Free Web NovelChapter 317: Chapter 317: The Police Investigation_1
A calm morning, Aiden sat in his office listening to Veronica’s report.
"It’s been confirmed; there are visitation records. The person on duty at the time was Isabella, and she said she remembers. On the prisoner’s side... it’s been confirmed too that the person was indeed a family member visiting on that particular day," Veronica said.
"I see..." Aiden nodded thoughtfully.
Four days earlier, he had been stalked in Melissa’s shop, and he hadn’t managed to catch the stalker.
Melissa had claimed that the stalker bore no ill will, but Aiden was still somewhat vigilant since the stalker had appeared just when he had acquired the "sole authority."
For safety’s sake, Aiden had tried reporting the incident to the police station, saying he had been stalked on Sunset Boulevard, and when they tried to question the person, they ran away—ordinary police were clearly more professional in dealing with suspected thieves and stalkers than the Inquisitor’s Office.
Ordinary citizens reporting such incidents without serious consequences generally don’t lead the police to allocate a lot of manpower for investigation. But Aiden, after all, was a former Judge of the Inquisitor’s Office, with the right to carry a gun and the use of "black magic," and he had recently caught several important criminals himself. Even the dullest person could smell a big case brewing in such a person being stalked—rather than waiting for an unidentified person to cause trouble before taking action, it was better to find a way to capture them first. Additionally, the leadership on the mounted police force, because of past events related to Veronica and Camila, still held this side in high regard, so the police force was quite attentive.
Thanks to his professional skills, Aiden remembered the stalker’s face clearly and had even inherited some portrait sketching skills from his predecessor. Hence, he had provided a rather clear drawing of the suspect.
He didn’t hold much hope for this channel actually; if it was a local from Silvertown, it would still be manageable, but it would be difficult to find someone from outside the area if they hid well or left the city quickly.
Yet, the police found the person in the drawing in just two days and informed Aiden to come for an identification. When Aiden arrived at the police station and saw the bewildered "suspect" through the interrogation room’s window, he recognized her immediately as the woman who had stalked him.
However, after the police questioning, they provided him with an unexpected result: the woman was a resident of the uptown area, with a solid alibi for that morning, the proof of which was precisely from the prison Aiden managed — she was a family member of a common area inmate, and at the time Aiden was stalked, she was at the prison applying for a visitation to see her incarcerated family member.
And from the police investigation, the woman appeared to be just an ordinary civilian of Silvertown, with a record showing nothing questionable aside from having a family member imprisoned for embezzlement.
So Aiden returned to the prison for confirmation, and the result was exactly as Veronica’s report stated, matching the police investigation perfectly.
At that moment, Aiden had realized two possibilities: the first was that he had made a mistake in identifying her, and the second possibility was that the stalker had the ability to disguise themselves as another person—and it was very likely that while they were watching him leave the prison, they randomly selected a regular visitor as their disguise target.
"Chief, what exactly is going on here?" Veronica asked, puzzled.
"Well, maybe I was wrong," Aiden answered offhandedly.
"Chief?" Veronica frowned slightly, clearly not pleased, "If you don’t want to tell me, I won’t press for answers, but please don’t brush me off like this!"
Aiden had told her about reporting the incident to the police, and she had also thought of the same things Aiden had. She didn’t believe Aiden would easily misidentify someone, and even if he did, the chances of him mistaking her for another person who existed in this city were too coincidental.
"Uh..." Aiden hesitated for a moment, realizing his slip of the tongue, and smiled apologetically, "Sorry, sorry, I just subconsciously... To be honest, I’m not really sure, but I always feel like this matter might involve some somewhat confidential things."
Although there was no concrete evidence, Aiden felt that the tracker’s "disguise" effect might also be the result of "divine words."
If it were just a simple disguise, he could also achieve it using the technique of body transformation related to life alchemy, but to accurately transform into another person using a similar method would take more time, unless he could directly utilize the power like Abigail.
More feasible would be the use of mental spells to hypnotize and cause a misalignment in his recognition—Presia had used this trick on him before, but this kind of misalignment in recognition wasn’t a powerful spell; it would only work if it went along with the inertia of the target’s thinking, meaning that Aiden had to subconsciously expect that the criminal’s family member would appear in the jewelry store at that time to be subject to hypnosis.
To use hypnosis to make Aiden mistake a customer entering the store for a prisoner’s relative from Rose Iron Prison whom he had never met was far too contrived.
Moreover, Melissa had just mentioned that he was about to attract the attention of powerful entities, and he thought so too; the timing of this stalking crime... was too delicate.
Now that he thought about it, the old man who bumped into him at that time might have been...
"Alright, then I won’t ask any more," Veronica’s expression softened, "It’s okay if you don’t tell me, but if there’s anything you need my help with, feel free to let me know."
"It’s not always about work-related issues, after all, I can’t just make you work overtime for no reason," Aiden chuckled. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"Then..." Veronica hesitated for a moment, then shifted her gaze slightly, "I’m also okay with being asked out to dinner."
The girl’s thoughts were really obvious... Aiden thought to himself.
"I’ll remember that," Aiden said with a smile and nodded, "But for the time being, there’s not much of a lead... nor much that can be done."
"Are you sure it’s okay? You’ve been tracked," Veronica said with not a little worry, for stalking was often a precursor to crime.
"It should be fine for now, and if something does happen, I’ll figure out a way to deal with it," Aiden responded calmly, "Don’t worry about me, go back to your work."
Melissa had said that the stalker had not shown any hostility, and Aiden believed that. In the days following the stalker’s disappearance, things had been peaceful around him.
Besides, Aiden thought Melissa, with her control, probably actually had a good idea of the stalker’s identity; she didn’t speak out and even allowed the stalker into her store, indicating that the stalker and the forces behind them didn’t pose any clear threat at the moment.
After Veronica left the office, Aiden poured himself another cup of tea, then glanced at the newspaper on the coffee table that Veronica had just casually brought him—today’s issue.
The headline news of the day read "Sophie Carter’s Mansion Burglary Case Cracked."
