Chapter 31: Ted: "You Think I'm Not Scared?"
"I knew it!"
Ted burst out of the basement, cursing through gritted teeth.
"I knew this relative who suddenly appeared was definitely not a good person!"
He was furious. Although he often identified as a bear, he knew perfectly well that his true form was just a two-foot-tall teddy bear doll.
Putting a teddy bear's head in his bed was no different from putting a bloody human head in a normal person's bed!
"Emma! Emma, where is that damn brat?!"
Ted ran into the living room, searching and cursing. "Little shit! Come out here!"
"She just got on the school bus."
Megan's voice was calm and indifferent. She was holding a vacuum cleaner and quickly cleaning the house. "What do you want with her?"
"Of course! That little bitch, she—"
Ted was furious, but he swallowed the words back.
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his anger, and shook his head. "It's nothing, you go about your business."
With that, Ted abandoned Megan and headed straight for the bedroom. He was going to call Rango and tell him what he had discovered.
Rango had given Megan instructions before leaving: no one should harm Emma. If he told Megan, this cyber-nanny probably wouldn't help him get revenge; she might even protect Emma prematurely.
That wasn't the outcome he wanted.
Taking out his phone, Ted was about to dial the emergency contact when his finger suddenly stopped.
He suddenly realized that if telling Megan wouldn't work, wouldn't telling Rango have the same result?
He needed more solid evidence.
After thinking for a moment, Ted dialed another number on his phone.
Two hours later, in a bar in Queens.
"What's up, buddy!"
"Don't even mention it."
Kevin, who had followed Ted's request, greeted him with a complex fist bump, then eagerly asked, "Did you find everything I asked for?"
"Don't worry, there's no corner in Queens I don't know."
Kevin smiled mysteriously, glanced around, and pulled a sealed manila folder from his jacket, his tone cautious.
"Everything's here. Take your time looking through it; I'll have to return it later."
"Don't worry."
Ted quickly stubbed out his cigarette, rubbed his paws together, and eagerly opened the folder.
Inside was a detailed police investigation report on Emma's father's suicide.
As he turned the pages, his expression grew increasingly serious, and his paws trembled slightly.
"Damn it!!! Where did you get all this?"
Ted looked up in astonishment. The information was incredibly detailed, with clear text and even crime scene photos.
Was Kevin some kind of secret agent?
A Men in Black operative?
Kevin shrugged casually, lowering his voice to Ted's ear. "I'll only tell you this. Besides helping the mob move stolen goods, I have another identity... a police informant!"
Ted paused, then exclaimed in surprise. "Cool, sounds good, at least it seems like a legitimate job."
"I risked everything to get this from inside the precinct. Hurry up and look at it, I need to return it soon," Kevin urged.
"Don't worry, I've read it all, and there's only one conclusion."
Ted finished analyzing the information, then connected it to Emma's strange behavior over the past few days, and said seriously,
"That little bitch is a born killer!"
He tapped the documents on the table with his paw, speaking with lingering fear: "Two years ago, her nanny, who had been taking care of her, accidentally fell to her death; a year ago, her classmate mysteriously fell off a cliff and died; then, her teacher was in a car accident, and then the new nanny died in a house fire. And guess what?"
"That bitch's dad died a few days later, and it was a damn suicide!"
"According to the reports, the last person these people around her had contact with before they died was Emma, and even when her father committed suicide, Emma was the only one at the scene!"
"Especially at the scene of her father's suicide, the police report recorded that the scene was filled with the smell of gas. If Emma's deadbeat father was already planning to die from gas poisoning, why did he go through the trouble of shooting himself? Isn't that a contradiction?"
"And the most outrageous thing is that the police also found traces of sleeping pills in the autopsy report!"
After finishing this long analysis, Ted leaned back in his chair and spread his arms:
"You understand what I mean, right?"
Kevin nodded seriously. "So… Emma's dad is immortal? He can't die no matter what?!"
Ted stared at Kevin in shock, asking, "You just said you're an informant for the police?"
"That's right, so?"
"Nothing, but just keep passing on information honestly from now on. Don't try to analyze intelligence yourself anymore."
After the joke, Ted's expression turned serious. "Emma's dad took sleeping pills, so how could he shoot himself? It's obvious that Emma did it, but she rearranged the scene to make it look like a suicide."
"Moreover, this information shows that the police actually suspected Emma, but they didn't take further action because of her age and insufficient evidence."
"Fuck, I told Rango a long time ago that this bitch was off, but he just wouldn't believe me!"
Kevin nodded in sudden realization, then asked with concern, "So what are you going to do now? If she really is a born killer, based on her past behavior, you're the most dangerous person in the house right now."
Ted lit a cigarette, took a few drags with a furrowed brow, and then made up his mind: "I have to confront her face to face. Now, I have dirt on her. If she dares to do anything to me, I'll give this evidence to Rango and send her back to the orphanage!"
"Hey? Be careful, buddy. That girl doesn't sound like someone who would negotiate properly," Kevin warned.
"Man,"
Ted scoffed, "of course I won't talk to her about this at home. She'll be out of school soon. I'll just take her out, unarmed. Do you think she'll be a match for me?"
He then added menacingly, "If she dares to misbehave, I'll teach her a lesson. Even if I accidentally kill her, with this evidence, Rango will understand."
With that, Ted downed his beer and strode out of the bar, heading straight for the school.
Kevin silently packed up the documents on the table and followed closely behind, completely unaware of the several malicious gazes fixed on him from across the bar.
Outside the gates of Ridgemont Elementary School.
Emma, carrying her backpack, was about to board the school bus home when she stopped abruptly at the school gate.
"What are you doing here?" she asked Ted, who was walking towards her, her disgust undisguised.
"Haha, don't worry, Emma," Ted said, trying to remain amicable. "I just have something I'd like to talk to you about alone. I wonder if you'd be interested."
"No," Emma replied coldly, turning toward the school bus. But then Ted added, "Even if it's related to your father's death, you're still not interested?"
Emma, who had been quite composed, immediately stopped upon hearing this. She turned and gave Ted a deep look, then a smile she had practiced countless times appeared on her lips.
"Okay, where do you want to talk?"
"It's nearby, in the woods behind my house. There aren't many people there, perfect for discussing things."
Looking at Ted's inscrutable expression, Emma nodded slightly, her face expressionless.
Half an hour later, the two arrived at the woods behind the murder house.
It was getting dark, with only a few weak rays of sunlight struggling to penetrate the dense canopy, dappling the ground and adding to the eerie atmosphere.
Stepping on the mud and fallen leaves, Emma looked around and, seeing no one was there, suddenly feigned panic and cried out, "Where are you taking me? It's dark and remote here, I'm so scared!"
Ted shook the mud off his feet and said irritably, "Fuck! Do you think I'm not scared? I'll have to walk back alone later!"
"What did you say?!"
(End of Chapter)
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