Accompanied by a sharp, terrified screech filled with utter disbelief, Ian Mullen's mouth flew open, looking as though he had spat something out. Right after, his entire body toppled backward.
With a heavy thud.
The object he spat out smacked right onto the observation mirror with a wet slap, just as his body crashed hard onto the floor.
And that object?
Looking at its shape...
It seemed to be a pitch-black lung.
Holy cow.
Did he just straight up vomit his own lung?
Terrifyingly brutal!
Detective Kaynor's expression shifted drastically, and she couldn't help but avert her gaze.
Carrie also felt thoroughly disgusted.
Locke's face remained calm, though a hint of mockery was faintly visible in his eyes.
Heaven?
You're dreaming.
Locke hadn't gone without ending a few clergymen over the years, but without exception, none of those people had ever gone to Heaven. They all queued up one by one to report to Mephisto.
He had actually thought for a brief second, while listening to Mullen's words just now, that the guy might prove the existence of the Heaven dimension for him.
The result?
Another empty joy.
Like I said, even if there used to be a Heaven dimension, in front of Earth's foremost protector, the Sorcerer Supreme, God would probably have to cry and shoulder his Silver City to run far, far away.
Very quickly.
The doctors rushed to the scene. They had initially thought this was going to be another case of police brutality, but seeing that solitary, pitch-black lung, they had a sudden realization.
This definitely wasn't police brutality.
This was freaking horror enforcement.
Fortunately.
The surveillance inside the interrogation room here hadn't broken down, and there were three eyewitnesses inside the observation room as well.
However, since something like this had occurred, Locke and Carrie certainly couldn't continue staying at the precinct. After all, when the Internal Affairs people showed up in a bit, they would try to spin something out of nothing.
Therefore, the two of them said their goodbyes and left first.
Back at the hotel.
Carrie sipped her juice, easing the lingering nausea. She looked over at Locke, who was pouring bourbon at the bar.
"Are we still making a move tonight?"
Originally, the script had been written exactly that way.
Locke gripped his glass and looked back at Carrie. "Do you really think that's all there is to the matter?"
Carrie walked over, sat down on a high stool, and shook her head. "How could that be? Anila had only just awakened right before her death. She didn't have the magical capacity to sustain a curse on someone and make them sick."
And starting off straight with terminal cancer at that.
Even I'm not that aggressive.
Carrie still remembered that when she had just awakened, her awakened magical power was at most enough to bend a spoon or cause someone to get a minor nosebleed.
"A curse like this."
Carrie pondered for a few seconds before saying, "At the very least, she would have had to find her source of power, or rather, become an official Salem witch."
Moreover, it would have to be the type of witch who had her own teacher.
Having power was one thing.
How to use it was an entirely different matter.
Carrie said, "Furthermore, this is a curse. Curses are the hardest magic for a witch to master. Teacher Harkness said the difficulty of a curse is even above that of resurrection magic."
For resurrection, at most you just go to the Hell dimension and pick a fight. As long as that soul isn't one Mephisto has his eyes on, or if the soul hasn't crossed the gates of Hell yet, you can pull it back. Even if a demon has set its sights on it, you just fight the demon and it's fine.
But a curse?
Especially a curse akin to lung cancer—this thing was far more complex than resurrection.
After all, cursing someone with lung cancer meant altering a person's life form. As everyone knew, creation was far more difficult than destruction.
"Besides."
Carrie shrugged. "The magical aura of that curse didn't belong to Anila either. I recognize the aura of the magical power she awakened."
Locke nodded. "So, this Mullen was merely a scapegoat."
Carrie added, "And a very perfect scapegoat at that."
Buson Katz was dead.
Ian Mullen was dead too.
The most critical part was that the testimonies of these two people could perfectly match up with one another. At the very least, with things handled this way, from a law enforcement perspective, this case was already concluded.
Locke shook his head. "So, this is exactly why I respect the law, but will never unconditionally believe in it."
If a person's only standard is that they follow the law, it just proves they are a scumbag.
It was exactly the same as the scene before them.
Was the killer Ian Mullen?
Obviously not.
The killer might not be Jim Rhodes either, but it definitely wasn't Ian Mullen; it was someone else entirely. However, from a legal standpoint, there was a body, there was a culprit, and the suspect had even confessed to the crime right before his death.
From a certain perspective, Jim Rhodes wasn't just a scumbag—he was lower than a scumbag.
A scumbag at least knew to abide by the law. This guy was entirely treating the law like playdough, shaping it however he damn well pleased.
Carrie's hair color began to shift.
Turning from blonde to snow-white.
"I'll go right now!"
"No rush!"
"Huh?"
Locke looked at Carrie and let out a laugh. "I want to play around a bit more."
Under normal circumstances, when faced with an impasse like this, Locke would directly choose to flip the table. However, this was not a normal circumstance.
[Current Bonus Value: 20% (Maximum 100%)]
It seemed this quest directly counted his match against Jim Rhodes into the bonus calculations.
Locke found the body, adding ten percent.
Jim Rhodes directly handed over the killer, adding another ten percent.
Then what next?
If he flipped the table right now, at most, the bonus would probably only reach forty percent.
When I can clearly get 500k points, I'm only supposed to take back 200k?
Does that make any sense?
When have I ever had a quest with a bonus where I didn't press the coefficient all the way to one hundred percent?
Carrie blanked slightly, frowning. "Aren't you supposed to go back to New York and head to Canada for skiing with Gwen, Cindy, and Kaynor?"
Locke looked at Carrie. "Don't worry, it won't delay things for long."
It was still the same saying.
The world is big, but the quest is biggest.
As for Gwen's side?
Locke smiled. "Gwen will understand."
Hearing Locke's answer, Carrie thought about what Betty had told her in private, frowned, and shook her head.
"I think Gwen might not understand."
"...What?"
Gwen sat inside her bedroom, looking at Locke over their video call as she blinked. "Didn't they say that the criminal suspect had already been caught?"
Moreover, Buson Katz's autopsy report had also been rushed by George, getting completed over the course of the morning.
Let's put it this way.
The medical examiner hadn't directly stated it was suicide, but rather that the initial autopsy ruled out the possibility of non-suicide. After all, it was an expedited request; it was already quite good that the medical examiner could give you a report at all.
In case you explicitly stated it was suicide and turned out to be wrong, it would be a blow to the medical examiner's reputation.
If it was severe enough, those suspects who had been convicted based on that medical examiner's autopsies could use this loophole as grounds to directly appeal to the court, claiming their cases were also misjudged.
This was exactly the same reason why if a detective was convicted, all the cases they had solved needed to be filtered through from beginning to end.
However, while the medical examiner was very rigorous, fundamentally, such wording was equivalent to saying that Buson Katz had committed suicide.
Locke listened to Gwen's words. "Cop told George?"
Gwen nodded. "Yes, Dad said the fingerprints detected on the body matched that suspect. Dad didn't tell me the specific details."
Locke nodded and said, "That suspect died on the spot right after he finished speaking."
"...Dead?"
"Mhm."
Gwen frowned. "You suspect he was a scapegoat?"
Locke shrugged. "It's not outside the realm of possibility. So, I might need to stay for a couple more days."
Gwen knit her brows, thinking it over. "Then, should I tell Cindy and Kaynor to postpone the time for going to Canada?"
"No need."
"Hmm?"
"I'll be back by the 31st at the least, which is just staying three more days. Rest assured, I won't miss New Year's Eve with you."
Next year she would be eighteen.
From a certain perspective, if they waited until next year, even if Locke and Gwen went to New York City Hall to get a marriage certificate, they wouldn't need George and Helen's signatures anymore.
"Alright then."
Gwen let out a small smile on the other end of the video, nodding. "Then stay safe."
"I will."
Locke smiled slightly. He then chatted with Gwen for a while before hanging up the phone.
New York.
After Gwen hung up the phone, she gathered her large ponytail and looked at the photo of her and Locke on her phone.
She had originally already requested time off from Dr. Connors, just waiting for Locke to come back tomorrow so they could have time to be glued together.
"Forget it."
Gwen tossed her long ponytail, then shifted her gaze toward a small glass breeding habitat placed next to her computer, where a spider was spinning a web.
If one looked closely, they would find that the spider was not only far from terrifying, but actually looked somewhat cute.
How did that saying go again?
A fair complexion hides a hundred flaws.
Though a spider was still a spider, because she was a mutated white color, she didn't look frightening at all. Instead, she looked rather chibi and cute.
Gwen tapped the glass breeding habitat.
The mutated white spider inside seemed to notice something. Flying up, it lunged right against the glass to deliver a bite.
Gwen frowned. "Bad thing, don't even think about biting me again."
Rising to her feet.
Gwen walked toward the doorway.
This mutated white spider was discovered by Gwen about a month or so ago, which was right on the day before she was supposed to head to Long Island with Locke. At the time, while she was cleaning up the laboratory, she accidentally noticed this spider had crawled onto her hand from somewhere unknown.
It had even bitten her.
Gwen's tears had almost come down at the time.
It was also fortunate that this spider was fluffy and looked somewhat cute. If it had been ugly, even if it were fluffy, Gwen would have sent it to Hell with a single slap.
But who could blame her since she was cute.
So, after Gwen sanitized the wound, she went to find someone in the lab to get a glass breeding habitat, and then kept it inside the lab as a pet.
Wasn't it holidays now?
Only then did Gwen bring it back. Although the people in the lab could have helped her feed it, if the lab staff fed it, there was also a possibility they might use this poor spider to do some bad things.
She didn't want to return after the holidays only to hear tragic news about this white spider.
***
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