The sky was faintly bright.

Dean followed the pastor's family to Trent's home in the Garden District and hypnotized the three arsonists to make sure they were honestly cooperating.

Later, he and Faraj drove to Honey Island to investigate Thomas Crowley's former home.

Taking advantage of the rare opportunity to be alone, Faraj looked at his companion in the rearview mirror, with unconcealable envy in his dark eyes,

"If Zumbi had your ability, I am afraid that he would have been eager to spread the word and deify himself as a priest of Voodoo."

"Spread the word?" Dean raised an eyebrow and shook his head, "He's going to die a terrible death." ”

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes supernatural powers are equivalent to a curse and invite calamity, but they are not as free and safe as ordinary humans."

Faraj rolled his eyes and said dissatisfiedly, "Are you showing off?" It's like a billionaire saying that too much money is a kind of annoyance, and it makes people want to beat you up. ”

"Well, you're right." Dean looked at the lake not far away, which reflected a turquoise sheen in the morning light, "We've got there." ”

……

Take a boat and go to the island.

Stepping on the wet muddy ground, the dew-covered bushes, and the tall alder forest, we walked all the way to the east side of Honey Island.

Along the way, Dean found a number of messy human footprints, which were left by Victor from wandering around the island last night.

In addition, you can occasionally see abandoned houses with almost no skeletons left among the trees, which were the houses of the islanders who moved out many years ago.

On the east side of the island, next to the forest wall, there is a hut with a chimney surrounded by a wooden fence.

Around the house stood wooden stakes for chopping wood, huts for storing firewood, chicken coops, beehives, and vegetable gardens, but unfortunately all of them have become dilapidated and desolate under the baptism of time.

And the interior of the house has long been a haven for wild animals and insects, with rats, spiders, and snakes occupying every corner.

The furnishings were sparse, except for the fireplace, the most striking were two wooden beds, a children's wooden horse, and some cabinets and drawers, all of which were covered with thick dust, and a pit to the touch.

Faraj put on his gloves and began to rummage through the cabinets quickly.

Dean opens God's Perspective to inspect the floor, the dark compartment that may exist behind the ceiling, and the basement.

"A lot of toys." Faraghi took a dusty rattle from a drawer, shook it a few times, and found a pile of lifelike carved dolls.

One of the figures wears green denim overalls and a white long-sleeved shirt underneath.

Another doll with an O-shaped mustache and bloated body that couldn't see his neck held his hand.

From a distance, it looks like a small monster holding the hand of a standing grizzly bear, but its face is full of happy smiles.

"This is Victor and Thomas from childhood. ”

"Prepare so many delicate woodworking toys for your children," Dean said, scanning the dozens of toys in the drawer, "They have a good father-son relationship." ”

Faraj pursed his lips and nodded, "If it weren't for the deep feelings, Thomas wouldn't have spent the rest of his life in solitude because of the loss of his son." ”

……

The atmosphere in the room became much more depressing.

The two continued to search, and although Victor died more than twenty years before Thomas, it was like some kind of memorial, and the whole room was full of traces of the life of the two fathers and sons, all kinds of small objects, plates with names engraved on them, knives and forks, and children's books full of notes for literacy and learning.

As Dean swept across the roof, he suddenly noticed that a section of wood had been hollowed out of the beam overhead and stuffed into a locked iron box.

The outward-facing side of the box was plastered with wood chips, so deceptive that ninety-nine percent of people couldn't see the anomaly, but it couldn't escape Dean's eyes.

Telekinesis rolled the box and landed in Dean's palm, he blew away the thick dust on the box, and the index finger and thumb of his right hand forcefully broke the iron lock in front of him and opened the box.

What catches your eye is a thin stack of photographs, slightly yellowed because they have been stored for a long time.

The background of the photo at the top of the line is on the street outside a restaurant.

A bloated man stands on the right.

It looks like Thomas, but compared to the middle-aged and elderly appearance on the puppet, he is in the prime of life in the photo, with a fleshy face and an O-shaped beard, not vicious, but mature and honest.

On the left, a tall, delicate-looking Caucasian woman is holding his arm, with a smile on her lips, her shawl hair and white dress drifting to the side with the breeze, with the ethereal temperament of a fairy in the forest.

In addition, she has a slightly long nose and black eyes like birds of prey, which is impressive.

"Beauty and the Beast, but who is this woman?" The first time Dean got the photo, his progress jumped to 55 percent.

Faraj took the yellowed photo and looked at it carefully, shaking his head, "I've never seen it, but they are so intimate, maybe boyfriend and girlfriend, or husband and wife?" ”

Dean was surprised, "Thomas had a partner when he lived on Honey Island?" ”

"I don't remember that Trent described him and Victor as being dependent on each other, with no woman intervening in their lives. So this lady may have been known to him before he moved to Honey Island. ”

Dean nodded, and continued to look through the photos that followed, and then flipped to a few intimate photos of Thomas and the woman, with the restaurant in the background.

"I'm sure I've seen this restaurant somewhere." Faraj couldn't help but point to the shop sign of "Tequila" in the photo and said,

Dean asked, "Downtown New Orleans?" ”

"It's not in the city, it should be in a small town in the surrounding area, I think about it, maybe I can remember."

"It's an important line."

Dean gave her a hypnosis to make her reminisce, and then flipped to the penultimate photo, her pupils narrowed.

The background of the photo switches to the interior, the woman is lying on a sofa, her face is pale, her hair is sparse and dull, her eyes are deeply sunken, her complexion is extremely gray, and the whole person has become morbidly old from the once youthful and beautiful, like a flower about to wither.

Her name is noted on the photo - Shane.

Dean raised an eyebrow, "This woman named Shane is very sick, huh?" ”

"Her state reminds me of my classmates who had cancer and didn't have a few years to live," Faraj said. ”

Dean turned his head to look at the couch in the room again, it was completely different from the photo, and the shooting location should not be in this wooden house.

He then pulled out a photo at the bottom.

In the photo is another strange dark-skinned woman, in her twenties, with delicate facial features that are not inferior to Faraj.

She wore a short white skirt and blouse, revealing her charming figure.

And the background of the photo is in front of the same sofa, and in the upper right corner of the photo is written the woman's name - Lina.

The progress of the survey jumped to 60 percent.

Dean instantly realized that this dark-skinned woman named Lina, like the Caucasian woman Shane, occupied a crucial position in the whole incident.

"Why does Thomas have a collection of pictures of two beautiful women?" Faraj frowned, his impression of the good father greatly reduced, "What is the relationship between the three of them?" ”

Dean looked at the unfolded photos and said, "I don't know. But I have a hunch that if I figure out these doubts, everything will fall into place. ”

"Agreed."

"Okay, after the house is searched, I have to do something, you go out first." Dean sent Faraj outside the cabin, then closed the door and closed the curtains to darken the room.

He looked at the faces of the two women in the photo, silently recited "Lina" and "Shane", turned on "search", and ran wildly in the chaotic dark space of his mind, searching.

Unfortunately, he didn't get any information.

It's as if these two women don't exist in the world.

"Could it be that they are both dead?"

Dean frowned.

The search didn't work, he changed his method, took out the divination suit, put the Ouija board between his knees, cut the palm of his hand, and in the blood spilled, he asked faintly,

"Good and evil spirits wandering the room, listen to my words..."

……

Two minutes later.

The call went unanswered, and Dean left Thomas's cabin, rubbing his chin in thought.

Thomas is drowning in the lake, not in the house, unable to answer his call, and Victor is currently wandering around the island as a regenerator, unable to summon it.

The failure is not surprising.

But he always felt that someone on the island should know the address of Thomas's hometown.

So Dean broke into the abandoned houses he found along the way, and kept trying to summon ghosts.

It wasn't until noon that the persevering Dean had a harvest.

Pitch black room.

A sixty-year-old ghost with white hair, a rickety back, a figure-eight beard, and a wrinkled forehead fell in front of Dean.

Dean asked, "Were there ever people in the Honey Island Swamp who believed in voodoo?" ”

The ghost's translucent face maintained a wooden expression and replied, "No. ”

"Have you seen them?" Dean puts a picture of Thomas, Shane, and Lina in front of the ghost.

"I know Thomas, who lives in the bushes to the east with his poor adopted son Victor, whom the other two women don't know and have never met."

"Are these two women, Shane and Lina, locals?"

"I don't think so, it's a strange name."

Dean nodded, which shows that the two women in the photo had a relationship that Thomas had developed before he moved to Honey Island.

"Do you know Thomas's former address?"

"I overheard an old guy talking about how he used to live in a small town east of New Orleans, and I don't know exactly where."

"That's enough."

Dean let go of the old ghost, pushed open the door, went outside, looked at Faraji, who was waiting impatiently, and told him what he had found.

"A small town east of New Orleans?" Faraghi rolled his eyes as if something was in mind, "Show me the picture with the restaurant sign." ”

"Give!"

"East of New Orleans, Tequila Restaurant, I remember, I know which town it is!" Faraj shook his fist excitedly, and was about to jump up with joy, "It's the town of St. Louis Bay, Mississippi, about an hour's drive east from New Orleans!" ”

"There's a good chance Thomas lived there before!"

The system was shocked, and Dean found that the progress had jumped to sixty-three percent, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but bend slightly, he hadn't worked in vain for half a day!

Faraji happily adds, "Before I went to the police academy, I spent days surfing miles of beach in St. Louis Bay during my graduation trip, and I used to eat paella at this tequila restaurant!" ”

"What are you waiting for? To cross from Louisiana to Mississippi, let's go! Dean glanced at the sky, "Aim to arrive by evening." ”

……

Got into the car and drove to the east side of the road.

Faraj still couldn't contain his excitement and curiosity, "How the hell did you do that?" It was easy to find the Trent trio before, and now they have found Thomas's address decades ago, are they all superpowers? Isn't there a little bit of a secret that we ordinary people can use? ”

"Unfortunately, no."

"Okay, but you're definitely very rich." Faraghi was so envious that his eyes lit up, "As long as you help billionaires find their missing relatives and friends, and complete a single order, you can easily earn money that ordinary people can't earn in a lifetime." ”

Dean tapped his fingers on the window, which was a good way to make money.

But he prefers to be more direct and brutal.

If you don't have money, you will find someone to rob it.

……

All afternoon.

Faraj is expressing his envy for his superpowers, chirping like a black canary.

It wasn't until Dean came to a hypnotic blow that he was honest.

As the sun sets over the horizon, Chevrolet drives along the clean and spacious avenue into the beautiful coastal town of St. Louis.

The two repeatedly saw a restaurant called "Tequila" in the photo, so they bought a map on the side of the street and drove along the map to the outside of the restaurant.

The "Agave" is open, and the sunset shines through the glass wall of the pedestrian street, revealing a dozen customers enjoying Mexican food and tasting strong, spicy, and unique tequila.

Dean swept the restaurant from the inside out with God's perspective, and there were seven or eight people working in the restaurant, most of whom were young people, and it was unlikely that they would know anything about decades ago.

Only one busy chef in the kitchen, with a bark-like wrinkled face and gray temples, who looked to be in his sixties or seventies, was most likely to know about Thomas's past.

So Dean and Faraji went into the corner of the restaurant and ordered a table of shortbreads, fajita, paella, and burritos, filled their hungry stomachs, and called the chef.

"Two guests, is there any dish that is not to your taste?"

The old man of Mexican descent looked at the two of them with a smile,

"It tastes amazing, and I just want to ask you a little personal question beyond food." Dean rolled a fist-full Fajita with a piece of tortilla, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed it in a few clicks, "How long have you been working at the Tequila Restaurant?" ”

"Haha, that's too long, I'll have to think about it." The chef wiped his hands on his apron, "I've been working in this restaurant since I was eighteen years old, and I've been working in this restaurant for fifty years now. ”

"Do you know them?" Dean spread out a picture of the three of Thomas and a few tips on the table, "Thomas, Shane, Lina... They moved out of Bay St. Louis more than thirty years ago, and before that frequented tequila restaurants. ”

The old man's withered hands held up the photo in front of him, and there was a thoughtful look in his eyes, "It's familiar, I should have seen them, but I can't remember." ”

"You've seen it, then you must remember," Dean's tone became subtle, and a bright light appeared in his eyes again,

The old man's eyes were in a trance, his pupils dilated and then contracted, and he shook his head violently, and a drunken blush appeared on his face.

"I remember," he excitedly pointed to the man in the photo, "that more than thirty years ago, Thomas was a native of the Bay of St. Louis, owned a yacht and made money by hosting tourists. ”

He pointed to the tall, beautiful white woman, "and Shane is an out-of-town who is married to Thomas." The two of them were very affectionate and harmonious, and many of the young people in the town were envious and jealous, including me. ”

"Because Shane loves the specialty tortillas in the store, they visit 'Tequila' every week."

It's no wonder that the background of the photos is often this restaurant.

But Thomas and Shane were married?

Dean noticed that his progress was starting to pick up and motioned for the old man to continue.

"But after a few years of sweet family life, they encountered a major change," the old man's face showed a deep look of regret, "Shane was not feeling well, and went to the hospital for an examination and found stomach cancer, which was already at an advanced stage at that time, and there was little hope of cure. ”

"Thomas was reluctant to let his wife die like this, so he sold the yacht and spent all his savings to send Shane to the best private hospital for treatment."

"Treatment failed?" Faraj asked nervously with a bite of tortilla in his mouth,

The old chef nodded,

"Shane's illness spread, she couldn't walk, and she was in a state of disshapet, so Thomas took her home and cared for her, and worried that she was too painful and tormented, so he hired a nurse from the town hospital to assist in taking care of her and providing palliative care."

The old chef paused, and pointed to the black lady in the photo, "This is Nurse Lina, a beautiful Frenchman." ”

The progress bar is 68 percent.

Couples and nurses.

Dean clearly sketched the relationship between the three in his mind, and asked another question, "How do the three of them get along?" ”

"I have a very good impression, for a while, Thomas and Lina pushed Shane in a wheelchair to eat together, talking and laughing, and seemed to be very good friends."

"Under the careful care of Thomas and Lina, Shane showed amazing tenacity, and she survived for more than a year in the late stages of her illness."

"A year later, her health deteriorated to the point where she couldn't go out and stayed in bed all day."

"I never saw them in the restaurant again. Later, I heard from other townsfolk that Shane had died... Thomas took care of the aftermath for her, but he couldn't continue to live in this heartbreaking town, so he sold his house and moved away. ”

The progress of the survey jumped to 73 percent.

"So Thomas moved to Honey Island Marsh because he lost his wife." Faraj said in a gloomy mood,

Dean took a sip of corn soup, digested the information in his mind, and sorted out the context-

His wife Sean, who is seriously ill and dying, her husband Thomas, who is physically and mentally exhausted and under great pressure, and Lina, a beautiful and gentle nurse.

He already had a rough idea of the story in his head, but there were still many details that needed to be perfected.

For example, is Victor, who is cursed, physically deformed, and finally becomes a reborn one, really just Thomas's adopted son?

Dean asked, "Did Thomas and Shane raise children?" ”

The old chef thought for a moment, "During their marriage, I never saw Shane's belly bulge, and then Shane got sick, and it was even more impossible for Shane to get pregnant. ”

"For Shane... I don't know much, except that she is a foreigner with a quiet personality. ”

"Did she die at home or in the hospital?"

"I don't know."

"Where's Nurse Lina..."

"I know even less about her, she was a nurse at the town hospital and never showed up again after Thomas moved away."

"You mean Lina moved away with Thomas?"

"Not sure."

Dean nodded when he heard this, and his mind was almost counting.

"Do you remember which house in town Shane and Thomas used to be in?"

"I don't remember."

"Who else is familiar with them in Bay St. Louis besides you?"

"Decades have passed, and people who know them are dying and walking."

"Well, thanks for the answer, you helped us a lot." Dean relieved the hypnosis, handed the old man a tip, and watched him return to the kitchen.

"Dean, do you feel it, Thomas and Lina..."Faraj wiped the grease stains from the corners of his mouth and stopped,

"It's not unlikely." Dean put down the money for the meal, got up and walked out of the restaurant, the sun was like blood on the horizon, "Let's go, Shane's background can't be checked, let's go to the town hospital to investigate Lina first." ”

(End of chapter)