Chapter 212

Chapter 212

Emily turned around to look back at the massive glass wall behind her, hesitated for a moment, then lowered her hand.

She stared at Bronte intently, "The evidence of your crimes is solid. We are now legally placing you under arrest. All your people have been apprehended as well. Bronte, do you have anything you want to say?"

A brilliant smile bloomed on Bronte's face as she said calmly, "Officer Johnson, I'm clearly the one who did wrong, so why are you so worked up?"

"You've done so many terrible things, and you can still be this calm and collected. Bronte, you really are something."

Emily narrowed her eyes, her tone gradually becoming more composed.

She looked Bronte up and down carefully. Everyone looked the same on the surface—two arms, two legs. Bronte didn't seem special in any way.

But Bronte was exactly that—a demon in human skin.

The horrific crimes Bronte had committed deserved the most severe punishment imaginable.

"Me doing terrible things? I don't think I did anything wrong. Those children—do you really think they were innocent? It was their parents who failed to take care of them. If they had truly been responsible, would I have had the chance to take them away?"

Bronte argued cunningly, every word an excuse for herself.

She shook her head, murmuring with emotion, "It was you—you failed to fulfill your duties as police. My first husband abused me. I did try to call the police, but they said it was just a domestic dispute and told us to resolve it ourselves, saying they had more important things to do. It wasn't murder, right?"

These words made Emily's heart skip a beat.

It was true that in some areas, domestic violence wasn't taken seriously.

But it wasn't entirely as Bronte described—casually dismissing responsibility with just a "it's not murder."

"I came here just to ask you one thing: from the beginning until now, have you truly never regretted it? As you said, your child was pure and kind like an angel, yet he had a demon like you for a mother. If he went to heaven but you went to hell, would you still have no regrets?"

As Emily spoke, one hand was already clenched into a tight fist at her side.

Bronte's expression gradually twisted and contorted from her initial calm composure, "What nonsense are you talking about? There's no such thing as the supernatural in this world. There's no heaven or hell. The dead can't come back to life—it has to be that way!"

Emily didn't explain further. She stood up and left.

Bronte sat in the chair in panic, silently watching Emily's departing figure. She cried out anxiously, "You're a police officer, you should be an atheist. How can you say such things? I won't go to hell. I will definitely reunite with my son!"

Despite Bronte's firm tone, it couldn't hide the panic in her heart at that moment.

After Emily came out, the first thing she did was go to the break room.

She turned on the coffee machine and dumped large ice cubes into her cup. The coffee liquid seeped into the ice, dripping to the bottom of the cup.

Emily picked up the coffee and downed it in one gulp.

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

"I heard some victims' families have already come looking?"

"We haven't verified their identities yet. We'll only know for sure after the verification is complete."

"For this afternoon's trip to Bronte's hometown, let's not bring Emily along. She's followed this case from start to finish, and I'm afraid she won't be able to handle what she might see there."

Before the discussion outside the door ended, Emily quickly walked out of the break room. She pushed open the door and walked straight toward the people in front of her.

She looked at Joshua, "I can handle it."

Joshua looked surprised, as if he hadn't expected Emily to be in the break room.

The group exchanged glances, their expressions showing slight nervousness and awkwardness.

Delilah was the first to step forward, linking her arm intimately with Emily's, "Jonathan was just saying that this case was solved so quickly thanks to you! So he's giving you some time off to go home and rest for a few days!"

There was no way Emily would agree to take time off at this critical point.

Emily shook her head and said without hesitation, "Since I've been in charge of this case from the beginning, I need to see it through to the end. I was just having trouble accepting the contrast between Bronte's public and private personas, and the terrible things she did. But thinking about it carefully, she's essentially no different from the other criminals we've arrested."

"See, William really called it."

Daniel shrugged, his eyes full of helplessness as he looked at Emily.

Hearing this, Emily was puzzled, "What did William say about me?"

"Nothing much. When Jonathan suggested giving you time off, he immediately argued against it. He said you're someone with a strong sense of career and responsibility, so you definitely wouldn't take time off to go home."

Daniel smiled slyly, lowering his voice conspiratorially, "And you know what, William really pays attention to you. He understands your every word and action so well."

The atmosphere outside the break room was cheerful.

Though everyone's conversation was somewhat lighthearted, it was exactly this kind of atmosphere that eased everyone's discomfort.

Dealing with these criminals and human demons every day, and as police officers having to overcome their own psychological barriers—it wasn't easy at all.

"Today I had someone analyze the material of their secret room's bulletproof door, and we found the factory. Guess what!"

Efrain Hubbard was a police officer transferred from elsewhere who usually did legwork. Recently, he'd been fully responsible for sending things for testing.

He placed the analysis report and confession statement in his hand on the table.

Emily glanced through them. The more she looked, the more shocked she became.

She had to admit that Bronte, Mole, and their gang were really bold—they actually dared to impersonate a special organization.

Through some means, they had bought a set of badges and work IDs from the foreign 988 organization online.

988 was an internationally known organization, similar to bounty hunters but not quite—mainly responsible for international cases and apprehending international fugitives.

The difference from international police was that 988 only took on high-reward captures.

"They actually managed to fool the company that makes bulletproof doors?"

Joshua stood there holding the confession, his face full of disbelief.

Delilah beside him stuffed a cookie in her mouth, chewing loudly, "This is totally normal. The world is an absurd stage play! Who would have thought that a bunch of criminals would dare to impersonate people from the 988 organization?"

Emily couldn't help but let out a long sigh, thinking to herself how ridiculous it all was.

Criminals impersonating people from an international organization, and they actually got away with it!