Entering late July, the temperature in Tingen City gradually drops. Although it is not yet a crisp autumn day, even at noon when the sun is shining brightly, the sunshine is only dazzling, and there is no need to hide in the shade to escape the heat.
A week has passed since Angel and Klein "officially joined" Nighthawks and were introduced to other members by Dunn Smith at a dinner party.
During this period, Angel carried out a formal rotation, read newspapers in Recreation Room, lost money in "Fight Evil", guarded "Chanis Gate" late at night, jointly patrolled cemeteries in the jurisdiction with other Nighthawks, and also handled many cases referred by the police that were suspected of involving extraordinary forces.
She also did not forget the purpose of joining Nighthawks. She read most of the internal documents and books in her spare time, and even tried to translate Rosell Gustav the Great's notes with Old Neil. Unfortunately, she still found nothing about "how to return to Earth".
Maybe if you stay longer and try to borrow some documents from other dioceses, you can gain something?
She comforted herself like this.
"Five 10p lunches, thank you!"
The waiter from Old Verne's Restaurant came to Blackthorn Security Company on time to take the lunch order. Angel looked around at the members in the reception hall, including Kenley who was on duty at Chanis Gate and Old Neil who was guarding the weapons depot, and ordered a working meal for them.
Dunn Smith, Royale Reideen and Frye have gone out to conduct daily routine inspections in the jurisdiction. They will have lunch outside as usual. Leonard Mitchell received the notice. Go to Police Station to collect the documents. Seeka Tron is on vacation today. Apart from Angel, only Rozanne and Klein are left in the reception hall.
Watching the waiter who took down the order leave, Rozanne shook the coffee pot, listened to the sound of liquid sloshing inside, and refilled his empty coffee cup with fragrant coffee.
"Should we order from another restaurant? I feel like Old Weil is tired of lunch. They have the same dishes every day, and they are far from delicious."
She whispered to Angel who stood up and closed the door, and Klein who spread out the new issue of "Tingen Daily". She turned her eyes to the door, as if she was afraid that the waiter would come back and hear her negative comments.
"But their lunch is the most affordable and can be delivered to the company on time. I'm afraid you won't find another restaurant like this in Zouteland Street."
Angel sat back on the sofa and replied with a smile.
She doesn't mind a change of taste, but the nearby restaurants that provide food delivery services are either more expensive or the business is so busy that they can't deliver in time. Overall, Old Weil is still the most suitable choice for Nighthawks.
Klein's head hidden behind the newspaper nodded, agreeing with Angel's evaluation.
Since the dinner party last week, his attitude towards Angel has been a little strange. It can't be said that it has gotten worse, but he is always a little distant and seems to be worried about something. Not only the gossipy Rozanne and Seeka Tron, but also the slow Angel himself has felt it.
But she was also confused and didn't know what happened.
Could it be that he discovered that he was secretly promoted to "Instigator" while on a business trip?
After thinking about it, I can only think that before and after going to Enmat Harbor, my behavior of upgrading from Sequence 9 to Sequence 8 may have caused the other party's attitude to change.
But I didn't use the ability of "Instigator", and I didn't tell anyone about it. How could anyone see that I was Sequence 8?
Just as she was secretly guessing, the door to the reception hall was pushed open from the outside.
Rozanne complained about Old Verne's Restaurant's whispers that were immediately swallowed by her. Several people looked at the door at the same time, and "Midnight Poet" Leonard Mitchell, with black hair and green eyes and a windbreaker flying, strode in.
With a thick stack of documents under his arm, he went straight to the coffee table in the center of the reception hall, put the documents on the table with a bang, and sat in the only empty seat left.
"Miss Rozanne, please heat me a cup of coffee, thank you."
Without concealing his intention, he dismissed the only civilian staff present and distributed the documents he brought to Angel and Klein.
"Tingen City Police Department just transferred it, take a look first, and then tell me what you think."
Angel curiously took the document handed to him, flipped through it roughly, then returned to the first page and began to read it carefully.
That's nearly 30 death reports, concentrated within ten days in mid-to-late July.
Based on the population and average life span of Tingen City, the number of deaths every year is about 3,000. On average, about eight people die every day from various diseases, accidents, and even crimes.
But as Angel read page after page, he found that the situation was not simple.
Most of the dead in the report were young or middle-aged people, and the various ways of death were shocking.
At 5 pm on July 22, after the porter Wells beat the foreman who had withheld wages for a long time, he jumped from the high-rise building West Borough and ended his life.
At 2 pm on July 22, Magnum, West Borough Sapphire Street, tried to set fire to a neighbor's house with which he had long-standing grievances. However, he accidentally ignited the flammable materials he was carrying and became the only victim in the arson case.
At 11 o'clock in the morning on July 21, West Borough Shady Avenue, Lawrence, whose factory suffered losses and went bankrupt, took out a pistol, cursed Tingen the former mayor, and then swallowed the gun and committed suicide in the street.
At 6 a. m. on July 12, Val of Iron Cross Street was found dead in his bed. It was initially determined that he died of heart disease at night.
In just ten days, more than 30 people died intensively, and almost all of them were caused by sudden events or serious diseases, rather than the common elderly people dying of underlying diseases or simple accidents.
After browsing the files, Angel raised his head and looked at Klein, who was sitting opposite. The other party also looked over in shock, and then immediately looked away.
Well, what happened to him...
A trace of unhappiness flashed through Angel's heart, but at the moment of the case, it did not happen. Instead, he looked at Leonard who was sitting on the sofa with his arms folded.
"Do you think the number of deaths and the manner of death are strange?"
He changed his position to make himself more comfortable before continuing.
"This is just a part of Death List. In that part of our jurisdiction, 'Mandated Punishers' and 'Machinery Hivemind' only have a lot more on hand than we do."
"In the past two weeks, the number of deaths in Tingen City has been more than four times the normal number in previous years, and the age distribution has become significantly younger, and the causes of death are also very different from before. Tingen City Police Headquarters discovered problems when collecting data, and then forwarded these data to us and gave them to Beyonders in other churches."
"Do they think there's extraordinary intervention?"
Klein put down the document in his hand and asked with a frown.
"Not necessarily, but it's very possible. I met the captain on the way back. He asked me to go back to Zouteland Street first, find you, and investigate this part." He pointed to the part of the death report in Angel's hand. "The ones in Klein's hand will stay here. The captain will arrange for others to investigate."
"We..." Angel looked at "Seer" Klein and suddenly realized, "Captain, do you think you need help from Ritual Magic or Divination?"
"Yes, so the other team will bring Old Neil. Now he and Klein are the only ones in the team who can help in this regard."
Leonard nodded, confirming Angel's guess.
At this time, Miss Rozanne returned to the reception hall with hot coffee. Several people closed their mouths in tacit agreement and began to sort out the documents on the table.
The large number of death cases in a short period of time is so shocking that they don't want the kind-hearted Rozanne to know about it.
Until Leonard retrieved these documents from Police Headquarters, new names on Death List were still being added, which means that if there is indeed a common author behind all the deaths, he or she is still active in Tingen City, constantly causing new tragedies.
In view of this, Angel and Klein had no intention of waiting for lunch. After hurriedly bidding farewell to Miss Rozanne, they hired a carriage on the street and went straight to the location of the case.
On the carriage, Leonard carefully closed the window leading to the coachman's position, then turned around and asked in a low voice, "Do you see any patterns in these death records?"
"The distribution of death time is relatively regular, occurring every day and almost every time period."
The first person to answer was Klein. He pointed at the list held by Angel to strengthen his tone. "We must first eliminate the normal deaths, classify all the abnormal deaths according to time and place, and find out the patterns."
"Yes, that's what the captain asked, so we divided into two teams, otherwise we wouldn't be able to catch up with the pace of death..." Leonard sounded a little melancholy. He looked out the window at the receding street scene and the pedestrians hurriedly passing by on the street. "Right now, another innocent person may have died in this incident."
"What is his purpose? These deaths seem to be caused indirectly. If it is Serial Killer, it should not be such a crime style. They prefer to do it directly and enjoy the fear of the dead and the fun of killing."
Angel also frowned and analyzed. She had looked through the list several times in the car, but found that most of the deceased were Tingen City's lower class people, and there was no other gain.
"This is the answer we need to find. Maybe it is to make a sacrifice to an evil being, maybe it is to hide the real target among the innocent dead, or it may even be some kind of Potion Promotion Ritual..."
Promotion Ritual? Potion Can't you just drink it directly?
Angel looked at Leonard curiously, but the latter did not continue the topic.
There was an eerie silence in the carriage.
Klein loosened and tightened the silver chain tied to his left wrist, as if he wanted to perform divination directly here.
Leonard kept looking out the window, but his eyes were not focused.
Angel had no choice but to continue looking through the records in his hand, trying to find some undiscovered patterns.
"Dong dong——"
There was a knock from the outside of the carriage, and the coachman's somewhat muffled voice came through the wooden board.
"Shady Avenue of West Borough has arrived."