NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 408: Not a coincidence.
After a good while, Alfred pulled the car in front of CIB.
"Madam, we have arrived," he announced. Arwen glanced outside the window before nodding at him in acknowledgement.
She checked the time on her watch and it was showing 11.50 AM.
"Alfred, this might take some time. You can take the car to the parking lot. I will let you know once I am done."
Understanding her instruction, Alfred nodded.
Arwen and Mia stepped out of the car.
Mia had no idea why they were there. Arwen had simply asked her to accompany her, and she had agreed.
As they stepped inside the bureau, an officer approached them.
"Hello! May I know how may I help you?"
Arwen responded with a polite smile. "Hello, Officer. I had an appointment with Officer Davis."
"Ms. Arwen Quinn, correct?" the female officer asked for confirmation.
Arwen nodded in response. The officer smiled and continued, "I am Officer Jena. I was the one who called you this morning. Please follow me —I will take you to Officer Davis."
With that, she turned and motioned them to follow her inside.
She led them to a cabin and knocked on the door. Upon hearing the response from inside, she pushed it open.
"Officer Davis, Ms Quinn is here," she announced, stepping aside to make way for Arwen.
It was then Arwen caught the sight of the officer sitting behind the desk. Her brows furrowed slightly.
She recognized this man.
This wasn't her first time seeing this man.
Although she hadn't immediately placed him when he introduced himself, now, seeing him, she recalled where she had seen him before. He was one of Ryan's acquaintances.
"Ms. Quinn, I have been expecting you," Officer Davis greeted, rising to his feet. Then gesturing to the chair across him, he added, "Please take a seat."
Arwen walked into his office room and pulled out a chair for herself while Mia stood behind her.
"Officer Davis, if I recall correctly, this isn't our first meeting. We have met before."
The officer, who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, smiled politely and nodded.
"We weren't formally introduced, but yes, this isn't our first meeting. You must have seen me around Mr. Ryan Foster a few times."
It was just as Arwen thought.
But now, another suspicion crept into her mind. Fixing her gaze on the officer, she asked, "So, this complaint … was it Ryan who asked you to investigate this accident?"
Officer Davis had no intention of keeping it a secret, Seeing Arwen's sharp intuition, he smiled and admitted, "Mr. Foster was deeply concerned about you. He wanted to ensure that the person responsible for your suffering was punished. So, he asked me to look into it and track down the men who targeted you that night."
If Arwen didn't know any better, she might have believed him.
However, here, she knew Ryan far too well. If he was doing this, it couldn't be for her. It has to be for Delyth —to protect her from the consequences.
"So, did you find them?" she asked, looking straight into his eyes.
Officer Davis was slightly taken aback. He had expected her to react to Ryan's supposed concern, but she didn't even acknowledge it. It was as if she hadn't heard him mention Ryan at all.
"Uh … the instigators couldn't be found. We searched extensively, but it's as if they vanished off the face of Earth. They were local gangsters but even their groups have been wiped out, leaving no trace behind."
He explained the major hurdle in their investigation. Despite their efforts, they remained as clueless as before.
Even though it had been a local gang, eliminating an entire group overnight wasn't an easy feat. It required authority and power that wasn't easily accessible.
Although disappointed, Arwen hadn't expected much.
So, when she learned, they had failed to identify the true culprit behind the attack, she was particularly surprised.
Nodding, she simply asked, "If that's how it had turned out and there is no evidence left behind to find the person responsible for my accident, why am I being asked here? This couldn't be possible for nothing."
She didn't intend to sound rude, but knowing the truth while being unable to act on it made her feel helpless. And she hated that feeling.
"Ms. Quinn, we understand your frustration. However, even though we weren't able to find the culprit, we did manage to retrieve the surveillance footage from that night," Officer Davis slowly spoke, his tone laced with practised empathy. "In the footage, we found something suspicious. That's why we called you in —to review it and help us understand what we are seeing."
The surveillance footage …
She had already lived through that night. Would watching it again through a camera lens make any difference?
Still, she did want to know what the officer meant when he said he found something suspicious on it.
Nodding, she agreed.
Seeing her consent, Officer Davis wasted no time. He pulled out a laptop, typed a few commands, and opened the file.
Turning the screen toward her, he pressed play.
"Here, kindly look through it."
Arwen watched as the footage unfolded.
She saw her car speeding down the road, another vehicle in pursuit. Then, the inevitable crash.
Though the faces of the men following her weren't clear, she could still vaguely remember seeing one of them through her rearview mirror that night.
The smoke in the video made it difficult to see but she could clearly notice Delyth appearing on the scene and moving to the other car that had crashed with her.
And then she saw it.
Delyth was swapping places with the person she had crashed into.
At this moment, Officer Davis moved his finger and paused the video.
Glancing at Arwen, he asked, "Ms. Delyth Ember arrived at the accident site almost immediately after you crashed. That doesn't seem like a coincidence. Do you believe Ms. Delyth could have done something to harm you?"