Chapter 250: Evan Keller Is Injured

Chapter 250: Chapter 250: Evan Keller Is Injured

After he said that, Hazel Hogan went rigid and looked at Heath Hale reproachfully. "You tricked me."

"I didn’t trick you. I’m just being honest." Heath Hale placed the file in his hand on a nearby table. "After we caught you, we called the five victims again, hoping to get their help.

They were very cooperative and told us everything."

In fact, as soon as they heard Hazel Hogan had been arrested for trespassing again—this time while carrying a paring knife—one of them changed their story and told the police the whole truth.

Once the first person talked, the second and third were sure to follow.

So while Heath Hale was interrogating Hazel Hogan, Sean Hughes and Hayden Shaw easily obtained updated statements from all five men.

He had just chosen to share only a portion of their testimony with Hazel Hogan.

Hazel Hogan’s head drooped lower and lower until, under Heath Hale’s stern gaze, she confessed everything.

Hazel Hogan was born into a family that heavily favored sons over daughters, where her parents were constantly at each other’s throats, often coming to blows.

Sometimes, when they got tired of fighting each other, they would find a different punching bag to blow off steam.

And Hazel Hogan was that punching bag. After taking her beatings, she was still expected to cook for the entire family.

Her father was also having an affair with a widow, and every day Hazel Hogan had to listen to her mother viciously curse the pair.

Eventually, the target of these tirades would shift to Hazel Hogan. If not for the state’s compulsory education, she probably wouldn’t have even had the chance to go to school; her parents would have sold her off for cash long ago.

Having always lived in that environment, Hazel Hogan thought her life was normal, because the other girls her age around her all lived the same way.

That was until Hazel Hogan met a new friend at school.

Her new friend came from a privileged background. Her parents were in love, the siblings got along, and even when she misbehaved, she wasn’t beaten.

This dealt a massive blow to Hazel Hogan’s worldview. It was then that she became determined to marry into a family just like that.

After escaping her family, this fixation remained with Hazel Hogan. Slowly, it grew from a mere obsession into concrete action.

The previous five victims were marriage candidates she had carefully selected for herself. They had good tempers, good jobs, were decent-looking, came from harmonious families, and didn’t have girlfriends.

No matter how she looked at it, each was an excellent choice.

Hazel Hogan felt that what she was seeing might just be a front; she had to get a deeper understanding to know what they were really like.

So Hazel Hogan would take her phone and sneak into their homes.

And that’s when she discovered that each of the five prospects had... problems.

For example, one liked inviting people he met online over to play games, another was always playing games with his buddies, one liked to cross-dress, and another came home, threw up his feet, and acted like a king, not lifting a finger to help with anything.

And these were all things Hazel Hogan could not accept.

So after her targets discovered her and called the police, she set a timer to send them the photos she had taken.

If they didn’t withdraw their police reports, the timer would upload the photos and videos to the internet.

’We can all just go down together.’

Calling the police might solve the problem, but these men didn’t want their secrets getting out. Not wanting to be publicly disgraced, they ultimately chose to withdraw their reports. Later, they even spent a good deal of money buying the photos and videos back from Hazel Hogan.

Having learned from her previous experiences, Hazel Hogan was far more meticulous when she chose her sixth marriage candidate, Mr. Armstrong, to avoid repeating her past failures.

The results of her investigation left her very satisfied. Other than the fact that he had a girlfriend, everything else about Mr. Armstrong perfectly fit her requirements.

So after her advances were rejected yet again, Hazel Hogan decided to quit her job, then found an opportunity to hide in the suspended ceiling of Mr. Armstrong and Ria’s room.

Like a rat that couldn’t bear the light, she watched their lives from the shadows.

Hazel Hogan thought she was hiding quite well, that she hadn’t been discovered. She never imagined the police knew all along.

"You hid in there with a paring knife, planning to do something to Mr. Armstrong’s girlfriend, right? After you offered to be his mistress or even their nanny—anything, as long as you could join their family—and were rejected, you wanted to kill her." Heath Hale once again exposed the thoughts Hazel Hogan had been hiding deep inside.

Hazel Hogan’s head snapped up in astonishment. ’Wait, how did they know that?!’

’Did those two bastards tell them that, too?’

"But I didn’t act on it! It was just a thought I had!" Hazel Hogan explained hurriedly. ’I absolutely cannot admit to this!’

"If we hadn’t shown up today, and that young couple went home and happened to start talking about this—about how disgusted they were by your offer—what would you have done?" Heath Hale stared intently at Hazel Hogan, enunciating every word. "You would’ve flown into a humiliated rage, found an opportunity, and killed them both."

This wasn’t just a guess on Heath Hale’s part; it was the future Zoe Sawyer had seen through the door.

Hazel Hogan’s head sank lower and lower. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, even just thinking about it for a moment gave her the urge to kill them both.

"Alright, we understand the motive now," Heath Hale said, standing up to look down at Hazel Hogan. "As for whether you’ll face prison time, that will depend on whether the couple decides to press charges."

Standing outside and listening to the entire interrogation, Zoe Sawyer couldn’t help but sigh. ’Every hateful person has a pitiful side, as they say.’

’But Hazel Hogan’s case was just too extreme.’

Though they said it depended on the victims’ wishes, there was really no suspense about the outcome. Mr. Armstrong and Ria’s stance was firm: they would press charges to the fullest extent.

The thought that a person like that had been hiding in their room, and that this person had a grudge against her, made Ria hug herself tightly.

’We have to move! We’re definitely moving!’

Mr. Armstrong pulled his girlfriend into an embrace. ’He’d never imagined that leading a clean, respectable life would be the very reason she had targeted him.’

Hazel Hogan’s case was simple. She was caught in the act, and with both witnesses and physical evidence, it was resolved quickly and didn’t drag on.

By the time Zoe Sawyer and the others finished with the case and returned to the office, they found Evan Keller sitting at his desk and treating his wounds.

Several other squad members who had been on the assignment with him were also nursing injuries of varying severity.

The rest, though uninjured, looked just as haggard. It was clear they had run into trouble.

"What happened? How did you get injured?" Zoe Sawyer and Sean Hughes rushed over to them, worriedly inspecting their wounds.

Evan Keller was the worst off, with several deep scrapes on his arm and cheek.

You could even see bits of gravel embedded in his elbow, and fresh blood was still seeping from the wound.

The others were much better off, having sustained only minor scrapes.

"It’s all my fault," one of them said. "If I’d just been more careful on that turn, I wouldn’t have gotten Captain Keller hurt."