36 chapters: Murder

As the light of dawn vanished across the sky, night fell. At that very moment, Yusuf Zuck sprang to his feet and, like a civet, leaped out of the car, crossing the highway like the wind before disappearing into the cornfield.

The unharvested crops of the deep night rustled with a 'shasha' sound that was unsettling.

The boundless, deserted cornfields, especially under the obscure darkness, seemed particularly sinister. The faint-hearted would probably not dare to enter them. After all, this was an unfamiliar setting, pitch-dark—so who would be foolish enough to venture inside?

Of course, Yusuf Zuck had to venture inside. The fear that the environment evoked in him was not terrifying; the real terror came from people.

Bent over, he had moved about fifty meters when he sat down and quickly sent a message to Fleur Carson on his phone, asking where he was.