Tokyo: Parasite

Chapter 354 124: Trap

It was a week later when Campbell was released.

The authorities gave him a symbolic compensation. It was not much, but it was also one month's salary for him. If calculated as loss of work time, it was enough.

The premise is that he didn't lose his job.

Yes, he only found out after he came out that he was fired the day after he went in. His efficiency was extremely high.

In the boss's words, he believed that he had committed a crime and according to the terms of the contract, he could be fired directly without any compensation.

Damn crime!
So once he was released, he had to look for a new job while hiring a lawyer to get the compensation he deserved from the company.

As for the officials, he really didn't dare to offend them.

After all, during this period of time he also understood that he was arrested because he was involved in the zombie infection incident, and he also signed a confidentiality agreement. He did not dare to act tough with the authorities in this regard, and he was not a person with that kind of personality.

Fortunately, he is different from other Chinese people who are naturally casual. His family has the habit of saving. Together with the compensation and his wife's job, they can support them for a long time. It's just that he is not used to living off his savings.

"Forty-five years old. No one wants people my age, except for management. But I don't have any relevant experience. Am I just going to be a cleaner?"

In the evening, in a small restaurant, Campbell was drinking and complaining with two friends.

I secretly hope that they can introduce a good job to me.

But the two friends didn’t have any good suggestions, and didn’t know any suitable companies or positions, so they could only give him some words of comfort.

Finally, before ten o'clock, he returned empty-handed and went home dejectedly.

"Honey, come here for a moment."

As soon as he opened the door, his wife Dilma stood up from the living room and waved at him nervously.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Campbell took a deep breath. He didn't feel drunk because he didn't drink much.

"We'll talk about it when we get up."

Dilma took two steps forward, closed the door, took his hand, turned off the lights in the living room, and hurried into the bedroom.

"Did something happen to the child at school?" Campbell thought a lot based on his wife's expression. It shouldn't be particularly bad news. He took the initiative to comfort her. "It's normal for boys to fight and play. I just want him to spend more time with your nephew, Xavier? He is a good student and has a good personality. It will be good for the two of them to communicate more. You don't want to..."

Campbell was interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

But Dilma didn’t want to argue with him. She just closed the curtains, then took out a suitcase from under the bed, put it on the bed, and pressed her hands on it: “Come and take a look. Do you remember this suitcase?”

"Uh, isn't this your suitcase? You know, I rarely travel far. I only have a suitcase I bought a few years ago for a trip to São Paulo." Campbell glanced at it casually, waved his hand, sat aside, and wanted to pour a glass of water.

"So you are sure this is not your suitcase, right?" Dilma snatched the water cup and repeated the question very solemnly.

Seeing how serious Dilma was, Campbell realized something was wrong and stood up and walked around the small black suitcase a few times.

"This is definitely not mine, and I won't buy this kind of suitcase. Look, it's smaller than ordinary suitcases, and the workmanship is very delicate. It must not be cheap. I will never buy this kind of suitcase." Campbell came to the conclusion that he would never buy this thing.

If he had bought it, it certainly wouldn't be so small, nor would it need to be so exquisite.

Dilma seemed to be relieved, but her expression became even more conflicted.

"What's wrong? Is there something in this box?" Seeing his wife's expression, Campbell found it hard to tell whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I didn't buy this box either." Dilma let out a long breath and placed her hands on the box. "It just appeared in the kitchen for no reason. I saw it when I got home from get off work today. I thought it was something you bought, but seeing it was placed so casually, I opened it and took a look. The result was..."

Click.

The box was opened, and what came into the couple's eyes were stacks of banknotes.

On it is the familiar statue of the Statue of the Republic, and some images of groupers with their backs facing upwards, revealing the fish.

All in 100-reais notes.

Campbell's throat gurgled and he quickly covered it up, his breathing becoming heavy.

There was silence between the two of them for a long time, just looking at each other.

"How about calling the police?" Campbell squeezed out these words from his throat with difficulty.

But soon, the difficult experiences of the past few days told him that if he could swallow up the money, even if he put it in the bank to earn interest, he would probably be able to spend his old age in peace, and he could also give his child a good start-up capital so that he could learn something well.

Reason and greed are entangled with each other, like two poisonous snakes entangled together.

It seems that no matter what choice you make, you will regret it deeply in the future.

"Campbell, maybe, maybe we can hide it, use it slowly, don't expose it, and just use a little at a time." Dilma grabbed the suitcase and tried to persuade her husband, "I have carefully checked it, there are no consecutive numbers in it, and the banknotes are not brand new. As long as we don't deposit it in the bank and use it slowly, who can trace it?"

"Plus, when we found it, it was so neatly and deliberately placed in the kitchen, which is the first place I go when I get home. It was obviously intentional and not hidden in a hurry."

"Could it be that we helped someone in the past, and now that he's rich, he chooses to repay us in this way?"

Dilma knew that these reasons were far-fetched, and she was also afraid of being involved in some gangster transactions, but when she thought about her family's situation, there seemed to be nothing worthy of the big shots' attention. After being in financial difficulties for such a long time, the excitement brought to her by such a box of money was unprecedented.

She really didn't want to miss it.

If it was before he lost his job, Campbell, who had been honest all his life, might have gritted his teeth and called the police without hesitation, not wanting such a box of money to bring any trouble to his stable future.

But now, after experiencing unemployment, the suffocating pressure made him realize that without money, the so-called stability is nothing but a fantasy that can be shattered by any accident.

"Then." Campbell's hand also went up and covered the back of his wife's hand, breathing tremblingly, "Take it."

"As soon as my observation period is over, we will move away and live in another city."

"How about cutting off all previous ties?"

Dilma smiled with relief and nodded vigorously: "Okay, let's do it this way. We will completely cut off the past and start a new life."

The two were so excited that they didn't sleep all night, planning how to use the money, full of longing for a new life. After discussion, they unanimously decided that due to Rio people's love for the beach, the new home must be in a city near the sea, but not a big city, preferably a small or medium-sized city with better public security.

What they didn’t know was that all of their discussions were monitored by the task force.

Letting these suspects go does not mean that they are not suspicious, but it just puts the investigation in the dark, hoping that this method can make people relax their vigilance and thus achieve a breakthrough.

So after learning that a box of cash inexplicably appeared in the Campbell family, the task force immediately followed up with all their strength, arranging several people to continuously monitor the situation while retrieving hidden videos hidden in and around the Campbell home.

Finally, they found a figure that appeared for a very short time and was wrapped tightly.

It was a pity that he appeared for a very short time and seemed to know the location of public surveillance cameras, so their idea of ​​following the surveillance to find the other party was thwarted.

"From this aspect, it can be seen that this person is definitely related to this family, but for some reason, he chose to hide himself."

"I suspect he is also involved in the Black Snake Society incident."

"Tell me, is there a possibility, as Dilma guessed, that this person has received favors from this family, so he used this method to repay them?"

"That does make sense. So after knowing that the Black Snake Society had a dispute with Campbell, they took direct action against the Black Snake Society. However, they did not expect that this would cause trouble to Campbell and cause him to lose his job. Feeling guilty, they used a sum of money to compensate him."

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"These actions all reveal a sense of... not being very smart, like something that someone with little experience would do."

Carlos' eyes became brighter as he listened to his colleagues' discussion.

“Retrieve the surveillance footage of the fight between Donny and Campbell that day and conduct a comparison analysis of the crowd.”

"I remember that Dilma's profile showed that he was once the guardian of one of his nephews. Let's check his nephew's current situation."

The tasks were distributed, and in the information and AI era, the data was quickly sorted out.

"Look at this. On the day of the fight, there was a man wearing sunglasses here. His figure is 90% similar to the man who appeared in Campbell's house!"

"It turns out that Commissioner Dilma's nephew Xavier was also a passenger on that train!"

After hearing this answer, Canis seemed to have an epiphany, and he sorted out the logic at once, and came up with a timeline that he thought made sense.

Xavier was infected on the train. No, the infected should not have real reason, so he is more likely to be one of the planners, a member of the voodoo cult, who committed the train tragedy in accordance with a mission.

After returning to Bello, perhaps worried about his Aunt Dilma, he followed Campbell secretly, only to find that Campbell had offended the Black Snake Society.

With little social experience, he chose to solve the problem directly, but he didn't expect that this move would bring Campbell even more trouble.

So we have been living peacefully these past few days, and have not used our infection abilities. Instead, we have eliminated several gangs who were robbing each other of their own accord and collected some money. This also makes sense, as several gangs in the city have indeed been eliminated recently.

Finally, he gave the money to Dilma as a way of repaying her kindness.

"First, if that's the case, why did he choose passengers whose destination was Bello City as the source of the infected people on the train? Isn't this deliberately causing trouble for his actions?"

"Second, a young man who values ​​relationships so much, would infect thousands of people? I'm not a psychologist, and I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it's a bit far-fetched."

After listening to Kanis's analysis, Ito Makoto thought that there was some truth in it and that Xavier should have a certain relationship with voodoo, but he still pointed out two unreasonable points.

"First, maybe this is a struggle within the voodoo cult, or maybe he is an abandoned child. Second, I have handled many similar criminal cases. They like girls, flowers, and dolls, so they tear off the skin of little girls and make dolls; because they are grateful for the help of others, they hold the entire supermarket hostage at gunpoint after the other party is imprisoned; and they take on assassination missions for the sake of their family's wealth."

Kanis recounted the cases he had experienced in the police station one by one.

But he also had to admit that these extreme guys were just isolated cases.

Ito Makoto nodded and looked at the photo of Xavier's smiling face on the computer, lost in thought.

He had seen this young man before.

On the train, he was the first person to offer a helping hand. Ito even remember his nervous, immature but courageous face.

There was also a brief exchange between the two, and it was because of that exchange that he felt that the other person was very similar to his former self.

That silly boy who is willing to do anything to be a hero has an overflowing sense of justice.

Foolish and naive, sooner or later you will regret this character.

But precisely because of this, it is impossible to infect the entire train.

But then again, nothing is absolute in this world. Maybe the other person is just a talented actor who likes excitement and even plays the role of an ordinary person in front of you.

"You should know that among those resurrected corpses, there was once a special kind of resurrected corpse, temporarily named spiritual corpse. Is it possible to go a step further and have resurrected corpses that are similar to ordinary people?" Ito asked.

"You mean, you suspect Xavier is an infected person, but he has retained his consciousness and memory for special reasons?" Canis couldn't make a judgment. "We are still too shallow in our research on resurrected corpses. I don't know much about this. Maybe Pastor Brand will know something?"

Three days after blocking and clearing out the resurrected zombies in that area, Brand had arrived in Bello City.

However, he usually either patrols the city or prays in church, and basically does not participate in the investigation of related cases.

After Ito personally investigated, he determined that he did not have the talent and ability in this area, so he chose the strategy of having Kanis take the lead in the investigation and himself as a supporting role.

Some clues have indeed been found these days, for example, from some clues about the demise of several gangs, it was concluded that they might be related to Chaofan.

"No matter what, the Campbell family is a good starting point, but we can't delay it for too long. Xavier chose to give such a large sum of money, maybe he has plans to leave. By then, if we want to use the Campbell family to do anything else, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get timely feedback."

Kanis analyzed.

"Summon Campbell again? This will at least attract Xavier's attention and prevent him from leaving easily." Ito expressed his thoughts.

"It's feasible, but it needs to be considered in more detail. For example, you or Pastor Brand could go there to make him feel that the situation is serious and there is a greater possibility of exposure." Canis added his opinion.

"Well, go ahead, Reverend. He might be able to find something."

Ito himself didn't realize that he subconsciously didn't want to face Xavier.

(End of this chapter)