In the bustling crowd that came to attend and watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Shad and Mrs. Cook seemed out of place. They stood there to separate the crowd, and Shad held his breath to distinguish the sound around him. This not only needed to be distinguished from the background sound more than ten minutes ago, but also from the current background sound.
After all, listening to the sounds of the past does not completely block out the sounds of the present.
"This way."
He could barely hear the timid voice of the boy in front asking if he could leave, and then heard the gentle voice of the woman trying to comfort him. Shade waved to Mrs. Cook with a serious face, and the middle-aged woman, who was almost numb, instinctively followed him.
The two then squeezed through the crowd and walked east along the boulevard on the east side of Tobysk Station.
After crossing the boulevard, walk north again. This area is the slum area next to the station, which also provides a large number of cheap labor such as porters for the station.
There were fewer people around, and Xia De was glad that he hadn't lost him. But as he continued walking forward, he heard someone calling his name. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that it was not the voice from more than ten minutes ago, but the voice now.
Turning to look across the street, it was Captain Rades waving his hand as he walked over. After not seeing him for a week, he looked much better, wearing decent clothes, and no longer had the slovenly temperament that was typical of a drunkard.
"That's my friend, explain the situation."
He turned and spoke quickly to Mrs. Cook, then continued to listen to the sounds around him and walked forward.
In order to explain how he found the clues, Shade asked passers-by several times. But he avoided Mrs. Cook and only let her see his back. In fact, Shade did not talk to anyone.
Once he lost the direction of the sound, it would be almost impossible to find it again, so he had no time to say hello to acquaintances.
Captain Rades's military temperament became particularly prominent after he came out of his depressed predicament. Mrs. Cook had been following Shad with no idea what to do. Now that she saw Captain Rades coming, she followed the detective's instructions and simply explained that the kind detective was helping her find her lost child.
"A child is missing? This is a big deal!"
The captain was startled. Seeing the detectives in front of him looking around, he followed them.
"Detective, I'm here to help too. I don't have anything to do during the day. What clues do you have now?"
"This way!"
Xia De pointed forward with a serious look on his face, which made the captain, who had no idea what had happened before, think that he held an important clue.
They walked around Tobesk Station, stopping and starting, and more and more people came to watch the excitement. Because Queen Diana, the representative of the royal family, was about to arrive, the police had blocked some streets, which made Shad feel the urgency:
"Why haven't you stopped yet? Do you know you're being followed?"
The current location of Tobesk Station West Street is the main stop for horse-drawn carriages, but similarly, the alleys here are interconnected, connecting many nearby neighborhoods.
Every time they passed the alley, Mrs. Cook and Captain Rades behind them would look inside.
Finally, Xia De stopped and looked at the alley beside him.
In the alley, a plump woman with her head wrapped in a headscarf turned in from another exit and was walking towards the alley where they were.
The voices of the boy and the woman from more than ten minutes ago were heard entering this alley. The woman walking in front of him seemed to be of the same age as the owner of the voices.
In order to prevent the other party from turning around and running, Xia De did not ask out loud, but wanted to wait until the other party got closer, then let her speak, and judge from the tone of her voice whether the woman with a headscarf was his target.
But unexpectedly, although Xia De was cautious, the other party was even more cautious.
After noticing the three people at the alley entrance, she subconsciously slowed down her pace. Then, perhaps because she recognized Mrs. Cook or was frightened by Captain Rades's temperament, she showed a hesitant expression on her face, and then turned around and ran.
"That's her!"
The captain's excellent reaction ability, which he developed in the army, made him the first to chase after him with a roar.
"Mrs. Cook, call the police for help. I suspect your children are in the nearby alleys. Remember, you must tell them that this is where the murderer of the Tobesk children's serial disappearance case is located. Be careful that they may have accomplices!"
After saying that, Xia De also chased after him. When the pursuit had been discovered and it was unclear which house in which alley nearby was problematic, catching the woman was the best way to make a breakthrough.
Actually, Shad was carrying two guns. The Ruger revolver from MI6 was ready to fire at any time. But the woman was already running in the middle of the alley, and Shad's instructions to Mrs. Cook delayed him for a few seconds, so he couldn't guarantee that his shooting skills would hit the target.
So he could only chase forward, but Shade believed that with his physical strength as a ring warlock, he would definitely be able to catch up with the woman.
He still thought too simply.
Although there was no fork in the road, the woman who started running first was the first to rush out from the other end of the alley, panting, and then turned left.
Captain Rades was the second to emerge from the alley. He chased after Shad for a few steps before he saw that Shad had actually overtaken him. The young detective was very agile and could run at great speed even in a crowded street.
"Detective Hamilton, I'll take a detour to stop her, you chase after her!"
Seeing this situation, Captain Rades decisively chose a more rational approach.
Xia De shouted to him that he understood, stared at the woman in the crowd ahead who kept pushing away pedestrians, and quickly chased after her.
Because this place was too close to the station, there were more and more people, Xia De couldn't use his full speed, and the distance between them didn't close quickly. He thought of shouting loudly to ask the pedestrians in front to help catch the man, but he didn't expect that when he shouted, the people in front of him avoided him, making the woman run faster.
As for the police officers patrolling the street corner, they did not hear Xia De's voice at all because the environment was too noisy.
The two ran across the street, one after the other. Right across the street was the main entrance of Tobysk Station. The sound of a whistle could be heard from a distance, and it seemed that a train was arriving.
At this time, there were large and small four-wheeled carriages parked in front of the station entrance. Uniformed police officers with guns were maintaining order, and reporters were looking into the distance, waiting for the protagonist of the ribbon-cutting ceremony to arrive.
The fat woman immediately turned around and ran to the road to the left of the station entrance, not giving Xia De a chance to ask the police for help unless he was willing to take a detour and waste time.
"I must catch up with you!"
Xia De immediately turned left at the street corner and stopped wasting energy shouting, running forward along the gaps between the crowds along the wall.
After running for less than a few dozen steps, he accidentally bumped into a nervous middle-aged man who was leaning against the wall. Xia De quickly apologized and stepped forward, while the middle-aged man put his hands in his pockets with a serious face, looked at Xia De's figure going away and ignored him, but continued to squeeze to the front of the crowd of spectators.
There was an even louder noise coming from the distance on the road. A carriage decorated with the Cavendish royal crest, led by the police and escorted by the Royal Guard, was approaching slowly.
People on the street paid tribute to the distinguished lady in the car. The car windows were opened, and the face of Queen Diana, who often appeared in newspapers, appeared there. Her makeup was not complicated. The woman in her thirties wore a silver crown and waved to the citizens with a kind smile.
There seemed to be other people sitting next to her.
The cheers and shouts from all around made the street even more crowded and complicated. The lively atmosphere reached its climax, and the crowds crowded from the side of the street to the center of the street, forcing the police and royal guards who were maintaining the Redwich Field to allocate more manpower to prevent anyone from approaching the carriage.
The fat woman running in front was the first to see the convoy coming from a distance. She looked back at the detective who was chasing her closely and getting closer with a ferocious expression, then gritted her teeth and rushed towards the convoy. But she did not get close to them, but ran directly in front of the convoy and ran from one side of the street to the other.
By the time Shad also wanted to cross the street, the uniformed police officers who had been leading the way had already blocked the street to allow the convoy to move forward, and used a human wall to prevent anyone from coming into the street from the sidewalks.
At this time, Shad was only twenty steps away from the street corner behind him, and he could be seen from the entrance of Tobesk Station.
"I even dare to gamble my luck. Do you think I lack such courage?"
He said to himself, stopped, and prepared to squeeze through the crowd and run across the street without the police noticing before the convoy arrived.
The middle-aged man that Shade had bumped into a few seconds ago had already squeezed to the front of the crowd. He frowned and looked at the approaching convoy. He pressed down his black men's soft hat with his left hand, and his right hand, which was inserted into the inner pocket of his coat, remained motionless.
Behind him, a group of pedestrians came out of Tobesk Station. These were the passengers who had just arrived. The only people who could enter and exit the ribbon-cutting ceremony freely were the Orthodox Church. Miss Bei Yasi and her group walked out accompanied by a middle-aged man carrying a suitcase.
Dr. Schneider, who was watching the fun in the crowd and chatting with his familiar friends, appeared from the street corner behind Xia De.
Miss Carina sat next to Queen Diana, looking out of the car window bored.
Captain Raddes, behind the crowd on the other side of the street, made a gesture to lunge forward.
The detective's nominal boss, Mr. Dark Anros, Director of MI6, mixed in the crowd and observed the situation nearby.
The carriage was getting closer and closer to the intersection in front of Tobysk Station. The ruts of the wheels and the sound of horses' hooves were drowned out by the cheers that seemed to be about to explode. The pigeons that had been prepared long ago were released at the intersection, flying over people's heads in groups, forming a large moving shadow.
The fog still hadn't dissipated, but the low, gloomy sky couldn't stop the cheers and joy of citizens of all classes in Tobysk.