Chapter 26: My Ability Seems to Have Upgraded

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: My Ability Seems to Have Upgraded

Evan Keller frowned, confused. "Shouldn’t we be watching him like a hawk right now? How can we let him just wander around?"

Captain Lynch shook his head. "We can’t. I don’t know where those parents heard it, but they got it in their heads that we detained two teachers to deliberately cut into their kids’ study time. They all stormed the station to protest."

We explained from the start that we were just following procedure and that the school would arrange for substitute teachers to make sure the students’ studies wouldn’t be affected.

But for some reason, the parents were fixated on those two teachers and wouldn’t budge, no matter what we said.

Some even threatened to camp out at the station and refuse to leave unless the two were allowed to go back to teaching.

To avoid a bigger commotion, we had no choice but to agree. We let the teachers return to class, but we still have officers tailing them whenever they’re out.

Teacher Scott came over yesterday because he heard there was a new, very useful set of practice questions here and decided to check it out on the spur of the moment.

But sure enough, the very next day, a new murder occurred right here.

"That’s too much of a coincidence," Evan Keller said with a frown. "Did the officers tailing him notice anything unusual?"

Trouble started the day after Teacher Scott arrived.

Recalling their earlier suspicions, alarm bells went off in his head, and he mentally moved Teacher Scott to the top of the list of people to watch.

"We don’t have any hard evidence yet. Let’s take a look at the latest crime scene first," Sean Hughes said, cutting off their speculation.

It was all just conjecture; none of it could be used as evidence.

They arrived at the scene a short while later.

The area was swarming with onlookers, pointing and gesturing at the cordoned-off scene.

Evan Keller and Captain Lynch found the officer in charge of the case to get some information about the victim.

The officer glanced at Zoe Sawyer, whom Sean Hughes kept protectively by his side. His eyes darkened for a moment, his thoughts unreadable.

But he quickly snapped out of it and laid out everything the investigation had uncovered so far.

The victim’s name was Shirley Miller. She used to be a sex worker, but she left that life behind after meeting her current boyfriend. She found a stable job, though it didn’t pay much.

She kept a low profile and was good to everyone. Her neighbors all spoke well of her, and she didn’t seem to have any enemies.

It was hard to believe she’d just lose her life so senselessly.

"What about her boyfriend?" Evan Keller asked.

In cases like this, the partner is always the prime suspect, so Evan Keller’s question was perfectly natural.

The officer in charge shook his head. "He’s out of state. His company sent him on a trip a couple of days ago. He wasn’t scheduled to be back until next week.

As soon as we got here and ID’d the victim, we contacted him and told him to rush back."

’Just like in Mia Scott’s case. Another perfect alibi!’

Zoe Sawyer stood where she was, her eyes scanning the crowd of onlookers.

Soon, a man in the corner caught her eye.

He was dressed exactly like the man in the baseball cap she had seen outside Mia Scott’s apartment building, only this time, a plain-looking, middle-aged woman was standing beside him.

The woman was so plain that she would blend into a crowd without anyone noticing a thing.

"Don’t be so obvious, you’ll draw their attention. Did you spot something?" Sean Hughes asked, noticing Zoe Sawyer’s stare. He stepped forward, partially blocking her view.

’Zoe Sawyer wasn’t the type to get worked up over nothing. If something had caught her attention like this, it had to be important.’

"The guy in the baseball cap, over in the northwest corner. I saw him near Mia Scott’s place before," Zoe Sawyer explained simply.

If he were just an ordinary gawker, she wouldn’t have given him a second thought.

But this was too much of a coincidence.

The call about Shirley Miller had only just come in, yet this man had already found his way here with uncanny precision.

Zoe Sawyer refused to believe there wasn’t something shady going on.

Sean Hughes pretended to glance casually toward the northwest corner, and sure enough, he saw the man Zoe Sawyer had pointed out.

"Alright, I see him. I’ll go tell Evan Keller and the others right now," Sean Hughes said, pulling Zoe Sawyer toward the other three.

’No matter how you look at it, seeing him at two consecutive crime scenes has to mean something.’

’Bringing him in for questioning can’t hurt.’

The three men, who had been discussing the case, narrowed their eyes upon hearing what Sean Hughes said.

"The northwest corner? I’ll go take a look right now!" The officer in charge turned and led Zoe Sawyer and the others toward the man in the baseball cap.

But they had only taken a few steps in his direction when the man pulled the brim of his cap down, blocking his face from view. He then squeezed into the crowd, attempting to use the onlookers to obstruct their path.

"Stop!"

The officer in charge, who had only been slightly suspicious and planned to just ask a few questions, was now in a panic. ’Isn’t it obvious something’s wrong?!’

’No! I can’t let him escape, or it’ll be impossible to catch him later!’

"They can’t catch the killer, so they’re trying to pin it on one of us!"

Just as the officer in charge, Evan Keller, and Captain Lynch were about to push into the crowd, someone suddenly shouted, shifting the blame onto them. After disrupting the scene, the shouter took advantage of the chaos and slipped away.

"We’re innocent! You can’t just accuse people!"

"Yeah, that’s right!"

Some of the onlookers, who didn’t know the full story, eyed Zoe Sawyer and the others warily, their bodies tense with suspicion.

Some even surged forward, trying to prove their own innocence.

All Zoe Sawyer and the others could do was watch helplessly as the two disappeared from view.

’A mistake!’

’We should have posted people at the end of the street!’

The officer in charge worked his jaw, his eyes filled with regret.

A schoolgirl who had just gotten out of class squeezed through. After listening to what happened, she couldn’t help but speak up on the officers’ behalf. "Alright, ma’am. The police probably noticed something was off and wanted to question those two, but they got scared and ran because they had a guilty conscience.

Before they left, they deliberately slung mud to stir up trouble and get us to surround the police like this. It was all a distraction so they could escape."

The women who had gotten all worked up now looked slightly embarrassed.

’Was that what happened?’

Seeing that the crowd had quieted down, Sean Hughes breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly went over to ask if anyone had noticed the man in the baseball cap and the woman with him.

The women glanced at one another, their expressions blank.

Come to think of it, none of them seemed to have seen the pair.

Just then, a quiet young woman holding a child at the edge of the crowd raised her hand. Her voice was timid. "I’ve seen them. I saw them walking around here the past couple of days."

Sean Hughes’s face lit up. ’A lead!’

He rushed over, eager to ask for more specific details.

Meanwhile, Evan Keller noticed Zoe Sawyer had walked over to a nearby fence gate, a strange expression on her face. He followed her and asked, "What is it?"

"My ability... I think it just leveled up?"