Chapter 20: Overdose

No matter what, they still had to find Brynn's body. Without it, even the most solid theories were just guesses.

Arabella's testimony pointed to Cillian as the one who likely went after Brynn. No way he sent Arabella alone to poison her.

In the interrogation room, he admitted it straight up.

He wasn't trying to hide anything now; he just wanted out of prison fast so he could dive back into his drug habit.

Cillian said he always knew Arabella was too timid and weak. He never thought she'd actually pull it off.

He gave her the job just to mess with her, to toughen her up for entertaining guests without make-up later.

But for Brynn, he had prepared a flawless plan.

Brynn had more admirers than just Kellan and Doyle; plenty of guys were after her.

Cillian picked Hugo Graves, a guy who'd dropped a hundred grand on Brynn but never even got to hold her hand.

He knew guys like Hugo well. Hugo was the type who'd shower a woman with attention, but cross him, and his charm would turn to venom.

To Hugo, Brynn was perfect, but when he saw her with some ugly dude, he snapped—he wanted her dead.

Brynn shattered his perfect image of her.

Cillian handed him a packet of drugs, telling Hugo it would make Brynn wish she were dead.

Hugo didn't hesitate and took the drugs to Brynn's place.

This wasn't Stanley's home; it was a place Hugo had rented for Brynn to take care of her.

The house was decked out and in a fancy neighborhood.

Brynn never thought Hugo would hurt her; she hadn't even changed the room's password. Hugo easily slipped the drugs into her water.

After that, he deleted all her contacts.

At the time, Brynn was head over heels for her boyfriend and didn't notice anything off, not even the taste of her water.

She kept drinking, cooking, bathing, and even planned to go back to school.

Who knew that within a week, she'd be hooked on drugs.

Hugo got caught by the cops pretty quickly. He spilled everything and was sure Brynn had died because of him. "I put cameras in the house. I saw her get addicted and sleep with different guys for drugs. Cillian gave her a big packet, and that night she injected a lot."

Hugo laid it all out and handed over the videos to the police.

Sophia watched the video and saw Brynn injecting drugs, lying on the bed with a blissful look.

Suddenly, she arched her back, screamed, and her pupils dilated.

Within a minute, she collapsed back onto the bed.

She lay there quietly until the next day.

In the morning, Hugo opened the door, saw Brynn on the bed, and checked her breathing.

He jerked back, shocked, and fell to the ground in fear.

Half a minute later, he suddenly knelt, laughing, and started hitting and touching Brynn's body.

After venting, Hugo found a suitcase and stuffed Brynn's body inside.

The video cut off there.

Sophia let out a long sigh, thinking this case might finally be wrapped up.

Hugo had confessed to burying Brynn in a nearby park. All they needed was to find her body and confirm the cause of death, and it would be case closed.

James stepped up to lead the team to dig up the body.

Sophia and Robert stayed back at the station to tie up loose ends.

"What's on your mind?" Robert's voice came from behind. Sophia turned and smiled, "I'm wondering who Brynn's boyfriend really is. There are still some loose ends in Brynn's case. Like, why wasn't she scared of being exposed as a prostitute? Was she really not afraid of Stanley and Jessa finding out?"

"Maybe she just didn't care," Robert speculated. "Or maybe she wanted Stanley and Jessa to know."

This reminded Sophia that Brynn had once told Arabella that being discovered was just another way of living, suggesting she was ready for it.

Sophia wanted to talk to Stanley and Jessa again, but with the case almost closed, she doubted they'd want to discuss Brynn anymore.

Especially since Brynn had died so disgracefully.

Just then, Stanley and Jessa showed up.

They'd heard Brynn's body had been found and rushed to the station for news.

Sophia had to come out to calm them down, saying a team was already digging and there'd be news soon.

Jessa couldn't stop crying and couldn't speak, while Stanley stayed relatively calm but looked much older and more worried.

Though Sophia had seen many victims' families, she was never good at comforting them. She usually just offered water or coffee.

And Robert? He was even worse at it.

Sophia and Robert could only sit awkwardly in front of Stanley and Jessa, looking at each other like stones.

Luckily, this didn't last long. James soon called with news that shocked Sophia.

There was no body at the spot Hugo had pointed out.

"Check the surveillance," Sophia ordered decisively. "Pull all the footage from the area, and bring back the soil from the pit for testing."

"Got it." James hung up and quickly got to work. Within ten minutes, a video of Hugo dragging a suitcase into the park popped up on the station's computer.

The footage showed Hugo carrying a suitcase, the same one from Brynn's house.

He also had the same suitcase when he left. Judging by the depth of the wheel tracks, it was clear he had buried something deep in the park.

Unfortunately, there were no cameras in that specific area, so they couldn't see if he had actually buried Brynn's body.

Hugo was brought in for questioning again, and he stuck to his story that he had buried Brynn there.

Robert said, "He admitted to burying Brynn. There's no reason for him to lie about the location."

Sophia agreed, but the problem was that there really was no body there.

"Did she come back to life?" Sophia felt frustrated.

Suddenly, Robert had a thought. "Could it be that Brynn didn't die at home but just overdosed and fell into a coma?"