tell me more about the magic show."
"I'm sorry, because Monica was dressed too revealingly and sexy, and those under the age of 18 were not allowed to buy tickets. I didn't go there at the time. I only listened to Peter chatting for a while. There were two to three hundred spectators in the tent, and they were all I was impressed by the wonderful magic and my throat was broken..."
"Peter was very happy talking about magic, and he smiled from the bottom of his heart."
"Take me to meet Monica." Dean put his arm around Jonathan's shoulders.
"Why? Do you think she hurt Peter?" Jonathan looked in disbelief.
"You think too much..." Dean muttered, "I just wanted to talk to her face to face. She might know something."
"It's too late. She has left Hawkins for a while." Jonathan thought, "But the venue where she held the magic show is a movie theater. Maybe you can go to the movie theater manager and ask..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dean stood up and left.
"Wait for me, man," Jonathan glanced at the thin and delicate girl in the distance reluctantly, then stood up and walked side by side with Dean, "I also want to do something for Peter!"
(End of chapter)
