Chapter 22 Chapter 21

It only took Daniel two hours to figure out the next step.I sat on the bed, looked at "Grimm's Fairy Tales", and kept reading the same line, but didn't read a word.Suddenly the door was knocked softly. please come in.I answered. Daniel poked his head in, still fully dressed, with a spotless white shirt and shiny shoes.Are you free now?he asked politely. certainly.I put down the book and answered politely.There's no way he's coming to me as a surrender or a truce, but I can't think of anything else to do with each other.We can't fight without other people as weapons.

I just thought, Daniel turned and closed the door and said to me: A word with you, in private.My body reacts faster than my mind.For just a second when Daniel turned his back to me, I subconsciously reached out from the collar of my pajamas to grab the microphone, pulled it up violently, and felt the connector come loose with a snap.When he turned around, my hands had already returned to the book as if nothing had happened.say what?I asked. Just a few things, Daniel smoothed the tail, sat down and said: I can't figure it out. oh? That's right, almost from the time you uh, say you've arrived.I just noticed some small discrepancies, which are getting more and more disturbing.A few days ago, when you asked for onions again, I suddenly had great doubts in my heart.

Daniel paused politely for a moment, thinking I might have something to say.I stared at him, unable to believe how I hadn't expected this step. Of course, seeing that I obviously didn't intend to speak, Daniel went on to say: And last night.I don't know if you know, how many times I've been with you, or me and Lacey once anyway, kisses are not the same as smiles, it's impossible to get it wrong.We kissed last night, which kind of made me sure you weren't Lacey. Daniel stared at me across the bed, his eyes indifferent.Once again, he exposed me mercilessly in public, to my officer, (he guessed it) my boyfriend, and the top police officers who wouldn't allow undercover agents to kiss suspects.They all became Daniel's remote-controlled weapons.If the microphone is still on, I will have to go home sadly in a few hours and report directly to the police station in the country.

It might be outrageous to ask, Daniel said calmly, but I'd love to see your so-called wounds and make sure you're who you say you are. Of course, I am happy to answer: why not?A trace of surprise flashed in Daniel's eyes.I pulled down the collar of my pajamas and pulled out the bandages to show him.One side is the line, the other side is the battery, and the two are separated. Well done, I said to him: It's a pity that it didn't work.Even if you do throw me out, do you think I'll leave quietly?I have nothing to lose, even if it's only five minutes, I can confess to other people who I am and say you knew it weeks ago.How do you think they will react?Let's take Xiao Rui as an example?

Daniel leans over to check the microphone.Well, he said: That's right.Anyway, try it out, who knows. I haven't been working on this case for long, and I'm in a hurry, because Frank will be suspicious as soon as he finds out that he can't hear, and I may only have a minute, and I will burn my ass if it is too late.A few days at most, but I need these days.If you dare to take it away, I will die with jade and stone.If you're smart, maybe you can bet that I can't find anything, and let's figure out a way to keep others from knowing who I am. Daniel looked at me expressionlessly, with a pair of big hands neatly clasped between his legs.Friends are my responsibility, and I'm not going to stand by and let you sweep them into the interrogation room.

I shrugged and said: whatever.You can stop me any way you want, at least I didn't cause any trouble today.But I'm here for the last few days, so stop spoiling.We agree? You said how many days, Daniel asked: How many days? I shook my head and said: This is not negotiable.I have to plug this thing back in another ten seconds so it sounds like an accidental disconnect.Let's just chat casually afterward about why I lost my temper at dinner, shall we? Daniel nodded perfunctorily, his eyes still on the microphone.Very good, I said: let's get started.I don't want to get in the middle of what I'm saying, and switch the line back to make it feel more real: talk about it.My head is messed up and I feel terrible, can you guys just leave me alone, okay?

I think you're hungover, Daniel obediently, you've never had a problem with red wine, have you? This sentence sounds like a trap.whatever!I said, shrugging angrily at him like a teenager, and glued the bandage back on: Maybe it was punch, Rui didn't know what the hell was added.He's been drinking a lot lately, have you noticed? Xiao Rui is fine, Daniel said coldly: You are the same, a good sleep should be enough, I hope. There were hurried steps downstairs, followed by the sound of the door opening.Lacey?Justin's nervous voice came from the stairwell, are you okay? Daniel is bugging me.I yelled back.

Daniel?Why are you bothering her? I don't. He wanted to know why I was upset, and I yelled: But I'm unhappy, I'm unhappy.Also, I told him to leave me alone. How about you tell me you are upset?Justin has already walked out of the room to the stairs, and I can imagine him wearing striped pajamas, holding a pole in his hand, trying to look upstairs with wide-open myopic eyes.Daniel looked at me, his eyes focused and thoughtful, and it made me extremely nervous. Quiet!Abby growled, her voice so angry that she could hear it clearly through the door.Somebody wants to sleep, okay?

Lacey, why are you upset? With a bang, Abby threw something.Justin, I said be quiet!please!Xiaorui on the first floor said something in a grumpy tone, his voice was very weak, it seemed to be his mother, what happened? I'll go downstairs and explain to you, Justin, Daniel said aloud: Everybody go to bed.Then turned to me and said: Good night.He got up and smoothed the quilt.Hope you got enough sleep and feel better tomorrow morning, please. Well, I say: thanks, but don't expect too much. Daniel walked downstairs steadily, and then the two whispered.At first it was Justin talking, Daniel interjected occasionally, but slowly it was reversed.I got out of bed carefully and put my ears to the floor, but they seemed to be biting each other's ears, and I couldn't hear them clearly.

The two talked for twenty minutes before Daniel tiptoed upstairs and stood at the corner of the stairs for a long time.I couldn't help shivering when I heard the door of his bedroom close. That night, I tossed and turned, kept turning the pages of the book to pretend to read, grabbed the quilt and turned over and over, took deep breaths and pretended to fall asleep, and unplugged the microphone for a few seconds or minutes from time to time.I think I should be doing well, much like the line goes up and down, but I'm still not sure.Frank is no fool and has no reason to believe me, not him.

Frank is on the left, Daniel is on the right, and Resica and I are in the middle.As I fiddled with the microphone to pass the time, I wondered how it was logically possible that there were two groups of people opposed to each other in this case, and they all ended up against me. But I finally got up and got out of bed, picked up the chair in front of Lacey's dresser, put it against the door for the first time, and lay back in bed and fell asleep. Saturday flew by like a nightmare, frustrating and dizzying.Daniel decided to polish the floors together, because a house fix always calmed us down and it made it easier for him to keep an eye on everyone.We hadn't paid attention to the dining room, and at breakfast he told us that it was just next door to the living room and looked shabby.I think it should be groomed today, what do you think? Good idea, Abby puts the egg on Daniel's plate and smiles at Daniel; the smile is tired and determined, but full of encouragement.Justin shrugged and continued nibbling on his toast.I said to the frying pan: whatever.Without saying a word, Xiao Rui took the coffee and left the dining room.Alright, Daniel returned his eyes to the book and said calmly: Then it's settled. It was a miserable day, as I expected.The house is clearly on vacation, and the joyful magic is gone.Xiao Rui was sulking all by himself, seeing the whole world as unpleasant, and kept beating the wall with the grinder, scaring everyone.Later, Daniel walked up to Xiaorui silently, snatched the sander away, and handed him a piece of sandpaper.I put on a sullen look and secretly prayed that it would work, that sooner or later (the sooner, of course, the better) I'd get my chance. There was a drizzle outside the window, and the raindrops danced wildly.No one spoke.Once or twice I saw Abby reach up to wipe her face, but she kept her back to us, and I didn't know if she was crying or had crumbs on her face.The dining room is full of dust, getting into our noses, sticking to the back of our necks, and lodged in our palms.From time to time, Justin let out an exaggerated wheeze, barking and coughing into the handkerchief, causing Daniel to put down the grinder and stride out of the dining room to bring back a horrible old gas mask and hand it to Justin.The room was silent, no one laughed. There was asbestos in the debris, Xiao Rui scraped the dirty corners of the floor viciously, and said: Do you really want to kill him, or do you just want him to feel it? Justin glanced at the gas mask in horror and said: I don't want to inhale asbestos. If you want to cover your mouth with a handkerchief, Daniel said: Then use a handkerchief and stop whining.After speaking, he stuffed the gas mask into Justin's hand, picked up the grinder and continued working. That night on the balcony, Xiao Rui and I were talking about the use of gas masks, and the two of us got out of hand.Daniel could wear a mask to school and ask Abby to embroider it on Justin put the gas mask gently in the corner and let it stare at us with those big, empty, sad eyes all day long. What happened to your microphone?That night, Frank asked: Just asking. Oh shit, I said: No way, again?I thought it was fixed. Frank was suspicious for a few seconds, then said: So what? When I changed the bandages this morning, the wires came loose.I think it may be that I didn't install it properly after taking a shower last night, and my body twisted and fell off.How long have you been out of communication?Is it normal now?I reached into the neckline of my jacket, tapped on the microphone and said: Did you hear that? Clearly, Frankish with sarcasm.It went down a few times last night, but I don't think I missed anything important, at least I hope not.But I missed a minute or two when you talked to Daniel in the middle of the night. I deliberately smiled and said to him: Oh, that one.He was very nervous because I lost my temper earlier and he wanted to know what was wrong and I told him to leave me alone.He gave up asking again and went back to his room to sleep.I'll tell you it will work, old Fa, they're going to jump over the wall. Well, Frank said after a long silence: It seems that I didn't miss anything exciting.As long as I'm working on this case, I can't say I don't believe in coincidences.But if the line comes loose one more time, even if it's only for a second, I'll kill you at the forest house, grab you by the neck and take you away.Bring the bandage to me and stick it to my body with quick-drying glue.He hung up after speaking. I walked back home, thinking about what I would do next if I were Daniel.As it turned out, however, it wasn't him I should have worried about.I knew something was wrong before I even entered the door.They were all in the kitchen, the boy was obviously washing the dishes, Ray was holding a spatula that felt like a weapon, and Justin was spilling soap all over the place.Everyone spoke at the same time. I was doing work, and I opened the French doors, only to hear Daniel say lightly: If we don’t let them But why?Justin cried and said: Why do they want When they saw me push the door and come in, the room was silent for a moment, everyone stared at me, and the words stopped halfway. What's wrong?I asked. Tiaozi wants to find us.As Xiao Rui said, he threw the spatula into the sink, and the water splashed everywhere with a bang, splashing on Daniel's shirt, but he didn't seem to feel it. I can't bear to do it again, Justin slumped against the counter and said: I can't do it. Where did you go?do what? Frank called Daniel, and Abby said: The police want to talk to us, and we will go there early tomorrow morning, and none of the five of us can hide. Why?Frank that bitch.He decided to play this trick before I called, and didn't even bother to give me a hint. Xiao Rui shrugged and said: He didn't say anything, he just said he wanted to chat with us, that's all. But why go there?Justin panicked, staring at Daniel's cell phone on the table, as if it had rushed over.They were the ones who came here before, why did they come this time? Where does he want us to go?I asked. Fort Dublin, Abby said: Major Crimes Office or whatever. The Major and Organized Crime Unit is downstairs from the Major Crimes Unit, and Frank just wants us to climb a few more stairs.Organized crime units generally do not undertake assassination cases unless major criminals are involved.But they don't know this, the name alone can make their faces change. do you know about thisDaniel asked me, his eyes were so cold that I didn't like it.Xiao Rui looked up at the ceiling and muttered, I heard the word paranoid. I don't know, how could I know? I think your friend Frank should have called you when you were out. No, and he's not my friend.I did not hide the anger in my eyes, and let him guess for himself whether what I said was true or not.I only had two days left, and Frank was going to eat the day with his endless nonsense questions about what we put on our sandwiches and what he thought of Grey, who had big tits.He wants us to report for duty early tomorrow morning, obviously planning to delay as long as possible, eight hours, or even twelve hours.I wondered if it was Lacey who would have kicked his dick. I knew I shouldn't call and tell them about the stone, Justin said angrily: I knew, otherwise they would have let us go. Then let's not go.I said.Frank might think it's stupid to do this, breaking my contract with him, but I'm so angry that I'm going to give it a shot.The police couldn't force us. Everyone froze for a while.Really?Abby asked Daniel. Honestly, I think so.Daniel said.He was looking at me thoughtfully, and I could almost see his brain working.We weren't arrested, the police asked, not ordered, although Frank didn't feel that way.Still, I think we'll have to go. Oh, is it so?Xiao Rui asked, his tone not very polite.Do you really think so?What if I thought fuck Frank to death? Daniel turned to look at Xiao Rui.I intend to continue to fully cooperate with the police investigation. He calmly replied: not only because it is wiser to do so, but also because I want to know who did such a horrible thing.If you decide to stand in the way and make Frank suspicious by refusing to cooperate, there's nothing I can do to stop it.But let's not forget that the man who stabbed Lacey is still at large and we should do everything we can to help bring him to justice.At least I think so.This clever bastard.He was yelling at Frank through my mic, letting him hear what he was trying to say, and obviously speaking nonsense.They're just a perfect match. Daniel looked around the kitchen inquiringly, but no one answered.Xiao Rui opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly stopped, shaking his head with disgust on his face. Fine, said Daniel: Then we'll clean up here and go to bed.Tomorrow is sure to be long.With that, he picked up the dish towel. Later, while Abby and I were in the living room, pretending to be reading, I invented whispers to curse Frank, and listening to the tense silence in the kitchen, something suddenly dawned on me.The last two days of my stay at the forest house, Daniel would rather waste time with Frank than face me.I thought it might be a compliment. There was one incident that stood out to me that Sunday morning.We ate breakfast as usual, not a single step was missed.Abby knocks lightly on my door as I prepare breakfast next to her, flushed from the scalding stove.We walked around each other, passing food and cutlery without opening our mouths. I still remember the first night when I arrived at the forest house, seeing their close fit, I felt a sharp pain in my heart.In a blink of an eye, I became one of them without knowing it.Justin frowned and cut the toast diagonally, Xiao Rui poured the coffee automatically as if sleepwalking; Daniel pressed the edge of the book with the corner of the plate.I emptied my head, not allowing myself to think that I would bid farewell to this place in another thirty-six hours, and even if I could see them again after that, everything would be changed. Everyone took their time, and even when Xiao Rui reappeared after drinking his coffee, no one was in a hurry to leave.Xiao Rui hit me with his butt, asking me to give up a chair and sit down to eat my toast.The dew slid down the window, and the rabbits became more and more aggressive, getting closer and closer to the house to graze outside. After one night, things changed.The original tit-for-tat confrontation between the four disappeared, and they were friendly, cautious, and even gentle with each other.I occasionally think that they took their meal so seriously that morning because they knew deep down, more clearly than logic, that the time had come. We should go.Later, Daniel said.He closed the book and put his hand on the counter.I felt a breath coming from the table, like a choke, like a sigh.Xiao Rui stood up, her chest hurriedly brushed against my shoulder. Well, Abby said softly, almost to herself.Let's go! Lacey, I have something I want to discuss with you, Daniel said: just take my car and go into town? What are you discussing?Xiao Rui asked sharply, pinching her fingers into my arm. None of your business.Daniel took the plate to the sink and said: If it is related, I will find you.The tit-for-tat feeling reappeared, without warning, so sharp that it split the air in two. So Daniel pulled up in front of the house and I got in the front seat and he said to me: That's it. There was a wolf smoke in my heart: there is danger.Because he didn't look at me, he just looked out of the car and saw the forest house in the cool morning mist. Justin wiped the window cautiously with a folded rag, and Xiao Rui tucked his chin in his scarf and walked down the steps listlessly.Because of the expression on his face, he was contemplative and a little sad. I don't know what the limit is for this guy, or even if he has one.My gun was still on the bedside table in Lacey's room, and the Homicide Squad had metal detectors, the only place it couldn't cover, Frank had said before, was the drive into town and the drive home.Daniel smiled, smiling at the misty blue sky.Today will be a fine day.He said. I was about to get out of the car and stride up to Justin and tell him that Daniel is horrible and I want to ride in their car I've been mad enough times this week, I'll do it again so no one will be suspicious and the back door slams It opened, and Abby sat in, disheveled and flushed, with a messy coat, gloves and hat.Hello, she slammed the door and said: May I ride in your car? sure.I said.I've never been so happy for a person to show up. Daniel turned to look at her.I thought we had agreed that you and Xiaorui would take Justin's car. What are you kidding?Don't you see how they feel now?It was better with Stalin and Bob than in their car. Unexpectedly, Daniel actually smiled, sincerely, warmly and happily.They are outrageous.Yeah, let them do it themselves, an hour or two locked in the car is just fine. Who knows, Abby's tone is not very sure.Maybe they would kill each other.After speaking, he took out the folding comb from the bag and began to deal with the hair.Justin's car was ahead of us, and we saw him start the car in a panic and squeak into the driveway, obviously too hastily. Daniel puts a hand back, palm up, toward Abby.He didn't look at her, nor at me, but stared blankly at the cherry tree in front of the car.Abby put down the comb, reached out to take Daniel's hand, and pressed his fingers.The two held hands like this. After a while, Daniel sighed, gently pulled his hand out of Abby's palm, and started the car.