She was called over by Mrs. Adams's phone call, because the police had returned some of Gabriel Adams's belongings, including that cell phone. It was unclear whether all the information inside had been backed up, or if they had determined that this clue was unrelated to the case. The Adams Family's parents had promised Fiona Bennett at the time that they would let her know once the phone was returned. Both elders were people of their word. Although they didn't expect Fiona Bennett to have abilities beyond the police, they still called Fiona Bennett's phone, and she arrived an hour later.

This was Gabriel Adams's backup phone, and each text message inside actually represented his itinerary.

Fiona Bennett skimmed through it. The earlier messages weren't of much value. Gabriel Adams would meet with her every week, and those earlier itineraries were easy for Fiona Bennett to recall and match in her mind—she knew what the outcome was when Gabriel Adams went to those places, and what he had gained. The only things she didn't know were from the last week.

There were only four messages that week. The last one was the location of his death, the second-to-last was The Blue Lounge, and as for the other two locations and the names of the people he was to meet, Fiona Bennett silently repeated them a few times and committed them to memory.

Originally, Fiona Bennett was going to leave after reading them, as these two pieces of information were major clues. William Williams had planned to retrace Gabriel Adams's investigation of the mailboxes, but now it seemed unnecessary. With a lot on her mind and ready to say goodbye, Mrs. Adams asked her to stay a bit longer and chat. Since they had kept their promise and told her as soon as the phone was returned, Fiona Bennett naturally couldn't just get up and leave abruptly.

Fiona Bennett chatted with the two elders for a while, feeling that their conversation was rambling and not about anything important. She had thought they might ask why she wanted to see the phone messages, but they didn't. So as they talked, her mind began to wander.

"Xiao Xu, are you alright?"

"Sorry, I was distracted just now, thinking about something."

"That's not the way to be distracted," Mrs. Adams said. But her tone wasn't reproachful, just concerned.

"Have you not been feeling well lately? Are you sleeping okay? Xiao Xu, if you're not well, you should see a doctor. Don't avoid treatment out of embarrassment," Mrs. Adams added.

Mr. Adams coughed.

Seeing this, Fiona Bennett's heart skipped a beat. She was a smart person. Ever since witnessing the knife in the middle of the night, her nerves had been stretched taut like steel wire, always on alert, only relaxing a little after William Williams joined her yesterday. Coming to The Adams Family today, feeling the presence of the departed, and facing two elderly people, she had let her guard down. But just now, Mrs. Adams's words and Mr. Adams's cough made her feel that something was off.

Maybe she was just overthinking, Fiona Bennett reassured herself, then said she had already disturbed them for long enough and really should be going so the two elders could rest. After saying her goodbyes, Fiona Bennett was already standing up, but Mrs. Adams's face showed an anxious expression.

"Xiao Xu, since you're here, stay a bit longer. Don't be in such a hurry to leave. There are so few people to talk to us these days, it's quite lonely."

There was nothing wrong with the words themselves, but since Fiona Bennett was already standing, this was clearly an attempt to make her stay. The Adams Family's parents weren't usually like this; it felt very different from her last visit. She recalled that when she first arrived, Mr. Adams had gone into a room to make a phone call, and after showing her the phone messages, the two elders didn't seem interested in her investigation progress. Last time, when Mr. Adams showed her photos before she left, he had been very eager for her to find new clues to help solve Gabriel Adams's case as soon as possible.

Fiona Bennett didn't sit back down. Her face turned pale as she stared at Mrs. Adams and asked:

"Frank Bishop called you, didn't he? Did he say that I'm mentally ill and ask you to help him get me committed to a psychiatric hospital?"

The two elders weren't used to lying, and now they were left speechless by her question.

Frank Bishop knew that Fiona Bennett had been to The Adams Family; during that period, she often discussed things with Frank Bishop, so of course he knew she might visit The Adams Family again. He must have called or even visited the two elders, telling them that Fiona Bennett was mentally ill and asking them to keep her there as long as possible, waiting for the psychiatric hospital staff to come and forcibly admit her.

"I'm not mentally ill. Don't believe him," Fiona Bennett said, though she figured the two elders might not believe her either. She quickly walked to the door, changed her shoes, and left. The two elders didn't try to stop her again, but as Fiona Bennett was leaving, she saw Mr. Adams pick up the phone.

Fiona Bennett's heart pounded with anxiety. She had already been at The Adams Family for over an hour—had the people coming to catch her already arrived? She waited by the elevator for a while, watching as it stayed on the first floor for a long time, her unease growing. She turned and entered the stairwell instead.

Originally, regarding Frank Bishop's attempt to have her committed, William Williams had told her not to be too nervous. As long as she wasn't a threat to public safety, the police wouldn't help catch psychiatric patients, so Frank Bishop and the hospital couldn't use police resources to find her. In fact, even with a direct relative's signature and the hospital's agreement to forcibly admit a patient, they wouldn't spend time trying to catch her—as long as she didn't get caught by Frank Bishop himself, she'd be fine. But today, she had walked right into the trap. From now on, she'd have to consider whether Frank Bishop might guess her whereabouts every time she went somewhere.

Panting, she ran down to the first floor, peeked out, then jogged out of the building. The building was right by the street, and she didn't dare hail a cab at the entrance. She walked fifty meters away and flagged down a taxi in front of a Hualian supermarket.

Only after getting in the car did Fiona Bennett finally breathe a sigh of relief, then she saw a white van with the words "psychiatric hospital" printed on it driving by on the opposite side. She turned her head and watched as the van passed The Adams Family's building, then slowly slowed down and made a U-turn.

"Driver, please go quickly, I'm in a hurry," Fiona Bennett urged the driver.

"Go where?" The driver turned his head and grinned at her. Fiona Bennett's face turned ashen, then she heard the driver say, "You haven't told me where you're going yet."

4

"Bright Future Academy," this is the place, Fiona Bennett thought. According to the information on Gabriel Adams's phone, he had come here on the evening of October 29th.

The school's iron gate slowly opened, and a black Mercedes drove straight into the campus, stopping by the sports field.

The tall driver in a black suit got out first, bent down to open the car door, and helped William Williams out. Fiona Bennett got out from the other side, and the teacher who had been waiting at the school gate quickly walked over to them. It was evening, and there were still many students on campus. Seeing this scene, they all looked over curiously.

"Isn't it a bit too showy to drive this car into the school?" Fiona Bennett whispered.

"I usually take a business van—it's convenient. With a sedan, it's too tiring for me to get in and out. Today I rented this one on purpose, and I had to drive it in. Don't you get it?" He smiled at Fiona Bennett and added, "It's just like when you gave the bartender money at The Blue Lounge. In this world, money and power always bring some convenience."

"Is that your years of business experience talking?"

"No, this was... taught to me by Susan Wright."

The teacher who walked over had a square face, was balding, and wore glasses, looking every bit the part of a dean, but now he was smiling very attentively, addressing him as "President Xiang." This teacher's surname was Leonard Carter, the same one recorded in Gabriel Adams's phone. Before coming, William Williams had already contacted him by phone, but on the phone, Leonard Carter teacher's attitude was far less friendly than now.

William Williams handed over his business card and said, "Sorry to trouble you, Leonard Carter teacher. I had no choice—I asked a friend to look into something for me, but before he could finish, he was gone. I only know that he came to see you here last month, but he didn't have time to report the details to me, so... I had to come myself."

Fiona Bennett listened from the side and thought William Williams spoke very skillfully, with a streetwise air between the lines. Plus, since he had involved the police in the investigation, any ordinary citizen would be intimidated, and everything would go smoothly from there.

"No trouble at all, President Xiang, but as I told you on the phone, the police came to ask me about this a while ago, and what I told them is what I'll tell you. When Officer Gregory Adams came that day, we barely spoke. He went to the classrooms himself, looking for a particular desk. After he found it, he took it away. There was nothing else."

The police had come here to investigate whether Gabriel Adams's visit was related to his death. But they didn't know there was a letter under the desk, nor about Susan Wright's case, so they couldn't have known that Gabriel Adams went to The Blue Lounge because he found that desk.

But Fiona Bennett and William Williams knew.

William Williams first asked Leonard Carter teacher to recall the scene when Gabriel Adams came looking for the desk, and then asked how long ago this batch of desks had been delivered—nothing unusual there. Then he asked the key question.

"Officer Gregory Adams came to the school specifically to look for an ordinary desk. That's quite unusual, isn't it? In the past few months, has anyone else like him come here?"

William Williams had found an expert to examine the so-called last letter, but got no results. There were no obvious signs of artificial aging, but he couldn't say for sure that it hadn't been aged. This was very different from antique authentication—the difference between new and old was only nine years, and it was easy to fake. Even if they did a paper analysis, the margin of error for such a short time span would be large, so it wouldn't be very useful. But now that they knew Gabriel Adams got the "mailbox" from this school, there was another way to judge the authenticity of the letter.