Chapter 4218

"Where is your father's grave?" the agent asked.

"Over there." Linda pointed in a direction.

They walked over together and arrived in front of a dark gray tombstone, on which was written "Zida Hughes Burger."

"So your last name is Burger?"

Linda nodded. The agent had been observing her movements, but the other party was still that stiff and clumsy appearance, and he really couldn't see anything. The agent couldn't help but want to use the psychoanalytic method, but unfortunately, he wasn't very good at it, and he didn't see any emotions.

Just as the agent was thinking, his gaze crossed this large tombstone and found that there was a small tombstone behind it, and this tombstone was also engraved with "Burger."

He first glanced at Linda, then asked again: "Who is this? Your father's brother?"

Linda shook her head and said, "This is my younger brother."

"Oh, sorry," the agent said. "Did he... did he die young?"

Linda nodded and said, "He had a strange illness and died when he was 4 years old."

"Too pitiful," the agent quickly made a cross on his chest and said, "He will be the cutest angel by the Lord's side."

Unexpectedly, at this time, Linda looked at him and said, "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes, I'm from England, and I'm a Protestant. Have you heard of the Baptist Church?"

Linda shook her head, and the agent didn't chat much on this topic, but continued to say, "Your mother must have been very sad at that time. What a pitiful lady. But there really aren't many people in this place; have you ever thought about moving to the city?"

Linda remained silent. The agent looked at her—this girl who should have been in her prime looked like a stiff corpse. If it weren't for the fact that she was still breathing and had body temperature, the agent would really have thought she was the source of the paranormal event.

Then the agent remembered the billboard at the entrance of the town and asked, "I saw a billboard with a clown drawn on it at the entrance of the town; do you have clown performances here?"

"No," Linda said, "at least not now."

"That means there were before? Actually, I'm quite interested in circus performances from the last century, but unfortunately, most of them aren't allowed to perform now. I heard that circus performances used to be very popular on the west coast."

"Circuses did come to town before," Linda said, "but that was a long time ago, and I haven't seen them."

"Did they come before you were born?"

"Probably. I heard they used to perform in that small square, but later something happened, and they didn't perform anymore."

The agent thought: The key has come. But he didn't immediately ask what happened at that time, but said, "That's true. There aren't many people in this town; I guess it's more profitable to perform in the city... Sorry, I'm a businessman, and sometimes I look at problems from the perspective of profit."

Linda shook her head and said, "If you are really interested, you can go to the warehouse next to the square and take a look; there are some props they left behind."

"Props? Props for circus performances?"

"Seems so, but I haven't been there either; my mother doesn't let me go. It's getting late; I'm going back to make the fishing rod, you go wander around by yourself."

After saying this, Linda walked back. The agent and the Hunter followed behind her, and then they parted ways at the end of a road—Linda walked toward the old house, while the two of them turned to the small square.

Just as they arrived at the small square, they saw two familiar figures. The agent walked over and said to Bruce, "Thank you for saving us that day. But didn't you say you were going back to town? Why are you still here?"

"Our motorcycle broke down," Kent sighed like a pro and said, "The road here is too difficult to walk; we hadn't driven far before the car had a problem. It's also our fault for not maintaining it; now we can only wait for my colleague to send me parts."

"So that's it, but what are you doing here?"

"Then what are you doing here?" Bruce asked back.

"Do you know another habit of primates?"

"What?"

"They will throw feces at each other," Bruce said, "Precisely because they have flexible hands and can grasp, they will use their own feces as weapons and throw them out to attack each other, especially when they are in a bad mood, this behavior will be very frequent. The gap between the bars of this cage is very large, and they can completely throw their excrement out. And although the light wasn't good before, I also looked, and there was no excrement on the clothes and other things that are easy to get dirty. And only the soil under the cages is in a different state, which also shows that the excrement wasn't thrown everywhere."

Kent sighed and said: "Alright, it seems I have to accept the most terrible possibility. Then let's study why they want to do this. Is it purely to satisfy their own selfish desires?"

Bruce shook his head and said: "If it were one person secretly doing this, it's possible. But judging from the scale of these cages, I'm afraid everyone in the circus from top to bottom knows about this, but they tacitly chose to cooperate, or even become accomplices. This proves that they absolutely couldn't just be doing it to vent their desires, because there must be women in the circus; they didn't get any benefits, so they wouldn't necessarily cooperate like this."

"Maybe they were just forced by violence," Kent said.

Bruce shook his head again and continued: "If it were in a closed environment, perhaps that's the case, but this is a circus after all, and they have to go on tour. They have too many opportunities to come into contact with the outside world. Violence might be able to coerce them for a while, but among so many people, as long as one person wants to resist, it's too easy to come into contact with the audience, and the matter would definitely be exposed."

"Then it's not very likely to be a kidnapping case caused by men venting their desires. Perhaps it's human trafficking? This also fits the habit of the circus going on tour."

"This is actually possible," Bruce nodded. "This circus is engaged in human trafficking in private, using its own tour route to constantly kidnap victims and then sell them in unfamiliar cities."

"However, there is also a problem with this, which is that passing through so many cities, they have to handle everything from top to bottom and know enough snakeheads to be able to sell them smoothly. Otherwise, if they catch new ones and the old ones haven't been sold yet, the trouble will be big."

"Why do you say that?"

"People have already been caught, and it's impossible to let them go back; otherwise, the other party will definitely call the police. But if they are killed, it involves a more troublesome problem, which is disposing of the corpse. Disposing of a corpse isn't as simple as you think; sometimes it's even harder than dealing with a living person."

"Thinking about it this way, it seems it's really hard to achieve." Kent scratched his head, not knowing what was going on either.

However, because Bruce had information from the dream, he had a possible speculation: that actor playing the clown didn't hook up with rich girls, but wanted to find a prostitute to marry, which might be because he was in this line of work.

The circus has black industries behind its back, whether it's human trafficking or something else; in short, they are all the kind of industries that absolutely cannot see the light. If this kind of industry wants to operate smoothly, it's best to only find local people who can be trusted to join.

However, operating an industry can be like this, but marriage can't. This kind of town that has reproduced for several generations is most afraid of inbreeding. The era when this clown actor lived was the last century, not the Middle Ages; they knew very well the harm of inbreeding. Then they could only find outsiders.

But once they find an outsider, this person is bound to know what they are doing. Guarding against thieves is harder than guarding against outsiders. So it's best to find that kind of person who has no power, has a distorted moral view, and can be easily controlled and brainwashed by them. It's best to have experience in this area and be able to help them do the work.

Getting a rich girl, not to mention that if she runs away, she goes home to complain, which will cause devastating damage to this circus; just thinking about it, she can't carry or lift, so she can't do this work. Just thinking about how bad the environment of a circus with so many people locked up must be, ordinary people can't stand it.

And prostitutes are much better. If they had any background, they wouldn't be prostitutes. And having struggled at the bottom, they have seen all kinds of people; it's hard for people in this environment to have a very high moral sense. Plus, they can do dirty work, so they are indeed perfect objects.

However, what makes Bruce somewhat confused is: engaging in this kind of black industry is to make money, then isn't finding a rich woman also making money? And the latter is definitely more decent and safer than the former. This clown actor doesn't look like he has a bad brain; just relying on this face, he could completely run away and hook up with a rich person; why couldn't he think it through, take a huge risk to marry a prostitute, and still insist on staying and being a partner in crime?

Just as Bruce was thinking, the agent had already followed Linda and arrived at the waterfall at the upper reaches of the creek again.

The bad news is that because of the material problem, this fishing rod couldn't make any flexibility at all and couldn't be used for fishing. But the good news is that because it was hard enough and the front was sharpened, it could be used to spear fish.

And this girl who had never fished before, for some reason, suddenly had a great interest in fish and didn't know where she rummaged out an old kayak, preparing to row to the bottom of the waterfall to spear fish.

The agent, of course, didn't follow her and just stood on the shore watching her row all the way over. Her back didn't look as stiff as before, and in the water mist raised by the waterfall, it showed a unique vividness.

Kent pried open the lid of the box, and accompanied by a burst of dust, with a creak, the large black box was opened. Seeing the things inside, all three were stunned on the spot.

On the edge of the town, at the end of the forest. Kate slammed the steering wheel and cursed: "I knew something was wrong; we can't get out."

"What if we keep driving forward?" Peter said. "There might be a road ahead."

Kate shook her head and said: "I counted when we came in; the country road took a total of 26 minutes and 12 seconds; there's absolutely no way I'm wrong."

Peter was slightly hesitant and said: "What exactly did you see in the bathroom? Why did you drag me out early in the morning? You should know we came here to..."

Kate turned her head sharply and stared at Peter. Peter stopped talking; he looked up at the void above, then said: "I know, losing the child is a terrible disaster for you. But Kate, we can't keep dwelling on the past."

"You said you wanted me to accompany you back to your hometown, and I did. I gave up my great future in Chicago and transferred to this obscure little town. You wanted to go back to your aunt's house, and I accompanied you back, even though her attitude toward me was very bad, I didn't say anything. But why do you suddenly want to drag me away now?"

"You don't believe our child's accident is because of this town, right?" Kate sneered; she also looked up at the void above her head, then said, "You don't want to know what I saw in the bathroom? Fine, let's go back; I'll take you to see."

After saying this, she turned the car around and drove toward the town. Half an hour later, she returned to the old house again. Aunt Kane was tinkering with something in the backyard; seeing the two of them return, she didn't come out to greet them, as if she didn't see them at all.

Kate dragged Peter all the way to the second floor, pushed open the door of Aunt Kane's room directly, and then pushed open the bathroom door.

Peter followed her slowly into the bathroom; what met his eyes was even more dilapidated than other parts of the house.

And what shocked him most was the withered bone lying in the bathtub, dressed exactly like Aunt Kane.

At this moment, the time in the town seemed to be stagnant. In the darkness of the circus warehouse, the thing peeping in the dark, with a terrifying and frightening aura, flashed away in the shadows under everyone's feet.

Kent withdrew his hand, the dust gradually dissipated, and in the opened black box was a male mummy wearing a clown suit.

And just when everyone was stunned, amidst a sound of bone friction that made one's teeth ache, the corpse slowly began to move.

?? Rest assured, there are no jump-scare horror plots; it's mainly thriller, suspense, and reasoning.