The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 102: The Dead Wife

"May I come in and talk?"

The young man's frantic cry drew the attention of a few passersby, who glanced curiously at the house standing in the rain.

"No, you need to leave..."

"Alright, thank you."

Lu Li ignored the refusal, squeezed past the young man into the entryway, and shut the door behind him.

Slam!

The door slammed shut. Clutching a wooden club, the young man retreated nervously, looking as if he were losing his mind.

"Don't worry, Trans. We just want to clarify a few things."

Lu Li scanned the room.

The bungalow was a standard apartment layout: a study, two bedrooms, and a living room with a west-facing window that didn't overlook the harbor. The sharp smell of cheap disinfectant hung in the air, stronger than in any hospital, so pungent it was almost nauseating, as if desperately trying to conceal something else.The floor, sofa, and furniture were impeccably clean, and a still-damp mop stood nearby. Trans, it seemed, was obsessively neat, though Deputy Sheriff Valentine's report had made no mention of it.

"You..."

Wariness flashed in Trans's eyes. He had noticed Lu Li use the plural "we," and he tensed, glancing around as if searching for someone else in the room.

Which, of course, there was.

"...and my colleague. He's waiting outside."

Trans's paranoid behavior made Lu Li frown.

Lu Li walked over to the sofa and sat down. The gesture might make the other man even more nervous, but it would also signal that Lu Li posed no threat.

"Now then, Trans, please have a seat. I have a few questions for you."

"You were here just a few days ago, asking questions."

Trans finally seemed to believe Lu Li, at least a little. He skirted the sofa and sat down opposite him.

He kept a tight grip on the club, his entire body tense with extreme wariness and a readiness to defend himself.

He did not, of course, offer his guest any tea.

"These are new questions," Lu Li said, his voice low and deliberate as he met Trans's eyes. "At the door, I noticed you seemed afraid that we might find your wife. Could you tell me why? Or perhaps..."

His dark eyes narrowed slightly.

"...your wife Shelly's disappearance has something to do with you?"

Shelly was the new name O'Connor was using—or rather, the new body he had occupied after abandoning Aida's now-unusable corpse.

She had disappeared yesterday, and the neighbors had reported it to the police today. Upon arriving, Lu Li immediately noted her husband's suspicious and bizarre behavior.

Now, this husband seemed highly suspicious indeed.

"No, it wasn't me! I had nothing to do with it!" The mention of her name seemed to trigger a deep fear in Trans. His face flushed as he shouted, his body trembling.

"I know the truth, but you cops would never believe me!"

Lu Li's expression remained unchanged. He calmly crossed his legs and leaned back against the sofa.

"We'll decide whether to believe you after you've spoken. As things stand, you're a prime suspect regardless. Your words, for instance, could be interpreted as fear of the police finding her body, and this thorough cleaning could be seen as destroying evidence."

"It really wasn't me! She's been dead for days! When she came back the last time, she was already..."

His voice cut off abruptly. Trans went pale and slumped back onto the sofa, lapsing into a stony silence.

Dead for days?

That phrase was significant. Lu Li pressed on. "If you're referring to something unexplainable, you can tell me about it."

"What?"

Trans raised his head, a stunned expression on his face.

Lu Li prompted him gently, "Paranormal phenomena, for instance."

Trans stared intently at Lu Li, a look of sudden realization on his face.

"Who are you?!"

"I already introduced myself," Lu Li replied, his expression unreadable.

Trans buried his head in his knees, muttering, "You'll just think I'm crazy..."

"I can guarantee your confidentiality," Lu Li assured him. He glanced in the direction where Anna would be. She nodded—whether he saw her or not—and drifted into the other rooms, searching for clues.

"Alright... I'll tell you..." Trans slowly lifted his head, revealing a tormented face.

Looking at him, no one would have believed he was only twenty-six years old.

"My wife and I worked at Ruth's Bank. That's where we met and fell in love. We bought this house together... We were planning to have a child, to grow old together..."

Anna floated out from the bedroom and shook her head at Lu Li.

The study and the bedroom were in order; she'd found nothing suspicious, aside from the excessive cleanliness.

Trans continued his grim tale.

Their life together might have lost some of its initial passion, but it was comfortable and peaceful. Until a few days ago, when Shelly vanished.

She was gone without a trace for half a day. Just as Trans was beginning to worry, she reappeared, dispelling his fears.

"Wait, you said she disappeared a few days ago?" Lu Li frowned slightly. "Do you remember the exact time?"

"Around eleven in the morning..."

"I mean the date."

"About six days ago."

Lu Li finally understood the problem.

Deputy Sheriff Valentine had reported Shelly's second disappearance, but she had actually vanished once before, for a short time, six days ago. Since Trans hadn't reported it and she had returned so quickly, the police knew nothing of the first incident.

Based on the timeline, Shelly's first disappearance had occurred the day after Lu Li had contacted Deputy Sheriff Valentine.

In other words, after that first disappearance... it wasn't his wife who had come back.

It was a chaotic soul possessing the combined memories of O'Connor, Hall, and Shelly. The powerful disinfectant and Trans's bizarre behavior now made perfect sense: the first was to mask the smell of decomposition, and the second was a product of sheer terror.

Lu Li shook his head slightly. He was too late again...

It was a failure of intelligence. Lu Li had assumed this was O'Connor's second victim, but in truth, O'Connor had already abandoned Shelly's decaying corpse and was searching for a new host.

And had perhaps already found one.

"Later, I realized... my wife... she was already dead... It was just her body that came back that day," Trans stammered, grabbing his head in despair.

Lu Li already knew this, of course, but he asked anyway, "How do you know?"

"Do living people get corpse spots?" Trans asked with a bitter laugh.

...

"...Ah..." Breathing heavily, Trans rolled over in bed, his chest heaving.

Beside him, his wife got up with stiff, unnatural movements and, completely naked, walked toward the bathroom.

Trans figured she was just tired. He leaned against the headboard, about to tease her, when he suddenly noticed the large, dark purplish patches on her back.

Shelly seemed to be scratching an itch on her back, dragging her fingernails across her skin.

The skin beneath her nails split open with sickening ease, peeling away from the flesh to reveal the subcutaneous fat and a viscous, bloody pulp beneath.

Trans rubbed his eyes hard, and by the time he opened them again, his wife had already vanished into the bathroom.