Chapter 222 Framing Unsuccessful
Tessa, standing nearby, suddenly felt guilty.
While others didn't know where Liam had gone, she knew perfectly well.
She couldn't let the Rodriguez family keep targeting Liam, or she would only be more embarrassed!
From beginning to end, Tessa felt no sadness about Mark's death, only embarrassment.
Last time when she almost got engaged, Liam became disabled.
This time on the engagement day, Mark died.
Once word got out, who knows what people would say about her, she didn't want to keep losing face.
"Officer, I can vouch for Liam that he has nothing to do with this. He just left early because he had other matters to handle."
Tessa said anxiously. And the officer glanced at her.
"What's your relationship with Mark?"
"I'm his fiancée."
"How can you be sure Liam has nothing to do with this?"
"Because he didn't have time to poison anyone."
"How do you know he didn't have time? Were you watching him the whole time?"
The officer's rational questioning suddenly left Tessa speechless.
Gemma suddenly looked at her.
"It's you! You saw Liam's leg suddenly healed, so you didn't want Mark anymore. You wanted to get back together with Liam, so you two worked together to kill Mark!"
She wasn't targeting Amelia earlier because she had a grudge against her, but because she lost emotional control and was making wild accusations.
It was the same now, the slightest suspicion and she immediately believed someone was the killer.
"I didn't, Mrs. Rodriguez, don't make things up." Tessa said bitterly.
"Mrs. Rodriguez?" Gemma laughed coldly and said, "According to our hometown customs, after you got engaged to Mark, you became my daughter-in-law. You called me mom earlier, and now you're calling me Mrs. Rodriguez? You clearly have your eye on Liam again and don't want to marry into our family!"
"You're crazy," Tessa said. "You should go back to your room and rest."
"I'm not crazy! You're the crazy one! You'd have to be crazy to do something so vicious! Officer, you must get justice for my son!"
Gemma wailed, acting like she was throwing a tantrum.
Tessa, who came from a truly wealthy family, had never seen this kind of person and stood there red-faced and speechless.
"This is slander! It's false accusation!" Felicity jumped out to back Tessa up.
The two sides started arguing again.
The officers caught in the middle were very troubled and simply sent people to investigate where Liam had actually gone.
Amelia spoke up at this moment,
"No need to investigate. I know where Liam went."
Everyone looked at her.
Tessa wanted to stop her, but Amelia had already spoken.
"Liam is the champion of this Phoenicia hacking competition. Before Mark died, Jerry from the Phoenicia Cybersecurity Bureau came here and personally took him to Thornfield to assume his position. So he didn't flee out of guilt, and he's not feeling guilty. He was picked up by Jerry."
The police had dealt with the security bureau plenty of times and of course knew Jerry.
He instructed his officers, "Go ask Mr. Nelson if this is true."
"Impossible! There's no need to ask! She's lying!" Gemma said. "Because the champion is my son, not Liam! Mr. Nelson came to congratulate my son on winning, not like she said!"
Tessa almost fainted from anger.
She closed her eyes, knowing she couldn't save face anymore and didn't want to say anything.
Many guests at the scene echoed Gemma's words.
"The one who won was indeed Mark."
"Right, we all saw Mr. Nelson talking to Mark with our own eyes, but he didn't talk to Liam."
"Mark even thanked Mr. Nelson for coming in person to present the award, and Mr. Nelson didn't deny it at the time."
The police listened and looked at Amelia.
"Are you lying?"
Amelia was very calm.
"What? Officer, are you only listening to one side of the story?"
The officer was silent for a moment and had someone look up Jerry's number.
He got straight to the point, introduced himself, and then asked about Liam.
Jerry replied, "Liam is with me. What do you need him for?"
The officer was stunned and asked, "Did you take him to assume his position?"
"Yes."
"Then it's nothing. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye."
The officer hung up, and people could tell from his expression what the other party had said.
The scene erupted.
"The champion was actually Liam, not Mark?"
"Then what was Mark bragging about? We were all misled by him!"
"Liam has such class! He didn't expose Mark on the spot."
"Amelia wasn't lying. Liam really was taken away by Jerry. No wonder she said he couldn't come back."
"Good thing Mark is dead. If he were still alive, he'd be better off dead, too embarrassing."
Tessa's vision went dark.
The Young family and the Rodriguez family felt the same, Idris even wanted to slap Gemma.
"Take her back to her room! Don't let her come out again!"
Gemma was sent back to her room again.
The case investigation continued, with many people from the criminal police team arriving.
Someone had died, this was a criminal case, and the officers treated it very seriously.
Each person was pulled aside for individual questioning.
But the information they got was limited. They only knew that Mark was indeed unwell but thought he just had heatstroke, so he took heatstroke medicine twice.
They also learned that Mark wanted to go rest midway, but Tessa stopped him and made him continue entertaining guests.
Amelia was also taken aside for questioning.
She had never been alone with Mark, and there were witnesses to this fact. She had no suspicion and quickly returned to the infinity pool area.
The sun rose higher and higher. Everyone was starving and couldn't help complaining about the Young family and the Rodriguez family.
Although the Rodriguez family had lost someone, it had nothing to do with these guests. They didn't care at all and just wanted to go home and rest and have something cool to beat the heat.
Of course, they weren't prevented from eating and drinking here, but someone had just been poisoned to death, and they considered themselves too valuable to touch the food here.
Amelia on the other hand, calmly accepted the lemonade handed to her by a server.
She had pretty much guessed who was behind this and what their purpose was.
Samuel was missing because Amelia had asked him to do something for her.
Since the two of them were together now, there was no question of who owed whom. She had already calmly accepted Samuel's kindness toward her.
She didn't know if this counted as progress, but she knew her emotional barriers were being broken down bit by bit.
Two hours later, several new faces from the criminal police team arrived.
They whispered to the captain, who nodded and walked over to everyone.
"A poison circulating on the black market was detected in Mark's body. This poison contains large amounts of sibutramine and fluoxetine. These two drugs can cause sudden death. After identification, Mark died from this poison."
People panicked.
"Is this stuff in what we drank?"
"Are we really okay?"
The captain continued, "Don't worry, everyone. We already checked you all. Your blood test results are all normal."
Everyone felt a bit more at ease.
Only Idris couldn't wait to ask, "So have you found out who poisoned my son?"
This was exactly what the captain wanted to say.
"This poison has a special smell, so we brought trained police dogs. Please cooperate with the police dog investigation."
Soon, three police dogs were brought out.
Everyone was startled.
"Will they bite?"
The captain said, "Don't worry, police dogs are very smart. They won't bite without a command. Now, please line up and let the police dogs sniff you."
Someone asked, "After they sniff us, can we leave?"
"Yes."
After getting a definite answer, the guests stopped dragging their feet and rushed to line up for inspection.
Amelia and Anna fell back a few steps and were at the end of the line.
"Samuel is gone," Anna said.
Amelia nodded and said, "Maybe he went to help investigate the case."
Anna's heart skipped slightly. She probably guessed something, and her face became even more composed.
She had been worried that Samuel was also missing and would be suspected like Liam.
But Amelia's answer let her know they both knew who the real culprit was.
She calmed down and held Adrian's hand as they moved forward with the line.
Amelia glanced toward the front of the line. She didn't know if it was a coincidence, but Francis and Janet were standing together.
They seemed not to know anyone, but every time Amelia looked over, she found them standing together several times.
Amelia lowered her gaze and chatted calmly with Adrian.
"Adrian, don't be afraid of the police dogs. Just hold out your hand and let them sniff when you go over."
Adrian asked her, "Are they as obedient as Lyric?"
Lyric was the golden retriever Samuel had given Amelia.
Thanks to Lyric, Amelia was no longer afraid of dogs.
She often played with Lyric now.
But it was growing fast, and Amelia found it hard to hold it now.
Soon it was Francis and Janet's turn, both passed successfully.
Before long it was Anna and Adrian's turn.
Because Amelia had reassured Adrian beforehand, he wasn't afraid of the police dogs and passed easily.
Finally it was Amelia's turn.
From the corner of her eye, Amelia noticed Francis and Janet staring straight at her.
Unlike before, Francis was deliberately avoiding eye contact with her, but Amelia acted as if she hadn't noticed. Her gaze remained calm as she moved forward a few steps toward the three police dogs.
All three police dogs were very tall with frighteningly shiny coats.
Amelia held out her hand.
The three police dogs immediately surrounded her, sniffing her up and down.
Idris also stared intently at Amelia.
Although Gemma had gone a bit crazy from the pain of losing her son, he also suspected it had something to do with the Richardson family.
So he stared fixedly at Amelia and the three police dogs.
Others also looked over with curiosity.
Only Amelia, the person in question, was as calm as could be.
The three police dogs sniffed around Amelia for a while, then quickly returned to the officer leading them.
"Pass. Next!" the captain said.
Amelia showed no surprise in her eyes. She stepped back a few steps to let the next person come forward.
Janet, watching this scene from a distance, clenched her hands tightly at her sides.
How could this be!
Why could Amelia pass safely?
This was impossible!
It shouldn't be like this!