Windows

Aiden and Lucas immediately began investigating the scene of the second murder, carefully searching the place if they could find anything after seeing Hellen off.

Starting from the outside, Aiden went through the lawn. 

There were trees lined up on the perimeter of their lawn area, forming a natural boundary, instead of putting up fences like the bungalow adjacent to them. There was a big hammock in the middle, with a few chairs surrounding it. He came across a few circles of chalk, which he promptly checked the group chat for what they corresponded to. They were just shards of a broken teacup.

He checked the outside of the house. A shoe cupboard near the door, with a few circles inside. He checked, a single shoe from a few pairs were missing here, all of which were found inside the house beside their respective owners. Which were corpses now.

He examined the plants outside, lining the walls of the house, and even the windows. From the window, he looked inside to realize it was one of the rooms where the victim died. Unlike the previous house, an entire family lived here. There were a few marks on the window but nothing else.

Hmmm? Marks on the window?

Putting everything aside, he ran inside and inspected all the windows and other openings of the house. There were a few general scratches on all the windows but some stood out.

All those were where victims' corpses were found. 

He paid particular attention to these rooms, but couldn't find much except a few chalk circles depicting different items lying around until he once again reached the kitchen where one of the male members of the household had died.

There was a dining table with chairs around in the kitchen, quite a distance from the window. He pulled apart the curtains which were blocking it and inspected the scratch marks.

These marks…

His gaze wandered around the area, and as expected, he found a few chalk circles. Walking over to a particularly large one, he found it was of a chair.

Are of the chair.

He took out his phone and dialed Valeria's number. 

"Hello Aiden, may I know why you called me?"

"I might have found some clue, can you come to the kitchen? I assume you are still at the second site of murder."

"That's a surprise. I'll be there shortly."

She immediately cut off the call, and Aiden put the phone back into his pocket. 

The doubt he had gradually intensified as he thought carefully.

The windows can't be opened when the ghost is in the house? When the ghost is using its power? It can't be broken either?

Just then the sound of footsteps rang as he turned his head to find Valeria. There was one more man behind her but without paying attention to him, Aiden began speaking about his speculations before she could ask.

"You have missed the window since it was covered by the curtain. Right? Because I don't see it in group chat either." He looked at their faces before continuing, "Did you see the scratches on all windows of where the victims' bodies are? I am not saying that in rooms where corpses were found, the marks would definitely be there, but instead that if there are marks on the windows, it would definitely have a corpse."

Valeria's brows wrinkled as she said, "So there can be a room with no unusual marks on windows and have a corpse inside but there can't be a room with unusual marks on windows but no corpse."

"Correct."

She turned around and softly ordered the man to check the same in all sites and faced Aiden again. "Why do you think so?"

He pointed at the chalk circle where there was supposed to be a chair. "How do you think the chair got here? While running away from the specter? But even if he collided with the chairs placed around the dining table, it shouldn't have slid all the way towards the window. There is plenty of gap in between."

He then aimed at the window. "I think that the man found here attempted to break the window, like all, or at least most, other residents of the house tried."

Folding his hands on his chest, he continued with a serious tone, "I think whenever the ghost is in the house, it gets sealed."

"Good line of reasoning. But why do you think a chair can break the window normally? Couldn't they have been reinforced?"

To which, Aiden simply shrugged. "I mean, we can try. There are more chairs in the kitchen right now, made of the same quality as the one which the man used and we have an intact window here too."

Just as Aiden was about to do the honors, he saw Valeria move. "Let me."

Completely unexpected for someone of her stature, she firmly grabbed the chair and walked towards the window. Pulling it back, she took a massive swing at it.

The glass shattered with a deafening crash, sending shards flying outwards in all directions. The sharp, tinkling sound of broken glass echoed through the air as fragments hit the ground. Some of them dropped inside the kitchen but luckily none of them got hit.

Wow. She sure is violent. Surprising.

Aiden smirked as he looked at her. He couldn't imagine such a cute face doing such crude acts, not to mention she was even into investigating crime. Such an opposite mix of things she was.

"Oh well, it breaks."

Her soft voice rang out, breaking him out of his thoughts, while also reminding him of the irony once more.

She had already kept aside the chair and was addressing him, "It turns out your theory was correct. But we still need to verify it further with more proof. Nice observation."

Aiden didn't feel too happy about the praise. If anything, he felt heavy if what he theorized was indeed true. The ghost left no possibility of escaping, which drastically reduced chances of survival.

"It's nothing, I am saving myself by finding out more about the ghost too."

"Hellen was correct about you being sharp. How did you find out about the windows though? As you said, the curtain was closed, add to that the number of cases on hand, the men probably didn't search as thoroughly but you shouldn't have suddenly gotten the urge to pull apart the curtains too right?"

Aiden was looking at all other chalk circles as he replied without looking at her. "Nothing extraordinary, I was examining the house from the outside, there was no curtain to block my sight. I realized how unusual the marks were there and then."

"I see." She nodded seriously and turned around to leave. "It was good to know, I'll notify the men to check the outside thoroughly too."

When he realized that she was gone. Aiden scanned his surroundings extremely carefully and acted as if he was glancing at the chalk circles while he began thinking something else entirely.

I can check out my ability now. I shouldn't use it, else Lucas might be able to sense me if it's true that supers can sense each other when they use their abilities. I should just check out the requirements.