A gurgling sound rang out, like someone drinking bubble tea. Renard looked at the figure with her back to them, hunched over Anton and enjoying her meal, and his expression darkened.
"She's the Man-Eating Spider you were looking for before?"
"I'd just caught her when I got your text asking for help."
Nick looked somewhat resigned, but inwardly he breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless of whether Rosalie and Monroe's experiment produced any results, at least the immediate problem was temporarily resolved. He no longer had to worry about Lina Massinger suddenly turning into an old woman after being put in prison.
The abandoned factory fell silent for a while, with only the sounds of the Man-Eating Spider lady feeding.
The two men waited quietly where they stood until Lina Massinger returned to human form and rose from Anton's drained corpse.
"Are you... uh, all right?" Although Renard knew about the previous case and roughly understood what had happened, witnessing a Man-Eating Spider devour someone firsthand was still rather unnerving.
"I'm fine, thank you. Whatever else happens, at least I won't have to worry about aging for five years." Lina Massinger gave a self-mocking smile and held out both hands to them.
Nick noticed unnatural wrinkles appearing on the skin of her face. Puzzled, he was about to point them out when she casually gave it a gentle tug, peeling away an entire sheet of dead skin to reveal tender, pale skin beneath, like a newborn's.
"Looks like we'll have to find somewhere to deal with your molting before taking you back to the station." Nick took out his handcuffs and cuffed her, then looked at Renard. "Can you handle things here?"
The Police Inspector nodded. He was about to watch them leave when something suddenly seemed to occur to