42: Chapter 42 Subsequent Incidents

In the carriage.

"By the way, has the murderer for the Mrs. Terry case been caught?"

Nie Ning turned his head to ask Borton.

Hearing this, Borton's expression froze, then he spoke slowly.

"The murderer has been caught; it was that friend of Mrs. Terry's husband who runs a flower shop."

Seeing that Borton's expression was off, Nie Ning asked curiously, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Right after the case ended, Mrs. Terry and one of her children died, and the other child disappeared; they haven't been found to this day."

After a moment of silence, Borton sighed and said.

"Dead?" Nie Ning was stunned. "Wasn't the murderer already caught?"

"This time it's different." Borton shook his head helplessly, then began to explain.

Three days after the case ended, someone saw Mrs. Terry wandering around the residential complex with a Bronk expression.

At first, everyone thought Mrs. Terry was overcome with grief, so they didn't take it seriously.

But that very night, someone heard a child's scream and went out to check, discovering it was coming from Mrs. Terry's house.

An Elementary Knight lived in the complex, and upon hearing the child's scream, he brought people to break down the door and rush in.

Then they saw a terrifying scene.

Mrs. Terry was holding one of the children and tearing into it with her teeth!

Seeing this, the Elementary Knight took the lead, wanting to save the child first.

But even though Mrs. Terry was clearly just an ordinary person, she possessed immense strength, even overpowering the knight for a time.

Although the knight held Mrs. Terry off until people from the Guard Hall arrived, the child had died from excessive blood loss.

Immediately after, during the process of apprehending Mrs. Terry, she suddenly began to self-harm, tearing open the flesh at her neck with her bare hands, and then died by slamming her head against the wall in front of everyone.

As for the other child, no one knew where they had gone, and the people in the complex searched for days without finding any trace.

Subsequently, the Guard Hall took over the case, but it was eventually dropped, and the detective agency was even warned not to pay any more attention to this case.

...

After hearing Borton's description, Nie Ning fell silent.

If he didn't know about the existence of the Human-Faced Balloon, perhaps he would have thought this was the work of extreme cultists.

But he had felt that strange malice back then, which meant it was very likely the work of a mysterious creature similar to the Human-Faced Balloon!

Nie Ning suddenly thought of something and asked, "What about the body of Mrs. Terry's husband?"

"It was cremated on the day we left." Borton looked at Nie Ning with a strange expression, then continued to explain.

"After all, there were no clues on the body, and the police had already caught the flower shop owner that day. To let her husband rest in peace, Mrs. Terry had it cremated immediately."

Hearing this, Nie Ning's expression darkened.

No wonder he felt the malice disappear back then; it must have been when Mrs. Terry went to cremate the body.

But it was a bit strange; that dissipating malice was extremely weak, somewhat similar to the mist emitted by the Human-Faced Balloon.

Could that residual malice really be a mysterious soul entity?

"We're here." Just as Nie Ning was pondering, the carriage stopped at the entrance of a building.

Nie Ning and Borton got off the carriage and looked up at the building in front of them.

It looked to be about six stories high, a common residential apartment layout.

This place was very close to the city center, with office buildings nearby, making it very convenient for commuting, and it was deeply favored by some high-end white-collar workers.

Nie Ning followed Borton up to the third floor, where a woman of nearly forty greeted them.

She was the nanny for this household and had been working here for five years.

The apartment was large, with four bedrooms, one living room, and two bathrooms, and it even had a study inside.

After waiting for about ten minutes, a beautiful woman in her late twenties, wearing a stylish white short skirt, walked in.

"Ms. Tracy, this is our agency's detective, Bronk. He has cooperated with the Guard Hall to solve several major cases and is absolutely top-notch in this field." Borton stood up, smiling as he pointed at Nie Ning and began to boast.

Nie Ning's eye twitched slightly; why hadn't he noticed before that this old guy loved to brag so much?

"Hello, Ms. Tracy." Nie Ning stood up and extended his hand in a friendly manner.

But Ms. Tracy merely glanced at Nie Ning, with no intention of shaking hands, then turned and walked towards the study: "Follow me."

Borton patted Nie Ning on the shoulder, signaling him not to take it to heart.

Making money isn't shameful; as long as we get paid, that's what matters.

...

The two followed Ms. Tracy into the study.

After Ms. Tracy sat down, she rested her fair, tender legs on the desk and casually tossed a bra onto it.

"My husband is away on a business trip recently, but a while ago, I found this on the bed. As long as you help me catch that mistress, there will naturally be no shortage of money for you."

Looking at the underwear on the desk, Nie Ning felt relieved.

It's easy when there's physical evidence; what he feared most were cases based on wild guesses, where just surveillance and gathering information would take up a lot of time.

Borton stepped forward, picked up the underwear to examine it, and then looked at Ms. Tracy.

"Do you have any suspects? This way we can try to narrow down the scope and help you find that person as quickly as possible."

"My husband's company recently hired a few fresh graduates, and I also saw him with the downstairs..."

"No need to say more." Just as Ms. Tracy was talking to herself, Nie Ning directly interrupted Ms. Tracy.

Ms. Tracy frowned slightly, looking at Nie Ning with some displeasure, not understanding what Nie Ning meant. Did he not want to take the job?

"This piece of underwear belongs to someone in this house." Nie Ning said with a calm expression.

"Mr. Bronk, are you saying this is mine?" Ms. Tracy asked, finding it somewhat amusing.

It couldn't be the nanny's; the nanny was over forty years old, how could she compare to herself?

But looking at Nie Ning's calm expression, Ms. Tracy gradually stopped smiling and involuntarily looked through the door towards the living room opposite.

"Are you mistaken?" Borton walked over to Nie Ning and asked in a low, guilty voice.

After all, Nie Ning hadn't moved from his seat since entering, and hadn't even looked at the physical evidence, yet he had already identified the suspect?

Besides, Ms. Tracy's husband was only thirty; would he be with a forty-year-old nanny? For her age?

"I don't know if it's a mistress, but I can confirm that this underwear belongs to someone here." Nie Ning smiled, stood up, and closed the study door.

"Maybe it's a different taste, or maybe it's a misunderstanding. Since you are the employer, we can provide various strategies for catching them in the act; we certainly won't just talk about it."

Ms. Tracy's expression darkened: "No need."

She didn't know if Nie Ning was right or not, but she couldn't wait any longer.

It was very simple to find out if it was the nanny.

Previously, she had trusted the nanny implicitly, never even suspecting her, and had never searched the nanny's room.

Since that was the case, the other half of the underwear might still be here!