"Some foolish operator misheard a letter and made an incorrect recording. The girl, when asked for her name, refused to reveal it and then hung up."
Sheriff Landry turned off his old-fashioned recorder, his eyes fixed on Barbara.
"But Ms. Barbara Russell—oh, no, you hadn't adopted your last name at the time, so it was Ms. Ferguson—knows who that girl is, right?
The name you deliberately omitted from the list. Cody Grayson only knew her name as Sam."
Jack sneered, his eyes fixed on the seemingly amiable middle-aged woman before him. Sometimes, some people are more repulsive than the murderer.
"Sam Groves, yes, she was in the library with Hana that night." Barbara staggered as if exhausted, her arm trembling slightly as it supported the corner of the table.
Sheriff Landry put away the tape and recorder, frowning as he continued, "Who is Sam Groves? Why don't I remember this name?"
"Sam was only 12 years old at the time, a lovely child, living outside of town with her mother. Her mother had always been in poor health, and perhaps because of that, she was always hanging around the library."
Barbara was now like a walking corpse, her eyes empty and lifeless, answering every question.
"Why did you omit her name from the witness list? You weren't married to Trent at the time, were you? I remember it was almost two years later."
Sheriff Landry's frown deepened, completely unable to understand her behavior.
"Because Sam told me something similar the next morning. She said she saw Hana get into a car."
"So what?"
The old sheriff slammed his fist on the table. His suddenly loud voice made Barbara shiver, and her voice became tearful afterwards. "She said she thought the person in the car might be Mr. Russell."
"And you were already in love with Trent Russell at that time, right? So you didn't say anything." Jack revealed the truth.
"No, I did. I did. I told Sam," Barbara cried bitterly. "I told her she was a filthy little brat who only cared about attracting attention.
How dare she slander the kind Mr. Russell, a true philanthropist who had made such great contributions to our town, the library, and the children of this town?
I told her to shut her deceitful mouth and cursed and threatened her with every venomous word I could think of."
Barbara, who seemed to have aged twenty years in an instant, left the living room trembling and moved slowly down the hallway, muttering to herself, "At the time, I was so blinded by love that I refused to believe Trent could be that way."
Jiejie, worried that she might do something irrational, quickly stepped forward to support her arm. The others followed, until Barbara stood at the back door leading to the courtyard.
"So you really never doubted Trent?" Jack said coldly, his arms folded.
Barbara didn't answer, but stared through the glass door at a patch of cement in the courtyard, where a beautiful picnic table and two lounge chairs were placed.
"What's in the courtyard?" Jiejie felt an inexplicable chill in her heart.
It took a long time for Barbara to speak again, her eyes still fixed on the concrete floor. "It used to be a beautiful colorful cobblestone paving. He even invited me there for lunch, but then it was suddenly repaved one day, two weeks after Hana disappeared."
Finally speaking, Jack breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the grim-faced Sheriff Landry. "Notify the state police and have them send a forensics team as quickly as possible. We also need an excavator."
—
Construction lights were set up overnight in Barbara Russell's beautiful backyard. The excavator easily chipped away at the concrete floor and, under his command, carefully dug deeper.
The old sheriff, wearing canvas gloves and holding a shovel, stood at the edge of the pit with Jack, staring intently at the ever-deepening hole.
"Stop! Stop!" Jack, noticing the unusual color of the soil, waved the excavator to a halt. Once the bucket moved away, he jumped in.
"What did you find?" Sheriff Landry handed the shovel to Jack and simply leaned over the edge to peer down.
After a few shovelfuls, Jack simply began digging, and soon, he carefully lifted a backpack of indistinguishable color.
Bones were faintly visible beneath the bag. Jack waved for the waiting forensic team to enter, and with a gentle push off the wall, he returned to the surface.
With trembling hands, Sheriff Landry took the bag from Jack and opened it. He pulled out a decayed book, holding the cover up to the flashlight.
"Flowers for Algernon," the one from the library.
Jiejie, who was standing beside him, turned and looked toward the back door. Barbara had been standing there, having witnessed the entire thing. Seeing the two men looking at her, she silently retreated, hiding herself in the darkness.
"Ah!" A heartbreaking roar rang out from the other side of the fence.
Cody Grayson, blind in one eye, appeared in the gap in the backyard created by the bulldozer, pounding furiously with his fists.
It's unclear whether he was venting years of grievances, mourning the girl he once secretly loved, or perhaps a combination of the two.
Beside him stood a tall, thin figure, like a candle in the wind: Hana's father, Old Fred. He stumbled into the courtyard, but was stopped by two state troopers.
"That's my daughter, that's my daughter, my sweetheart, God! Let me see her, just one look."
—
Early morning, in a small town inn.
"For a while, I actually hoped Hana would be the grown-up Ms. Gen." Jiejie said, her voice a hint of muffled nasal sound, lying in Jack's arms.
Jack bent down and kissed her forehead gently. "Because it means she escaped Russell's clutches, right?"
"Well, although Gen avenged her a long time ago, the tragedy is ultimately irreversible. I even understand why she became like this. For a child who was only 12 years old at the time, she had already exhausted all the methods she could think of.
She told everything to the adults, but in return she was insulted and threatened. She called 911, but the police were indifferent. The world was simply full of malice to her at the time."
Jiejie looked empathetic. "I can't imagine if I were in her place, would I become more extreme than her."
(End of this chapter)