At night, Angel arrived at the location Emlyn White had mentioned: Verdi Street in the South District of the Bridge.
Worried that the cursed "Master Key" might affect today's operation, she had left it at her home on Red Rose Street before setting out.
Fortunately, the lockpicking skills inherited from Cole Granger were still far from rusty. She arrived at No. 32 Verdi Street, circled the house once, and found no obvious abnormalities. Then, using her lockpicking tools, she opened the back door and entered the two-story cottage through the kitchen.
The place seemed to have been unoccupied for a long time. Angel ran her fingers across the stove and found a thin layer of dust. A pungent stench came from the storage compartment below, most likely from rotting food.
Passing through the kitchen and entering the living room, Angel used Dark Vision to find that the shelves and drawers had been thoroughly ransacked. It was probably the work of thieves who had visited before. With professionals like that getting there first, Angel held little hope of finding anything valuable. Besides, she had not come here to loot a dead man's belongings.
Beside the living room was a staircase leading to the second floor. She followed it upward, but before she reached the top, she felt a bone-chilling cold envelop her.
Something was wrong here!
Angel activated Spirit Vision and looked up from the stairs, but found nothing unusual. The cold came quickly and disappeared just as fast, as though it had been an illusion.
Drawing a dagger from her waist, she carefully climbed the stairs one step at a time and reached the landing.
A figure stood on the landing with his back to Angel, his face pressed against the wall at the corner as though he were standing