Whispering Verse

Professor Martin is a thin, middle-aged man wearing glasses but with unusually thick black hair. He looks to be in his forties. After confirming Sha De's identity and shaking hands with him, he told his story.

The professor's Delarian is very standard. Among the people Shade knows, only Miss Pavo can compare with him:

"Toluisa found you this time because of my troubled son."

The professor reluctantly took the photo frame standing on the table to Shade. In the photo, it was a photo of Professor Martin and a young man who looked unhappy. Their facial features were very similar.

"My wife passed away due to illness more than ten years ago. I did not marry another woman, but raised Herbert by myself. I must admit that when children from single-parent families grow up, most of them have somewhat a little bit of personality. Flaws. In short, a seventeen-year-old boy ran away from home for a woman. Yes, that happened last weekend. I thought he would come back soon, but I never waited until he came home."

"You want to entrust me to find Mr. Herbert Martin?"

Shade asked, Professor Martin nodded, looking very sad:

"I am very sure that he will never leave Tobesk City. He is not that brave yet. Please find him and persuade him to go home. You can use any method that does not cause permanent damage. In addition, , and please do not tell others about this commission, but if Louisa wants to publish it, she can use a pseudonym."

"No problem. If I were still in this city, I don't think this kind of entrustment would be a problem for me. May I ask, who is the other protagonist in the story, the lady who is favored by your son? I Thinking, I could use her as an entry point.”

As Shade spoke, he took out his notebook to take notes. Little Mia was pressed under the laptop as a pad, and the cat had no problem with it.

The professor touched his nose and took a long time to utter the sentence:

". Good at sociability, has no legitimate occupation, often hangs out in clubs and banquets. That's probably it."

Shade expressed great sympathy for this gentleman.

In fact, Shade doesn't often do the job of finding people. On the contrary, he is better at finding lost pet cats. But since it was confirmed that Mr. Martin was still in the local area, Shade thought that it would not be a problem to find him in a day or two.

So, after bidding farewell to Professor Martin, he started today's action with Mia. The professor provided the "workplace" of the woman who was obsessed with his son. Although it was daytime and there was a high probability that the woman would not be at work, Shade decided to try his luck.

The seventeen-year-old Mr. Herbert Martin is obsessed with a woman who calls herself "Miss Norma." She is not a streetwalker in the traditional sense, but plays a special role in the city's upscale clubs.

"Mr. Nice Club" is located in the west of Tobesk City. It is nominally a club established by antique collectors. When Shade got off the carriage and saw the club on this winter morning, the three-story building stood on the left side of a stone street with not many people. On the left side of the club was a high-end tobacco shop, with a lacquered wood sign. On the right side is a high-end fur shop, where ladies hang out.

Not everyone can enter such a high-end club. Not only do you need to pay a membership fee to enter, but you also need an introduction from an acquaintance. But fortunately, the reputation of "Rejed's Hamilton" is still very useful in this city, especially after the "big case" some time ago.

Shortly after explaining his identity, Shade was invited into the club and met Mr. Chelsea, the club's manager on duty today.

This is a tall, middle-aged man with thinning hair. He welcomed Shade warmly. Hearing that Shade wanted to investigate the club's "staff", he hesitated for a while and happily expressed his willingness to cooperate.

So Shade successfully obtained the residence address of Miss Norma, and learned that the lady had not appeared for several days. But that’s the case for most professionals of this kind, so it’s not surprising.

"By the way, is Mr. Herbert Martin a regular at your club?"

Shade did not forget to ask about this, and Mr. Chelsea nodded after recalling:

"He comes once or twice a week, but Mr. Martin doesn't know anything about antiques. He just comes to have fun with his friends. He is quite familiar with Miss Norma. Yes, it is probably the kind of relationship you want. However, with Norma He is not the only man with whom Miss Ma maintains a friendly relationship. They know each other and there has been no conflict."

Shade nodded:

"So, have there been any abnormalities in Miss Norma and Mr. Martin recently?"

Mr. Chelsea recalled again:

"There is nothing unusual about Miss Norma, at least I haven't observed it. However, I have heard that Mr. Herbert Martin and his companions talked about the topic of 'resurrection from the dead.' Oh, you don't have to think too much, Miss Norma." Always alive, at least until the two of them were last seen."

Shade frowned slightly. He had not heard that Mr. Martin Jr. had any relatives or friends who had passed away recently.

"So, if you use 10 points to evaluate Mr. Martin's 'love' for Miss Norma, how many points can you give?"

Mr. Chelsea gave the answer without thinking this time:

"10 points. That young man loves that lady deeply. However, he is a young man of 17 or 18 years old after all, so this is normal. Maybe when he is a few years older, he will be able to understand what love is. .”

Shade mused, hoping that Mr. Martin Jr. and his friends would talk about "resurrection from the dead" and have nothing to do with his disappearance.

The western part of Tobesk City is an area where aristocrats gather, but there are also slightly cheaper rental apartments. Miss Norma lived at No. 6 Honey Lane, two blocks away from the Mr. Nice Club.

It was Friday morning, and most of the people living nearby went out to work, so Shade knocked on the door and waited for a long time, but no one came to open the door. Considering Miss Norma's night life, if she were at home, she would probably be fast asleep and therefore not hear the knock on the door.

【Want to come back tonight? 】

she asked with a chuckle.

"If we come back in the evening, she might have gone out. I don't have the patience to spend the whole afternoon here watching. At least make sure that the lady is at home."

I scanned the left and right sides with my peripheral vision. Although there were people on the street, most of them seemed to be in a hurry. So Shade stretched out his finger and knocked on the door lock——

Click~

"It's so careless. The tenants here actually forget to lock the door before going out."

He muttered softly, opened the door a crack, and then got in sideways, and the door was closed again.

Most of the internal areas of the Honey Lane apartments are not large, and once you enter, you can feel crowded and narrow. I walked up the creaking stairs all the way to the third floor where Miss Norma lived. There was a name tag with my last name hanging on the wooden door, and a note was glued under the name tag:

"If you don't clean up your stinky perfume in the public restroom, I will ban you from using the restroom again."

This was probably posted by the landlord.

Shade did not rush in directly, but knocked on the door a few more times. After waiting for a moment to make sure no one answered, he opened the door and walked in.

The small living room of the narrow apartment is about the same size as the bathroom of Shade's family. There are three doors on the front, back and left, leading to the dining room, kitchen, bedroom and a sunny balcony respectively.

After Shade walked in, he glanced around, then lowered his head and glanced at the letters piled on the footmat that had been stuffed through the door delivery port:

"The oldest letter was sent three days ago. Could it be that Miss Norma really eloped with Mr. Martin Jr.?"

He looked through the envelopes of the letters for a moment, and judging from the crazy words written on the envelopes, most of them were letters from Miss Norma's admirers. This woman seemed very capable and charming.

The cat lying on the shoulder made a somewhat unhappy sound at this time, because the fragrance in the room was too strong, and it was the smell of inferior incense. This smell has no source, like the smell of incense that has been permeating the house for many years.

Since the letter from three days ago was not checked, Miss Norma was naturally not at home. Considering that this matter needed to be reported to the client, Shade did not immediately look through other people's things in private. Instead, he stood there and apologized quietly before taking action.

"However, we must first determine whether this is a homicide - Echo of Blood."

There were no large-scale fresh blood stains in the living room. Shade put on shoe covers and went to the bedroom. Then he saw fresh blood stains on the bedside table and on the picture frame hanging beside the bed. The blood stains had accumulated over the years, like two There was always blood everywhere.

"A clue has emerged?"

Miss Norma's personal belongings were placed on the bedside table, but Shade did not touch them casually. He stood next to the bed and looked at the hanging painting. This was not a cheap decorative oil painting. Judging from Shade's appreciation, the painting's painting level was quite high.

The picture shows a rolling mountain scenery, but this is not a landscape painting, but an almost malicious depiction of the dim yellow sky, the strange figures in the shadows of the mountains, and the strange shapes of the rolling mountains.

There are indeed people who like this style of painting, but in Shade's opinion, there may be some problems with it.

He took off the painting with his feet, and then saw a locked secret compartment on the wall. As for the back of the oil painting, there is a sentence written in very exaggerated cursive letters at an angle:

【May the earth be with you and me. 】

After Shade noticed the words written in dark blue letters, the dark blue turned to blood, and then blood flowed down the back of the frame.

"It seems like we're in trouble."

Shade sighed slightly. At this time, the dark wind blew through the room with the closed doors and windows. After a muffled sound, the bedroom door was closed by the wind. The light transmitted from the curtains weakened drastically, and as a creaking sound came from under the floor, the evil spirit's palm stretched out from under the floor and grabbed Shade's ankle.