Chapter 204

Chapter 204

Emily slumped on the ground, drenched in sweat, and casually wiped her face with her elbow.

William struck the wall hard again with his entrenching tool. He glanced at Emily and said coolly, "Either there's some mechanism here we haven't found, or there's some kind of self-destruct device. Either way, whatever's hidden in this wall is definitely not simple."

"Of course I know that."

She furiously kicked the wall, "Otherwise that Mole wouldn't have snuck over here in the middle of the night."

But right now, just knowing these things was far from enough!

Whether they could get the evidence from inside the wall—that was what really mattered.

"Let's go."

William reached out his hand to Emily, gesturing to pull her up from the ground.

Emily's eyes showed hesitation. She froze for a moment, then asked suspiciously, "We're just leaving like this?"

"Of course. Unless you're planning to spend the night here, in which case I won't stop you."

He answered calmly.

For a moment, Emily didn't know what to say.

She still couldn't quite accept this outcome. After working here all night and coming up empty-handed, they were just going to leave?

"If we just leave like this, what if Saul and his team come over and find the evidence today? What if they steal our credit?"

Emily looked at William with concern.

William tapped her head lightly and lowered his voice, "Don't you think that sounds a bit strange? What do you mean 'steal our credit'? Wasn't our whole purpose in coming here to solve the case?"

Right.

If William hadn't said that, Emily would have forgotten why she came here in the first place.

She pressed her lips together and threw her entrenching tool on the ground, "Fine, I don't care anymore. If they can break through this wall, that's Deputy Captain Pena and his team's skill."

By the time Emily and William emerged from the orphanage's secret room, it was already bright outside.

She sat in the car, patting the dust and ash off herself.

They exchanged glances, and just as William was about to say something, Emily's phone suddenly rang.

Emily's phone screen kept flashing, showing the contact name 'Olivia'.

She answered without thinking, "Olivia, you're back?"

"How did you know! Emily, I missed you so much. Do you have time? Come pick me up at the airport. Let's go out for a nice meal at noon today."

Olivia's voice rose with excitement.

Her tone sounded like she couldn't wait to fly to Emily's side right away.

Emily glanced back at William sitting in the driver's seat and lowered her voice, "I'm afraid I can't. We're still working on a case."

After hearing Emily's refusal, Olivia was clearly annoyed.

Olivia said in frustration, "What kind of crappy job is this? They're treating you like slaves! It's early morning and you're telling me you're working on a case? Don't tell me you pulled an all-nighter and didn't sleep?"

"Yeah."

Emily responded quietly.

William suddenly slowed down the car and looked back at Emily, "You've been working pretty hard lately. Take a day off and rest."

"It's not like that."

Emily quickly explained to Olivia, "It's not forced overtime. We've just run into some trouble at work recently. I'll tell you more when we meet."

What Emily didn't expect was that William was nice enough to drive her to the airport himself to meet Olivia.

From far away, before Olivia even reached her, she was already waving her arms at Emily.

Olivia was carrying bags large and small, dressed fashionably in a stylish white cashmere coat over a white lace crochet dress.

She casually tossed a Hermès bag to Emily, "A gift for you. Happy? This color is really hard to get. I specially waited a few extra days there just to get this bag for you!"

Emily actually had very little interest in bags and clothes. She hardly ever enjoyed shopping for these things.

Of course!

With Emily's current monthly salary, she'd have to save up for a long time to buy a bag like this.

Seeing that Emily didn't look well, Olivia craned her neck to glance at William driving away, "Are you being bullied at the police station? Is William overworking you?"

"No, we've just encountered a really tricky case recently."

Emily's tone sounded somewhat tired. She took the initiative to help Olivia with her suitcase and flagged down a cab.

In the car, Olivia leaned against Emily, hugging her arm, "I was abroad for so long. Did you miss me? You heartless thing, if I don't call you, you never reach out to me!"

She complained nonstop the whole way.

Emily soothed Olivia like she was coaxing a child, "Because I've really been too busy with work lately. Besides, you don't just have me—where's your fiancé!"

"Don't even mention him."

Olivia was in a bad mood and waved her hand dismissively. Then she picked up her phone, selected a spa, and looked at Emily with a bright smile, "Let's go have a nice meal first, then I'll take you for a spa. Emily, look at yourself these past few days—you've made yourself so haggard. It breaks my heart to see you like this!"

"I'm running around crime scenes every day. Where would I have time to dress myself up?"

Emily sighed helplessly.

Although she was sitting in Olivia's car the whole way, her mind was entirely on the police station.

She kept picking up her phone to check the group chat messages, seeing if there were any new developments from the station.

Seeing Emily distracted, Olivia tapped her plate lightly with her fork, "I'm telling you, Officer Johnson, do you know how expensive this meal is? You're wasting it! You're spacing out at a restaurant that costs five figures per person!"

"I..."

Emily forced out a weak smile.

She had originally wanted to complain to Olivia about her recent experiences.

But on second thought, she decided against it.

After all, Olivia had plenty of frustrations at work too. They were both adults—some emotions you should learn to process on your own.

Emily speared a piece of steak with her fork and put it in her mouth, chewing carefully, occasionally muttering, "Actually, I think this medium-rare steak thing is pretty unscientific. You know, medium-rare might not kill all the parasites in the beef."

"Shut up! We're eating right now. I don't want to hear you bring up things that make people sick!"

Olivia raised her finger, pointing at Emily and making a shushing gesture.