Chapter 303 A Busybody
Rachel followed Janice to the interrogation room. “Officer Hawkins, how about I conduct the questioning to avoid any suspicion from arising?”
While they entered the room, a huge silhouette stepped in Janice and Rachel’s way. The silhouette in question was a cold and stern looking man, looking similar in age to Janice.
“No need. All of you, get out.”
One word from Janice was all it took to clear the room before the depressing mood from the hollow room substituted the personnel.
A calm Rachel said, “So, this is what the interrogation room looks like, huh? Hey, Janice, do you guys keep the criminals here? Is there any surveillance in here?”
“You should sit down.” After pulling a chair, Janice glanced coldly at Rachel. “I’m not in the mood to joke around with you.”
Upon saying that, Janice opened her notebook and began the questioning. “Where were you yesterday afternoon?”
Seeing Janice being so serious caused Rachel’s face to disappear as she sat down.
“I was at the Riverdale Penitentiary.”
“Why were you there?”
“Don’t you know all this? Why are you still asking them?”
As she slammed the table, Janice roared, “Whatever I ask of you, you must answer them! Let me make this clear that you’re in the Investigation Bureau and I’m the officer of this place. I’m also the person in charge of this kidnapping case today, and I’m not some relative of yours!”
Clenching her fists, Rachel slowly spoke, “I went to pick Bucky up.”
“After that?”
“I asked him about the details of my grandmother’s kidnapping five years ago.”
“Continue.”
“He said that he wanted to blackmail Justin, which was why he kidnapped my grandmother after knowing the relationship between me and Justin. Originally, he wanted to release her after asking for two million in ransom, but an intervention made him ask for five million instead. He threatened Justin to surrender a bid for land back then, to which Justin promised. However, when I asked who gave the instructions to kidnap, Bucky refused to tell me.”
“Was that why you kidnapped his sister, Lily?”
“Who said that? Was it Bucky?” Rachel asked in return.
With a slam, Janice placed a picture on the table. “This was given to me personally by Bucky. Arranging for Lily to have a month-long exchange program abroad and using it to threaten Bucky, was that your doing?”
“It was not.”
“You’re still lying! Rachel, I told you that the case had its odd points, but it was not up to you to interfere!”
When she saw Janice acting like she was in search of justice, Rachel was pissed off. “Not up to me to interfere? Does that mean I shouldn’t do anything until the day I die while waiting for you people to investigate the case? Will you guys even do that? After all, my grandmother’s death won’t mean anything to you all because she’s a nobody!”
After that, an angry Rachel stood up whilst being supported by the table.
“Janice Hawkins, I always thought you were a righteous person with a sense of conscience. During the last few years, you’ve changed into the same as those cold-blooded people who only want to be promoted to the top without caring about people’s life or death. Bucky isn’t the person who murdered my grandmother!”
“You’ve no proof on the matter!”
“I am the proof! He admitted it himself after I asked him!”
“Can’t you be more rational here?”
“I am being very rational here!”
The sound of them arguing was rife inside the room as the atmosphere inside became tense. In the midst of all this, a knock came from the door.
After somewhat managing to calm herself down, Janice said, “Come in.”
“Officer Hawkins.”
“What is it?”
“There’s someone outside who wants to look for Miss Hudson.”
“Can’t you see that I’m in the middle of interrogating her? By coming here to look for her, what do they treat the Bureau as?”
The subordinate answered cautiously, “The top brass called earlier and wanted me to release Miss Hudson due to a lack of evidence.”
“What?” Janice was full of disbelief as she looked outside and saw a familiar huge silhouette. Justin?
Clenching her fists, she directed a question to Rachel, “Does he know that you’re using him?”
After being momentarily stunned by her question, Rachel quickly composed herself. “I don’t think that Officer Hawkins should worry about that. Since it was an order from above, I don’t think you’ll have any more questions for me if you don’t want your promotion to be blocked, I suppose?”
“You…”
“I’ll be leaving now if there’s nothing else.”
After stating her piece, she left without sparing an extra glance.
In the hall, Justin ran to her as soon as he saw Rachel coming out. “Are you alright?”
“Why are you here?”
“I told him as soon as I heard that you were brought in.” Standing beside them was Gloria, who was also worried sick. “When Justin heard that you were being charged for kidnapping, he knew that this incident wasn’t as simple as it seemed. If you went to jail after being sentenced, we would have had a real problem on our hands.”
Glancing at him, Rachel then clarified, “That’s why you used your connections?”
Justin replied, “I know you wouldn’t like it, but I had no choice at that time. Janice and I have some bad blood between us, so it would only complicate things if I came here to demand your release.”
As they were talking, the sound of footsteps indicated that it was Janice walking toward them.
Immediately, Justin pulled Rachel behind her as he placed himself between the two people. “Hello, Officer Hawkins, long time no see.”
“It hasn’t been that long yet. Didn’t we meet at your company last time?” While observing Justin, Janice then continued, “I didn’t know that you two had become so close. It was only moments after my subordinates brought her in that my superior called to demand that I release her. I wouldn’t have offended you back then if I knew how well-connected you were, Mr. Burton.”
He rebuked, “If I wasn’t in a pickle, I wouldn’t have used those kinds of methods either. Why should I be afraid of the law when I’ve not committed a crime?”
“So, are you implying that the incident this time is so special that you can simply ignore the law?”
After hearing Janice’s sarcasm, Justin’s expression darkened since neither one of them was going to back down. “Officer Hawkins, you can decide whether I have ignored the law or not after obtaining some evidence. Let’s go, Rae.”
After that, Justin held Rachel’s hand and left.
As Gloria looked like she had something to say to Janice as she looked at Janice, she instead chose to leave after hesitating for a while.
On the way back, Gloria then asked Rachel, “Aren’t you quite close with Janice? What happened there? You guys were practically at each other’s throat.”
Not wanting to answer her, Rachel replied, “Just let me off at the intersection there.”
“What?” Gloria was stunned by her request.
Hearing this, Justin commented, “Ignore her and continue driving.”
It was after emerging from the Bureau that he had a dark expression.
A frowning Rachel questioned, “What do you mean by this? I still have matters to attend to.”
“Matters to attend to? Do you mean looking for Bucky?”
Justin, who was straightforward, looked at Rachel coldly. “Did you really kidnap someone?”
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I bailed you out from the Bureau. How does that make me not have the right to question you about it?”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“So, are you suggesting that I’m a busybody?”
“Ria, stop the car here.” Not wanting to waste any more words on Justin, Rachel wanted to locate Bucky as soon as possible and ask him what in the world he was thinking.
“No, don’t!” Shouting coldly, Justin grabbed her arm. “Are you crazy? Where is Bucky’s sister right now? Call your people and make them release her this instant!”
