Murderer
At such a time, even the most formidable doctor in Tissote couldn’t determine a result.
Maxwell looked at Elise suspiciously, and before she could say anything, he dashed into the room. Maya
was seen lying still on the bed. From afar, she seemed like a body that was no longer breathing. “Maya?”
He warily approached. The room was as silent as the grave, and not a movement was seen. His heart
skipped a beat before he lost his balance and collapsed to the ground as his face blanched. “Daddy’s so
sorry, Maya! I shouldn’t have sent you to this murderer!”
In the next second, a fragile voice came from above the bed. “What are you doing, Daddy?”
As if he had woken up from a nightmare, he sprung up from the ground and went to the bedside. With
tears profusely shedding, he grabbed Maya’s hand. “You’re fine! You’re fine!”
“Who told you that?” Elise stood expressionlessly at the door. She pulled out a piece of prescription from
her pocket and tossed it onto the ground. “Do as the note says, for one month.”
“Will do, will do!” Maxwell gratefully nodded.
Maya, on the other hand, couldn’t grasp why her father would behave so courteously in front of the
woman. She was about to say something but was eventually held back by her illness.
Claude briefly peeked at the prescription on the ground and let out a couple of coughs with his fist before
his lips. He stared at Elise as if he was pondering. Oh, merciless Father! The sick woman’s gonna lose
her sense of taste after one month based on what’s on the prescription.
“Don’t forget your promise to me,” Elise calmly said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have somebody clear up some properties and transfer them to you right away!” Maxwell
replied.
Coldly, Elise glanced toward the figure on the bed before turning around to walk down the staircase.
Following behind her was Claude, who—despite her shady action—joyously inquired, “The building’s full
of doctors, Father. Don’t you fear the prescription would get seen through?”
Without even turning back, Elise answered, “Do you think anybody could deny anything I came up with?”
Her tone was neither light nor weighty, yet Claude couldn’t help but feel a chill running up his spine.
“Cuzzie!” When they reached the first floor, Daniel was seen pettily approaching them. He seemed to
want to grab Elise but didn’t dare to do so. Thus, he awkwardly paused with a farewelling pose. “I see
you’re leaving. Why don’t you take your cousin brother along with you?”
“What’s that noise?” Elise didn’t even care to look at him. She turned around and asked, “Since when did
I have a cousin brother? Do you know?”
“Nope,” Claude tacitly replied.
“Come on, Cuz! I only offended Maxwell for your sake. You’re not gonna ignore me, are you?” Daniel
attempted to shift the blame away from himself.
“For my sake?” Elise stared straight into his soul. “Did I ask you to rescue the patient by putting her life in
danger? Did I ask you to toy with Maya’s life?”
“I—” Daniel was rendered speechless. Hasty, he went on a tangent. “They’re going to break one of my
legs, Cuz. Do you really not care about me?”
“I do. Of course I do.” Elise took out a bag of medicinal powder from her pocket with a pair of fingers and
tossed it into his hand. “I mixed this myself. It’s the most effective painkiller you’ll ever know. Take it after
they take away your leg, and I assure you won’t feel any pain within twenty-four hours.” Saying that, she
patted Daniel’s shoulder and walked out of the room. Having only taken a couple of steps, she stopped
and turned around, reminding, “By the way, there’s a side effect to the medication. After twenty-four
hours, the pain on your leg will worsen tenfold. Do consume at your own risk!” Unlike a quack doctor, she
made sure to give her patients gentle reminders.
Daniel was left thoroughly dumbfounded.
…
When Elise arrived at home, she bumped into Alexander, who also coincidentally returned. They greeted
each other at the doorstep.
“Where did you go?” Alexander quizzed.
“Went to buy some herbs,” Elise answered.
“Herbs?” Seeing Claude, who was behind her, was empty-handed, he subtly smiled. He did not intend to
expose her. “Let’s go in.” After saying that, instead of going back to his own house, he went into Elise’s
yard.
Upon entering the door, they saw Jackson and a few other uniformed police officers surrounding the
yard.
At their arrival, Jackson approached Elise. “Excuse me, Miss Sinclair. I’ll need you to follow me.”
“Jackson.” Alexander frowned. “What’s going on?”
“Sorry, Mr. Griffith. Things happened so suddenly I couldn’t properly greet you.” Jackson orderly uttered,
“Three authoritative professors from Tissote University’s physics department were found dead this dawn.
And Miss Sinclair’s notebook was found at the scene. She’s now our only suspect, so we urgently need
her cooperation.”
“You could use some improvements in how you run things.” Alexander was visibly hostile. “Hasn’t
anyone told you that Elise hadn’t been to class lately?”
“You should know, Mr. Griffith, that not attending class doesn’t mean not going to school,” Jackson calmly
stated.
Ultimately, Elise and the rest were brought to the crime scene. Due to the massive number of people in
Tissote University, two police cordons were set up around the area to prevent any trespassers and
possible rumor spread. Walking past the police cordon, the group of people came to the physics lab
building.
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