Chapter 66 Chapter 66
To be honest, if Benjamin hadn't spoken up, Grace was prepared to cut off one of Zach's fingers. It wasn't to establish authority; it was to hide the fact that she had a secret phone.
People remember what affects them most deeply. The agony of losing a finger would cause Zach to forget that Grace had asked him about a set of keys and a small phone earlier.
However, since Benjamin had brought it up, Grace couldn't go through with it.
She feigned anger. "A severed finger can be reattached as long as it hasn't been crushed by a car."
This actually aligned more with Benjamin's image of her.
He shook his head. "That won't do either."
Grace stared at him for a long moment before finally getting up and leaving.
When she arrived at school, the final exam schedule had just been posted. Many students, including Nathan, crowded around the bulletin board. Spotting her, he hesitated briefly before catching up to her and calling out, "Ms. Hill."
Grace finally stopped and turned to face him as if he were a stranger. "Yes?" she asked coolly.
"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. He stole a quick glance at her before adding, "It's just... You seem a bit tired lately. Are you—”
Grace cut him off impatiently. "I'm fine. Thank you. Exam week is coming up. Focus on your studying." Without waiting for Nathan's response, she turned and headed straight upstairs.
The office had been bustling, but the moment she pushed open the door, it fell silent. The silence lasted a few seconds before her colleague across from her spoke again. Instead of continuing their earlier conversation, she pointed to the computer screen and beckoned to the others. "Come see if you like this dress. I spotted it at the boutique the other day."
Several people crowded around, offering perfunctory comments on the dress.
Grace merely smiled, unconcerned with their earlier conversation. After finishing her tasks for the day, she headed to the library around ten o'clock, carrying several reference books.
With exam week approaching, even the most playful students were studying, so it was impossible to find a spot to study in the library. Grace circled the building once, then went downstairs and randomly picked a payphone to call Mrs. Meyer.
She’d purchased the number online for Mrs. Meyer and shipped it along with a mobile phone to her home. Though she knew the number by heart, she’d never dialed it before.
Grace felt a flutter of nervousness as she dialed. After a few rings, the phone was picked up. Mrs. Meyer's gentle, steady voice came through the receiver, and Grace felt her heart instantly settle.
"It's me, Mrs. Meyer," she said softly.
"Hello, Ms. Hill." Mrs. Meyer seemed to chuckle softly on the other end, her voice still unhurried. "I've been waiting for your call for days. If you hadn't called, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to wait any longer to come find you."
Grace explained, "Some things have happened recently. I've been busy and didn't want to bother you, so I didn't contact you.”
"It's okay. I found something. See me when you have time, and come pick it up." Mrs. Meyer paused before adding, "It's too important, and Wendy isn't steady enough. Otherwise, I would have had her deliver it to you.”
Grace flinched. Before she could ask any questions, Mrs. Meyer continued, "It's part of Alex and the others' prison records. It contains a lot of his personal information, including his fingerprints.”
Fingerprints are unique to each individual and serve as a personal identifier. Without DNA evidence, if Benjamin's fingerprints matched Alex's, that would be the strongest proof that they were the same person.
But how could Benjamin, having escaped prison, leave such a glaring loophole?
Adrian had requested a fingerprint comparison between Benjamin and Alex back then. Without other evidence, the police refused at first. Benjamin himself voluntarily provided his fingerprints to clear his name. The result was predictable—the two sets were completely different.
Grace couldn't hide her disappointment. "Fingerprints are useless," she said. "Either Benjamin altered his own fingerprints, or he swapped the ones in the file. They're fundamentally different."
Mrs. Meyer, however, smiled. "The fingerprints in the file were swapped. Unfortunately, they weren't thorough. They overlooked one in an inconspicuous spot, and I found it.”
Grace's hand tightened around the receiver as if clutching it could keep her calm. She glanced around instinctively, her voice urgent and strained. "I'll come see you as soon as possible."
Mrs. Meyer sounded pleased, too. She chuckled softly before replying, "All right, I'll be waiting. But try to avoid weekends—I don't want Wendy to find out about this."
"Understood."
Grace hung up, still struggling to contain her excitement. Outside, the sky suddenly seemed brighter, and even the faces of strangers appeared to be smiling. To calm down, she hurried out of the library with her books and walked laps around the lake until her mind cleared.
Her thoughts turned to the next problem: obtaining Benjamin's fingerprints. She had plenty of opportunities for close contact with him, so stealing a couple of his fingerprints wouldn't be too difficult.
But then what? What would she do next?
The plan broke down right there. She suddenly realized that convincing the police to take this seriously and intervene wouldn't be as easy as she'd imagined. Maybe she should discuss it with Mrs. Meyer when she met her. After all, Officer Meyer still had friends in the police department. If she could leverage those connections, it would make things much easier.
Grace sat by the lake, lost in thought and missing lunch entirely, until a call from an unknown number jolted her back to reality in the late afternoon.
Her fingers were numb from sitting outside for so long, and pressing the answer button was difficult. "Hello, this is Grace," she said politely.
Outside the school gates, Zach clutched his phone tightly to his ear. His expression was tense as he whispered to Landon, "She answered!"
Seeing Zach's pathetic state, Landon felt both annoyed and amused. He couldn't resist kicking Zach in the shins before barking in a hushed voice, "Speak up!"
Zach quickly released his grip and feigned toughness as he shouted, "You talk!"
The next second, Landon kicked him in the backside again, yelling, "You idiot! I told you to speak!"
Already nervous, Zach was further confused by the consecutive kicks. He clutched the phone like a grenade, momentarily paralyzed.
Landon nearly toppled over in frustration. He snatched the phone from Zach's grasp, cleared his throat, and politely said, "Hello, Ms. Hill. It's me, Landon. I brought Zach over. We're right outside your school. Where would be a good place for us to meet?"
Grace hadn't expected them to arrive so quickly, let alone come straight to the school to find her. They seemed wary of her, too, afraid she might actually chop off one of Zach's fingers. Now, at the school, even a homeless person would be conscious of others' eyes—let alone her, a teacher.
Gazing at the lake, an idea formed in her mind. She replied calmly, "Come to the lakeside. I'm over here."
Soon, a Land Rover slowly drove along the path and stopped on the slope. Landon and Zach got out, glanced in Grace's direction, and walked down the steps one after the other. Zach lagged behind, glancing at the lake and muttering, "Whoa." He muttered to himself, "Ms. Hill picked a good spot. If she chopped off my finger and tossed it here, I'd never fish it out."