Mysteries: Arcana Wars

It was late at night, and Leonard strolled to the outside of the Harvest Church and found a nearby place to hide.

The Steam Church did not receive permission to fully take over the security of the Harvest Church, but it still organized patrols outside the church and provided support to the Harvest Church in other ways.

Because the explosion caused too much noise, in order to cover up the abnormal restoration of the church, the Steam Church that took over the work set up high scaffolding outside the main body of the old church and covered it with a dense safety net to block people's view and make it look like it was under repair.

As a hospital, the Earth Church Hospital is still functioning normally. In fact, only half of the hospital is crammed into the church that was cut and renovated, and the other half is other independent buildings connected to the church.

Even so, due to land restrictions and Loen's overly targeted ancient building protection policy, the hospital still seemed a bit cramped and crowded. Coupled with the intensive patrols of the Mechanical Heart, Leonard's stealth was even more difficult.

So Leonard simply gave up on climbing through the window and followed his inspiration to find Geraldine's ward, which was directly outside the wall. Tonight he planned to investigate his old assistant for the first time.

Through the communication in the Minimalist Tarot Club just now, Leonard suddenly realized that he had worked with Geraldine for such a long time, but apart from the information in her file bag, he seemed to know nothing about this assistant. Even at this moment, Leonard could only use some memories about the handover of work and barely piece together a vague image with labels.

Where did Geraldine live before? When did she buy the motorcycle? How much does she usually earn? What does she like to eat for breakfast? Does she like tea or sugar in her coffee?

It's as if I never cared about this person.

Leonard touched his head solemnly. Before being awakened by Klein, he seemed to have never thought about getting to know this reporter's assistant. In other words, it would be enough as long as he could provide effective clues.

Maybe before that tarot card fell, I never wanted to understand anyone.

Day after day we study, work, solve cases, complete our trips, and then walk home. After handing over the tasks, we no longer have to say anything.

Be diligent, conscientious and loyal to your role.

This led to Leonard finding that he seemed to have missed some details in his actions when reviewing the situation now. These details seemed to be just some daily life details, but if he had asked one more question at that time, would he have gained more?

Why did Geraldine choose to be an investigative reporter after retiring? Where did the influence of David's joining the police department come from? Where did she get so many clues during the investigation? Did she start to pay attention to David's abnormality very early?

All kinds of doubts lingered in Leonard's mind. Perhaps this was a chance for him to start to understand others again. He summoned his spirituality and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, Leonard found himself sitting in an office at the police station.

The clock on the wall showed three o'clock in the afternoon. Backlund's rare good sunlight shone through the blinds, making Leonard's police leather shoes slightly hot. An LED display screen served as a nameplate on the desk in front of him.

"Senior Detective Leonard Mitchell"

This wasn't the usual opening to a dream invasion, this was Geraldine dreaming about me.

Leonard pushed open the door of the office. All the police officers in the hall were busy at their workstations. The flashing electronic clock stopped at three o'clock in the afternoon. The leisurely afternoon tea time would never come.

But there are always people who like to report to their boss at the last second of working hours and cancel their boss’s daily happy afternoon tea time on behalf of all subordinates.

"Mr. Leonard! Come and see today's big news!"

As usual, Geraldine, with her red hair and fox eyes, came to Leonard's office in a hurry, threw a few file bags on the desk, and then stood there stupidly, grinning, waiting for her boss's reply.

Seeing her dazed eyes and vague expression, Leonard was sure that the reporter was indeed in a deep sleep, and like other ordinary people, she was in a dream trance and was unaware of Leonard's intrusion.

You love this job as an investigative reporter so much that you even dream about going to work there!

Leonard opened the file bag on the table and found it was filled with clean, white papers.

...Okay, it's just a dream after all.

During this time, Geraldine was either in hospital or in a coma, and there really was no investigation.

Leonard put the file back reluctantly and started asking questions in a different direction.

"What were you doing on the day of the church bombing?"

"I was in my ward, and suddenly a doctor I didn't know came in and said something to me, and then I had an attack," Geraldine said staggeringly, "That person was definitely not a doctor in this hospital."

"Then I was sent to the emergency room for treatment. Then the church exploded. Several fully armed doctors pushed us out of the hospital with guns fired. A lot of big vines grew in the bombed hospital..."

"how are you now?"

"I am now under the highest level of custody and no visitors are allowed. I am in good mental and physical condition and should be discharged soon."

"Did you notice David Axus's abnormality early on?"

"Yes, I noticed very early on that David's mental state was not right. He became impulsive and irritable, and sold off a large number of valuable items at home. He gradually became insensitive to the care of his colleagues, which was a reaction he had never had before. So I concluded that something had happened in his family, and later I heard that his wife was seriously ill."

"How did you know his wife was ill?"

"I checked David Axus's file."

"Check? How did you check? As a non-staff member, you are not qualified to access these police files!"

"I found some of it by looking for hackers in the underground black market, and some of it by asking colleagues."

...Good fellow, you are simply inviting a wolf into the house...

"Who gave you the video David stole from the Sheriff's Office? Cyber ​​Ghost Kewawu?"

"Hey, of course not, I took it myself!" Geraldine's dazed face showed a proud smile, "I installed two surveillance cameras in the sheriff's office. One was discovered to be missing because of David's case, and the other one hasn't been discovered by the bald old sheriff yet..."

"Camera?"

Leonard was a little shocked.

"Why did you install a camera for the sheriff? Who were you going to send the video to? I'm really wondering where you hid the other camera!"

"Of course... Hey, didn't you say these things have nothing to do with the case at the time and you didn't want to hear about them?"

Geraldine, with her eyes half open, suddenly burst into laughter.

"Mr. Leonard... why are you so interested in me today... You never ask so many questions about myself..."

"No, I..."

Leonard broke out in a cold sweat after hearing these words. Just as he was about to deny it, he felt the floor beneath his feet suddenly begin to shake violently.

...This...is a dream about an earthquake?