The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 96: A Severed Thread and a New Lead

Ms. Bryan, whose full name was Aida Bryan, lived at 308 Bloom Street, Apartment 6, in the Sentry Post. O'Connor had taken over the woman's body. Whether this was his own choice or some cruel joke on Richard's part, Lu Li didn't know. Either way, Aida, the victim of this misfortune, was a tragic figure.

“As pitiable as she is, I think her husband is just as unfortunate...” Anna murmured softly.

The carriage had already arrived on Bloom Street, having just passed number 300, a pottery shop. Number 308 was an apartment building, similar to the ones on Sailor Street but far more squalid. The dilapidated wooden walls were thin and offered little protection from the rain; life for the tenants was likely miserable on rainy days and during the winter.

The carriage came to a halt. Lu Li stepped out and, with Anna at his side, entered the building's main entrance.

The corridor was quiet, its wall-mounted gas lamps casting a dim glow.

Knock, knock, knock.

Standing before the sixth apartment, Lu Li raised his hand and rapped on the wooden door. The sound echoed down the hallway.

Click.

A door opened, but not the one he had knocked on. An old woman carrying a bucket of trash emerged from the apartment opposite, apparently on her way to throw it out.

“Aida's not home, young man. Do you need something?” she asked.A foul odor drifted from her apartment into the hallway—the stench of something rotting.

Lu Li turned around.

“I'm a detective. I need to ask her a few questions. Do you know where she is?” he inquired.

The old woman's cloudy eyes sized up Lu Li. Her gaze gave him a strange, unsettling feeling.

After satisfying herself that Lu Li didn't look like a dangerous person, the old woman shook her head.

“I don't. She just left, took a lot of things with her. Might have gone to Belfast. You could try looking for her there.”

“Alright, thank you,” Lu Li said politely, watching as the old woman shuffled slowly down the corridor. His gaze lingered for a moment on the open door of her apartment before he turned away and spoke to the empty space beside him. “Go in and have a look.”

Anna materialized and, with a nod, drifted into the apartment. A moment later, she emerged, shaking her head regretfully.

“There's no one there.”

“We're too late,” Lu Li frowned. O'Connor's hasty departure was too suspicious. It was almost certain that O'Connor had learned Lu Li had dealt with Hall, packed his things, and fled. As for how O'Connor found out... Lu Li had no idea.

“What do we do now? Where do we look?” Anna asked, frustrated. “Maybe we should have kept Hall alive for a while.”

Lu Li couldn't have left Hall. He wasn't one to entrust his safety to others, even if that other was just a ghost. Besides, Hall was no ordinary ghost; the crimson eyes that had appeared on his body had put Lu Li on high alert.

“Let's go back for now,” Lu Li said calmly, turning and walking out of the corridor.

Back in the carriage, the drawn curtains muffled the street noise. In the small, quiet space, only the soft patter of rain on the roof and the blinking of Anna's eyes remained.

Anna sensed that Lu Li had other ideas, because there wasn't the slightest ripple of agitation in his onyx-black eyes; they were as calm as still water.

Lu Li did, of course, have other ideas, but they were very risky. He could simply tell the Night's Watch about Richard's conspiracy, and they would help him find the man. But that would create other problems. First, any contact with Richard was problematic in itself. Joel was well-disposed toward Lu Li, but that was his personal opinion. The Night's Watch would be unlikely to let Lu Li anywhere near Richard. And Richard would almost certainly, out of malice, reveal Lu Li's encounter with the "door." It was still unclear what the "door" was, and this would put Lu Li at a disadvantage.

Lu Li peeked out from under the carriage's curtain and flicked the reins. The obedient horse started forward, its hooves clopping slowly on the wet cobblestones.

The carriage roof kept out most of the drizzling rain, but a few stray drops still landed on his face, bringing with them a slight chill. Lu Li stared blankly ahead, his mind still turning.

Beyond that plan, he had a backup: join the Night's Watch or the Spirit Hunters Association. By joining one of these organizations, Lu Li could use their resources to find Richard. But the drawbacks were obvious. The first organization worked for the Duchy of the Allen Peninsula, or someone even higher up, and had official status. He could imagine what joining them would entail: restricted freedom, military-style management.

The Spirit Hunters Association seemed slightly better at first glance, because Lu Li had already met the prerequisite for joining—destroying a vengeful spirit. Michelle had been indirectly destroyed by him, and she was a vengeful spirit, so Lu Li could technically apply. But this raised another issue: the Spirit Hunters Association was a secret society. They hardly ever appeared in public, and Lu Li had no idea how to contact them. Perhaps a good strategy would be to make a name for himself and wait for them to find him, but Lu Li was well aware that he hadn't actually been capable of destroying a vengeful spirit on his own.

Though he had no interest in feigning weakness, Lu Li didn't want a reputation that exceeded his actual abilities. That would only invite trouble. Perhaps from his peers, perhaps from monsters.

Inside the carriage, Anna rested her cheek on her hand and gazed at the street scenes passing by the window. Raindrops drifting into the carriage passed right through her translucent form, and the light breeze couldn't stir a single strand of her hair.

Anna's tranquility didn't last long. A sharp "Neigh!" came from ahead, and the carriage stopped. Puzzled, she turned to see Lu Li muttering to himself, “She said ‘you’.”

“What?” Lu Li turned to Anna. “The old woman, the one living across from O’Connor, she addressed me as ‘you’.”

“Well, yes, we did come together, didn't we?” Anna still hadn't grasped what Lu Li was getting at.

“How could she have seen you?”

“Of course... Ah!” Anna's clear eyes gradually widened as she finally understood.

On a deserted street in the Sentry Post, the carriage turned around and headed back the way it came...

308 Bloom Street.

A slender figure entered the apartment building's corridor. It was as quiet as before, with only the occasional sound of tenants' voices filtering through the thin walls. Approaching the sixth apartment, Lu Li noticed that the door opposite was still open, just as they had left it. The smell of decay at the threshold had not dissipated. Standing at the doorway, Lu Li silently surveyed the room beyond. It was coated in a layer of dust, as if it hadn't been cleaned in a long time. The old woman hadn't returned. The room looked uninhabited, which only deepened Lu Li's suspicions.

“Ask the neighbors who lives here,” Lu Li said, turning his head.

“Huh? Me?” Anna asked.

“I will,” Lu Li corrected himself, remembering Anna was a ghost, and headed for the other apartments.

Fifteen minutes later, apartment 12.

“The previous tenant of the apartment across from number six moved out a month and a half ago, and it was a middle-aged man. There are no old women living in this entire building,” Lu Li stood at the door, calmly reporting the results of his survey. This information all but confirmed that the old woman had been O'Connor.

Anna pouted.

“Too bad he got away. The thread's gone cold again...”

Lu Li shook his head slightly, his dark eyes scanning the room.

“No, he left us a clue.”