Whispering Verse

Shade and Mrs. Cook seemed out of place among the bustling crowd that came to attend and watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony. They stood there and separated the flow of people. Shade held his breath to distinguish the sounds in his ears. This not only needs to be distinguished from the background sound more than ten minutes ago, but also from the current background sound.

After all, while listening to the sounds of the past, one does not completely block out the sounds of the present.

"This way."

I reluctantly heard the timid voice of the boy in front of me asking if he could leave, and then heard the woman's gentle voice of comfort. Shade waved to Mrs. Cook with a serious face, and the middle-aged woman, who was almost numb, followed instinctively.

Then the two squeezed through the crowd and walked east along the boulevard on the east side of Tobesk Station.

After crossing the boulevard, walk north again. There is a slum area next to the station, which also provides the station with a large number of cheap labor such as porters.

There were a lot fewer pedestrians nearby, and Shade was glad that he didn't lose them. But as I continued walking forward, I heard someone calling my name. It took me a moment to realize that that was not the sound from ten minutes ago, but the sound from now.

Turning his head to look across the street, he saw Captain Rades walking towards him waving his hand. After not seeing him for a week, he seemed to be in much better spirits, wearing decent clothes, and no longer had the sloppy temperament typical of an alcoholic.

"That's my friend, please explain the situation."

He turned to Mrs. Cook and spoke quickly, then continued to listen to the sounds around him and move forward.

In order to explain that he could find clues just now, Xia De also asked passers-by many times on the way. But that was all to avoid Mrs. Cook and only let her see her back. In fact, Shade didn't talk to anyone.

Once the direction of the sound is lost, it is almost impossible to find it, so he has no time to say hello to acquaintances now.

The military temperament in Captain Rades became particularly conspicuous after he emerged from his decadent predicament. Mrs. Cook followed Shade without any idea at first. Now she saw Captain Rades approaching, and she followed the detective's instructions and simply explained that the kind detective was helping her find the lost child.

"The child is lost? This is a big deal!"

The captain was startled and saw the detective in front of him looking around, so he followed behind them:

"Detective, I'm here to help. It just so happens that there's nothing going on during the day. What clues do you have now?"

"This way!"

Shade pointed forward, with a serious look on his face, which made the captain, who didn't know what happened before, think he had a major clue in his hand.

Stopping and going, I actually walked a long circle around Tobesk Station, and more and more people came to watch the excitement nearby. Because Queen Diana, the representative of the royal family, is about to arrive, the police are already blocking some streets, which makes Shade also feel the urgency:

"Why haven't you stopped yet? Do you know you're being followed?"

The West Street of Tobesk Station where it is currently located is the main stopping place for taxis. But equally, the alleys here extend in all directions, connecting many nearby neighborhoods.

Every time they passed the alley, Mrs. Cook and Captain Ladds behind them would look inward.

Finally, Shade stopped and looked at the alley beside him.

In the alley, a plump woman with her head wrapped in a scarf turned from another exit of the alley and was walking towards the entrance of the alley where they were.

The voices from ten minutes ago, the voices of boys and women, entered this alley. The woman walking in front of her seemed to match the age group of the owner of the voice.

In order to prevent the other party from turning around and running away, Shade did not ask out loud. Instead, he wanted to wait until the other party was closer before letting him speak, and judge from the tone of his voice whether the turbaned woman was his target.

But he didn't expect that while Xia De was cautious, the other party was even more cautious.

After noticing the three people appearing at the alley, she subconsciously slowed down. Then, she didn't know whether 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 away.

"That's her!"

The captain's excellent reflexes, honed in the military, allowed him to be the first to chase after him with a roar.

"Mrs. Cook, call the police for help. I suspect that your children are in a few nearby alleys. Remember, you must say that this is the location of the murderer of the Tobesk children's serial disappearance case. Be careful that they have accomplices!"

After saying that, Shade also chased after him. When the tracking has been noticed and it is not clear which house in a nearby alley has a problem, catching the woman is the best way to break through.

In fact, Shade is now carrying two guns. That Ruger revolver from MI6, ready to fire. But the woman was already running away in the middle of the alley, and Shade was delayed for a few seconds in explaining to Mrs. Cook. There was no way he could guarantee that his marksmanship 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.

What he thought was still too simple.

Although there were no forks in this alley, the woman who took the lead was the first to rush out of the other end of the alley out of breath, and then turned to the left.

Captain Rades emerged from the alley second, and after a few steps he saw that Shade had overtaken him. The young detective is very agile and can show great speed even when the streets are crowded with people.

"Detective Hamilton, I'll take a detour to block her, you chase her forward!"

Seeing this situation, Captain Rades decisively chose a more rational approach.

Shade shouted to him that he understood, stared at the woman in the crowd in front of him who kept pushing away pedestrians, and quickly caught up with her.

Because it was too close to the station and the crowds were increasing, Shade could not fully use his speed, and the distance between the two did not close quickly. He thought of shouting loudly to ask the pedestrians in front to help catch the person, but he did not expect that when he shouted, the people in front of him took cover, making the woman run faster.

As for the police officers patrolling the street, they didn't hear Shade's voice at all because the environment was too noisy.

The two of them ran across the entire street one after the other. Directly opposite the street entrance was the main entrance of Tobesk Station. The sound of the whistle can be heard from a distance, presumably a train is arriving at the station.

At this time, large and small four-wheeled carriages were parked at the entrance of the station. Uniformed police officers with guns were maintaining order, and reporters were looking into the distance, waiting for the protagonists of the ribbon-cutting ceremony to arrive.

The fat woman immediately turned around and ran towards the road to the left of the station entrance, not giving Shade a chance to ask for help from the police unless he was willing to take a detour and waste time.

"I must catch up with you!"

Shade followed suit and turned left at the street intersection, no longer wasting any energy shouting, and ran forward along the gap in the crowd of people along the wall.

After running less than a few dozen steps, I accidentally bumped into a nervous middle-aged man leaning against the wall. Shade quickly apologized and stepped forward, while the middle-aged man put his hands in his pockets with a serious face, looked at Shade's retreating figure and ignored him, but continued to squeeze towards the front of the crowd of spectators.

More commotion came from the far side of the road. The police were clearing the way, and the royal guards were escorting them. A carriage decorated with the Cavendish royal coat of arms was slowly approaching.

People paid their respects to the distinguished lady in the car on the street. The car window was opened, and Queen Diana's face, which often appeared in newspapers, appeared there. The makeup was not complicated. The woman in her thirties wore a silver tiara. Wave to the citizens with a kind smile.

There seemed to be other people sitting next to her.

The cheers and shouts around made the street more crowded and complicated. The lively atmosphere reached its peak, and the crowds crowded from the side to the center of the street. The police and royal guards maintaining Ridwich Field had to allocate more people to prevent anyone from approaching the carriage.

The fat woman running in front was the first to see the convoy approaching in the distance. She glanced back at the detective who was chasing after him, getting closer and closer, with a ferocious expression, then gritted her teeth and rushed towards the convoy. But he didn't get close. Instead, he passed directly in front of the convoy and ran from one side of the street to the other.

When Shade also wanted to cross the street, the uniformed policemen who were opening the way in front had already blocked the street so that the motorcade could move forward, and used a human wall to prevent anyone from entering the street from the street.

At this time, Shade was only twenty steps away from the street intersection behind him, and he could be seen from the door of Tobesk Station.

"I even dare to bet on my luck. Do you think I lack such courage?"

He said in his mind, stopped, and prepared to squeeze through the wall of people and cross the street without the police noticing before the motorcade arrived.

The middle-aged man that Shade bumped into a few seconds ago had already pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He frowned and looked at the approaching motorcade. He pressed the black men's bonnet with his left hand. His right hand was inserted into the inner pocket of his coat and remained motionless.

Behind Tobesk Station, a group of pedestrians poured out. They were passengers who had just arrived. The one who could freely come and go at the ribbon-cutting ceremony was naturally the Zhengshen Church. Miss Bayas and her group accompanied a middle-aged man carrying a suitcase out.

Doctor Schneider, who was watching the excitement in the crowd, appeared from the street corner behind Shade while chatting with his acquaintances.

Miss Carina sat next to Queen Diana, looking out of the car window boredly.

Captain Rades made a gesture of throwing himself forward behind the crowd on the other side of the street.

The detective's nominal boss, Mr. Dark Anlos, director of MI6, mingled with the crowd and observed the situation nearby.

The carriage was getting closer and closer to the intersection in front of Tobesk Station, and the ruts and hooves of the horses were drowned in the cheers that seemed to explode. The pigeons that had been prepared were released at the intersection, flying over people's heads in patches, forming large moving shadows.

The fog still did not dissipate, but the low and dark sky could not stop the cheers and joy of citizens from all walks of life in Tobesk.