Chapter 562
Meanwhile, Zoe had just walked out of the bathroom, where she saw a group of people gathering
outside the operating room and having whispered discussions amongst themselves. The weariness
she felt earlier was instantly dethroned by excitement, and she eagerly forced her way through to get a
first glimpse at the hot gossip.
To her surprise, she found Daniel when she made it to the first row and froze on the spot.
It was Leanna who spotted her first, and she breathed a sigh of relief before rushing to her. "Zoe,
where were you?"
"Huh?" she blurted as she blinked in confusion, taking her eyes off Daniel. "I went to the bathroom
because I was too nervous earlier, and the nurse wants me to go inter—"
Before she could finish her sentence, Daniel dashed toward her and held her by her shoulders. His lips
parted as he said in a hoarse voice, "Don''t go in."
She instinctively raised her head to look at him and was a little shocked by the look in his eyes. So, she
turned to Leanna for help because she didn''t know what to say as she muttered absent-mindedly,
"But… I''ve already paid for the procedure."
Just when Daniel wanted to say something, the voices from the crowd grew louder as their discussions
intensified with the appearance of the story''s main female character. The only thing they were missing
now was a bucket of popcorn in their hands. Daniel was instantly snapped out of his reverie and
noticed that this wasn''t a good ce for a private discussion, so he grabbed Zoe''s hand and dragged
her away.
Frankly, thest thing that she would imagine happening to herself was bing the main female
character of a melodramatic telenov.
Meanwhile, Leanna watched as they left and chuckled silently at Zoe''s surgical receipt before ripping it
into pieces and tossing it into the bin. By the time she was out of the hospital, Zoe and Daniel were
already long gone, and she checked the time. It''s still not toote to make a trip back to Crossley
Group.
But the building of Crossley Group was surrounded by people when she arrived, and there was even a
police car nearby. After she parked her car, she entered the building from the side door and saw a lot of
staff gathered in the lobby, whispering about something.
She stood behind them and inquired, "What''s going on?"
One of them spun her head around and wanted to answer her question, but when she saw that it was
Leanna, she hesitated and stopped herself. "Hello, Miss McKinney."
When the other employees heard that Leanna was here, they silenced themselves almost
instantaneously.
Leanna acknowledged the greeting with a gentle hum of her own and repeated her question, "What
happened?"
"Well, do you recall the news about the murder of a woman earlier today? The police are here due to
that case. Apparently, the culprit is one of our colleagues," someone answered.
Leanna furrowed her brows in confusion, wondering, Is it Jimmy again?
Suddenly, someone called out, "Look! They''re here."
The elevator doors slid open slowly, and Leanna saw two policemening out with a man
sandwiched between them.
It was Raymond.
He looked utterly wretched as a crestfallen look was painted across his face. Although the police didn''t
have any concrete proof yet, it was still a big blow to his dignity when he was taken away as a person
of interest in front of his colleagues.
When he passed by Leanna, he paused for a second as though he wanted to say something, but
nothing came from his lips.
After the detectives escorted him into the police car, the crowd slowly dispersed. However, now that the
authorities were gone, the discussions became louder than before.
"I have never imagined that it would be Mr. Ford. He doesn''t look like a murderer at all."
"My thoughts exactly. He''s usually such a nice and friendly guy, and I''ve run into him quite a few times
when I worked overtime alone, asking me if I needed a lift from him. Just the thought of this now makes
my skin crawl."
"But, why did he kill that girl? There has to be a motive, right?"
"I saw on the Inte that the girl was his girlfriend or something. So, maybe they got into a fight, and
he did it out of anger."
"Isn''t Mr. Ford a divorcee with two kids? When did he get a girlfriend?"
"How am I supposed to know? I feel so sorry for the girl. She''s only in her early twenties, and I heard
that she was previously an employee in Pearson Group."
"Goodness! Pearson Group? Then, Miss McKinney—"
Somebody noticed that Leanna was still around and frantically nudged the person to stop talking. Then,
they booked it as they hightailed out of the lobby.
Leanna stood rooted on the spot as her frown deepened. A Pearson Group employee? Raymond''s
girlfriend?
An inexplicable feeling abruptly surged within her, and with it came an all-consuming sense of unease.
The difort within her even made her feel suffocated as her mind whirled with terrible after terrible
possibilities.
"Miss McKinney," Richard suddenly rang out, snapping her out of her terror. Still, sheposed herself
before she spun around. "Have you heard about what happened to Raymond?"
Leanna nodded. "Let''s go to the police station."
"Okay."
On the way there, Richard passed a document to her. "Miss McKinney, I found this on the desk when I
went back to the office in the afternoon."
She took the file from him, opened the kraft paper bag, and saw that it was all the information on the
wicked deeds Jimmy had done over the years. Besides corruption and bribery, there was even drug
trafficking, and every piece of information was detailed and precise.
As she reached thest pages of the document, the look on her face turned even more solemn with
every turn of the page. "Who gave this to you?"
"I don''t know," he admitted. "It was already on the desk when I returned."
Leanna returned the document to the paper bag and finally understood why Aidan''s reluctant behavior
when she insisted on continuing her investigations on Jimmy. He even went so far as to tell her that it
was better to stop while she still could. That was because he was the lowest of the low, so far down the
morality scale he might as well just dip it in ink.
He would do whatever illegal business as long as he could make a killing out of it.
Not only that, he even used several unknown ounts to transfer money through Crossley Group
before he finally moved the funds into his own ount via proper channels. With that, the Crossley
Group had turned into his aplice as his moneyunderer.
As the chairman of thepany, Leroy was definitely in the know, Leanna thought as her lips curled
into a cold smirk. No wonder he was willing to leave behind the entire Crossley Group and flee abroad.
He''s far more devious than I thought, utterly wicked to the core. What a scoundrel.
After that, she gave Aidan a call. Unfortunately, there was no answer. So, she called Jonathan, but he
didn''t pick up her call, either.
Something''s off, she thought and contemted her options before dialing Oscar''s number without any
response.
She lowered the car window and had a gut feeling that something sinister was going on behind the
scenes.
Soon, they reached the police station, where Raymond was in the interrogation room, cooperating with
the investigations.
After Richard asked around, he returned to her side and said, "Miss McKinney, ording to the police,
the identity of the deceased is a littleplicated, and they can''t reveal anything before they are clear
of what''s happening."
N?velDrama.Org ? content.
"Complicated?"
"Yes."
Leanna decided not to pursue it further. "Let''s go, then,"
However, after she had stepped foot outside of the police station, she suddenly recalled the news she
saw today and froze in her tracks.
The deceased was named Green but had aplicated identity. Furthermore, she was an employee of
Pearson Group and was in her early twenties.
She instantly pieced everything together, spun on her heels, darted into the police station, and stopped
before the police officer who was tidying away the documents on her desk.
"Was the dead girl''s name Celia?" she asked somewhat impatiently.
"Were you a friend of hers?" the police officer asked, looking at her.
Leanna''s lips parted to answer, but she couldn''t find the words. All of a sudden, her throat felt dry, and
the tightly wrung nerves in her mind seemed to have unwound themselves.
"If you were her friend, I could bring you to see her, and I hope that you can provide us with useful
leads for the case," the police officer added, rising to her feet.
The moment Leanna heard that, she understood what it meant—Celia was dead.
She staggered backward and identally bumped into a desk. She immediately grasped the edges
tightly to steady herself as the blood drained from her face.