American Zombie Detective

Chapter 208 The Strange Man on the Subway

Qin Jin first found the date in the file, and as expected, the girl saw the strange phenomenon on the Ghost Festival.

The girl who reported the incident was named Sheila Miller, and her friend, who was also the first victim, was named Danielle Jones.

According to Sheila's statement, the events gradually became clear:

On the evening of the Ghost Festival, Sheila and Danielle attended a small party after their school's summer workshop. It was getting late, so they boarded the last Blue Line train bound for Long Beach at the Central Station on 7th Street in downtown London.

The carriage wasn't crowded, so they found seats near the edge. After a few stops, as the train passed a station (according to the description, it was probably near Lampton Street station), the doors opened, and three people boarded.

In her statement, Sheila emphasized that the three people were behaving very strangely—

The two people on either side were wearing oversized black hoodies with the hoods pulled down so low that their faces were completely obscured, as if their faces were nothing but a bottomless shadow.

They were both holding onto the arm of the man in the middle, who was shorter than them. His head wasn't tilted to the left or right like when he was drunk; instead, it was hanging down abnormally and stiffly forward, like a doll with its bones removed, being dragged along by the two people on either side.

What made Sheila most uncomfortable was that when the three men passed by her, she felt an unnatural chill and even faintly smelled a damp, fishy odor like mud.

She instinctively switched places with Danielle, moving further away from the three people. The two began taking pictures of each other and selfies, gradually forgetting about the three strange travelers.

The three people sat silently in a corner at the other end of the carriage, huddled together, with the person in the middle who was being supported remaining completely still.

The train continued its journey, and Sheila remembered clearly that the three of them got off at Willow station.

The moment she got off the bus, Sheila clearly saw that the person being supported in the middle had no feet touching the ground at all!

It was as if he was lightly lifted off the car by two other people!

Startled, she immediately looked around at the other passengers in the carriage, hoping to see if anyone else had noticed the strange scene as she had.

But the other passengers were either dozing off or looking down at their phones, seemingly oblivious.

No one else got on or off at the next few stops. The two got off near the final stop in Long Beach and went home separately.

Three days after the incident, Danielle died in a car accident, leaving Sheila devastated.

The day after Daniel's death, Sheila unexpectedly saw a news report on television—

A man died unexpectedly at home! Police investigation revealed that his death was a complex series of coincidences, making it a very bizarre incident!

The man was coming downstairs when his washing machine started leaking, water was spilling onto the floor, and his cat had just knocked over a vase, with one of the shards standing upright.

The man slipped on the water as he was going downstairs, fell, and hit the back of his head squarely on a broken piece of a vase. The entire piece of ceramic became embedded in his head.

Sheila felt the deceased looked very familiar. Suddenly, she remembered that he had been in that subway car that night!

Trembling, she pulled out the selfie she had taken with Danielle that night, zoomed in on the background, and was horrified to discover that the drowned man was indeed in the corner of the photo!

What sent chills down her spine even more was the thought of Danielle's accident, which seemed to have a similar effect—

Danielle's accident was purely because a "GG" sign that fell from an upper floor startled her. While trying to avoid it, she darted into the road and was run over by a speeding truck.

The deaths of both men seemed like some kind of pre-ordained coincidence!

Sheila immediately thought of a movie she had seen before called "Accident," in which Louis Koo, who played a master strategist, used various coincidences to kill people and make all the deaths look like accidents.

Sheila panicked completely. She frantically searched online for recent news about accidents in Los Angeles and discovered two more victims. She vaguely remembered seeing them in the train car that night!

She immediately went to the West Precinct to report the incident, but the officer who received her thought she was traumatized by the death of her friend and was forcibly connecting these unexpected events together. However, because of Sheila's insistence, he specifically asked someone to contact the Canyon Precinct's second team, which was to call Catherine.

Upon seeing this, Qin Jin closed the file. "Catherine," he immediately instructed her to continue, "Contact this Sheila Miller and speak with her in person. Then, based on her statement and the identifiable passenger faces in the background of her photographs, try to find a list of all the passengers who were in that carriage that night. See how many are still alive, and immediately verify their contact information and safety status!"

"Understood!" Catherine realized the seriousness of the situation and turned to leave.

Just then, the office door was pushed open, and Constantine returned, smelling of smoke and old papers, carrying a stack of printed documents and several blurry photocopies.

Catherine instinctively stopped, wanting to hear what was happening on Constanze's side.

"Hey Qin, guess what?" Constantine's tone was unusually serious: "There wasn't a single thing in the database, but I rummaged through the piles of old papers in the archives, and sure enough! This isn't the first time!"

He slammed a yellowed old news copy on the table; the date was blurred, but the description of the event was remarkably similar to this one.

Several people died unexpectedly within days of each other after taking the Blue Line on the same night. At the time, the police did not find any connection and treated it as a coincidence.

"Seven years ago," Constantine licked his lips, his eyes gleaming, "it was the one I remember, where people were forced onto the subway, and then a massive accident occurred! Before that, the last mass incident was fourteen years ago! Although no witnesses were found being forced onto the train, the pattern is the same!"

Qin Jin's eyes sharpened, and he immediately calculated in his mind: "In what year did the blue line open to traffic?"

"1990." Constantine had clearly checked as well: "The first case of this kind occurred in 1997."

He looked up at Constantine and Alessa: "This cycle should have started after the Blue Line was completed and opened to traffic, and it happens every seven years, around the time of the Ghost Festival."

He pointed to the yellowed records: "The root cause likely lies in the construction of this blue line back then! Something must have happened then, or—"

What have you disturbed?!

"Jack, continue. Find the reports from when the Blue Line was built and see if you find anything."

So, Constanze and Catherine left again, having to eat lunch on the way. Qin Jin took Alessa to buy a cell phone, and then went to Zhou's Fresh Food in Chinatown.

Not only was this the first place Qin Jin bought chicken blood in Luocheng, but more importantly, Lao Zhou had already developed a project selling various poultry blood separately: chicken blood, pigeon blood, turkey blood—

Qin Jin always likes to buy different kinds, but Alessa commented that they are basically just French fries and potato chips, essentially the same, made in the same way, and even the taste is not much different.

Yes! You guessed right!

Now Qin Jin and Alessa can drink blood at much longer intervals, and they can not only drink liquids but also eat simple human food. Most importantly, they won't get diarrhea!

Therefore, Qin Jin reduced the amount of blood he bought each time, generally only enough for two meals. He would eat one meal and store the rest in the refrigerator. If he had time to buy fresh blood after four or five days, he would just throw away the ones in the refrigerator, keeping them only for later use.

Later that afternoon, back at the police station, I received two pieces of news, one good and one bad:

Good news: Although Constantine couldn't find information about the 1990 case, he did find news about the old policeman who handled the 97 case.

It is said that someone reported the case back then, and the veteran police officer conducted a detailed investigation. Although the case was eventually dropped, his investigation back then will certainly be helpful to the current case.

Bad news: Sheila is dead!

The cause of death, like everyone else's, was an unexpected coincidence!