Hawkins Middle School, first floor corridor of the Bishop's Building.

Jonathan opened the two lockers next to each other against the wall, "No. 23 and No. 24, which belong to Marcus and Samantha, respectively. ”

Dean flipped through the pages carefully, all of them were normal stationery and books, "Have the police come to search for them?" ”

"Searched, took some of the stuff with me," Steve continued, "but I didn't hear anything important to discover." ”

Dean nodded, carefully recalling the information in the file handed to him by Hope, after the death of Marcus and Samantha, the police had already searched their personal belongings, but the file did not mention any records related to the badge, which means that the badge was not found.

"Wait, I'll look for it."

Dean inspected the lockers around him again with God's perspective.

What to pack!

Golan made a mocking face at his back and exchanged glances with a group of classmates behind him,

Nancy leaned into Jonathan's ear and whispered, "Is this detective reliable?" How do I feel panicked? ”

Jonathan was flattered by Nancy's initiative to talk, and quickly nodded and said, "He has helped me a lot, and he is also trusted by Director Hope, and haven't you seen detectives, most of the most intelligent detectives have eccentricities and a little quirk." ”

Nancy looked at Barbara, and the fat girl shrugged her shoulders and made an expression of continued observation.

Catherine quietly jotted down the discussions of the few in her notebook.

"Let's go, guys... There wasn't what we were looking for. Dean waved them away, "Take us to Marcus and Samantha's house." ”

"Whoever wants to ride in my car, hurry up and follow!" Steve clapped his hands, and Goran and Hala rushed out after him.

……

Steve took Nancy, Hara, and Golan in front of the red convertible, followed by Dean, Catherine, Jonathan, and Barbara in the black Dodger.

"Is Steve's family rich?" Dean dug into his pocket, took out a few polo candies, and divided one by one, "The car I drove was at least a hundred thousand US dollars." ”

"His dad is a well-known local entrepreneur in Hawkins, so he has too much pocket money to spend and is generous." Jonathan looked at Nancy, who was chatting with Steve in the passenger seat of the sports car in front of him, with a complicated face, "The family has a mansion, a huge swimming pool, and she is also handsome, and she is very popular in school." ”

"Haha, Jonathan, did you just eat a few slices of mint?" Catherine took out her makeup mirror and touched up her lipstick, "Actually, you can't envy Steve, you know how to take pictures, and if you use it well, you can please girls, and you won't be worse than him." ”

"Who envies this flowery ghost?" Jonathan tightened his grip on the camera around his neck.

"Steve really doesn't look like that." Barbara said worriedly, "Although he is rich, he has a frivolous demeanor, and he has already had two girlfriends when he first entered high school this year." Now I start to pursue Nancy, just to get a novelty, try the taste of 'good girl', and when he soaks Nancy in his hands, he will definitely abandon it ruthlessly. I don't want Nancy to have anything to do with him and be sad afterwards. ”

"You see people are so accurate, I think so too!" Jonathan looked at Barbara next to him with a look of approval, and suddenly felt that this fleshy face became extremely pleasing to the eye,

Barbara smiled shyly, "I've always felt that you were a better match for Nancy, and she actually appreciated your early departure to work to support the family, as well as the way you beat up that nasty ghost in Golan last time, but you should be brave." ”

Jonathan smiled wramply, "I'm not handsome and I don't have any money." ”

"If you think so, then what am I?" Barbara laughed to herself, "The maid next to the little princess? At school, a fat + nerd like me is even less popular than a 'weird guy' like you. ”

"Well, I think you're good, Barbara," Jonathan said sincerely, "you're more mature and thoughtful than other girls, and you have your own style of dressing, yes, I can take you some beautiful pictures." ”

Dean and Catherine listened to the exchange between the two young high school students in the back row, and suddenly felt a few years younger.

……

Night was falling and darkness was enveloping the town of Hawkins.

The two vehicles arrived at 57 Elm Street.

Because of the vicious case that happened last week, there were hardly any people in the whole block after dark, and very few people were traveling with two or three people.

If Dean hadn't asked Hope to call a few students' homes in advance, their parents would have been looking for someone all over the streets.

……

"My good sister Samantha's family," Hala got out of the car and walked to the dark two-story small western-style building, her face no longer had the perverse and mean of the afternoon, "she and Aunt Lux depended on each other, on the day of her accident, her aunt almost fainted from crying, and then lived in the hospital for several days, and the whole person lost dozens of pounds, and looked ten years old." ”

These words added a touch of sadness to the air, and a group of students couldn't help but hang their heads.

"I've heard that Lux has put her house out the other day and is going to sell it after the funeral and leave this sad place. ”

"Put away your sympathy, everyone, we are not here to mourn Samantha," Golan stepped forward and knocked on the door, but after a few bangs, there was no response,

"Don't knock, there's no one in the house." Dean glanced at the situation inside with a sweep of God's perspective, "You guys wait here, I'll go in and take a look." ”

As he spoke, he left the shadow outside to take care of it, and then gave Catherine another word, and stood outside the porch, and with his hands propped up, his body jumped up into the open window on the second floor like a gecko.

"Did you see the cornices walking on the wall?" Golan exclaimed pompously, "Is this guy a detective or a professional thief or stuntman?" ”

"You know what?" Jonathan couldn't get used to seeing this guy always slander his friends, and retorted unceremoniously, "Professional detectives are all-rounders who master all kinds of tricky techniques. ”

"Yes, I've read in books that Holmes was an all-rounder, brilliant, observant, good at chemistry, good at anatomy, a little bit of political science..." ”

"Wow," Goran and Hala exchanged glances, touched their chins, and said flirtatiously, "When did you two get together, a freak and a nerdy chubby girl, standing together is quite a good match." ”

"Shut up!" Nancy and Steve glared at the same time

"Can you be quiet, boys?" Catherine turned around with her hands on her hips, and the moonlight shone on her helpless face, "Do you want to attract the murderer?" ”

……

Dean took a quick turn in the slightly shabby bedroom, living room, and bathroom, and his perspective was fully open, and his mind rolled up dozens of things at the same time, turned over boxes and cabinets, and put them back in place.

In less than a quarter of an hour, he dug three feet into the ground and searched the house.

There is no clue to the badge, but he finds a cardboard box on the bed in the master bedroom on the second floor, filled with small relics of Samantha, including a diary of a young girl about her daily life in 1981.

Dean flipped all the way back to the beginning of December, the day he entered the burrow last Wednesday, and opened a few short lines of diary:

It's unlucky! Hitting dead people's bones in a snowball fight in the wild must have been the bad luck of Jonathan's freak, and he shouldn't have been brought here this time.

I was frightened and needed comfort, and it happened that Lux was not home that night, so I asked Marcus to come and chat with me, but he declined my invitation.

Wooden man! Break up with him sooner or later!

……

Thursday:

Damn Marcus, with dark circles under his eyes and listless all day, told him to ignore me.

Did you sneak out to tryst with other last night?

I see, he rubbed a strange badge like a demon.

I asked him what it was, but he didn't say anything, and he held it like a baby, and didn't allow me to touch it.

I had to find a way to grab his attention and let him know that I, Samantha, was his most precious treasure.

……

Friday:

I changed into Marcus' favorite erotic lingerie and booked two tickets to his favorite color movies.

Tonight, I'm going to drain him, let him fly into the sky, so that he can't do without me!

……

Three articles are followed by a blank space, and Samantha's diary ends there.

Dean quickly extracted the key information, and found that the progress had jumped to fifty-five percent, so he put the diary back and jumped out of the window back into the courtyard.

A crowd of people gathered around, "How, detective, have you found anything?" ”

Dean swept his eyes, nodded, and briefly described the contents of the diary,

"It's a bit out of place to say that," Steve recalled with his chin wrinkled, "Ever since Marcus got the badge, his whole person has become very strange, and his soul doesn't seem to be possessed until he is killed. ”

Goran also nodded, "Marcus has become less like him, and has a very heavy heart. ”

Catherine put down her notebook and said, "Kids, did Marcus like to collect antiques before?" ”

"No kidding," Hala looked disdainful, "this old man is the bottom of his grade in history, and he doesn't know anything about antiques and has no interest in it, he likes Dama, alcohol, pickle girls, and teaching blacks, Asians, and immigrants of all kinds." ”

Catherine frowned and asked, "Then why is he so obsessed with this badge that he does not hesitate to steal it from a dead man?" ”

Everyone stared, and Nancy and Barbara exchanged a tacit look, saying, "Maybe it's not that he likes badges, it's badges that attract him?" You've all seen this year's Raiders of the Lost Ark, the 'Ark of the Covenant' that Dr. Indiana is looking for is a strange object with mysterious powers, and perhaps that badge is also such a strange thing, with demagogic powers, that makes Marcus so obsessed. ”

Dean nodded to the two sisters secretly, and was able to come to the same conclusion as himself so quickly, and his imagination was quite rich.

"It seems that you are not only reading bad for your eyes, but also bad for your brains, confusing movies and reality." Goran and Hala hugged each other and scoffed at the statement, "What a mysterious power, it doesn't exist at all!" ”

……

The debate was fruitless.

At about eight o'clock in the evening, they drove to the same Elm Street, not far away at 169, Marcus's house.

Dean sat in the car and swept it from God's point of view, and there was no one in the house either.

"Marcus's family couldn't bear the grief and moved to a hotel in the center of town, and sooner or later they will probably move out of Hawkins," Steve said. ”

"Wait a minute, I'll go in and have a look." Dean pushed the car door, got out of the car alone, quietly climbed up to the second floor, and went into the window to search for a while, but unfortunately Marcus, a big man, did not like to write a diary like his girlfriend Samantha, Dean searched the entire house, and did not find the slightest clue about the murder, and the whereabouts of the badge.

But he found a blank piece of paper in Marcus's bedroom, drawing a picture of sixteen strange symbols: ∞, &、... Evenly arranged in a circle, while in the center is a cross-shaped ravine, carved from top to bottom, from left to right, single-celled creatures, fish, dolphins, humans... All kinds of strange objects seem to express some kind of "evolutionary" process.

The first time you see this pattern.

Dean's tail vertebrae seemed to have a burst of electricity, and his whole body trembled, and his pupils shrank.

The progress of the system has also jumped to 60 percent.

"There is no doubt that this is the pattern engraved on the coat of arms... It's similar to the circle pattern, and there's definitely a strong correlation between the two. ”

"But what exactly do they represent, what kind of supernatural powers do they have?"

Dean pondered for a long time and couldn't be sure, so he had to continue his search.

Soon after, he found another strange comic book in Marcus's bedroom, which depicted white people fighting with black men at school, and the outside of the picture book was blatantly inlaid with a "swastika".

"Could it be that Marcus is a Nazi?"

Dean raised his eyebrows, and returned to the crowd standing outside the sports car with two harvests, first showing the pictures on the white paper with a flashlight,

"That's right, that's what the badge says!" Steve and Golan nodded with cheered faces and asked Dean, "Did you find the badge?" ”

Dean shook his head, "It's a pity, it's only patterns." ”

"It's a delicate painting," Catherine said, looking at her face and admiringly, "the painter has at least five or six years of skill, and Marcus has learned to draw?" ”

"No," the six students shook their heads at the same time, "Marcus is a brainless reckless, stupid big man, not to mention drawing, even his own name is written like a caterpillar." ”

"And who drew this picture?"

No one could answer, and Barbara raised her glasses and said again, "As I said, that badge has the same magical power as the 'Ark of the Covenant', seducing Marcus and allowing him to discover his potential and draw this picture. ”

"It's really humiliating for you not to go to Hollywood to be a screenwriter." Golan sarcastically said,

"Don't make a fuss, look at this one again," Dean pulled out another comic book, "Do you know what this thing is?" ”

"Propaganda album against blacks," Steve flipped through a few random times, his face calm, "It's not strange for Marcus to look at this idiot, I have the impression that he has always been a white supremacist, or neo-Nazi, racist, he is anti-immigrant and advocates the United States to maintain pure white blood, so he often bullies black and Asian students in school, if we hadn't stopped him, he would have tattooed the 'swastika' on himself." ”

"What do you mean... Marcus Rowland is a neo-Nazi? Dean looked inquiringly at Jonathan's other students, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Dean asked, "And his parents are too?" ”

Steve shook his head, "That's not it, his parents beat him up several times because of his discrimination against black classmates at school, but they never got better, he got worse." ”

That's weird.

Dean remembered what he saw in "Drawing Memory", where Marcus's killer had a Nazi tattoo on his left wrist, and he was definitely a Nazi, and Marcus was also a Nazi.

What is the hatred or connection between the two?

What partisanship is involved?

No, Dean shook his head, the Nazis should be secondary, and there was no need to think deeply.

Dean had a vague feeling that he had captured another important piece of inspiration, and he slipped away without noticing.

"Dean, it's past eight o'clock now, and Marcus and Samantha's house have also been searched, and there is nothing else to gain except to find a painting, why don't you disband and go home?" Nancy, a good girl, looked at the moon in the sky and the dead streets around her, "If you drag it out any longer, Mom and Dad should go to the police station to find me." ”

"Yes, Detective, will I cooperate with you tomorrow?" Steve yawned.

Dean could see that the group of high school students didn't take today's investigation too seriously, and perhaps they thought they were cheating on them.

"Wait a minute."

Dean and Catherine exchanged glances, and the latter handed him a pile of records for the day, which summed up as follows:

1. Found the pattern of the missing badge.

2. Knowing that it has some strange powers, tempted Marcus.

3. Discovered that Marcus was a Nazi.

Next, they should wait for Director Hope and Professor Aiden to send back new information.

No, cooperate with the film later, and then let Hope send police officers to protect these families, waiting for the murderer to come to the door.

"Let's go, I'll send you home one by one,"

"I don't need to." The group of young people resisted, "We are in high school, not elementary school, we can protect ourselves, and we don't need you to take care of them." ”

"Don't talk nonsense, get in the car." Dean slapped the horn, and the shrill honking of the horn pierced through the silent neighborhood, "Whoever is the closest, go there first." ”

……

The red sports car drove ahead, and Steve and Golan were still babbling about the strange experience of tonight.

Dean's Dodge followed, and along the quiet, dim road, he quickly drove into the suburbs that turned from Maple Street to Elm Street.

The night creeps like mist.

Di An's head suddenly swelled with a sense of unease, his temples began to thump, his eyes swept forward, the deep darkness penetrated, under the inky night sky, hundreds of meters ahead, a pitch-black figure shot out of the woods next to him like an arrow, standing in the middle of the road, from a distance it looked like a wild boar that had strayed into the road, but a cold and hard object gun in front of it was aimed at Steve in the driver's seat of the sports car, reflecting a dangerous luster.

"Oh my God, someone, brake quickly!" Nancy in the co-pilot shouted,

Goran and Hala in the back row screamed nervously, "God, what's in his hand?" Is that a gun?! ”

"Be careful!"

Zizizi——

The tires squeezed the ground with a screeching sound that tore apart the silent night.

The red sports car drifts like a beautiful arc on the road.

A banging gunfire erupted!

The black shadow that broke into the road pulled the trigger continuously, and several bullets hit the front windshield of the sports car, tearing a large radioactive crack, and shooting it through the driver's seat.

I'm dead!

Steve felt a slight tingling in his forehead, held his breath, and his heart stopped beating in an instant, but there was a magic scene in his wide eyes, and the warhead seemed to hit an invisible film, suspended less than ten centimeters in front of his eyes, and stayed for a moment.

Bang, a force whipped the warhead into the nearby bushes.

The red car crashed into a pine tree on the side of the road, and the frightened four people trembled like a roller coaster, and when they came back to their senses, they saw the sneak attack gunman rushing over, wearing a black robe and hood covering his whole body, and a miserable white mask on his face blocked his facial features from being extremely cold and penetrating in the moonlight.

"Fack, the Asian detective didn't lie, there is a murderer chasing us!"

The thought flashed through the minds of the four Steves, but they didn't have time to make any resistance.

The killer raised his gun at them.

Bang bang bang!

Gunshots.

The high school students screamed in panic and closed their eyes.

But there is no pain from a bullet into the flesh, and it is not they who are injured.

The black-robed gunman who launched the sneak attack trembled like an electric shock, a bloody hole burst out of his right wrist, and the pistol fell from the tiger's mouth in his left hand to the ground.

Bang!

Second shot!

Bang!

Third shot!

Faint to the point of almost imperceptible gunfire.

Dean walked in from behind with the M1900 in his hand, and walked quickly and calmly, each step as if stepping on the rhythm of his heart, and the bullets were so precise that they all hit the murderer's left and right knees, ankles, wrists, and shoulders with incredible precision.

The tingling and pounding deprived him of his mobility.

He fell to his knees in front of Dean with a thud, his upper body standing upright, his arms fluttering slightly in the air like wings.

The whole person is like a believer who worships the gods.

The perceptual suppression completely stripped him of his senses, and he became a statue of dead silence.

"Sending it to the door myself saved me a lot of effort." Dean gave the stunned four students in the red car a reassuring look, stepped forward, and examined it.

This hidden murderer, whether it is the strength of his life or the intuition he gives him, is just an ordinary person who is slightly beyond the normal level.

There are no traces of the supernatural.

Dean grabbed the white ghost mask on the murderer's face and tore it off, instantly looking awe-inspiring.

Beneath the mask was a white male face with short black hair mixed with a few patches of snow white, deep-set eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, skin as white as a dead man, and a pair of eyes staring straight into the air, losing focus.

Even though he was more than ten years older than the corpse Dean had seen before, these facial features and facial contours still made Dean recognize at a glance that the man who attacked him was the middle-aged version of Marcus Roland lying in the morgue.

(End of chapter)