Chapter 139: The Scattered Pill Bottle

Chapter 139: Chapter 139: The Scattered Pill Bottle

The moment he saw Captain Lee, Dave lunged forward, his eyes wide with terror.

His voice, distorted with agitation, cried out, "Officer! She’s in the kitchen! She’s in the kitchen! She’s trying to kill me!"

Watching Dave, a man nearly his own age, sobbing uncontrollably while grabbing the hem of his clothes and yelling "Officer," Captain Lee felt the urge to just close his eyes.

But thoughts were just thoughts. There was a job to do, and he wouldn’t be careless.

Captain Lee drew his tranquilizer gun and, coordinating with the team member beside him, advanced step by step toward the kitchen. ℯℯ𝘭.

The glass door to the kitchen was closed. Looking through it, they could only see Shea, wearing an apron, chopping something.

A faint smile played on her lips, and her light, cheerful movements suggested she was in a rather good mood.

Zoe Sawyer stood beside Heath Hale, her eyes scanning the living room, committing certain details to memory.

Soon, her gaze was drawn to a small pill bottle under the coffee table.

The bottle was open, and a few scattered pills were faintly visible nearby.

In the clutter of the living room, the bottle was quite inconspicuous.

"Heath, look over there." Zoe Sawyer pointed under the coffee table, directing Heath Hale’s attention.

Following the direction she pointed, Heath Hale quickly spotted the pill bottle she mentioned.

Without hesitation, Heath Hale asked a nearby officer for gloves and an evidence bag, walked over, and picked up the small pill bottle from underneath.

Since they were already inside, Heath Hale walked over to the man still lying on the floor.

Members of Team Three had already administered basic first aid to stop some of the bleeding and had covered him with a bedsheet while waiting for the ambulance.

In the meantime, no one else dared to move the man, afraid that one wrong move could cause a secondary injury.

Just then, Heath Hale’s eyes narrowed. He stared at the man’s nostrils. ’Does it look like there’s something in there?’

"Do you have a flashlight? Give me one." Heath Hale held out his hand to a nearby officer and asked for one.

He then shone the flashlight into the man’s nostrils.

Sure enough, some white powder was still visible inside his nasal cavity.

Dave, who had been a bundle of nerves, froze when he saw Heath Hale’s action. He then rubbed his nose vigorously and even blew it hard, trying to wet his nasal passages with mucus.

"I’d advise you not to try anything funny. Body cam. Everything you do is being recorded," Zoe Sawyer said, pointing to the recorder on her person and giving Dave a smiling reminder.

He was already a person of interest to the police, and when he saw Heath Hale approach his lover, his body tensed and his expression soured.

Zoe Sawyer, who had been keeping an eye on him, naturally aimed her camera at him the moment she saw his reaction.

Thus, she was able to capture his subsequent series of actions.

Dave’s hand froze on his nose, unsure for a moment whether to lower it or to pretend nothing was wrong and continue blowing it.

Heath Hale had just instructed an officer to take a sample of the substance from the man’s nostrils when he heard Zoe Sawyer’s voice.

After giving a few more instructions, he strode over to Zoe Sawyer’s side.

"What’s going on?" Heath Hale asked. Although he lowered his voice, the house wasn’t very large, so Dave could still hear him loud and clear.

Dave sullenly lowered his hand, pretending as if nothing had happened.

Zoe Sawyer stared at the pill bottle in Heath Hale’s hand. The label on it was still crisp, looking as if it had just been picked up from the hospital.

"Hold that bottle up a bit higher so I can see." Zoe Sawyer patted Heath Hale’s arm, signaling for him to raise his hand.

Heath Hale cooperatively raised the evidence bag, giving Zoe Sawyer a clear view of the entire pill bottle.

It was a standard-issue pharmacy vial, with a brand-new label stuck on it. The date was for today.

The number of pills in the bottle was completely different from what was written on the label—it was short by almost half.

Zoe Sawyer looked at the name on the bottle’s label, then pulled out her phone to search for it. An expression of understanding dawned on her face.

"This is a commonly prescribed antidepressant. Hallucinations are a possible side effect during the initial period of use or when adjusting the dosage.

"And based on the name on the label, this prescription should belong to his wife." Zoe Sawyer showed Heath Hale the information she had found.

All the while, her eyes remained fixed on Dave, gauging his reaction.

After she identified the drug as an antidepressant, beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his expression turned guilty.

He looked at the sky, he looked at the ground—he looked anywhere but at Zoe Sawyer.

Heath Hale let out a cold laugh. It wasn’t hard to guess what the white powder in the other man’s nose was.

’The two of them were crushing this drug and snorting it to get high.’

’But why did things escalate to this point? What happened in between?’

They would only get the answers to all these questions once Captain Lee brought out the other party involved.

Meanwhile, Captain Lee’s team was making a breakthrough.

He had managed to get Shea out of the kitchen.

Taking her knife and her pregnancy into consideration, Captain Lee had used persuasion to finally coax her out of the kitchen.

Dave, who had been looking guilty, immediately puffed up with arrogance the moment he saw Shea being led out with empty hands.

He jumped right in front of Shea, pointed a finger in her face, and started screaming abuse. "You bitch! You dared to pull a knife on me? Just you wait! I’ll beat you to death for this, mark my words!"

As he spat out the words, Dave’s expression turned exceptionally ugly. His eyes were vicious, and his hands unconsciously clenched into fists. If the police hadn’t been there, his fists might have found their way to Shea’s body in the very next second.

Captain Lee’s expression darkened as well. ’If Dave is this brazen right in front of me,’ he thought, ’how many beatings must Shea have endured in private!’

Seeing the finger about to poke her in the face, Shea didn’t hold back. She opened her mouth and bit down.

Hard. As if she intended to bite Dave’s finger clean off.

If Captain Lee and the others hadn’t intervened in time, pinching Shea’s cheeks to force her jaw open, it was questionable whether Dave would have kept that finger.

"Officer! You see? She’s a lunatic! She even dared to attack me right in front of you! Take her away! Arrest her!" Dave clutched his finger and scrambled back a few steps.

The crowd of neighbors watching from outside also saw this and couldn’t help but gasp.

"Whoa, that Shea is vicious! The two of them live like they’re mortal enemies!"

"Well, look at the guy on the floor. If it were me, I’d be just like Shea!"