Hearing this, lody Sumrs couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter.
’This Mrs. Vance is quite sothing,’ she thought. ’She even knows about forensics.’
It was no wonder Mrs. Vance was arguing so craftily. After all, her footprints and fingerprints really weren’t at the scene.
The one who had entered 1606 last night was that scrawny little chihuahua. The one who had stolen the pork was also that chihuahua. It was impossible for there to be any trace of Mrs. Vance.
Mrs. Vance must have thought that without evidence, the police couldn’t do anything to her.
At the sound of lody Sumrs’s laugh, Mrs. Vance’s head snapped up to look at her.
Mrs. Vance’s eyes darted around. Then, she took a few steps forward, grabbed lody Sumrs’s hand, and began to wail, tears and snot streaming down her face.
"Young lady, you can’t fra ! I’m just an old woman! I... I... I have a bad heart! High blood pressure, coronary heart disease! Angina! ... I can’t handle this kind of stress! If you insist on framing , you’re basically driving to my death!"
With that, Mrs. Vance started howling.
lody Sumrs listened to the ear-splitting racket, rendered speechless by Mrs. Vance’s performance.
She wanted to say to Mrs. Vance: ’A bad heart? High blood pressure? You were pretty damn agile when you were climbing the security bars last night!’
’Even soone in their twenties wouldn’t have the guts to scale sixteen floors bare-handed!’
Mrs. Vance’s grandson seed to be frightened by her as well. The small, frail boy, who had been standing there quietly, scurried into the bedroom in terror.
Seeing this, Officer Tate hurried forward to separate Mrs. Vance and lody Sumrs. He stood in front of lody, preventing Mrs. Vance from getting near her.
Then, Officer Tate pulled out his phone with the surveillance footage.
Officer Tate held the video footage up in front of Mrs. Vance, his expression grim. "Who needs forensics? The resident of 1606 has a security cara. The entire cri was recorded! See for yourself!"
The mont Officer Tate ntioned the surveillance video, Mrs. Vance was like a chicken caught by the throat; her wails died instantly.
Staring at the clear footage in front of her, Mrs. Vance looked as if she had been struck by lightning, her face a mask of disbelief.
She muttered, "A cara... How is that possible... It’s so cold... How could there be a cara..."
What Mrs. Vance ant was: ’How could a security cara still be working when it’s this cold? Shouldn’t it have stopped functioning long ago!?’
Mrs. Vance thought this because she also had a security cara installed outside her window.
But ever since the temperature dropped, her cara had stopped working.
Mrs. Vance had looked it up online, and the information she found said that security caras don’t function in excessively low temperatures. That’s why she had dared to take the risk.
She never expected lody Sumrs’s cara to still be working properly!
What Mrs. Vance didn’t know was that the cara lody Sumrs had bought was a model specifically designed for cold storage, capable of operating in temperatures as low as fifty or sixty degrees below zero.
Gazing at the clear images recorded by the cara, Mrs. Vance’s face turned deathly pale, unsure of how to defend herself.
Seeing this, Officer Tate said sternly, "I already gave you a chance to confess, but you repeatedly made excuses, refused to cooperate with the investigation, and tried to evade responsibility. Are you aware that these are special tis? Breaking and entering is a felony! In serious cases, you can be expelled from the residential complex directly!"
Ever since the cataclysm, cases of ho invasion and burglary had beco frequent. To maintain stability, the governnt had cracked down hard on such cris.
Mrs. Vance had lost all of her earlier truculence. Her face was ashen as she began to apologize profusely to Officer Tate and lody Sumrs. "I was wrong, it’s all my fault... But I was truly desperate... I’m begging you, please be lenient..."
Just then, the bedroom door suddenly opened, and a gaunt young woman hurried out.
Hearing the noise, lody Sumrs and Officer Tate turned to look. They saw a woman with disheveled clothes and ssy hair, looking as if she had just woken up.
She was painfully thin with sunken cheeks. Despite being about five-foot-five, she looked like she weighed no more than ninety pounds.
She wore a sweater, and through its wide collar, her two collarbones protruded sharply, like those of a human skeleton.
Eerily, despite how thin she was, her belly was noticeably swollen, looking like she was five or six months pregnant.
The young woman—Mrs. Vance’s daughter-in-law, Susan Warren—had been woken by her son and had rushed into the living room to see what was happening.
A single glance at the people in the living room was all it took for Susan Warren to understand the situation.
With a THUD, she dropped to her knees before Officer Tate and cried, "Officer, it’s all my fault! I was the one who wanted to eat at! If you’re going to press charges, charge ! Don’t charge my mother-in-law!"
Everyone in the living room was startled and scrambled to help her up.
Officer Tate quickly tried to soothe her. "Don’t get agitated, you’re pregnant, right? Be careful, you might harm the baby!"
lody Sumrs glanced at the pregnant woman’s swollen belly. ’She must be five or six months along, right?’ she thought.
’Five or six months, and yet she’s still so frail...’
Susan Warren continued to cry, "It’s all my fault. It was my craving. I’m the one who forced my mother-in-law to go steal the pork! She couldn’t say no to , so she steeled herself and went."
"Officer, I know I was wrong! My mother-in-law is old. If you have to punish soone, punish . Please, let my mother-in-law go!"
Tears stread down Susan Warren’s face, and seeing the scene, her son began to cry softly nearby.
lody Sumrs and Officer Tate exchanged a glance, each seeing a trace of helplessness in the other’s eyes. Neither of them had expected the situation to unfold like this.
Before Officer Tate could speak, Mrs. Vance hurriedly interjected, "No, no, no, this has nothing to do with my daughter-in-law! She told not to steal, I was the one who insisted on going! Officer, if you have to punish soone, punish ! My daughter-in-law is over eight months pregnant! She’s due in a month! She can’t handle the stress!"
lody Sumrs was stunned—
’Over eight months?!’
lody Sumrs quickly turned to look at Susan Warren’s belly again.
Susan Warren’s belly didn’t look like she was over eight months pregnant at all!
lody Sumrs frowned slightly. ’The baby inside her must be severely underdeveloped...’
No wonder Mrs. Vance had risked climbing the window to steal. She must have realized the danger her daughter-in-law was in and decided to take a desperate gamble.
Looking at Mrs. Vance and Susan Warren, Officer Tate felt a sense of helplessness but still spoke up. "I can understand your difficulties, but these are special tis. Everyone is facing hardship. But no matter what, you shouldn’t have broken into soone’s ho and stolen their property. That’s against the law!"
Mrs. Vance nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, I know I was wrong, Officer. Whatever my punishnt is, I’ll accept it!"
Then, Mrs. Vance walked over to lody Sumrs, her face full of sha. "Young lady, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking straight! I... I’ll go get the at and give it back to you right now!"
With that, Mrs. Vance ran straight to the kitchen.
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