To be precise, the mother of the missing child had committed suicide the night the three Collectors had left.
"Suicide?"
Middendorffi, Lupin, and Henry were together in the conference room to cooperate with the investigation; Henry listened to the frown: "When the child disappeared, only the couple was at home, and now that the wife is dead, only the husband is at home, is it really a suicide?"
"We can only say that the preliminary investigation looks like suicide." The police officer who came to the "collector" is also considered to be familiar with this department, so they more or less revealed some information, "But you're right, the husband's suspicion is very high. That's why he's been put under surveillance, and a mandatory autopsy has been carried out, but we'll have to wait and see what comes out of it."
Lupin poured water for both policemen who came to investigate, then sat down across the table as well, "How is it 'like a suicide,' can you tell?"
"According to that husband's statement, it said that his wife had been sitting in the nursery last night, playing the video extra loud. They had a fight, and with that video being so loud, the husband closed the baby gate and the main bedroom door and went to bed himself." The police officer returned, "Then when he got up in the morning, he went back to the nursery to look for it and found that his wife had hanged herself."
"Hung herself?!" Lupin staggered, "Hanged where?"
"The scene we have seen so far would have been hanging from the ceiling; that's what the deceased's husband said. There were chairs and ropes at the scene, and there were strangulation marks on the deceased's neck." The policeman sighed, "But it's still uncertain whether it was or not."
"And what do we need to cooperate with the investigation?"
"The deceased's husband said that you guys went to their house last night to investigate, and we want to know what you came up with in your investigation." The policeman said, "Also, what state were the two of them in at the time? Did the wife show any unusual behavior?"
The three people looked at each other, and finally, Lupin briefly described the situation last night.
"So, there's nothing out of the ordinary in their house?" The policemen made notes as they spoke, "The child is missing, but they argued for so long over a video these two are okay enough. But when we initially investigated the husband, he also repeatedly mentioned that video, quite bewildered."
"And this went on all night?" Lupin asked, "How exactly?"
The cop replied back, "Anyway, according to the husband, his wife had been playing a weird video in the nursery. The footage had terrible sound quality, and I needed help to make out what song it was. Words were flashing on the screen, so it seemed particularly creepy anyway. As you guys said, the wife insisted that it was the same video that the deceased husband had played for the baby earlier, but the husband vehemently denied it, and the two of them argued about it. Later, because the wife kept playing it and wouldn't turn it off, the husband couldn't stand it and closed the door and went to another room.
"In addition, the husband said that the video was still playing until the discovery of the body, and because it was too weird, he turned it off before the doctors and police investigated. Although we feel that a mere video should have nothing to do with the disappearance or death case, we'll take the USB stick playing the video straight away for the time being. If there's anything out of the ordinary, we'll send in a 'Collector' request for assistance."
"Okay." Lupin nodded, "Remember to give us the USB stick immediately if you need us to look into it; copying it may result in misplaced information."
"Understood. I don't see that there may be a need for it, though, with the child's life and death unknown and the wife's death overnight in the house, it feels like it's just key evidence that's missing." The cops gathered their things and stood up, "We'll let you know if this comes to fruition."
"Thanks." Lupin paused and added, "However, I seem to have seen discussion about this on some of the city's social accounts. In this case, the fermentation of public opinion must be fast, and you guys have worked hard."
"Not really? Yesterday, one didn't look good, and the couple gave an interview to a reporter. Today is even crazier; the husband is still under investigation at the bureau, and many interview requests have been sent in. If we can't hurry to find evidence and formally detain him, maybe he'll be surrounded by reporters when he walks out ..."
The policemen said goodbye to the "collector."
Henry went to give them away while Lupin gathered up the paper cups the police had left behind. She looked at Middendorffi, still sitting at the table, a little confused, and asked, "Bear, what's the matter with you? Scared by what was said about hanging yourself?"
Middendorffi looked at her and said, "I wanted to see that video."
"What, you think there's something really wrong with the video?" Lupin said, "But a video, how can it act? Kids can't talk, but can't adults still resist? I do think it wouldn't be a surprise if it were really determined that the wife had committed suicide. Think about it: the child disappeared right under her nose, but the police were dead set against it and thought they were the most suspicious. And then, the hardest time of all, her husband not only didn't work with her but fought with her and made a big fuss over a trivial matter. Self-blame, panic, anger, sadness ... so many negative emotions come up, a moment of thought and act impulsively, is also possible."
Middendorffi didn't distinguish with her, only said two points, "False people can imitate voices, and false people can confuse the mind."
Lupin was taken aback: "You think it's pseudo-humans?"
"That's what the source said." Middendorffi paused, "But the profile didn't say that the Pseudo would take children."
"Indeed, the Pseudo would only mimic, replace, and kill, not take the living away. Besides, even assuming that the purpose of the pseudo-men is to replace babies, it would be difficult for the image of a baby to open its mouth properly to confuse others. To a pseudo-human, turning into a baby is the same as turning into a non-human... "Lupin thought along for a couple of sentences, then suddenly his words changed, "Hey, I say, how do you remember the original words of the information? It's not possible that you have memorized all the information, right?"
Speaking of which, Lupin felt more and more that this little young man was strangely cute, can't say whether it was brilliant or adorable: "Good boy ah, in the future we'll send a lot of this kind of information to you, you can remember the key points on the line, don't have to memorize it all."
Middendorffi did not reply; Henry came back and asked in passing, "What are you talking about?"
"Bear wants to watch the video; better find a way to get the USB stick back and show it to him." Lupin didn't elaborate on the pair's simple speculation, just said, "With those eyes, he's probably quite a bit better at it than any of us."
"Huh? You guys still really believe what that guy said?" Henry originally wanted to spit out a couple of sentences, but seeing Middendorffi looking at himself with a pair of unblinking eyes, he also felt that it was rare for the little friend to take the initiative to want to get to work, so it's better not to crack down, so he nodded his head and said, "All right, but I guess it won't be that fast. If the flash drive is included in the evidence, as long as they don't have a watery grave on their side or don't hand over the case, the original evidence is not something that we can touch. can't."
Middendorffi didn't press the issue and let out a "hmmm."
***
It was a wait of some days without a word.
In the meantime, the disappearance and death cases had poorly festered. The police hadn't said anything yet, just a blue and white police report, without saying what was going on or who was wanted, and the internet seemed to have "solved" the case. Middendorffi sometimes opens the most popular video on the site and sees a screen full of "It's always husband," which makes him look confused.
It's always the husband? But now, there was no definite conclusion, and the netizens were fueling it.
But Middendorffi does not care about these; the police side is not sure whether it is the husband, but the flash drive was sent to the "collector."
When Middendorffi was called in, Henry explained to his colleague the origin of the two tablets: "A few more kids have gone missing."
"Huh?" The co-workers frowned, "What, the human trafficker gangs have been on a crime spree lately?"
"Where, basically, all of them are missing from their homes." Henry returned, "The parents all coincidentally mentioned that the child was listening to some video or storybook. Then, the child fell asleep or played well independently, and the parents left the room briefly for whatever reason. Then, later on, they hear movement in the child's room, and when they go to check again, the child is gone."
"There's really such a thing? I saw someone post online the other day that a similar situation had occurred, and I thought it was nothing more than a made-up story to rub it in." Lupin said, "But the guy before said that the videos differed from what he originally sought. Are these videos, too?"
"It's still true. The police said that parents were hearing things like 'Please don't pay too much attention to your child' and 'Please give your child an environment where they can exercise their independence.'" Henry opened his phone and looked at his brief notes, "Oh, and there was weird background music. But no one could tell what it was, only that it seemed to be a pretty old song in a foreign language that was hard to hear."
Lupin said, "These parents, don't they think this stuff is weird? Why do they always have such a big heart to play it for their kids and aren't afraid of scaring people."
"Who knows? But there are hundreds if not thousands of similar claims of 'exercising children,' so I guess the parents have long been used to hearing it and didn't take it too seriously." Henry said, "Only now, the police still feel that these disappearances have nothing to do with the videos. For one thing, they've all seen and heard the video and audio of what the parents are saying, and there are no clips. And for another, all of these parents are very emotionally unstable, talking and thinking in a panicked manner, with obvious holes in their thinking. Police suspect that they will be weaving examples of what they have seen online into their own experiences to get away with their caretaking failures."
Other colleagues who followed along to watch the video said, "If that's the case, why are they showing it to us? Wouldn't it be better for them to take their own time to investigate? If a child is missing, issue a concordance notice to find it; what are you doing with the video?"
"It is checking; when I went to get something, there were not many in the brigade, and the only ones left ran away. It probably doesn't matter if they show it to us anyway; it's better than nothing. What if there's something peculiar?" Henry returned, "It's not all videos. Some of the parents are connected to their mobile phones to play them, and if they can't sit on the suspicions of these people, the police will have a hard enough time getting their phones themselves, and we'll have even less of a chance of getting them. But they copy those videos for us and send them in afterward."
"Okay, then everyone in the flat who doesn't have an emergency should come and watch it." Lupin offered, "Let's finish watching these original ones first, and remember to wear gloves when handling things so you don't damage anything."
With no objections, the crowd took their seats, Middendorffi naturally among them.
As a result, the afternoon was consumed with children's books and educational animation, all of the younger-orientated kind.
People came and went in the room, but there was always someone there, and Middendorffi was the one who stayed seated. He didn't go to the toilet, and he didn't drink much water. "The Collector advised him not to be so nervous but to relax and look at it, which Middendorffi did, but still didn't take his eyes off.
However, after reading everything, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Instead, it was because the voices of the voiceover artists for the children's stories were bright and high-frequency, which made a few people's heads buzz. It was as if the vote was still echoing in their ears when they turned off the audio.
While everyone was about to pack up, Henry made a few swipes on his phone and suddenly popped out, "...FUCK?!"
The people in the room jumped in shock and looked at him, "What's wrong?"
Henry looked up, "Another family member of a missing child has committed suicide!"