The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 281: The Antique Book

Lu Li didn't close the door behind him. An open door was one way of ensuring his own safety.

The wet, cold soles of his boots left prints on the floor. Aside from the creaking of the floorboards, not another sound could be heard. An ominous silence pervaded the house.

In the entryway, a faint smell of rotting food mingled with the scent of dampness. Considering that no one had entered the house for a week after Petra’s disappearance, it was no surprise that the leftover food had spoiled.

Lu Li remained silent, but Thomas continued, "Did you know that I was the one who originally started the investigation into the 'Man-Eating Houses'? If you've read the case files..."

Lu Li shifted his gaze from his surroundings to Thomas. "I didn't see your name in the documents."

"I preferred to remain anonymous," Thomas replied, heading for the kitchen. He stopped on the threshold, pinching his nose with a disgusted expression, waved his leather-gloved hand, and turned away.

However, he didn't forget to continue the conversation with Lu Li. "I've heard about you from Tesla. He holds you in very high regard, and it seems he wasn't mistaken. So, when they asked me at headquarters if I wanted to take this case, I turned down a grand reception at the viscount's this evening to help you and, at the same time, use the musical box to solve this problem once and for all."

"By the way, thank you for finding the source of the contagion."

After circling the living room, Thomas returned to Lu Li and said, as if suddenly remembering something, "Oh, by the way, could you help me?"

"With what?"Thomas pointed toward the kitchen. "I'm rather squeamish. Would you mind checking the kitchen?"

"The source of the contagion is the cursed antique book. We just need to find it."

Thomas smiled mysteriously. "But sometimes, surprises happen. For example, I was once investigating a complex case. Three other investigators and I went to a town where many people had died. We all thought the killer was a monster roaming the streets. We tracked it for a long time, but it turned out the murderer was the mayor's son, who had been cooperating with us the whole time. When he tried to attack us, I sensed something was amiss just in time and neutralized him. One of my colleagues, unfortunately, lost an eye."

"So, once you've handled enough cases like this, you'll understand what I mean."

Setting aside his boastfulness, Thomas had a point. Until the truth is established, all conclusions and judgments are merely assumptions. They can only approach the truth; they are not the truth itself.

Of course, if Thomas had spoken in a more agreeable tone, rather than with such arrogance, his point would have been more effective.

"What am I looking for?" Lu Li asked.

Thomas pointed two fingers at his own eyes. "I know you have strong intuition. Pay attention to anything that strikes you as strange."

Lu Li entered the kitchen without a word.

The stench of rot intensified the moment Lu Li stepped over the threshold. The source was a pot of stew on the stove.

After a week in the damp, the surface of the meat broth had nearly solidified, covered in something like coal dust and a gray-black mold that resembled eyeballs.

For some, the sight would have been no less horrifying than a supernatural encounter.

For the squeamish senior investigator waiting outside, for example.

Averting his eyes, Lu Li scanned the rest of the kitchen. Apart from that wretched pot, there was nothing else that caused him any discomfort.

Lu Li returned to the living room. Thomas, who was dabbing his forehead with a handkerchief, put it away and looked at Lu Li. "Your expression tells me you found nothing."

"Yes."

"Then let's go upstairs."

They went up to the second floor. Thomas opened the door to a study.

Two walls were lined with bookshelves packed with books. A desk stood beneath the window, holding neatly stacked papers and a few more books. The room looked every bit a professor's study.

"Can you sense the antique book's presence?" Thomas asked Lu Li. He shook his head.

"Well then, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way."

With that, he pulled the first book from the top shelf.

While Thomas scanned the books one by one, Lu Li moved around the desk to the window. Fog and rain blurred the view, but he could just make out several figures standing on the street below.

Suddenly, a soft tap sounded on the glass.

Lu Li froze. An unseen finger traced a smiling face on the fogged glass. Though the lines vanished quickly under the rain, the image of the smile was seared into his memory.

"Hmm... Mysteries of Innsmouth, Fifty-Eight Recipes for Cooking Tanuki Crabs, and Mystical Astrology. This poor old woman had rather good taste. Oh, right, she was a professor, after all."

Thomas remarked, sliding the book he was holding back onto the shelf. "Let's check the bedroom," he said to Lu Li.

"Did you check all the books?"

"No, just the ones she'd been reading recently. There's no point checking books that haven't been touched for ages, unless we come up empty in the bedroom."

Lu Li and Thomas left the study and stopped before the door to Petra's bedroom.

The door swung open with a creak. Lu Li's eyes immediately shot to the nightstand beside the bed.

On it lay an old, black-bound book.

"Do you sense anything?" Thomas asked, watching him.

"There are whispers coming from the book," Lu Li replied.

"It seems your theory was entirely correct," Thomas said, stepping into the bedroom and making his way to the nightstand.

His leather-gloved hand reached for the antique book. Just as he was about to touch it, Lu Li's voice came from behind him:

"That book is dangerous."

"If it were dangerous, the old woman couldn't have brought it home so easily," Thomas said as his fingers touched the cover.

Nothing happened as he picked up the book.

But as he started to open it, Lu Li warned him again, "That book is dangerous."

The same words, but this time his tone was more grave.

"Are you referring to how it turns the surroundings and the house itself into anomalies? Don't worry, they're asleep now," Thomas said with a carefree smile, offering the book to Lu Li.

"Perhaps you'd like to go first?"

"No."

Lu Li always made a point of keeping his distance from objects of unknown origin.

"Young man, such behavior is unbecoming of an investigator."

Thomas scoffed and opened the book.

"I doubt its contents would be of any use to me," Lu Li said, remaining in the doorway.

Thomas started to reply, but his gaze, fixed on the antique book, suddenly went rigid.

"This is..."

Suddenly, his clothes seemed to come to life, radiating an unsettling, sinister aura as they began to writhe and constrict tightly around him. Thomas barely had time to look toward Lu Li...

A wet, tearing sound echoed through the room.

A bloody mass of flesh and fabric collapsed into a heap on the floor, topped by half of Thomas's face, his mouth open in a silent scream.

In a matter of seconds, the senior investigator had been reduced to a bloody pulp before Lu Li's eyes.