There is a gardener in the garden who is building bushes. It was a young man who looked to be quite old, a kind of veteran gardener who paid a lot of money and was skilled in his work, at least ten years older than Ed and Albert, at least forty years old and close to fifty years old. Wearing a blue wide-brimmed hat and holding a large pair of shrub scissors in his hand, he walked up and down the path in the garden, and the sound of "click" and "click" had become very faint when it came to it.

Ed watched the figure below wander comfortably in the green of the garden with the same eyes as he looked at the fish in the pond, and for a moment wanted to jump over the fence. Then he slapped himself in the face, silently dispelling the thought.

"How am I going to find this tithe?" He asked.

"I don't think it's a good idea." Albert said, glancing at Ed from the side, "If I were you, I would definitely be as far away from her as I could in this situation, and I would never think of taking the initiative to get involved with her." And A.R.X. ”

"Two people are dead, Albert." Ed's voice was a little muffled, "There's another child missing, a fifteen-year-old. You say it's a coincidence or a bullshit fate, this mess was pushed in front of me, and it has something to do with the commission I received. Anyway, I've already taken the money. ”

“……”

Albert looked at Ade, silent, and then nodded slowly.

"Understood. Sure enough, it's the detective I like. He smiled and yawned, "So, you want to get that child back and find out the truth about what happened between the dead couple and A.R.X?" ”

"Getting that kid back is the first of the best." Ed said, squinting at Albert, "There's a good chance she's with that mad dog who eats people and doesn't spit out bones." I don't know why Shiki took her, I don't know if it has anything to do with the A.R.X organization you mentioned, it's not funny. Tell me, that rabid dog - how can I find her? ”

Albert took a hard puff of his cigarette, pinched the cigar between his lips and teeth with his fingers, and took a leisurely puff of the smoke ring.

"You can't find it." He said.

"What?"

"You can't find her." Albert shoved the cigarette back into his mouth, as if sipping milk. The head smacked the saliva-soaked cigarette holder, "Who do you think she is?" I don't have an exact number, but I do know that the hideouts she has prepared for herself in the city must be at least three digits, and some of them change every once in a while. ”

"I thought she was retired."

"But she's back now." Albert looked at Ed seriously, his eyes were blazing, and he heard the meaning of Ed's words, "Although it is a little strange to say this, I seem to have known that this day will come sooner or later." She's the kind of person...... It's never really too far away. She belongs to this side of the world. ”

“……”

She may have really wanted to say goodbye to the past forever, but the truth is that she's now back into the kingdom game, for whatever reason. Something like this happens all the time, and it's not unusual. In this case, some people may need some time to get used to, a period of time to get back into shape, and a period of re-familiarization with the rules and environment. But she doesn't need to. Albert sighed, "If she doesn't want to be found, then no one will be able to find her." Unless she wanted to be found, or she didn't intend to hide it in the first place. ”

"So you say," Ed laughed, "I can't find a breakthrough in her?" ”

"That's exactly what I meant."

Ed snorted, turned back, and leaned against the railing. "I don't know," he said, "I can't help but say so sure." ”

Albert just smiled. He casually shook his empty wine glass, then turned and walked to his chaise longue. He targeted the food truck next to it, which contained several bottles of liquid gold that El could recognize with the naked eye in the ice bucket. The cup he had just drunk was actually one of them, but he didn't think it was much different from what Paul had said to be rubbish.

They are all things that plague people's brains, and they exist only to anesthetize people's nerves. So they never go away.

Ed was about to step forward and snatch Albert's bottle and pour himself another glass. He was going to have another drink before leaving. Like last night's meeting with Marcy, he now got everything he could get here at Albert. And the next thing he needs to do is put them to good use, find out where he wants to go, and take a path. This is the only option left in front of you when there is no way out.

There's nothing easier than choosing the only option in front of you.

Ed thought, his brain spinning, his mind pondering, thinking jumbledly. He sat back in his chaise longue and watched as Albert finished pouring his wine, put the bottle down on the round table, and pushed it towards him.

"It's a nice place, isn't it?" Albert looked at the scenery of the forest lake and said suddenly.

"Huh?" Ed looked up, then followed his gaze into the distance, "Of course. Very good. ”

"Remote, secluded." Albert smiled and tilted his head, and the spar-like sunglasses reflected Ed's face, "It's good to sneak around and do something that others don't know." ”

"You're going to open a brothel here?"

"Yes. But that would cross the line. There are other people doing business in that circle. ”

Ed smiled and drank quietly. Then, at that moment, there was a knock on the door, causing Ed and Albert to turn their heads over the recliner and look behind them. That picture is quite comic.

Holding a rectangular data tablet, Eliki walked straight into the room. She certainly had the right to do so, and she was the highest-ranking being in the castle outside of Albert himself.

She looked serious, businesslike, completely ignoring Ed, quickly walked through the living room and floor-to-ceiling windows, walked all the way to Albert's side, and pushed the dining cart away. She bent down, brought her little mouth to Albert's ear, and whispered something quickly and softly.

Then, Ed saw Albert's eyebrows raised. Then the two men brought their heads closer together. Eliki was showing Albert something from the datapad she had brought.

"Do you want to make out here?" Ed took a sip of his wine, feeling as if he was standing on the other side of the lake and shouting in the air, every word floating in the air sounded fluttering, "Do you need to avoid it now?" ”

"I don't think that's a good idea, my friend." Albert didn't raise his head, but his tone was a little wrong, "I think you'll definitely regret it if you leave now." ”

“…… What are you talking about? ”

Ed's brow furrowed. He looked at the two people in front of him, and suddenly had an urge to go up and grab the data board they were looking at for no reason. However, Eliki glanced up at Ed at this time, her eyes dark and far-reaching, like a lonely spring in the night.

Looking at each other, Ed calmed down.

"Remember what I just said?" Albert didn't seem to notice Ed's reaction at all—and even if he did, he didn't take it for granted—and turned to look at Eddard with one hand holding Eliki's datapad, "If Shiro doesn't want people to find her, then no one can find her." Unless she wanted to be found, or she didn't intend to hide it in the first place. ”

"You did."

"Now it seems," Albert sighed, tossing the datapad in his hand at Ed, "she really didn't seem to have any intention of hiding it at all." ”

……

Marcy's desk was a mess for a long time, and she herself had always been very, very mindful of that, because it was very, very affecting her work. Interestingly, though, this influence does not come from her desktop itself, but from the outside world.

At the police headquarters, the chief has his own office, the sheriff has his own office, and the police inspector has his own office, but the police detective does not. All the detective has is a desk and a small office area with the desks of the other detectives he is working with. And this office area is connected to the office hall.

That's the problem.

Anyone who has ever had the privilege of visiting the police office hall knows that the place is as bustling as a supermarket on sale. The police officers, the outsiders, and all sorts of other messy guys, all day long, came and went in and out of the black garbage dump that didn't close or sit idle every day in the city, and almost everyone glanced at Marcy's desk as they passed.

This drove Marcy crazy. Although it is not surprising that her colleagues, whether they are superiors or low-level police officers, have seen a lot, those outsiders are different. And they've always been in a constant stream.

Marcy tried to clean out her desk, but quickly gave up. It won't take a day for everything to be back to the way it was.

The phone rang at the wrong time. Marcy was wearing glasses, her head down, engrossed in writing something - unlike Ed, she didn't wear glasses very often, and only put them on when times like the one she had - and then she wrote as if she had suddenly remembered something, and looked up to reach for a stack of folders stacked higher than a kettle in the corner of the table. Then the phone rang, Marcy was distracted, and the whole stack of papers collapsed like a leaning tower of tofu dregs.

"Hell." Marcy cursed secretly, angrily put down her pen and took out her phone, glanced at it, and while connecting it to her ear, she sat up from her chair and bent down to pick up the papers on the ground. "Ed?"

"Have you had lunch, Marcy?" On the other end of the line came Ed's slightly hoarse voice.

"Go in a moment. What's the matter, you want a treat? ”

"I'll talk about it next time." Ed's reply didn't surprise Marcy at all, "I have something else to ask you about." ”

"Please, Eddard." Marcy restacked the folders one by one, and exhaled with her eyes closed in some frustration, "Do you think I'm idle?" I'm not the only one with you to ......."

"How much do you know about A.R.X?"

“……”

In the sudden silence, the expression on Marcy's face changed, and her eyes slowly condensed.