Chapter 116: A College Classmate Asked Me to Catch a Cheater

Chapter 116: Chapter 116: A College Classmate Asked Me to Catch a Cheater

’She was going to die one way or another, so why bother needlessly offending someone.’

Just as Julia Payne wore a fearless expression, there was a knock on the interrogation room door.

She looked up to see her two monstrous daughters walk in, leading the youngest child by the hand as they followed behind another woman.

The twins’ faces were cold as they stared at the seated Julia Payne. "If you don’t talk, we’ll dig up your brother and feed him to the dogs."

Not all of his body had been recovered; part of it had been left behind in that wretched village.

Julia Payne hadn’t dared to have the remains cremated. The incomplete corpse would have drawn too much attention, so she could only find a scenic spot to bury him.

Standing beside the twins, Zoe Sawyer watched the color drain from Julia Payne’s face and couldn’t help but be taken aback.

’She has no compassion for her own children,’ Zoe thought. ’It’s like all her affection was reserved for her brother.’

She couldn’t quite comprehend such a warped sense of love.

Perhaps because she knew the twins would actually go through with it, Julia Payne remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking.

"The person who launders the money for me is a friend I met while studying abroad. I have leverage on him, so we agreed from the start: he handles the transfers, and we split the money eighty-twenty after it comes in."

The Payne siblings knew full well that a business built on threats alone wouldn’t last.

So after the initial threat, they chose to cooperate with their targets.

One side had the channels, the other had the material. By working together, they could maximize their profits.

However, as Julia Payne’s profits grew, she was no longer satisfied with the eighty-twenty split.

This year, she was planning to move her operations abroad, where there were fewer restrictions.

But before they could figure out the specifics, this all happened.

After quickly taking down the information Julia Payne provided, Zoe Sawyer and the others let out a collective sigh of relief.

They had finally cracked the case.

The subsequent arrests and sentencing would be up to the other teams.

"Done, done, it’s finally done." Zoe Sawyer walked into the office, unable to resist a long stretch, and leaned against a desk as if she didn’t have a bone in her body.

Seeing Sean Hughes sitting nearby and massaging her own sore shoulders, Zoe Sawyer sidled over and started kneading them for her.

Evan Keller and the others had it even worse, having worked around the clock.

"I’ll let you know when the interrogation results are out. You’ve all worked hard." A SWAT captain walked over and patted Evan Keller and Heath Hale on the shoulder, his voice filled with gratitude.

If they hadn’t discovered this criminal group in time, it would have been sickening to let them get away scot-free.

"What are you going to do about the children?" Zoe Sawyer asked, looking at the SWAT captain.

The captain, who knew the full story, looked troubled. The adults were easy enough to deal with, but he had no idea what to do with Julia Payne’s innocent children.

Number Three was definitely looking at the death penalty, and Number Five’s situation was so unique that there was no immediate, reasonable solution.

The youngest refused contact with any adults and would only stay by the twins’ side.

"Forget it. That’s not my problem to worry about. I’d better focus on making arrests." The captain rubbed the bridge of his nose, no longer dwelling on the issue. He decided it was best to focus on catching the money laundering syndicate.

If he followed this lead, he might be able to pull up some other criminals along with it and take them all down in one fell swoop.

The group chatted for a few more moments. After confirming once more that Zoe Sawyer and her team didn’t need him to arrange a car, the captain left with his men.

Time was short; he needed to take them down before they had a chance to react.

After resting for a while at the local precinct, Zoe Sawyer’s team returned to the empty house at the foot of the mountain. They passed through the door and reappeared back at the Varden West Precinct in Varden.

"Congratulations on cracking another case!" Officer Lee, who had been busy with his work, quickly spoke up to congratulate them when he saw Zoe Sawyer’s team return.

Evan Keller nodded at Officer Lee. He was about to go find the chief to report on the situation when Officer Lee stopped him.

"Captain Keller, the chief left for an emergency meeting. He probably won’t be back for a couple of days."

"Before he left, the chief said that if you got back today, you should just write a report on the mission and leave it in his office. You can take tomorrow off. Everything else can wait until he gets back," Officer Lee relayed.

Apparently, the meeting was so important they had to turn in their phones. The chief had been afraid a text might disturb the team, which was why he’d asked him to pass on the message.

"Alright, I understand. Thanks for your hard work." Evan Keller nodded. He then remembered something else and asked, "What’s the situation with Boss Thorne? Any new findings?"

As it happened, Officer Lee handed them another file from his desk. "These are the bank records we pulled. There’s a transfer from an overseas account into his at a fixed time every month."

"We also looked into Boss Thorne’s personal connections and found that he has no relatives, friends, or business overseas. That makes the source of this money rather suspicious."

Heath Hale took the file and flipped through it. Sure enough, there was a deposit for a fixed amount at a fixed time every month, and the sum was always right at the transfer limit.

An ordinary breakfast vendor with no overseas connections was receiving a fixed sum of money every month.

On top of that, he’d been seen tailing police officers on multiple occasions. This was no ordinary coincidence.

"Don’t make a move on him yet. You guys keep him under surveillance. See if you can find an opportunity to take him and whoever’s behind him down all at once," Heath Hale said, handing the file back to Officer Lee.

"Understood."

Officer Lee took back the file and returned to his work.

Zoe Sawyer and the others went back to their respective dorms to wash up and get some rest.

The next day, when a yawning Sean Hughes arrived at the office, she found Zoe Sawyer sitting in her chair with a pained expression.

"What’s wrong?" Sean Hughes walked over with a grin and draped an arm around her friend’s shoulder. ’The Julia Payne case isn’t officially closed, but surely it’s not still weighing on Zoe’s mind,’ she thought.

’Did something else happen?’

Zoe Sawyer shook her head and held her phone out to Sean Hughes, her voice tinged with annoyance. "My old college classmate. She wants me to go with her to catch her husband cheating."

"Catch a cheater?"

Sean Hughes raised an eyebrow, her voice full of surprise.

She’d forgotten to keep her voice down, and now everyone in the office was looking their way.

People who were working and people who were resting all glanced over at Zoe Sawyer. Even Beau, who had been drawing, stopped what he was doing and quickly scooted over to Zoe’s side.

Everyone pricked up their ears, eager to hear what was going on.

"Yeah, catch a cheater," Zoe confirmed. "She said she found out her husband was using a business trip as a cover to meet his mistress, so she followed him here."

"Then she remembered I live in Varden and asked me to go with her for moral support."