Chapter 397 - 346: Dual Perspective: One Room, Two People, Three Voices

Chapter 397: Chapter 346: Dual Perspective: One Room, Two People, Three Voices

...Something was wrong.

And judging by the current situation, it was probably very serious.

However, Mai Mingle couldn’t for the life of her figure out what she had gotten herself into.

She felt like she was walking blind through the night, surrounded by a silent, breathless audience watching her every move. Everyone knew where she was headed—everyone except for Mai Mingle herself.

’Are the police treating me like a potential suspect?’

She had only said she needed to use the restroom, and the chief, who just "happened to be passing by," insisted on personally taking her. Mai Mingle thanked her repeatedly and tried to decline, but the chief acted as if she didn’t understand, politely saying she was heading there anyway, so they might as well go together.

The chief of police, no less, followed Mai Mingle into the public restroom in the first-floor lobby.

When she went into a stall, the chief stood right outside the door. When she came out of the stall to wash her hands, the chief was standing right by the sinks.

As she washed her hands, the expression in her reflection could only barely be described as calm.

After Mai Mingle had finished her pointless trip to the restroom and finally came back out, Chief Ashley Page smiled at her and gestured for her not to leave. "I heard about the case you came to report. I’m very interested. You wouldn’t mind coming to chat with me about it, would you?"

Of course, Mai Mingle wasn’t fooled by her polite tone into thinking she actually had a choice in the matter.

"To an interrogation room?" she asked tentatively.

Chief Ashley was surprisingly friendly. She smiled at her again. "You’re not a suspect, so why would we go to an interrogation room? Let’s talk in my office. It’s on the second floor."

Logically, Mai Mingle had done nothing wrong and had no reason to fear a talk with the police. But who knew what the deal was with Ivan?

What if the Nest had her rescue a serial killer? ’Oh god, could Ivan be the subway serial killer everyone’s been talking about?’

Her mind racing with anxious speculation, Mai Mingle followed the chief into her upstairs office and watched as Ashley closed the door and lowered the blinds.

’No matter how crazy the world gets, a police chief can’t just murder me in her office,’ Mai Mingle reassured herself. ’There are people coming and going right outside.’

Ashley walked behind her desk and turned around, seemingly about to invite her to sit, but she suddenly froze.

She stared intently at Mai Mingle. Her neck, like a pat of butter melting on a hot knife, began to slide forward, her face inching closer and closer to Mai Mingle—until her neck couldn’t stretch any further, and she stopped.

Mai Mingle suppressed her pounding heart and swallowed hard.

’I’m just being paranoid.’ A thousand absurd theories flashed through her mind in an instant, and she almost turned and bolted for the door. ’It’s not like Chief Ashley’s neck is actually made of butter; of course it couldn’t just keep sliding forward like that.’

"Wh-what is it?"

Ashley continued to stare dead-eyed at Mai Mingle, as if she were hearing a celestial song in the suddenly thick, stagnant air that no one else could hear. Her mouth hung slightly open, making her face seem even longer and narrower.

Pinned by her gaze, Mai Mingle didn’t dare look away from Chief Ashley, yet she desperately wanted to scan the room. A sudden suspicion had crept over her—she felt as though a third person had entered the room.

"...Chief?"

"Oh, oh, my apologies." Ashley snapped back to reality, her head retracting to its normal position above her collarbone. "You just look familiar, a bit like a friend of mine. Please, have a seat."

As if a weight pressing down on her had been lifted, Mai Mingle quickly glanced around. There were indeed only two of them in the room: herself and the chief.

"You’re Mai Mingle, correct?" Ashley asked, glancing at her computer. "How long have you known Ivan Weston?"

’Now she finally sounds like a cop,’ Mai Mingle thought, breathing a sigh of relief. "Not long. What’s wrong with him?"

"How long is ’not long’?"

Police and Hunters had one thing in common: once they got ahold of a thread, they’d try to pull a whole ox out with it.

"...Two weeks."

Ashley suddenly cracked a smile—and the lower half of her face seemed to shatter into three pieces before reassembling itself.

"I see, I see. I understand now." She nodded, then asked, "How much do you know about how dangerous he is? Are you aware that he has a criminal record?"

’So it’s true?’ Mai Mingle sighed internally. ’The Nest had me save a criminal... And I walked right into a trap by coming to the police station.’

"I don’t know anything."

"He’s a highly dangerous murderer who doesn’t trust anyone. Forgive me for being blunt, but your story is full of holes. You’ve known him for two weeks, yet you were willing to let him stay with you, and he wasn’t afraid you’d discover his secrets. I have to wonder if, in the crimes he’s committed, you also played a role as—"

By the time Ashley had gotten this far, Mai Mingle was already growing visibly agitated. It was the first time in her life she’d ever been suspected of a crime by the police, and her first instinct was to deny everything completely. But before she could speak, the phone on Ashley’s desk rang, interrupting their conversation.

"One moment," Ashley said, picking up the phone. "Hello?"

Mai Mingle was bursting with anxiety, but she couldn’t say a word. She couldn’t hear the voice on the other end, so she could only wait for Ashley to finish the call.

Ashley pursed her lips, listening without speaking for a moment, then suddenly glanced at Mai Mingle.

’Huh?’

’Is the call about me?’

"Alright, I understand... Yes, with you vouching for her, I’m not worried." She sighed silently and said, "How are your sources so good?"

After whatever was said next on the phone, Ashley just hummed in acknowledgment a few times before quickly hanging up. She clasped her hands together, her expression complicated as she looked at Mai Mingle.