"Just a moment." Soon after, a man emerged from the tent.
Jimmy held up his ID with his left hand, "FBI. How many of you are there? When did you arrive?"
"Two of us, we got here yesterday evening. Is there a problem?"
Jimmy: "Yes, there was a disappearance case around here recently, I'm here to investigate. If it's all the same to you, please leave this area for now; I need to conduct a search here."
"Do we have to leave? We just got here last night."
Jimmy nodded, "Yes, it's better if you leave to avoid disturbing the scene."
"Alright, give me a moment, and we'll leave straight away."
After the man spoke, he went back into the tent. Jimmy stepped back, and shortly after, a man and a woman came out of the tent. They started packing up their things, removing the tent stakes, and it took them half an hour to finish. They greeted Jimmy and left.
The reason they didn't put up a fight was mainly that Jimmy was a bit intimidating in his attire. He had his ID in his left hand, his right hand at his back, and he was wearing a bullet-proof vest with 'FBI' on it, along with an M16 slung over his shoulder. It was clear there was something serious going on, and they were just out camping, not looking for trouble.
Watching the pair drive away, Jimmy turned to look at their campsite. The tent was taken down, and the ground was left with some trash and the remains of a campfire. They had good habits; they had cleared a spot and surrounded the fire with stones left by other campers, which at least reduced some fire hazard. Other than that, they hadn't left much behind.
Fortunately, although something supernatural had happened the previous night, at least they were safe and could move around in the sunlight. In Jimmy's opinion, they should be fine; the threads in the air had completely disappeared.
Jimmy walked around the camping sites of cases one and three without finding anything unusual. He then headed to the forest of case four. Case two was by the river; he decided not to go there just yet. It was too close to the bend of the Red River; caution was advised.
When Jimmy reached the edge of the forest, he was about to step in when he felt something was off. In the forest, where the sunlight did not directly hit, it seemed like those threads were present in the air. Due to the dense vegetation, Jimmy had to make a considerable effort to see the floating threads within the range of his Heart Eye Observation.
Instead of entering the forest, Jimmy started to observe from the perimeter. The closer to the riverbank, the denser the threads seemed to be, whereas there was nothing at the edge of the forest near the river. Could it be that the center of the threads was inside the forest?
Jimmy went back to his car and picked up his phone to call Chad, asking him to send someone to assist him. Jimmy planned to enter the forest during daylight, as he had already been in there the night before. If there was a problem, it wouldn't have been any better then. Now, it was just about taking precautions, having someone outside waiting while he went in to take a look.
After a while, a pickup police car arrived, and Nora, whom he had seen the day before, got out.
Jimmy: "Nora, thanks for coming to assist me. I'll be heading into the forest to check it out, and I'd like you to wait here for me. Call for backup immediately if anything unusual happens."
Nora glanced at the forest, "Is there still danger in these woods?"
Jimmy: "It's just an added precaution. By the way, what's the frequency of your walkie-talkies?"
Jimmy adjusted his own walkie-talkie frequency and, holding his M16, walked into the forest.
Jimmy already had a rough idea from outside where the densest concentration of threads was. He headed straight into the forest towards the densest area of threads, observing carefully with Heart Eye Observation as he walked. He had already checked for anything hidden underground or in the trees the day before but not found anything because the threads weren't visible then. Now he was following the threads to find their center.
Jimmy arrived in front of a large tree, the biggest in the area, and this was also where the thread density was highest. Even though it was the highest density, it was only observable through Heart Eye. Without Heart Eye, he could see nothing.
He closely examined the big tree and its surroundings but found nothing particular. Looking down at the roots, Jimmy's Heart Eye could not usually see through solid objects, but it seemed to have upgraded after observing the threads this morning. Now, he could vaguely see thread-like substances converging under the roots, as if something was there, but he couldn't see what it was specifically.
After some thought, he decided this was the most unusual place he had observed, aside from the bend of the Red River. It seemed worth investigating further, starting with the simplest and moving to the more difficult steps.
Jimmy turned and left the forest, "Nora, can you borrow a shovel?"
Leaning on the police car, Nora responded, "Of course, what do you need it for?"
Jimmy: "There seems to be something under that tree, I need to dig it out to have a look."
Nora: "Wait for me a moment."
Being a cop's sister, she wasn't that fussy; she went straight back to the pickup, turned around, and headed back to town. After a while, she returned and took out two iron shovels from the pickup bed.
Nora: "Let's go, I'll help you with it."
Jimmy thought about it and decided no, if both of them went in, and something happened, it could be a big trouble. "No, you wait here, keep the walkie-talkie on, and contact me every five minutes."
Arriving under the tree, Jimmy started to dig. The ground was a thick layer of decomposing leaves and plant compost. He shoveled through it, and after a few scoops, Nora's voice came through the walkie-talkie to check in.
"OK, continue the countdown for five minutes."
Jimmy pressed the walkie-talkie to respond and continued to dig. After digging down several dozen centimeters, "clang," he hit something hard.
He continued to clear the surrounding soil until an excavation several dozen centimeters wide was formed, during which Jimmy replied to Nora once more.
"Nora, come in, I'm right beside the largest tree."
Jimmy looked at the box underground and decided after thinking it over to call Nora to help with it and to serve as a witness. It would be trouble to just take it out by himself straight from under the tree.
Nora came over from the outside, holding another shovel, and they dug a little more soil from the side before they could reach under and pull the box out.
"Let's take it out." Although the box was only several dozen centimeters, it was very heavy. It was an iron box, and due to being buried underground, it was already rusty on the outside, but had not completely decayed.
Jimmy had Heart Eye activated the whole time. The upgraded Heart Eye seemed to drain more energy; in just over half an hour, he was already feeling tired, whereas before, he could sustain the basic Heart Eye for several hours.
Jimmy could see threads connecting to the box, and as the box moved, the threads also slowly shifted. After they carried the box out of the forest, under the sunlight, the threads disappeared one by one into the air.
They brought the box next to the car, and Jimmy checked the time. It was already noon. He thought for a moment and then said to Nora, "Call Chad over, let him come take a look, and we'll open the box when everyone's here. Also, ask him to bring two lunches."
Nora looked indifferent; she was there to provide backup for Jimmy, played the role of a timer, and helped to carry a box. Nora didn't use the walkie-talkie to call but directly phoned Chad. Half an hour later, Chad arrived in his police car, and with him was another officer, probably the one on leave, Hayden.
It turned out that all three cops in Tata Town were white, true to being in Texas.
Chad: "Jimmy, what's the matter that requires all of us to come over?"
Jimmy: "When I was checking the woods, I noticed something off about the soil under a tree, so I had Nora help me dig with a shovel, and we found this box." He pointed to the box, "After all, it was found in your jurisdiction, so I called you over to have a look together."
Chad looked at the rusty metal box by the car. "This one?"
Jimmy: "Yes, I initially thought there could be clues about Ekins's disappearance, but given the state of this box and the fact that it's been under the tree for so long, it might not be related to the recent disappearances. You handle it."
Chad: "Let's open it and take a look then." After saying this, he took out gloves from his pocket, ready to proceed.
Jimmy waved his hand, "Hold on, you better spread out a bit first, after all, it's a very old box, and we don't know what's inside."
Chad: "These types of boxes can't be that old; it should be fine."
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