Chapter 247: The Habitual Trespasser

Chapter 247: Chapter 247: The Habitual Trespasser

As she spoke, the woman’s voice faltered, and her body tensed.

The man looked a little resigned. He finally shook his head and said, "Are you talking about Hazel Hogan? Don’t worry. She called to quit a week ago. She probably heard we were getting married and decided to give up."

At his words, the woman finally relaxed. She hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. "That’s good. I really couldn’t stand her. She was clinging to you like a lunatic.

She even said she’d be willing to be your mistress or our nanny, as long as she could stay in this house. Is she insane? How could I possibly agree to that! Does that woman not have a brain?"

The woman’s voice was quite loud. Not only could Zoe Sawyer hear her, but so could Hazel Hogan, lying hidden in the space above the suspended ceiling.

The man wrapped an arm around his fiancée’s shoulders, reassuring her, "Of course I wouldn’t agree. Don’t worry."

Just then, the door pulled Zoe Sawyer’s attention back to Hazel Hogan, who was hiding in the ceiling.

The faint light of a cell phone illuminated Hazel Hogan’s face. She was gritting her teeth, looking as if she wanted nothing more than to rush down and tear the couple apart.

’You bitch, I’m not letting you get away with this. I’ll make you regret it.’

Hazel Hogan hissed the words through her teeth. Her voice was so low that Zoe Sawyer might not have heard her without the door’s help.

As she spoke, she pulled a sharp fruit knife from behind her back and held it in front of her.

Zoe Sawyer felt a sudden sense of foreboding. Just as she expected, the vision began to fast-forward. The couple, oblivious to anything amiss in the room, finished washing up, tidied their things, and got into bed to sleep.

Soon, it was three in the morning—the time when people sleep most soundly.

With practiced ease, Hazel Hogan lowered herself from the suspended ceiling. The entire motion was fluid, not making a single sound.

The warm, yellow glow of a night light made it easy for Hazel Hogan to slip to the woman’s side of the bed. She stared down at the sleeping face, raised the fruit knife high, and plunged it viciously toward the woman’s neck.

The woman happened to roll over just then, and the fruit knife slashed her ear.

The searing pain in her ear jolted the woman awake. She saw a figure standing by her bed and let out a terrified scream.

The man, startled awake by his girlfriend’s scream, opened his eyes to see a woman with disheveled hair standing by the bed, a fruit knife clutched in her hand.

"Wait—how did you get in here?" the man’s voice was filled with astonishment.

But they didn’t get an answer. Hazel Hogan was already swinging the knife at them again.

The man yanked the comforter, wrapping it around his girlfriend to shield her as he pulled her behind him. The two of them scrambled desperately to dodge the swinging blade.

Hazel Hogan shrieked as she wildly swung the fruit knife.

"Why wouldn’t you say yes? All I want is to be with you! Why did you refuse?

I love you so much! Why did you reject me?" As she spoke, Hazel Hogan’s expression grew even more crazed, and her attacks quickened.

Eventually, she backed the couple into a corner, leaving them with nowhere to run.

With the sickening sound of a blade sinking into flesh, Zoe Sawyer was abruptly ejected from the vision by the door.

It was the first time she had seen such a long prediction, and Zoe Sawyer wearily rubbed her brow.

Heath Hale, who had been keeping an eye on Zoe Sawyer, saw her gesture and asked in a concerned tone, "Are you all right? Don’t tell me the case is a tricky one?"

A few others also gathered around, looking at Zoe Sawyer worriedly.

Looking at their concerned faces, Zoe Sawyer shook her head and explained, "The case isn’t complicated. The vision just lasted much longer than usual, and it was a massive information overload. It took me a moment to process it all.

The good news is, we now have plenty of time to find the victims, so we don’t have to scramble."

The group gathered around Zoe Sawyer immediately understood her implication.

Her prediction window had expanded, which meant they could plan their response more carefully.

Evan Keller and the others, setting aside their other concerns, immediately asked Zoe Sawyer what she had seen.

Zoe Sawyer didn’t waste any time and quickly recounted everything she had witnessed in her vision.

After hearing the full account, Sean Hughes couldn’t help but comment, "She sounds like a completely delusional stalker. To feel so entitled to butt into someone else’s relationship, and then to hide in their house and resort to violence after being rejected..."

Judging from the frenzy Zoe Sawyer described, that couple’s chances would have been slim to none without police intervention.

Hayden Shaw also shook his head, his expression grim. "A couple about to be married... To have something like this happen to them... I can’t imagine how devastated their families would be."

What should have been a joyous occasion was turned into a tragedy where parents would have to bury their own children, all because of one obsessive stalker.

’But... why does that name sound so familiar?’

The others began to murmur among themselves.

"All right, this isn’t the time for that. Finding them and preventing this tragedy is what’s most important right now," Evan Keller said, cutting off the discussion.

Working from Zoe Sawyer’s description, Beau quickly produced a sketch of Hazel Hogan.

With the sketch and the name, Officer Lee quickly found a match in the system.

As he read through her record, Officer Lee’s tone grew surprised. "This Hazel Hogan... looks like she’s been brought in for questioning several times before. Reason... let’s see... illegal trespassing in the middle of the night?"

Officer Lee followed the record and quickly pulled up the statements from those incidents.

"She’s been brought in a total of five times, and the person who called the police was different every single time." Officer Lee skimmed the statements, raising an eyebrow.

’So not only is she a repeat offender, but she’s harassed multiple people?’

Hayden Shaw stared at one of the reports, his furrowed brow suddenly smoothing out. "I remember this now. I handled one of these cases. Near the end of the questioning, the homeowner got a text message and abruptly changed his tune. He said he didn’t want to press charges and that was the end of it.

The other four cases must have been the same. The homeowners all recanted at the last minute and dropped the charges."

Because the homeowners refused to press charges, and since Hazel Hogan hadn’t caused any property damage, the police could only give her a verbal warning and issue a fine.

Even back then, the police suspected there was something strange about the text messages the victims had received.

They had gently tried to remind the victims that they could confide in the police if something was wrong.

But their offers were all rejected.

For a long time afterward, the station didn’t receive any more trespassing calls about Hazel Hogan, so Hayden Shaw had put the matter out of his mind. That’s why the name didn’t ring a bell immediately.

Zoe Sawyer leaned in to examine the statements. Just as he’d said, the victims all started out demanding that Hazel Hogan be severely punished, only to suddenly change their tune later. They would claim they hadn’t suffered any real losses and, in one case, that they were colleagues, so it was better to just let it go.

"Hazel Hogan has something on them."