In the room next to the interrogation room of the West District Criminal Investigation Division, a man smoked a cigarette, squinting slightly as he looked through the one-way glass at the calm-faced woman sitting in the interrogation chair next door.
"Captain Sutton, that woman still won’t admit it! She’s been sitting there for hours now!" complained the police officer in uniform, sitting in front of a computer.
Seth Sutton took a deep drag of his cigarette, flicked the almost-burned-out butt into the ashtray, and waved a subordinate over. The two of them walked out, taking just a few steps to reach the door of the adjacent interrogation room.
Before opening the interrogation room door, the subordinate lowered his voice in Seth Sutton’s ear: "The higher-ups instructed us not to make things difficult for her in there."
Seth Sutton frowned, displeased: "Who is that woman?"
"A lawyer."
"What’s her background?!"
"Apparently, she’s the girlfriend of the young heir of the Forrester Group."
"The young heir of the Forrester Group?" Seth Sutton pondered for a mont, then continued, "Isn’t that the neighbor of Mina’s grandfather’s family? What a coincidence?"
He said no more, opened the interrogation room door, greeted his colleague conducting the interrogation, and his colleague ceded the spot to him.
The door of the interrogation room closed.
The room was surrounded by grey padded walls, with light grey wooden floors. The interrogation chair was squarely placed in the center of the room, facing an interrogation desk that was fifteen centiters above the ground, equipped with a desk, a computer, and two chairs.
The room was bright and clean, and the female recorder sitting at the interrogation table was expressionless.
Sienna Thornton’s hands were flat on the partition in front of her, handcuffed, her gaze calmly directed at a point on the interrogation table. Her legs, in black stockings and matching heels, were elegantly crossed and placed diagonally.
She heard the door of the interrogation room open and soone entering or exiting, but did not look up, rely continuing her thoughts.
With a "thunk," a wooden chair on the interrogation table was pulled out forcefully.
After a mont, a rough, booming voice filled the small interrogation room: "Sienna Thornton! Do you know what you’ve done wrong?"
Sienna Thornton looked up at the person opposite.
The man wore a black trench coat, his face unshaven, and his sowhat long black hair ssily brushed to one side. He was looking at her with a serious expression.
Anyone in plain clothes sitting in this place had to be at least at the captain level.
Sienna Thornton withdrew her scrutinizing gaze and said blandly, "I don’t know, please tell , officer."
Seth Sutton: "You’re a lawyer, you should be aware that confessing truthfully will lead to a lighter sentence!"
"Please go ahead with your questions, officer. If I’ve done it, I’ll definitely admit it," Sienna Thornton responded, her voice a bit weak.
She had been taken here before seven o’clock, and it must be late at night by now. All her belongings had been confiscated, and without a watch, she had no idea what ti it was. She only knew she was very hungry, very tired, and felt a bit hypoglycemic.
Seth Sutton: "Where were you and what were you doing from 9:20 to 10:00 last night?"
Sienna Thornton thought for a mont: "At 9:20, I had just left the law firm and had an altercation with soone in the parking lot. The other party snatched my bracelet. At 9:30, I drove to chase after their car down West Suburb Avenue, and at 10:00, I turned around at the East West Suburb Avenue traffic light to return ho."
Her tone was calm, and her speech was concise yet clear.
Seth Sutton frowned, staring at her face.
In all his years as a detective, he’d never seen a suspect with such strong psychological resilience.
A young woman under thirty, explaining the pre-incident details with such calmness and accuracy either ant she had an exceptional mory and observational skills or she had morized these statents in advance.
He discreetly observed every expression on her face, trying to detect any intentionally hidden secrets from her unperturbed deanor.
The interrogation room was airtight and eerily quiet, with the large characters "Leniency for Confession, Severity for Resistance" on the wall adding to the mounting pressure.
Seth Sutton watched Sienna Thornton for a mont before suddenly shouting, "You’re lying! The bracelet wasn’t snatched by the deceased; you accidentally left it at the cri scene when you killed the deceased! Just because she was engaged to your boyfriend, you killed her? As a lawyer, are you not aware that intentional murder is almost always punishable by death?"
At his words, Sienna Thornton was initially stunned, followed by a dramatic change in her expression! Not believing that Nina Sinclair had died, she asked in shock, "What was the cause of death?"
"Carbon monoxide poisoning!" Seth Sutton said sternly, "You followed the deceased’s car to West Suburb Avenue, forced her to stop in an area without surveillance, knocked her out, and left, leading to her carbon monoxide poisoning death as the car was running with the heater on!"
Sienna Thornton: "..."
She was no longer shocked by Nina’s death but was trying hard to process the huge amount of information in Seth Sutton’s words.
After a mont, she calmly asked, "Has the forensic death report been issued? What was the exact cause of death? Besides carbon monoxide poisoning, were there any other injuries on the body?"
"Bang," Seth Sutton slamd the folder in his hand on the table, shouting, "I’m the one asking questions now! You need to confess, not interrogate !"
Sienna Thornton looked at him, swallowed, and explained, "I returned imdiately from the East West Suburb Avenue without forcing her to stop. I never got out of my car, so what you describe didn’t happen."
Seth Sutton sneered, "There’s no surveillance along the entire West Suburb Avenue, so who can confirm you turned back from the east section? You turned off your dashcam beforehand, wasn’t that to avoid leaving evidence? You wanted to kill, so you chose West Suburb Avenue to make your move and turned off your dashcam in advance! Do you admit it?!"
Sienna Thornton: "... I don’t have the habit of using my dashcam; it’s always been like that. The reason is that the dashcam, when on, drains the car battery. This habit even got reprimanded by the fleet captain at my previous job. You can go ask about it."
Seth Sutton then smiled and asked the female recorder beside him, "How much does a battery for a sedan cost?"
"Five hundred to a thousand."
Seth Sutton turned back to Sienna Thornton, his smile vanishing instantly: "As a well-established lawyer from overseas, a partner in a law firm, the chief legal officer of the Forrester Group, driving a Maserati Ghibli worth over a million, would you be stingy over a battery costing five hundred to a thousand? Even if you changed two batteries a year, couldn’t you afford two thousand?"
Sienna Thornton: "..."
She knew this was a common police interrogation tactic aid at breaking down a criminal’s lies and psychological defenses, so they might be very strict, creating an oppressive atmosphere to coax a confession from a suspect with weaker nerves.
But she wasn’t a criminal. She hadn’t done any of this, so she didn’t fear Seth Sutton’s interrogation.
Yet, she was very aware of what would happen next.
Seth Sutton would definitely interrogate her around the "evidence" the police currently had until after 24 hours, they would transfer her to a detention center to await the prosecutor’s arrest decision, which could take up to seven days.
During these days, she would undergo comprehensive interrogations, repeatedly facing the sa questions and explanations until she confessed to murder...
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