Chapter 79 The Questioning
At eight o'clock the next morning, a police car was parked in front of Bella's house.
A police officer in black uniform named James Fearon came to visit Bella.
James was holding a notebook in his left hand and a pen in his right, sitting on the long couch with his legs crossed.
Bella sat down in the chair opposite. Edward sat beside her, holding her hand tightly.
"Excuse me, ma'am, Mr. Edward told us last night that you were not feeling well, I'm sorry about that and give you my best wishes." James politely said.
"Thank you, Sir."
"Back to business, I came here to get some information from you."
"It's okay, please feel free to ask." Bella reluctantly smiled.
"Thank you, first of all, I'd like to give you both an update on the progress of our investigation. After the initial inspection of the scene, we have tentatively determined that it was a deliberate murder."
"Murder!?" Bella exclaimed, covering her mouth and reconfirming the information she had heard, "You mean someone ran him over on purpose?"
"Yes," James nodded, "Last night, Mr. Edward has informed the police of your social relationship with the victim. I came today, mainly to ask you a few questions. First of all, I want to know why the victim came to you on the night of the incident? What did he say to you? Did he do anything out of the ordinary?"
Bella thought for a few seconds and answered, "Last night, as I was late and driving up the side road to my house, he stopped me in the middle and told me that Edward was a liar, of course, this was not the first time he had said such nonsense, and then I started the car and ditched him, and he chased after me, yelling that he had much money and that he was taking me away or something like that. "
"A large sum of money, uh-huh." James raised his eyebrows, "Things are getting interesting, the police checked the victim's bank account and it only had $2,000 in it. The police also searched his home and didn't find anything valuable. He may have taken the money with him, and it cannot be ruled out that this money was the motive for the murderer's crime. So, ma'am, would you please carefully recall if he had any large bags or boxes or other containers with him last night?"
"I don't know," Bella shook her head, failing to recollect anything, "I didn't let him get in the car, and I didn't notice anything he had with him, it was dark by that time."
James made a quick note of Bella's statement in his notebook. He was about to ask his next question when Bella interrupted him.
"Wait, I got it. He told me he had a DNA test that would prove Edward and my boss were the same." Bella felt Edward's hand squeezed slightly and she looked up at him, surprised, "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"
Edward smiled and shook his head, saying, "No, I'm just angry at his lies. Don't mind that."
Bella breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "I'm sorry, I got off-topic. Let me continue, Bob told me that that evidence was in my sister Lanny's hand."
"A very useful clue," James said with a quick sweep of Edward, "Did you see Lanny that night?"
"I guess I didn't." Bella shook her head.
"You guess?" James' gaze turned sharp.
"I didn't see her," Bella broke away from Edward's hand and covered her face, whimpering, "I just stopped the car and..." She looked up. Her eyes were slack and her brow slightly furrowed as if she had just woke up from a nightmare.
Immediately afterward, tears began to flow down her face. She opened her mouth trying to say something, but the words that came out of her mouth were hard to make out.
"Honey, you don't have to force yourself." Edward interrupted her gently, then looked to James, "Sir, I'm sorry, but my wife's mental condition is hardly holding up, so we'll stop here for today. I'll contact you when she is ready."
James closed his notebook, stuck the pen in his upper pocket, stood up and bowed slightly, "Thank you for your cooperation."
Edward leaned on his crutches and walked James to the front yard, "Make sure you investigate Lanny carefully."
"Definitely." James nodded, "Mr. Edward, please forgive me to say, Mrs. Bella's state doesn't seem too optimistic, I've handled hundreds of cases, and a good portion of my clients suffer from PTSD. I suggest you hire a doctor to do a checkup for her."
"I will."
After sending James away, Edward returned inside to see Bella collapsed on the floor.
"Bella, are you okay?"
"Mmm." Bella slowly opened her eyes; she was sweating all over, but she felt strangely cold.
"Can you stand up? I'll help you back to your room to rest." Edward held out his hand to Bella.
*** ***
In the afternoon, the Whites heard about Bella's situation and rushed over to Bella's house.
In normal times, they wouldn't dare to show concern for their youngest daughter for fear that Lanny would find out and make a scene.
But this morning, David told them that Lanny went out for a trip, and would not return for a while, so they were relieved to go to Bella.
They rang the doorbell and it was Edward who opened the door.
Seeing that the visitors were his parents-in-law, he asked with a surprised look on his face, "What are you doing here?"
The Whites didn't bother to answer and rushed into the house. They looked around, but they couldn't find Bella.
"Where is she?" Mr. White asked as he grabbed Edward by the collar of his shirt.
Edward looked coldly at the hands that grabbed his collar, anger written all over his face.
Mr. White suddenly felt afraid, he let go of his hands, coughing lightly to hide his embarrassment, "I'm sorry, I just got a little excited. We just want to know where our daughter is now."
"She is sleeping in her room. Don't bother her. Just talk to me if you have anything to say."
"We heard about what happened last night. We are worried about her. She is too kind and sentimental. She couldn't bear to witness the death of her colleague." Mrs. White rushed to say.
"I can't believe you guys are that kind. You've never been nice to Bella!" Edward chided.
They had no choice but to tell Edward the reason why they had favored Lanny and treated Bella poorly for years.
They had wanted Edward to understand, but to their surprise, he scoffed at their statement.
"How hypocritical you are! You say you love her, but instead of protecting her, you hurt her!"
The Whites had no words to retort.
They bowed their heads and confessed their sins to Edward.
"We only ask for a chance to make it up to her."
"I have no right to make decisions for Bella; you will have to obtain her forgiveness yourselves."
Hearing Edward's reply, the Whites looked at each other and smiled, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.