1954 Leads and a Small Gift

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Seeing that Michael's wound had stopped bleeding, Amy wanted to call an ambulance to take her son to the hospital.

Luke asked heavily, "Are you sure nothing will happen to him if he goes to the hospital?"

Stunned for a moment, the couple suddenly realized that the safest place should be with this mysterious Wilson.

"Also, his throat was cut. If he's sent to the hospital, the doctor will immediately report it to social welfare," Luke warned her.

Bennet and Amy looked at each other in dismay.

Even though that wasn't what happened, they would definitely be suspected of abusing Michael.

Once their son was taken away by child protection services, he would definitely die if he ran into the 'mirror ghost' again.

Bennett and his wife wanted their son alive, not compensation from child protection services if he died in their care.

It was only for Director George's sake that Luke was giving them this warning.

If this family really wanted to die, he wouldn't stop them.

Thankfully, the couple still had some brains, and decisively gave up on calling for an ambulance.

While Amy helped Michael clean his wound, Luke and Bennett talked in low voices outside the house.

Bennet knew more than the police did.

Though he had called Director George for help, it wasn't like he would reveal all the details.

Whether or not a person was willing to help another depended on how close they were.

Bennett wasn't close enough to Director George to give a long speech over the phone.

As a former police officer, he knew better than anyone else that 'professional work should be left to the professionals.'

The Big Dipper clone had already demonstrated extraordinary abilities and had even beaten back the mirror ghost. Bennett knew that this might be the best opportunity to take care of this problem.

So, he gave Luke everything he knew.

In fact, him experiencing 'mental issues' in the mall was because he had seen many visions of burnt victims there.

Then, his reflection in a mirror caught fire, and he passed out from the excruciating pain.

When he woke up and found nothing wrong with his body, he grew suspicious and started investigating.

Who would have thought that after a few days of investigation, his sister would die in the bathtub at home — her jaw had been completely torn apart, but there were no traces of the perpetrator at the scene.

As an experienced detective, Luke knew that it was clues left at a crime scene which helped the police find relevant suspects.

But there really were no leads on Bennett's sister's death.

The bathtub and the surrounding floor were covered in blood, but there were no signs of anyone cleaning up, covering, or even touching the blood.

Luke had seen photos of the crime scene, and felt that while it wouldn't be easy for an ordinary person to commit a crime like this, it wasn't hard for an extraordinary person.

Now that he had confirmed the existence of the mirror ghost, all he needed to do was find out its origin and deal with it.

There were two important things Bennett had uncovered in his investigation.

Firstly, the criminal who set fire to the mall five years ago confessed that he wanted to deal with the 'evil spirit' that had killed his entire family. He also said that he wanted to find a person called Anna.

Secondly, the mall had once been a psychiatric hospital for 40 years.

A huge fight broke out in this hospital one night, and the patients inside killed each other. All of them died, and the hospital closed down.

Bennett had noticed this when his reflection was burning in the mirror.

Luke nodded thoughtfully and immediately gave the order for the PDD temp workers to look for the relevant old files.

In a small place like Charleston, the police department hadn't gone paperless yet. Most information on old cases were still on paper file in the archive.

What Luke had found online wasn't as detailed as what Bennett uncovered.

For example, the information available online couldn't be linked to what happened at the mall.

In order to make people forget this big incident as soon as possible, the local government directly changed the name of this area.

Over the decades, this area transformed many times. Even the owner of the mall didn't know that he had built the building on the site of an old psychiatric hospital.

After Bennett told Luke what he knew, Luke's temp workers took a lot of old files from the archive room.

Compared with Bennett, who had lost his job as a police officer, these temp workers had more authority to do a search, so they found more clues.

In fact, Bennett and the previous security guard weren't the only victims of the mirror ghost; they were just the most recent ones.

There had been seven or eight similar cases in Charleston in the last few decades, but most of them had been closed with the conclusion that the victim had committed suicide because of mental issues.

Luke couldn't be bothered to blame the police for being incompetent. It was just that the law didn't acknowledge the existence of superpowers which could kill people remotely.

Even if they did accept it, the local police department didn't have the ability to arrest a ghost.

This had been under SHIELD's jurisdiction before, but it was now the responsibility of the ATCU (Advanced Threat Control Unit).

…

Luke spent more than two hours waiting at Bennett's house. As he analyzed the intelligence he received from his underlings, he also treated Michael in passing.

This time, Bennett didn't sneak a glance halfway. Instead, he waited for Luke to call for him before he returned to the room.

Seeing that the wound on Michael's neck was almost healed, the couple was completely relieved.

Luke said to them, "Thank you for your cooperation. I'm going to deal with that mirror ghost. Before I leave, I'll give you another 'little gift'."

As he spoke, he snapped his fingers three more times, and Mental Resistance fell on the family of three. "Try to stay calm as much as possible. This will prevent you from being disturbed by the mirror ghost for 24 hours."

Amy was a little uncertain. "What happens after that?"

"Once it's been dealt with, you'll naturally be safe," Luke said calmly. But if it's not completely destroyed, you'll have to rely on your luck.

With that, he turned around and went downstairs. The family of three followed him and watched him disappear among the trees.

Amy suddenly said, "Only 24 hours… Can he really do it?"

"We can only trust him." Bennett exhaled.

He wasn't the one who had asked Luke to come, but he had saved their family several times. What demands could he make?

…

Not long after, Luke turned invisible and flew straight to a convent in the mountains north of Charleston.

It was said that the only patient who had survived the massacre in the psychiatric hospital had been sent here. Her name was Anna Esseker.

She was probably the "Anna" whom the person who had burned down the mall had mentioned.

However, the convent didn't have the name Anna or Esseker on file.

Not wanting to waste time, Luke simply made the trip himself. Pheromone Control paired with Real Dream could make the nuns tell him the truth straightaway.

A few minutes later, an old convent with an orange roof and white walls appeared in front of him.

Luke didn't even cancel his stealth mode as he flew onto the patio.