Chapter 76 Clues
On the cobblestoned pathway, lifeless auburn leaves swayed gently before landing on the ground. As fall approached, many of the pedestrians were covered in thick fur and scarves.
A slender man with shiny golden hair and striking blue eyes took a stroll along the footpath as he raised his head to look at a building in front of him.
The building in front of him was striking compared to the surrounding building as it was built with gothic architecture, and a cross was situated atop the building.
Rein Lang heaved a sigh as he made his way into the Church.
A middle-aged man in clergy robes raised his head and watched calmly as this man walk into the building. He immediately recognized this man upon seeing him with his hand in his suit.
"You have returned," Father Noah commented gently.
Rein Lang nodded his head indiscernibly before doing a pious gesture with his hand, "God Bless."
Father Noah imitated his movement as he responded piously, "God Bless."
"I want to see him."
Rein Lang suddenly spoke up as his eyes became increasingly hazy, his eyes pointed to the back door of the church.
Father Noah coughed awkwardly as he replied, "He isn't in good health at the moment."
"You can come another time."
Rein Lang nodded his head, not forcing Father Noah to accept his request.
"What exactly happened while I was away?"
-
Rein Lang left the Church after attending his Sunday Mass and made his way to the center of the city, Bern.
He intended to gather pieces of evidence before moving to China. He arrived at an infamous hotel and he stopped himself from going further. He noticed the old smell of the place.
As he raised his head to look at the luxurious exterior and interior of this hotel, he couldn't help but feel the atmosphere was extremely tense and depressing.
He assumed there must have been a mishap.
Due to his training as an assassin, he had an extremely keen sense of smell. He noted the smell of evil in the surface as he took off his hat and turned to ask the guard.
"What happened to this place?"
The guard was startled upon hearing this straightforward question, he rubbed his head confusingly as he opened his mouth and spoke in a stutter.
"There had been an incident."
"What incident?" Rein Lang asked gently, noting the cold sweat sliding down the man's face.
"A mentally-ill woman attempted to devour…"
Rein Lang confirmed the authenticity of Father Noah's words as he nodded his head to listen to this man's point of view.
As I expected, an evil specter made its way here.
Ye Zhihao collaborated with a specter.
Rein Lang came to a conclusion as he turned to ask the fearful receptionist with a plain face, "Bring me to the place."
"I came here on the orders of the Church."
He was bought to the very hall where the incident happened, everything had been wrapped in cautious tape; preventing people from coming in. Many investigators were there to inspect the zone and one of them recognized him.
"Rein, you came here as well."
Levin asked him with a surprised expression. He was a man with a dreary facial expression and was dressed in a police uniform.
Rein Lang nodded his head and responded indifferently, "Such a small world."
Levin laughed bitterly as he turned to point at the inspection zone, "Can you believe something like this happen?"
"That woman was a zombie!"
"Not truly, a cannibal would have sounded better," Rein Lang corrected with a straight face, "Tell me what you have found."
"The woman was sent to a mental hospital in the city and we received answers that she didn't seem to know what has happened before that."
Levin hummed loudly as Rein Lang nodded his head, listening attentively.
"She said she was eating casually and suddenly everything blacked out," Levin frowned deeply, "We also checked the camera and let her watch the footage of herself."
"She said she didn't recall any of that happening."
Rein Lang responded stiffly, "This…"
"She is mentally ill!"
Another inspector came forth and exclaimed loudly.
"Not just that, everyone in the room went mad as well," Levin ignored the shouting intruder as he told Rein Lang everything.
Rein Lang lowered his head and placed his finger on his mouth, "Show me the camera footage."
Levin bought forth his laptop and showed the footage to Rein Lang, who watched everything from start to end.
As Levin said, everything was normal in the start but everything started to change after the woman began to devour the meat in front of her. She had been sitting alone by herself.
Rein Lang's eyes lowered themselves subconsciously and noticed a shadow next to the woman.
"Interesting…"
Rein Lang commented as he turned to face Levin and his team, "Have you checked the meat?"
After he asked this question, the room became silent. Presumably, none of them have checked the meat yet.
Levin replied in distress as he rubbed his head in frustration, "How come we have never thought of that?"
"There could be substances in that meat that made her unaware of her surroundings and allowed her intrusive thoughts to get the best of her," Rein Lang informed, "From what I inspected, the food could be one of the causes."
Levin nodded his head solemnly and ordered his team, "Check for any remains of the meat."
They immediately rushed into the kitchen where Rein Lang sat down and watched the footage repeatedly with a growing smile, repeating the part where the shadow showed itself.
His sight was keen as the shadow only appeared for a split second throughout the entire video.
"Did you try to manipulate the footage?"
Rein Lang asked Levin, who shook his head solemnly.
Rein Lang raised his head and pointed them toward the very place where the shadow showed itself.
He walked up to the place and took a whiff of the chair.
Levin felt a bit speechless after seeing this pragmatic and prideful man suddenly lower his head and started sniffing the entire place.
He kept his expression from showing as he lowered his head awkwardly.
After a while, Rein Lang stopped smelling and rubbed his nose.
"Hmmm."
"The smell of Jasmine."
"The woman wears this perfume," Levin replied with a strange expression.
He was rendered speechless after this man who never met the woman, was able to identify her exact scent. He looked forward to what he was going to do next.
"The smell of Lycoris."
Rein Lang said with a knowing smile, "And the smell of human meat."
Levin's face immediately turned dark as soon as he opened his mouth, and a scream came from the kitchen.
He stood up from his hair and shouted back, "What's the matter?"
"We found something," A member of the team rushed outside with a pale face, on the verge of vomiting his stomach out.
"There is…"
"A human arm!"
Levin's face immediately turned grave and pale as he turned to look at Rein Lang, who got up from his crouching posture. Rein Lang rubbed off the dirt on his suit as he responded back with a look of his own.
"You…"
Levin stutters with a pale face.
He wanted to accuse this man of being the instigator but he couldn't do so as there wasn't any evidence except this man's overly accurate guesses.
"Even a dog is better than a professional detective," Rein Lang curled his lips into an exaggerated smile, "You do not want to lose to an animal, do you?"
Levin was bought to the refrigerator and his eyes shrunk after witnessing the scariest scene of his entire career.
A corpse in a fridge.
He couldn't even tell what the man looked like as everything had been so disfigured and dismembered that none of them were recognizable, everything had been frozen and the blood dried up.
Levin took a step back and vomited his stomach out.
Rein Lang only came to check later.
Instead of vomiting or shaking, his face remained calm and tranquil as though he was looking at something ordinary.
He took out a brush and painted it over the surfaces of the parts before rubbing them against a piece of white paper.
He turned to look at Levin and raised the piece of white paper, "Take this to the laboratory and have them check the DNA of this person."
Levin couldn't even bring himself to nod his head as he instructed one of the calmer members of his team to take it and place them in a plastic bag.
Rein Lang's eyes lowered as he curled his lips into a cruel smirk, mumbling something under his breath.
"I must admit you have a way of hiding your games…"
After he said that, he closed the doors and informed the police and the Church who volunteered to bury this corpse in one of their cemeteries.
After doing most of the work, Rein Lang took out a cigar and lit it up.
"I shall be waiting for the answer to come out before heading there," He phoned the commissioner of his mission, "We identified his doings now."
"We only need to find out where exactly he is."
Rein Lang took a whiff of the cigar and opened a can of beer, chugging one can in one go as he coughed.
"Disgusting…"
The bitterness from the beer combined with the nicotine made every bone inside his body colder and colder.