After Luke asked the sisters about what happened and the details of the horror story, the two set off again.
The car first got on Highway 1, then turned around and drove back, then got on Highway 73 and drove southeast again.
Finally, they turned onto a country road and drove for forty minutes before arriving at a place called Chunmu Town.
As the car entered the town, both of them felt that the town was shrouded in an uneasy atmosphere. The pedestrians passing by looked hurried and seemed indifferent to everything around them.
The two of them occasionally made eye contact with some residents through the open car windows, but the other parties quickly turned their heads away, with no intention of greeting them, as if they were avoiding the plague.
Even shortly after entering the town, their car was stopped.
A sheriff in a khaki uniform leaned over outside the driver's seat and asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Luke looked calm, with his hands on the steering wheel, and gestured to himself and Selina, "We are the staff of the No. 37 Middle School campground. We want to talk to Will Rawlins about something."
The sheriff frowned. "What do you want to talk to him about?"
Luke still smiled. "Will did something not very nice while camping a few days ago. The dean asked him to come back and calm down, but this is not a punishment. After all, camping is a vacation for children, and it is not appropriate to exclude him alone, so we are here."
The sheriff's expression relaxed. "Is that so? You can just go to Will's house."
Luke said "oh" and asked nonchalantly, "What's going on here? We didn't see many people when we came here."
The sheriff's face froze, and he said coldly: "We don't have many residents here."
After saying that, he turned and left.
Luke watched the sheriff drive away, then he started his car and sighed, "It looks like they're in a lot of trouble."
If it was just a minor trouble, it wouldn't have made the sheriff so nervous.
Selina was nearby, checking Chunmu Town's data. She said, "There's nothing special about this place. The population is neither too large nor too small, the economy is neither good nor bad, and the public security situation here is within the normal range according to the database, and there aren't many serious criminal cases. Except for this..."
She casually placed the tablet on the center console and continued, "More than a decade ago, a serial murder case occurred here. It was reported in many Los Angeles newspapers."
Luke casually glanced at the photo of an old newspaper headline on his tablet. "Child serial killer? Not caught?"
Selina reached out and tapped on the tablet a few times: "No, because there was not enough evidence to arrest the suspect at the time, so..."
Luke: "He's on the loose, and now he's committing crimes again?"
Selina shook her head, and a photo of another newspaper headline appeared on the tablet: "So, the suspect was blocked by angry parents in an abandoned church outside the town, and then burned to ashes."
Luke snorted, "Burn to ashes? Are you kidding?" It is not easy to burn a person to ashes. A funeral home needs a special incinerator to achieve this effect.
Using fuels such as wood can only produce coke, but it is impossible to produce ash. After the bones are burned, they will produce recrystallization, which can only be regarded as fake relics.
Selina nodded. "Because the police didn't find the suspect's body, the incident of the parents burning the suspect to death remained suspicious, and no one went to jail. However, the suspect disappeared since then."
Luke: "Okay, what's this unfortunate guy who's been burned to ashes doing?"
Selina: "A white male, born in 1948, the month and date are unknown, and he is five feet ten inches tall. He used to be a gardener at the Badham kindergarten in the small town, or was he a janitor? He disappeared in 1990, and there is no evidence to date that he is still alive."
Luke was scratching his head a bit. "Born in 1948? Wouldn't he be around 55 or 56 years old now?"
Could this guy be immortal? Or is he gifted with extraordinary talents, and still be able to run out and kill people even though he is less than 60 years old
He still has doubts about this.
After all, nothing is surprising in this world.
For example, a man whom Stark called Old Popsicle slept for seventy years, and when he woke up he started fighting all over the world, and he didn't look old at all.
While the two were talking, Luke drove to the home of his classmate Will Rawlins.
The family's house looked nice and their financial situation was not bad, which might be why Will was able to go to high school in Los Angeles.
After knocking on the door and talking to Will's father and Will himself for half an hour, the two came out again.
Luke lowered his voice and said to Will's father who had sent him to the door, "I will explain Will's situation to Juliet, but there is little hope of getting him back. You know, the kids at the campground are not in a good mood right now, and Will's mood is... not stable."
Will's father smiled bitterly and nodded: "Well, my request was too presumptuous."
Luke sighed and said, "If possible, it's better to let him change his environment and not stay in this town. This will have a very bad impact on his present and future."
Will's father nodded silently and watched the two leave.
After the two got in the car, Selina frowned and said, "Is Will having mental problems? I feel like he's not in a good state. It seems like... he hasn't slept well in several days."
Luke shook his head: "Who knows."
"Where are we going now?" Selina asked casually, looking ahead.
Luke: "Go find Chrissy Fowles. She is the first eyewitness to the suicide case."
The two drove to the other side of the town, where they saw a gently undulating hilly area with stone tablets of various styles standing there.
Under an awning, twenty or thirty people were sitting there. In front of them was a coffin, and a priest was reading a eulogy.
This is the town's cemetery.
According to the information they found at the police station, the middle school student lying in the coffin was Dean Russell who died a few days ago.
A few days ago, he cut his own neck with a table knife in a fast food restaurant.
There were several witnesses who saw this tragic scene, but strangely, Will said that his playmates in the small town told him that it was the devil who killed Dean.
This is also the reason why Will is criticized by Jeff's twin daughters.
After all, it is always difficult to get someone who has seen the devil to produce evidence.
After waiting for more than twenty minutes, the funeral was over.
Watching the crowd disperse, Luke and the other man walked over.
At this time, a boy walked up to a girl, and the two stood in front of a shelf of Dean's photos, talking about something.
As he got closer, Luke's keen hearing overheard the conversation between the two.
The boy asked, "Chris, have you known Dean since you were a kid?"