Teen Detective – Shroud of Mystery Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Suspicion

Hanfei walked to the back stage and saw Sterling yelling at the supervisors. It seemed like his question was reasonable, or he should actually say thank you to Hugh.

“Mr Sterling, what happened?” Hanfei walked on stage and asked.

“Oh it’s Hanfei! I’m sorry, I will have to talk to you later.” Sterling gave Hanfei an apologetic smile then turned back to the supervisor and scolded: “What are you doing?! Letting such a stupid mistake happen, do you want to get fired?”

“But…Manager, this is really not our fault.” The person responsible for the stage argued: “We have checked and everything was normal on stage. There weren’t any alerts from the security systems, so the situation should be just an accident.”

“What accident are you talking about!” Sterling was in rage: “Have you seen any unexpected low-level mistake during an exhibition?”

“Manager ……” The supervisor was speechless. Indeed, as Sterling said, accidents did happen sometimes, but accidents like this was perhaps the first case ever in history.

“Mr. Sterling, what is this about……” Although he could take a rough guess, Hanfei still wanted to make sure what happened.

“Do not call me Mr., it sounds awkward.” Perhaps he realized that Hanfei was also present, Sterling took a deep breath, calmed down and said: “I told you that your father is a good friend of mine. If you do not mind, you can just call me uncle. ”

“Ah …… is that proper?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Well! Uncle Sterling, are you talking about the accident that just happened on stage?”

“That’s right!” Sterling was chagrined and held his head. From his scrunched up eyebrows, Hanfei could tell that he was in a very bad mood.

“Sterling doesn’t believe that this was a mistake? It was not an accident?”

“I do not think it was an accident, but there are indications that this is indeed an accident.”

“Then have you ever thought that maybe Katie did this on purpose?” Hanfei stated his bold speculation.

“Katie? That’s impossible. What would be her motive to do it?”

Hanfei became silent. Although this might relate to Katie, she did not have a reason. If it was because they hated their father because they didn’t get much care from him, this approach was too naïve. Besides, she wouldn’t hurt the Claudia Reese Group just due to their bad relations.h.i.+p.

“Well, what do you think is going on? The miniature spotlights suddenly failed, and now another stupid mistake happened. I really feel sorry about it.”

“If you mortals want to stop me, I recommend that you stop living in pain ……” A sweet sound sounded behind Sterling and Hanfei.

“What?” The two looked behind and found Katie smiling, but Hanfei felt that something was not right from her eyes.

“Dad, didn’t you remember the last sentence on the threatening letter?” Katie said: “Maybe it was your security system that annoyed the one who wrote the letter—The wizard from the Acheron, so he warned you with some accidents in advance.

“How can you talk like this?” Hanfei felt it was unfair for Sterling: “Just because of this, you guys are not installing security cameras?”

“You are Mr. Zheng Hanfei right? Nice to meet you!” Katie smiled: “Just like you just said, because of that, we suggested to our father to not put any security measures in. However, he only half followed our suggestion, so he finally experienced the misfortune.”

“He is your father, how can you talk like that? The “Tears of Hope” is his birthday present for you. Of course he is going to take care of it!”

“If it wasn’t for the threatening letter, he probably wouldn’t even come back. Katie ignored Hanfei, glanced at Sterling and said.

“You…”

“Right, Mr. Hanfei.” Katie seemed to recall something, then smiled mysteriously: “You are a detective, but detectives are also mortals. Just like the letter, mortals cannot stop it from happening, so I’ll recommend you to go back early just not to harm your reputation because you are incapable of protecting the gem.”
“I became a detective not because of fame. It’s none of your business!” Hanfei looked at her suspiciously: “But you’d better watch your mouth in case I decide to take you in as the one who wrote the letter.”
“Me? That’s funny. If you think I am the suspect, you’d better keep your eyes on me before 8 p.m.” Katie said: “I am just giving you suggestions, not to expect that you are suspecting me.”

“Oh.” Hanfei didn’t take these words seriously. He continued: “As the saying goes: three fools together are better than a smart person. We have two highly intelligent detectives here. I think that even G.o.d cannot escape under our eyes.”

“Two?”

“Missy, you seem to forget about your friend – Ouyang Hugh.”

“Hugh?! Didn’t the two of you have a bet? How could you guys work together?”

“Yo ~ seems like you know a lot. Are you inquiring about us behind our backs?”

“No.” Katie looked a little fl.u.s.tered and avoided eye contact with Hanfei: “I just heard it from Linda.”

“Oh? Really.” Hanfei laughed. Inside his heart, he became more suspicious of her. He speculated that the so-called Acheron Wizard was likely to be Katie, but he had no evidence. As a result he could not jump to conclusions.

“Well, I’m leaving. Bye, Mr. detective.” Katie looked at Hanfei before she left the back stage. Who knew where she was going.

“Sorry ah, that’s just how she is. Please do not mind her.” Sterling said with some regret. He did not expect that his daughter would talk like that. She seemed to really hate him.

“Uncle Sterling, it’s alright. I have had more than enough complaints since I came here, so I’m used to it.”

Looking at the direction Katie was going, Hanfei thought it necessary to talk about this to Hugh.

……

“Really?” Ouyang Hugh’s reaction was a bit unusual. He had known Katie for a long time. Seeing her completely different side, Hugh could not accept it right away.

Hanfei nodded his head. He told Ouyang about this clue not only to think together with him, but to inquire more information about Katie.
“This isn’t like the way she acts.” Hugh said: “I can believe it if Diro said that. But Katie? That’s too weird.”

Diro? After Hanfei heard of this from Hugh, he suddenly realized that he didn’t even se Diro back stage. Where did he go?

“Right. Did you see Diro back stage?” Hugh noticed this and asked.

“I don’t know.” Hanfei looked in another direction and smiled: “But…we can ask related people.”

“Related people?”

“Linda!” Hanfei pointed to the slim blond beauty in the crowd and called out.

“Hi. Anything I can help you with?” Linda walked where Hanfei and Hugh were and asked.

“Where did Diro go? I only saw him at the beginning.” Hugh asked.

“Oh, Diro. He had a stomachache, so he left early. He said that be would come back before 8 p.m. and play a magic show for everyone.”

“Oh I see. Thank you Linda!” Hanfei and Hugh said it simultaneously.

“No problem. It’s my pleasure.” Linda bowed and disappeared.

“What do you think?” Hugh asked.
“I don’t know. We can’t make any conclusions because we don’t have any evidence.” Hanfei shook his juice and drank it. Then he looked at his watch and said: “There is half an hour left until 8 o’clock. We have to wait. However, we are deeply troubled by this case. Don’t you want to get some food and recharge your brain?”

“That’s right.” Hugh took a gla.s.s of juice from Bo and drank it. “Even if I am an iron man, I can never think for such a long time.”

“Hey…How can you take my juice?”

“I’m okay with it.”

“You really have thick skin.”

“If you want to monitor everything yourself and don’t feel like getting some information about Diro and Katie from me then I can certainly go and get something for my self.”

“Why are you so heartless!”

“Thank you!”

“…” Hanfei was annoyed and said: “Let’s get straight to our subject!”

“Sure!” Hugh contemplated for a while and said: “I have to say that although Diro likes magic, his temper is just like what you said about Katie, arrogant. He doesn’t have the manners a magician should have. But I have to say that he is really good at it, even better than some masters.”

“What about Katie?”

“Katie…well…She cares about her brother very much. When they are together, I always feel like she is a mother. As for the temper you just told me, she sometimes does that, but I had never seen her having a temper at this kind of occasion.”

“Maybe it was because she saw me talking with her father.”

“Maybe…”

At this time the two became silent. They were both thinking, waiting for the time on the threatening letter and for the arrival of the Acheron Wizard. They were waiting for the time to catch it.