Chapter 10: The Case is Solved

Since Olivia was in her police uniform, she had her hair tied back, showing off her delicate ears. She was carefully applying medicine to Henry, but he couldn't stop staring at her lips.

In the sunlight, Olivia's skin looked flawless, and her long eyelashes fluttered, making Henry's heart skip a beat.

Olivia suddenly looked up, and Henry quickly looked away, feeling a bit awkward.

"Does it hurt?" Olivia asked.

Henry yanked his hand back, grabbed some gauze, and wrapped it up quickly before bolting out of there like he was on fire.

Olivia watched him go, totally confused. He looked like he was running from something.

The case was at a critical point, so Olivia didn't have time to dwell on it. She took William to the funeral home.

Wesley worked there, so there had to be records of the bodies he handled for cremation. Whether they were local or from out of town, everything would be logged.

With the register in hand, Olivia and William spent the whole morning cross-referencing it and finally found something fishy.

"Olivia, check this out. Nolan Jones died and was cremated three years ago, but on May 19th of this year, he was cremated again at another funeral home!" William exclaimed.

Olivia quickly looked it over, double-checking several times before saying to William, "Let's go. We need to confirm this with Nolan's family!"

William nodded, excited to finally have a lead.

They tracked down Nolan's family and found out he had indeed been cremated again. Nolan's daughter-in-law was in disbelief. "How is that possible? Nolan died three years ago. How could he be cremated again?"

With her testimony, Olivia and William exchanged a look; the evidence was solid.

Back at the Harmony City precinct, Olivia and William handed all the evidence they had gathered to Henry. Henry started a new interrogation of Wesley, while Olivia and William went to question Isabella.

"Isabella, Wesley killed Russell and cremated him. He confessed to everything!" Olivia said.

Isabella looked even worse than a few days ago, her hair a mess, and her eyes vacant. When she heard that Russell was killed by Wesley, she broke down instantly.

"That bastard! How could he kill Russell! Russell, it's all my fault!" Isabella cried out.

Olivia let out a sigh of relief as Isabella began to recount the events in a broken manner.

Wesley and Russell met while doing business together. Since Wesley's business was failing, he switched to the funeral industry.

They still kept in touch, and the main reason was that Russell was having an affair with Wesley's wife, Isabella. To be together openly, Russell suggested killing Wesley, and Isabella agreed.

"Sir, Wesley was really bad. Whenever he drank, he would beat and scold me. If it weren't for Russell, I wouldn't have survived!" Isabella explained.

Wesley's business failures and life's frustrations were all taken out on Isabella, and Russell became her only source of hope.

"Did you know that Russell hired someone to kill Wesley?" Olivia asked.

Isabella nodded, finally admitting it. She didn't expect that the one who ended up dead would be Russell himself.

And just like that, the dismemberment case finally came to a close.

"Mr. Phillips, how's it going with Wesley?" Olivia asked as she came out of the interrogation room and saw Henry smoking outside.

"He confessed!" Henry said, squinting at Olivia. With the case wrapped up, Olivia couldn't hide the smile in her eyes.

Wesley was officially arrested, and Isabella was also taken into custody. This was probably the weirdest case Olivia had ever dealt with.

Russell, the main culprit, had hired Terry and Nash to kill Wesley, but their attempts kept failing. Under pressure from Russell, Nash ended up killing Terry and dumping his body in a repair shop well. In a twist of fate, Wesley killed Russell. Using his funeral industry connections, Wesley moved Russell's body and had it cremated elsewhere.

The relationships among these people were a tangled mess. Victims turned into killers, and those who planned harm ended up dead by their own targets.

"This case should be a study case for the police academy. You've got a knack for writing; you could turn it into a case study for them!" Henry suggested, and Olivia's eyes lit up. How had she forgotten about that?

Olivia slept the whole way back. She hadn't gotten much sleep in Harmony City, so she conked out as soon as she got in the car.

William wanted to drive, but Henry wouldn't let him. Without thinking much about it, William also fell asleep after getting in the car.

When they reached a service area, William woke up needing to use the restroom. He opened his eyes and saw Henry in the front seat, who had taken off his police uniform and draped it over Olivia. The look in Henry's eyes said it all.

This scene freaked William out so much that his urge to use the restroom disappeared. For the next hour or so, he pretended to sleep, wondering if Henry might have a thing for Olivia.

The thought made him shiver. This was too wild, wasn't it?

Back at the police station, Benjamin gave them two days off. Olivia changed her clothes and headed straight to the airport.

"Mom, I'm coming home now. Please give me a break!" Olivia felt like she was losing it. She had no idea how her mom, Autumn Foster, found out she had gone to Emerald City and become a detective. The news had completely overwhelmed Autumn.

Originally, Olivia was supposed to join the police force as a regular officer after graduation. But instead, she became a detective, the most dangerous job, and went to Emerald City. Autumn was so upset that her blood pressure spiked, and she ended up in the hospital.

Olivia rushed back to Silverlight City. As soon as she got off the plane, she took a taxi to the hospital. Seeing Autumn in the hospital room, wearing a hospital gown and looking haggard while receiving an IV, Olivia felt a pang of sorrow and guilt.

"Mom!" Olivia exclaimed.

She sat down by the bed, and Autumn opened her eyes to look at her, tears streaming down her face.

"Olivia, you don't listen to me anymore, do you? How dare you come back?" Autumn said, her voice trembling with emotion.

Olivia hung her head, not daring to argue with her mom, only trying to soothe her. "Mom, I know I was wrong, but it wasn't my decision. It was all arranged by the leaders."

"You're lying. If you didn't want to, they couldn't have transferred you. I knew it, I shouldn't have let Ivan send you to that police academy!" Autumn lamented.

Autumn was filled with regret. Olivia was her only daughter. If anything happened to Olivia, how could she go on living?