âStephieâ¦â
Steven panicked, trying to explain. But he still seemed hesitant.
Frustrated, I turned around to find somewhere to be alone.
Just then, Stevenâs phone rang. It was a call from Eason. âYasminâs missing. There are no clues.
Just as you said, it was a bait. Something happened at the hospital, and Zion got injured.
Thankfully, the culprit.
was arrested.
âYou should come. Michael is causing a scene at the police station, demanding that we locate Yasmin. Come help me locate her.â
Steven hung up on Eason, clearly having no intentions to comply. He was focused on explaining the situation to me.
I looked at him, waiting for his explanation.
âStephieâ¦â As he began, his phone rang again. It was Eason.
Steven hung up his phone angrily and was about to block Eason, but I stopped him. âAnswer the call. You took such a great risk to approach Peter in the asylum. Donât let your efforts go to waste.â
Silent, Steven picked up the call.
âSteven Lincoln! Are you burning bridges on me now?â Eason yelled over the phone. It sounded noisy the background.
I could hear Michaelâs angry voice, condemning the police for their lack of effort. Michael was angry about how Yasmin, despite being under police protection, had gotten kidnapped!
âIâm burning you,â Steven replied before hanging up again.
It took me a while to realize that Steven was cursing Eason. Eason said Steven was burning bridges, and Steven said he was burning Eason instead. I reckoned Eason would need some time to react too.
âStephieâ¦â Steven said, but his phone rang again.
This time, he turned his phone off.
âStephie⦠Iâm not saying that the murderer doesnât matter. Iâm investigating it. Everything is connected.
Iâm just not sure. My assumptions may not be accurateâ¦â Steven hurriedly explained.
But it seemed that he was a bad liar.
Though Stevenâs assumptions may not be correct, he must have a key suspect. Yet, he was hiding that from meâ¦
I was not sure of the reason that he was hiding it from me. But looking at the chain of evidence, it seemed like he was⦠trying to âprotectâ the murderer.
I said after a long silence. âSteven, my death feels like a dream to me. Before I died, I thought you were the murderer because you were so suspiciousâ¦â
Taking into account everything on the wall of evidence, I could conclude that Steven was not the murderer. However, he was hiding something.
âNow, I trust that youâre not the murderer, but if youâre covering for the murderer or helping them get away, youâll be responsible for my deathâ¦â
My voice was hoarse but determined. I was warning Steven in case I found out that he was secretly helping the murderer.
Steven panicked and lowered his head, his fists tightening anxiously.
âStephieâ¦â
âIf I can forgive the person who so cruelly murdered me, what does that make me?â I laughed bitterly, then backed away from the wall of photos and evidence.
I said in a low voice, âSteven, if we ever come to that, letâs get a divorce. Let me go.â
Now that we had no baby, there was nothing that would keep us together.
I also came to believe that Steven was not the murderer who killed me.
âStephie, I donât want to get a divorce.â Steven shook his head in panic, not wanting a divorce.
âBut in my opinion, the murderer matters more to you than I do.â I pointed toward the centermost section about the serial murder case. Two pieces of paper had a question mark on them.
That confirmed some assumptions about the outcomes of Stevenâs investigation.
Two people were involved in the planning of the serial murder case.
One was responsible for strategizing while the other handled the execution.
We could call that person the executor.
Meanwhile, Simon worked under the two, like a chess piece.
Steven chose to take Simon in, even when he clearly knew that Simon was related to the serial murder caseâ¦
I didnât think Steven had done that to investigate the murder.