The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 93: Brian or Hall

Voices drifted from the kitchen adjoining the living room. A woman peeked out cautiously, cast a few glances at Lu Li, and then ducked back out of sight. A moment later, Brian emerged, no longer wearing his apron. "Sorry," he said apologetically. "I asked my wife to keep an eye out."

"It's nothing," Lu Li replied curtly.

"Did you need something, detective?"

"It's about your recent disappearance," Lu Li said, stepping into the living room and sitting down at the dining table without ceremony. "Do you recall any details?"

Following Lu Li's instructions, Anna detached from him and floated into the kitchen.

Brian poured water into a wooden bowl, set it before Lu Li, and said, "That is... everything I remember, I told you last time. I can't recall anything else."

Lu Li's gaze drifted over the trembling surface of the water in the bowl. He continued his questioning, "Have you paid attention to any other details? The date and time of that day, for instance?"

Anna returned from the kitchen and headed for the bedroom.

Brian picked up an empty bowl, poured himself some water, drank it in one gulp, and smiled. "No. But my memory is perfectly fine. Thank you for your concern, I'm really all right."

Lu Li subtly asked a few more questions. When Anna emerged and whispered in his ear that she hadn't found anything suspicious, he rose to leave.Brian walked him to the door. Just as Lu Li stepped over the threshold, he suddenly turned and uttered one word: "O'Connor."

Brian flinched visibly, a look of confusion on his face. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," Lu Li replied, his expression a mask of calm. He turned and left the house.

The click of the closing door sounded behind him.

Once settled in the carriage waiting on the street, Anna couldn't contain her curiosity. She materialized and asked, "That guy isn't O'Connor?"

The carriage was empty. Lu Li had sent JoJo, whom Anna had brought along, back to Belfast in a separate carriage.

"Mm-hm." Lu Li flicked the reins, and the carriage slowly pulled away from Brian's house.

Anna sagged in disappointment, slumping onto the seat and muttering gloomily:

"So we were wrong again..."

"We weren't wrong," Lu Li answered without turning around.

"What? But you said he wasn't..."

The carriage stopped again, a few dozen meters from Brian's house. From here, they had a clear view of the entrance.

"He's Hall."

Anna was stunned. "Huh...?"

"Remember when you went into the kitchen and the bedroom?" The rain was falling harder now, and Lu Li climbed into the carriage, making sure no neighbors were watching. "He kept shifting his position so he wouldn't have his back to you. No matter where you went, he always kept you in his line of sight, either facing you directly or from the side."

Understanding began to dawn on Anna. She asked hesitantly, "Are you saying he..."

"Yes. He can see you."

"Isn't that a bit of a stretch?"

Anna didn't think that could be considered proof.

"If I put it another way, you won't think so," Lu Li said, turning his head toward the deserted street shrouded in a veil of rain. His voice was impassive. "Imagine you're a murderer. The police come to ask a few questions, and one of them starts looking around the house. To avoid being caught off guard, you make small movements to subtly keep him from getting behind you. For instance, you pour him some water, and then you pour some for yourself and drink it... Would you really get a drink right after serving a guest?"

"Yeah, that is strange..." Anna belatedly realized the problem. "So you said that name to..."

Although Anna's mind worked a little slower since she'd been dead for a while, she wasn't stupid. She understood. "...to confirm whether he was O'Connor or Hall?!"

"Mm-hm." Lu Li gave a slight nod.

When he'd said the name, he had watched Brian's eyes. After the question, they had narrowed involuntarily before gradually relaxing, as if a great weight had been lifted from him.

"So this is the adult world..." Anna mumbled, feeling a pang of guilt for her own short-sightedness.

However, much like Oliver, her emotions faded quickly. Soon, she was asking with renewed curiosity, "Then why didn't we just grab him back there?"

"The victim's wife was there. She's suffered enough already; there's no need to compound her grief."

"So now we..."

"We wait for him to come out. My visit will push him to go to Richard," Lu Li said, leaning back against the seat and closing his eyes. "Keep watch."

Anna, half-understanding, nodded anyway.

The man and the ghost began their long wait.

The rain continued to drizzle, neither strengthening nor letting up.

Time passed. At three in the afternoon, there was finally movement at Brian's house.

"He's coming out!" exclaimed Anna, who had been watching their target while simultaneously admiring the street scene.

Lu Li, who had been dozing, opened his eyes and sat up, looking out the window.

In the twilight, a figure emerged from Brian's house, visible through the curtain of rain.

The figure wore a woolen coat, a gray hat pulled down to cover half his face. He turned and headed down the street, away from the carriage.

From his build, Lu Li identified him as Brian.

Lu Li climbed out of the carriage, cracked the whip, and turned the horses around to follow Brian.

The drizzling rain gave Lu Li an advantage. The sound of it muffled the noise of the carriage wheels as it followed a few dozen paces behind.

But Brian seemed to sense something. He glanced over his shoulder, then pulled his hat down further and quickened his pace, ducking into a dark, narrow alley.

The carriage stopped in front of the alley, its wide body blocking the exit.

It was a dead end. The alley terminated in a solid wall, and Brian was trapped.

Lu Li opened his umbrella, stepped down from the carriage, and stood at the mouth of the alley, watching Brian slowly turn to face him.

The smile on the face of Brian—or rather, Hall—slowly faded. He dropped the facade, and his previously good-natured, simple face turned grim.

His lips twisted into a smirk as he spoke calmly, "Whoever you are, whatever ghost is with you, whatever you learned from Richard... I'm a living man now. Like it or not, I am Brian. I have all his memories. What are you going to do to an ordinary citizen?"

People who rush to reveal all their secrets at the first confrontation are usually not very bright.

Then again, perhaps he was just overconfident.

Hall spread his hands and started walking slowly toward Lu Li. "We don't need to have a conflict. What I mean is, you see, I just want to be a normal person, and I am just a normal person. You might as well just leave me alone."

Lu Li placed a hand on the small of his back. Noticing the movement, Hall stopped, his unpleasant, cold smile never wavering.

"You're not a policeman, are you? Let me guess... Richard was forced to flee a few days ago, and Yulissis never got his new body. Was that your doing?"

It seemed he belonged to the latter category.