Seemingly lost in thought, Ryan flashed a cold smile and said in disappointment, “He snatched the flash drive away.”
“What?! But you still haven’t given me the backup!”Julia couldn’t believe what she was hearing and exclaimed.
“Right,” Ryan replied and motioned for her to stop speaking.
Julia covered her mouth and asked in hushed tones, “What’s the matter?”
Before grabbing the bag she was holding, Ryan gave her a glance. And after that, he took a small button battery-like object from the bag’s bottom. Ryan threw that thing to the ground, stomped on it, and then kicked it to the side. He breathed a sigh of relief after the fragment hit the corner and split into pieces.
“What exactly is this?” Julia asked as she was totally consumed.
“A bug,” Ryan said slowly.
“A bug? How did this end up in my bag? Why don’t I know anything about this?”
Julia had seen spies use bugs in TV shows before, but this was the first time she had seen it in real life. She shook nervously and immediately explained, “I didn’t bring this with me! I’ve never seen this before in my life!”
Ryan nodded dismissively and said, “I know. You have no idea when this was slipped into the bag. You’re far too stupid to commit a crime.”
Hearing his words, Julia went completely still. Then Ryan sat down next to her on the bench and said, “That man had been following you. I believe he was trying to spy on you to know what Anna was doing at the police station and how the case was progressing.”
Julia exclaimed as she was enlightened, “He was wearing that strange perfume!”
Ryan smiled and nodded.
“You knew that in the first place?” Julia asked in a loud voice.
“Yeah, and that’s why I used a little trick.”
“That is to say, you don’t have any evidence? Did you say it on purpose to entice him?”
“If you were smarter, you would’ve realized that I wouldn’t give you the backup in the first place. Wouldn’t it be safer to just hand it over to the cops?” Saying that, Ryan stood up and walked toward the hospital’s entrance.
“But instead of not catching him, you almost got killed,” Julia said, looking at the thick gauze on his head.
Ryan shook his head as he removed the mini-camera from his jacket’s lapel.
The next morning, Joanna ran into Irene, the nurse, on her way back to the ward from the cafeteria. She had just turned around when Irene excitedly grabbed her arm and exclaimed, “Joanna, we received your surgery fee!”
Joanna went completely still. She assumed she wouldn’t be able to have the surgery and didn’t hold out much hope. So, she was at a loss for words when she received the unexpected news.
Noticing that Joanna froze, Irene extended her hand and waved it in front of Joanna’s face, asking, “What happened? The dean just arrived and said the doctors will give you a checkup in the next few days. Then, you can have the surgery.”
“Oh, okay.” Joanna regained her composure and smiled. Still, Joanna felt that something had gone wrong. She had called Bill several times last night, but he didn’t answer. Coincidentally, she found out this morning that he had given her the money for the surgery. Somehow, she had the impression that there was some sort of link between those things.
As she turned to return to her ward, Johanna took her phone from her pocket. Irene stopped her again before she could make a call, saying, “By the way, Joanna, Bill asked me to give you this.”
Then Irene reached behind the front desk and pulled out a cardboard box. Joanna had no idea what was inside the box because it was sealed. She frowned, pointed to herself, and asked, “Is this from him? Why didn’t he just hand it to me?”
Irene shook her head and pushed the cardboard box into her hand, saying, “Bill gave this to me the night before he left and asked me to give it to you this morning. I asked him why he didn’t give it to you personally, but he didn’t reply.”
“Okay.”
Joanna weighed the cardboard box before bringing it into her ward. She dumped the stuff inside the box onto the bed and discovered that they were all papers and files. She flipped through them casually before sitting down and unpacking them. After unpacking all the files, she discovered an envelope glued to the bottom of the box.
“To Joanna,” a line on the cover said. It didn’t take her long to recognize that it was Bill’s handwriting. Johanna frowned and had an ominous feeling. When she opened the envelope and saw the first sentence, her body trembled violently.
“I will be dead by the time you read this letter.”
By the time she finished reading the letter, Johanna’s tears had soaked her clothes. She couldn’t believe what she had just read. Shivering, she took out her phone and dialed Bill’s number. However, his phone was still turned off.
Johanna dialed three times in a row, hearing the same voice prompt each time. Gradually, she accepted the cruel fact and let go of her hand, and her phone then dropped to the ground. At this moment, she had an impulse to die with him. She even believed that by receiving the money, she had committed a sin that could not be forgiven as well.
Sitting there, Johanna remained silent for a few moments before throwing all of the paper on the bed to the floor as if she were insane. She then sat on the floor in the chaos and began crying loudly, thinking to herself, Why, Bill? Why?! Why did you have to do this? You could’ve been alive if it weren’t for me…
About half an hour later, Joanna returned to the front desk. Irene was about to hand over her shift when she noticed Johanna approaching her slowly. “What’s wrong with?” she asked, stunned.
“I want to see the local news from this morning,” Joanna said as she clutched Irene’s sleeves with both hands as if she were clutching the last hope in her life.
“Okay.”
Irene and Joanna then were both trembling as they stared at Bill’s portrait on the TV screen. The news only mentioned the incident’s time and location and some other basic details. Because the police could not contact Bill’s relatives, they hoped someone would take his belongings.
Irene struggled for a long time to accept that the man on the screen was Bill. She thought he was a nice guy who would never offend anyone. And she reached out and pointed to Lemon’s office building on the screen, asking, “What is going on? Was Lemon’s boss responsible for Bill’s death?”
Johanna remained silent. She stared at the TV, appearing to have regained some sanity by this point. “I have to go to the police station and retrieve Bill’s belongings,” Johanna said, letting go of her hand.
Joanna was critically ill and weak, so the hospital would not let her leave. But, because of what had happened, Irene paused for a moment before saying, “Wait for me. I’ll go with you after my shift.”
Irene accompanied Joanna to the police station. Joanna said several times before making it clear why she was there. Following that, a male officer approached them. He had just smoked a cigarette, so he smelled strongly of smoke. He pulled a sealed plastic bag from the cabinet behind him and asked, “You say you’re related to him? Do you have any items that can be used to prove your identity?”
Joanna had just gotten a taxi from the hospital and felt a little under the weather. She clung to the table to keep herself from falling over. “There’s a picture of us together in here,” she pursed her lips, glancing at the worn-out wallet in the plastic bag. She shuddered as she pointed to that wallet.
Gang members, like Bill, were generally reluctant to take photographs for fear of getting themselves into trouble. As a result, the only photo Joanna and Bill had together was taken on Johanna’s birthday. Joanna still that she begged him for a long time before persuading him to print the photo.
After hearing this, the police officer opened the plastic bag and discovered a photo of them after opening the wallet. He glanced at Johanna, pushed the pile of objects forward, and said, “There’s nothing special here. His phone, wallet, keys, and leather jacket are all here.”
Without saying anything, Joanna held the pile in her hands. Then she muttered, “Thanks.”
Just when she was about to turn to leave, a young cop accidentally bumped into her. Having lost her balance, she stumbled and fell to the ground. Joanna held the bag tightly, but Bill’s wallet still slipped to the ground. In his wallet, she saw a well-preserved photo.
The girl in the photo was wearing a birthday hat and closing her eyes to make a wish while the man next to her was staring at her intently. He appeared tender and affectionate. Joanna couldn’t keep her emotions under control after seeing it, so she just sat in the middle of the lobby and started crying loudly.
The police officers who had worked in the police station for a long time were used to this, so no one said anything. However, the young officer who ran into her had just started working there, and he panicked. He scratched his head awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
Another male officer suddenly thought of something and opened the locker behind him to retrieve another plastic bag. “A doctor just brought this in this morning, and he said it was taken off of him during resuscitation yesterday,” he said as he walked over to Joanna.
Hearing that, Joanna finally stopped crying. She noticed that the sealed bag contained a dark blue sweater through her tears. And she became silent as she stared at the blood-soaked sweater, which had turned purple.
“Thank you,” Johanna replied. “Irene, there’s one more person I’d like to see,” she said after a brief pause.
In the prison, Anna emerged from behind the remand prison’s door dressed as a prisoner. Joshua had been waiting for her for a long time. He was heartbroken, however, when he saw Anna’s exhausted expression and realized she was pretending to be calm.
Anna sat in front of him and smiled as she teased him, “As a lawyer, you should have seen a lot of situations like this. Why are you still so surprised?”
“Are you still in the mood to laugh? It seems Wayne doesn’t even have to worry about you that much.” As he said this, Joshua snapped back to reality and regained his composure.
“You’ve been here several times, so I know he’s worried about me,” Anna explained.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.