Dean and Jonah returned to the mall, holding Peter's photo and asking around the stores.
"Good afternoon, Catherine, excuse me, do you know him?" Dean walked to the ice cream counter and handed the woman a photo of Peter. The latter smoothed the blond hair from his ears and shook his head, "I'm sorry, I'm going back to Hawkins. Within a few days, we had limited social interactions and never saw this child.”
"Okay, keep busy and we won't disturb you." Dean was about to take Jonathan away.
"Wait a minute," Catherine quickly scooped up two cones and handed them over with a gentle smile, "please cool down."
"Thank you." Dean bit off most of the cone politely and grinned, "I am the most fair person. If you treat me to ice cream, just call me next time if you have trouble."
"Gee, your favor? I made a lot of money!"
…
Next, the two of them visited clothing, glasses, and various stores one by one... but nothing was gained. The store employees had little impression of Peter.
It wasn't until a movie peripheral store was visited that the owner of the store, who wore an exaggerated tuxedo and a fat mustache, finally gave a clue.
"Peter Seymour is a regular customer of my store." The man handed the photo back to Dean and touched his mustache. "In recent years, he has been visiting the store every month to buy some interesting small items. , but his family is not very well-off, so he buys cheap things."
"What did he buy?" Dean asked,
The boss turned around and pointed at the colorful products piled on the shelves in all directions in the store, "What he likes most are posters and small models, followed by some clothes and props from movies..."
"He is obsessed with horror, thriller, supernatural and monster movies..." The boss suddenly laughed, "So the things he buys are more scary, such as dentures, cloaks, toy claws, and monster models with horns."
Dean nodded secretly.
This is consistent with what the three basketball players and Jonathan said. Peter is an out-and-out weirdo.
"So what do you think of Peter as a person?" Dean asked again,
"I'm from a town. I've also heard about some of this kid's experiences." The boss suppressed his smile, shook his head and sighed, "My parents died early, and I was raised by my aunt, but I didn't wander the streets and make trouble like other little bastards. He studies in school honestly, so he is a good kid at heart."
"And I can see that he is not like other customers who buy movie peripherals just to satisfy their curiosity and pursue excitement." The boss's eyes flashed with memories, and a look of recognition appeared on his round face, "His love for monsters comes from his heart. In my heart, I will store it properly when I get it home and appreciate it again and again. He is a true monster lover."
A true monster lover?
Dean noticed that the investigation progress jumped from 15% to 17%.
"Where has Peter been this summer?"
"I don't know. I have to visit the store very late every day, and I rarely care about customers' lives."
"Then why do you think Peter is unconscious?"
"I'm not a doctor, so I can only guess that it's some kind of rare and strange disease." The boss said regretfully, "I hope this poor kid can wake up as soon as possible, otherwise the store will lose another loyal customer."
"Okay, thank you for your answer." Dean spent a few dollars to buy a Star Wars poster from the boss's shop and turned to leave.
"Did you find the clue?" Jonathan followed him through the crowded shopping mall hall.
"One thing..." Dean put the poster in his big trench coat and passed it into the fantasy space. He looked up and saw a Balris Bookstore in the distance, "Go and have a look at this store."
…
Entering the store, Dean scanned it from God's perspective as usual.
It was quiet and the light was soft. Behind the rows of tall bookshelves, a few readers sat on the smooth marble floor, flipping through books intently.
There was a thin young clerk standing at the front desk, who was addicted to a chicken soup book called "How to Become a Millionaire."
Dean has always emphasized equal transactions, so he first asked Jonathan to choose an introductory book on shooting and boxing to help the clerk's dream.
Thumb thump.
Dean tapped his index finger on the front desk and placed two books.
The clerk closed the book, rubbed his eyes with heavy dark circles, and slowly started packaging.
"Dude, let me ask you something, do you know the person in the photo?"
"I'm very impressed, Peter Seymour, a student of the town's middle school and a regular customer." The clerk nodded, looking at the photo as if he were seeing a good friend who died unfortunately, full of remembrance, "He used to come to the library every few days. Stay in the store for a while, look at some pictures and albums, um, Chenghui, twenty dollars."
Dean gritted his teeth. In this era, the price of books in the United States has begun to rise. Buying books is not cheap at all. It is difficult for ordinary students to afford them. Going to a bookstore or public library is a good choice.
"Are you familiar with him?" Dean took out his wallet and paid the bill, then gave the packed book to Jonathan, who hugged him tightly with a look of surprise and gratitude.
"Absolutely. Although there is very little communication, people who like to read have a tacit understanding of their hearts." The clerk's pale and tired face smiled more and pointed to the empty area behind the bookshelf on the left. "He usually likes to stand. There, I watched motionless for two hours.”
Dean asked him again what kind of books he was reading. As expected, the answers were books about ghosts, zombies, aliens, unsolved mysteries of the world, etc.
"I haven't seen Peter for half a month. I'm not used to it."
"So about his illness..."
"I heard about it, and I inferred that he had serious psychological problems, such as depression, and then developed corresponding physical symptoms." The clerk raised the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said a bunch of professional terms, "I I saw him standing in the corner of the bookshelf several times, holding a book and covering his mouth, trembling shoulders and sobbing softly. He had a lot of sad things in his heart."
The clerk described the meal artistically and said seriously, "Once a person is too sad, his body will be damaged."
Dean couldn't help but interrupt, "Then do you know the reason why he is sad?"
"One time I was really curious and couldn't help but break the rule of not interfering with customers. I went over to chat with him for a few words." The clerk paused and looked at the chandelier on the ceiling and sighed melancholy, "He is not good at communication and has poor emotional intelligence. Worrying. The conversation always leads to scary, even disgusting monsters, so his peers treat him as a weirdo, ridicule him, and laugh at him, except of course Jonathan next to you."
"So, he was very lonely."
"I once gave him advice and advised him to imitate the classmates around him and learn to become a little normal, but he stubbornly remained silent." The clerk said helplessly, "He is really a troublesome child."
"It's not that serious!" Jonathan retorted with a stiff neck, "Peter just doesn't know how to communicate, but he is very nice."
"No matter how beautiful your soul is, it's useless if you don't know how to express yourself." The clerk retorted calmly, crossing his hands on his chest. "Even a wise and gentle person like me can't bear to communicate with him. He is destined to not make many friends."
"He had no friends, and he was unwilling to share and communicate with his family. Negative emotions continued to accumulate, and he became lonely, restless, depressed, and eventually fell into a strange disease."
After the clerk analyzed it like this, Dean was surprised to find that the system progress had slowly increased to 20%.
So Peter being a lonely weirdo is an important clue?
"So has Peter ever had a fight with anyone in the library?"
"You mean this boring gourd? No."
"Has he been anywhere other than bookstores and movie theaters?"
"Sorry, I'm busy reading and don't have time to pay too much attention to a customer."
"Okay, I wish you become a millionaire soon." Dean glanced at the pages of the book the clerk opened, and the dense notes made people dizzy.
With a wave of his hand, he turned around and left the bookstore, sighing to the people around him, "Peter is more suitable to listen to the song 'Space Oddity' than we are."
Jonathan hugged the book and camera tightly and nodded silently.
"Man, don't you have anything to say?" Dean looked into his eyes, "As Peter's best friend, you also know him best, and you should know best that he may have some mental problems, why didn't you tell me before? "
"Did he behave abnormally or say anything strange before the accident?"
Jonathan's head hung lower, and his taut pale side face revealed a stubbornness.
When Dean saw this, he was sure that this guy was hiding something.
"You don't want to save Peter, right?" Dean looked up at the sunset on the horizon, his eyes melancholy, and he didn't hide the disappointment in his voice. "You hope he dies in a lonely coma, maybe today."
"Don't talk nonsense! I want to save him!" Jonathan suddenly shouted, staring at Dean angrily, his tone full of struggle, "I promised to keep him a secret."
"What's the secret?" Dean took a step closer and pressed. Jonathan pursed his lips and said nothing.
"Keeping your word is good moral character, but what do you think would happen if a best friend was killed because of your secret?"
Jonathan licked his dry lips, fear flashing across his face.
"I'm telling you..." Dean continued to exert pressure with words, "You will wake up from nightmares every day in the future, and the pale face in the coffin will keep flashing in front of your eyes. You will spend your whole life in regret, and you will never I can’t forget this wrong decision... Is such secrecy necessary?”
Jonathan took two steps back with a pale face and sat down on the steps. After a moment, he sighed and covered his face in pain.
"Stop talking, I'll tell you everything."
"Peter came to see me at home two days before the accident. He always had a smile on his face, as if he had encountered some big happy event. When I asked him, he didn't say anything. He just listened to music in the room with me for a long time normally. …Before leaving, he suddenly said something unusual to me.”
"What words?"
"He asked me if one day he was gone, would I miss him? I asked him what was going on, but he changed his tune and told me not to tell anyone."
Dean was startled. This kind of words sounded a bit unreasonable.
Like some kind of farewell?
Dean's mind flashed back to the movie theater manager's previous story. Peter voluntarily took huge risks to participate in Monica's magic show of three body parts and extreme blindfold magic, which was completely inconsistent with his shy character.
Now it seems that there is only one reasonable explanation. Peter is secretly looking forward to an accident during the magic show.
Expect something unexpected to happen to you.
Combined with the words of the bookstore clerk, Peter was under tremendous psychological pressure. He was depressed and often wiped his tears alone. It is very likely that he had a certain tendency to commit suicide.
Dean's mind was racing, and the progress of the incident had jumped to 25%.
"Could it be that Peter's illness was not caused by poison from outsiders, but by his own suicide?"
Dean stated this inference, but the progress has not changed at all this time, and the evidence is not enough.
So I just have suicidal tendencies, but I am not sure whether to commit suicide.
Jonathan shook his head firmly upon hearing this,
"After so many years, Peter has already adapted to the current life. It is impossible for him to suddenly lose his mind because of loneliness or being ostracized."
"And he's just an ordinary high school student. He can't afford to contract this terrible disease!"
Jonathan seemed very clear-headed and rational at this moment, and had obviously been thinking a lot in private.
"You're right. It's impossible to draw a conclusion now about whether Peter committed suicide or why." Dean couldn't help but nodded. A crying woman in the ward flashed before his eyes. She concealed too much information, "But his aunt Lucia should Know better than us, go ahead and ask.”
(End of chapter)
