[European Style] Praying Mantis

Since I couldn't confirm Dominique's attitude, I decided to find another way and check with Professor Curley's own daughter, Whitney.I reached out to Whitney Curley on Facebook and gave her a wary call, but her response was less than ideal.

"Two years later, are you still holding on to that thing? There is no doubt that the truth of the matter is that the damn bitch and her damn son killed my father." Whitney seemed very angry , "If the media was really useful, I would have been able to see my father a long time ago, whether it was a living person or a dead body."

"Sorry, I didn't know you had a bad relationship with your stepmother..."

"You don't know anything," Whitney became a little excited, and her tone became high. "After accepting your interview, will Dad be able to go home? Don't dream, you are as stupid as the useless San Francisco police Extremely."

"Forgive me for interrupting, Miss Curley, but I beg you to listen to me," I tried to calm her down. "Although this is reckless, I have to tell you that Professor Curley will not be like that anyway." I know you're sad that Lazarus came back to life like that, and if you'd talk to me, maybe I'd be lucky enough to make you feel better. I took a psychology course at the University of San Francisco."

It seemed that she had finally stabilized after hearing that I had graduated from the place where Professor Curley worked.I heard her let out a long sigh, and then said in a calm tone, "What do you want to know? Tell me your WhatsApp(②) account, and we'll talk there."

After hearing this sentence, I let out a long breath.Anyway, I finally got a chance to talk to Whitney.

"I hate that guy." Whitney's first words baffled me. "There's nothing in the world I hate more than him."

"what is that?"

"The woman's son," Whitney replied. "He's false and cunning, like his mother."

"What happened? I interviewed him the other day. In my opinion, he's a good guy."

"Do you think he looks friendly and nice? Fuck him, it's all fake," she said. stay in the house for a while, and you'll find out he's worse than Satan."

"Can you tell me some details?" I asked.

"I don't want to talk anymore. I have to go out with Andy. Maybe when I feel better one day, I will continue to talk to you more." After Whitney said this, she never reply.It seems that she is a very willful girl, which is very different from Dominic's well-behaved and polite appearance.

This short exchange left me in a daze.Why does Whitney hate Dominic so much?Judging from that family photo, at least at the time, their relationship was as good as real siblings.

Confused thoughts made me turn to seek some other relaxing content.I opened the homepage of REDDIT again, and the post about unsolved cases still lingers on the homepage, and has successfully surpassed those unnutritious jokes, and is firmly fixed at No.1 on the hot list.

The author continued to list the unsolved cases that occurred across the United States in the past 100 years, and netizens started a heated discussion in the post.In the popular comments, I saw this one: "San Francisco is as unsafe as Chicago. Last year my cousin, Christian Grande, who was a biology student at the University of San Francisco, died of a drug overdose. God, the world I believe anyone who took drugs, but he is absolutely impossible. But the San Francisco police closed the case and did not pursue it any further!"

Other replies below: "Chris? He was my middle school classmate. Omg I can't believe what happened to him. He doesn't look like a drug addict at all."

"The biology department at the University of San Francisco looks dangerous. Think of poor Professor Curley. Was the murderer someone from the school?"

This out-of-the-ordinary incident piqued my interest at once.It seems that after graduation, I cared too little about my alma mater, so that I was completely unaware of the accidental attrition of staff in the Department of Biology for two consecutive years.

For some reason, subconsciously, I always feel that this matter has something to do with the "Mantis case".So I reached out to the author of this reply, Justin Woods, a 17-year-old high school student in San Francisco.Compared with Dominique and Whitney, his performance is the most cooperative.We meet at one of his favorite dessert shops and strike up the conversation over two cups of the overly sweet chocolate parfaits favored by teenagers.

"If you knew Chris, you'd be shocked by how serious he is," Justin mumbled as he scooped up a scoop of ice cream. "He's the kind of guy who never comes up with a single bad idea."

I sat across from him and typed every word he said on the computer: "It looks like there's something behind his death that we don't know about."

"Yes, he must have been murdered!" Justin said angrily.He uttered every syllable so hard that a few grains of cream splashed on my face, bringing a cold touch, "He was killed on August 8 last year, I remember it well. He died in the school's laboratory Unfortunately, the nearby surveillance cameras were broken during that time, so the police believed that he committed suicide. You must also think that the San Francisco police are very irresponsible?"

Before I could answer, he said again: "By the way, his former mentor also disappeared in 2015, and his whereabouts are still unknown. It's the famous 'Mantis case'... What the hell! I guess they must all be killed. Killed by the same man—a serial killer worse than Zodiac!"

Hearing this, I trembled all over.Grande's mentor is Professor Curley?I was only skeptical about the degree of connection between the two cases, but through his words, the connection between the two seems to be confirmed.Maybe there is really some unknown secret between them.

"Do you know anything else about your cousin? Hobbies or something?" I asked.

"His hobbies are probably only studying and reading, which is very monotonous." Justin took a sip of the chocolate ice cream ball that melted into a milkshake, "By the way, you are not those old stubborn Republicans? To be honest, the only thing about him that is different from a traditional Catholic family One thing - he's gay."

"what?"

"Come on, it's 2017, do young people like you still want to be homophobic?" Justin looked at me with wide eyes in disbelief, "Last year I went to the cinema with my girlfriend to watch " "Moonlight Boy" (③)."

"Of course not," I explained. "Does he have any close male friends?"

"This is his personal situation, I don't know it. I accidentally caught a glimpse of the 'Blued' (④) downloaded on his mobile phone and found out about it." Justin shook his head, sucking the last sticky mouthful The milkshake made a "sizzling" sound, "Maybe there is."

"Thank you for accepting my interview." I took out my wallet, "I'll pay the bill."

"Thanks, buddy." Justin took out a toilet paper and wiped the chocolate cream on his mouth casually, his movements were embarrassing and rough, which complemented his messy hair and baggy T-shirt.At that moment, I suddenly thought for no reason that if it were Dominic Curley, he would not be so gaffe.

"Actually, you and Chris look quite alike." Justin suddenly said, "I just imagined you with black hair."

"Thank you, I'm honored." I looked at him dumbfounded.

But this interview really woke me up—I haven't been to the cinema in a long time.After breaking up with my ex-girlfriend, I never watched a theatrical movie again.On the way home, I looked at the huge poster of Spider-Man: Homecoming on the outside of the shopping mall and thought, time to let myself relax.

The author has something to say:

① Lazarus: The character recorded in the "Bible John's Gospel". He died before being rescued by Jesus when he was critically ill, but Jesus affirmed that he would be resurrected. Four days later, Lazarus really walked out of the cave, proving that Miracles of Jesus.

②WhatsApp: commonly known as "WeChat in the United States".

③ "Moonlight": American same-sex film, won the 89th Academy Award for Best Picture.

④Blued: Same-sex dating app.