Not far down the street, a man in a suit with a small mustache was staring at Duanmu Huai in surprise. This person was none other than Charlie Simon, the art dealer who was supposedly Duanmu Huai's "distant relative."
Previously, he had nearly been sacrificed by ghouls. After that incident ended, Charlie had suffered severe mental shock. He had even visited Duanmu Huai personally to thank him, and afterward immediately sold all the paintings in his collection along with his villa. According to Charlie, he had no intention of returning home. He planned to travel around and see the world, then find a place where he could live out his old age in peace.
When Duanmu Huai had seen him a month ago, the man had looked utterly haggard, with heavy dark circles under his eyes. But now he looked plump and relaxed, with a cheerful smile on his face...
"I didn't expect to run into you here."
Duanmu Huai looked at this "distant relative" from his identity settings and asked curiously. Charlie burst out laughing.
"Haha, I didn't expect it either. Honestly, I just came here because a friend invited me to relax and take a look at the exhibition or something... sigh, who would've thought something like that would happen."
"Something like that?"
"Yeah. Oh right!"
Charlie nodded. When he saw Duanmu Huai, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Perfect timing! I was actually thinking about whether I should try to find you!"
"????"
Although completely confused, Duanmu Huai still nodded. Charlie excitedly pulled him to the side and began telling him about his troubles.
In short, after the ghoul incident, Charlie had been unable to live peacefully in Arkham. He couldn't stay there anymore. So he sold his company and villa, planning to use the large sum of money to travel around the world and live freely. In any case, the money was more than enough to support the rest of his life.
However, that also left Charlie feeling deeply empty. He truly loved art—otherwise he would never have become an art dealer. Yet now he was forced to abandon his passion, which filled him with sorrow. Around that time, a friend learned about Charlie's situation and invited him out to relax. Coincidentally, the museum in Newburyport was hosting a modern art exhibition, so Charlie accepted the invitation and came here with his friend.
Then his friend disappeared.
...
Huh???
"I've already called the police and spoken to the museum staff, but there haven't been any leads. I was getting anxious, and then unexpectedly I saw you..."
"..."
Looking at Charlie in front of him, Duanmu Huai was completely speechless.
Don't tell me you're like Conan, a walking god of death who causes someone to die wherever you go?
But regardless, being able to meet a firsthand witness of this case was an unexpected delight for Duanmu Huai. So he asked Charlie about the entire sequence of events.
Basically, the situation itself wasn't complicated. According to Charlie, his friend had invited him here to see the newest exhibition—an event about cultural exchange in modern civilization art. Of course, while the name sounded lofty, in reality, it was just a self-entertaining activity for a group of art students. Even though there had been various issues before, Charlie was still happy to see how young people expressed their ideas and understanding of art.
In Exhibition Hall A, Charlie became captivated by a sculpture in front of him. His instincts as both an artist and a merchant became active again. Meanwhile, after looking at the artworks displayed in the hall, his friend told Charlie that he was going to check out the next exhibition hall first. Charlie didn't say much and simply nodded. A few minutes later, he finally pulled his gaze away and went to the next hall.
But his friend was gone.
"To be honest, I initially thought he had just gone to another exhibition hall, so I hurried around looking for him. But after I searched the entire museum and still couldn't find him, I realized something seemed wrong. I also tried calling him, but the call wouldn't go through..."
Charlie first asked the museum security guards for help. He noticed that when he said his companion had gone missing, the guards looked uneasy and agitated. Still, they accompanied Charlie as he searched the entire exhibition area again and even took him into the museum's office sections...
Yet his companion was still nowhere to be found.
With no other choice, Charlie called the police.
The police retrieved the museum's surveillance footage. From the footage, it could be seen that while Charlie was admiring the sculpture, his friend had indeed walked up to him and said a few words before turning and heading toward another exhibition hall. Then the camera switched to that hall, where Charlie's friend could be seen entering and walking forward through the gallery.
Then he disappeared.
That's right—it was exactly that strange.
To explain just how strange it was, Charlie even drew a simple diagram on paper for Duanmu Huai. He himself had been in Exhibition Hall A, while his friend went to Exhibition Hall B. Between Hall A and Hall B was a corridor. Both the exhibition halls and the corridor had cameras. Based on the surveillance footage, it could clearly be seen that the friend left Hall A, entered the corridor, passed through it, and walked through the entrance of Hall B.
But Hall B's cameras never captured his friend.
In other words, his friend had mysteriously vanished into thin air the moment he entered Hall B.
Afterward, the police conducted a carpet search of Hall B and found nothing. And according to the surveillance footage, the friend had never walked back out of Hall B either.
That was extremely strange.
"So..."
"I hope you can help me investigate what exactly happened. I know you're very good at handling this kind of thing. Of course, I'll pay you a commission."
"No problem."
Duanmu Huai naturally wouldn't refuse such a good opportunity. One commission earning two payments—wasn't that wonderful?
Getting two bites from one fish was the real way.
Originally, Duanmu Huai planned to invite Charlie to come along. But the man clearly still had psychological trauma. He said he would wait at the hotel for good news and then immediately slipped away and ran off.
Duanmu Huai had no choice but to contact Anthony again and invite him to discuss the situation inside his RV.
It couldn't be helped. Normally conversations like this would take place in a café or bar, but the problem was that Duanmu Huai simply had nowhere to sit in those places.
Better to talk in the vehicle. At least it had air conditioning.
Anthony quickly reunited with Duanmu Huai, and the two exchanged information. When Anthony learned that the person who reported this case was actually the victim from Duanmu Huai's previous incident, he was quite surprised. Fortunately, Duanmu Huai had already heard the full story from Charlie, while Anthony had learned the details from the museum security and staff through his position as a police officer. After comparing their information, everything matched.
"So where do you plan to start the investigation?"
After confirming the information, Anthony looked at Duanmu Huai with curiosity. Normally the police wouldn't interfere with an investigator's methods, but he was genuinely curious about what Duanmu Huai planned to do.
After all, with his appearance, trying to conduct this kind of work would probably be extremely difficult.
Duanmu Huai's answer, however, was extremely straightforward.
"What's there to be scared of? Tonight I'm just going to stay in the museum overnight, see what the hell is causing trouble, drag it out, and kill it!"
"..."
It was indeed very straightforward.
"Then I can apply to the museum director for a nighttime closed-door search. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"Sure. It'd be even better if you handle it."
Duanmu Huai didn't care much. After all, he possessed the genes of the Raven Guard. Even if the museum refused, he could sneak in quietly. But since Anthony wanted to act together with him, Duanmu Huai had no objections. One advantage of having a police officer around was that many times he wouldn't need to explain anything—he could just dump the responsibility onto the other party.
It turned out that federal officers carried quite a bit of authority. After Anthony briefly explained the situation to the museum director, the latter agreed to allow the two of them to remain in the museum after closing. Of course, the director was also so generous because there wasn't really anything particularly valuable inside the museum. After all, it was just a local museum. If a farming hoe passed down locally for two or three hundred years counted as the museum's greatest treasure, what more could you expect?
Soon, as night fell, the museum staff gradually left the building. Only then did Duanmu Huai and Anthony stride inside.
Click.
Crisp footsteps echoed through the empty, silent space. Anthony looked around and inhaled sharply, while Duanmu Huai narrowed his eyes and coldly observed everything around him. After a moment, he finally spoke.
"Alright, let's begin the investigation."
Naturally, the first place they went was Exhibition Hall B, where the missing person had last been seen. It was just an ordinary gallery. Various oil paintings hung on the walls, while nearby were some extremely ordinary daily items from one or two hundred years ago... well, it was obvious that this museum really didn't have much worth displaying.
Not surprising, considering its shallow history.
Compared to those disgusting paintings created by the ghouls earlier, the oil paintings hanging here looked far more normal. Duanmu Huai glanced at them briefly before looking away and scanning the surroundings instead. Meanwhile, Anthony held a flashlight in one hand and flipped through his notebook with the other.
"Hmm. According to the surveillance footage, the missing person walked through the entrance and then moved along this wall... most likely he was just like us, admiring the paintings..."
As he spoke, Anthony raised the flashlight and shone it across the paintings hanging on the wall. It was as if he was imitating the missing person's line of sight, trying to see what exactly he might have been looking at.
However, at that moment, Anthony suddenly saw the content of one of the paintings.
In that instant, he almost screamed.
(End of Chapter)