Six people—could they all have been murdered?

A series of cases?

……

Anna Brooks was carefully reading the files. Henry Thompson waited for a while, but didn’t get any response. He didn’t mind too much and stopped paying attention, instead starting to think about his own next steps.

Now, the case had been handed over to the Inspectorate. The Inspectorate should investigate, but Henry Thompson didn’t have much hope.

Unless the Night Watchers intervened soon!

“The key is, if I’m the next target, maybe I’ll encounter the Blood Shadow soon. The red shadow I vaguely saw a few days ago—was that the Blood Shadow? Is it looking for me? Or has it already found me, but because of my identity, hasn’t dared to make a move yet?”

After all, the Inspectorate is a law enforcement agency. If a trainee dies by self-immolation, it might not cause much of a stir, even if it’s a trainee from the Ancient Academy.

But if a level-three inspector dies—as one of their own—the Inspectorate will definitely investigate thoroughly. That’s even more serious than a trainee’s death.

“According to the information I’ve gathered, every time the Blood Shadow appears, there should be a time limit. It doesn’t last long, and might only show up at a specific point.”

“The victims actually have something in common, but… it’s a bit unclear!”

Over the past year, Henry Thompson hadn’t come up empty-handed.

At the very least, he’d found one thing: including Ethan Bolton’s death, on the day all six people died, the weather didn’t seem to be very good.

Thunderstorms, ball lightning, rainy days…

Not many people pay attention to the weather, and Henry Thompson only started noticing because he couldn’t find any other clues.

On the day Ethan Bolton died, Henry Thompson clearly remembered that it rained lightly at night—not too much.

“It only appears on rainy days, or rather, only commits crimes when the weather is bad.”

Henry Thompson kept writing something on paper, and soon tore the paper to shreds. After completely destroying it, he put down his pen and fell into deep thought.

As he was thinking, across from him, Anna Brooks suddenly exclaimed in a low voice, “I found something!”

Henry Thompson was startled and quickly looked up. Found something?

What could she have found?

Impossible!

He hadn’t expected anything, and Anna Brooks had only looked for a short while—what could she have found? Henry Thompson thought she was just bluffing.

Henry Thompson frowned, but soon relaxed and smiled again. “Sister Na, what did you find?”

Anna Brooks had vaguely noticed Henry Thompson frown earlier and felt a bit embarrassed. She remembered that Henry Thompson cared a lot about this and that it wasn’t the time for jokes. Somewhat awkwardly, she said, “Well… actually, I haven’t finished reading. There’s just too much information.”

Henry Thompson felt nothing inside—he’d already guessed.

No disappointment, since he hadn’t expected anything in the first place.

But the next moment, Anna Brooks still spoke up: “I haven’t finished, but… there really does seem to be some connection, I’m just not sure.”

As she spoke, she raised the paper beside her. “I have a habit of jotting things down. I just glanced at the files and wrote down the names of the people involved.”

Henry Thompson glanced at it and nodded slightly.

Six people involved!

He could recite all their names backwards and forwards—what could possibly be discovered from that?

They didn’t have the same first name, nor the same surname. Some had two characters, some three—there was simply no connection.

But seeing Henry Thompson’s interest, Anna Brooks quickly said, “Quentin Carter, Grace Hudson, Howard Smith, Brian Miller, Howard Clark, Ethan Bolton—these are the six names, right?”

Henry Thompson nodded slightly.

Anna Brooks looked at the names on the paper again, and suddenly felt uncertain. She was afraid that if she said something, Henry Thompson would think she was just making things up, which would be bad.

A bit embarrassed, Anna Brooks cleared her throat and said, “Forget it, just pretend I didn’t say anything. I’ll take another look. Something seems off, and I’m missing two.”

“What?”

Henry Thompson was taken aback. “Missing two what?”

Anna Brooks grew even more embarrassed. “If there was one more with the surname Zheng, and one with the surname Li, then it would make sense. But there isn’t… ahem, I’m just saying, don’t take it seriously.”

She didn’t want to say any more—it was too embarrassing!

But Henry Thompson was deeply shaken inside.

Why would it only make sense with two more?

Surname Li… his own surname was Li!

And missing one with the surname Zheng, missing one… Henry Thompson could only look up cases from ten years ago, because anything older than that—if there were no doubts—would have had the files destroyed. There were too many accidental cases, too many files, and the archives couldn’t keep them all.

At this moment, Henry Thompson was shaken inside, but his face remained calm. He smiled and said, “Sister Na, just say whatever’s on your mind. It’s fine, just talk—why do you say it would make sense with two more surnames?”

Anna Brooks looked at Henry Thompson, curious. “Aren’t you from Silver City?”

“Yes.”

“Then…”

As Anna Brooks spoke, she thought of something and nodded. “I see. Is it that… you don’t have any elderly relatives at home?”

“My grandparents passed away early.”

Henry Thompson grew even more curious. Why was this related to the elderly now?

Seeing his interest, Anna Brooks was no longer embarrassed and explained, “If you had elderly people at home, some of them like to talk about local sayings. My grandma used to love telling me these things when I was little.”