Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 214: Night Visit to the Ghost Ship

Hearing this, Thor's expression was still restrained, but Reeves could no longer restrain himself and stood up.

"What??"

He roared, quickly walked to the door and opened it.

"what happened?"

Reeves looked at the young man at the door who was not tall but had very prominent muscles. He was in his early 20s, had short brown skin and hair, and was panting, and shouted.

"Just now, I followed your instructions to find the sheriff and inquire about the latest progress of the case.

"I went to his place and knocked on the door but no one answered. I thought it was a bit strange, so I tried to turn the lock, but the door was pushed open.

"And then I saw...saw..."

"See what?"

Seeing that the young man in front of him began to breathe heavily again, Reeves asked anxiously.

"I saw him shoot himself!"

The young man uttered these words with all his might, and then seemed to lose all strength.

Reeves was about to ask him whether Storm Chapel knew about this, but he found that his subordinate was unconscious and no longer answered his questions.

Seeing this, Thor quickly stepped forward, checked the young man's breath, and did a simple examination before saying:

"I was overly frightened and a little tired. It's no big deal. I'll be fine after a short rest."

Reeves's face looked extremely ugly. He nodded, and then with the help of Thor, he dragged his young subordinate to the sofa in his office and laid him flat.

From beginning to end, Roger did not intervene to help, but just stood up and made room on the sofa.

"What should we do now?"

After all this trouble, Reeves had completely lost his composure. He paced around and asked in a very uncalm tone.

"Uncle Reeves, do you have chains in this bar?"

At this time, Roger suddenly asked.

"What chains?" Reeves answered impatiently, his mind full of what to do.

After all, there had been two murders before, both of which were handled by the sheriff.

Reeves himself was just a small boss with some power on the island who was cooperating with the investigation. If the whole thing was not related to him, he might not have gotten involved in it.

But now the sheriff is dead.

You have to know that he is a security officer directly dispatched by the Governor's Office of the Ross Islands. Although his official position is not high, he represents the face of the governor.

Considering that Reeves himself was an unofficial Beyonder and was already a sensitive person, he had previously been trying to guide the sheriff to investigate the matter in the direction of a regular criminal case and did not let him report the matter to the Storm Church.

But now, without clear evidence to exonerate him before the storm clears, Reeves is likely to go straight to jail.

But considering the bad weather on Damir Island at the moment, it is possible that there will be no clues favorable to him in the end, and the only evidence may be the sheriff's investigation notes - but God knows what he wrote in them.

"The kind that ties people up."

Roger patted his arm and said seriously.

"What are you talking about?"

Reeves was completely confused and had no idea what Roger meant by saying this at this time.

"I mean, the kind of iron chains that tie people up."

Roger pursed his lips at the young man lying on the sofa next to him:

"If you don't want your men to die in your office, you'd better tie him up."

Reeves was about to retort when he heard Thor say:

"Reeves, do as John says."

At this time, the experienced "Navigator" who once worked for the Church of Storms also understood what Roger meant.

You know, in the previous four murders, there were two victims, one of whom was basically certain to have been killed by the other, but the murderer also died later under the control of some mysterious force.

On the other hand, it was only a little after nine o'clock in the evening, but according to Reeves's previous account, the murders of the previous two nights had occurred late at night.

In Thor's opinion, this was clearly a case involving extraordinary power. Although he didn't know the exact pattern of the mysterious power's killings, he could reasonably speculate that the power had been significantly strengthened on the third night, or at least the power hidden behind it had become bolder and more active.

If not, it cannot explain why the time of the murder was moved forward.

On the other hand, he had actually noticed the strangeness of this storm. Although he was not sure how it was related to the "ghost ship", the increasingly severe weather on the island seemed to have proved that the supernatural power on the island was tending to strengthen.

If that is the case, it is not ruled out that the young man who first saw the sheriff's body would also be affected by the extraordinary power and commit suicide, so it is very necessary to control him.

Hearing Thor say this, Reeves could only ask his men to find a few chains to fix the boat, and tied his men who had touched the sheriff's body to the chair over and over again.

“Uncle Reeves, is there only one sheriff on the island?”

After doing all this, Roger asked.

"No, there were two previously stationed at the Governor's Office, but an older one retired and was transferred. His replacement hadn't even arrived in Damir when this incident happened."

Reeves glanced at his bound men and replied.

Because Damir and Bansi were both colonies of the Kingdom of Loen, their permanent populations were small, and Damir's administrative level was slightly lower than Bansi's.

Therefore, there is no special police station here, only a sheriff and two small courts, which can basically complete the investigation and sentencing of most cases.

For those occasional cases involving extraordinary powers, a small Storm Lord Chapel on the island will coordinate nearby official extraordinary people to come and handle them, so there have never been any major problems.

Bayam would only send people to investigate those major cases that Damir Island couldn't handle on its own.

"Uncle Reeves, take me to the sheriff's house."

Seeing Thor about to speak to stop him again, Roger added:

"When I was in Backlund, I worked for a detective agency and participated in several investigations involving extraordinary powers.

"Uncle Reeves is in danger now, I might be able to help him."

"Really? Aren't you an art dealer? When did you become a detective?"

Thor looked at Roger suspiciously, wanting to persuade him a few more times.

But seeing Reeves excited as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw, Thor's heart moved slightly, he sighed, and could only continue:

"Forget it, I'll go with you."

Anyway, there is no other way at the moment, so I can only do my best.

"What should he do?"

Reeves took another look at his men who were tied up.

"Don't let anyone in to touch him, but you need to stay alert outside the door and intervene immediately if there are any strange noises.

"By the way, bring six small cloth bags that can be tied at the mouth."

After Roger said this, he waved to Bandit to jump onto his shoulders, then picked up the black umbrella and walked out of the Osprey Bar first.

The road from the Osprey Bar to the sheriff's residence was not far, but because of the heavy rain, the road was not easy to walk on.

But Roger managed to pull the other two along, and in less than five minutes they arrived at the stone building painted with yellow waterproof paint.

Just as Reeves' men had said before, the door of the mansion was not locked, and it seemed that he was too panicked when he left, so the door was only ajar and the lock tongue was not stuck in the lock slot.

"Uncle Thor, Uncle Reeves, please come in later."

Under the suspicious gaze of the two, Roger tied the cloth bag around his feet and covered the soles of his shoes, then walked in and headed towards the study room where a strong smell of blood was coming from.

"Bandit, you guard the door."

Roger patted Bandit on the back. The cat nodded, hopped down silently, and stood guard in the corridor near the door.

This was to prevent anyone from attacking Roger in the sheriff's study or escaping through the corridor window.

There was no light in the study, so it was quite dark. However, as several flashes of lightning flashed outside the window, Roger could clearly see the source of the bloody smell.

There was a blond male corpse in his forties wearing a yellow sheriff's uniform, with a burly build and meticulously dressed like a soldier, leaning against a high-back chair with his eyes open.

His right hand was hanging down, and a large-caliber revolver had fallen to the ground. The blood on his chin had almost dried, and there was a big hole in the back of his head.

Roger looked up and found that there was no obvious bullet hole on the glass door of the bookcase behind the sheriff. Instead, it was more than half shattered, and large pieces of blood-stained broken glass fell to the ground.

“The death didn’t take long, but it was caused by multiple shots.

"The bullet passed through the brain stem and shattered the occipital bone..."

Roger used the "duckling's" ability to perceive inanimate objects and indeed found three bullet-shaped metal objects in the bookcase.

He quickly collected some blood samples from the sheriff, then took out the materials he had with him, created a spiritual wall, and then silently chanted "Austin Nelson" to begin the spiritual communication.

This is exactly the sheriff's name, which was the information Roger got from Reeves on his way here just now.

However, to Roger's surprise, he did not communicate with the corresponding soul!

After trying two or three more times, he was finally completely sure that the sheriff's spirit was not at the scene. This was unusual because during a normal death, the spirit of a person does not leave the body immediately, but undergoes a process known in mysticism as "spiritualization" before leaving the body.

Strictly speaking, as long as the spiritualization process is not completed, the soul has not been separated from the fate of the physical body, and it is not considered death in the true sense.

Many cases of resurrection from the dead, whether achieved through medical rescue or mystical means, are essentially the awakening of the body's functions before the spiritualization is completed, and then guiding the soul to terminate the spiritualization process by relying on the remaining fate connection.

Of course, this is just "resurrection from the dead" in the general sense, and the resurrection of "miracle workers" is an exception.

Considering that it has not been long since the sheriff opened fire, this phenomenon should not have occurred.

A guess emerged in Roger's mind. While the "Spiritual Wall" was still there, he silently said:
"The embodiment of celestial sound,

"The master of destiny,

"The pioneer of the universe's destruction,

“The Great Judgment Star!

"I pray to your source, praying that you will reveal the true trajectory of my destiny..."

This is a new set of prayers to Ghroth's source material that Roger figured out based on His symbols after he was promoted to "Leaker" and his fateful connection with Ghroth was further strengthened.

This is to prevent interference from counter-divination during the divination process and to obtain more accurate divination results.

"Austin Nelson, was his spirit affected by the ship off the west coast of Damir Island?"

After saying this, Roger flicked out the coin with his thumb and then quickly caught it.

The "King" is facing up, representing a "yes" divination result.

Roger took a deep breath. After piercing the "spiritual wall", he quickly flipped through the closed case record book in front of Austin Nelson.

There was a large paragraph blacked out, as if he himself was not sure whether it was correct, and most of the rest of the content was consistent with what Reeves said, but the sheriff also mentioned his own doubts about him.

Apart from this, there is no other useful information, not even a record of a reply to the distress telegram.

"Just after expressing suspicion, he was 'shot to death three times'. This is really hard to clear up."

Roger chuckled. He did not try to destroy the records. He just packed up his things and told Bandit to go outside.

"How about it?"

Seeing Roger coming out, Reeves asked anxiously.

"You guys go in and take a look, but be careful not to disturb anything on the scene, especially the notebook."

Finally, Roger added:
"Although the above record is very unfavorable to you, it can prove that you did not kill Austin."

The logic is simple. If Reeves was really guilty, he could have taken advantage of the storm to kill Austin and destroy the evidence.

But Reeves didn't do that, which in turn is indeed a favorable evidence.

While the other two went in to check, Roger took off his gloves, then took out a mint candy that he had taken from Reeves' office from his pocket and put it in his mouth.

He chewed the candy, feeling the strong aroma of peppermint diluting the lingering bloody smell in his mouth and nose, while looking towards the west coast.

This place was not too far from the west coast. Roger could vaguely see the silhouette of a schooner in the light of lightning.

This is one of the more popular boat shapes on the Sonia Sea. They are usually equipped with a gaff rig, which is very suitable for sailing with a downwind sail.

Compared with the common sloop, the schooner has the advantages of deeper draft, superior adaptability to strong winds, and flexible operation. It is very suitable for long-distance looting, offshore sailing and evading capture, so it is often used by pirate forces as the main ship type.

Especially after the invention of steam technology, some wealthy pirates would spend a lot of money to install steam power on their ships to increase the maneuverability and all-weather navigation capabilities of the ships. However, based on such a long distance, Roger could not determine whether there were similar devices on it.

After a while, Reeves and Thor also came out. Both of them looked very bad, and it was obvious that they also realized that Austin Nelson had "killed" them with three consecutive shots.

"John, what now?"

In response to Reeves' question, Roger pointed to the shadow of the schooner on the west coast:

"where to."

"Which ship do you want to check?"

Reeves's expression suddenly changed:
"That's a ghost ship. God knows what's on it."

For old sailors like them, ghost ships are extremely unlucky presences at sea, and they basically take a detour when they see one.

Not to mention that the sails of the schooner had not been furled, but they were not blown away even though there were strong winds on the sea for several days, which was enough to show the problem.

But Roger knew clearly that the so-called ghost ship was either affected by extraordinary power or was a sealed object itself, which allowed it to sail autonomously without a driver.

As long as it does not involve the angel level or the power of multiple demigods, it is not a big problem for Roger now.

Thor also expressed strong opposition, but Roger did not insist on it and just said:

"It's okay, let's go back to the Osprey Bar first."

After saying that, he took off his shoe covers, opened his umbrella, and walked back the way he came under the gaze of the other two.

When the three returned to the Osprey Bar, before they even entered, they heard screams and shouts coming from inside the bar.

Reeves' heart sank. He walked quickly into the office, only to find three of his men surrounding the tied-up man who had first witnessed the sheriff's body, shouting his name loudly.

I saw a lot of black blood flowing from the corner of the guy's mouth. The blood stained the lapels on his chest and showed signs of drying up.

Not only that, there was a piece of dried and shriveled flesh on its leg, and Reeves recognized it as the tongue at a glance.

Even though he was tied up, the guy still bit his tongue and committed suicide when Roger and the other two left.

No matter how stubborn Reeves was, he could see the problem at this moment.

Because the young man in front of him obviously did not die from suffocation caused by choking on blood, but from excessive blood loss.

In reality, due to issues such as coagulation mechanism and arterial location, it is difficult for biting the tongue to actually cause death. At the very least, "killing with one bite" is a low-probability event.

The fact that this guy died so easily was enough to show that the force influencing the situation had spread to Reeves.

"Uncle Reeves, do you understand now?"

Roger shrugged.

"That power has spread to your area. Two people have already died tonight. But if we don't solve the problem with that ship, not only will we be unable to leave Damir Port, but you might also be the one to die tomorrow."

"You two don't have to worry about me. I have extensive experience in investigating this kind of thing.

After all, Reeves and Thor didn't know Roger's past experience, and didn't know how big a deal this seemingly young "Wiseman's little nephew" had caused in Rune.

At this moment, Thor became much calmer after seeing this scene.

Because his sequence level was higher than Reeves, he had seen more strange things. Even relying on his experience and intuition, he knew that what Roger said was probably right.

Things have developed to this point, and any discerning person can see that there is no way to resolve it. If you continue to turn a blind eye even so, then you don't deserve to live at sea.

"Well, I'll go with you."

Finally, the "navigator" sighed and took the initiative to speak.

"Then...I'll go too."

Seeing this, Reeves could only bite the bullet and nod.

Although he was only Sequence 9 and not as strong as Thor, he couldn't bring himself to not accompany John when he saw that the younger generation was actively helping him solve the problem.

After all, this is also for his own sake. The sooner the truth of the matter is found out, the sooner Reeves' crisis can be resolved.

"it is good."

Roger nodded and began to accompany Reeves to quickly call on his men to prepare the boat and get ready to set off.

……

About an hour later, a small steamer, drifting in the violent black wind and rain, approached the strange schooner.

Afterwards, Roger, Thor and Reeves stepped onto the deck together with the help of the hanging ladder. The other two men who accompanied Reeves and Bandit were left on the ship to guard it.

As soon as he stepped onto the ship, Roger felt an inexplicable tension and depression. He looked around the deck, rudder and mast, but did not see any human figures, not even any signs of fighting.

Such a large ship should have at least 20 to 30 crew members, but at this moment they seemed to have evaporated from the face of the earth, leaving no trace.

Thor also noticed this. He said nothing the entire time, fearing that he would violate any taboos on the ship. He just relied on his special ability as a mid-sequence "sailor" to walk on the shaky deck as if it were flat ground and carefully inspected his surroundings.

After confirming that there was nothing unusual nearby, Thor pointed to the stairs leading to the cabin below the deck, and then gestured for Roger and Reeves to follow him.

Roger knew that Thor thought he was the person with the highest sequence level present, so he did not explain it. He just let Reeves walk in front, and he and Thor walked in front and behind, sandwiching the weakest "sailor" in the middle.

To Thor's surprise, the door of the lower cabin was locked tightly. At this time, Roger took the initiative to step forward and touched the door lightly with his hand, and the latch popped open from the inside.

This was obviously not like Wiseman's way of opening the door, so Reeves and Thor both looked at him strangely. Roger smiled and said nothing, just looked into the dark cabin.

The cabin was obviously much drier than the outside, but there was still a smell of dampness and decay, mixed with an almost imperceptible smell of blood.

He gently rubbed the middle finger and thumb of his right hand, which was wearing the "Stage Ring". A flash of light suddenly appeared, and the three of them finally saw the situation inside the cabin clearly.

There was still no one in the cabin, but there was a faint, almost completely oxidized bloodstain extending from the interior to the front of the stairs leading to the deck, and then suddenly turned back and disappeared into the deep corner.

It seemed that an injured crew member tried to escape outside the deck, but was dragged back by some unknown force and died inside.

(End of this chapter)