The sky is slightly bright.
Dean followed the pastor and his family to Trent's house in the Garden District, and gave the three arsonists an additional dose of hypnosis to ensure that they would cooperate honestly with the questioning.
Then he and Farage drove to Honey Island to investigate the former residence of Thomas Crowley.
Taking advantage of the rare opportunity to be alone, Farage looked at his companions in the rearview mirror, with unconcealable envy in his dark eyes.
"If Zumbi had your ability, I would have been eager to publicize it and deify myself as a voodoo priest."
"Publish it?" Dean raised his eyebrows and shook his head, "He will die miserably."
"What's the meaning?"
"Sometimes, supernatural power is equivalent to a curse, which will bring disaster, but it will not be as free and safe as ordinary humans."
Farage rolled his eyes and said dissatisfied, "Are you showing off? This is like a billionaire saying that too much money is a worry. It makes people want to beat you up."
"Okay, you're right." Dean looked at the lake not far away that reflected the green luster in the morning light, "We are here."
…
Take a boat and land on the island.
Walking on the soft mud, dew-covered bushes and tall alder forests, we headed all the way to the east side of Honey Island.
Along the way, Dean found a lot of messy human footprints. Judging from the size, they were left by Victor wandering around the island last night.
In addition, you can occasionally see abandoned houses with almost only skeletons left among the trees. These are the houses of the islanders who moved away many years ago.
On the east side of the island, close to the forest wall, there is a small house with a chimney surrounded by a wooden fence.
Surrounding the house stood wooden piles used for chopping firewood, sheds for storing firewood, chicken coops, beehives, and vegetable gardens. Unfortunately, everything has become dilapidated and desolate under the baptism of time.
The interior of the house has long become a paradise for wild animals and insects, with rats, spiders, and snakes occupying every corner.
The furniture was rudimentary. Apart from the fireplace, the most eye-catching items were two wooden beds, a child's wooden horse, and some cabinets and drawers. All of them were covered with thick dust, and there were pits to the touch.
Farage put on his gloves and began to quickly rummage through the boxes.
Dean turned on God's perspective to check the possible hidden compartments and basements behind the floor and ceiling.
"A lot of toys." Farage took out a dusty rattle from a drawer, shook it a few times, and found a pile of lifelike wood-carved dolls.
One of the dolls is wearing green denim overalls with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath. Although his face is deformed, he has a calm temperament.
Another doll with an O-shaped beard and a figure so bloated that his neck could not be seen held his hand.
From a distance, it looks like a little monster holding the hand of a grizzly bear, but with a happy smile on his face.
"This is Victor and Thomas in their childhood," Farage said.
"Preparing so many exquisite woodworking toys for my children..." Dean glanced at the dozens of toys in the drawer and said, "They have a good relationship between father and son."
Farage pursed his lips and nodded, "If it weren't for the deep feelings, Thomas wouldn't have spent the rest of his life in self-exile because of the pain of losing his son."
…
The atmosphere in the room became quite depressed.
The two continued to search. Although Victor died more than 20 years before Thomas, it was like some kind of memorial. Traces of the life of the two father and son, various small objects, plates with names engraved on them, knives and forks, were all over the house. A note-filled children's book for literacy and learning.
When Dean scanned the roof from his perspective, he suddenly discovered that a section of wood on the beam above his head had been hollowed out and stuffed into a locked iron box.
The outward side of the box was covered with wood chips, which was extremely deceptive. Ninety-nine percent of people couldn't detect the abnormality, but it couldn't escape Dean's eyes.
The box rolled up with his mind and fell into Dean's palm. He blew away the thick dust on the box, then broke the iron lock in front with his right index finger and thumb and opened the box.
What caught my eye was a thin stack of photos, slightly yellowed because they had been stored for a long time.
The background of the top photo is on the street outside a restaurant.
A portly man stands on the right.
It looks like he is Thomas, but compared to the middle-aged and elderly appearance on the doll, he is in his prime in the photo, with a fleshy face and an O-shaped beard. He is not ferocious, but mature and honest.
On the left, a tall, slender and pretty Caucasian woman held his arm, with a smile on her lips. Her shawl hair and white dress floated to the side in the breeze, giving her an ethereal aura of a forest fairy.
In addition, her nose is slightly longer and her black eyes are like those of a bird of prey, which is impressive.
"Beauty and the Beast, but who is this woman?" As soon as Dean got the photo, the progress jumped to 55%.
Farage took the yellowed photo and looked at it carefully, shaking his head, "I have never seen it before, but they are so intimate. Maybe they are boyfriend and girlfriend, or a couple?"
Dean was surprised, "Thomas had a partner when he lived on Honey Island?"
"I don't have the impression that Trent described that he and Victor were dependent on each other, and no woman intervened in their lives. So this woman may be someone he met before moving to Honey Island."
Dean nodded and continued to look through the photos, and found several intimate photos of Thomas and women, with the restaurant in the background.
"I'm sure I've seen this restaurant somewhere." Farage couldn't help but point to the "Tequila" shop sign in the photo and said,
Dean asked, "In downtown New Orleans?"
"It's not in the city. It should be in a small town nearby. I'll think about it carefully and maybe I can remember it."
"This is an important line."
Dean gave her a hypnosis to help her recall it, then turned to the second to last photo and her pupils shrank.
The background of the photo switches to indoors. The woman is lying on a sofa. Her face is pale, her hair is sparse and has lost its luster, her eye sockets are deeply sunken, and her complexion is extremely gray. Her whole person has gone from being youthful and beautiful to becoming sickly and old. It rises like a flower that is about to wither.
Her name was tagged on the photo - Shane.
Dean raised his eyebrows, "Is this woman named Shane very ill?"
Farage said, "Her condition reminded me of my classmates who had cancer and had only a few years to live."
Dean turned his head and glanced at the sofa in the room. It was completely different from the one in the photo. The shooting place should not be in this wooden house.
Then he pulled out a photo at the bottom.
The photo showed another strange dark-skinned woman in her twenties, with delicate facial features that were no less delicate than Faraj’s.
She wore a white skirt and shirt, showing off her graceful figure.
The background of the photo is in front of the same sofa, and the woman's name - Lina - is written in the upper right corner of the photo.
The investigation progress jumped to 60%.
Dean instantly realized that this dark-skinned woman named Lina, like the white woman Shane, occupied a crucial position in the entire incident.
"Why does Thomas collect photos of two beautiful women?" Farage frowned, his impression of this good father greatly reduced, "What is the relationship between the three of them?"
Dean looked at the spread out photos and said, "It's unclear at the moment. But I have a hunch that if we understand these doubts, everything will come to light."
"Agree."
"Okay, after searching the house, I have to do something. You go out first." Dean sent Faraj outside the wooden house, then closed the door and drew the curtains, making the room dark.
He looked at the faces of the two women in the photo, silently recited "Lina" and "Xia En", started "searching", and ran wildly in the chaotic black space of his mind, looking for them.
Unfortunately, he didn't get any information.
It was as if these two women did not exist in the world.
"Are they both dead?"
Dean frowned.
The search didn't work, so he changed a method, took out the divination suit, put the Ouija board between his knees, cut his palms with the Ouija board, and asked quietly in the blood,
"Good spirits and evil spirits lingering in the house, please listen to my words..."
…
Two minutes later.
The call went unanswered, and Dean left the Thomas cabin, rubbing his chin in thought.
Thomas drowned in the lake, not in the house, and could not respond to his summons. Victor, who is currently wandering around Honey Island as a regenerator, could not summon him.
Failure is not surprising.
But he always felt that someone among the former residents of the island should know the address of Thomas's hometown.
So Dean broke into the abandoned houses he found along the way one after another, constantly trying to summon ghosts.
It was not until noon that Dean, who persisted, had gained something.
A dark room.
A sixty-year-old ghost with white hair, a stooped back, a mustache, and wrinkles on his forehead fell in front of Dean.
Dean asked, "Were there ever any residents of Honey Island Swamp who practiced voodoo?"
The ghost's translucent face maintained a dull expression and answered, "No."
"Have you seen them?" Dean placed the photos of Thomas, Shane, and Lina in front of the ghost.
"I know Thomas. He lives in the woods to the east with his poor adopted son Victor. I don't know the other two women and have never seen them."
"Are these two women, Xia En and Lina, locals?"
"That's not my impression. The name is very unfamiliar."
Dean nodded, from which he could judge that the two women in the photo were in a relationship between Thomas before he moved to Honey Island.
"So do you know Thomas's old address?"
"I overheard an old guy talking about how he used to live in a small town east of New Orleans. I don't know exactly where."
"enough."
Dean let go of the old ghost, opened the door, came to the bright outdoor room, looked at Faraj, who was waiting impatiently, and told what he had discovered.
"A small town east of New Orleans?" Farage rolled his eyes as if thinking of something, "Show me the photo with the restaurant sign."
"Give!"
"New Orleans East, Tequila Restaurant, I remembered it, I know which town it is!" Farage waved his fist excitedly, almost jumping with joy, "It's the town of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, from New Orleans It’s about an hour’s drive east!”
"Thomas probably lived there before!"
The system was shaken, and Dean found that the progress had jumped to 63%. He couldn't help but curl his lips slightly. His work for the past half day had not been in vain!
Farage added excitedly, "Before I went to the police academy, during my graduation trip, I spent several days on the miles of beaches in Bay St. Louis, and I also had paella at this tequila restaurant!"
"What are you waiting for? We need to cross from Louisiana to Mississippi, let's set off immediately!" Dean glanced at the sky, "Try to arrive before evening."
…
Get in the car and drive to the east road.
Farage still couldn't suppress the excitement and curiosity in his heart, "How on earth did you do it? You could easily find the Trent three before, and now you can find Thomas's address decades ago. Are they all super powers? Not even a little bit. A secret that we ordinary people can use?”
"Unfortunately, no."
"Okay, but you must be very rich." Farage's eyes glowed red with envy, "As long as you help billionaires find their missing relatives and friends and complete an order, you can easily earn as much as an ordinary person can earn in a lifetime. Money you can’t earn.”
Dean tapped on the window with his fingers. This was a good way to make money.
But he likes it more direct and rough.
If you don’t have money, just ask someone to rob you.
…
the entire afternoon.
Farage expressed his envy for his superpowers, chirping like a black canary.
It wasn't until Dean came under hypnosis that he calmed down.
When the setting sun opened up a gorgeous ray of light on the horizon, Chevrolet drove along the clean and spacious avenue into the beautiful coastal town of Bay St. Louis.
The two saw a restaurant called "Tequila" repeatedly in the photos, so they bought a map on the street and drove to the restaurant according to the map.
"Tequila" is open for business, and the setting sun shines through the glass wall on the pedestrian street, illuminating a dozen customers enjoying Mexican food and sipping strong, spicy, and unique tequila.
Dean opened his God's perspective and scanned the restaurant from the inside out. There were seven or eight restaurant staff, most of whom were young people and unlikely to understand what happened decades ago.
Only the busy chef in the kitchen, with wrinkles like bark on his face and gray temples, who looked to be in his sixties or seventies, was the most likely to know about Thomas' past.
So Dean and Farage went into the corner of the restaurant and ordered a table of pretzels, fajitas, Mexican paella, and burritos to fill their hungry bellies and called the chef.
"Guests, is there any dish that doesn't suit your taste?"
The Mexican old man looked at the two of them with a smile.
"It tastes great. I just want to ask you some personal questions other than food." Dean rolled a fist full of fajitas with a tortilla, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed it a few times. "Are you here?" How long have you been working at Tequila Restaurant?”
"Haha, that's too long. I have to think about it carefully." The chef wiped his hands on his apron. "I have been working in this restaurant since I was eighteen years old, and it has been fifty years."
"Do you know them?" Dean spread out photos of the three Thomas and a few tips on the dining table, "Thomas, Shane, Lina... they moved away from Bay St. Louis more than thirty years ago. Before that, Frequented at Tequila.”
The old man's withered hands raised the photo in front of him, with a thoughtful look in his eyes, "They look familiar. I should have seen them before, but I can't remember them."
"You have seen it, so you must remember it," Dean's tone became subtle, and a brilliant light appeared in his eyes again.
The old man's eyes were dazed for a moment, his pupils expanded and then narrowed, he shook his head suddenly, and a drunken blush appeared on his face.
“I remember,” he pointed excitedly at the man in the photo, “more than thirty years ago, Thomas was a native of Bay St. Louis, owned a yacht, and made money by hosting tourists.”
He pointed at the tall and beautiful white woman, "Xia En is a foreigner who is married to Thomas. The two of them are very loving and harmonious, making many young people in the town envious and jealous, including me."
"Because Shane loves the specialty tacos, they come back to Tequila every week."
No wonder this restaurant is often in the background of photos.
But Thomas and Shane were married?
Dean noticed that the progress was starting to increase and motioned for the old man to continue.
"But after they had lived a sweet family life for several years, they encountered a major change." The old man's face showed a deep look of regret. "Xia En was not feeling well. He went to the hospital for an examination and found out that he had stomach cancer. It was already in the advanced stage at that time. , there is little hope for a cure.”
"Thomas couldn't bear the thought of his wife dying like this. He sold the yacht and spent all his savings to send Shane to the best private hospital for treatment."
"The treatment failed?" Farage asked nervously with a mouthful of tortilla in his mouth.
The old chef nodded,
"Xia En's illness spread and she could no longer walk. Thomas took her home and took good care of her. He was worried that she would be in too much pain and suffering, so he specially hired a nurse from the town hospital to assist with care and provide palliative care. .”
The old chef paused and pointed to the black lady in the photo, "This is Nurse Lina, a beautiful French woman."
The progress bar has reached 68%.
Couples and nurses.
Dean clearly outlined the relationship between the three in his mind, and asked another question, "Do the three of them get along well?"
"I have a very good impression. For a while, Thomas and Lina came to the store to dine together while pushing Shane in a wheelchair. They were talking and laughing. They seemed to be very good friends."
"Under the careful care of Thomas and Lina, Shane showed amazing tenacity and survived for more than a year in the late stages of the disease."
"A year later, her health deteriorated to the point where she couldn't go out and stayed in bed all day."
"I never saw them in the restaurant again. Later, I heard from other townspeople that Shane died of illness... Thomas took care of her funeral, and he really couldn't continue to live in this small town that broke his heart. I sold the house and moved away.”
The investigation progress jumped to seventy-three percent.
"So Thomas moved to Honey Island Swamp because he lost his wife." Farage said emotionally,
Dean took a sip of corn soup, digested the information in his mind, and sorted out the context——
His wife Shane who is seriously ill and dying, her husband Thomas who is exhausted physically and mentally and is under great pressure, and the beautiful and gentle nurse Lina.
He has already mapped out a general story direction in his mind, but there are still many details that need to be perfected.
For example, is Victor, who suffered a curse, physical deformity, and finally became a regenerator, really just Thomas's adopted son?
Dean asked, "Did Thomas and Shane have any kids?"
The old chef thought for a while and said, "During their marriage, I never saw Xia En's belly bulging. Later, Xia En got sick and it was even less likely to be pregnant."
"I don't know much about Xia En. I only know that she is from outside and has a quiet personality."
"Did she die at home or in the hospital?"
"Not sure."
"Where's Nurse Lina..."
"I know even less about her. She was originally a nurse at the town hospital and never appeared again after Thomas moved away."
"You mean Lina moved with Thomas?"
"uncertain."
Dean nodded when he heard this, and he had an idea.
"Do you remember which house in town Shane and Thomas were at?"
"do not remember."
"Besides you, who else in Bay St. Louis is more familiar with them?"
"Decades have passed, and people who knew them are dead and gone."
"Okay, thank you for your answer. You helped us a lot." Dean lifted the hypnosis, handed the old man a tip, and watched him return to the kitchen.
"Dean, do you feel it, Thomas and Lina..." Farage wiped the oil stains from the corners of his mouth and hesitated.
"The possibility is not small." Dean put down his meal money, stood up and walked out of the restaurant. The setting sun was like blood in the sky, "Let's go. There is no way to check Xia En's background. Let's go to the town hospital to investigate Lina first."
(End of chapter)
