Chapter 113: Chapter 14 James’ Direction
The west and north districts of Barton were connected by the Charles River, like a rat’s tail being stretched. To the south of this tail was a whole forest that grew southward into Newton City. In the center of this forest, the Passing River from Newton City extended to the north, and then at the end of the stretched ‘rat’s tail’, it met the Charles River.
Zach patted Benjamin on the shoulder and pointed to a black car ahead on the bridge deck above the end of the Passing River, “James.” His hand was already on the gear, and he wanted to accelerate.
Benjamin slapped Zach’s hand and glanced at him, “What do you want to do? Hit him?”
Zach curled his lips, “Just want to let you get close to him.”
Benjamin ignored Zach and continued to drive at his own speed. He was about to enter the Northern District. The traffic was not small. Sudden acceleration was very unethical.
Benjamin turned the steering wheel and followed James’ car. It seemed that James was driving towards Liszt Street. Benjamin was not in a hurry, tailgating from the back, and waved to the front when he finally got close enough.
James felt a cool breeze coming from the back of his neck, as if someone was plotting against him from behind in the dark.
In fact, that someone had indeed done it. After sending Zach back to Grande, he went straight back to the police station. Because he participated in the evacuation of St Mary’s Church, he also needed to go back and make some written reports. After chatting with his partner, Detective Coulson, who was also writing the report, Chief Cologne appeared by the guardrail on the second floor, held out two fingers at him, and made a beckoning sign.
Five minutes later, James honestly left the police station and drove to the estate of the Quest’s family in Barton Western District.
Zach sold him out.
But when he saw the young, uninjured Quest couple lying on the bed ‘rest’, he was relieved. But this relaxed mood was immediately swept away by what happened next.
James told the truth. He spent most of the night investigating the abandoned bus terminal and found nothing. Then two of Grande appeared, and they also found nothing. Just when the three of them were about to leave, suddenly, two missing people appeared.
What James said was true, but he felt like he was lying. This feeling was worse than simply lying!
The owner of Quest Manor used a threatening tone to force James to repeat the whole process over and over again. James answered truthfully. The process lasted for an hour. James felt like he had been interrogated, and his dissatisfaction with Zach grew stronger.
James sat in the car, stretched out his hand to pull his collar, wanting to dispel the chilly feeling that someone was plotting against him. He subconsciously looked at the rearview mirror. There was a dirty truck in the rearview mirror. In it, a man with a tall body that could not be ignored was waving at him, and the front passenger seat was empty.
James shivered all over, and he seemed to feel a pale-skinned person smiling at him in the empty passenger seat.
“He noticed us.” Zach smiled and patted Benjamin.
Benjamin shifted gears and drove to James’s left side. Zach leaned against the car door, with an arm extended from the car window, knocked on James’ car, “What a coincidence, Detective Rance!”
James took a deep breath and tried not to look at it or imagine Zach’s current expression. He stepped on the gas pedal and accelerated towards Liszt Street.
Zach and Benjamin looked at each other and followed.
Liszt Street was located in the southeast of Back Bay (Fenway Stadium) and the southwest of Becky Street. The area diverging from Liszt Street has completely replaced the former Becky District and has been developed into the most prosperous business district in Barton.
In this area, you would be able to find theaters, cinemas, hotels, casinos… The most famous one was [Liszt Square] at the north end of Liszt Street. If you stand on the top floor of [Liszt Building] behind the square, you can see the whole Barton.
The two vehicles with great contrast directly entered the [Liszt Back Street] along the Liszt Building. James got out of the car and watched the other two get out of the car and walk towards him. He walked towards his apartment with a sullen face.
When James stood on the elevator, the two men had obviously just entered the narrow corridor, but when he pushed aside the fence of the elevator, the two had already stood in front of the iron gate that had been patched by him.
“What do you want again.” James opened the door.
“Come to apologize.” Zach smiled and stepped into James’ apartment, “I’m sorry to drag you in again.”
Of course, James knew what Zach was talking about, but he didn’t think Zach had any sincerity, so he snorted coldly.
“You must have seen Mr. Quest.” Zach and Benjamin dispersed as if they were familiar with this place. Benjamin walked to the bar in the rich bachelor’s house. Zach walked directly to the living room and continued to say to the sullen James, “Then you should know that this person is, um–” Zach thought about the wording, “a bit ‘aggressive’.”
Although James Rance really did not want to have the same opinion with the vampire, he must admit that the 30-year-old Quest was indeed very aggressive. He always expressed his opinions before the other party and then limited the content of the talks to the direction he wanted. If he didn’t get what he wanted to know, he would keep repeating the conversation.
This was a person with a clear goal and a strong desire to control, so in more than an hour, James was forced to recount a dozen times what happened last night to early morning.
James was a police detective, and profiling was one of his work skills. He had a bad impression of Quest.
“Yes, he is.” James was forced to reach a consensus with the vampire, “but this is very normal. There are two people in this generation of the Quest family, he and Neil. If he were not aggressive, then he would not have become the current owner of the Quest group.”
Zach smiled, James obviously did what he should do, “So, what do you think? Is he the culprit?”
James glanced at Zach, “Why do you ask me that, didn’t you ‘ask’ him?”
Zach’s eyes drifted to one side, as if embarrassed, “We haven’t met yet.”
Before James’s anger erupted, Zach stretched out his hand with an open palm, signaling James not to get emotional, “Before you accuse us of randomly accepting requests, I need to make it clear that I didn’t know it would be this, hmm… odd.” Zach blinked. Asking the vampire to admit that something was odd was not an easy task.
James closed his eyes, took a deep breath, stopped agonizing about the vampire’s random involvement in human life. He thought for a while and shook his head, “I don’t think it is him. His emotions were real. He wants to know what happened.” James frowned. “When he finds you, it can basically rule out his suspicion.”
Zach raised his eyebrows and curled his lips. “After what you saw this morning, do you still think so?”
James thought of the boy in the wheelchair, his face darkened again.
Tulpa fed on human fantasies. When the fantasies were so big and delusional that they could not be digested, the fantasies would come true. But the human mind was a very wonderful thing, would you think about something you have already obtained? No. So even if the teenager in the wheelchair was already able to stand up, he still had to sit back!
This could explain the disappearance and reappearance of Neil and Tiffany!
“This does not mean that Quest is the culprit.” James thought for a moment, suppressing his voice, “Maybe…” James stared at the vampire and emphasized, “Maybe! Maybe the Tulpa named Daniel just happened to be nearby.”
James was so ‘protective’ to humans, Zach felt both comfort and sorrow. The comfort was that James has begun to accept the influence of the existence of nonhumans on humans. The sorrow was because he was still prejudiced. The emphasis on ‘maybe’ was just to help humans avoid responsibility.
Zach did not refute, but went on, “Maybe, maybe, Quest’s ‘fantasy’ was just sufficient…”
James clenched his fists, the two people’s eyes collided in the air.
“You two are like children.” Benjamin took a bottle of beer and walked to the living room while shaking his head, “Is it necessary to help strangers to avoid responsibilities?”
Zach withdrew his gaze first, and said to Benjamin with a disappointed smile on his face, “I’m helping him find the right direction, but he doesn’t appreciate it at all.”
“You should say it directly.” Benjamin curled his lips, “We are at his house, he won’t turn around and leave. Your way of guiding will only make him kick us out in the end.”
Zach was dazed for a moment. The vampire had indeed failed to realize this.
“What are you talking about!” James raised the voice, the son of the general was not used to this feeling of someone ignoring him.
“It’s my fault.” Zach smiled, “James, calm down, now think about it, what will the end of this matter be?”
James’ undulating chest slowly calmed down, “What!”
“Very simple.” Zach stopped going around in circles, torturing James’ brain, “If it’s Tulpa, we, Grande will deal with it. You may think this is the end of the incident, but for Barton, this is another mystery that will always remain unsolved.”
Zach looked at James’ wide-open eyes and nodded in satisfaction, “Very well, you understand it now. Then, it will be easier to make you understand what I’m going to say next.”
Zach continued, “It’s still if, if it’s a Tulpa. You may think that there is no culprit, but the fact is that there is indeed one. That person can have such a ‘loud’ idea that it would make Tulpa realize this idea passively…”
“Then he must really hope this will come true.” James’ widened eyes squinted. He completed Zach’s words for him.
“No, no.” James shook his head, “This is a ‘fantasy’, and a ‘fantasy’ is something that you know is impossible! He will never put it into action!”
Zach nodded and smiled, “You are right, it was impossible before. But it happened. The Barton police had also made a verdict that they were indeed ‘missing’. No matter whose “fantasy” caused this incident, he has seen the world after the realization of the fantasy.”
Zach looked at James and asked. “Has the police found any suspects? Are there any names on the police target list?”
Zach answered himself, “No. It’s just two people went missing, and no one was involved. So maybe I should change my wording. Do you think this kind of disappearance will happen a second time?”
Zach looked at James, whose face had completely darkened, and added, “The second time, they will be really ‘missing’. You have to stop it. Only that is the end of the case, and this is the direction you, Detective Rance needs to proceed. “
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