Chapter 47 Section 47

The Institute for the Blind is located at the foot of Mount Setro. It shines brightly under the heavy rain and looks very bright. Nieman walked to the door. It's two o'clock in the morning and there is no light.The sheriff rang the bell and looked out over the long, sloping lawn that surrounded the great house.On the edge of the fence, he saw some photoelectric elements fixed on small terminals, forming an invisible alarm network.Probably not just to deter thieves, but to remind blind people when they are far away. Nieman rang the doorbell again. Finally, a dull doorman came and opened the door.After listening to the sheriff's explanation, the doorman still looked listless.But he let the police chief into a hall, and went to call the chief himself.

The sheriff waited patiently.The hall was illuminated only by a single porch light, and the four concrete walls were white, as was the bare floor.Inside, a double staircase descends in a pyramidal pattern along austere bright wooden escalators.The ceiling is decorated with fabric chandeliers, and there is no glass window with an opening and closing device, so the mountains outside cannot be seen.All of this showcases the cleanliness, vibrancy, and touches of design that characterize a new-age sanatorium. Nyman saw some optoelectronic devices again.Like this, blind people just can walk around in a closed space all the time.At this time, the rushing rain was flowing on the glass of every window.The air smelled of putty and cement.

He took a few steps, and a detail surprised him: somewhere in the hall stood several easels, and some paintings on them were painted with confusing marks.From a distance, these sketches look like formulas written by a mathematician; from a closer look, they can be recognized as simple and detailed portraits with strange faces.The sheriff is surprised but relieved to find a studio in a research center for blind children.He could almost feel the fibers of his skin relax—not a single bark or movement from an animal had been heard since he'd been in this place.Is it possible that the Center for the Blind does not have a dog?

Suddenly there was a patter of footsteps on the marble floor.The sheriff understood why the room was so empty.This is a sonic boom structure, which makes it easy for people to use every sound to locate them.He turned around to find a sturdy man with a white beard.He looks like an amiable old man, with red cheeks, sleepy eyes, wearing a sandy yellow long-sleeved cardigan, and looks very kind. "I'm Dr. Champra, the director of the institute." The muscular man said in a low voice, "What are you doing here at this hour?" Nieman handed over his tricolor stripes badge. "Sheriff Pierre Nyman. I'm here to see you about Ganon's murder."

"For this again?" "Yes, that's it again. I just wanted to ask you about Lieutenant Eric Husnow's first visit. I think you gave him the key information about the case." Champra seemed worried, thin rays of rain reflecting off his pale hair.He stared at the handcuffs and gun hanging from Nieman's waist, then looked up. "God... I'm just answering his question." "Your answer led him to Edmund Chenase's." "Yes, of course. So what?" "Then the two men died." "Dead? Just like that? Impossible... this..."

"I'm sorry, but I don't have time to explain it to you. I suggest that you reflect carefully on what you said to him. You may have inadvertently obtained important information about this case." "But what do you want to know..." He rubbed his hands, his movements were a little rough, and he seemed calm and scared. "Well then... I guess I'd better be sober, don't I?" "I think so." "Would you like a cup of coffee?" Neiman nodded.He followed in the footsteps of the old man in a corridor with high windows.A few bolts of lightning suddenly flashed a dazzling flash, and then the surrounding area was once again shrouded in darkness, with only a few faint reflections of rain.

The Sheriff felt like walking through a forest of phosphorescent woodvines.On the wall opposite the window, he noticed several other paintings.This time it was landscapes: mountains with chaotic lines and rivers drawn in pastels, huge animals with huge scales and redundant spines, as if from the Stone Age, when humans were the size of mice . "I think your research center accepts only blind children." The director turned around and approached him. "Not only that, we take all types of eye disease infections." "For example?" "Retinitis pigmentosa, color blindness..."

His strong fingers point to one of the paintings. "These paintings are unique. The reality that children see is different from what you and I see, and they don't even look at their own paintings as we see. Reality—their reality, is not in the real landscape, It is not on this paper, but in their thoughts. Only they know what they want to express, and we can only use our ordinary eyes to vaguely understand their thoughts through their graffiti. This is very complicated, yes no?" Niemann responded vaguely, unable to take his eyes off the unique paintings.The powdery borders seem to be crushed by a paintbrush. The colors are bright, rough, and powerful, like a battlefield of lines and tones, but there is a certain softness in the painting, and the sentimentality of an old nursery rhyme.

The man patted him on the back in a friendly manner. "Come on, coffee will make you feel better, you don't look very well." They entered a large kitchen.The furniture and utensils are all stainless steel, surrounded by shiny walls reminiscent of the walls of a mortuary or mourning hall. The man poured two large cups of coffee from the sparkling coffee pot.A glass globe is supported on the coffee pot for continuous heat retention.He handed the cup to the sheriff, and sat down at a stainless steel table.Nieman thought again of the dissected corpse, of the faces of Goyowa and Sadie, and the hollow, hazel eye sockets instantly became like black holes.

Champra said doubtfully: "I can't imagine what you said... These two men, dead? How did they die?" Pierre Nyman did not answer. "What did you say to Snow?" The doctor shrugged and swirled the coffee in his cup. "He asked me about the diseases we treat here. I told him mostly genetic diseases, and most of my patients came from Ganon." "Did he have any more specific questions?" "Yes. He asked me why I got this disease, and I simply explained that it was a recessive genetic inheritance." "Please continue." The director breathed a sigh of relief and continued patiently: "It's very simple. Certain genes carry diseases, and these are defective genes, which are misspellings of the system. Although everyone has them, fortunately, some are not enough Causes disease. But if both parents are carriers of the same disease-causing gene, then things can get worse, and the disease will attack the child. Gene fusion spreads the disease-like a plug and a socket, when they are combined, electricity flows See, see? That’s why we say consanguineous marriages are risky. That is, if both partners in a consanguineous marriage carry a certain recessive genetic disease, their offspring will have a higher chance of developing that disease.”

Chenase has already explained this phenomenon.Nieman asked again: "Is Ganon's genetic disease related to the marriage of close relatives?" "There is no doubt about it. Many children are treated at my institute, both day students and boarders, all come from this city. What is special is that they all come from the families of university professors and researchers. It is a carefully selected elite group, and thus isolated." "Please tell me more details." Champra folded his arms, as if trying to contain his agitation. "Ganon has a very old university tradition. The school was founded in the eighteenth century, I think, in conjunction with the Swiss. Previously, it was located in the place where the hospital building is now... Simply put, from nearly three For centuries, professors and researchers on campus have lived together and married. Their descendants are also extremely talented intellectuals, but today their genes have become barren and exhausted. Ganon was originally an isolated city, with All the villages and towns scattered across the valley. But again, this university creates an isolation within an isolation, see? A real small society." "Is this isolation sufficient to explain the recurrence of this genetic disorder?" "I think so." Nieman couldn't see how this information could fit into his case. "Did you say anything else about Snow?" Champra looked sideways at Nieman, and then said, in a consistently low voice, "I told him something special, a strange detail." "Tell me." "For about a century, in these consanguineous families, there have been some very distinctive children. They are intelligent, and they are also physically strong. Most of them take all the sports awards, every time Tests were easily topped." Nieman still remembers the portraits in the principal's vestibule, the smiling young winners, taking all the trophies and medals.He also seems to have seen photos of the Berlin Olympic Games and Gojova's long work on Olympia.Could these elements be weaving a particular truth? The sheriff asked suspiciously: "These children should be sick, isn't that so?" "Not so sure yet. But logically, these kids should be physically handicapped, like the kids in the institute. But, that's not the case. Instead, it seems like these little geniuses stole the community all at once. All the physical gifts left the genetic defects to others." Champra squinted at Nieman, "Don't you drink coffee?" Nieman thought of the cup in his hand, took a big sip of the coffee, and almost didn't feel the heat, as if his body was already a nervously running machine, only looking for the most inconspicuous signs, the slightest aura.He asked, "Have you studied this phenomenon carefully?" "I've been doing this research for the past two years. I first determined if the champions were from a family, if they were brothers and sisters. I also went to the Civil Affairs Bureau, the city government...all those children are one blood. Then , I carefully studied their family trees, checked their medical records in the obstetrics and gynecology department, and even checked the records of their parents and grandparents, just to find some special clues and signs. Unfortunately, nothing decisive was found. However, some of their ancestors were carriers of genetic diseases, as in other families I've treated ... which is weird." Nieman carefully integrated the information.While still unexplainable, he had a hunch again that this information brought him one step closer to the heart of the case. Champra took a few steps in the kitchen, the floor echoing coldly.He continued: "I also asked the physicians and obstetricians at the University Hospital, and that's when I learned another unusual thing. For about fifty years, in the villages on the mountains or around the valleys, infant mortality Very abnormal, many children die suddenly shortly after birth. But traditionally, these children should be very strong. Things seem to be reversed, understand? Skinny children in college become strong like magic, and The children of farmers are getting weaker and weaker... I have also researched the children of breeders or crystal glass carvers who died suddenly, but got no results. I talked to the staff of the University Hospital and several researchers Well, they were all genetic experts, but no one could explain this phenomenon. I gave up after that, but I still felt uneasy. How to put it? It’s like a college kid stealing the life energy of the little neighbors in the delivery room.” "What the hell are you trying to say?" Champra took a few steps back, as if to emphasize how incredible the incident was. "Forget what I just told you, it's not very scientific, it's just ridiculous." It may be absurd, but Nieman is sure that the mystery of those superintelligent children is not a coincidence, but a part of the nightmare. He tried to calm down. "Is it gone?" The doctor hesitated. The sheriff repeated with emphasis: "Is it really gone?" "No," startled Champra, "there are other things. This summer, something strange happened, small but disturbing... In July, Ganon Hospital underwent a major renovation involving the archives. In order to assess the collection of information, some experts went to check the basement. It was full of dusty old documents. In this way, they investigated other basements of the hospital, the basement of the old university, especially The basement of the pre-1970s library." "During the investigation, the experts made a strange discovery. They found some birth records, the first few pages of data on the birth of infants and young children over fifty years, and the rest were gone, as if... as if they were was stolen." "Where were these files found? I mean, exactly?" Champra walked up and down the kitchen again.He tried to be nonchalant, but there was tension in his voice. "This is where it gets really weird...the files are kept in the private locker of just one guy, and he's an employee of the library." Nieman felt the blood speed up in his veins. "What's the employee's name?" Champra gave the sheriff a terrified look, his lips trembling. "Gaujois, Étienne Gojois." "Remy's father?" "yes." The sheriff straightened up. "Then you didn't say it until now? Seeing that another body was found yesterday?" The superintendent retorted: "I don't like your tone, Sheriff. Please don't confuse me with your suspects. First, I'm telling you a management detail, an unimportant matter. How do you Can you see that this has something to do with Ganon's murder?" "Whether there is a relationship between these factors is for me to decide." "Okay. But anyway, I've already told your lieutenant all this. You better calm down. Besides, what I revealed is not a secret. Anyone in this city can tell you about it. .It's well known, it's even being talked about in regional newspapers." At this moment, Nieman didn't want to see himself in the mirror.He knew that his expression was stern, dignified, even a little ferocious.The sheriff wiped his forehead with his sleeve and said calmly, "I'm sorry. This case is such a mess. There have been three homicides and the killers keep going. Every minute, every message counts. Where are those old documents now ?” The director raised his eyebrows, and after calming down slightly, he leaned against the stainless steel table again. "It was put back in the basement of the hospital. Before the information was entered into the computer, the files were all put together." "I suppose there's information about gifted children in those files, isn't it?" "Not exactly them, some about their parents or grandparents. That's the detail that confuses me. Because when I investigated, I found those documents myself. However, the official documents are not lost, understand my mean?" "Did Goyowa just steal the copy?" Champra walked up, seeming a little excited again. "Copy...or the original. In those materials, Goyova may have replaced the real one with a fake birth record. Then, the real originals are the ones found in his locker." "Nobody told me about it. Didn't the police investigate?" "No. It's a trivial matter, an administrative detail. Besides, the likely suspect, Étienne Gojois, has been dead for three years. In fact, it seems to be the only thing that interests me." "True. Haven't you tried to consult the newly discovered documents? Compare them with what you have already seen in the official documents?" Champra managed to force a smile. "Tried, but didn't have the time after all. You don't seem to understand what kind of information those are. Those are commentaries copied on a loose-leaf paper, indicating the weight, size or blood type of the newborn... Besides, this information It was transferred to the child's health handbook the next day. These documents are only the first link in the record of infants and young children." Nieman wanted Yu Snow to go to the hospital to check the files.Those materials, though seemingly insignificant, interested him the most.He changed the subject: "What does Chenase have to do with this whole case? Why did Yu Snow go directly to his house after leaving here?" The director immediately became embarrassed again. "Edmund Chenasse is very interested in the child I told you about..." "why?" "Chenase is... Actually, he is an official doctor of the Institute. He knows the genetic diseases of the children clearly, so he is surprised to find that the sick children are very different from their direct or collateral cousins. Besides, He's interested in genetics. He thinks certain genetic phenomena can be seen through the human pupil. In some ways, Chenase is special..." The sheriff thought again of the man's freckled forehead. "Special", the word fit him perfectly.Nieman also seemed to have seen Yu Sinuo's body, which was swallowed by the acid solution. He went on: "Didn't you ask him for medical advice?" Champra writhed strangely, as if the cardigan on his body was itching him. "No, I... I dare not. You don't know the background of our city. Chenase is a university elite, do you understand? He is one of the most prestigious ophthalmologists in this area, a great professor. And I, I'm just the guard of these four walls..." "Do you think Chenase checked the same information as you, the official birth document?" "possible." "Do you think he saw it even before you?" "Yes, it is possible." The director lowered his eyes, his blushing face was covered with sweat. Nieman continued: "Do you think he will find out that the information is fake?" "I... I don't know! I don't understand what you're talking about." Nieman didn't press any more, he just realized the other side of the story.Champra did not go back to check the information stolen by Goyova because he was afraid of discovering a fact about the university professor.These college professors run the city and hold the fate of people like him in their hands. The sheriff stood up. "Did you say anything else to Snow?" "No more. I told him exactly what I just told you." "Think again." "Not really. I promise." Nieman stood still in front of the doctor. "Does the name Judit Errol remind you of anything?" "No impression." "Where's Philip Sadie?" "Is that the second victim?" "Have you never heard of him before?" "No." "Do you have any impression of the word 'Blood River'?" "No. Really, I..." "Thank you, Doctor." Nieman bids farewell to shocked doctors.He turned around, stepped over the threshold, and dropped a sentence: "One last thing, doctor: I don't see a dog, and I don't hear a dog barking. Are there no dogs here?" Champra said in horror: "Dog... dog?" "Yeah, guide dog." The doctor understood and seemed to have regained the strength to laugh. "Dogs are very useful for blind people who live alone and cannot enjoy any external assistance. Our center is equipped with a complete home automation management system. When encountering the slightest obstacle, our patients will be notified and guided correctly ...no need for a dog." After walking out the gate, Nieman turned his head and looked at the bright building gleaming in the rain.Since yesterday morning, he has been avoiding the Institute under the pretext of a non-existent dog.Out of cowardice, he sent Yu Si Nuo here for some ghosts that only bark in his mind. He opened the car door and spat out. It was his own fantasies that cost the young lieutenant his life.